So I have hit day 3. So far so good. I am actually surprised at how well the food tastes. I was a little worried since I can be pretty picky with my food.
The first day I ate an Apple Strudel Scone for breakfast with an orange. For lunch I had Pasta Parmesan with Broccoli and a salad with cheese on it. For my afternoon snack, I had an orange. And finally for dinner I had Wedged Potatoes with Sliced Beefsteak and 2 servings of green beans. For dessert I had the Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pudding. I was shocked how full I felt throughout the day.
The second day I ate the Apple Granola Bar for breakfast. For lunch I had Cheesy Cream of Broccoli Soup and a salad with cheese on it. For my afternoon snack, I had an orange. For dinner I had Beef Tacos with cheese, tomatoes and lettuce on them. For dessert I had the White Cheese Soy Chips.
I know I had seen people complaining on the board that they didn’t like the soy chips. I actually liked them.
So far this morning, I have had scrambled eggs and cheese.
I have been drinking tons of water and crystal light. I have really decided that I like the crystal light. I can have as much of it as I want. In fact, the days that I use crystal light, I tend to drink much more then just plain water. I have started carrying the little packets with me.
So after rummaging through all of my goodies last night, I decided that even though I normally hide from the camera, I needed some before pictures. So I asked my brother-in-law to take some of me. Of course he was shocked. He knows that he isn’t allowed to take any pictures of me or my sister without threat of death.
So I got a front shot and a side shot. Dang! I look pregnant even though I am not. I carry most of my weight in my abdomen and butt. In fact, its a joke around the office that I don’t have a white girl’s butt. Most of the women I work with are from the Dominican Republic.
Anyway, this morning I weighed myself so I knew exactly how much I weighed when starting the program. I will continue to weigh myself on Fridays like I normally have. Besides, that is our weigh in day over at Our Wicked Weighs.
I will put my before pictures up in my album on the Nutrisystem website before I leave for work.
Well, my shipment didn’t come in as early today as I had hoped. I figured that since it hit the local UPS place at 6am on Saturday, then it should be on the truck and ready to go for this morning.
However, it didn’t get here until this evening. So I can’t start until tomorrow. 
At least I get to start! I am way to excited about this. I already have the food all set up in the cabinet. All my breakfasts are in one area, my lunches in another, my dinners in yet another, and then finally my desserts off by themselves. They are close to each other, just separated. That way if I am really running late and am having a Libra moment of not being able to decide which one I want, I can just grab one.
I knew that the free week wasn’t going to be food that I got to pick. I figured that there would probably be quite a few things in there that I wouldn’t like. However, I was pleasantly surprised that there was only one thing in there that I wouldn’t eat and that was Split Pea Soup. First off, I am not that big of a soup fan. There are some soups that I absolutely love such as Broccoli and Cheese. Then there is the fact that I hate peas. The only thing that peas are good for is starting a food fight. LOL! So I will definitely be getting rid of that. One of my coworkers was asking about the food because she is thinking about going on NS too. So I might just see if she likes Split Pea Soup and give it to her to try. I don’t know.
I am starting to get really excited about this. I actually had a dream last night of me as a thin person. I haven’t weighed under 200 pounds in over 13 years. I know its possible. I just need to get myself back on track.
I had been on South Beach diet back in September and October. I had lost about 20 pounds. Then I had a bunch of things going on and just really had trouble staying on track. Even when I was following it strictly, it was really difficult for me.
My average weekday starts around 9am. I wake up and take my morning medicines. I can’t eat or drink anything for about an hour after I take them. So I can first start to eat at 10am. However, I also have to start getting ready for work at that time.
I am due at work at 11:30am. Since I get to work at that time, I don’t get to eat lunch until around 2pm or 3pm. I also work at the front desk, so its not very easy for me to eat something healthy at the desk. It is way to easy to hide junk food in a drawer and snack until lunch.
I then leave work around 8pm. If one of the departments are running behind schedule, I may leave later then that. Once I get home, I can eat my dinner. Since I have gastroparesis, I must stay awake for several hours after eating to make sure that my food has time to digest.
So my eating schedule is pretty messed up. I feel that with Nutrisystem, I will have a better chance. I won’t have to really sit and wonder what to eat. I will just grab my breakfast for the day and go. So at least I will get to eat something and won’t be hungry until 2pm.
I worked with a woman a few years back who had been on Nutrisystem and said that the food tasted great. I remember that she had lost quite a bit of weight on it. However at the time, my thyroid levels were so far out of whack, that I could eat only1 baby carrot a day and still gain weight.
Now that my thyroid is balanced again, it will be so much easier. The only problem will be exercise. My doctor won’t clear me for anything more then just walking. My sister insists that I use the new Total Gym that she got. I don’t even know why she bought it. We already have a Bowflex, an exercise bike, and an elliptical trainer. None of those gets used, so why she had to go out and buy the new thing, I don’t know.
Today was my first day back at work. It actually went much better then I thought it would. I was working up at the front desk. We weren’t very busy. I was shocked that DP actually let me go to lunch with CS since I come in so much later. It was nice though. We got to go to our favorite pizza place. (Hey! I can had to get one last time in before the big diet!)
I am actually getting very excited about going on the diet. I really wish the food would get here. I can’t believe that I was able to order pizza, tacos, Mac & Cheese, and so much more. I am so glad that I don’t have to give up any of my favorite foods.
We finished work about an hour early today. It was really great to get home. I was exhausted after working all day. But at least I wasn’t completely frustrated. I guess I needed that time off.
Well, I went to the doctor’s today. Everything was fine. My stitches are now gone. I get to go back to work tomorrow.
However, he got on me severely about losing weight. He said that now that I have had the surgery, I am at a greater chance of getting a hernia. That isn’t something that I really want to deal with. So I am going to do everything in my power to lose the weight.
I have sat down and figured out that buying nutrisystem for a month would be about the same amount as what I spend on my lunches every day for the month. So instead of getting Quiznos, McDonalds, and all the other crap I was eating, I went ahead and ordered Nutrisystem.
I was actually shocked with how many different types of food there were. It should be arriving here on 2/4. So I will let you know how good the food is.
I just got back from the office. I went there to bring the CD of the CT I had done at the hospital. I talked to Dr. S about the scan I had done on Monday. He told me that basically, my gallbladder is nonfunctioning. He said that after the second injection, my gallbladder should have reacted somewhat. Yes, I had pain from the second injection, but the scan showed very little reaction from the gallbladder. It should have went from 100% to anywhere from 30% to 70%. He showed me that the gallbladder only went to 99%. That means it had almost no reaction whatsoever.
So now I need to have my gallbladder taken out. I have an appointment to follow up with my GI doctor on Monday. I guess I should schedule an appointment with my primary doctor for surgical clearance, especially since I had an infection while in the hospital. I will need to have an EKG and chest X-ray done. Plus I might need labs done. I think that most of the labs were already done though while I was in the hospital.
My sister had made a bland dinner last night. It was the first real food that I have eaten since the big attack. I kept the food down, but it hurt like hell. I am so sick and tired of being sick and tired. Its really getting annoying.
Unfortunately, I can’t go back to work yet and I have no time left to take. So I am basically out of work without pay at the moment and I have no way of knowing how soon I can go back to work either.
On the plus side, I am losing weight. I don’t know how much I have lost since I haven’t stepped onto a scale or anything, but I can tell by the way my clothes are fitting me. In fact, the other day I took my jeans off without unbuttoning or unzipping them. I didn’t realize I had done it until they were off. Then I sat there staring at my jeans wondering why they looked funny. After awhile I realized it was because they were still done up.
Over at Women Trip, I was lucky to find another friend in fighting obesity. She is currently starting her road trip to weight loss. Its always nice to find others who are traveling the same roads as you.
She has some great advice up about gyms and other helpful tips.
Take a ride on over and say hi.
I got a call from Krysta last night. She had her surgery yesterday morning. For those of you who do not know, Krysta is my best friend. We have been through tons of stuff together. She has Crohn’s disease. For her 30th birthday, she was treated to a “lovely” stay in the hospital and a botched surgery that left her with a colostomy bag. She had been having problems with it ever since.
Fast forward to five years later, she finally got an appointment with one of the top colorectal surgeons in this area. He is very hard to get an appointment with. Apparently the reason that she had so much trouble with her colostomy bag is that the doctor who did the surgery really screwed it up. First off, they left too much infected intestine inside. Secondly, they placed the bag in the wrong spot. So she underwent a surgery to fix her that only caused her more pain and suffering.
Yesterday morning was her surgery to correct this mishap. The new doctor had told her that he was going to remove the rest of the Crohn’s infected intestine and remove the colostomy. He said that he may have to put a temporary ileostomy bag.
She called me up last night crying with happiness. The surgery was a success. Not only did he remove the last of the infected intestine, but he did not have to put an ileostomy bag on. So no more bags in her life. She is so happy.
We had commented that during the past month, we have both been experiencing wonderful gains over our illnesses. I am losing the weight and she lost her bag. We both feel great about it. We are both going to be healthier for the new year.
Well, today is weigh in day over at Our Wicked Ways. I only started reading that blog last week. If you are trying to lose weight, I suggest you head on over. They are a great group of people over there. On Fridays, everyone weighs in and posts their losses or gains. Its a great boost to have others right there along side of you in the struggle. You get to see how everyone else is doing.
Well, my normal weigh in day is usually Sundays, but I decided to weigh myself anyway. I had been cheating quite a bit this week due to stress at work. We have been working late every night this past week. Can you imagine, I didn’t get home from work until 9:30 pm on Halloween. It was a real bummer.
Anyway, according to the scale, I didn’t gain and I didn’t lose. I stayed the same. I was sort of relieved that I didn’t gain, but at the same time I was bummed out that I didn’t lose.
Today at work we are allowed to wear jeans as long as we wear it with our official center scrub top. My jeans that I normally wear are getting too baggy on me. I have to keep pulling them up. Plus they are dirty. So I decided to go on an archaeological expedition. I went into the deep recesses of the jungle that is called my closet in search of some prey. There was no way that I was going to wear a full scrub set today. Fridays are my day to be in relaxing clothing. Anyway, after much searching, I found a pair of jeans that hadn’t fit me in centuries. You know those jeans. Everyone has a pair. The ones that no longer can be pulled up past your hips. Yea those. Well, I stumbled upon those and decided to just see how badly I couldn’t fit into them.
I was in for a shock. Its a wonder they didn’t have to call 911 to send an ambulance over. I fit back into them. I never thought it would happen. But it did! So right now, I am doing the happy dance! Woohoo!
Hey, how many calories do you burn doing the happy dance? Can I count it as my exercise for the day?
