Mmmmmm

Let me rave about some DS-friendly yumminess:

Angus burgers....freakin' delicious! Where have they been all my life? I bought a couple of packs of 1/3 lb Angus burgers at Walmart last week. Mine have vidalia onions minced in which provide great flavor. My favorite thing to do is fry me up a burger and serve with sliced dill pickle and mustard. Yum. Each patty has 19g of protein and a very awesome 30g of fat -- translation deliciousness!

Roasted & Salted Sunflower Kernels. They are a great protein/fat snack and highly portable. I usually keep a container in my office, one in my tennis bag, another in my day-to-day bag and one in my car. Whenever I feel like mindless snacking, I snack on these as they certainly satisfy my off and on desire for salty crunchy snacks. Each 1 oz serving as 6g of protein, 15g of fat and 5g of carbs, 4g of which are fiber. Perfect and inexpensive. Each 7.25 oz container costs like $1.15 at Kroger.

Butter. I love butter. If I had to pick my favorite DS friendly food, it would be butter, hands down. Why? Butter goes with anything. I'm a lucky DS-er in that copious amounts of fat in my diet don't hurt me at all, no explosive diarrhea from fat, no oil slicks, none of that. In fact, if I don't eat enough of it I have problems, so slather on the butter is my motto. Not joking, I can easily go through a stick of butter a day without batting an eye. I cook eggs in tablespoons of butter. I put butter in my soups and chili, I fry hamburgers in butter. I cook veggies in butter. I love butter more than Paula Deen and my cholesterol is a stunning 122. One of my favorite dishes is sauteeing freshly minced garlic in butter and then cooking shrimp in it to perfect tenderness. YUM.

Okay, enough food talk, I just had an Angus and am coming off a beef high.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that I hear back from the Dr.'s office tomorrow at least about the X-Rays. I am hoping it is what I think it is so that we can treat it. I am more than anxious to fix the problem and hopefully getting back on a normal (for me) weight loss track. I am anxious to be done with all my excess weight and I am excited at the prospect of it being doable. I feel like I've been through so many emotions within the last 24 hours, very hard to explain. It could be the residual effects of the hormones I was taking, but I've been cultivating a certain level of frustration and disappointment for some time now and have been reluctant to let it out fully on this site because I didn't want to seem like a completely negative person which I am not. I just didn't have the answers and now I feel like I just might and I just want to get going already. Tomorrow hopefully will bring some news, tonight I will certainly try to get in the sleep that I missed last night. My brain is just racing and I can't stop thinking about it so y'all will have to allow me to indulge in this temporary obsession, it's a big one though!

I survived Thanksgiving 2007!

Yea! Overall the day went well. I got to eat the things I wanted and am moving the hell on. A few surprises yesterday, though. Last year, I fell in love with the ham (which, btw, I had more than my fair share of at dinner last night), but the thing that was a HUGE hit with me was the freakin' fruit tray! Believe or not. It was a big ol' tray, sectioned in four, with pineapple, melon, strawberries and mandarin oranges. Now, I just don't do a lot of fruit and I haven't this past year, all the fruits I like have way too much sugar, but I ate A LOT of pineapple and those mandarin orange slices, oh my goodness, and the oranges were already peeled so no effort involved in consuming a ton. It was so refreshing and delicious, it was like I discovered a new classification and yumminess and couldn't get enough. Unfortunately, I can't incorporate that stuff in my day-to-day, but I will keep in on the emergency list when I just have to have something sweet. I'd rather have pineapple and mandarin oranges than cookies! Speaking of sweets, I honestly didn't eat that much, I think I had two pieces of chocolate chip pie the whole day. That's it. My eating yesterday looked like this:

2 large sausage links
1 cup mandarin oranges
1/2 cup pineapple chunks
couple cucumber slices w/ veggie dip
2 oz turkey
6 oz ham
1/2 cup fresh green beans
1 cup mashed potatoes w/ a lot of butter
1/2 cup mac & cheese
1 spoonful dressing
2 sweet potato chips
4 small crescent rolls w/ a lot of butter
2 slices chocolate chip pie

That's it. In my mind, I envisioned a heckuva lot more. Oh yeah, I also made sure I got my water in, I probably drank more than usual and I swear it helps minimize the damage on the scale. This morning I clocked in at 274.8 lbs. Not bad, considering.

Strategies for Christmas 2007? I am definitely going to make sure I drink a protein shake in the AM. I didn't yesterday for some reason. I am definitely going to again make sure I get my water in. Lastly, I am just going to make sure it's one day of loosening the reins, not a week.

Typically today is called Black Friday because of holiday shopping craziness, well, I am going to rename it Poop Friday because I will be having lots of crazy poop & gas today, no doubt, so I am not venturing too far from my home. In fact, the crazy poop started around 9 o'clock last night. Oh my goodness. That's all I am going to say about that!

Anyway, I brought home a bunch of turkey and ham which I will enjoy in about 15 mins. I also brought home a small square of mac & cheese, not too Tia-friendly, I know, but man, it came out great, better than I expected. Usually I just wing this type of thing, not too keen on using recipes for this type of stuff, but I wrote this one down. Definitely a winner.

Happy, Happy Turkey (and Ham) Day!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all. I baked the pies last night and just put the macaroni & cheese in the oven! Once it's all good to go, I'll pack up everything, hit the shower and make my way over to BP's house. I figure I can probably get in 3 or 4 rounds of goodness before I make my way home. I am planning on leaving all the extra food at BP's house and only taking turkey & ham home. No need to bring home all that stuff that I don't really want to be nibbling on for days, especially since I am really trying to end my month strong. I weighed in yesterday at a semi-disappointing 273 lbs, for a loss of 5 lbs for the month, and 243.6 lbs total. In reality, I can't be too upset, last Thanksgiving I weighed 162 lbs more than I do now. Unbelievable!

Anyway, I'm thankful for a lot of things this Thanksgiving, mostly for God, family & friends. I am thankful for the Duodenal Switch, a true life saver. This may sound crazy, but I am grateful for the obstacles and roadblocks and challenges, without them I would never have opportunities to grow and work at being a better daughter, sister, friend, partner, human being. Last, but not least, I am thankful for Honeybaked Ham and mashed potatoes, because I will be eating a lot of you.

Have a good one, y'all!

PH, BP & Mmmmmm

I think my constipation issues are almost resolved, but I'm not sure. My hemorrhoids are in remission, but I don't think my mind is convinced. Yesterday was not a good food day. I mean, I didn't eat anything crappy, but I certainly didn't eat enough. I had a cup of coffee in the morning, eggs & sausage later that morning and then a couple of pieces of chicken that evening. I was pretty pissed off yesterday at BP and so didn't eat enough, I seriously wanted to throttle her and I hate feeling that way, that is NOT me, that is NOT who I am and it's frustrating. It sucks more because I almost feel like if I tell her off, I'll feel better. Heck, maybe I should. I don't know, you tell me, shouldn't a 50 year old woman be more emotionally mature than an 8 year old??? The best I can do is not even bother trying to change her and only work on changing how I react. Maybe I should just use some Preparation H on her brain.

Anyway, Thanksgiving is Thursday (duh), woo-hoo!!!! I am going to do my grocery shopping this afternoon for it. I am 99% sure I am going to do a DS-friendly baked macaroni and cheese. I am going to use Dreamfield's pasta, lots of butter and cheese. I typically make it with some cheddar, Velveeta and Alfredo sauce. I like using Velveeta for creaminess and the Alfredo sauce for a little depth and tang, it adds a little "wow" factor. I said I'd also make a dessert. I am thinking either a sweet potato pie or a chocolate chip pie or ... a buttermilk pie... mmmm. Buttermilk pies can be tricky though. I've tried a couple in the past with mixed results, but if I can pull it off, they are quite delicious. Hopefully by the time I hit the grocery store I will have made up my mind... who am I kidding... I need to make a list and decide before I go.

A couple things I have noticed about my body lately. I usually walk around the house in a pair of Adidas slip on slippers and have noticed lately when I walk around barefoot, I've lost a good padding on the bottom of my feet. Also, I am noticing the curve of my jar right below my ears. Craziness.

My Ass Hurts

Warning: Way, way TMI Alert!

Oh. My. God. Usually when I say my ass hurts, it's usually about the decreasing amount of padding in that region, but today is about the much dreaded "H" word ... hemorrhoids. So incredibly painful. I'd felt a little ... "aggravation" down there for the past couple of days, but I just figured it was due to all the wiping from the previous few days, but then Friday through last night, I'd been really constipated and then 'rhoids made their existence known with a vengeance. Thankfully I ran out to the grocery store to get some Preparation H (stuff is expensive, but worth it). My first poop was firm and nearly brought me to tears, the other 10 or so have been liquidy and were initially not as painful, but the last couple were. Ugh. Ugh. I guess I've earned another DS badge. Not too happy about that. I took a long hot shower and then went to bed and it took me about an hour for the pain to subside so that I could fall asleep. All I can hope for is this to get progressively better. Ouch. At least this morning I can sit down like a normal person.

Anyway while I was at the store, I also picked up two packs of turkey drumsticks to be slow cooked at some point this week. Yum. I will probably cook them Wednesday so that I can have plenty over the weekend through to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is more about the ham for me than turkey. Speaking of, I think I will opt for the baked macaroni & cheese and then make a couple of mama's sweet potato pies.

I weighed in this morning only because I wanted to see what the progress was given all the pooping I did yesterday and the scale said 274.4 lbs. Cool, not bad. I had a few pickles last night...every now and then I just have a craving for them, don't know why so I probably had too much and am retaining water. Oh well, it will resolve itself soon enough.

Well, I have a lunch meeting this afternoon at Chili's so I gotta scope out their menu online to see what I can eat, then I have to try to find something good for my dad for his birthday. He's a tough guy to shop for, but you know dads and their daughters, he'll love anything I get him.