Fills, Liquid Diets, and Food Storage

Fills

Silly me, I just assumed the rest of the world understood what I meant when I would say, "I am going to get a fill." But an old friend pointed out the flaws in my thinking...thanks Masked Marauder!

Many around me know that this past spring I chose to undergo gastric banding surgery. The band I had placed on my stomach is the Realize Band


Gastric bands work by creating a small stoma on top of the larger stomach. This new stoma is up at the top near where the nerves are that tells your brain you are hungry. With the band you eat much smaller meals.

The food stays in the stoma and slowly funnels into the larger stomach to be digested.


There is a tube that runs from the band to the port that is places usually under the rib cage. It is through this port that saline is injected into the band, tightening it (much like a belt). Yesterday I had my fourth fill, it is a painless process. (go here if you want to see a better discription)

I learned yesterday that I have been eating more than I should. I have been eating 6 to 8 ounces by weight three times a day. My surgeon told me yesterday that a woman of my height (5'4") should be eating 4 ounces per meal. YIKES! Guess I have to work on that one.

As of yesterday, I have lost 44.6 pounds since I began my pre-op diet February 14th. That puts me right on track to meet my first goal of 50 pounds lost by September 1st. This last weekend when I went shopping I was elated and speechless to be able to wear a size 22 dress. I haven't been a size 22 since the mid 90's.

Liquid Diets & Food Storage

After a fill you are on a liquid diet for a few days. I have learned that there are numerous opinions out there as far as how many days you should be on a liquid diet...heck, there is even a difference of opinion in my surgeon's office. To error on the side of safety, I follow the nurses advice and follow a three day liquid diet, the day of the fill being day one.

I have a confession to make...I treat myself to an indulgent milk shake once during these three days. Last night's dinner was that treat, I had a yogurt smoothie from Red Mango. Imagine fresh blueberries, Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips, and pomegranate yogurt blended into heaven in a cup......my mouth is watering just reminiscing.

Today's lunch was almost as good, and since I made it at home it was much cheaper. I decided that I didn't want soup and that a protein shake would be the best thing to have. However, I didn't want your plain chocolate shake.

When I got to the fridge I discovered that our milk expired a week ago. A quick sniff test confirmed that the milk needed to be tossed. We rarely drink milk, that is why our milk goes bad. This is where food storage comes in. I know that in times of an emergency I may not have the money or the ability to go to my local market to get a quart of milk, so we keep at least one box of powdered milk in our food storage. Food storage saved my lunch today! And because I needed to rotate my powdered milk, my lunch is helping my food storage....what a beautiful cycle!

Enough rambling...here is how I made my delicious lunch today;

• 12 pitted and frozen cherries (I bought cherries a couple of weeks ago, since we couldn't eat them all before they spoiled I pitted about half and put them in the freezer for just such occasions)
  
• 3 frozen banana chunks equal to about one banana (when my bananas get too ripe for us, ripe but not banana bread ripe I cut them into chunks and put them into a ziploc bag for smoothies. I like to use frozen fruit over ice, because ice melts and dilutes the flavor of smoothies)
• 8 ozs. of my aforementioned powdered milk prepared according to the directions on the box.
• one scoop of my favorite chocolate protein powder, I use this

Put all the ingredients in my blender and whirled up a yummy shake...next time I think I will use more cherries and less banana....