Tag: diet

Smaller Appetite After Surgery

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Health, keto, WeightLeave a comment

I have always had a huge appetite since I was at least a teenager. At dinner, my mom would always make enough so everyone could have seconds, and I was typically the only one who would actually take seconds. I was so skinny and my mom never understood where that food went because I never gained any weight no matter how much food I ate. I kind of hate my younger self right now lol. I was also active, and when I say active, I mean like gym class, running from the school to escape bullies, then walking home from school. You know, typical teenage angst lol.

So the time of my life I’m referring to was when I was around 13 years old and I was 150lbs. Fast forward to when I was 26 and I was still 150lbs, then I quit smoking and that all changed. Suddenly I was gaining weight because I was discovering how wonderful food was. Before then I was eating to survive on what we could afford. After, I was eating for pleasure, and I wasn’t holding back. I was getting a lot more food than normal and within 2 months of quitting smoking, I had gained 50lbs. So there I was 200lbs with a fat belly all of a sudden and my appetite was out of control, but I was trying not to go over 200lbs.

Over the years I’ve gained weight because of my enormous appetite until I was at my highest last year at 267lbs. I bought a Fitbit Charge 4 watch and a Fitbit Aria scale and I tried working on my weight. When I got the scale I was 265lbs and by January this year I was 254lbs, then the surgeon told me to lose 15-20lbs for my surgery and then I went down to 230lbs. Now after surgery I have gone down to 225lbs.

And now to the subject of this post. I had my surgery where they reduced the size of my colon, which is a nicer way of saying they removed a section of my colon to remove the possibility of colon cancer. But ever since I had my surgery, I haven’t been very hungry. They fed me 6oz of soup and some other things like pudding or jello and some juices and milk. Well, that tiny amount of food and drinks made me feel so full. When I came home from the hospital I was still getting full from such a tiny amount of food. I left the hospital on Thursday and today is Sunday and I’m still getting full from 6oz of soup. I made myself tomato soup, a 3oz glass of sugar free Jell-O and a chocolate pudding cup and I couldn’t even eat the Jell-O or the pudding. It was literally too much food.

This will be to my advantage to help me reduce the size of my stomach. If I eat and I get full fast, then I won’t have the chance to make my stomach too big again, and that will help me lose weight, especially when I go back to eating my Keto food. This will also prevent me from even wanting to go to a buffet because if I’m not hungry for such a huge amount of food, then I won’t be tempted to go, thus I won’t overeat and gain weight again. So I see this as a huge win for me.

How long do you think it will take me to get down to 200lbs if I am 225lbs now? I pretty much lost 22lbs from mid-January to the end of March. So do you think I will be down to 200lbs by June or July maybe? And if I get down to 200lbs by then, I will just keep going and lose all the weight I can possibly lose. I really would like to get back to 150lbs, but I will be happy if I can get down to 160 or 170. When I finally get down to the weight I want to be, I’m going to continue to maintain my weight by eating Keto foods, and if I still lose weight, well then good for me.

I’ve been approved for surgery

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, ketoLeave a comment

Let me just backtrack just in case someone is reading this post and they haven’t read any of my other posts. I had a colonoscopy in September 2020 and they found and removed several polyps. There were also several that were lying flat that they could not remove, so the only way to remove them is with surgery. They sent me to a surgeon who will do the surgery, but I’m overweight, so he asked me to lose 15 to 20 lbs so things are loose to make the surgery easier on both of us.

I went to my follow up appointment today with the surgeon, and he approved my surgery because I had lost 18lbs. So the surgery will be in 3 weeks and it isn’t exactly what I had expected. I thought he was just going to make me do the colonoscopy prep and then he would go in and basically do another colonoscopy, but with scrapers that could scrape the tissue to remove the polyps. Instead, he has to remove a section of my colon. I will still have to do a colon prep, but it’s a little different. I will have to be on a liquid diet for 2 days and take some medication and I will be in the hospital for 2-3 days after the surgery to make sure I don’t get an infection, which will just make things worse because I could end up with a colostomy. I. Do. Not. Want. That.

Even though I don’t technically have cancer, he is treating the surgery as if I have cancer. The polyps could turn into cancer if they are not removed, and they couldn’t be removed from a colonoscopy, so this is the alternative, and removing this section of my colon will keep me from having cancer. I’m not sure if I want to cry or not. I know it’s not cancer, yet, but, I don’t know. I’m just a little emotional I guess. I just didn’t expect to hear what he has to do to remove these polyps.

My paternal father died from cancer, so it was very important for me to get this screening done as soon as I turned 50. They wouldn’t give me a colonoscopy until I turned 50, so I had to make the appointment as soon as I could after my birthday last year. I’m glad they found it early enough and they will be able to take care of it.

After my surgery is done, I’m going to stay on my Keto diet and it is possible I’ve already decided this is it for myself. No more bad carbs. No more fried foods or fast food or junk food. I have learned while on this Keto diet that I can still eat the food I want to eat, I just have to go about it a little bit differently. I can still eat bread and tortillas, they just have to be carb free or low carb. Aldi has bread that is 0 net carbs and tortillas that actually taste good that are 5 net carbs. I can still eat a burger, I just have to use the Aldi bread, or I can make a chaffle. And speaking of chaffles, I love eating chaffles for breakfast with the sugar free pancake syrup. And I don’t have to worry about candy bars because I have the Fiber One snack bars that are pretty close to a candy bar. Atkin’s sells candy that is like M&M’s, so if I get hungry for that, they sell them at the grocery store near my house. Everything I like is available to me, I just have to find a way to make it healthy. There are also tons of recipes for making things I love, like egg nog.

I made some hamburgers with my mini dash waffle maker and made a big mess, so I bought another Dash, but it’s a griddle that will make pancakes and eggs and it is also for making hamburgers. So I can eat a burger guilt free any time I want.

Yes I’m a little sad at what has to happen, but I’m happy that I’m not going to have cancer and this has helped me work on my weight loss finally. And as always, I will follow up after my surgery.

I did it! I lost 15+lbs for surgery.

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, ketoLeave a comment

With all the struggling that I did during the last couple of months trying to lose 15 lb, I never thought that the weight would actually come off. I’m so happy that I finally lost 15 pounds and now I can get my surgery.

I still have four more days until I see the doctor to check my weight. He said 15 to 20 lb, so who knows how much more weight I might lose until then.

My appetite is under control and I am only eating breakfast, lunch, a 3:00 p.m. snack which is a 70 calorie Fiber One snack, and dinner at 6:00 p.m. I’m drinking coffee from when I wake up until a little after noon and then water for the rest of the day.

Like I’ve said before, I’m going to continue losing weight after my surgery until I get down below 200 lb. I would like to get down to 160 or 170, but I guess I’ll see what happens when it happens. Got to just keep going.

I finally found my groove

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, ketoLeave a comment

Ok. I’ve been on this Keto diet to lose weight for surgery for 7 weeks and I’ve had a lot of trouble losing weight. The first 2 weeks I was on this diet I lost 8lbs. I think because I was eating less, and I had almost completely cut out carbs. I mean, you can’t cut out ALL carbs. There are foods that are low carb, but they do have carbs. Then a few days after I had lost 8lbs on the scale, it dropped another few pounds for a total of 11lbs. But then I think I got cocky because the weight stopped coming off and I couldn’t lose any more weight to save my life.

I’m back on track now. I noticed I wasn’t going to the bathroom, like at all. I finally bought some Metamucil with Psyllium fiber. That helps me go to the bathroom and it also helps to control my appetite after my meals. I’m not eating as much food as I was and I’m losing weight again. I’m finally back down to that 11lb weight loss. I have 9 more days until my appointment with the surgeon to check on my weight loss, then he will schedule my surgery. And then of course I will have to stay on my diet until the surgery date, so I will hopefully lose more weight before then. I will also continue this diet until I’ve gone down to at least 200lbs. I’d like to keep going and lose all my weight, but I also don’t want to put any pressure on myself to lose weight.

My daily routine so far. I will drink the metamucil and then make my breakfast which is usually always chaffles. 2 eggs with some shredded cheddar cheese in the mini Dash waffle maker. For lunch more metamucil, then I will make a turkey sandwich with Foster Farms turkey that we buy from Aldi, L’Oven Fresh Zero Net Carbs Multiseed Keto bread also from Aldi with a little bit of mayo. Then at 3pm I’ll eat a Fiber One 70 calorie 5g net carbs brownie. For dinner more metamucil, then I make a chicken and cheese wrap thing. It looks more like a taco though, but I bake it like a quesadilla lol. The tortilla I’m using is called Fit & Active low carb tortillas that are 4g net carbs also from Aldi, and of course more shredded cheddar cheese, 28 grams to be precise and 3oz of chicken. That’s pretty much my whole day. Sometimes I will eat chicken and broccoli instead of making a wrap.

I’m sure someone’s going to say I’m doing everything wrong, but I am losing weight again, so I’m just going to do what works for me. But I don’t mind suggestions if anyone has any.

Edit: I Googled how many days you can take Metamucil, and it said do not take for more than 7 days. I’ve only taken it for 4 days, and my stomach is cramping hard today. I think I will stop taking it after today and then start up again in about a week I think. I didn’t know it was going to do this. I also didn’t know it was a laxative lol.

My Keto Diet Issues

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, ketoLeave a comment

I’ve been doing the Atkins diet as per doctor’s orders on January 12, 2021 so I can have surgery to remove polyps that could not be removed during my colonoscopy in September 2020. In one month I managed to lose 11lbs.

There have been some difficulties throughout my quest to lose weight for surgery. For one, I’m not going to the bathroom as often as I would like, and I looked it up and apparently it’s a thing. Here is a quote from Keto Krate.

When you produce less waste, you poop less often–and on Keto, you’re going to poop less often. The body is very efficient at extracting nutrients from meats and fatty foods. The result is less waste. So don’t mistake fewer bowel movements with constipation.

Keto Krate

There was another website, and I can’t find the source, that said that during the time you aren’t going to the bathroom, the digested food that is still inside your body will start to putrefy, which will cause terrible smelling farts and bowel movements. Well, I do not want that lol. They said to fix this, add Psyllium Husk to your diet. I went on a search and discovered Metamucil, Psyllium Husk Powder Fiber Supplement 180 teaspoons for $25. We actually found this at Albertsons, but I believe it was 110 or 120 teaspoons for $22. So I think I got a better price on Amazon. I hope that will help me go to the bathroom more often.

I think it’s odd that my body would not want to remove all the food I am eating. I mean sure, extract all the nutrients, but shouldn’t there be some waste? I do eat a lot of veggies, broccoli and cauliflower to be precise, so I’m just confused as to why that isn’t coming out.

I drink 96 fluid ounces of water every day after I finish drinking my coffee. I have a Blender Bottle that I just drink water from. The bottom of the bottle says 28oz, but when I fill it up with water it’s 24oz. I know this because I weighed the bottle, then tared it, then poured water in it from a pitcher and it was 24oz. and it was very close to the top of the bottle. They say to drink 8 cups of water, which comes out to 64oz, so I think I have that more than covered.

I have another 2 weeks until my doctors appointment, so in order to be approved for surgery, I need to continue losing weight, and I’m not sure that will happen at the rate I’m going. I am getting frustrated because I am eating all the right things, but not losing weight as fast as I would like. I hope I can drop at least another 5lbs before my appointment, but we will see.

Oh and I bought a Dash DMW001BK to make chaffles. One recipe I found makes an oreo cookie chaffle. The guy in this video shows 2 recipes, the first one he says tastes exactly like an oreo cookie, and the second one he says tastes like a hostess cupcake. I want to make the second recipes because I want to eat a hostess cupcake, especially for my birthday.

Zero net carb bread!

On By Michel McDonaldIn DietLeave a comment

We went to Aldi yesterday for some low to no carb groceries to help me lose weight for my surgery, and also just in general to help me lose weight.

I found a website that has 81 of the BEST Keto Finds at ALDI and I know they are less expensive than the other grocery stores in our area, so I figured I would find some of these things, and just hope they tasted good.

Some of the items we bought were actually my lunch today.

The carbs from this lunch was from the Foster Farms oven roasted turkey breast. This turkey was $4 for 1.75lbs which would have cost probably around $11 or more at the Albertsons deli at around $6 per pound. We buy it from Albertsons all the time, and it never lasts more than a few days. Now that I’m watching what I eat, this will last longer than a few days because I will only eat 2 slices, which is the serving size, with my sandwich, or if I decide to make a salad and chop this up into pieces.

I was so worried about eating sandwiches because I was afraid I would have to buy a waffle maker, and I almost bought one on Amazon for $40. They have those small Dash waffle makers, and I almost bought those, but I really just wanted to find a zero carb bread. I also don’t like the thought of spending a ton of money on ingredients, like almond flour and baking powder and Swerve sweetener and many more things. When you are on a limited budget due to the fact that you are disabled, it’s better to buy inexpensive foods rather than spending $30-$40 on ingredients just to make 2 slices of bread at a time.

And being on this limited income is the reason why I gained so much weight in the first place. Back when hamburger meat was cheaper, I was making Hamburger Helper all the time, especially when they were on sale for $1 a box. Everything I was buying for our meals were inexpensive, and I can’t help that I have to buy cheap food.

I will be eating zero to low carb foods until all this weight comes off. I bought a NUTRI FIT rechargeable food scale to help me weight all the ingredients that goes into my meals so I know I’m not eating too much. I was just eating a whole bunch of broccoli and cauliflower and chicken for dinner and logging it all as the wrong amounts because I was guessing. Last night I discovered I was eating too much chicken. I was eating an entire chicken breast and logging it as 6oz. Then I discovered I’m only supposed to be eating 3.5oz of chicken. The broccoli and cauliflower I was eating I was weighing and it showed it was less than 8oz, which is a cup, right? Well, actually, I discovered 1 cup is supposed to be 91 grams, which is a lot less than what I’ve been eating. I wondered why I wasn’t losing any weight.

Anyway, knowledge is power, and hopefully I will be back on track. I have 1 more month until my next appointment with the surgeon who wants me to lose 15-20lbs. I had lost 9lbs, then plateaued, and now hopefully I will start losing again. I’m back to that weight that I was the last time when I plateaued. I also plan on going to the gym again. More on why I stopped going in my next post.

NUTRI FIT Rechargeable Food Scale

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet1 Comment

This will be the third food scale that I have. The first one that we bought years and years ago wasn’t digital. You can’t really see the exact measurement other than the line going on the number like the old scales that you would stand on. I prefer digital, it’s easier.

The second food scale that we have was actually given to me by a former friend. I don’t know what’s wrong with the scale, but you put batteries in, weigh something, put it away for a while, maybe a couple of hours or a couple of days? I don’t know. Anyway, the next time you go to weigh something, the batteries are dead. So that’s why I bought a new scale from Amazon for $15.

I like that the scale plugs into the wall and it only took 90 minutes to charge. I’ve been using it all day to weigh not only what I’ve been eating but also what I’ve been drinking. I am keeping track of all of my food on the Atkins app, and I want to make sure that I’m putting in the correct measurements of weight, because I want to know exactly how many calories I’m eating. I’ve been guessing all this time and apparently I was way off.

I mentioned that I was not only keeping track of what I’m eating, but also what I’m drinking. This thing has different units of measurements for food and drink. So like if you’re measuring how much water you’re drinking or how much creamer you’re adding to your coffee etc. It has grams, lbs and ounces, fluid ounces and milliliters. On the back you can switch between unit measurement preferences but I like that I can choose on the device itself.

Oh, this scale also came with a dough scraper, which I kind of get, I guess if you’re making bread, but I’m not going to, but you never know, I might decide to lol. Although I don’t think so because that has too many carbs.

So on Amazon, this is called NUTRI FIT rechargeable food scale. The title is actually longer than that, but you get the idea. The image at the top is a link to the listing on Amazon.

Weeks 12-14 Weigh In Day

On By Michel McDonaldIn DietLeave a comment

I am very disappointed in myself for the last few weigh in’s because I haven’t been doing the hard work that I have supposed to be doing. I have been eating my Weight Watchers and Lean Cuisine like I should, but I’ve also been saying yes to the tortilla chips and the candy because of Halloween, and I’ve paid the price in calories. I also haven’t been doing the work I need to do at the gym to help me to lose weight.

So the gym. I’ve been going to the gym every other day, and I stopped building muscle, but I haven’t been able to do the extra work on the treadmill because every time I get on the treadmill, within 20 minutes of walking I have to urinate, and you’d think I was holding it in for an hour. I have to hurry up and enter the time, calories and distance to the Noom app and run to grab a towel and soak it with Planet Fitness’ cleaning solution and wipe the bar down that I touched during my workout, then walk very fast to the locker room so I can pee. I thought the problem was going away, but it didn’t, and yesterday it actually caused me pain. My life partner Googled the symptoms and he says it sounds like I have a urinary tract infection. I’ve never had that problem before. Am I drinking too much water? Because I don’t drink anything but coffee in the morning and then water throughout the rest of the day, but is it the tap water that is causing the problem? Who knows. I’m going to start buying filtered water.

I think my biggest problem is that I am not getting enough sleep. When I lost 70lbs in 2013 I was sleeping, like a lot because I broke my arm, so I was sleeping for several hours during the day as well as at night, so I think that had a lot to do with my weight loss rather than diet and no exercise. This time I thought the weight gain was coming from building muscle, but I don’t think muscle has anything to do with it now, I think my problem is lack of sleep, so I think I’m going to make sure I take the time to take a nap and see if that helps.

The main reason I haven’t blogged the last couple of weeks is because I don’t think people really care about my weigh in blogs. So, I think this will be my last one unless something miraculous happens.

So if you have been reading, thanks so much for reading my weigh in blogs.

Week 11 Weigh In Day

On By Michel McDonaldIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

It’s been one helluva week for me, so I honestly don’t even care that I didn’t lose weight this week, but instead I gained about 1.2lbs.

This week I bought 10 days worth of meals from Albertson’s because they were on sale for $1.69 each, but they aren’t the Lean Cuisine or Weight Watchers Smart Ones, they are Signature Select which is a generic store brand. They taste good, and that’s really all that matters.

This week I also found my paternal father’s family and I found my brother, which I blogged about, so I’ve been celebrating and I have eaten things I shouldn’t have eaten, and honestly I just don’t care because I’m so happy right now.

The stress of trying to find someone is just unbelievable. But, I have closure now, so I don’t need to worry about being stressed out over trying to find my father. Right now my focus is getting to know my big brother. The weight will continue dropping as I continue eating healthy and continue going to the gym.

Yesterday at the gym I just felt like I was starving to death for some reason. I had to get off the treadmill after 35 minutes and I was going to go to Barnes & Noble next door to buy a croissant from the Starbucks, but then I noticed Planet Fitness had this big display with cookies that they were selling for $3. I didn’t care that it was that expensive, I just needed some food in my belly. I also didn’t care that it was 200 calories for just half of the cookie. I ate the whole damn thing. Deal with it lol. I also bought a box of generic organic nilla wafers and they were good, deal with that too lol.

Week 7 Weigh in Day

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

242.0

Today I’m feeling very upset with myself because I’ve been doing what I said I wouldn’t do. I’ve been saying yes, when I should have been saying no. Saying no to things like ice cream and cookies will help me lose weight, saying yes to those things will help me gain weight. It’s ok to have a cheat day once in awhile, like maybe once a month, I’m not saying I can’t have 1 cheat day, but it seems like I’ve had several cheat days this week, and that’s bad.

Screenshot_2018-09-10-11-23-49

Yesterday I worked extra hard at the gym so I could burn off all the ice cream and cookies that I ate the previous few days, but apparently that didn’t do much good, or maybe it did just enough good that it prevented me from gaining weight. I mean, it could be worse, I could have stepped on the scale and it could have said 244. I normally only walk on the treadmill for 1 hour (that extra 5 minutes is cool down) and yesterday I decided to walk an extra half hour. You can see that I logged 835 calories, I could have eaten 1930 calories if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to. I think you’re supposed to eat 1200 calories to lose weight, but I was satisfied with the 3 weight watchers meals, plus I had a banana for one of my snacks.

So this week I will not have any cheat days, I will stick with my regular 3 Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen breakfast, lunch and dinner with maybe a salad or fruit if I get hungry between meals, and I will treat the banana as a sweet treat. I might even freeze and blend it to have as a low calorie no fat ice cream treat, which is what I should be doing instead of having regular ice cream.

We will see next week if I lose any weight. I am shooting for 240.0 lbs, or less.