Oh No - Road Trip!!!

Well, this is gonna be a new one. I'm going to try to do a long-weekend-road-trip while maintaining my vitamin intake, 30 minute exercise routine and start the no-drinks-with-meals effort. All trying to get in proper 'surgery shape', but I have a feeling this is gonna be a hard weekend.

Although with the mess that I made last weekend (and I still feel bloated...), how could it be worse?

-sd

Adjusting my schedule for surgery...

Well, I know things are getting serious because I'm starting to push business out of the way (my operation will probably be sometime in October). I've got a big installation job coming due in the middle of October, and I'm already working on getting an in-position stand-in. During a meeting today, we were scheduling the next in-person meeting, and I begged for it to be pulled into September rather than doing it in October.

Even if I could physically make the meeting, I'll probably be on my "liver shrinking" diet plan, and will be a PITA to be stuck in a meeting - or go out for dinner.

I'm not sure why, but it seems like October is a wing-ding of a business month this year, and I'm spending a significant amount of time moving stuff out of the way. I really, really hope this surgery is worth it!

-sd

Taking This Thing Seriously

Last night was class three in the series we are supposed to take, and it was an eye-opener for me. I'm taking this (like I take most everything...) very seriously; therefore I'm reading the books, checking out the online resources, going over the diet plans and everything - I feel like this is going to be serious surgery (at least for me), and I want to be on it.

Well, during last night's class, we were talking through the different diet limitations we would be under. We were in the middle of the "soft and moist" section (which is what you are to eat during weeks 3-7), when a guy raises his hand for a question.

"Can we have beef jerky?" is the question.

The instructor was a little dumbfounded; she blinked a few times before asking "Is this a test to see if I'm paying attention? You can start considering something like beef jerky after you are on an all-food diet, but even then you will have to introduce is slowly. We are talking about 'soft and moist' - neither of these things would be used to describe beef jerky."

The class continued along, and there were several other questions that were, basically, asking about things that are in bold face type in the booklets we were given. Are these people trying to be "good attitude" people, or can they not absorb what they read, or are they just not engaged in the process?

Unknowable to me...

-sd

Dropping hay bales.

In the roundup of supplements that I'm taking, I dropped a hint that one of them (the Nature Made B-Complex) stunk like a hay bale. Well, it just started bothering me worse every day, so I made a switch - and I switched out the multi-vitamin as well. All gels and gummies, no traditional pressed-powder.

For the B-comples, I went with the Carlson B-50 Gel Complex; one of the few gels that I could find that looked to have a strong range of the B vitamins:

For the multi-vitamin, I went back to the Nature Made well, picking up the "Multi Adult Gummies":

So far, this is much better. No hay bale burps, no bad morning aftertaste, and the gummies are actually quite tasty! Big wins!!!

-sd

A Bad Weekend

So, what is it about thinking and talking about weight loss, careful eating and nutrition that puts me on an eating bender? The family is away - a perfect time to control my consumption and make some changes. Rather, I stick my face in a bucket of chicken.

I digust me.

But, of course, that's at the heart of it! Because I find myself disgusting, I want to soothe my feelings. And nothing soothes better than a big pile of food. Which I eat, then feel disgusted, then the cycle begins again.

Dammit.

-sd

The Verdict (Boost Glucose Control)

Yesterday, I said that I was going to get some of the Boost Glucose Control shakes to test; because they are low calorie and sugar (while still being high in protein), they seemed like the best bet for a trial run. Luckily, they carried this brand in the pharmacy area of our local grocery chain (King Soopers in the Denver area), so I bought both the chocolate and vanilla versions.

I don't have a lot to compare it to ('cuz you don't really want me to compare it to a DQ chocolate malt, do you?), but I have tried the Ensure diet drinks, and can talk about these drinks in general. They all share something in common: a bland flavor with a bit of a metallic aftertaste. I think the flavor is unique enough that you'd be able to get a craving for it, but I'm not there yet.

The 'rich chocolate' Boost shake was quite thick. Where the Ensure drink I'd tried was slightly thicker than a chocolate milk, the Boost shake had a lot more body to it. It was too thick to drink "all-in-one-gulp", but wasn't unpleasant or anything. The flavor was remarkably similar to the Ensure, and I didn't really have any difficulty drinking it.

I think the extra body, though, meant that the Boost seemed more filling - more like I'd had a meal rather than a distraction from a meal!

Right now, I'm drinking a 'very vanilla' Boost. In the vanilla variant, the metallic aftertaste is more prominant, and a bit unpleasant. This just seemed more 'medicine-y', and I'm not sure I'm going to buy more than the 6-pack I bought yesterday.  The chocolate is much better in my opinion.

So there's the quickie review. Hope you find it helpful!

-sd

Shaking things up!

One of the things that I'm working on is finding good items for my pre- and post-surgery food requirements. Before I took the classes, I tried the Ensure Plus nutritional shakes.

The were OK tasting, and certainly relieved gassy bloat that I'd been feeling recently. But during our classes, we were told to look for the following:

• Less than 200 calories,
• More than 15 grams of protein,
• Watch out for over-sugaring!

Today I'm going to go fishing for some alternatives. One that they pointed to is the Boost Glucose Control shakes.

It turns out that several stores in my area carry them,  so I'm going to take a drive into town, pick some of these up, and see how these work. One thing I'm always concerned about is the taste; tomorrow, I'll let you know if I was able to choke 'em down.

Cheer!

-sd