PSA: Kitchen Gadget Must-Have

Now that I am settled in (mostly), I have all of my own kitchen stuff back!

And I am back in love with my pressure cooker. Every bandster should own this little piece of genius. Seriously. It makes the MOST tender meat. I ate 1.5 pork chops the other night! Amazing. I haven't eaten pork chops in a long time, because they are too tough for me. Not with the pressure cooker - 15 min of cooking, and they were fork-tender. And delicious! I've also made a beef roast, meatballs, and chicken drumsticks in it. All this week. Yep, a slight bit of an addiction. But hey, I am definitely meeting my protein goals.

One of the really nice things about my pressure cooker is you can brown or saute in it before you cook in it. Only 1 dirty pot + no hot oven = Happy Amy.

ETA: To answer a few questions.

• I'd say for most things, they cut the cooking time down by about 1/3, not 1/2. It still takes time for the unit to come up to pressure, then cook, and sometimes the cut of meat calls for natural pressure release (which takes time). However, the trade-off is the meat is ALWAYS tender. Always.
• It IS old-school, but they've kind of come back 'in'. The new ones are totally safe, no danger of exploding. Also, they are pretty much fool-proof. No checking pressure, no messing with temps, etc. Push a few buttons and it regulates itself. So easy. Plus, since you can't stir it or anything once it starts, I always have my kitchen cleaned up by the time it's done. It's a two-fer! :)
• I made the porkchops breaded - dipped in egg and then seasoned breadcrumbs. Lightly browned them on both sides for a few minutes in 2 T. evoo. Right in the pressure cooker. Took them out, put the rack in, added 1 c. of chicken broth, and added the pork chops back in (the rack keeps them from sitting in the liquid). Added a sliced onion on top of the chops. Cooked for 15 min on high pressure (could have done less, but I wanted them really tender). Served with steamed broccoli and cauliflower and a Lipton noodle thing (don't remember what, since I don't really eat that.) It was good. And easy!

Here's the pressure cooker I have. I seriously love it! You can get it on amazon, if you are interested.

An Ode to Bacon

Why is it when I am on the tighter side, thick liquids are often hard to get down, but bacon (and tortilla chips) always go down just fine? Seriously, makes no sense to me, but you know, if I had to pick a go-to food, bacon would have been at the top of my list. Therefore, here it is:

An Ode to Bacon

There once was a girl who loved bacon

She even said she'd never forsake 'on.

She loved it thick and crispy

Or even thin and wispy.

Oh bacon, you're never mistaken!

Slowly but surely

Thanks for all the supportive comments yesterday. I had a protein shake for dinner along with a snack of 1/2 c. of cottage cheese. I feel much better this morning. I'm sipping on another protein shake as we speak. Instead of my beloved caramel macchiato. I told myself if I was a good girl and had a protein shake for breakfast and soup for lunch, I could have a caramel macchiato for an afternoon snack. The shake is going down slowly this morning, but it's going down. And I know it's not unusual to be tighter in the AM, so I think I'll be fine in a week or so.

Another lb gone overnight for a total of 48.2 lbs lost. My goal was to hit 50 by my 5 month anniversary, and since it's still 12 days away, and I'm only 1.8 lbs from 50, I'm pretty confident I'll make it!

I also wanted to say, I know my eating was not stellar on Sunday, the day I posted my menu. We normally do not eat that much fast food, but my friend was in town with her very picky 2-year old. And she is pickier than he is. She eats PLAIN food. Like a single from Wendy's is plain - a bun and a burger. No ketchup, no nothing! When she comes to visit, we eat out the whole time, as there's no way to make everyone happy. I realize I was no where near getting in what I should have, but it was a crazy day. Not to say we don't eat crap sometimes, because we certainly do, it's just not usually twice in one day!

On other notes, the owner of the company that DH works for leaves for FL today. They are there until Sunday, and if all goes well, they'll be signing a lease while they're down there. Keep your fingers crossed - we should have some answers very, very soon as to when we are moving!

And one final note, if I don't show back up on Thursday, it's because I am in jail for beating my husband. He has been self-employed the last few years, meaning our taxes are not straight-forward. My mom does our federal and state, but we do our city taxes. I am happy to do them for him, but he likes keeping his own books and such, so I can't really do it for him.

Last year, I kept begging him to get them done. I ended up finishing them up for him ON APRIL 15 WHILE IN THE HOSPITAL HOOKED UP TO AN IV AND MONITOR PREPPING FOR A C-SECTION that I was thoroughly upset about (we'd found out the day before that my son had flipped breach and there was not enough amniotic fluid to try an external version - I was devastated, as I'd already hired doula and read every natural birthing book I could get my hands on). He had to leave the hospital to go mail them, and I was sure I was going to get called early to the c-section and he was going to miss it. Fortunately, he made it back in time, but still. Ridiculous.

Fast-forward to this year, I've been telling him to take care of this for a couple of weeks. He doesn't. He leaves for his job on Sunday. Calls me yesterday - "I can't get the forms for the city taxes on my phone, since they're in PDFs." Well, I guess you best march your happy ass down to the library and find an internet connection and a printer, huh? Seriously. His lack of work-ahead-ness is going to drive me to insanity. So, if anyone is willing, I might need bailed out on Thursday. Thanks!

Send out the search party...

...for my restriction!

I was really hopeful that 6cc would provide something, but I feel not one bit different than I did pre-fill. Not a bit. Bummer, dude.


Now I'm really glad I made that appointment that's in two weeks. I'm seriously starting to white knuckle it. I have NO desire to diet. None. I'm hanging in there, but my will power is slipping away. I am mostly trying to avoid sugar, keep the white carbs on the low end, and focus on getting enough protein. I have to mentally accept that maintaining right now will be a victory.

So I guess it means you should also look for my will power while you are out there.

Enough whining. I know it'll all happen soon enough. I just want it NOW. I'm like that with everything in my life. I have very little patience and am definitely of the instant gratification generation. Hell, I decided I wanted to get banded and had the band within 6 weeks. Yep, instant gratification - that's me.

I wanted to thank you all for the comments on my support group experience. They made me laugh, smile, want to rise up and revolt, drink more coffee, and even get a bit teary-eyed. I will try my surgeon's group, and if that doesn't work, I guess you guys are it. Can you handle the pressure? Oh, maybe someone wants to be my band sponsor? Who's willing to give me their phone number so I can whine to you 24/7? Hello, anyone? Fine. I'll just keep whining here.

In totally unrelated news, DH's dad and his wife came over last night. DH hasn't seen his dad in 17 years. No, that is not a typo. 17 years. It was interesting and went well - we'll be seeing lots of them while they're in town for the next week. Long back story which I'll share someday, I just don't feel like it today, but the short story is DH's parents divorced, FIL acted a fool, DH and his brother cut him out of their lives. Fast-forward 17 years and FIL finds DH via Facebook. It's like a modern fairy tale. They brought the kids TONS of Christmas presents (and a few for us) and since they live near Orlando, everything was Disney. The ironic part is DH and I are so not Disney people. I like the parks, but am not a fan of character clothing or the movies or anything. And now the kids have outfits, sippies, stuffed animals, hats, bags, you name it. DD slept with her Little Mermaid pink chalis-style straw cup last night. I guess we are going to lose this battle.

A bad case of the Mondays

I have a sore throat, DD still isn't sleeping well which means I'm not sleeping well, my stupid period is STILL hanging around (to be fair, it was my first post-partum one, so understable, but still annoying), and the weather is yucko.

How's that for a case of the Mondays?

However, I'm going to concentrate on the good news. I'm almost done with mushies (tomorrow is the last day), and I peeked at the scale today, and it was back to exactly where it was two weeks ago. WOOHOO! That means there's a chance I'll be back into losing mode by my official weigh-in on Wednesday. That sure would make me happy.

I made an executive decision to stop tracking calories & protein grams a few days ago. And ironically, that's when the scale started to go back down. I have no idea if it is a coincidence or not, but I was making myself WHACKY with entering and counting and tracking and thinking and planning. It was feeling very much like a DIET. And since that word is no longer in my vocabulary, I had to take a step back.

Since I am comfortable hitting 70 grams of protein each day without much effort, I figured the rest of it will take care of itself. I am following the bandster rules (which I really hate not eating and drinking together, but we'll discuss that later) and eating to not-hungry, not to full, and I have to trust that the rest will happpen.

I did this so I don't have to track and count and plot and plan everything that enters my mouth, and I realized very quickly, I was already headed towards obsessive behavior, and I wanted it stopped NOW. And to reiterate, the weight started coming off again as soon as I did that. Hmmmm, I am starting to think it's not a coincidence!

TGIF

It's Friday. Thank goodness. I have been so unfocused at work this week. We've been having troubles with DD sleeping in her own bed. I'm not really anti-co-sleeping in theory, but in reality, I cannot sleep with ten little toes digging in my side. So part of my unfocus-ness is due to lack of sleep, but a large part is just due to my obsession with my band. I'm sure that will lessen eventually.

We don't have much planned for the weekend, for which I am thankful. I do a bit of consulting on the side, so I have a meeting with a client tomorrow, but I think that's the only thing on the agenda. If it were nicer, we'd go see the holiday lights at the zoo, but it's supposed to be pretty cold, and I don't feel like dragging the kids out in it. Yes, I'm lazy.

Today is officially 1 month since I started pre-op, so I'll be taking my measurements tonight. I KNOW I've lost quite a few inches, and I'm anxious to see the new numbers. I guess I'll also take pics. I'll post both later tonight.

And for those who read the 700-calorie breakfast, you'll be happy to know I packed a much more reasonable breakfast today. (Oh, and I only hit 1700 calories yesterday, so I managed the rest of the day pretty well.) Here's my breakfast, which has about 275 calories and is VERY filling (I used to eat it when I was doing Weight Watcher's Core program a lot.)

Cream of Wheat Pudding
(18 grams of protein)

3 Tbsp Cream Of Wheat
1 cup skim milk
1 egg
1 packet Splenda or 2 T. of sf pudding mix (the dry stuff, not made!)
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Spray small saucepan with cooking spray, add milk and heat until just about boiling. Be careful as it will burn and stick to the bottom of the pan.
2. Add cream of wheat and stir with a whisk for about 2 minutes.
3. In a small separate bowl combine egg, vanilla, and splenda.
4. Stirring rapidly to avoid "scrambled egg effect," add the egg mixture to the cream of wheat and cook for 1 minute longer or until thickened to your liking, and long enough for the egg to cook.

You can also just do this in the microwave, which is my preferred method. I cook the cream of wheat, add the egg, and then stick in the fridge. The next morning, I heat it up, which finishes cooking the egg.

Feeling good!

Sorry I've been MIA. Work was busy Friday and then yesterday was a nice family day, and I really didn't jump on the computer long enough to post an update.

Let's see. I am feeling MUCH, MUCH better in the whole 'fun bodily functions' arena. The gas pains have disappeared for good (knock on wood), that really hollow feeling in my tummy is gone (thankfully), and I'm not having any pain (woohoo!) I was t-h-i-s close to calling my surgeon to ask if I could move to mushies early when everything just kind of stopped bothering me. I really think that hollow feeling was the rest of the gas moving its way through my system. Don't get me wrong, I'm still super excited about starting mushies on Wednesday, but this week has been doable. I'm even hitting 70 grams of protein most days without protein shakes (which make me want to hurl right now!) Between 1 cup of greek yogurt at 24 grams of protein and a venti latte (homemade or Starbucks) at 15 grams, I can pack in nearly 40 grams of protein before noon. Not too shabby.

I had a small NSV yesterday. We took the kids to see a movie (it was free) and DD (just turned 2) only lasted about 30 min, so we decided to wander the mall for awhile instead. Pre-pre-op (got that?), I would get so tired and sweaty within 20 min of walking the mall. I made it almost two hours yesterday without feeling sore, sweaty, or tired! It's amazing how much of a difference even 35 lbs can make. My hips didn't ache, the bottoms of my feet didn't hurt, and while I got warm, I wasn't dripping with sweat. Love those NSVs!

We're putting up the tree this afternoon. Please send me don't-kill-DH-if-he-whines vibes. He's not much into this kind of stuff, but dammit, we're going to have a nice family afternoon!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

Why do all my post titles start with a song title? I have no idea!

So, today really is a beautiful day in my neighborhood. Let me count the ways:

• No shoulder pain (knock on wood)!
• No gas pain (double knock on wood)!
• I lost 11.8 lbs this week!
• I've lost 35.2 lbs in 3 weeks!!
• I have officially gone from super obese to morbidly obese. Never thought I'd be so happy to be morbidly obese!
• I just ate about 1/2 cup of the most wonderful, tasty, beautiful, out-of-this-world yogurt. My first "solid" food in 3 weeks!
• I discovered that 1 cup of greek yogurt has 24 grams of protein and has virtually the same nutrition facts as a protein shake. Screw the shakes! (I knew it was high, just didn't realize how high.)
• I am looking forward to a very tasty soup lunch. My second "solid" in 3 weeks!
• I love exclamation points!

You see? It really is a great day here! I am so excited. My clothes are already fitting looser, although I realize at my size, it's probably going to take in the neighborhood (there I go again) of 50 lbs to lose a size and/or for people to notice. I'm okay with that, though, as I'm really not ready to answer questions yet. I should probably start rehearsing my lines though, because it's probably coming sooner than later.

I do have to say, while eating my first couple bites of yogurt, I realized I was randomly sipping on my water. Duh! This is probably going to be the hardest bandster rule for me - I usually drink copious amounts of water while I eat. But I put my spoon down, timed 20 min, and then continued to eat my yogurt until I felt comfortably satisfied but not full. I saved the other half for later this morning, if I want it. Otherwise, it can be an afternoon snack. My dietician only calls for no drinking for 20 min after eating, but I think I'm going to err on the side of caution and go for 45-60 min. I'm dang thirsty, though, so we'll see. Mornings are going to be the roughest, because I wake up super-thirsty, and getting in enough water before eating breakfast might prove challenging. I may have to start drinking while I'm getting ready! The lifestyle changes have begun...