This weight loss thing is weird

OK, all last week all I lost was 1 kilo (it was very short Aunt Flow time) and then in the last two days I have lost 1.5 kilo's.

I know having my period can really stuff things up but loosing that much in two days is even odder as I am really starting my third week which with my Dr is soft normal foods.

So for example I had scrambled eggs for breakfast, fresh salmon chunks and fruit for lunch, chicken thigh and fruit for dinner. And I wasnt really hungry until not long before mealtime.

I am dreading Monday though as it is back to work and that is going to be difficult to manage. I know one place I can get lunch from, but otherwise it will have to be taken and I havent really thought about what that will be.

What do others eat for lunch?

Am I torturing myself?

Or just found some motivation to do stuff..

This afternoon DH and his father cut our picture railing to put up (mitring is not my strong suit). And although my MIL bought baking for afternoon tea (she is a fab baker) I decided to make lemon muffins....

(we have a lemon tree which I trimmed this morning so a few had to come off the tree)

I have no idea why, when it's not like I can eat one even. So then I realised DH could take them for his team to thank them for all their support over the last month or so when my Dad was dying and DH had to take time off. So I made two dozen.

In case you like the sound of them...


Crunchy Lemon Muffins

2     cups self raising flour
3/4   cup sugar

75    grams butter
1      cup milk
1      egg
grated rind of 1 large or 2 small lemons

1/4   cup lemon juice
1/4   cup sugar

Mix together flour and sugar into one bowl.
Melt butter, add milk, egg and lemon rind and beat well with fork.
Add liquids to dry ingredients and combine only until dry ingredients are lightly dampened.

Bake at 200 degrees celsius for ten minutes.

Stir together lemon juice and sugar, and drizzle over hot muffins as soon as they are removed from oven. I find it easier to brush it on if they raise conical like above picture.

Makes 6 large or 12 medium muffins

(note that I make my own self raising flour - 2 cups plain flour, 2 teaspoon baking powder, 1 tespoon baking soda, 1/8th of a teaspoon of salt)

Mmmmm scrambled eggs

I am so glad to be able to move on to mushies and just enjoyed scrambled eggs for lunch...nom nom

I spent this morning weeding the garden and tying stuff up and then came inside and watched hubby painting the hallway..and we still feel lazy cos the guy next door is building a new deck - and we know he will have finished it by the end of the weekend (he is incredibly motivated and builds something like this regularly)

Thousand Word Thursday...

well maybe 500 words

..because when I went to find them I could only find one shoe...

I bravely asked hubby to take off the strips...haha

So today was an ok day, I managed to get around a bit and the pain seems to not be as bad


I also took a picture of my stomach after I took my strips off ...

(the red circles are my previous surgery laroscopic scars - the blue circles, this times)

Day 3 post op..or is it 4?

Well it all went pretty smoothly, except the whole getting a cold again the day before the op!

I rang the surgeon the night before and he said just to come in and the anaethetist would make the call. So I as pretty nervous when I turned up as I was also having a bit of asthma too.

They ended up giving a nebuliser for the asthma and when checking my oxygen levels they came up as too low. So they bumped me a place in the list, so they could recheck. I think it was because she was taking my blood pressure, my oxygen levels, my temperature all at the same time and then I coughed hugely at that point!

Luckily when they checked it again about 30 minutes later it was fine, and they checked again on the way to surgery and it was fine too, but it made it really unsure right up to the surgery door!

Most of my pain seems to be where the band is, with some around the port when I stretch. Had a fair amount of gas and had a small amount of shoulder pain but that went pretty quickly, but it was easier than my other abdominal surgery.

So the first day was a breeze, unfortunately then you get to go home and for me all the pain killers (including panadol) seem to give me immediate and overwhelming nausea...which I have meds for, but am only allowed that four times a day...

I also had to go to after hours and get liquid antibiotics as I had the start of a chest infection - it isnt fun coughing up flem newly banded!

Dr there also gave me some codeine to try instead of panadol, but I am terrified  I am gonna end up nauseous, but I have to give it a go as I only have 8 tramadol left which is a days worth!

I am only just managing to get enough liquid down. I just feel out of it still, luckily hubby could work from home today. I am sure I will be better tomorrow. Now if I could just have my vitamins I would be completely on track.

I am a little nervous about taking my incision covers off tomorrow (as per instructions) I wasn nearly as nervous last time I had them off - probably cos we had lots of Dr's visits following the surgery, where as this you are pretty much left alone!

Two days to go..getting excited!

Spoke to the anesthetist tonight. She gave me advice about my asthma (it's been flaring up) and answered some other questions I had.

She said compared to kidney donation I will fly through it. Great to know, cos the donation thing I was 25 kilo's lighter and three years younger.

My weight is coming down slowly and my clothes are getting looser.

On another subject entirely - hubby went to the vet to pick up cat food...and spotted a cat that needs a new home.

I was surprised he didnt arrive home with her  but suspect she may soon have a new home (just call me soft touch). Despite the fact that we shouldnt as we still want to go overseas :) She looks exactly like our other cat and her name is MoMo (yes...like my name)

Day 8 of pre-op diet

Well woke up this morning to less coughing and flem, so looks like the cold is going.

And a nice surprise of a drop to 131.0 ( after two days of gains that was nice).

I realised that because I have a cold as well I just wasnt having enough water so yesterday I had 2.25 litres of water, plus many cups of tea, and some zero cokes. Funnily I was still thirsty when I went to bed so whenever I woke up I made sure I had a few sips of water as well.

I have also learnt:

• zero coke taste terrible straight after eating vegetables
• liquid optifast is great if really really cold - and you can hold out for it to cool down
• optifast cappucino bars are icky (luckily my clinic lets you swop your supplies)
• bacon smells really nice

But just in case I was feeling too much like it was all going the right direction when I rushed out this morning to drop off my voting papers (local elections) I jumped in the car and pulled my back...

I always have trouble after hubby drives - he has short legs so puts the chair really far forward. So if I get in after him I nearly always hurt my back grrr.

My revenge is he is plastering/painting the hallway. He realised last night when I made him take my pics that the hallway needed finishing (it is all stripped back and mostly plastered - he just has to finish off around the lights etc.)

So the good news is

That I have no infection (as I thought) and it is simply a cold and should be gone by next week. The nurse at the clinic was happy with that as long as the dr had actually listened to my chest and sure there wereno other infections.

Down another half kilo or so to 131.2. Thats 5.2 down, so I am all on track for next week.

I can see and feel the difference in my cheeks and my thighs mostly. Can't wait to start loosing after the op as well...and hopefully not feel as hungry!

Why so much stressiness?

Well it's day 5 of pre op diet, apart from two tiny bits of cheese I am pretty much sticking too it. But it definately has slowed down yesterday.

(the cat's pills had to be hidden in cheese hence the reason I was even near it)

This may be because I was off sick and did no moving really at all.

You see I caught a chill on Friday night....unfortunately I now need to call the clinic and find out what I do.

Now normally a chill ends in me on antibiotics for at least a week if not two, (after developing a nasty chest and ear infection), followed sometimes a nebuliser and much ventolin. Not a great pre surgery plan!

But I decided to see my homeopath and got treatment that seems to have really pulled back the scale of the problem. Oh yeah and I took care of myself, keeping warm etc. And today I woke up coughing up only a little flem and snotty, but definately not how I usually am with this thing.

What's the problem I hear you ask?

Well I realised the instructions said to stop taking ALL alternative treatments two weeks before surgery. Ack I have a feeling they are gonna want to postpone.

Oh and I have to take the cat to the vet, he suffers from stress and this causes him to get blocked....poor boy, unfortunately I didnt seem to start his medication early enough to stop it this time so vet time it is.

Well that wasnt very nice...

As today was my first day of pre-op diet I thought I better go in to the clinics office and get myself weighed (I can walk past there during my lunchtime walk) and what do you know...I have actually put on weight!

I kid you not...I went up to 136.4, I gained 2 kilo's in the last two months. Bahhh

I mean mentally I know it was because my life has been in up heaveal for months. But I still thought I had held off gaining any weight.

I know for three weeks there I ate take away's for about two meals a day (my Dad was dying so daily visits were quite long). But then I was pretty good the last two weeks...

Well until last night...my last meal was also my cousins 39th. She had a cake party to celibrate,  so I had banana, cheesecake, rum balls, choc brownies, and a lovely lovely decorated cake from her sis (amazing cake maker!).

So I just went out to drop hubby off at a concert and thought,  "I need to buy a new digital scale", cos the one we have is hard to tell what it is sitting on numbers wise.

I think it is pretty close to the dr's as with jeans on and a meal eaten, I was 136.7, roll on surgery!

Thank you to all my new followers and for their lovely comments! I defintely look forward to the challenges and TRIUMPHS ahead.

Now if I could just stop looking in the fridge...