8 weeks post-op — and onto stage 5

Yesterday marked 8 weeks post-op, and I celebrated by bagging up clothes that are too big. I've already mentioned I'm down one size, and two days this week, people mentioned my clothes look too big. I tried on a shirt I bought at Christmas that was too small then; it fits beautifully now. Today I dropped off the too-big clothes at a donation center. 

Recent non-scale victories: Several days I've eaten all my protein in food and not needed a protein shake. I've joined the gym and am starting tomorrow. I signed up for a yoga class and start Monday. And I'm doing really well off one of my anti-depressants.

For scale victories, I'm down 44 pounds since last July, 28 pounds since surgery. Interestingly, my weight loss actually picked up this week, as I increased my calories. (I hadn't been meeting my minimum recommendation.)

This morning, I headed into Boston for a nutrition class. I was graduated to stage 5, my final and permanent post-op diet stage — not a diet, but a new way of eating, my dietician pointed out. 

I don't have protein or calorie goals right now. For the next four months, I'm to focus on getting three balanced meals a day, and my dietician said calorie totals can vary quite a lot within that. 

My ultimate goal for a meal is 2-4 oz. of (usually lean) protein, 1/2 cup veggies/fruit and 1/4 cup starch, and I still need to eat some healthy fats.
 
I'm looking forward to snacking on almonds, maybe with some cut-up strawberries. And adding half a peeled apple (apple skin could be hard to digest) to my string cheese snack.

But I'm intimidated by the fact that no food is forbidden me. (Certain foods are discouraged — ice cream, calorie-laden drinks, chips, pretzels, etc. — because the focus is on nutrition.) For the past 10 weeks, I've relied on my food guidelines, making choices within their safe boundaries. Suddenly, my choices have exploded, and now I need to rely only on myself — on my knowledge, on my recent good habits, on my strength. That's a scary thought. 

I reframe it in my head, finding the positive. "There's so much room for creativity," I tell myself, and imagine having fun packing my bento lunchbox. It has four compartments, so I could do Greek yogurt with berries and granola, apples slices with peanut butter and half a Wasa cracker, leftover chicken with veggies and rice, string cheese and grape tomatoes. Doesn't that all sound delicious? And nutritious. And there you go. That's my goal: to make food decisions based on nutrition and taste.  

Speaking of which, I started back on caffeinated coffee. Where's the nutritional value, you ask? Good question. Clearly there always will be exceptions. I'm okay with coffee being one of them. (And if you've seen the photo of me with my first sips of real coffee, you'd know I'm very okay with it.)