Vacations Post Banding....

Wow! I stopped really eating on July 14th while in Jamaica (really the travel day home) on a family vacation. Was on the pre-op diet of liquids and then surgery on the 20th of July. Happily I was not really eating anything much at all until a day before going on another vacation on July 31st. I really planned it out, so I thought, but I am going to admit in the next few sentences all the bad things that I tried to get into my (what I am believing is an empty-lapband restricted stomach...). Fluids are still crazy hard unless they are warm (I am used to slamming back 16oz of water in a gulp, now=bad!!) I wish I had actually learned how to eat slow before I stopped eating! I had my hiatal hernia repaired when I was banded, so on Thursday at my first follow up appointment I have questions!!!! Like: why I can't burp without doubling over, why do I have a pain in my upper back when swallowing, what on earth caused a crazy rash ALL over my stomach and other things....

Things I wish I hadn't tried to eat so soon: (I am really hoping that confessing this will make me feel better and that someone else will tell me that they too tried some of these things with poor results..)
1. French fry (if you have ever been in Canada and sat next to someone eating poutine - fries with gravy and melted cheese curd you know this was impossible not to try) RESULT - POOR, actually it never went down... lucky when it refused, I was close to the toilet.
2. Taco meat - taco sauce and melted cheese with sour cream. RESULT - GOOD (at first.... bad heartburn later)
3. Margarita - RESULT - GOOD (first cold thing I got down without a problem, oh, but 2 sips in and I was hammered!!
4. Fresh bread from oven - RESULT - BAD, BAD, BAD! I think I still have it stuck in there somewhere even though I shouldn't even be really restricted.... I might still sometime stick a piece in my mouth and chew it up for the taste and spit it out, GAWD!! Is there anything as good as fresh bread??!! Now I am worried, that sounded like a really un-wise thing to even think...
5. Pasta Bake..... - RESULT - OK (mushy pasta really isn't that appetizing, but man I ate a LOT of it, heartburn was back soon after.
Okay, those were the bad things, probably a fair amount of other bites, nibbles and licks. I am going to start keeping a journal like I did when I was on WW. Maybe that will help me....

Good things that happened on vacation that had absolutely NOTHING to do with food:
1. I accepted the many compliments I got on my weight loss from my vacation buddies who only see me once a year at the cottage! I said, "Thank you, that is very kind, I am working very hard at it". I didn't share my surgery with any of them.
2. I wore a bathing suit out in public, the beach, on the boat, and sitting on the deck without a cover-up.
3. I tried to walk everyday at least for 30 min.
4. I took a nap when I needed a rest.
5. I laughed a lot with my friends and didn't have 1 fight with the kids!!
6. I launched and loaded my boat without any help and without swearing.
7. I didn't look at work or home e-mail/v-mail all week!


Oh, and I didn't freak out when I gained a pound this week...., well not too much.... :-)

Ames x

"Life is tough, get a helmet."