constipation

Reading Rainbow

A few of us over at MySlimband.com were asking our Slimband dietician Arlene, for some recs and advice on healthy bandster-friendly full food meal plans. I was so pleased with her rec that I had to share it here!

Her rec was Clean Eating Magazine and their monthly meal plans of 14-30 days included in each issue. There are meal plans, recipes, shopping lists and plenty of advice on how to live a healthier, cleaner life. They’ve also got mini meal plans that are available for downloading and printing on their website.

The main philosophy behind Clean Eating Mag is to consume foods in as close to their natural state as possible and to steer clear of man-made and processed foods.

It’s very similar to The BodyDoctor philosophy so I know from experience it’s a pretty great way of life.

Clean eating definitely helped my IBS last time I tried it so I’m looking forward to trying it again. It should probably help with the second traffic jam I’ve been experiencing too. Sadly, Slimband bandsters can only use Senokot and we’ve gotta crush it up. WORST. TASTE. EVER. So, I’m struggling a bit.

That being said, I shall indeed be testing out some of the delicious dishes Clean Eating has on offer as soon as possible after I move on to the food stage.

NOTE: Slimband doesn’t officially endorse this magazine. It was just a rec from Arlene. BUT I certainly do! I picked it up today and it’s fantastic!

Soup-er Happy

Wow, what an improvement today has been! Today is Day 6 and officially the day I move on to ‘full liquids’. Full liquids includes things like strained soups, smoothies and my beloved coffee. In other words, I’m allowed to consume cuisine with flavour.

So, in celebration of reaching the next stage in this edible adventure I went to Sobey’s and picked up all the ingredients I needed to make the four smoothie recipes and both of the soups provided in my Slimband aftercare binder plus one more I got from the good people and BBC Good Food.

I spent the afternoon remembering the joy of cooking with my Gam and made each and every recipe. They were absolutely AMAZING!! I honestly had no idea how happy eating (drinking) soup could make me. And the smoothies are a such a treat I can’t believe they’re good for me. I’d like to publish one or two here but I’m pretty sure I’m not allowed.

I also picked up a small tub of Half the Fat Coffee Haagen-Dazs.

I know, I should’t be eating it and it goes against everything I’m doing. But I learned that lesson when I could only eat 3 teaspoons of it before I was full. Now I know better. I’m sure I’ll try pushing the boundaries again but not for a while.

On the health side of things, I didn’t eat much throughout the day nor did I drink nearly enough water. I could only get down about 3/4 cup of two of the soups. I was full very quickly but I definitely felt satisfied. In fact, I still do so that’s a good sign. And as a result of the new additions to my seasonal menu, my traffic jam has also cleared up. Yay!

The only negative health issue was how very weak I was all day. Today was my first day out of the house since my surgery and my muscles have been depleting so I had very little strength whilst walking around. And even less trying to move around the kitchen like normal. I actually had to sit on a chair while doing the prep for most of the recipes. My back, stomach and arms just couldn’t take it standing up. But I managed and I’m glad I did.

It’s a pretty strange feeling to need help to lift what are usually the simplest things. I’ve always been the strong one of all my friends and family but today my grandmother had to load the bags in the car cause I almost fainted. AND she had to bring them in the house and unpack them. Not normal. But I’m sure that will improve with my tasty new additions.

So, my future doesn’t feel so bleak anymore. I’m happy to be back to living a semi-normal existence. Seriously, words can’t describe the relief I’m feeling. If I was a church going girl I’d be thanking the big man upstairs for getting me this far. Since I’m not, I’ll just thank all my loved ones for their support and for hanging in there with me. It’s a big help!

PS: Since I had my surgery I’m down an astounding 6 lbs…this makes a total of 12 lbs in two weeks. Shocking but pleasing.

Getting Better

Well, today was a much better day than yesterday. I woke up with a little more pep in my step and am feeling pretty fine. Slept through the night with the help of my good friend demerol and only had a tiny bit of gas pain. Even managed to roll over to my side for a short 10 minutes rest.

Had a nice chat with Aftercare Coordinator Michelle from Slimband today. I’ve been having some post-op issues that I just wanted to ask her about. The first is my exceedingly dark pee first thing in the morning. It’s fine throughout the day but seriously this stuff is florescent orange. In this past this would only happen when I’m super dehydrated but apparently this is normal.

I’ve also got some serious itching/stinging going on in my top incision. This little effer is the source of some great discomfort over the other three. Apparently since this is also normal I can look forward to this sensation sticking around for the next week or so. I seriously don’t know how I’m ever going to get a bra on.

Finally, and this is a bit of an overshare, but I’ve got a bit of a traffic jam going on in my rear garage. I seriously haven’t been to the bathroom properly in nearly 10 days. Since I’m an IBS sufferer I have experienced similar congestion but I was concerned so I asked the dear Michelle and this is also normal. Traffic should be speeding through in the next couple of days. Lucky me.

So, after my tantrum yesterday I decided to do some exploring for foods I’ll be able to get down once I’m through with the liquid/full liquid diet. I spent most of today on a an utterly fabulous website called TasteBook.com.

It’s a website that uses a search aggregator to search across popular recipe sites using one search box. You can also upload your own recipes to the site. The coolest part is that you can bookmark all of your favourite recipes then have them printed in your own personal cookbook! I just love it for gifts or for taking all of the recipes I’ve collected over the years and finally getting them bound into one beautifully printed book with MY name on it.

Since I can’t eat anything right now, I can spend some time putting together a collection of recipes for foods I CAN eat. Then I’ll always have them on hand. I guess food can still be fun after all.