Jenn.nu » food

Eating can be such a pain

Jenn — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 04:50:46 +0000

When you’re post-op gastric bypass, anyway. When I think about what I’m going to have for a meal, whether it’s at home or at a restaurant, I process the food choices by running through the following criteria:

How much protein is in it?
How much of it would I have to eat in order to get at least 10g of protein out of it? ¹
Can my stomach pouch tolerate it? ²
Will it cause any other issues? ³

Many of the popular protein shakes, for instance, promise to deliver “high protein”. And they do… but they also deliver that protein in anywhere from 10oz to 20oz of liquid. It will take me two hours or more, literally, to consume that much liquid. Picture one of those little bathroom dixie cups, you know, the ones that hold 2-3oz of water? If I drink one of those full cups in one gulp I will more likely than not throw it up, because it’s just too much liquid for my pouch to handle at once.

I purchase super-expensive protein shake powder from Bariatric Eating, but the stuff is worth it because just one scoop offers 15g-20g of protein, and you only need four ounces of liquid (water or milk; I usually use milk since it’s creamier, and it alone offers 1g of protein per ounce) to mix up a shake. Lately I have been forcing myself to work protein bars into my day, though again, the standard ones on the market are way too thick, chewy and just too big for it to be really worth the hassle. So again, hello pricey bariatric-oriented supplements. And again, it’s worth it. Also worth it? Beef/ostrich jerky. I know that sounds pretty gnarly, but it’s not bad tasting, though its relative “smoothness” compared to traditional beef jerky can be initially off-putting. Also? One stuck serves up 15g of protein, and I can polish off one stick in an hour or so. Sweet!

Welcome to my daily life, where something as “natural” as eating can be a bit of a production. Weighing foods, trying to make the right choices, having really good days, having the occasional really bad day (and paying for it by generally feeling like absolute shit all day long), and the good/average days in between.

(This entry brought to you by the yogurt I finally finished eating. It took me an hour to eat something I’m not totally crazy about, and it only offered 6g worth of protein? Pfft. I’m crossing that one off the list!)

Ideally I should take in 60g-80g each day ↩
On the no-no list: pasta, rice, bread, ground beef in most forms, chicken some of the time, shrimp a lot of the time ↩
Sugar = dumping; too much cheese = bowel issues; etc. ↩

Thank you for subscribing to Jenn.nu's RSS feed! ♥ Jenn | Flickr: kiss-my-kitty | Twitter: @kissmykitty

Deficiency

Jenn — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 15:09:25 +0000

I’m starting to sleep a lot again, and my hair is once again coming out several strands at a time, which means that I’m slacking in the protein department. I know I am, now that I sit and think about it. But at the same time, when eating isn’t a priority to begin with (because the urge/desire is rarely there), it’s easy to forget about it entirely when you’re busy trying to squeeze 30+ hours worth of work & family time & household chore time into an 16-18 hour day. *sigh* To be honest, I have eaten like total crap for the past few weeks, and that needs to change. I like having energy and hair, dammit.

So I’m going to try my best to start off each day with a bowl of protein-laden cereal, or a protein shake. I even set up a food log in Google Docs to help me keep track of my food/protein consumption. I had a spreadsheet on my computer before, but it was a pain to use and keep updated because there wasn’t a way for me to sync it between my two computers. At least with the food log being in Google Docs I’ll be able to access it from any computer I might happen to be on.
Right now I have six ounces worth of it + three ounces of milk, which amounts to 57 grams of protein, provided I can get it all down and keep it all down. If I can, 57 grams of protein is a kick-ass start to the day, since my daily goal is 60 — the ideal goal being 80.

I finally have jenn.nu’s new layout up, which you should be able to see (if not, clear your cache). It’s been a work-in-progress for over a week now. Long gone are the days of throwing up a new layout every week, or even every month. Hah. Now I’m doing good to get a new one going every 2-3 months! I really should do like Dooce and some of the other “big” bloggers, and use the same layout all of the time, and just change the header images, fonts and colors as desired. But I get bored with the same thing, which is why I switch around with two column and three column layouts, large header areas and then large footer areas, etc.

Right now I have cereal to eat, this blog entry to finish, and then tons of email to get through, followed by tons of blogging. Most of my week is dedicated to Eden Fantasys and SEOwhat, and on the weekends I tackle everything else — paid blogging, paid tweets, private blogging for other clients, etc. Whew! It’s a hectic schedule, but it mostly works!

Thank you for subscribing to Jenn.nu's RSS feed! ♥ Jenn | Flickr: kiss-my-kitty | Twitter: @kissmykitty

My fat is showing

Jenn — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 02:43:48 +0000

This is one of the very few times I’ve showcased actual food on my blog and on Flickr, because, c’mon, a fat chick talking about food? You don’t say! But tell me those nachos don’t look heavenly and you don’t want to dive right in! I get tired of bringing three quarters of my food home with me, and re-heated food never tastes the same as when it was first made… so I’m getting more creative and more frugal by making my own spiffy dishes, instead of running out to a restaurant (or in this case, a Taco Bell drive-thru) for them.

Best of all? I can create my own portions! Those nachos were made on a saucer plate, which is the size of dish I eat off these days. They’re Jenn sized! ♥

P.S. You can find the recipe here!

Thank you for subscribing to Jenn.nu's RSS feed! ♥ Jenn | Flickr: kiss-my-kitty | Twitter: @kissmykitty

I like soup

Jenn — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:51:11 +0000

You’re looking at one of the best soups I have ever tried. And luckily for me, my friend Jason made it, so I have at least six meals worth of it stored in my fridge. It’s a creamy tomato soup with a block of pepperjack cheese thrown in. It’s also made with cream cheese, which means even more cheesy (and protein) goodness for me! This stuff is heavenly. And soup always stays down for me (I guess it’s harder for air to make its way into dense liquids), so that’s a nice little bonus.

In other news, I took down all of the Christmas tree decorations and general Christmas decor this evening, and Dan hauled the tree outside tonight. I had a vacuum bag worth of pine needles to sweep up, and probably another half-bag worth to vacuum up, but I’m sure I missed several thousand or so, and so they’ll be turning up randomly throughout the year. Goodbye Christmas… now I’m getting excited for Valentine’s Day! ♥

Thank you for subscribing to Jenn.nu's RSS feed! ♥ Jenn | Flickr: kiss-my-kitty | Twitter: @kissmykitty

Shower, laundry and litter! Oh my!

Jenn — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:05:14 +0000

Today was a much better day. Saturday was the roughest, Sunday had its up and downs, but today was pretty much okay. I think what helped is actually taking my pain medication during the day. I don’t like being drowsy and sleepy throughout the day, because then I’m not able to sleep at night, so over the weekend I was taking a full dose in the morning (around 11:00am), and another full dose at night (around 11:00pm)… and that’s it. Yeah, not such a good idea. So today I got up, showered, sat down in the living room because I felt dizzy and a bit weak, and had breakfast (chocolate shake, blech) and a half dose of Vicodin. It was enough to take away the pain and relax me without actually knocking me out. I felt so good, in fact, that about an hour after that I put away some of the kids’ laundry and scooped cat litter.
I took another dose of Vicodin around 6:00pm, but I accidentally took a 3/4 dose instead of a half dose. That extra one fourth worth of Vicodin had me feeling dizzy and lightheaded, but not quite drowsy. I went and laid down around 7:30pm and didn’t get back out of bed until about a half hour ago. I dozed a bit here and there, but I mostly watched House, Trauma and a bit of Jay Leno.

I went out to the grocery store this evening. Fun times. I was just so damn sick of plain chicken soup broth and chicken stock that I begged Dan to take me to the grocery store. I picked out several chunkier and more flavorful soups whose broths are bound to pack some more taste than what I’ve been getting. And I wasn’t disappointed… minestrone soup broth was AWESOME!

Have I mentioned that I am counting down the days until Thanksgiving? I am so over this shake and soup broth crap. Now that I’m home and feeling a bit better my hunger has returned. Spaghetti, fried chicken and French fries have all smelled mouth-wateringly good. Yet the sugar cookies I made with Alyssa this afternoon (and let her and Ryan decorate with leaf and pumpkin sprinkles) smelled and tasted (I put a dot-sized amount on my tongue just for a taste, because I was curious about many post-op patients saying that sweet things taste off and unappetizing — looks like they were right!) off.
Oh, and food commercials? EVIL. I have never craved Subway subs, Applebee’s appetizers, Pizza Hut’s pasta and Domino’s pizza like I am now! Heh. I can start to slowly re-introduce normal foods in weeks 5 and 6 (Christmas and New Year’s!), and man oh man I cannot WAIT.

Okay, enough of my food babbling. This must seriously be the largest amount of text I have ever devoted to food. So yes, enough. Right now I’m relaxing in the living room. Blanket over my lap and legs, dog nestled on the arm of the recliner and my left thigh, laptop conveniently positioned in front of me thanks to a Tablemate tray, no pain or twinges unless I move, starting to feel sleepy, down 12 lbs. since surgery last Wednesday… Life is good!

Thank you for subscribing to Jenn.nu's RSS feed! ♥ Jenn | Flickr: kiss-my-kitty | Twitter: @kissmykitty