Back to the Grind

As you may have noticed, I've been kind of sucking at blogging regularly.  This is not due to a lack of interest, but more due to a lack of time and energy.  I went back to work 2 weeks ago and its been kicking my butt a little.  I'm making it thru the workdays okay, but I'm pooped at night.  I do collapsing into bed really well.

In two days, I will be 4 weeks out of surgery.  My incisions are all well healed, and I have no real pain, except when I attempt to eat or drink too much or too fast.  I'm eating soft foods now. This is a huge improvement over the pureed ick I was eating in the very beginning.  I've only lost about 19lbs.  I'm kind of disappointed in that.

My struggles right now lie in getting in my 60-90g of protein and 64oz of water each day while at work.  I don't work a desk job. I'm active and busy, and it takes a lot of planning to make it all work.  I went to my first pre-op appointment last week and the doctor said I was starving myself.  He said to bump up my calories and protein..  I have been averaging about 500 calories a day.  My weight loss has completely stalled. He urged me to eat every 2 hours.  Sounds great, except with the restrictions around drinking water before and after meals, it makes this virtually impossible.  When I told him that this schedule was an impossible full-time job in itself, his response was "screw it, eat, drink whenever you can...even at the same time, forget the restrictions".  So that helped a lot.  I'm still drinking two protein shakes a day to make up for my inability to shove food down my throat. Never in my life have I had to fight for more calories, it's total weirdness.

The doctor also told me that I'm becoming anemic.  I've never been anemic before in my life. I pride myself in being an wild carnivore. Now I have to take a chewable iron supplement that tastes like a dogs ass every day.  This wouldn't be so bad, but the other shitload of vitamins I'm taking make me feel like I'm going to hurl for an hour after I take them every day.  I haven't found an answer to the hurl feeling yet.  I'm just sucking it up and being queasy every day. 

On a brighter note, I discovered that Costco is the shit! I mean seriously, they have so much food there that is friendly for protein freaks like me! I went there over the weekend and totally scored. I'm already a big fan of the Premier Protein Shakes (Chocolate) that they sell, but here is a list of other delicious morsels I found:

Aidell's Chicken Meatballs (Teriyaki and Pineapple flavored)... these are how I know God exists.
Foster Farms chicken Patties
Turkey Burgers
Babybel Cheese ... 5g of protein in one of these little nuggets!
Individually wrapped boneless skinless chicken breasts
Rosarita Refried Beans
Aidells Pineapple Sausages (they taste like ham with pineapple...YUM)
Fage Yogurt
Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
Premier Protein Bars

So if you're jonesing for protein, Costco is your fix!

I'm off to go eat...all four bites of something.