A Cynful Journey

Yesterday was a busy and slightly overwhelming day.  I had my initial consultation for weight loss surgery with my medical group!

My consultation consisted of an initial visit with a dietician, a visit with a bariatric surgeon, and a psychologist. My appointment began around 12:30am and I didn’t leave the hospital until around 5!

I’m going to break this into a couple little posts, mainly because there was SO much information that got covered!

The dietician appointment started with her asking me to take her through my average day. This caused me to give a tiny chuckle because there is no such thing as an “average day” as a startup owner. There is so much variance in my day to day! Some days I am up early-isn, some days I sleep in until almost noon (usually because I was up until really late). Some days breakfast is some waffles, others it’s a cliff bar and a yogurt, other days it’s a full blown BIG breakfast at some diner or we just order lunch in the office. Also, coffee… always coffee!

Usually I end up eating something a little bit after waking up and dinner. Oftentimes, dinner is late and take-out. Other times I call upon my handy dandy Crockpot… or my beloved cereal. Usually I snack and graze in-between, though not healthy snacking… lately it has been chips, mini-snickers or pretty much anything in the office…and more coffee!

Oh, and the one thing is probably the most consistent in my diet is Polar Seltzer water. Growing up on the west coast, I had no idea what this mystical drink was…. and then I moved to the East Coast. The big turning point came when I moved in with my girlfriend… she always had some around. There are so many flavors and it’s just water.. Orange Vanilla, Vanilla Pear, Granny Smith Apple, Pomegranate, Ruby Red Grapefruit, Cranberry Lime… I could go on. I don’t know how I lived without it.

That picture above lasted us about a week. Polar and Pellegrino are my main water sources. So imagine how my heart broke when one of the first things the dietician said to me was that I couldn’t have any carbonated drinks… not soda (that’s okay!) or water! Post-op your stomach is so small that drinking anything carbonated will make you feel incredibly uncomfortable and possibly hinder you from getting all the nutrients you need. I felt my heart break a little as she said this to me, especially as I had a bottle in my purse at the moment (I accidentally pulled it out and took a sip while I was with the surgeon and she just said, “So, that’s the last one of those bottles you’ll be having, right?”… twist the knife a little deeper, why don’t ya!!!)

Basically, my diet was total and complete shit (my words, not hers) and needs to change (her words, not mine… though I agree).

I need to make sure that I am getting enough protein, since that is very important post-op. There is a lot more to it, but basically, there are a lot of foods I need to cut back on or cut out, and a lot of foods I need to incorporate. I think a lot of meal planning is going to have to happen in order to make this work, which sounds like a good first step!

I will talk more about some of the little and not so little changes I will be making to my diet over time (for example, today I had oatmeal for breakfast instead of waffles).

I get to see the dietician again in about a month!