End of first week back at work

Life is getting back to normal socially and professionally but with my new way of eating this is my second life :) When you worked so hard for a second chance, it's harder to take it for granted and even when I forget every now and then, remembering my little band makes me smile. I am happy :)

I won't lie, first day back at work was agony. I don't think I was ready just yet but it got better every day and by the end of the week I barely felt the incisions hurt when I moved and I had more energy. I think pain makes you tired.

I had soups and little pots of low fat low sugar puddings at work with the odd Slim Fast. I find that I can tolerate them now, maybe it was such a problem when I was having such a huge amount of milk during pre-op diet.

I found drinking enough a bit of a problem this week. I am struggling to keep my liquid intake high enough. Most I managed was 1.7 litres. Weather being rubbish doesn't help and I get full up so quickly, I can't really finish any drink. I should be sipping non stop all day to get enough fluids in and I simply forget to. Checking the colour of my urine every time, it's not dark at all, I think I really didn't need as much liquids?

I find myself getting hungry during the day too. I eat/drink something and I get full easily so it's good but my stomach must be healing well so I take the hunger as a positive thing :)

I was sick and tired of soup this week though so I mixed gravy in and liquidised normal food into thin purees. Really helped. I could barely manage 1/4 of a meal for 1 foods per meal so that's also great. I've treated myself to M&S food a couple of times this week, it was lovely.

I still shower with waterproof plasters on my incisions and remove them immediately after the shower. I'm holding on to the glue like a security blanket. Terrified of getting them infected so I try not to touch them but I feel they are quite scabby and dry on the top now. Looks like they will peel very shortly. Not worried at all about scarring although I feel like one of them might scar a bit. A tiny price to pay for a huge improvement :)

I lost 34 pounds since my consultation day with Dr Super, which was exactly 6 weeks ago, average 5-6 lb a week. This is amazing, I've never managed to stick to a diet this long and lose this much in one go. I dropped one size already and can't wait for more! I was a bit disappointed with my loss after the surgery though - only 4 lb in the last two weeks. I've lost more on the pre-op! I will not worry though, this must be a result of the starvation mode. I'm aiming for 1000 calories a day this week and hopefully it will make a difference.

I'm finding it very inconvenient to exercise, lol. I used to walk to work and back in my pre-op and it helped a lot. 60 min walk in total, great exercise. But now it's dark and miserable and wet and cold... I would be scared to walk back home after work in the dark. Not that it's dodgy or anything it's just really dark, that road can get pitch black at night! I remember once we were walking home from town after a night out with my husband and we almost fell a couple of times - not cos we were drunk but because you couldn't see the pavement!

In the last couple of days, I spent my lunch hour walking around in town. If it's raining then I go to the shopping centre and walk up and down there :) I don't want to sign up for a gym because we're moving in the new year and they contract for a year. There's The Gym Group where they don't require annual contracts but the problem with that is, it's tiny and apparently packed pretty much all the time and you have to wait for your turn on the gym equipment. I don't feel healed enough to hop on the elliptical trainer yet anyway...

I'll sign up for the gym where we'll move in the new year and I'll go back to swimming. The most success I had with dieting and exercising was a few years back when we swam every morning before work with my husband. Sadly now he works in London and he doesn't have time in the mornings and he doesn't have energy in the evenings... And I really don't want to go swimming on my own before I lose another 30 pounds!

Mushies next week, eeek! I'm scared of eating anything that is not a puree... Dr Superman said take it easy and don't rush. I think I'd only have soft food at home to begin with, just in case. Stick to softer stuff at work for another couple of days maybe...

Going back to work successfully done, what's next challenge? Christmas?  :)  xxx

Things are better on 2nd day at work

Yesterday was much better than the first day at work. In the morning I had a training so it was all fun and cool. Afterwards I came home for lunch, had a meatball soup, yummy! Then before I went back to work for another 3-4 hours, I remembered to take a big sip of my baby paracetamol. This time although i still got the back ache nearer the end of the day, it was nowhere near as bad as yesterday.

I had a funny moment today while driving to work after my lunch... I felt so happy suddenly and I burst into tears... Seriously, what's all this soppiness about?! I'm grateful I'm alive and my aches are more manageable and I dropped a dress size - all good stuff :)

Wind built up again and put pressure on my back and chesty before I went to bed so I took some paracetamol and fell into a peaceful sleep... only to be woken up by a soppy cat, purring and licking my face :) It took me a little while to go back to sleep because I noticed my back ached quite a bit but hey I did manage to sleep some more in the end.

Today I'm working from home and realising that my hunger is creeping back in. My swelling must have gone down and I must be healing on the inside. I rang THG and asked when I can have my dietician appointment and my fist fill but they said November dates haven't been released yet so they'll ring me as soon as they are available, pffft. I just want to know when things are to happen. I'm a planner, I'm a project manager, I'm an excel sheet queen, I have to know these things!

This is what I ate yesterday:

07:30 am - Innocent smoothie, pineapples, bananas and coconuts (160ml)
08:00 am - Liquid porridge with 5g Ready Brek, 1/4 banana, 2.5g of sultanas and 75g semi skimmed milk cooked in microwave and blended until smooth
10:00 am - Small soya latte with light Alpro Soya
14:00 pm - Soup made by liquidising a meatball in a cup of hot water and a teaspoon of gravy powder (Bisto roast lamb)
15:30 pm - Tea with a drop of skimmed milk (hald almost half)
16:30 pm - Shape delights velvety chocolate
19:00 pm - Soup made by liquidising a tablespoon of Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Lamb Moussaka in a cup of hot water with a teaspoon of gravy powder (nicked from husband's dinner, it was yummy hehe) (115 cal)
20:00 pm - Petit filous

Water: Only 2 glasses :(

Total calories: 739kcal

Exercise: 20 min slow pace walk - not good, need a min of 30 minutes every day but I had a training session in the morning and had to drive everywhere

First day back at work and my trousers

Yesterday it was my first day back at work. Mentally I was ready for it, partly because I know how hectic everything will get at work in the next couple of weeks and also because I don't want to be the sick person healing at home anymore, I want to throw myself back at normal life and continue the food challenge with the help of my band. So yes, mentally I was more than ready but physically, later in the day I found out, not so much...

I took a shower Sunday night - my first shower after the surgery. My husband washed my hair and I washed my body with a sponge before so I wasn't stinky or anything but an actual shower, oooh it was heavenly! I was worried about soaking my glued incisions as I'd like to keep the glue on them as long as possible as a security blanket so I covered them with little waterproof plasters. Removed them immediately afterwards so they can 'breathe'. Straightened my hair and shaped my eyebrows for the first time after the op, getting ready to go back to professional life :P

There was a few things I was worried about... The bruises on my both hands, getting wind pain and tiredness. I managed to hide my hands in a long sleeved cardi which isn't actually too loose so it doesn't make me look like an emo teenager :P Plus I don't have the hideous haircut or the funny make-up and I hardly looked like a teenager!

 

Wind pain hit me in the afternoon after having my soup and I was indeed very very tired - again, in the afternoon...

I find that after walking for 10 minutes or so, I get a bad back ache. Is this because I try not to use my abdominal muscles I wonder? My back was killing me in the afternoon and I had to take a co-codomol when I got home. It was fine in a few minutes, I didn't care :)

Right, the morning of my first day back at work I had a little surprise. Usually I wear comfy palazzo trousers made of loose jersey fabric with an elasticated waist in the house or out and about. But I have my decent tailored trousers for work. Obviously I haven't worn them in the last 10 days or and when I put them on, they didn't fit! They fell down to my ankles!!! YAY!!! That was an amazing moment! I've been at this size for the last year or so and it's a big thing for me. I have other pairs for 3-4 different sizes in my wardrobe, patiently waiting for the day to be used again so I picked one size down and put it on nervously. Would it be too tight? Would it go up my tree trunks? Oh yes - it was a perfect fit! I rang my husband to give him the news and he was worried, he thought something happened to me on the way to work or something and I said of course something happened to me, this is big news! 

I thought about walking to work but then I changed my mind and drove, just incase I got very tired at work. It was a good call, I did indeed get mega tired in the afternoon. It's a 5 minute walk from the car park to the office but with my current speed, it took me 10 minutes. I went out for a walk at lunch and in total I walked for an hour. 

I wonder if it's the yogurt soup giving me the gas after eating so I made something different for dinner. Husband had a couple of meatballs leftover so I liquidised one with lots of gravy and it tasted divine! Lovely dinner, yum yum yum. I also enjoy Danone shape delights nowadays, they come in dark choc or white choc and they are both lovely. It slides down easily and helps up the calories. It's low fat and only 108 kcal a pot. I had 2 yesterday and an ice lolly which is only 25kcal.

Yesterday I had:

09:30 am - Sainsbury's smoothie (banana, pineapple and coconut)

11:00 am - Cup of tea with a drop of skimmed milk (managed 1/4 mug)

14:00 pm - Yogurt soup (200ml)

16:00 pm - Shape delights velvety chocolate

17:00 pm - Coffee with soya milk (managed 1/2 mug)

19:00 pm - Soup made by liquidising a meatball in a teaspoon of gravy powder and hot water

20:00 pm - Shape delights white choc

21:00 pm - Ice lolly

Total 580kcal

All pain aside, good to be back at work :) x