Reintroductions and a Big Thanks to the O.G. LBG!

Hello everyone! First off, I'd like to give a quick shout out to Lap Band Gal for telling her followers about my blog. In my mind, Lap Band Gal is the O.G. of the lap band blogging world. When I first began my journey, her blog was one of the first ones I found and I read every single post going back to the beginning. She is an inspiration for sure. I learned more from reading her blog than from just about any other source out there. And LBG...on a clothing note...you need to go GET those size 6 skinny jeans from yesterday's post. Am I right, ladies? :)

So let me reintroduce myself. My name is Julie, I live right outside of Little Rock, Arkansas, and I'll be 41 this September. I was banded on June 7th of this year. My surgery experience was relatively easy, luckily. I have four incisions that have healed up pretty nicely, although I'm about to start using a little bit of Mederma. Or Bio Oil? What is best, do you think?  The only complication I really experienced was severe nausea. For some reason I wasn't expecting that, but it went away after about the fourth day. I was prescribed some transdermal creams for nausea and they simply didn't work for me. Nothing like good old Phenergan. I haven't had my first fill yet, so right now I'm operating on no restriction and willpower. Let me rephrase that...I do think I have some restriction, because otherwise 850 calories a day would feel like torture. And it hasn't. So maybe that 1 cc of fluid in my band is doing more than I think. I go for my first fill on Wednesday, July 24th.

As most of us have learned pretty quickly, every surgeon has their own set of rules, calorie requirements, etc. As per Dr. Wellborn's rules, I got to start soft foods on post op day 15. That is the day I began this blog. The fabulous dietitian at my clinic gave me two main goals: to keep my calories between 850 and 1000, and to get in 60 to 80 g of protein each day. So this is my disclaimer: Please keep in mind that every surgeon's rules and requirements are different. This blog is to discuss my individual experience and to share what I'm eating. And if anyone finds inspiration from it...so much the better! I am a total blogging novice. It is embarrassing how long it took me to figure out how to add the gadgets to the side! If anybody can tell me how to add a weight loss ticker, feel free to chime on in.

So let me catch you up on what I've been doing the past few days. This weekend was unusual for me because I was gone from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon. Me and three of my best friends went to see the Beyoncé concert in Dallas. What can I even say about Queen Bey? It was Fierceness on a whole other level. We are talking 11 costume changes, people. We waited pretty late to get our seats, so we weren't expecting them to be great, but they WERE! We were thrilled when we got there and we saw how close to the stage we were. And there was no one in front of us. Just a waist high glass partition.

 

 

My friends and I...breathless with anticipation. :)

 

 

This was also my first experience with eating outside the home for several meals at a time. I relied on my standard Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets, chicken soft tacos, and breakfasts of eggs, fruit and toast. I feel like I navigated the waters pretty well. There was also a strawberry cupcake from Sprinkles. They are my absolute favorite in the entire world and Dallas is the closest place to get one.

 

 

Honestly it was so sweet I could barely finish it. And how the sugar made me feel later was not worth it at all. I think this was a pretty good lesson to learn so early on in my journey.

Since being back home, I have gotten right back into the groove. Monday, Tuesday, and today I had my normal breakfast of eggs and fresh mozzarella. Lunch has been a hard boiled egg, red pepper hummus, and one of those delicious Johnsonville 50% less fat Turkey sausages. I bought these for the Fourth of July, and I'm really glad I did. They are quite tasty and have a decent amount of protein. I like to eat them plain with a little bit of coarse ground mustard.

Tonight I am meeting my friend Jordan at Chili's for dinner. And can I just say how great my friends have been about letting me pick the dinner places? They are so supportive. We don't have a ton of choices in my town, but we do have Chili's. That Mango Tilapia I had last week was good, y'all. I think I'll order that again.  I still think they are overestimating it at 430 calories, but I will go with it.

 

And my totals for the day.

 

 

Welcome to new readers and thanks for being here!