Since my last bruhaha Friday night, we've been out to eat two more times. Saturday night a large group of us gathered before a charity boxing event sponsored by an organization where CME is on the Board of Directors. CME and I split an order of BBQ cheese fries and I had some onion straws. Splitting an order was plenty of food for me... I did concentrate on not eating too much and stopped eating before I felt full. Funny how I can be satisfied even hours later when I do that. Yesterday my in-laws were in town as they were in route during their move across the country. We went to The Gerst Haus, a local German restaurant in town. If you know much about German cooking, it's not diet-friendly. I first thought about getting a tomato stuffed with chicken salad. But I wound up ordering the Hungarian Chicken Paprika. I've had it before and knew it was ginormous! But CME reminded me that 1) I didn't have to eat it all and 2) he could always take leftovers to work today. I passed on sharing the potato pancakes that were ordered - figured I'd have plenty on my own plate. And I was right. But so was CME! He had lots of leftovers for work today.
Tonight, I decided to buy a few more items - some things that aren't sweet - to start sampling and preparing myself for surgery. My cart looked like this:
Minute Maid "Just 15 Calories" Peach flavored fruit drink. I'm going to send the info on this to RD to get her opinion on if this would work post-surgery. But I thought for tomorrow I'll try it with the Nectar Fuzzy Navel protein powder. Might be a really good "sip on all day" type drink. Here's the skinny on the nutritional info: Serving size: 8 fl oz. Calories 15, Total Fat 0, Sodium: 15mg, Total Carbs 4g, Sugars 3g, Protein 0g. Here's where I'm not certain... Ingredients: Contains pure filtered water, apple and peach juices from concentrate, less than 1.5% of: natural flavors, citric acid, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, acesulfame, potassium.
Light Silk Soy Milk. I've had the vanilla Silk, but like I said I want to start trying some things that aren't sweet. One website recommends using the chicken flavor Unjury protein powder to warmed milk for a cream of chicken style soup. I looked at the nutritional info between the Soy Milk and Skim Milk and here's what I found: Soy Milk has 30 less calories, 1.5g more fat (still only at 2%), 5mg less cholesterol, 5 mg less sodium, 7g less total carbs (skim milk has 12g sugars while soy has 4g), but 2g less protein. If the taste is good mixed with thinks like the chicken protein powder and instant mashed potatoes, then I think I'll probably stick with the soy. Calories and sugars are less and I can pick up the extra 2g of protein another place.
Oikos Classic Greek Yogurt (plain). To be honest, I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do with this. I may add chicken flavored protein to it...just to try it... or mabye I'll add some lemon juice and use it like sour cream. I still need to see the multiple uses for this stuff, but it's loaded with protein (23g/serving) and has 0g fat and 9g sugars. I've been told it should be a staple (though to be honest I can't remember who told me or why...may need to refer back to my notes in the Education Manual). So we'll see what I do with it.
Orange and Lemonade flavored Wal-mart brand drink packets (Crystal Light-esque). Already have plans to add vanilla to the orange for a dreamsicle effect and then add strawberry to the lemonade. I can sip on protein all day long that way. I'm wondering how these will do if they're room temperature and not cold. Guess I'll find out.
Soups: Healthy Request Tomato, Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic, Beefy Mushroom and Broccoli Cheddar. All of these are well within the nutritional guidelines for post-op phases. The Healthy Request Tomato surprised me because it has 10g sugar which is the top amount of the recommended amount. My thoughts with these are things like mixing the unflavored protein with these, or mixing a soup with the canned chicken (or tuna) that I'll have during the pureed stage. I need to try these now so I'm not totally freaked out when the time comes.
I'm thinking more and more about the dramatic change of life that this is going to be for me...and for my family. The next two weeks are going to fly by. Appointments, planning, preparing - and throw in a baby shower for my first grandbaby! Yes, it's going to be busy.
If you're the praying type, will you keep me in your prayers? Heck, even if you're not, will you take time and pray for me anyway??? Pray that I remain full of grace for my family...and coworkers. I've begun to notice that little things are really making me emotional and edgy; things like my almost-13-year-old joking about how I won't have any peach juice to worry about because he'll drink it all. To which I quickly SNAPPED that he's not to touch my drink. My drink? Really? I've become possessive of juice? Yes, I have. (You'd have to watch how quickly juice disappears in this house thanks to that child to fully understand.) I have since apologized and tried to explain that my nerves are a bit frayed at the moment - and that it might even get worse. I don't want to become consumed by these "new" foods either. That can't be any more healthy than letting food consume my thoughts over the past 40+ years. So pray that I consult God before responding to anything. That I truly am letting Him control this journey (daily) and not trying to do it by myself.
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"I praise you [God] because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." ~Psalm 139:14
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