Diet Days

I've missed a couple days of blogging about the diet. I didn't think you'd want to hear what I was eating every day. So I'll spare you :)

Basically I've been eating brown rice cream every morning for breakfast. A banana for snack around 11. And then I try to eat lunch around 1 or 2 however, working a busy lunch shift doesn't always allow that to happen. Those are the days I am extremely hungry by the time I get off work. And those are the days we usually fall off the wagon. Well technically eating at Chipolte isn't falling off the wagon but it is off the budget wagon.

Yesterday was one of those falling off days. I was so hungry and we were at the depot getting stuff for the house and ended up at my favorite wing place having wings. They were so yummy but I felt the effects later that evening. So I'm being a little better except for the samoa's I had, because they were starring at me as I opened the freezer. Cart will be working on eating those.

Do you wonder what this diet has done for my weight in the last week? Well before my surgery I weighed in at 189 at the doctors office. Yesterday before I showered I weighed in at 179. So 10lbs as come off since that visit. I think that visit was 3 weeks ago. But most of the weight happened to come off last week. So that is motivation to keep going.

Today we made Carob Crispy Crunch (say that 3 times fast) and Carob Chip Cookies. We have both good and bad here. Carob Crispy Crunch is awesome. It's like chocolate flavored rice crispie treats (except they stay in the fridge). The Carob Chip Cookies I think are gross. It called for brown rice flour and it was way to grainy for my liking. Cart actually liked them so those are his treats this week. I'll post the recipe for the Carob Crispy Crunch if any of you would like a tasty healthy treat.

Tonight we are making homemade chipolte salsa. I'm really hoping this comes out good because we bought chips that I can eat at the store and I'm in the mood for yummy chips and salsa.

Diet Day Three

Day three went much better than the second day. It was easier too.

Breakfast was the norm of Brown rice Cream but I cooked it right this time :) and I mixed with a little brown sugar and pure maple sugar. I also had a banana.

Lunch was a big yummy salad.

Dinner was really yummy. We had Baked Honey Mustard Chicken, green beans and brown rice. With the recipe I used Light Agave Nectar in place of the Honey. Next time I'll cut down on the basil. It was a little over powering for me.

After dinner while Cart ate chocolate ice cream in front of me (he's still being bad), I ate watermelon.

It's been one week since surgery and I'm almost back to normal. But I still have to return to work today. My lower incision is really giving me trouble and the bandaids I've put on have given me so sort of rash that itches. It's very wierd but the incision it self looks okay. Life returns to normal today hopefully it will be uneventful.

Diet Day Two

Today was not so great as yesterday. I took those two steps back.

First, I did way too much yesterday. I was feeling pretty good yesterday so besides cooking for the week, getting snacks prepared etc. I did 4 loads of laundry plus sheets and towels. So lots of time on my feet. I started running a fever, bleeding and cramping by the end of the night. So I spent the rest of the evening on the couch.

This morning I woke up with horrid cramps and heavy bleeding. I was concerned with this as my doctor said I might experience some light bleeding. So I phoned the on call service and the nurse assured me it was normal and to rest and drink plenty of fluids. So that is what I did today.

So breakfast didn't happen because when I woke up about 1015 it was pretty much almost lunch time so I didn't eat breakfast. For lunch we ordered from Chipolte because they use natural ingredients and I can eat there :) So I had a chicken salad with blk bns and tomatoes. It was yummy. Dinner is where I fell. I begged Cart to get me a Frosty from Wendy's cause apparently I was in need of chocolate. After lots of begging and I'm sure whining he got me a McFlurry from the big M and also Stouffers french bread pizza. I ate the flurry first and only made it through half of the pizza before I felt sick. Obviously it was a mistake.

So tomorrow I plan to do better. I will eat breakfast and I will have a salad for lunch and we will make Southwest Chicken for dinner. This I am planning. Apparently I need a plan to keep on track so each night I will try to make a plan for the next day. This will go not only for appts and such but for my meals.

I did make a revelation...AF type bleeding=hormone drop=hot flashes=cravings for sugar/junk. I'll be discussing this in therapy tomorrow because I need to figure out how to keep the cravings at bay.

Diet Day One

Today was day one of the endo-diet. It wasn't that bad. Here's what I had:

Breakfast: Brown-Rice Cereal with fresh banana puree mixed in and water. This was very filling and I didn't get hungry for a snack or anything. This will be breakfast for the rest of the week as well.

Lunch: was a slice of the chicken loaf we made and I wasn't really hungry for that either.

Snack: I had a few pieces of watermelon

Dinner: Ginger Glazed Mahi-Mahi , broccoli (I put the glaze on my broccoli too) and baked potato plain.

I had a little more energy today than normal (it could just be stir crazy from being on the couch for days). But I do have a horrid headache that is probably from lack of caffeine.

Ouch that hurt

The bank account.

Cart and I went to the All Natural Market tonight. Let me just say that trip was overwhelming in and of it self. I was almost to tears when we left. We had a shopping list planned out and decided we'd do 2 weeks of shopping instead of the usual 1. Typically at the normal grocery store we budget $75 a week for the two of us. Normall we don't spend that much but about every 2-3 months we'd get about $100 in meat from the local butcher. So how much did we spend tonight....

over $200! yup you read that right. Cart's initial guess was $300 and we were sorta close to that.

I'm latching onto this healthy eating. It is good for me and will help keep the pain of endo away and possibly the endo away all together. It may also give me more energy.

But I will miss certain things. Like the brownies, cakes and cookies my mother-in-law is always making us. She loves to bake and now I need to find recipes of things I can eat that she may bake.

So what did we buy that cost us an arm and a leg. Well we bought 2 Mahi fillets, 1.24 lbs of organic ground chicken, 4 organic chicken breasts. Lots and lots of produce. Oat bran, brown rice, brown rice cereal, 3 variety's of seeds for a recipe of "chili seeds". I also bought carob powder to make something sweet since I'll most likely go through sweet withdrawls.

This is going to be tough. I work in a restuarant with everything I can't eat. No soda, no french fries, none of my favorites from there. I have to remember anything bad I eat will cause pain and I will have to suffer.

There is one day I am considering "cheating" on this diet change. And that will occur in 2 weeks. My birthday is June 4th. I found no cakes at the health food store that I could eat. Zip, Zero, Zlitch! So I may cheat and have some angel food cake...It contains wheat flour and sugar both of which I can't eat unless I want pain and discomfort. It might be worth it though.

I'll stuggle, I'll fall and I'll just get back up and keep on going. All I can do is take one day at a time and eat healthy.

The Endo-diet

Before surgery I found a website endo-resolved.com and talked with other women who had endometriosis. This site comforted me before surgeries with helpful questions to ask my doctor before and after surgery. The site even talks about changing the diet: no red meat, wheat, dairy, sugar, or processed foods. So the question is why and what in the world am I going to eat.

First, why should I change my diet. Endometriosis apparently feeds off estrogen. In many of the foods we eat are hormones. When you consume these foods it adds extra hormones to your body and thus more estrogen for the endo to feed off of. Why no red meat? Prostaglandins. Yup that funky word from what I understand is more hormones that promotes pain and inflammation. I have to eat foods with healthy "good" prostaglandins.

Second, what in the world am I going to eat? Well I have learned from reading books and cookbooks there are lots of things I can eat. I can eat Organic Chicken and deep water fish. I can eat almost all fruits and vegtables. I can eat most all rices. I can eat lots and lots of peans.

This new diet will definitely take some getting used to. No more driving through Chikfila for dinner on my way to class. No more caffeine to get my morning started. No more brownies to satisfy the chocolate craving. I'm sure I'll cave in the first few weeks. When I cave I'll also see how that food affects my digestion and whether or not I could ever eat it again as a treat.

Cart is already on board with this change and actually excited because he is training again so this will aide in his running. At first we'll be cooking the weekly meals on the weekend and may save a meal or two for nights when we both will be home.

I am hoping for a new energy from this diet. I'll be keeping posted here on how this change happens. This is all to our journey to have a child because endo affects fertility.

Post Surgery wise I'm doing much better today. The incisions don't hurt as much and the gas seems to have made its way out of my body. I took two trips out of the house today, one to work for a mandatory meeting and the second to the book store. I'm feeling good just tired.

thanks for all the support and prayers they mean a lot to me.

Post Surgery

I've been home resting since about 11 this morning. Surgery was that fast. :) Actually they started taking me to the OR shortly after 730 and that is the last thing I remember before waking up in recovery at about 930. Dr. V talked to Cart and said that they found a little bit of Endo and removed it. He told Cart it was only stage 1 which is good. They removed a cyst from my right tube and sent it to the lab for further testing. I only have two small incisions one in my belly button and they used my appendectomy scar for the other. So no new scars.

Pain wise I'm doing okay. My throat hurts from the breathing tube and I keep coughing up nasty tasting stuff. The pain from the gas moves around my chest cavity and I think that is the most uncomfortable part. I'm just starting to feel sore around the incision areas. Going to the bathroom is a wierd. I guess they used a catheter during surgery so when I go to the bathroom it starts and stops. I feel like I sit there for 5min so that is a little annoying but manageable.

So all in all I am doing well. I follow up with my doctor next week. He moved it up from 3 weeks to 1 week so I 'm not sure what that is about.

Cart and I decided that I'll be starting the Endo diet to help keep the endo away since they were able to remove it all. Or at least just minimize it's return. It's a very complex diet and will require a post all in it self when I can type with the computer at the table instead of arms length away on my legs. :)

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers today!

Surgery Day

We will be heading to the hospital any minute for surgery. We have to be there at 6am and surgery is suppose to start at 730 am. The OR is booked for an hour and a half so I should be out by 9. However, we all know how this could go.

They tell you not to eat or drink after midnight and usually I am not hungry when I wake up at 8 or 9 in the morning. However, this morning I am hungry and thirsty. All because they said I couldn't eat or drink.

Please say a prayer for me this morning that all goes well. As soon as I feel up to it I'll post an update.

Projects and School

The semester has started and it seems like the first 8 weeks classes won't be so bad. Teachers are responding to emails in a timely fashion which makes for less stress.

We are busy working on projects in our house. Cart recently has changed out the porch light that somehow broke even though it was new, changed out the electrical socket in the middle of our living room floor, rescreened all of our screens (funny as soon as he did that the weather has been in the 90s which is not window open weather). This week Cart and his dad are going to change out the faucet fixtures in the master bath shower. When we moved into this house 5 years ago we had to completely redo the master shower. Well we asked the guy to leave enough room for us to put in the new fixtures and he didn't leave enough. So for 5years we've had a jimmy-rigged faucet and a whole in the wall. So finally after 5 years this problem will be fixed!

After that we will be working on remodeling the spare bathroom. I'm hoping to have that done by the end of the summer but not pushing it. We've priced it out and know what we are buying we are currently saving the money to have that done. I'm excited about that project!

Does anyone have movie recommendations for me for next week? Cart will be going to the video store each night to change out my movies and we watch so many that the choices are slim. So if you have a movie recommendation I'd love to hear it!

1 Semester down

5 more togo! I just finished my first semester back to school and officially start my second semester tonight. I made straight A's in all my classes which is good. I'm taking 4 classes this summer, 2 in the first half and 2 in the second half. So it shouldn't be too bad of a summer. :)

Surgery is still scheduled for next Tuesday. I had my pre-op yesterday and it went well. My doc answered all my questions and even suggested that he look inside my uterus to see if there is a reason for the excessive bleeding during AF. So they will be doing that too. The booked the OR for an hour and a half. My doc said that if they find Endo they will take out what they can. They will try not to open me up fully but may need to make one of the incisions bigger if they need to remove something big. I'm ready to get some answers.

Mother's Day

Another blog I follow posted this article. It was perfect. It expresses how I feel on Mother's Day. I celebrate Mother's day for my mom and my mother-in-law. But the questions other's ask around this day can be difficult. So feel free to read If you don't have anything nice to say on Mother's Day

The Ramblings of a Tired Student

Oh my! This has been a crazy first semester back to school. This is the last week of classes for Spring Term. I took 3 classes and they were all good classes. I had one crazy and unreliable professor. Two of my classes were hybrid and one was strictly an online class. The crazy professor was for my online class. She was HORRIBLE as a professor and really should stick to her day job. This class drove me bonkers and I even emailed the dean at the beginning of the semester about her. Thank goodness it's almost over. I won't ever take a class with her again.

This semester was my first one back since taking a leave from school in Summer 2006. So about 4 years off. This summer I will be taking 4 classes. 2 in the first half and 2 in the second half. I hope they go much smoother than this semester.

I have noticed that my procrastination hasn't changed much. I work better under pressure and that means I save a lot of my work till right before it's due. That has added to my insanity. I'll be working on a better routine this semester.

For some reason I have been unreasonably tired all the time. For the last three days I have had a horrible headache and it just won't go away. I can't take aspirin for two weeks before surgery and ibuprofen doesn't really help with just headaches anymore for me. I hope it is gone by the weekend. I have big plans!

Since it is the weekend between semesters I am going to do some extra things this weekend other than homework. On Friday night I may try and pick up a shift at work. Since I'll be off for at least a week the extra money will be needed. Now Saturday I am truly excited about. The TPC (the players championship) is going on in Ponte Vedra and Cart is going with his dad and friends. He'll be gone ALL day! So what does a wife do all day without her husband and no homework to do. She SCRAPS! I'm so excited to spend the day in my scrap room. I haven't scrapped all spring. Except for the gift I made for a co-worker and my father-in-laws birthday card. I'll be finishing my mother-in-laws gift this weekend and making mother's day cards and hopefully making birthday cards for the summer birthdays. Then maybe just maybe I'll do some pages of our trip to Virginia.

Girly Doc 3 xs 1 month

Yup that's right I get to see my girly doc 3 times in 1 month. Yay me! I'm no stranger to this though as having going through IVF I'd be proded sometimes 3xs in 1 week. So nothing new. Today was my annual and everything went okay. A bit painful but everything looked okay.

I see him again next Monday for pre-op. I'm coming up with a list of questions so that I can get the most out of the visit before the surgery.

Surgery is scheduled for the 18th. I have a feeling they will find Endo.

Cart is doing well with the Clomid. No real mood swings or problems. He has 2 months left of the meds and then he retests. I'm hoping we'll be able to TTC again in June.