Low barometric pressure

I'm super tight. I go for my follow up next week for my surgeon. I wonder if I should get a tiny unfill. I've been at the same restriction since November but lately I've noticed that I'm struggling to get down 64 oz of water a day. I'm waking up with reflux at night. When I get tight like this I'm having trouble eating soup. I'm sliming on soup.

I'll wait till next week at my scheduled appointment. I won't starve. And maybe when the low pressure system moves out which is hitting at the exact same time as aunt flow showing up in 5 days I'll be back to happy land and hopefully showing a loss. And all thoughts of getting an unfill will be unnecessary.

The things we do when we are tired

Last night, I didn't get to bed until after 2am.  I wake up at 5:30.

Today, I am not doing too badly, but then again, I convinced myself that to get through the morning, I would need breakfast. More specifically, a McDonalds McGriddle with coke breakfast.

I did not get said McDonalds breakfast--but I did get a bacon/egg/cheese biscuit from Chickfila and a medium Dr. Pepper.

I KNOW that I can't eat solid food in the mornings. And yet I continue to think that some days, I should be able to. I WANT to. It took me over an hour, but I ate my biscuit bit by tiny bit.  I had a few close calls with sliming when I took a sip of my drink (I know, cardinal band rule #1), but I was able to not have any episodes.

Soup is on the horizon for lunch--if I'm even hungry at that point.

The snow is coming hard and fast and should be here tonight and all day tomorrow. How much will we get? Who knows.  The latest predictions put us in the range of anywhere from 6 inches - 14 inches. It's all just a crapshoot. The only thing for relative certain is that it will definitely arrive--unlike the two storms over this past weekend that kind of fizzled out without any real impact.

I'm ready to get this day done. I want to go home, do my elliptical, and then hunker down with the ELB for snuggles on the couch.

Happy Hump Day!

Happy new week!

Sorry for the non-post yesterday--it was a cray-cray day. I was out of the office more than I was in it, thanks to some scheduling done by people higher than myself that had me off-site twice.

I read an article over the weekend in the newpaper about how people tend to lose more weight during the week than on weekends. I think that this ties back into my theory of M-F it's easier to stick with healthy eating, mainly because of the structure of a work day, as opossed to weekends where you tend to have free time and get off schedule. At least, this is true for me. It also said that people shouldn't freak out about seeing a small gain over the weekend, as long as their healthy eating habits were back in place on Monday.

Anyways, I've been rocking some mad (good) restriction since yesterday. I had my protien coffee for breakfast, and then didn't eat anything until 3:30pm. And even then I wasn't really 'hungry' but I knew it was time to eat. I had a chicken salad wrap, minus the wrap, and then dinner was a chicken breast. I tried to eat some grits, and I did--but I wished I hadn't. I love me some grits, but I just wasn't feeling them yesterday at all.

This morning, I'm sticking with coffee only, as I am supossed to go to Noodles with my coworker for lunch. However, as I have learned, I can't EAT noodles any more. I'm wary of going for this reason, but it's really more for the time to catch up than for the food. I'll order something and then just pick out the veggies and protien and hope she won't notice. Well, that's the plan, anyways. Fingers crossed I don't have any PB or sticking issues.

I made cheesy chicken enchilada soup over the weekend. The base was pretty much the broccoli cheddar soup recipe, but I swapped out broccoli for onions, green/red peppers, a can of diced chili's, and a can of drained shredded chicken breast. And I tossed in a can of Northern white beans for protien. It turned out pretty good.

Anyways, it's Tuesday. Hope you're having a good one!

Update: I did exactly what I said I would do at lunch. I ordered a meal (Japanese pan noodles with shrimp) and I used chopsticks to 'play' with my food. I hate some very small pieces of vegetables, and even with chew chew chewing I could feel the sliming start. I stoppped eating, just played with my food, and then packed it up to go. I have massive selfcontrol to not start spewing slime--I literally forced myself to swallow it back down and I PRAYED it would stay down. The impending weather has really tightened things up today, so I'm just lucky I got through that.

Vegetarian Lasagna

Was a TOTAL hit! If you make it, I hope you like it!

Lukas Totally Rad Totally Vegetarian Noodle Free lasagna!

1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce

3-4 cups of Vegetables of your choice, chopped

--I used Onion, Red and Green Bell Peppers, Carrots, Celery, and mushrooms

1 can of diced tomatos

1 spaghetti squash, cooked and shredded (if you need the recipe for this, let me know)

Olive Oil

1 c Fat Free Ricotta

1 c Fat Free Cottage Cheese

½ c Shredded parmesan cheese

1 cup reduced fat mozzarella cheese (finely shredded allows more even distribution)

2 eggs

Italian herbs (optional, to taste)

Salt/pepper/garlic powder (to taste)

Beat eggs and mix in ricotta, cottage cheese, and parmesan cheese until blended. Set aside in fridge.

Cook your spaghetti squash, and then shred. Place in a strainer over sink or bowl to allow excess water to drain out. You can also put on a layer of paper towels on a plate. You might also want to gently squeeze any excess water out before adding to the dish

In large skillet, sauté your vegetables (except squash) with olive oil and a pinch of salt until tender. Make sure to cook out as much liquid as possible. I had about 3 cups of vegetables total going in. Once cooked to your desired consistency, add the can of tomatoes, jar of pasta sauce, garlic powder and Italian herbs if using. Bring to a simmer, and then reduce heat and let cook until flavors meld.

Allow sauce to cool slightly, and then begin the lasagna assembly process. I used an 8x8 glass Pyrex dish.

Spray lightly with Pam. Layer from the bottom: Sauce, thin layer of mozzarella, egg/cheese mixture, spaghetti squash, more sauce (I added the top layer of mozzarella 15 minutes before I took out of teh oven to keep it from getting too browned).  This pretty much came up to the top of the dish. I placed on a baking sheet (to catch drips) and baked on 375 for about 1.25 hours (75 minutes). Remove from Oven, and allow toset up for at least an hour, if not longer.

Both friends absolutely LOVED it. And I think it was pretty darn good, too! An 8x8 pan will make 9 perfect portions.  It may get a little watery if you don’t drain the squash enough.

Enjoy!  

What is up with this restriction?!?!

My brain is telling me to eat. Alot. Like, I wanted to stress eat yesterday. My tummy goes, "back away from the cake, bitch". Yeah, me and Donny have that kind of love/hate relationship. She loves it when I follow the rules. It makes her happy. It makes me happy, too--but sometimes, my brain is like, "WTF, why can't you eat that?" And Donny is all like, "Not on MY watch!".

The constant shifting from high to low to high pressure systems is really wreaking havoc on my head and tummy. One day, I can eat a slice of cheese pizza (not the crusty end, though), and the next, one small bite and I'm sliming and PB'ing.

Yesterday, I had trouble eating soup at lunch--but was able to eat two hawiaan rolls for dinner with no trouble.

Yeah, I'm all over the place with that. Very frustrating.

Today, I'm feeling restricted. I knew it when I woke up. So, going to try to stick with as much soft and liquids as possible to take the strain off while we count down to the huge impending weather system slated to hit this weekend.

I know that my restriction really gets amped up during the week of my Aunt Flow. That seems to be pretty common. But does anyone, other than me, have restriction based on barometric pressure? I get barometric pressure migrains, usually in the summer, but I don't see alot of people talk about their bands getting tighter with impending weather changes.

In other news, I made vegetarian noodle-free lasagna for my girls lunch tomorrow. I was also requested to make bread pudding. I did both last night, since I'll be out late tonight. If the lasagna turns out as good as I hope it will, I'll post the recipe. :)

Happy Thursday.

That worked *crazy* good!

So, my recipe turned out AMAZING. I ended up adding just a little bit of cornstarch for thickening, and some corn. So. Good.

Here's the recipe if you want it. I used a crock pot and cooked it for a crazy long time on low. However, you probably don't need to cook it as long as I did.

Luka's Crazy Good Black Bean Soup
ingredients:
2 cans of black beans--one with juice, the other rinsed and drained
1 can of Rotel
1 can chicken broth
carrots, onions, celery--I used 3 stalks of celery, 1/2 of a medium onion, and 6 baby carrots but you can really use as much or as little as you want--if you want to use at all
1 pack of taco seasoning
garlic powder
1 TBSP corn starch
1/2 cup corn (either canned or frozen)
1 tsp sugar (optional but I used it to offset the acidity)

Saute carrots, onions and celery until slightly tender. Add black beans, Rotel, and chicken broth. Use a potato masher to smoosh up the beans. Add taco seasoning, garlic powder (to taste), a pinch of salt, and sugar. Cook on low heat, or put in crock pot. I cooked it for about 18 hours on low, but you could achieve the same results by cooking on the stove top with a low simmer for a shorter period of time.

The broth will remain kind of thin, but you can mix the cornstarch with a little bit of cold water until blended, then stir into the soup. I would suggest doing this 30 minutes to 1 hour before eating. If you are cooking on a stovetop, you will want to stir more often after this step to prevent it from burning. This is also when I added the corn. Continue to cook until you are ready to eat. The cornstarch will thicken it up beautifully.

I topped it with a dab of greek yogurt and a sprinkle of shredded parmesan cheese.

If you try it, let me know how it worked for you!

Crazy Weather!

We are *supossed* to get anywhere from 3-6 inches of snow today. Right now, it's pouring down rain. To the north of us, they are getting hit hard with snow. My boss, who lives north, has already left for home since there was 4 inches at her house already.

Still waiting to see if we will get any actual snow, or will just get the rain. I'm fingers crossed for rain.

I put the blackbean soup in the crock pot last night on low. Of course, I didnt' follow the recipe. I never really do. Recipes are just suggestions. I change them around all the time, and sometimes they work out awesomely, and sometimes they are good, but not a keeper.

The Panera black bean soup that I had for lunch one day last week was delicious. But as I was making it from the 'knock off' recipe I got online, I was thinking of things that I could do to make it more hearty. So, instead of just using chopped red pepper, I used red and green bell peppers. I also added onion, carrots, and celery. The recipe called to use two cans of black beans, in juice. Do you know how much sodium is in the juice on canned beans? So instead, I only used one with the juice, and the other can was rinsed and drained and I used a can of chicken broth instead. I also added a can of Rotel tomatos with chilis, and used half a pack of taco seasoning since I don't actually have chili powder or cumin on hand. I smooshed up the beans with the potato masher so that they would help to thicken the soup without having to add corn starch--but I will probably have to add a little to get the right consistancy--or maybe I'll add some uncooked quinoa instead as a thickening agent. I haven't decided that yet. I will be eating it for dinner tonight. I'll let you know how it turns out, and whether or not to post the entire recipe (well, I kind of already did, didn't I?).

Happy Monday.