Treats!

I didn't plan on this post including a recipe, but I have one, so why not?

As a reward for tackling my anxiety and going to the gym consistently for almost a month, my lovely wife bought me the Oster My Blend Blender with an orange travel cup (have I mentioned I like orange? I do! It's just such a cheerful color.) It's similar to a Magic Bullet in that the ingredients are blended directly in the cup, which has a blender attachment, and inverted into the base and pressed down to activate the blender action (there's a travel lid for drinking.) I like that the base - about 6" wide - takes up very little room on my already cowded counter and requires next to no brain power to use (something very necessary first thing in the morning as I'm most definitely Not A Morning Person.) One cup comes with the blender and they sell additional cups in other colors for around $12 each, which might be good for the future. It really all depends on whether I'm the only one in the house drinking smoothies regularly. Isn't it cute?

Now I can start experimenting with protein smoothies! The first smoothie I made was strawberry banana and it was good but nothing special. The smoothie I made yesterday and today and that I will be drinking every day until I'm totally sick of it is my Nutter Butter smoothie. YUM. YUM! It's called such because it tastes like Nutter Butter cookies, but it's really a combination of almond milk, banana, vanilla protein powder, and PB2.

Which reminds me. Have I mentioned how excited I am that my PB2 has arrived?! For those who have no clue what I'm referring to, PB2 is essentially peanut flour left over from making peanut oil. Because the roasted nuts are pressed for oil before they are ground to make PB2, the product is basically all nut solids with very little fat. The company markets it as 85% fat free. There are about 45 calories in 2 tablespoons and it can be reconstituted w/water to make a peanut butter-like spread, or it can be used to flavor things.

On to the recipe! The banana in it helps to sweeten and thick the smoothie a little (and adds a nice infusion of fruit to my day) and the vanilla protein powder helps to give the "cookie" flavor, while the PB2 gives the peanut butter filling flavor. Use as much PB2 as you like until you're happy with the peanut action. I like it with 3-4 T. but I loooove peanuts and this is my substitute for real peanut butter right now. I didn't find that it needed any additional splenda, but your tastes may be different and your vanilla protein powder may not be as sweet as mine. I didn't include a picture of the smoothie because it's really nothing to look at - just a lightly tan milk shake lookin' thing. Meh. But trust me, what it lacks in looks it makes up for in flavor!

Nutter Butter Protein Smoothie

8 oz. Vanilla Almond Milk
1 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder (I like the Syntrax Vanilla Bean Torte)
2-4 T. PB2
1/2 Large Banana (frozen or not, it's your choice)

Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Enjoy the Nutter Butter cookie flavor.

Approximate Nutritional Roundup: Calories 298, Carbs 37 g, Fat 4 g, Protein 30 g, Fiber 5 g. (It's also got roughly 45 g of calcium, no saturated fat, and 569 mg of potassium, which is good for your heart.)

Edited to Add: It has recently been brought to my attention that the calorie and carb counts are a bit high for this smoothie, which is true. Looking into it, I saw that you can shave 50 calories and 14g of carbs off of this with a quick and easy swap for unsweetened vanilla almond milk. The other big culprit for carbs in this recipe is the banana, which has around 16g, but also provides around 5g of fiber (making 11g net carbs), for which your digestion will thank you. I personally try to incorporate a fruit or veggie into every meal, but you could always ditch the banana, which would lop off another 63 calories and 16g of carbs. If you go with both of these modifications, you may need to use a little Spenda to sweeten things up, but you'll bring the whole smoothie down to approximately 175 calories and 7g carbs. It won't be quite as thick as with the banana, but you could always add some ice cubes.

T -7 Days And Counting

Today marks one week out from surgery (I can't believe how quickly the last month has flown!) and the jitters have definitely taken hold. My head has been all over the place this past week, with my emotions bouncing liberally between excited and anxious, happiness and fear. I guess that's to be expected with any major surgery, but I can say from experience it's not the most fun roller coaster ride. And I was never a fan of roller coasters to start.

The pre-op diet has not been easy to stick with. Especially when feeling emotional/stressed out and craving comfort food. I caved one day last week and had a small serving of mac n' cheese and it took me 3 days to get totally back on plan again. Clearly, all those things about carbs being "addictive" have some truth to them, even if the addictive part is all psychological. Since then, I've been on the look out for non-carb/fat laden comfort foods and have hit upon an old favorite: Tom Kar soup. It's essentially a Thai chicken soup with delicious flavors of Kaffir lime leaf, galangal, scallion, and coconut milk. Look for the recipe in tomorrow's post.

My short-term tumble off the wagon aside, the diet has been amazingly successful so far. (Not completely suprising since I'm eating less than half the calories each day that my body would require to maintain my current weight.) I've lost about 8lbs according to my bathroom scale, bringing me to 320.2 lbs. Pretty impressive for me in such a short amount of time (12 days.) Particularly given the fact that when I'm eating a diet that's a bit less drastically reduced in the calorie department I tend to lose weight at a rate of roughly 1/3rd to 1/2 pound per week...maybe.

Speaking of the pre-op diet, I burned through the vanilla torte flavored protein mix and a now trying the cappucino flavor. It's still a bit sweeter than I prefer, but it has a good strong coffee flavor with a bit of "creaminess" to imply the steamed milk on a real cappucino. I mixed it with my morning coffee yesterday morning because I had run out of milk and it was quite good. (I should also mention for those of you playing along at home that the "grab-n-go" individual serving packets in the link are more expensive than if you were to buy a 1 pound tub of the stuff. I haven't been buying the tubs of anything except the unflavored protein mix because I'm more likely to stick with the diet and drink the damn shakes if I can mix one up when I'm not at home.)

That's the exciting update....I'm off to enjoy the unseasonably warm December weather (55F!)

Vitamins and Blenders

This week I finally got around to ordering the calcium supplement and multivitamin that I'll be taking after surgery and they arrived today. I'm curious about the flavor of the calcium citrate chews, but I only bought exactly enough dosees for the first 30 days after surgery, so I'll have to wait to find out. The multis I've had before...they taste like a chalky orange creamsicle. Yum. *snort*

The real gem out of this shipment is the blender "bottle." It's more of a travel cup, IMO. Whatever you want to call, I call it a paragon of practical design! The lid screws down and the mouthpiece cover snaps in tightly, so you can dump in the liquid and the protein powder, batten down the hatches, and shake it all together. It has a spherical whisk inside - appropriately called a "blender ball" - that breaks up the protein powder as you shake with minimal bubbles, thus largely eliminating the foamy head problem of mixing the powder in a blender. (There were no lumps, either, unlike mixing with a spoon or fork.) I did a brief "antigravity" test (I turned it upside down and shook it for a few seconds) and there was nary a drop spilled, leading me to believe that there are possibilities of being able to prop this upright in my messenger bag with some liquid in it for protein shakes on the go. It's made by Sundesa, is BPA free, has liquid measurements imprinted on the side, and at around $7-$8, it's a good deal.

I may need to buy a few more. I can see this getting daily use.

Pre-op Diet Day 1

As the title suggests, I started the pre-op diet today. I don't know that I'll be posting every day of this diet, but the inaugural day seemed worth talking about.

Breakfast was a protein shake made according to the Weight Center instructions: 8-12 oz. low fat milk, 1 serving of whey protein supplement, and 1/2 cup fruit. I used the Syntrax Nectar-Sweet protein shake mix in the vanilla bean torte flavor and opted to add the half cup fruit directly to the shake to make it a smoothie.

For fruit, I used the Dole strawberry/banana/peach frozen blend (just frozen fruit, no sugar added). As a smoothie, it wasn't too bad. The protein mix has a distinct vanilla flavor without being too sweet and the strawberry and banana really shined through.

 

I did notice that the protein mix frothed a huge amount when put in the blender with the fruit and the foam didn't subside after a few minutes, but stuck around the entire time I was drinking the smoothie. The foam isn't a big deal right now, but I think it might be an issue after surgery (I can see it turning into stomach pain pretty easily). I've seen these mixer cups around, though....thinking that might be a good alternative to the blender. I won't be eating the fruit immediately after surgery anyway, so I'll only need to mix the shake with the water or milk.

I have a choice for snack of another protein shake or 1 serving of fruit. I'm thinking an apple might be more satisfying. Lunch and dinner are supposed to be 4-6 oz. lean protein and at least 1 cup of non-starchy veggies. The WC nutritionist also mentioned that I could eat low-cal frozen meals instead so I bought a few. I don't love frozen meals, but I I got them easy lunches...hopefully they don't suck. ;-)  It's almost lunchtime so I guess I'll get to find out soon!

I know it's a bit nuts to voluntarily start the pre-op diet earlier than they told me (and the day before Thanksgiving, no less! I'm cooking for the holiday today and the smell of pecan burbon pie is Killing. Me.) but somehow it just seems to make sense to my brain to insert some order into the chaos of food around the holidays by starting a little early. And I figure that a little extra practice at this whole structured eating thing and my new lifestyle around - well everything - but food in particular, might be a good idea. Sometimes change comes slowly. I have a feeling this may be one of those times.