C'mon let's get us a bucket of chicken.

Come on girls, let's go.  It's time to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken.  They've finally cut the trans-fat from the menu, or have they? 

"Yum Brands Inc. on Monday said all of its KFC restaurants are now serving fried chicken with zero grams of trans fats. KFC said it took three years of research and planning to remove trans fats from its products. It took a six-month transition process to switch to a low linolenic soybean oil in place of the partially hydrogenated soybean oil previously used in KFC restaurants in the United States. In a separate announcement, Yum Brands said its Taco Bell restaurants switched to a trans fat-free frying oil."

So, I don't so much eat fried chicken, because it makes me feel like I might die.  So, I pull up the handy-dandy nutrition calculator on KFC's website.  Hmm.... what sounds good? 

What would the kids like?  Oh, baby, Chicken Pot Pie or Popcorn Chicken or, their FAVE Mac + Cheese!?

"All of your KFC chicken products now contain Zero Grams Trans Fat per serving. KFC has finally found the perfect recipe, incorporating the Colonel's 11 herbs and spices with a new cooking oil that contains Zero Grams of Trans Fat per Serving. Besides our finger-lickin' chicken, many of your favorite KFC side dishes now have Zero Grams Trans Fat per serving, including mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. At KFC, it's all about the recipe. And now, your KFC chicken is better than ever!"

'Cept for your CHICKEN Pot Pie which has 14 mothereffin' grams of TRANS FAT and your Popcorn CHICKEN and your MAC + Cheese!   I'm sure there is more, but I got pissed off and clicked the red X and left the website. 

Let's discuss this. 

Yum! Brands, apparently wants to know what you think?  Look:

(Yum! Brands Inc) [Label IP Address]

Kentucky,  Louisville,  United States, 0 returning visits

Date	Time	WebPage
30th April 2007	18:46:10	blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=kfc trans fat&sa=N&start=40 Melting Mama - Life After Weight Loss Surgery: C'mon let's get us a bucket of chicken.

Monday Moaning.

Good Monday Morning to you working folk.  (Seeing as most of my readers are typically people at work!)  How you be?  I'm doing aiight.  I got on the scale.  I ain't telling.  Let's just say breakfast started as a sugar-free cinnamon roll, and ended as a protein shake concoction.  I finally pulled the blender back out onto the counter yesterday.  (Can't use it if it's hidden, right?)  This morning's drink?  1 cup of cold coffee, 1 cup of crushed ice, unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 scoop Designer Whey Chocolate Protein Powder, 2 splenda packets and 1 TBSP half and half.  Blend.  Drink.  Yum.   I could repeat this many times and be content with it - it's chocolate and coffee.  I think I might make it with cold espresso, though - or add a shot to the mix.

But, let me ask you this - have you ever seen in your online travels - a sarcastic weight loss ticker?  I know, I know, "go to Ticker Factory!"  No.  I don't want another line with a butterfly or scale and the obligatory "blah-blah-blah pounds lost, blah-blah-blah to go, keep going!"  I want something different.  If you've seen something like this - lemme know.  :D  I want something to mock my ass.  Seriously.  Whaddya got?

You Don't Have To Be A Genius To Know Everything About Weight Loss Surgery.

Just starting your WLS journey? 

There are a handful of books out there that give you a good overview of the process.  (Also, there are a whole selection of books out there that give you somebody else's life story.)  But, one in particular is a good suggestion for the beginner.  This book doesn't sway you into someone's personal happy butterfly story or triumph over the fatness, it's just the basics.

Weight Loss Surgery For Dummies

"Get the scoop on weight loss surgery    

Your authoritative guide to weight loss surgery — before, during, and after    

Considering weight loss surgery? This compassionate guide helps you determine whether you qualify and gives you the scoop on selecting the best center and surgical team, understanding today's different procedures, and achieving the best results. You also get tips on eating properly post-op and preparing appetizing meals, as well as easing back into your day-to-day life.

Discover how to    

• Evaluate your surgical options
• Understand the risks
• Prepare for surgery
• Handle post-op challenges
• Find sources of support

You'll find, that after having spent money on all sorts of books, just to read about someone else's post-op story, that all you really needed to know were the basics.  You want to know HOW to do things, step by step.  If you're anything like me - you also may want to know the dirty details, horror stories, complications and honest-to-gawd truths.  I have yet to find a book that deals with the more REALISTIC post-operative issues, but, I Know Someday I'll Find It.  For now, you've got Weight Loss Surgery For Dummies.

My husband is leafing me!

Why?  Because I ****ing Stink.  He has decided that I am rotting from the depths of my soul intestine, and I may very well just turn into a puddle of poop and die.  Last night was the last straw, it came down to me or the can of Neutra-Air.  The can won.  It wasn't because I threatened to take him out with the power of the ass - but he may have gotten Neutra-Air up my nose.  Some of you may have this side effect after weight loss surgery, the Gas Of Death.  Some of us, apparently get a Very Special Kind, the kind that comes when our bodies reject food - mainly anything that requires any digestive functioning.  I've blamed all sorts of things for my, um, problem.  I've given up on my beloved cottage cheese, because, it seemed to have intensified the issue.  (Breakstone's Cottage Cheese is now for Digestive Health - with added fiber - and I don't have Digestive Health.)  I ate a couple of regular protein bars from Atkins - and I was sure they were the offenders, too!  Then, it was some No Sugar Added popsicles - those must be the problem!  No, it's everything and anything.

 

So, I quit.  I quit food.  Food ****ing sucks.  I'd rather never eat again than deal with this.  It's bad enough that I get physically sick after eating, and that I get low-blood sugar after eating, but... add deadly gas to it?!  It's nothing new - this kind of reaction comes and goes, but it's extra special now.  For what it's worth - HE also has a serious gas issue - since WLS - and he is stricken with VIOLENT LOUD GAS.  This kind and shoot you down the stairs, backwards, if you're behind him.  (But, he has no stink.  He smells of Roses and Rainbows.)

If I could hack it, I'd go on full liquids for a while to give my belly a rest.  Maybe I will.  I don't know.  I'm just aggravated.  If I don't eat food, I don't have a problem.  I can't have anything with fiber, milk, sugar alcohols or soy.  All of those bother me, bad.  So, it's um, chicken broth and coffee for me?  Ugh.

Were you planning to kill me?

I was planning to meet up with a group of WLS peers tonight from an online support forum.  I didn't go.  Why?  Because, I can't bear the thought of driving somewhere new, alone, and getting lost.  Or, getting there - and not finding my way home in the dark.  This entire problem would have been solved had my spouse agreed to Just Go With Me For Crying Out Loud.  He refused.  He says (and I called it, I told you he'd say this!) that this meeting was "probably a front for some nut job from the internet to chop you up into little pieces."  I say to him - "What do you think, this is some Dateline To Catch a Former Fat Girl set up or something?!"

So what if it was - wouldn't it be safer to GO with me instead of tempting me to just go alone to a town I've never driven to before?  Not that I think this group of people would chop me into bits, unless they were truly starved for protein?  He's a moron.  An anti-social non-trusting moron.  (I mean that in the nicest way.)  I've met real live humans from the internet ONCE in my years online.  I met a group of moms.  None of which tried to kill me.  I tell Bob that people nowadays do this thing called "dating" that begins online, and they, ::gasp:: sometimes marry!  The horror!  He's all "how do you KNOW they are who they SAY they are?"

So, that's why I didn't make it.  So, I'm home tonight, even had a babysitter, and I ate a no sugar added ice cream sandwich and it's making me dump and I'm cranky.  Hiss.

Stallone Puddin' (Sucks.)

I'm stealing Anna's review, because I totally agree with her take on the InStone Protein Pudding:

"Here’s the thing with this pudding.  Do you know when you make pudding at home - not the already made cups of Jello you find next to the cheese in the dairy aisle of your supermarket.  I’m talking about the mixing the milk in the bowl with the powder kind.  Or perhaps you are a gourmet and you use the heat and set kind.  Whichever one you make at home - you know how if you leave it a day or two in the fridge, the top gets that protective skin on it?  It’s kind of a rubbery substance that forms on top of the pudding and tastes yucky.  Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.  Anyway, this whole can of pudding reminded me of that rubbery protective skin that old pudding gets."

Continue reading this post at Anna's blog.

"Looking that great - it's gotta be a date!"

Cross-Addictions After WLS

Bariatric surgeries like gastric bypass can dramatically reduce weight, but new studies have found it doesn't always solve the underlying problem, and patients can wind up with other addictions.

"I think we've probably underdiagnosed some of these addiction disorders post operatively or after surgery because we haven't been looking for them in the past," says bariatric surgeon Dr. Nestor De La Cruz Munoz.

As psychologist Melodie Moorhead describes in "Bariatric Times" transfer of addiction happens when patients overindulge in alcohol, drugs, gambling, shopping or sex as replacements for food.

They're often caught completely by surprise.

A recent survey in Bariatric Times found 28.4 of the gastric bypass patients said they had a problem with alcohol control. 

Only 4.5 per cent said they had a problem before surgery.

Experts say a physical fix for obesity is just part of the solution when addiction to food is the cause.   

Source:  WLTV.

What makes a person booterfull?

"She was born with her acting family’s classic beauty, but Drew Barrymore credits her fun-loving approach to life for her No. 1 spot on People magazine’s annual “100 Most Beautiful People” list. What makes someone beautiful?"

So?  What is it?

Um, fart.

Love!

The nugget.

Tristan had her six month well baby check up the other day.  She's a perfectly healthy, if robust, baby!  She weighed in at 18 lbs. 9 oz. and was 26.5 inches tall.  The pediatrician asked if I had any concerns for her, and I replied that I have no concerns, as she's the easiest child I've had by far (perhaps because she's number four) but, I thought she was overweight.  The doc said that she doesn't think she's too big now - that (her words, she's old skool) she's better off being chubby now while she's partly immobile because she'll thin out when she's refusing food as a toddler (she apparently, doesn't know my kids).  I laughed, because, the baby is fat.  She's buddha-licious.  You can't tell me she's not overweight, but it's cute when you're six months old.

Drip.

It's pouring buckets out there.  The kids were thrilled because I'd picked up a couple of $3.00 umbrellas at Wal*Mart that they could take to the bus stop. I woke up with a fantastic headache so breakfast today was three Ibuprofen and coffee.  I finished off my first cup and the headache is gone, so I made another shot.  (I have a Keurig, it makes wee 7 oz cups at a time.) This time I added a scoop of vanilla praline protein powder - (because I'm in diet head mode this morning) thinking that would be beneficial.  That poop chunks in really hot coffee.  I knew this, I don't know what I was thinking.  No, I do - I watched a YouTube of another post WLS person, and she was discussing how she takes her protein on the road - and she popped her protein powder into her morning coffee.  Genius, right?

Well, every time I try it - it chunks, coagulates or gets gritty.  Not pleasant at all.  I should know these things after three years of living this way --- right?  I can add powder to my cold coffee - but I generally don't like it once it's added!  I like strong coffee without icky flavor added, and protein powders can add some nasty after tastes.  So, whatever, I'm drinking the chunked up Vanilla Praline coffee, but I won't be doing THAT again, at least with this variety of powder.  Ick.  It's ****ing disgusting.  I'm dumping it out now and having a fresh cup, sans protein.  (FWIW - this was Designer Protein Vanilla Praline.) I figured I'd start my day well - to see if it led to a better day, rather than the grazing I've been doing.  It seems when I start the day with my love of cottage cheese, I'm immediately hungry again.  I know it passes through the pouch way too quickly, and it's likely to be a cycle of hungry, cheese, hungry, more cheese.  What do we learn from this?  Eat Beef For Breakfast.

Why a TX Doc doesn't do Gastric Bypass.

I stumbled on a blog by a lap-band doctor:

"We knew that there is evidence that for most seriously overweight people, weight loss surgery could possibly be their only potential for getting the weight off and keeping it off.
Back several years ago the Lap Band was well behind the gastric bypass in popularity. But years ago, as we spent time to learn in depth about the two procedures, there was no doubt in our mind that Lap Band is the preferable procedure for several reasons.

Only the Lap Band is adjustable, so individual needs or individual patients can be met. Are you a woman who has become pregnant? No problem, with the Lap Band you can have an adjustment to allow you to eat more food so that you have more nutrition for you and your baby. The gastric bypass is a mostly permanent change.  The Lap Band is easily reversible. While not meant to be removed or reversed, some people gain piece of mind in knowing that their weight loss surgery can be reversed for any reason.

But most importantly was the safety profile. Unlike the gastric bypass, in the Lap Band there was is cutting across the stomach or intestines. In the gastric bypass, a small number of patients can have an internal leak across where there stomach or intestine was cut and reconnected, and if this happens it could be fatal.

Adjustable, reversible, safer. That's why we choose the Lap Band over the gastric bypass surgery for weight loss."

My brain is all over the place. So, here's a post.

I'm not doing well.  I'm eating poorly.  I'm not eating bad foods, just too much.  I was just sitting here - thinking about what I'd had today that caused me such distress, and I can't figure it out, because I ate so much.  Let me see if I can lay it out here:

• 4 oz cottage cheese (90 cals)
• 4 oz cottage cheese (90 cals)
• 1/2 Pure Protein Chocolate Deluxe Bar (100 cals)
• 2 Twist String Cheeses (140 cals)
• 100 Calorie Pack Granola Bar (100 cals)
• 1 Blue Bunny NSA Almond Bar (100 cals)
• 2 slices Light Wheat Toast (80 cals)
• 3 Whole Grain Rice Cakes (120 cals)
• 1/2C+ Brown Rice + Black eyed peas + 1 bite spinach (??? cals)
• 1 Skinny Cow Sandwich (140 cals)
• 1/2 Choco perfection Sugar Free Dark Chocolate Bar (100 cals)

Okay, once written out - it looks like about 1200 calories, I'll up-stimate it to about 1500 if I've forgotten anything.  It's not horribly bad, no, but, you have to know, this is what grazing looks like for me.  This was eating a little something All Day Long, from 6:30am till 7:30pm.  Yeah, there's nothing on this list that's entirely naughty, either, and it's all "good choices."  But, it's a "bad day" for me.  Why?  Because, of course, I woke up with "diet-head" thinking - "Today is a new day, a fresh start, let's do this.  Go protein, go!"  And, then, I start well, and then I'm hungry.  I even tried to fend of the beast by taking not one, but TWO walks outside with the kids.  This is the way I've been eating lately - and the scale is going in the wrong direction.  I have an appetite, man, and since I started the birth control pills two weeks ago, I'm freaking "stahhhhving."  (That's a head thing, I'm sure.)  All of a sudden, I'm like, "Mmm, toast?"  Bread?! Rice?!  Let's eat!

You should know - eating like THIS makes me fat.  I'm not losing, I'm gaining.  I need to stop.  It really sucks that I can gain weight on 1500 calories, but I can!  I'm talented like that.  Anyways - I won't say that I've got a plan - because - I've got to do this thing day by day.  My goal still is the same - I just keep pushing the date up.  My goal is now to reach goal before I'm dead.  How's that?  I'm not going to promise anything - I'm not going to say I'm going to "start tomorrow" because that kind of thinking sets us up to fail, big time.  I'm just going to have to work at this - harder, because this half-assed poop (there, two in one sentence) isn't ****ing working (there, three!) for me.

In other news:  You, my dear internet, are looking for? 

ip70-176-159-119.ph.ph.cox.net (Cox Communications) [Label IP Address]

Arizona,  Phoenix,  United States, 0 returning visits

Date	Time	WebPage
26th April 2007	19:15:05	www.google.com/search?q=pictures of bariatric patients naked&hl=en&rlz=1T4TSHA_en___US207&start=10&sa=N meltingmama.typepad.com/wls/2007/04/an_article_life.html

That's hot.  I hope you didn't find those photos here.   Well, you might have.

I'm in a ranting mood. WLS Issues.

"A poster on another board now has anorexia. This is what created my curiosity in this topic. These issues come up in the general population but are we more prone to them than the general population is? What percentage of WLS patients will encounter these issues verses what percentage of general population encounter the same issues?"

My reply:

Think about it this way: 

As morbidly obese people, we already HAD some kind of eating disorder. 

What changes AFTER the weight loss surgery?  NOTHING beyond the physical inability to overeat.  The reasons for the eating disorder still exist.  So, after WLS, you're forced into another form of eating disorder, it takes a different shape. 

At first - it's forced anorexia. Then, it morphs into what you make of it.  Many of us turn bulimic, anorexic or some warped version of either.  You'll see people post and say that they "never had an eating disorder" they just "liked to eat." Bullsh*t.  Liking to eat is binge eating - which causes obesity. Unless there is a true hormonal non-caloric related cause to weight gain - it's disordered eating. 

After WLS it doesn't magically GO AWAY. 

We choose to eat to avoid the unpleasant SIDE effects of the surgery we have - we choose to eat around our symptoms.

Some of us eat around the surgeries all together! 

Many of us regain most if not all of the weight! 

You think WLS is a cure?!  Nah. 

Surgery Proposed for Intractable Type 2 Diabetes

For long-term remission of refractory type 2 diabetes, a surgical procedure akin to gastric bypass has just entered clinical trials in Europe.

In the two patients treated with an ileal interposition technique, there was a normalization of hemoglobin A1c levels within four months of surgery, commented Karen E. Foster-Schubert, M.D., of the University of Washington in Seattle, during a general session on bariatric surgery at the American association of Clinical Endocrinologists meeting."

Read more.

Bill Clinton On Rachael Ray Tomorrow.

"It's a huge day when President Bill Clinton hits the kitchen with Rachael! But first they're talking about the childhood obesity epidemic and their partnership to change the way kids eat. Find out how you can get involved now!"  Of course, I can't get involved if the link doesn't work.  Ah, well, so much for trying.

Atkins Advantage Caramel Double Chocolate Crunch!

My mother in law went shopping today and came back home with a few "new to me" protein bar choices at her house.  I immediately ripped open the boxes and brought a couple home, you know, for reviewing purposes.  I tried one on the way home.  I have to tell you now, because I am trying hard not to shred into the other one of these in the cabinet before I do a video-blog for it.

The first particular bar is Atkins Advantage Caramel Double Chocolate Crunch bar.  OH DEAR GAWD, it's marvelous tasting.  You know those little nuggets of love inside a Carvel Ice Cream Cake?!  THAT is what this bar tastes like inside.  I'm serious.

(Video blog will go here at some point!)

"You know you have something divine when a double dose of chocolate and a gooey layer of caramel are infused with the optimal mix of protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals, and low sugar. The Atkins Advantage Caramel Double Chocolate Crunch bar provides active chocoholics with both the flavor and fuel they need to keep going all day."

Nutrition Advantage Points: 11g protein, 9g fiber, 1g sugar, 19 vitamins and minerals, including an excellent source of Calcium, 150 calories, 0g sugar alcohols.

Yeah, so what's in it?!  NO SUGAR ALCOHOLS!  Hooray!  But, it's soy.  Soy makes me, um, unpleasant.  But(t), it digested without a hitch, and I felt ZERO ill effect from it.  It's a winner.  Totally pouch-worthy.

I lied.  While it tastes like heaven, I am paying a Very Serious Price for a few moments of culinary pleasure.  I am in SHEER HELL. 

Edited:  IT wasn't the bars.  I found the source of my distress.  :D

Ingredients:
Soy Nuggets [Soy Protein Isolate, Calcium Carbonate, Cocoa Powder (Processed With Alkali)], Polydextrose, Glycerin, Inulin, Palm Kernel And Palm Oil, Cocoa Powder (Processed With Alkali), Cookie Pieces [Enriched Wheat Flour, Cocoa Powder (Processed With Alkali), Sunflower Oil, Maltodextrin, Chocolate Liquor, Salt, Sodium Bicarbonate, Soy Lecithin, Sucralose], Hydrolyzed Collagen, Sunflower Oil, Coconut Oil, Whey Protein Isolate, Milk Protein Isolate, Non Fat Dry Milk, Butter, Cellulose, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Olive Oil, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Maltodextrin, Sucralose, Mono And Diglycerides, Dipotassium Phosphate, Acesulfame Potassium.

Vitamins And Minerals Blend: Calcium (Tricalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate), Magnesium (Magnesium Oxide), Vitamin A (Vitamin A Palmitate), Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid, Sodium Ascorbate), Vitamin B-1 (Thiamine Mononitrate), Vitamin B-2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B-6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride), Vitamin B-12 (Cyanocobalamin), Vitamin E (DL Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate), Vitamin B-3 (Niacinamide), Biotin, Pantothenic Acid (D-Calcium Pantothenate), Zinc (Zinc Oxide), Folic Acid, Chromium (Chromium Chelate), Vitamin K (Phytonadione), Selenium (Sodium Selenite).

So, go, try one.  Let me know what you think about the Atkins Advantage Caramel Double Chocolate Crunch.  Well?

Consequences.

I just got this through a message list, I reposted it here and at Obesity Help, the answers are getting interesting, I'm waiting on some horror stories:

"I know these Q's many seem weird, but I am considering sx and quite
frankly am scared to death of the consequences and just want to know
as much as I possibly can about what may cause a potential problem.
Like, was it a surgeon's error, was it bad pre-op care, bad post-op
care, etc.  I mean nothing to be accusatory, and I ask with the
utmost respect for what many of you have gone through."

1. What type surgery was it?
2. When/where was it done?
3. Did you follow diet/nutrition rules?
4. What types of problems are you/have you had?
5. Would you consider your surgeon a good one?
6. Were all of your pre-op tests "normal"/completed with out concern for a potential problem?

So, if anyone is out there reading this that has had a complication of WLS - answer away.

I'll add replies to the bottom of the post - and link to you if you'd like to be linked.  That sounds dirty.

First up, Anna:

1. What type surgery was it? Laproscopic RNY

2. When/where was it done?  August 1, 2006 St. Barnabas Hospital, West Orange, NJ

3. Did you follow diet/nutrition rules? I had no rules prior to surgery - hence the 300 pounds I weighed. Since surgery, I follow the low carb, high protein diet as much as I can, but mostly, I eat soup.

4. What types of problems are you/have you had? The only complication I have had is a small bowel obstruction, caused by adhesions which were PROBABLY related to my surgery. I have had, however, 3 c-sections, and when I had my RNY, they had to clear away adhesions from my c-sections in order to do my surgery. Anyone who has had any type of abdominal surgery is at risk for developing adhesions, but not all adhesions attach themselves to the bowel to cause the obstruction (which had to be repaired surgically, which puts me at risk for more adhesions and another bowel obstruction). I also am losing my hair faster than Bill Gates makes money.

5. Would you consider your surgeon a good one? I would consider my surgeon excellent. If I did not, I would never have allowed the man near me with sharp objects.

6. Were all of your pre-op tests "normal"/completed with out concern for a potential problem? All of my pre-ops were fine. I was a very healthy fat chick.