3 Months Down

May 30th was 13 weeks since surgery. I can't believe it's been three months already. Sorry for not posting regularly the last couple weeks. My dad was here visiting for two weeks and I'm also home sick with a cold, but I will try to be more consistent.

My dad has been very supportive, but he hadn't seen me or seen me eat since surgery, so I was curious what his reaction would be when he saw how little and how frequently I had to eat. I think at first he was a little surprised but quickly got used to it. He was definitely super proud of my progress and very happy for me. I had a lot of leftovers from restaurants while he was here, lol, and sometimes had to remind everyone that I needed to eat, even if they weren't hungry yet. But it was totally fine.

Dad and I took a mini road trip to Rapid City to recreate a trip that we took in 2003. It was a pleasant drive up, but the motel was terrible and we ended up driving home Sunday night instead of Monday morning. I knew that I needed to have food handy and I looked into high protein foods that didn't need refrigeration or to be heated. I got Chomps jerky, Elite Sweets protein donuts, and Legendary Foods Protein Pastry, all of which can be found at BariatricPal (also where I order vitamins from).

Luckily, I didn't need a lot of them, but the jerky was really handy and tasty. I do enjoy the pastries and donuts once in a while, but they are a little too sweet for me to want them regularly. I know. Weird coming from a girl who used to make her tea into syrup...😁😂 My main goal with these foods was to make sure I could ingest enough protein.

I was really happy on Sunday when we did our bus tour. They had an all you can eat breakfast with pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and sausage. I was able to eat two plump sausages and a few bites of a biscuit with gravy. Then, just when it was time to eat again, we were at Mt. Rushmore and they had a café where I got some really good scrambled eggs. For lunch we had the buffet at the State Game Lodge at Custer State Park and I was able to have some berries, and the buffalo stew that I had been waiting for. For dinner we had a Chuckwagon dinner back at Ft. Hays where our tour started and it was a TON of food. There was no way I could even eat half of it. I had the most tenderest beef brisket and then took bites of baked potato, homemade chunky applesauce, baked beans, and a tiny bite of spice cake. After stuffing that all in, I needed to wait to drink, but they came to take all the glasses and so I slurped a few swigs of lemonade and paid for it a few moments later. I felt like I was gonna toss my cookies and had to make a beeline for the little cowgirl's room. But I was ok after a few minutes.

It was still a pretty tight squeeze for dad and I to fit in the bus seat together, but I was excited that I didn't have any trouble getting on or off the bus or walking around the attractions. Huge NSV!! (That's non-scale victory if you didn't know.)

I haven't been very active though, and that's one thing I feel bad about. But the arthritis in my knee is still a factor, though the plantar fasciitis has been kicking my butt. I did make a rather quick decision to hire a personal trainer/coach. I'm super excited but also a little scared and also feeling poor because it was not cheap. I know, however, that I am worth the investment and am happy to have an expert to help me get the most out of my efforts. And also to help me succeed while taking care of the owie parts.

I wanted to go to the gym today, but alas, I am home in my pajamas feeling terrible and looking worse, hee hee. Hopefully, this weekend!

Now, enjoy a photo drop!!