And so it goes....

On January 20, 2012 I went to my family physician and asked for his help in getting the process started. He highly recommended Ellis Hospital due to their excellent reputation with the surgery as well as patient care from start to finish. He told me that they were a well establish bariatric center and really cared about their patients. So on his recommendation and after making the proper “reservation”, on February 2, 2012, my son’s girlfriend, Jess and I went to an evening bariatric seminar at Ellis Hospital. It was only about 1 ½ hours long and touched on all the aspects of each of the surgeries as well as topics about before and after the surgery. Since I hadn’t made up my mind which surgery I was definitely going to do at this point, I didn’t turn in any paperwork that night.

About a week later my doctor faxed in the physician referral. Although nothing in the letter was UNTRUE, it really disturbed me to see it in writing. I was morbidly obese with a BMI of 51. I had numerous health problems on my way to eventually having diabetes and heart disease. That really sunk in.

The next day the secretary at Ellis Bariatric Center called me to schedule my first appointment. I decided to go with Dr. Panemanglore as he was the one that did the seminar I attended.

My first appointment was with the nurse and the PA there. Such nice people! The PA did a physical, a tech did an EKG and the nurse went over all the particulars of the program. She gave me a "lean and green" diet and told me that I would need to lose 10% of my weight. That meant, on my own with the help of this 800 calorie diet, I would need to lose 33 lbs! WHAT? I eat 2000 to 4000 calories a day! How am I supposed to survive on that! Breakfast was usually 800 calories a day all by itself.

The reason I would need to lose this weight was because with the way that I eat, my liver (the liver of a typical obese person) was fatty and large and that it would most probably cause issues with the surgery. It's a requirement to lose the 10% through Ellis and my insurance company.

Well, since I was determined to lose this weight in order to have the surgery and because I knew this particular diet was temporary, I went shopping to get the items I would need. But, not without splurging through my LAST weekend, of course!

The weekend preceding the start of my diet I had ALL my favorites! It was my work weekend, all the more reason to "treat" myself. Friday night I had a turkey, swiss and bacon foot long sub from Subway, my FAVORITE! On Saturday night I went out to dinner with friends and had a salad, soup, steak, green beans and garlic mashed potatoes - my FAVORITE! Plus a couple of Coronas! I actually brought home leftovers, believe it or not. Then on Sunday morning I decided to go to Bagel Tyme for my last bacon, egg and swiss cheese on a toasted works bagel sandwich. My absolute FAVORITE breakfast! (do you see a pattern here!?). Oh and then I decided I would get a chicken salad sandwich on a works bagel for lunch! MY FAVORITE! Somehow, I managed to eat the leftover steak and potatoes for lunch, which I had originally brought for lunch - completely forgetting the chicken salad sandwich. Later that afternoon, a couple hours before quitting time, I got the munchies. So, I went to the kitchen at work and started looking for popcorn or something. As I looked in the cupboard, I found my stash of snacks which included a "cup 'o noodles". I LOVE "cup 'o noodles" - MY FAVORITE! So, I added hot water to the noodles and opened the fridge to get something to drink and there I spotted MY CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICH! I looked at the soup and then at the sandwich. Me, not one to throw away good food, decided to eat BOTH of them. After all, it WAS my last weekend of really eating!! On the way home, I stopped off at the Chinese restaurant to pick up dinner (not even a LITTLE bit hungry, but I had "promised myself"). Dinner? Yep. I got egg foo young and fried dumplings from King's Wok and then stopped at Chu Garden for fried won tons. ALL ARE MY FAVORITES. I couldn't even consider eating this until about 10pm that night. But I DID.

Unfortunately, this is all too common an occurrence when I'm about to start "new" diet. It's not a wonder I don't lose much and then lose interest and willpower.

The next day, Monday, March 26th I started the lean and green diet given to me by Ellis!

For breakfast I have:
1/2 cup egg beaters with chopped up veggies (usually mushrooms, scallions, peppers and spinach)
1/4 cup of cottage cheese
4 oz. Dannon Light and Fit yogurt

This is more than I usually have for breakfast and I must say - it's rather filling!

For lunch I have:
3 oz. lean meat (there are 3 categories "lean, leaner and leanest")
1-2 cups greens
½ cup veggies

For dinner I have:
5 oz. lean meat
1-2 cups greens
½ cup veggies

Depending on which category of lean protein I eat, I can have 0-2 tablespoons of a zero trans-fat in the form of a low carb, low fat diet salad dressing, olive oil or other types of oil on the list. No butter :-( I have been lucky to find the Hidden Valley light ranch to be rather tasty. I normally do not like diet salad dressing. And I do love olive oil and balsamic vinegar as a dressing as well. Since I don't like my salad swimming in dressing, the small amount I can have is just enough. Amazing!