Day 4: Emergency Room. Ugh.

If you read my Day 3 post -- that's where this story begins. If you didn't -- let me explain.

(Side note: I woke up 1 pound lighter than the day before -- total weight loss 5 lbs)

For most of my life I've dealt with a "restricted esophagus" -- meaning, the opening of my esophagus is small, making it very easy to get "choked" on food. Over the course of my life, I've learned to live with it. It's apparently prevalent in my family as my dad, aunt, and uncle deal with the same issue. We've got our "tricks" for making things go up or down (disgusting, I know), and we've learned how to mitigate the risks -- i.e. chewing more, smaller bites, softer foods.

Meats are the notorious culprits. So, Wednesday night, as I'm cutting up my vegetables to grill -- I decided to have a few bites of that wonderful pulled pork. Bad idea. Not realizing that my first bite never made it all the way down, the two bites I took after that just added to the problem. I busted out all of the tricks of the trade to no avail. Mind you, this is 6:30 pm...

I try everything I know to try to get this meat to disappear, one way or the other. No luck. Stress and anxiety seem to make it worse, so I decide to go to bed (in hindsight, quite possibly the most foolish think I've ever done..). Lucky for me, I wake up.

Meet Thursday morning (Day 4) -- 6:00 am. As I get up for work, I decide to take a drink of water to see if said bbq had decided to be on its merry way. Again, bad idea. Water just sat in my throat on that piece of meat until it decided to make it's grand reappearance (the water, not the meat). I called my mom who instructed my stubborn self to go to the ER...

Like a good daughter -- I followed the instructions.

Got to the ER around 6:30 and waited patiently for my turn. Lucky for me -- I was the only soul in there! Mom drove from home to meet me, and Joe came, too! (Insert note that I'm incredibly lucky to have people who drop everything to come to me, even when I'm stubborn and tell them not to!)

The ER doctor came in, we discussed the issue, and he told me there were two options. We could try giving me a muscle relaxer to hopefully relax my esophagus and allow the meat to go down (20% chance of working), and if that wasn't successful, I would have to be put to sleep, scoped, and have the meat pushed down into my stomach. (I'm afraid of needles, so I liked neither of these options...)

We tried the muscle relaxer first -- through an IV (kill me. I hate needles.) -- yep. totally didn't work. Just my luck!

I finally was able to see the gastrointestinal doctor (who was awesome!) around noon. I was sedated, had a scope put down my throat to locate the meat, the meat was then pushed down into my stomach (the size of a half dollar, might I add.), then a balloon was placed in my esophagus and expanded to stretch it out in hopes of correcting my restriction. (Yes, I have pictures, but I will spare you the disgusting.)

When I woke up -- I was the life of the party.. drunker than downtown cootie brown. Hilarious and sarcastic, no doubt. Mom took a video.... I'll have to delete that.

So -- what did I eat on Day 4?.... well... I went nearly 24 hours with no food or drink, not cool. I was instructed to eat soft/liquid food for a day or two. We went to Newks, one of the few places I knew I could get good soup, and I ended up having potato soup. Yes, I know, not South Beach Diet approved. Did I care? NO. I was starving and doing as instructed.

So - for day 4 I have no good recipes, a not so good ER story, and a fantastic bowl of potato soup. Yep, that sums it up.

--T

Day 3: Pork was a Bad Idea

I woke up on Wednesday morning (day 3) two pounds lighter than I was -- total weight loss is 4 lbs.

Breakfast: Lettuce wrap with turkey, american cheese, and 1 teaspoon miracle whip. Yum!

Snack: 7 cheese cubes and a pepperoni stick (seeing a trend??)

Lunch: Leftover Mexican Jumping Beans and Mexi-Baked Chicken (missed those recipes? Find them here.)

Snack: 1 oz whole natural almonds

Dinner: -- Here's where the day gets fun... I decided to have pulled pork bbq for dinner with grilled cajun vegetables. Sounds simple enough, right? Yea -- it totally is, unless you're one of the unfortunate souls who has a restricted esophagus and gets food lodged in your throat on the regular. I mean... really??? See Day 4 for the whole run-down of this fabulous disaster.

Day 2: Fiesta!

I'm recapping multiple days this morning -- so this one will be short, sweet, and to the point!

I woke up Tuesday morning (Day 2) two pounds lighter than I was on Monday! Yippeeee!!

The best part of Tuesday was my dinner, for sure (recipes below!)

• Breakfast: 2 egg muffins (egg beaters, spinach, feta cheese, cheddar cheese, green peppers)

• Snack: 7 cheddar cheese cubes and a pepperoni stick (meet my most favorite snack ever!!)

• Lunch: Salad (lettuce, roma tomato, feta cheese, mozzarella cheese, and olive oil as dressing), sugar free jello

• Snack: 1 oz whole natural almonds

• Dinner: Here's the good stuff! I had a "mexican inspired" dinner and it was awesome!

Mexican Jumping Beans
Ingredients
2 small onions, chopped
(note: original recipe calls for one onion)
1 green pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 (15 oz) cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup water
half packet of taco seasoning
(note: original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons)
low-fat Mexican cheese blend, for topping

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, saute the pepper, onions, and garlic in olive oil until crisp-tender.
2. Add beans, water, and seasoning; simmer on low to medium heat until thickened (about 10 minutes).
3. Top with cheese upon serving.

Mexi-Baked Chicken
Ingredients
(note: see original recipe for ingredients prior to my manipulation.)
Chicken Tenderloin Strips
4 teaspoons taco seasoning
1 teaspoon salsa (any heat) per strip
1/2 cup shredded low-fat Mexi-blend cheese


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Spray a shallow, small baking dish with nonstick spray.
3. Coat chicken lightly with taco seasoning, on both sides; spoon salsa over top of breast.
   
4. Bake, uncovered, approximately 30 minutes.
   
5. Sprinkle cheese on strips evenly; bake for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.
   

Enjoy!

Day 1: No Sugar - Everyone's Alive

Why no sugar? I've decided that Weight Watchers requires far too much attention to "counting" than I prefer. Between my job as a Budget Analyst and my obsession over my personal finances -- I'm pretty over counting. I've opted for a "diet" that seems like a more manageable lifestyle. I've never been the "skinny girl" -- nor do I want to be. I want to be healthy -- and in order to do that -- I need to drop some pounds, change my eating habits, and get a little more active. I went from being athletic in college to a sedentary desk job... uhhh... not working out so well at all.

I took time to read the South Beach Diet book and realized I was sorely mistaken when I thought this diet was 'low carb'. In fact, this diet isn't low carb or low fat. The whole purpose of the South Beach diet is to learn the difference between good carbs and bad carbs/good fat and bad fat. I've also vowed to myself to not get in the routine of eating the same thing every day simply out of convenience... I need to venture out.

During Phase 1, which lasts 2 weeks, I can only have food from this list. I've also had to cut out all sugar.

Here I am - Day 1 of Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet. Lord Help!

It's a true story - I've gone an entire day without one gram of sugar, and everyone around me has managed to survive it. Now, that's not to say in five days I won't be a creature from the pits of hades... only time will tell.

I'm hoping to share this "South Beach Diet" journey -- be that a success or a failure -- and to use my blog to help keep myself accountable. (And to share the good recipes I find!) Not to mention -- it helps that I'm not going at this alone.. My mom is doing something similar, and Joe's on the South Beach wagon with me. Accountability and support.... check.

Here's a quick run-down of today's menu:

• Breakfast consisted of two egg muffins (egg beaters, green peppers, feta cheese, cheddar cheese, spinach, salt, and pepper... YUM!) and a large unsweet tea with extra lemon from Sonic!

• Snack #1 consisted of a pepperoni stick and 6 cheddar cheese cubes. hellooooo to my new favorite snack

• Lunch was a large lettuce leaf filled with shredded cheddar cheese and thin sliced deli turkey, homemade cheese crisps, unsweet tea, and sugar free jello.

• Snack #1 was a 1 oz back of whole natural almonds. I must admit the first two were sort of really bland -- but after a while, they grew on me. No complaints!

• Dinner -- by far the best -- I had a grilled round steak seasoned with Paula Deen steak seasoning paired with grilled zucchini and onions (made with 4 tsp olive oil, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and Cajun seasoning)... OMG... YES! Please. I'm pretty certain I'll be indulging in this again this week!

Surprisingly, I've felt alot better today than I anticipated. I figured I'd be sluggish and starving. I've been neither. I've been happily satisfied all day -- and I'm actually looking forward to the repeat tomorrow.

Keep up the good work, Me.....
Only 13 more days go without sugar. EEK!