….one week later, down 4 pounds and off mushy food

One week ago today I had gum surgery for crown lengthening so that I can have my broken tooth capped.  Today I went for my check-up to make sure that the incisions were healing properly and to have the dressings removed and replaced with new, smaller dressings.

Everything looks good. The stitches have dissolved, there’s no infection and I can start to eat more normally. Still no hard foods like crusty bread, croutons, biscotti and celery and chewing can only take place on the opposite side of my mouth away from the dressing. I am still restricted in the exercise department (no push-ups, sit ups, trampoline, bench pressing, cardio, etc.) but I can start walking further and faster and even go for a leisurely bike ride.

Here is my dilemma. I’m happy that I’m down four pounds and I’d like to keep them off and take off more. Being able to get out more will help but going back to ‘normal eating’ scares me. One thing that I’ve been forced to do and will have to do for another few weeks is eat on one side of my mouth. The good thing about that is that it forces me to eat more slowly and as a result I’m probably not eating as much because I get full before I finish my plate.

For a long time now I’ve convinced myself that I need more protein than most people and that carbohydrates are my enemy. Funny thing is that I’ve eaten very little meat this past week and a whole lot of pasta, creamed soups and mashed vegetables and still managed to lose 4 pounds. Tonight I had a bowl of vegetarian chill and a slice of sour dough bread with butter. I feel very satisfied and won’t need to eat later this evening. I’ll probably have a cup of tea.

I think what I need to do is start recording what I eat for awhile and see if I can see a pattern with what I eat, how much and in combination with what foods and see how my weight loss is affected. I suspect that how I combine foods will make a difference and not eating at night will also prove beneficial.

So I’m still down 20 pounds but my goal is to lose the other 10 before the end of the school year. It should be doable. I have 8 weeks to go. One and a half to two pounds a week is a very reasonable and achievable. I’ll keep you posted.

Cheers!

Before my 30 pound weight loss. I never want to go back to this again.

My after picture in the same blouse. 10 pounds to get back to this.