Puerto Plata diet

Well, I'm back. I had a fabulous vaca with my mommy on the beach. We had fun in the shade (well it was either that or come home looking like a lobster). I swam in the ocean for the first time every, and saw the cheesiest tranny filled Vegas style show ever! I spent a week by a pool, looking at the ocean in "feels like" 40 + weather.  It was awesome! I did not however realize that my mom and I were heading to a weight loss facility.

In order to describe their process at this resort, we need a little background. the Dominican is not, nor  will they ever be know for their culinary prowess. That being said, their program is powerful. It works. I went down their with no knowledge of what I was in for... let alone expectations. In the end, I loss a lot of weight while their. In the week I was gone, I think I dropped 7 lbs (I'm not sure, 'cause I can't remember what I weighed before I left).

The program was rigorous and quite restrictive. Physical activity was... exhausting, and hydration was paramount.  

Seriously, I knew I was heading for a foreign country. But I did not really appreciate all the little creature comforts I have here. I live on a smoothies, yogurt and curries; when all else fails I turn to frozen yogurt to make everything better. I knew that going down there would be challenging, but I had no idea that I would find myself with absolutely no food. 

RIGOROUS AND RESTRICTIVE PROGRAM:

I was unable to eat the breakfast foods. They offered omelets and scrambled eggs, sausages that look like hotdogs, sliced up hotdogs, chilled fruit (can't consume anything cold) and a plethora of breads. It wasn't until day 4 or 5 that I found out they actually had yogurt.

I managed to establish a slow routine that freaked the wait staff out; especially with the language barrier. So breakfast usually went like this. Get up and only head down to the dining area around 9-9:30. Drink 3-4 cups of cafe et leche caliente. Then order 2 soft poached eggs (that's all, no more?), ok, give me 1 toast with that. i would then take roughly 45 mins to eat that.

Lunch consisted of a huge buffet filled with foods I couldn't eat. Mainly there was rice and beans... some fish dish (who would have thought that living so close to the ocean meant that you could get fresher fish in Ottawa...?), pizza (think, thin crust frozen pizza with 3 pieces of something or another added). A huge cold salad buffet (not gonna happen cold anything blocks me and they didn't have any decent salad dressings). I don't really know what else, because I only went to lunch a total of 2 times. After that (block and puke), I just didn't bother.

In the end, thanks to the heat, and the pool side's endless supply of pina coladas, I was never really full. Especially when you factor in that I would finish breaky around 11 am. 

At 3 pm there would be a little snack served, consisting of open faced sandwiches. I would normally nibble on 3-4 of them (think a slice of tiny baguette topped with avocado, cream cheese or chicken salad).

Dinner was always around 6:30. I didn't want to eat to late and have problems because of that. So we would head to the main dining area, or the restaurant where we had reservations. There I would normally manage 3 or 4 bites of whatever I scrounged up, block and head to my room.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY:

Now as I metionned, this was an exhausting regimen. I had to go from the breakfast patio, to the lounge chair by the pool. There was turning over, applying and re-applying sunscreen and the crucial swim in the pool to cool down and get hydration. 

HYDRATION:

As stated previously, hydration is key in any of these situations. Especially when you are in 40+ weather, working out strenuously all day. So I made sure that the barman and I were on good terms, and that the drinks kept coming. I started with the ever popular pina colada, and ended my days drinking Fausto's special of the day. They were divine.

RECAP:

Menu for any given day:

1-2 soft poached eggs
1 toast
gallons of cafe au lait
4 baguette slice sandwiches
3-4 drinks (pina colada)
4-5 bites (on a good day) for dinner

for the last 3 days I added 1 yogurt to that list.

I know it's a foreign country, and the quick fixes I normally use when I can't consume food was... are not really present. I just had no idea how that would affect me. As I said at the beginning, I lost a lot of weight with this vaca.

Should you need a weight loss facility just let me know,  I have the name of a really good resort. :)

Things I should confess to:

• On Saturday I broke down and bought a $6.00 bag of Lays plain chips (these were shared with my mom).
• On Monday night, on the way home, I bought a $4.00 bag of M&Ms (there was absolutely NO sharing involved). 
• For dinner tonight, the hubby said I could have ANYTHING I wanted... so of course I requested Chinese food. I managed to eat 2 egg rolls, 2 chicken balls and 2 bites of General Tao's chicken. That was the most food I had eaten in 1 sitting in a week.  

P.S. Pictures will be forthwith coming.

one potato, two potato, three potato, four...

Don't ask. I have no idea what the title for this post has to do with the content of it. So I may have mentioned that I had a big old adjustment done on the last visit. I was thrilled that my doctor gave me what I wanted, seeing that he was not really sure it was a good idea. God bless him non-the-less. I struggled for the first three days, despite having done a liquid diet for 36 hours.

Lessons learned: Do a liquid diet for the 48 hours, no matter how smart you think you are, or how good you feel. It ain't worth puking on the side of the street around the corner from the restaurant you were just at.

So I stopped writing because I had nothing left to say after the first three days. There is only so much "ate this, puked... hope I learned my lesson" you can write. I mean I think I could do that each day. Post something about how I couldn't manage to eat.

I am still having a bit of a hard time with food, 3 weeks later. This is very reminiscent of my first adjustment after surgery. Long, long "recovery" - no that's not it... adaptation period. However, today it dawned on me that my problems seem to be two fold (is that the right expression???).

I am stunned and amazed at how slowly I eat now a days. Small bites, carefully chewed and slowly eaten (like taking my time getting the next bite in). I am always a good 10 mins slower than anyone I am eating with. Saves me from puking in the public toilets at work (gag!!). I even eat slower than the hubby when I am at home - now that's saying something. For years, meals consisted of me eating and waiting for a good 10-15 mins at the table for him to finish. That being said, he says I still take big bites. I really think I struggle with it more at home than when out.

So I was off on Friday (so that I can get a pedi for my trip down south). I had an hour to kill between appointments, so I decided to have lunch (in the form of breakfast!). I went to my favorite breaky place (Baker Street Cafe) and ordered 2 eggs soft poach. I managed to eat 1 egg and half a toast, plus 1 1/2 cups of coffee. Then I came to a screeching halt (please note that I was eating at the pace of a snail). I had to go and throw up everything. That bathroom was repulsive (I had never actually used it before). The waiter nervously asked if everything was ok. I asked for my non-consumed breakfast to go and had to get out of there and puke on the side of the road in a ritzy-happening part of town... AGAIN!

I followed that up with blocking during dinner last night (homemade pizza - don't judge!) and again for lunch on today (leftovers...please don't laugh). I now need to pause in this story, to justify myself a bit. So here is what I consumed Friday, Saturday and Sunday:

Friday: Booster juice (the high protein pomegranate one), unsuccessfully tried to ingest 1 soft poached egg, 1/2 toast (threw it all up) 2 cups lemon tea, 2 oz BBQ chicken and green salad, frozen yogurt

Saturday: 1 cup coffee, 1 peach greek yogurt, 2/3 ramen, 1/2 piece of naan bread (homemade pizza), frozen yogurt

Sunday (today): 2 cups coffee, 1/4 piece of naan bread (homemade pizza), 1/4 goldfish (whole wheat), 1/2 blueberry pancake (we went to the sugar bush this morning and I bought maple syrop... hence the dinner), 2 sausages (puked some of that up), 1/2 cup tea.

I was sitting at the dinner table with my 2 1/2 year old and my almost 5 year old, watching them eat. My dinner was smaller than theirs. They can both out eat me. That is what I discovered tonight. I managed to eat those two sausages and the 1/2 pancake (which was small to begin with), and I got nauseous. I though, MF! Am I actually blocking again??? I mean I hadn't made it threw half the GD pancake. I was eating tiny bites AND I was going slow, super slow! What is it going to take.

Well once I was done puking and getting blueberry pancake out of my sinus', I had time to realize something. I was standing there watching the hubby do the dishes, feeling like death warmed over and I thought "huh.".

Well that's it. See ya next time folks...

Kidding. What I realized was that I have been marveling at how tiny my portions have gotten since the beginning, but especially in the last 3 weeks. However the fact remains that I am still eating too much. This adjustment is quite something. I am guessing that my total capacity at any given sitting is roughly... 3/4 to 1 cup of food. Now if you think that that is normal, I don't want to hear it. In the good ol' days that wasn't even a starch serving for me. Think about it. How much food (cup wise) do you actually consume at any given meal. I challenge you to really look at what you eat and comment back here. I want to know.

Like I told the hubby, up until now even though I had hard times after an adjustment, by the end of the month (by the next MD visit) I was eating slightly less but not I felt like I was mostly back to my food capacity before the adjustment. It was almost like I had had the gastric by-pass surgery and my stomach would just stretch back to it's original size. I am not feeling that way right now.

In the end, I don't know what the right answer is. At this point in time I will just try to eat easy foods (salad, ratatouille/curry like foods and ground meets - or yummy fresh fish!) and see how I do. Usually by the time I make it back to the doctor's I feel comfortable with my daily food routine. If I am still struggling come April 5, I will ask him what he thinks. I would be curious to know what my stomach capacity is right now.

Well I am off to the Dominican. Next post will be in a week or so, telling the amusing tales of Moriah trying to consume food on vaca... hope there's lots of fresh fish and veggies!

You take the good, you take the bad...

You take them both and there you have. Now it's stuck in my head. Damn it! That's what I get for being witty.

So here is the update; day three. I continued the liquid diet for sheer fear of no being able to consume semi-solid (let alone solid) foods. Damn! What if the Dr. was right? What if it was too big an jump? Whatever, I had a 2 cc adjustment when I had first had the surgery. What's a .7 cc adjustment right? Well, you all read how day two went (not exactly stellar). Day three was better. I had my shake this morning and I didn't block (Hooray!). I followed that up with a Grande, non-fat, vanilla latte. Then at around 10 or so, I had cottage cheese (which I ate beyond slow). I was kinda excited and shocked that I didn't block with that. Granted it was almost room temperature (and chewed and consumed at the thoroughness and  pace of a turtle). So I felt good going into lunch. I had more pea soup with crackers. Once again, I ate at the pace of a snail. It took me over 30 mins to consume 1/2 a can of Habitant pea soup. However by the end of that 30 mins, the soup was at best tepid and I was eating a cracker. Well it blocked. I vomited the cracker and last spoonful of soup and felt much better.

I got home and we had Tilapia, ratatouille and potato kale cakes on the menu for dinner. I figured what the hell. Ratatouille will go down easily and I can try my luck with the fish. Well, ladies and gentleman, I was successful!!! I think I ate maybe 3 oz of fish and 1 cup of ratatouille!! It was the best meal ever.

I hate the liquid diet. You spend your time not quite feeling satisfied. I mean I get a full feeling, but I am hungry way faster and more so than if I had eating solid foods. I guess in order to continue with my success, I should stick to soft foods. Maybe by the weekend I can have solid food. We shall see!

Careful what you ask for, you just might get it!

Day one... or is it day two? Day two, post fill: I got up this morning and was feeling particularly good. I thought, I had a big fill yesterday, let us not tempt fate. I shall have a smoothie for breakfast, and take it from there. So I made my wonderful smoothie and started drinking it around 8 am. I had been up for at least 2 hours by then, so I thought this will all be fine. After the first 3 sips, I realized that even a smoothie can block you. Who would have thunk it? Well as it turns out I was still too swollen from the adjustment and the waking up thing (everybody is swollen when they wake up), and the cold, well milkshake like consistency of the smoothie was not conducive to letting things slide down my esophagus. Actually the coldness constricted the passage and voila! Blockage followed by a rousing bout of vomiting.

I feel like this is a talent I have developed a special talent here people. Who else could possibly accomplish such a stunningly difficult feet? Well, not been as intelligent as others, I followed that stroke of genius up with going for lunch at the green door. It is a lovely vegetarian restaurant and I thought it would be the right place for me. I could have soft veggie food. Yummy. Well, once again, I took one, maybe two bites (despite the fact that I was eating tiny bites, drinking tea AND eating über slowly) and felt myself block. Damn it! I then had to puke in the most repulsive bathroom ever, and someone was in the other stall!

All that two say that day two has been a liquid diet day. And I don't foresee this pattern changing. I did want him to tighten my band significantly. I did want to feel the difference, experience results. And he did, and I do...and I am pretty sure I will.

Well, you will be pleased to know that I had Habitant pea soup for dinner. Made a spinach, asperagus and parmesean soup and have some leftover squash soup from the fall (frozen).

¡Olé! (yeah, that's for you Danielle)

Place your bets!

Off to the doctors I went today. I was going with the conviction that I would confess all and demand a refund... Granted he did not perform the surgery, but I am annoyed with the slow weight loss progress. It was time I come clean and confess to the last two weeks. Ahem, there may have been some chocolate. OKAY, lots of chocolate. Over the last two weeks I have had 2 slices of birthday cake, a bag of M&M and a bag of KitKat balls. But I didn't confess, I changed tactics.

So there I was in the doctors office. He asks the usual: "How's it going?". And I say... "Not bad. But I still feel that I can eat a fair amount". Of course he wants to know how much a fair amount is, and when I tell him he doesn't seem overly concerned. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you one and all that he is never overly concerned. I need more... Results! As he sat there explaining to me how everybody wants fast results and that men can loose weight quickly but woman can't; also that I am probably the kind of person that can just reduce calories but must take a holistic (exercise please) approach, I get ready to hit with the "Moriah Plan"! So he finishes his schpeel and I say...: "What I would really like is that you increase my fill from 5.8 to 6.5". At which point he stares at me (possibly exasperated) for a few seconds. He expressed his concerns about this whole "big jump"; warning that I could block and he would prefer not to. When I told him that it wouldn't, he wanted to know how I knew this. I don't know how I convinced him, but .7 cc's later, here I am.

I was on my liquid diet today. Better safe than sorry I suppose. I can really feel the restriction, but I was hungry today. I had a booster juice for breakfast, followed that up with a large soup from Green Rebel and a Grande Vanilla latte (non-fat) from Starbucks. Now comes dinner. What to do? I asked Kelly if she wanted to take bets I whether I would puke up chili or not (I really was feeling hungry by 3:30 pm that chili seemed like a good idea), but she would not go for it. Sigh. I totes should have taken the bet. I had roughly 1/2 cup of chili for dinner with a cup of tea. Granted it took me about 30 mins to eat that, who cares! It was delicious and I didn't vomit! Hooray.

Now let's see how day 2 goes; this is the biggest adjustment this doctor has done from me - not the biggest I have had, but the biggest he has done.

Despite the serious lack of results on the scale (I can hear my doctor telling me that it's not the scale that counts but your actual body), I am seeing that my body is changing... I bought size 22 jeans this weekend. That (for all you skinny, never been plus size before peeps) is 2 sizes smaller than what I was wearing. I can put them on without any problems. I would probably look better in a size 24, but I plan on looking good in these jeans shortly. Plus, they were $90 jeans on sale for $20! I need this way more!!! Now if only the scale would show me the money. That would be good.

P.S. I have a new mantra: "I will not eat chocolate; I will not eat chocolate". Repeat to infinity. God I love chocolate.