Some Thoughts...

Hey everyone! How's life treatin' ya?

Things are pretty nice over here..  Just trying to enjoy summer and prepare for nursing school to star this fall... (Good Lord is that process expensive!)..

Not too much share with the health thing.. Thankfully, I am doing well and just trying to get by... It's a day to day struggle for me. A battle between my love of food and my need to be healthy. I have found myself focusing lately more on eating "clean" and trying to get healthy rather than just trying to "get skinny". I have finally realized the value in whole, organic, unprocessed foods. It's terrifying what companies add in to processed food today. Right now, the general rule of thumb is if I can read the label and KNOW what's in it, I buy it. If not, I don't. I won't claim to be perfect or even try. This is a learning process for me and I am a continually evolving project.

I wanted to share this picture with everyone. I saw it online and it sent shivers down my spine to the point where I started to cry.

  Childhood obesity (and preventing it) is a huge passion of mine right now. If we can start children early on and teach them not just HOW to eat healthfully, but WHY, maybe we can save even one child from struggling with adulthood obesity. I think back to being a child and my parents having me on diets from age 7 or 8. They always tried telling me WHAT to do, but I never remember any real consistency or reasons given to me other than "you'll be so much prettier if you were only thin". Ugh.. BIGGEST pet peeve comment. I WILL throat punch the next person I hear that from. Please, I beg of you... Teach your children WHY early on! Don't be afraid to show them what struggles they COULD face when they get older. Teach them to enjoy healthy snacks in moderation.

Also, reserve things like Xbox and Playstation as rewards! Do not use them just as babysitters. Children these days are sedentary for 7+ hours a day in school. The last thing they need is an entire evening of mindless gaming that offers no real value. I actually read a blog the other day where the blogger had gotten a phone call from her son's school to tell her that he got "in trouble" and was made to sit in time out for all of recess because he "ran on the playground". Apparently, running on the playground is against school policy because kids could get hurt... Who the hell cares??? Kids are SUPPOSED to get hurt! Kids scrape knees, break arms, and get bruised up... They still survive. A child that ends up with Type 2 Diabetes by age 12 may not survive though.

Ok, I am going to step down from my soapbox now... The moral of my rant? Teach them young. Children are SO smart and absorb SO much. Get their brains and bodies moving and prepare them for a healthy, happy future!

Stacie's "Kind-a" Bars

So I have many reasons to smile these days...

First, I am finally cleared of my "dental drama"!!! EEEEEEE!!!! I couldn't have been a happier girl walking out of the (amazing) third oral surgeons office! Dr. Ban, you are wonderful and I am so grateful to not be in ANY pain anymore!

Along with my mouth pain being done, the semester from hell has ended as well. I did well in my Math and Microbiology classes. I haven't heard back from my English professor yet. I have a feeling I did well, as I have done well all semester (and my final research paper kicked ass... Who am I kidding??).. I may post a link to it someday, as it is a research paper completely devoted to weight loss surgery. I loved writing it!

I am also back to my old routine. Running and meal prepping! It's great to be back and "alive" again. I struggled SO much over the past 3 months and have a whole new understanding and appreciation for those that suffer chronic pain of any kind.. It is truly debilitating and, despite how I used to feel, you can't "just ignore it". I apologize for my former lack of sympathy and concern. I also appreciate everyone who has been so kind and caring while I was having trouble. The kind words, emails, texts, and calls meant so much. xoxo!

On to the title of this post!

This morning, I was battling some cramping and went on the hunt for some Midol in the gift shop of the hospital I am currently working in. That place is a death trap for my wallet! EVERY. TIME.
While in there, I was hungry and in my current efforts to "eat clean', I picked up one of the Kind Bars I have been seeing everywhere. Only SEVEN ingredients in the bar and I can pronounce all of them! Wahoooo!!!

This one was Almond and Coconut. 100% delicious! -- PS-- Please excuse the pic! I had to sneak it at my desk because I had a meeting going on all around me and didn't want to look too dumb snapping pics of my food while at work! ;) After one bite, I swore I was going to try and recreate these bad boys at my house (hopefully cheaper than the price of a box).

Mission accomplished!!!

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you...

                                                            Stacie's "Kind-a" Bars!
I know, I know.. Original name...

                 Engineer approved! (Nice chunk taken out before I could even let them harden. lol)

Seriously though, these babies are the BOMB! Taste JUST like Almond Joy bars, but MUCH healthier and they won't put you're sugar levels on a roller coaster ride.

Want the recipe??? I know you do! I would if I didn't come up with it! ;)

Stacie's "Kind-a" Bars
2 Cups Dry Oats
1/3 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Flaked Coconut
1 Cup Slivered Almonds
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
3/4 Cup Honey
1/2 Cup Almond Butter

Mix all ingredients up. Press in to sprayed pan. Cut in to bars.

STATS:
I measured my stats for 8 bars cut out of each pan. In hindsight, I wish I would have used puffed brown rice instead of all the oats (a suggestion from The Engineer). Not quite as "low cal" as I had hoped for, but still healthy.

Serving size: 1 Bar
Servings Per Recipe: 16
Calories: 177
Protein: 3.5

About the same as a normal "Kind" Bar.. Same size and about 15 cals less.

Have a good evening everyone! Hope you enjoy! 

Coming Out of Hiding...

So this is going to be a bit of a long winded post...

Some have noticed and emailed me to say so.. I have taken a bit of a hiatus from social media.
I DO appreciate the emails and posts I received. I cannot believe people actually noticed. That warms my heart.. truly.

These past two months have been a huge struggle for me. I was very open with the fact that I have been dealing with some pretty major dental issues that caused me TONS of pain and so much hassle that I don't even know where to begin...

It all started with what we thought was a cavity, which turned in to 11 dental appointments, 3 root canals, and finally an extraction. I saw my dentist, 2 endodontists, and a surgeon. I ended up getting a dry socket in the extraction site and had to get it packed.

The day after I had the extraction, I KNEW I was going to need it packed because the clot fell out and I could see it turning white very quickly (not to mention the tremendous pain). When I called the surgeons office, they basically told me I was med seeking and not to call back for a week because they wouldn't treat a dry socket until at least a week out. I was upset because I knew the only way to get rid of the pain from a dry socket was to pack it.. Pain meds only provide temporary relief to a problem that needs fixed and quite frankly I am sick of taking them. I work full time and go to school full time. My life doesn't afford me the luxury of being a doped up zombie.

The pain was so bad about 3 days out that I called my home dentist and explained what was going on. He then prescribed more meds and told me to call him over the weekend to let him know how I was (if I was still in pain, he was actually going to meet me in the office and skip a conference just to put some packing in my mouth to provide me some relief).

Saturday I was feeling MUCH better, so I told him that and figured I would just wait it out and see how I was feeling the following week. Well, Sunday night the pain had gotten so bad again that I knew it was either go to the ER (which again would only mean more meds and not a solution) or wait it out and call the oral surgeon Monday morning. I decided to wait.

First thing Monday morning I called the oral surgeon (I waited a week like I was told) and before I could even get out what I had to say, the nurse chewed me out for taking more antibiotics from my dentist and calling my dentist instead of them... Mind you, I DID call them, but they dismissed me and told me not to call back for a week. I went to the appointment anyway...BIG MISTAKE.

After a VERY painful procedure to pack my wound with oil of clove covered gauze, the surgeon YELLED and lectured me for "making him look bad" by calling my own dentist and not calling him. He wouldn't even let me speak! He just kept yelling. Eventually I broke down in tears and he told me I was "being too emotional"... Ok.... So you try being in terrible pain for 2 months with no end in sight with a million other things to do then get yelled at just for trying to help yourself and not be emotional. Fucking asshole.

That morning put me in a very dark place. I have been so depressed for about 3 weeks now.. I can't exercise because my jaw throbs with every step. My grades are slipping because I can't focus when the mouth pain gets so bad. My eating has just been terrible, though I am still losing because I do continue to keep track of calories. That being said, I don't think eating a bagel every morning is in my best interest... :( I'm finding that I just don't care. It's all too much to think about... I am trying to find the positive and thought I had, but it seems like it was just a tease.

The packing that the jerk put in worked wonders! I felt SO good all week. It was great finally feeling normal again.. I went this morning to have the packing removed (by my dentist) and he even poked around to see if I was still tender anywhere... NOPE! Yay!!... Not so fast, lady...

My dentist told me he wasn't convinced that my bone infection in the jaw was gone yet and I still had a slightly dry socket, but his system was down and he couldn't take xrays today. He wants me to call back Monday so I can come in for xrays.

By this evening I was in such terrible pain again... The dry socket. UGH. I just don't know what to say at this point. I am going to try my hardest to get back on the wagon and get through it. Its been two very long months. All I want in the whole world is for all of this to be over. Thank the Lord that classes end in less than a month, so I'll at least get a bit of a mental break, if nothing else.

This all has to end at some point, right?? It will get better??? :( :( :(

Meal Prep for the Week!

Well, my friends... As requested, here is a little look in to my "meal prep" for this week.

I ALWAYS meal plan, shop accordingly, and prep the fresh vegetables that I bring home every week. For me, it's not only a way of keeping track of my food, but I find that grocery shopping according to a meal schedule is MUCH cheaper and easier.

I keep my list of meals in my phone, so it is easily accessible for me to track. I keep the list and just change the meals out from week to week. Before I go grocery shopping, I take a glance at what I have in my freezer, fridge, and cabinets, then I write out meals for the week. After I write them up, I go over the list and make a grocery list of things I will need to complete each meal (I find that I usually don't need a ton, which is where this is cheaper).
PS-- Sorry the list only goes to Thursday, my phone wouldn't let me screen shot the whole week, but I do plan for Friday! Usually it's our "pizza" day.

This past weekend, my fiance and I were talking about food for the week and he suggested that I "get our stuff for lunches" together to save me some time. That made me think that, yes, I DO meal prep, but could I do more and give myself even MORE time during the evenings. If you know me, you know that time is a bit scarce in my life these days (f/t school and work). Anything I can do to give myself more time is a plus in my book! :)

SO off I went to the grocery store and bought everything I would need to get my week together!

I came home and first worked on my lunches.

I made up 3 of my cottage cheese bowls. I explained how I make them in this post. I also made up the fixings for 2 english muffin pizzas (to give myself a little variety). I put together some snack bags that have a rice cake and almond butter packet to eat as my morning snack.

Next I put my breakfasts together. I have a protein shake every morning, so I made up enough protein packs for the week.

I have a variety of shakes that I make. For this week, I made a couple "Fake Dole Whip" shakes, a strawberry cake batter shake, and 2 espresso shakes.

"Fake Dole Whip" shake
1/2c. Frozen Pineapple
1/2 Frozen banana
1/3 c. frozen spinach (not for flavor, I am trying to add iron to my daily diet)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 c. coconut milk

Mix in blender until "shake" consistency.


Once I finished up everything for my week, I made up The Engineer's lunches (he's pretty easy and predictable.. sammie, fruit, and veggie...EVERY. DAY). And he LOVES it! Me? I need variety! 

I didn't need to do a TON of dinner prep because I actually had a lot already made, but I did some.

Tonight's dinner- Italian Beef sandwiches. This is a roast in my crock pot with a can of crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper, italian seasoning, and a packet of onion soup. I prepped it yesterday and today it cooked all day on low (about 9-10 hours). We came home to a delicious smelling house and all we had to do was quickly use two forks to shred the beef, pull out the buns, and plate our food! Easy!

This is a bag of oven roasted, organic chicken breasts that I chopped up for our burritos this week.

The last thing I "prepped" was some butternut squash to use as a side dish this week. I had a hard time putting this baby in the fridge... Smelled SO good!

I will leave you all with a picture of my fridge after I prepped and finally put everything away. The funny thing is, I got home from work today and realized I literally had my whole evening to devote to school work. Nothing else to do! It was AWESOME! I full plan on continuing to prep like this every Sunday.

Have a great evening!  I will let you all know how the rest of the week went!

What I Ate Wednesday!

I haven't shared much of what I have been eating lately, so this post is going to focus mostly on my eats from today.

Breakfast

I have had the biggest loveeeeeee of any and all nut butters lately. While grocery shopping this past week, I saw that individual packets of Justin's were on sale 4 for $5. Not a huge difference, but enough for me to buy a few flavors I haven't tried yet. This morning, I tried the Justin's Vanilla Almond Butter on 2 whole grain waffles. I can say out of all the butters I have tried, this one was not my favorite. It was good, but I am not a huge vanilla fan. It almost tasted like coconut. I prefer the Justin's Maple or Honey Almond Butter.

Lunch 

Looks a little gross, but I swear it is HEAVENLY! I found a recipe for a ricotta bowl on a fellow gastric bypass patient's Instagram account. I took her awesome idea and modified it to my personal tastes. Yummo and full of protein!

Cottage Cheese Bowl

1/4 c. fat free cottage cheese
2 TBS gravy (I use Heinz Pork gravy)
1 TBS grated Parmesan cheese
3 Morning Star Chx Nuggets

Mix first three ingredients in bowl. Bake nuggets night before (when you microwave them, they get gummy). When ready to eat, microwave bowl for 1 minute then stir in chopped up chicken nuggets. Enjoy! SO SO good!

212 calories
18 grams protein

Snack

 
 I was feeling muchy after work and planned on making honey mustard salmon for dinner, so I snacked on a handful of Smartpop. Ok, two handfuls... Don't judge me. lol

So after all of my "dental drama" from last week, I thought I was finally done and just waiting for my crown appointment on the 24th. WRONG! I finished up my antibiotic on Monday and was feeling great, but all of a sudden, woke up with mouth pain again today. I tried ignoring it, but then had a fever and chills by this afternoon and got a little worried. (If you didn't know, the infection had already spread to my jaw bone, which makes it pretty serious.) I called my dentist and he asked me to come in this evening because he wanted to take more x-rays. I decided to eat a mug of cereal in case he decided to numb me up (I totally can't chew at all when I am numb, so dinner would be a no-go). Well, went to the dentist, got x-rays, and found out not only did the infection spread even further down my jaw (while I was on some seriously strong antibiotics), but it had already started eating away at the bottom of my tooth...For realz!????? Come on dude! SO over this dentist thing! Needless to say, my dentist is very concerned and now referring me to an oral surgeon... :(

Dinner 

When I finally got home from the dentist office, I was a bit hungry again (probably due to the lack of protein in my pre-appt choice of cereal). I decided to make a low carb, low fat, cheese quesadilla. Tasted so yummy! Now I am stuffed and ready for bed.

Hopefully I can get all of this dental crap out of the way soon. It's been making me feel so yucky lately. I just don't have it in me to go to the gym. Maybe I can get myself to do some Wii Zumba tomorrow. That always cheers me up!

Good night! Only 2 more "wake-ups" till the weekend!
 
 

A Very Bold and Terrifying Move..

So it has been forever since I have even logged in to my blog to check stats and such.. Wow.. Time flies when you're going to school and working full time. Ugh!

This semester has been nothing short of a living hell and I can't wait for it to be over in May. I feel like it has been sucking the life out of me. I have also been seriously slacking on exercise, which is terrible because I have my first 5k in June.

I am SUPER excited, but really need to start training again.

If you follow me outside of the blog via Instagram or Facebook, you would have already picked up on the fact that I have been experiencing some MAJOR dental issues this past week. If there is anything I absolutely hate about having a gastric bypass, it is that we cannot take Ibuprofen or any other NSAIDS post op. NSAIDS eat away at your stomach lining and when you have a teenie, tiny tummy... No good!

This leaves us with Tylenol (acetaminophen) or narcotics. I ended up leaving work early twice last week because the pain was THAT bad and Tylenol just wasn't kicking it. It was miserable. At one point, last Tuesday, the pain was so bad that even my prescription wasn't touching it. Thankfully, I was put on a second antibiotic that seems to be healing it up. My mouth still hurts after I eat, but it isn't a constant throb like last week. Man, do I miss Ibuprofen. In my opinion, it works even better than the hard stuff without the loopy feeling. I got so desperate at one point last week that I DID take an ibuprofen (against the many warnings from my fiance) and ended up with a mouth that felt better and a terrible stomach ache.. womp womp! #liveandlearn

WEIGHT LOSS 

**IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE MY STOMACH WITH EXCESS SKIN, STOP READING NOW**

Anyway... A little update on the weight loss and my eats lately (there isn't much in the way of exercise to talk about). So after battling with 3 pounds for what seemed like FOREVER, I finally hit my first big goal of having lost 100lbs from my highest weight. Yay!! I still have about 70+ lbs to go, so I can't party too much yet, but The Engineer did restock my closet with new clothes that actually fit me. Thanks, Boo Boo! You're the best! 

So now is the point where I get very brave. I am truly nervous about this and have debated over and over about the pic I am about to share. I have *officially* lost 103.7 lbs and have only done it with the inspiration I continually get from others who have done the same thing. I am always curious about what people's bodies look like post major weight loss, so I am going to share a side view of my abdomen. I notice a difference, you may or may not. All I ask is for kindness, please. This is very, very hard for me, but since I love seeing other people's pictures, I am sure some of you are interested in what a stomach looks like after having lost 100+ lbs. It is very clear in the pic that I still have fat to lose, but unfortunately a lot of what you see is pure skin that I can pull out inches in front of my body. 

In all of the contemplating I did over whether to post this picture or not, it occurred to me how much I am worrying about offending people, yet if I were a skinny mini in a bikini, it would be nothing. Funny how we think of over weight people in society these days. At any rate, there it is.. My body. My greatest enemy. My project.
                                                                         FOOD

Since  I haven't been blogging lately, I have been skimping on meal pics (other than what I post on Instagram). While making my lunch for tomorrow, I snapped a pic because it is an epic salad. I have been eating all mushy food lately because of my tooth. It will be nice to have some crunchy, fresh greens back in my diet.

I picked up a rotisserie chicken at the super market today and used some of it for this salad. It consists of romaine lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, parm cheese, and a very ripe avocado. Can't wait to pour some balsamic on this baby tomorrow!

Have a great evening and Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of the Irish and "Irish" out there!