Trying New Foods and The Daily Bite

Today’s food:

Today’s food choices, clockwise from upper right: multivitamin and calcium supplement x2; scrambled egg with diced ham and cheese; Isopure Zero Carb (10 ounces); 2 ounces homemade lettuce wrap filling x2; 1.5 ounce slice of cap-off inside round roast beef.

As you can see from my photo above, I tested the waters with beef today.  We were grocery shopping yesterday at what is possibly the best grocery store in the known universe, Central Market, and I stopped by the deli counter to pick up some of their in-house roasted turkey for my snacks this week.  I prefer the in-house meats because I know they don’t have preservatives and thus sodium content is lower.  And Central Market has the best in-house roast turkey choices–traditional, Cajun, three pepper, herb-garlic.  They also happen to make their own roast beef, bison, lamb, pork and Kobe-style beef. 

As I was waiting for the guy at the counter to slice up my quarter pound of three-pepper turkey, I looked at the hunks of roast beef in the case and thought, Well, I could get a couple of slices to see if I can tolerate beef, instead of buying a whole steak or something.  So I asked the guy if he could get me a couple of medium rare slices.  He kindly obliged me and I left the deli counter, hopeful that when I finally did bust into the bag of beef that I’d be able to tolerate it.

Many people who have sleeve surgery find that certain meats that they had no trouble digesting before surgery are difficult for them to digest post-surgery.  So far, I haven’t had this problem, but up until today I’d only tried ground turkey, ground chicken breast, ham, sliced turkey and salmon.  When I measured out my portion of roast beef as my morning snack, I was a little apprehensive since I’d been having a bit of an issue with beef before surgery.  I tried the bite test that a couple of bloggers I know have written about (namely Tracy at My Tiny Tank and Nikki at Bariatric Foodie).  Simply put, the bite test involves taking a small bite of the new food you’re trying out, chewing it thoroughly (if you’re me, that means you’re chewing it to a paste), swallowing it, and waiting a few minutes to see if said food comes back up.  If it does, then it’s likely you’re not ready to eat that food, or you have developed an intolerance to it.  If it doesn’t, then it’s probably okay for you to eat it.

I sat down at the kitchen table to have my snack–I’m trying to unlearn the habit of eating anywhere BUT the kitchen table–and tore off a small piece of the slice of roast beef I’d measured out for myself.  I chewed, chewed, chewed, swallowed and waited a few minutes.

Nothing.  No gut rumbles, no weird sounds, no reflux, nothing.  This was a good thing.

I continued to nosh on the piece of roast beef for about 15 minutes, taking my time to chew each bite thoroughly.  Once I was done, I was done.  The roast sat a little heavy in my sleeve, but I expected that.  Beef always sat heavy in my stomach before surgery, and I didn’t expect that would change afterward.  It wasn’t my usual 2 ounce serving of meat, but 1.5 ounces was plenty and I was satisfied with that.  I was just excited to be able to eat beef!  Hell, I live in Texas and beef is what’s for dinner!  Well, not too often in our house, but it’s the principle of the thing.

So that was one of 4 NSVs I had today.  The others were:

• Picking up my car from the shop today, I noted that I had to move my seat up closer to the steering wheel.  I was too far away from it and the pedals.
• Cleaning our bedroom this afternoon, I unearthed a bunch of my workout clothes.  I decided to try them on to see how they fit, and they actually fit better now than they did when I bought them.
• I moved the arms on my desk chair all the way inward–they are adjustable.  They were positioned all the way outward to accommodate my previously wider hips.

In short, today was a good day.  Tomorrow looks to be good as well.  I am meeting a friend at Panera, whose menu I have already scoped out for an appropriate and VSG friendly breakfast choice–the Power Breakfast Egg White and Roast Turkey bowl minus the spinach, peppers and pesto.  This is something from their “hidden menu” which I think they really ought to publicize more so that people can at least know they have healthier choices when dining at Panera.  I think I will sneak in a walk at the mall between our visit and my evening event, as it is supposed to be well over 100 degrees out tomorrow.  Tomorrow night I have the responsibility of hostessing a happy hour for my alumni association at a favorite pub of mine, where I won’t be drinking but I don’t need to to have a good time with my friends.  Because this coincides with dinner, I’ve already scoped out the menu for an appropriate dinner choice (grilled salmon) so I can enjoy dinner out with my husband.

I love that my sleeve empowers me to make good choices about what food I put in my body, and I love that it gives me the restriction that I’ve been missing for so long.  I hope that this next month of sleeved life is as much a success as this past month has been, and that I see good results on the scale as well as off.