First Recipe! Egg Salad with Avocado and Radishes

I've got my first recipe ready for you - looking at the picture results, I think I need some training in food photography and definitely a better lighting set-up, but it's a start!

My tolerance for solids has been a little iffy lately, so I wanted to make something that was reasonably soft, but wasn't the same old boring cottage cheese or scrambled eggs. Since the eggs had been going down well, I decided on an egg salad. Typically, I'd eat egg salad on that lovely squishy plain white sandwich bread from the grocery store, but bread is not on the menu these days. What else could I do with it? I thought it could use a little crunch - not too hard, but just enough to balance the smooth salad. Lettuce leaves! And with that, the salad came together.

First, hard boil 4 large eggs. I have an ancient Sunbeam egg cooker - probably from the late 50s or early 60s. It holds about a quarter inch of water in the bottom of the vessel, then a metal ring goes in that will hold up to 7 eggs on end. Put the cover on, flip the switch, and the water will boil away and the cooker turns itself off when all the steam has escaped. Perfectly hard cooked eggs every time. If you're not so lucky to possess one of these devices, use your preferred method of hard boiling eggs.

Once the eggs are cool, peel and place into a medium sized bowl.

I like to mash my eggs using a pastry cutter - it has larger spaces than between the tines of a fork, and leaves a reasonable size dice on the egg whites when you're done. Go to town, until the eggs are the consistency that you prefer.

I'll digress here for a moment, and let you know that normally I hate what I call "fake foods". Prepared products that have been modified to be low-fat, low-calorie, or low-something through the substitution of traditional ingredients with organic or artificial thickeners, flavorings, or other chemicals. Pre-op, I'd not have been caught dead using low-fat anything, but then again, look where it got me. This recipe (and others to follow), will occasionally use items like low-fat mayonnaise in order to keep the fat content of the finished dish at a reasonable level for the needs of a bariatric eater. I'll include notes on any necessary changes that should be made should you decide to use the "real" product instead.

Now, where were we. Mayonnaise. Add 3 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise, and a squirt of yellow mustard (how much is a squirt? Probably half a teaspoon - how much you use is up to you, I like only a hint of mustard flavor in my egg salad). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Mix well to combine.

You may opt to cover and chill the eggs at this point - it will keep for 48 hours covered in the refrigerator.


Next we'll slice the avocado. If you've never worked with one before, they can be a bit daunting. Lay the avocado on your cutting board, and pierce the skin with your knife working length-wise.

Cut into the avocado until you feel the pit. Carefully moving your knife with one hand, and stabilizing the avocado with the other, cut completely around the fruit without pulling the knife away from the pit. When you've come full circle and met your original cut, remove the knife. Grasp the avocado in both hands, and twist each side in the opposite direction and pull apart - this will open the fruit and leave the pit in one side or the other.

Using a clean kitchen towel, pick up the side with the pit in it, and hold it in the palm of your hand, pit facing you. Take your knife (a good chef's knife is really the only tool to use here) and gently but firmly whack it directly into the pit - it should sink in a good half inch or more. This photo was taken after performing this procedure, DO NOT attempt to do this with the half just sitting on the board.

Still holding the avocado in hand, gently twist your knife, loosening the pit in it's hole. It should readily pull away from the flesh. You will be left with a pit hanging from your knife blade.

Carefully grasp the pit with the kitchen towel, then pull the knife out of the pit.

When I'm not going to immediately use the whole avocado, I prefer to slice or dice the flesh inside the skin, and then only scoop out the portion that I'll be using. I made length-wise slices in this half.

Next, very thinly slice 2 large radishes - if you have a mandolin with a paper-thin setting, you may prefer to use that, or you can simply slice them your knife. Add 2 thin slices of avocado to a lettuce leaf, and 3 to 5 radish slices down the middle.

For garnish we'll top these with a bit of chopped fresh chives - probably about 2 teaspoons in total.
Scoop  1/8 of the egg mixture on top of the radishes, then garnish with the chives and a sprinkle of paprika.

And there you have it! Egg Salad with Avocado and Radishes. For the bariatric eater, one or two leaves will make a serving. Other adults may prefer three or even four. Here's the ingredient list:

Egg Salad with Avocado and Radishes

• 4 hard boiled eggs
• 3 tbsp low-fat mayonnaise
• 1 squirt yellow mustard (approx 1/2 tsp)
• 4 oz sliced avocado
• 2 large radishes, sliced paper thin
• 2 tsp chopped fresh chives
• 8 bibb or boston lettuce leaves
• dash of paprika 
• salt and pepper to taste

Nutritional information: Based on 8 wraps, 1 wrap = 1 serving. Calories: 139. Protein 7.2g, Total fat 10.2g (saturated fat 2.2g), Dietary Fiber 2.3g, Sugars 0.9g, Sodium 176mg.   Sodium content does not include any added salt. 

Surgeon Follow-Up: Cleared for Solid Food!

Hooray! I saw my surgeon today, exactly a month after being admitted for my surgery. He was pleased with my progress, and we discussed several concerns I had - in particular the "Ack! It's an aneurysm!" incident, and my proclivity to burp after ingesting anything, including water.

I've also been feeling fairly weak the last 7 to 9 days, with some blood pressure readings lower than I'd really have liked to see. This morning didn't start out well in that regard, after getting up I took a hot shower, which normally is quite a treat - but suddenly I was feeling light headed, and starting even having a bit of trouble breathing. I hurried to finish rinsing the shampoo out of my hair, and as my vision started getting wobbly, I yelled for the Man to come help me. He got me out of the shower, wrapped up in my towel, and seated on the toilet until I came back around to normal breathing and didn't feel quite so woozy. After I was able to get dried off and into my robe, I sat down at my desk to check my blood pressure: 77/49 - um, not good. I drank some of my protein shake and about 10 minutes later I was at 92/67 - still not great, but 5 minutes after that I was up to 103/70 - normal, if somewhat low-normal. That wasn't fun, so we decided to put me to bed until time to leave for my appointment at the hospital.

One of the things I love about working with Wake Forest is that - at least in Dr. Fuzz's clinic - they're always so prompt. We waited no more than 2 minutes between the nurse's evaluation and Fuzz coming to the room. He was very pleased with my progress - quickly identified that my weakness and low BP issues were the result of dehydration (apparently I've been throwing off ketones like whoah - he could smell it on my breath just sitting next to me). He said to worry less about the "no drinking for 30 minutes before/after eating" rule, than about getting in at least the minimum 48oz of water, and preferably more toward 60-80oz until we get the dehydration under control. He also suggested I add a bit of juice to each bottle of water - just enough to get a small bit of sugar for the extra calories, which should help stabilize the woozies. They sent me on my to the lab (no results back yet) and to see the nutritionist, who gave me some suggested foods information and other materials. One interesting item was a laminated card that identified me as a bypass patient, asking any restaurant that I might choose to show it to, to allow me to order either off the children's menu, or perhaps be served a reduced portion. Any agreeable restaurants would be listed by the program as "bariatric friendly". Not sure I'll use it, but it's an interesting thing to have in your wallet.

We got home, and I tried to eat some left-over "strata" of sorts (not as fancy as most, but more than a scramble), that we'd originally made for breakfast on Tuesday. I'd been able to eat a very small portion then, but today - not so much. It immediately started feeling like it wasn't going to sit well, and unfortunately resulted in my second bout of vomiting. The Man was in the kitchen cooking up some squash for his lunch, and didn't immediately hear me in distress down the hall, but as my last heaves hit - so did the searing pain at the base of my skull again. Thankfully this time not the triad of death pain like last week, but excruciating none-the-less. I cried out several times, and heard the Man come rushing down the hallway. He helped me to bed, and asked if I needed any painkillers or what he might do. I decided on a half dose of the liquid lortab (hydrocodone and tylenol), and a bag of anything frozen we might have in the freezer (a dubious proposition in this house, we use fresh veggies almost exclusively). Amazingly he came up with a bag of peas, and so I knocked back the happy juice and laid back on the peas and hoped it would pass quickly. It took about 20 minutes to take most of the edge off. Our mechanic called while I was waiting for things to kick in; the Man's car was being serviced. Turned out he had a broken water pump - they promised to be finished by the end of the business day, so I snuggled in to watch TV and wait for the call that his car was done.

When the garage called back I was feeling much better. We packed up the presents for his brother, sister in law, niece and her 2 boys, and his nephew, and set out to pick up his car, and then continue on to his brother's house for a belated Santa delivery. Only his brother was home when we arrived, but we had a nice chat for a few hours, looked through a bit more of his mother's things (she passed away back in June), and selected a few of them to take home. As it was getting late, we decided to stop for a quick, cheap dinner - and settled in Chili's. This would be interesting - I went in thinking maybe a cup of soup, or something I could ask for a box to take the bulk of it home. After looking over the menu, I settled on their slider plate - 4 mini cheeseburgers (and fries and such that I'd not eat). I managed to eat one of the slider patties, and nibble a couple of onion strings. The waiter first gave me kind of a quirky smile when he saw me attacking the patty with a knife and fork after removing the bun from the first slider - but didn't say anything to me until the Man was clearly done with his meal, and I was slowing down. He simply asked if I needed a box, and I answered "Yes, please!" with a big smile, and the Man made sure he got a nice tip for not commenting on my eating habits. There's 3 sliders in the fridge - I might end up eating 1 or 2 more patties over the next 2 days, but that's probably it. As time passes, I'd definitely have been able to eat a bit different, and it felt silly eating so little of a $8 meal, but I'll get some more out of it than I did tonight, and I was able to successfully eat out with my husband, so that felt good.

Tomorrow's objective is to find some mini ice-cube trays - a friend suggested putting some of my dilute juice into ice cubes, so I can suck on them. That seems like a fun way of getting some of my liquids in, so I'm going to try and pick some up tomorrow if I feel up to going out.

So - mixed results on food today, but one day at a time, that's all I can do.

Of Doubts, Fears, and Bloating

What an awful week. Coming out of the Event anniversary was emotionally loaded, and then we had Thanksgiving to deal with; now loaded with residual despair from last year. We decided to go ahead and make a holiday meal - with components that were as close to compliant to my eating plan as possible. We brined and roasted the turkey, I  made roast carrots and parsnips (that had just a bit of butter and honey in the whole dish), a cauliflower mash as well as traditional mashed potatoes, and my favorite onion gravy. I made a plate that had the appropriate amount of protein on it, plus the veggie serving allowed. I did add gravy and a bit of cornbread, but I think it was overall a very successful meal on a day when I would have traditionally cooked much more in terms of foods I shouldn't be eating on the 3-week prep.

In my last post, I mentioned the scale claimed I was up practically 6 pounds - it hung on to that all week, and generated all sorts of nasty fears and doubts in me. I suspected I might have been retaining some water - my wedding rings had started to really twirl around my finger the week before, and they weren't doing that any more. Pudgy fingers is the first sign of bloat for me - but I'm not used to it happening, I generally don't have PMS symptoms other than some cramping. But - I did recall that being on the surgeon required birth control now, that it may very well have changed how my body behaved. I was due for my Depo shot this morning, so last week was definitely "PMS" territory.

Of course, that didn't avoid a complete melt-down last night - the fear and anxiety of what the changes in my life will really be like has been building over the last 3 weeks, particularly as the hunger and dizziness really haven't gone away as many others in my program have said they experienced. I'd eaten my protein and veggie meal for lunch, thinking I'd transition into the liquids required of today - and when the Man came in and asked if I wanted him to cook me dinner, I lost it.

He told me if I was that afraid, there was still plenty of time to back out - and even if I thought I couldn't - I really could, we could just tell them we're not coming when they call today and give me my "report in" time. But, as I told him, I have to do this - not just because we want a family, but even if we don't get that, I want to be healthy as we grow old - to be able to go on cruises and not get pooped out in the middle of Helsinki again, and to be able to walk and tour more. Quite simply, I'm tired of being fat. 

So with the wonderful blessings of Ambien, I had a good night's sleep - woke up this morning as he left for work at 5am, and am in a much better frame of mind. I went shopping for my "clear liquid/full liquid" food items for when we return from the hospital, picked up my post-discharge meds, and am back doing the last of the housework that I'll be allowed to do for several weeks.

Despite threats of throwing my scale out the window (or hiding the batteries from me) - I found it intact this morning. And while it had a hard time making up it's mind, it finally settled on 304 - so all that "mystery" weight gone, and 3.6 pounds further down - which feels much more like it for what I accomplished this last week.

Just after I got home from shopping this morning, Libby called to wish me well tomorrow. I was surprised, but very pleased to hear from her. She's been thinking about me, and with as many clients as she has, I know that takes extra "effort" (not the best word, but I can't find the one I want to use) for her - it would be easy to leave all your clients issues at the office and not think about them afterward, so I'm thankful that I apparently have had an impact on her while she has been hugely impactful on me. 

So now I put some of my famous determination to work - I can do anything for a mere 24 hours - broth, thinned yogurt and sugar free pudding, and one more protein shake. Sometime tomorrow morning (they haven't called with my time yet) - I'll get wheeled into the OR, and hopefully this hunger will be gone for the next 6-12 months, and when it comes back - it will be much more manageable.

I'm still nervous - but I do believe I've been able to set aside the doubts.

I'll see you all on the other side. 

Three Weeks aka What in the Hell am I Doing?

My surgery date was scheduled for Tuesday, November 29 - which means I started the 3-week prep on Tuesday, November 8. I knew this was going to be tough, and while I'm currently just on day 5 of it, I'm really hoping it eases up a bit - and soon!

Here's what I'm allowed in a day:

• 2 protein shakes (mixed with water or skim milk)
• 1 serving Quaker Weight Control Oatmeal
• 4oz sugar-free Jello
• 4oz applesauce, or 3oz fresh fruit
• 6oz Dannon light & fit yogurt
• 3oz lean protein (chicken, turkey, or white fish)
• 2 cups fresh veggies or 1 cup cooked
• 1 tbsp light salad dressing

That's roughly 800 calories. In a day.

The thing is, I can't stand oatmeal. Am I allowed to substitute anything? Nope. Don't have to eat it all, but you can't switch anything up. Joy. So far, I've not gotten desperate enough to eat the oatmeal, but we'll see. 

Choosing a protein shake flavor has been an adventure. I'm a relatively picky person when it comes to "drink additives". I've never liked the Crystal Light type products, I'm not a big fruit flavor person, but beyond that they just taste like chemicals to me. So I started with some samples from Syntrax: chocolate truffle, cappuccino, and fuzzy navel, along with Unjury's chicken soup flavor. The chocolate truffle was pretty darned good, slight after taste for a while, but nothing too annoying. The cappuccino was a bit coffee strong for me at first, but it's grown on me. The fuzzy navel flavor, however, was an unmitigated disaster - I managed to choke down about 80% of it, but never again (shudder). I was mostly disappointed with the chicken soup flavor too, I was hoping it would taste more like regular chicken broth, but it was either slightly weak, or too salty, or something - just kind of "meh". I have a few more sample packs, so it might grow on me, but I suspect I'll be drinking lots of chocolate truffle and cappuccino, as I went and bought the giant barrels of those today.

Would you have thought? A de-boned chicken breast lasted for 3 dinners, since it weighed in at 8 ounces. (!!)

The goal of this diet is three-fold: lose a moderate amount of weight pre-op, shrink the liver which will make nudging it out of the way during the laparoscopic procedure easier, and finally - to measure your compliance to food regulations. They expect you to lose 3% to 5% of your body weight during this time. I don't think I'm going to have an issue with that, as that would be 10 to 16 pounds for me - and as of this morning (after 4 full days on the program), I'm already down 9. Eeek!

The hardest part of these 4 days has been the shift in energy. I've been walking around basically feeling light-headed all the time. I've been having to monitor my blood sugars very closely, as the combination of very modest food intake, and continued exercise (40 minutes on the treadmill), can cause some crashes if I'm not careful. I may have to adjust my insulin dosing tonight, as my waking BG was just 92 (it's dropped every day since starting), and lower than 80 would be a problem.

Others in the program say it gets better after 3-5 days, so hopefully I'm just about to turn the corner. But if not, I have just 3.5 days more at work before I go out - I'm burning some vacation time before going out on short term disability the day of surgery.