Sugar-free treats

One of the most annoying (for want of a better word) parts of getting used to life after gastric bypass is avoiding the dreaded Dumping Syndrome.

This page explains dumping in a nutshell:

"As a result of gastric bypass surgery, you no longer have the Pyloric valve which regulates the passage of food from the stomach into the small intestines. Food enters the intestinal tract in a different place than it is supposed to - since the first part of the system has been bypassed. So, when sugar is now being dumped into your lower intestines (that aren't equipped to process it) and your body reacts by having all the symptoms mentioned above. The key is to avoid the foods that cause Dumping Syndrome."

I've read about this and heard from other patients that when they have dumped, it feels like they are going to die. It feels like a heartattack or an anxiety attack. And after it's over, you just want to sleep. Dumping isn't physically dangerous but it is not something any of us want to go through. So we must avoid sugar and all its by-products like the plague.

Now, every gastric bypass patient is different. Some people tolerate sugar fine, but I'm not about to test the theory. I just don't eat sugar. The irony of being cured of diabetes yet having to restrict the sugar in my diet even more now than when I was on 1000mg of Metformin a day is not lost on me. It sucks. But it is what it is so I put on my big-girl panties and deal with it.

I personally have never had a dumping episode. Again...I avoid sugar. I don't avoid sugar alcohols as they don't seem to bother me much though I know some gastric bypass patients have trouble digesting them. The only way to know is to test the waters, unfortunately. Splenda is my friend. I drink Crystal Light by the gallon and enjoy sugar-free candy, cookies, etc. I don't eat that stuff all the time, but I firmly believe that you gotta treat yourself occasionally or you'll end up at Walmart with an assault rifle, finger on the trigger, aiming for the first chick who reaches for the Twinkies in aisle seven. I'm just sayin'.

Some of my favorite SF gear include (click to enlarge):

Werther's Originals:

Hershey's Sugar-Free Miniatures (YUM):

Splenda Flavors for Coffee (only in the U.S., sorry):

Murray's line of sugar-free cookies. I'm partial to the chocolate-chip pecan. I found these at Walmart in the States, but haven't seen them in Canada. But I haven't looked for them a lot, either.

Voortman's makes a great line of sugar-free cookies, too. I found the wafers at Walmart here in town and they're a great after-dinner cure for the sweet tooth.

I like all these products but that's only my opinion. I'm just throwing out suggestions.

Over the holidays I found a couple recipes online that turned out quite well! I tested these on co-workers, family and friends and the 'normal' people really liked them, too.

Low-Carb, Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
3/4 cup Splenda
1 large egg

Mix all three ingredients with a spoon until well combined. Drop by heaping teaspoonful or even tablespoonful on an ungreased cookie sheet. Use a fork to squish them down to the height you like. You can make the traditional crisscross pattern with your fork or vary it. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

Sugar Free Brownies

1/2 cup margarine
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs
2 cups Splenda
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup skim milk
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray Pam and flour an 8x8-inch pan. In a small saucepan, over medium heat, melt margarine and cocoa together, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. In a large bowl, beat eggs until frothy. Stir in Splenda. Combine the flour and salt; stir into the egg mixture then mix in the cocoa and margarine. Finally stir in the 1/4 cup of milk and if desired, the walnuts.

Pour into the prepared pan bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven. Stick in a toothpick--when it comes out clean it’s done. Let cool and then cut into squares.

Sugar-free peanut butter frosting

1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar-free maple syrup
1/2 cup flour

Whisk or blend together all ingredients until smooth and creamy.

The peanut butter frosting goes well with the brownies. As you can see, I love peanut butter. LOL! I have several other recipes to try and if they turn out well, I'll share them.

I have used sugar-free Torani chocolate syrup in place of the maple syrup in the frosting and to me, it tasted better that way. You could use vanilla, too, or whatever flavor you like. A friend recently told me us Canadians could get the vanilla variety of the sugar-free Torani syrup at Williams Coffee Pub. You can also order from this website, but you need to contact them about the cost of shipping to Canada. Torani is $4.95 (or was it $4.25?) a bottle at just about any Walmart in the States. If you get to the States, you might want to just stock up.

In any event, treat yourself every now and then. You deserve it! I think of it this way: I had this surgery so I could live, you know? Don't tell me I can never have another cookie! :-)

Stream of consciousness

I know it's been an insanely long amount of time since my last blog. Don't think I haven't missed writing, because I have! But I've been working a lot and just haven't had the time. Even on weekends, I've been so happy to just chill out and not have to do anything. You know what I mean.

So I'm just gonna let things tumble out of my brain and hopefully I won't confuse you too much!

- My current weight is 263 and I've lost 181 pounds total. 63 more pounds to my goal. At this point, I know I can so totally reach that. It may not come off as quickly as I'd like, but it will come off.

- Since I'm freezing all the time, I've come to discover that Snuggies rock. Did I really just write that?

- I'm eating chicken! I started off about a month ago with popcorn chicken. Fried, yes, but also moist. It went down ok so I eat a little bit at a time every now and then. I'm slowly leaning into it and my next step will be to try baked or grilled. I also had some roasted turkey lunchmeat this week and it was ok. The first time I tried to eat this stuff, it made my stomach hurt a bit but I kept at it. I miss chicken a lot and am determined to get it back into my diet.

- The jeans I bought for my Nashville trip are getting baggy already. When I weighed 444 lbs., it would take losing at least 50 for me to tell a difference in my clothes. At this weight, my guess is it takes about 20 because that's how much I've lost since early Dec. when I bought those jeans (25, actually). Guess I better ease up on the shopping....

- I want another cat. Another black cat, specifically.

- I'm going to talk to Tim about a tattoo this weekend. When I reached my 175-lb. milestone, I'm like "Ok. Go get the tattoo. Just go get it." I've decided I want my maiden name (Brannan) in a nice, Celtic-looking font. I'm behind on my 50-lb. rewards so I may do something else as well, not sure yet (maybe get a cat!).

- My ears are completely healed, so my jealousy over the little starving African child's perfect ears has waned. In fact, I may try to put different earrings in this weekend. I bought peace signs when I was in Ohio. WOOT!

- I could do with a Bo fix. Sigh. I think it's worse when you see him than if you go long periods NOT seeing him. Bocaine. Getting a small hit just makes you want another one.

- I have pretty much given up on protein powder. Vanilla and fruit-flavored varieties are ok when you mix them with fruit and blend it all up but as a whole, I've lost my ability to choke them down. They were palatable to me at first but maybe that's because I was so starved for flavor of any kind! Anyway, I've skipped to bars. Look for low-sugar, low-carb, high-protein varieties. Atkins bars rock, for example, and can be found at Costco in Canada - Walmart in the States.

- I've cut out my Friday workouts. Ya know, when I haven't seen my husband all week long and I know he's home on Fridays waiting for me, the last place I want to go is the gym. Sorry, but that's my life and I'm not accepting a guilt trip about it (hear that, ex-trainer?). I go Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Seems to be working out ok (see weight loss above).

- My face feels so small to me now. Odd thing, but putting on moisturizer or makeup, I feel my face and just go "Hmm. Jawline is higher."

- My 6-month, post-op bloodwork came back pretty much perfect. Sugar, cholesterol, total protein levels, etc., all awesome. Yay me! I now am taking no prescription medication of any kind. Just vitamins that all gastric bypass patients have to take for the rest of their lives. Losing weight has cured me. Seriously.

- My anniversary blog is coming up soon. One year ago on Feb. 7, my birthday, I started this journey and decided to create a blog to chronicle it. Look for my First Birthday Blog later on in the week!

New year, new me!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I made the trip to Ohio to spend Christmas and the New Year with my family. I only get back home a couple times a year and it's always so comfortable and, well, it's HOME. I usually have a tough time leaving. While I was there, I had two aunts and one uncle in the hospital - not a good time health wise for my family. At this point, I still have one aunt in a nursing home. If you pray, could you send one up for her?

Of course, my parents were stunned with my new appearance. They had not seen me in person since August when I was about a month post-op. Pictures, as I've said before, don't seem to do the change justice. My mom kept apologizing for staring at me. LOL! I just told her I'm used to it.

Shopping is a whole new experience. I got a new winter coat (three sizes smaller than last year's) and lots of new clothes! The good thing is, I can now shop at places where I can get the stuff cheap, so I don't feel too badly about buying things that will most likely be baggy in 6 months' time. I'm having fun wearing things I never could before. I made a pilgrimage to my old college to get a t-shirt. Yep, something that simple. I had ONE when I first started school, in 1990. I still hadn't gained back all the weight I lost when I was a senior in high school, and for some reason, they had a 2x at the bookstore. It was a nightshirt that I wore as a t-shirt. I used to do that a lot. I'd buy nightshirts or bathing suit cover-ups to wear as tops. If it was way too long, sometimes that would make up for a lack of width (if that makes any sense). Anyway....I now have TWO Shawnee State University t-shirts; an alumni shirt and a regular, girly pink one. I also bought a blue-and-purple tie-dye blanket. Wearing a 2x or 3x is completely life changing.

I still weigh 273 lbs...to a lot of people, that's like the low point for them. That's when they START thinking "Ok, I can't move. My life is horrible. I'm going to have the surgery, go on The Biggest Loser, etc." And I applaud those people for making a change before they get themselves in the situation that I found myself in. Obviously, I couldn't find the inner strength to change before; that's how I ended up at 444 lbs. But man...I just keep thinking how strange my story must be to people who start out where I am now. Are some of them thinking "She's still huge!" LOL! Like I said in my blog about being on the plane to Nashville, to people who don't know I've already lost a bunch of weight, I'm just some 273-pound fat chick. But I feel SO good and I'm so confident at this size. I can go into pretty much any store and buy clothes. Cute clothes, too! I keep wondering if I feel this good at this point, what will 200 pounds feel like?? I have no real experience at a weight like that so I'm not familiar with what weighing 200 lbs. (or much less) then ballooning up to 273 feels like. I do know if I gained 100 lbs. back right now, I'd completely fall apart. So I guess I'm starting to understand. I'm looking forward to 200, which is my final goal. I may lose a few more so I can say I'm under 200. LOL!

Over the holidays, I took several pictures in deliberate poses for before-and-after comparisons. The results, in some cases, were quite shocking. I posted an album on my Facebook page but here they are (as always, click to enlarge). The 2008 shots are the top pics, 2009 the bottom.

Erich's birthday:

New Year's Eve (with my BFF Katrina):

Christmas at mom & dad's:

Christmas eve, Erich's mom's:

That bottom pic is completely shocking to me. In the 2008 photo, I look like freakin' Jabba the Hut or something. I mean seriously? When these 'before' photos were taken, I had already made up my mind to have the surgery and had already applied and everything. Less than two months later, in February, Erich and I would make our first trip to Detroit to begin the process. I remember seeing that bottom picture, as well as the one of Katrina and me, and just being horrified. I never even edited the last one to post or share with anyone till the other day.

What did I do to myself?? It's shameful that I let myself be like that. I can't imagine how I didn't see it years before. Of course, I knew I needed to lose weight but I should've realized the urgency long before I did - like when I weighed 273 pounds maybe! I look at the 2008 bottom picture and am amazed at the love from my husband. I look at that and wonder how, or why, he was with me. Yes, I know how terrible that sounds. But Erich is a very good-looking, wonderful man. It blows my mind, but I'm grateful. Look how he has his arm around me so lovingly and smiling so big beside me. I'm soooooo grateful for his love and support.

And why the hell didn't my brother-in-law, who took that awful picture, tell me my shirt was gapped open at the bottom??? ;-)

A friend responded to the 2009 picture from Erich's birthday on Facebook and said "You are so beautiful. Erich is a lucky man." I burst into tears. All my life, every man I've ever been with, I never felt I measured up. I always felt like people were looking at us going "How in the world did she get him?" I've been with some pretty good-looking guys, believe it or not! LOL! I'm starting to feel like I belong with Erich. Like we look good together. It's a whole new mindset. Bring on 2010, 'cause I'm ready!