Away from Home

May 25, 2013

I've been traveling for a week now with five more days to go.  I did close to five days in DC and am currently visiting my family in Chicago.  Being away from routine and my own kitchen has been a revelation.

My surgeon's post-op nutritional plan is a bit loose.  I have the classic clear liquid-full liquid-pureed food-soft food-regular food stages, but the kinds of foods and timeframes for each level are vague.  

For example--I was told to stay on clear liquids for three days.  Or five if I wanted to.  Because I wasn't hungry, I went for the full five. Full liquids were to be for one to two weeks,depending on patient tolerance.  I did two (again--not because I was having problems, but because I thought I should take advantage of my lack of hunger).  Pureed was supposed to be two to four weeks.  I'd planned to go the full four, but when I left the Middle East, I was only two weeks in to that part of my program.  I soon discovered continuing to eat pureed meat, etc. when I wasn't the one preparing the meal, wasn't going to work.

DC was a business trip full of various lunch, dinner, cocktail reception duties, and while I brought my protein powder and shaker as backup, I found myself faced with restaurant/catered food.  A lot.  I muddled through as best I could, choosing protein, some veggies and light carbs (a cracker here, a slice of bread there--both permissible according to my soft food diet plan).  No booze.  But I'm not a big drinker really, so I haven't missed it.  No sweets.

I've lost two pounds since last Sunday.  I plan to weigh in again tomorrow.  I'd love to lose three pounds this week.  We'll see what happens.  I'm pretty proud of myself for figuring out a way to make this work.  Myfitnesspal.com is definitely my friend.

Edited to Add

I lost the third pound.  Success!  I lost three pounds this week, while traveling.  Yay me!

0 Comments