Day 41 - Painful Lessons

To the majority of the world, "eating right" means one thing. To me, it means two.

There's the layman's definition, which generally means to eat healthy.

Then there's the bariatric patient's definition, which means to chew well.

Saturday for lunch I decided to grill some bone-in split chicken breasts. Many of you know that I'm a BBQ lover. I love to fire up the smoker or the grill and experiment with all sorts of different meats, rubs, and sauces.


I grabbed a good rub that I've used before and peppered up the chicken breasts and prepared them for the grill. I even put a thermometer probe in the chicken to make sure I didn't dry it out. And it was fantastic. Well, at least for a few bites.

You see, my pouch is small to begin with, but there's also a small opening to the pouch. So foods have to be a certain consistency and come in at a certain interval to pass smoothly into the pouch.

There are several big rules to "our" eating right.

1.) Take small bites.
2.) Chew, chew, and when you're about to swallow, chew some more first.
3.) Eat slowly.

Even two days later, I'm not sure which of these rules I failed to fulfill. But the result was my first "ruh roh" moment. The chicken got stuck in the opening to my pouch. And holy guacamole was it painful. Imagine swallowing a pine cone and feeling your body try to digest it about every 15 seconds. The waves of pain weren't quite as painful as when I had a kidney stone, but they were formidable to say the least.

At first I thought I could manage the pain. Then came the sweats. Then the dreaded droolies.

To save you all from "TMI-land," let's just say that 30 minutes later there was a glorious purge upwards that left me with some significant relief and having learned my first tough lesson since the surgery.

Aside from this venture into "Consequences and Repercussions," all else is groovy. I enjoyed the weekend of rest, but I'm ready to hit the track again tonight. I'm having a little bit of weakness in my right knee when I climb stairs, but it doesn't bother me when just walking. That was likely due to the brief stint on the basketball court last week and hopefully will strengthen over time.

The weight continues to melt.

The last time I had a successful diet I was able to drop down to 370. And I remember that from 385 to 370 is when I started really noticed a significant change in how my shirts fit. And that seems to be happening now as well. For the first time it feels like maybe I'm starting to lose some of the gut. I'll be so happy when it starts to really recede.

That's what's going on in my neck of the woods...

Weight this morning: 382.7 (-59lbs)

Regards,
The Vanishing and Upchucking Taylor

P.S. Some pics coming in the next update.