Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Nutritional Consultation

Happy Hump Day my friends!!


Today I had my "nutritional consultation" that is required by the insurance company.  I met with a lovely woman named Anne Dubner.  She is full of energy and has a great sense of humor like me.  She got all my corky jokes - She's a hit.


I learned A LOT from this meeting.  Obviously the first part of the meeting was to discuss the supervised diet plan (yawn).


But the most important part was to discuss exactly what my food intake would look like, and recommendations on a schedule for fluid and food intake as well as the pre-op and post op diet I will be on.


The first thing I learned, and that she stressed many times, EAT PROTIENS FIRST.  I have had several friends inform me that they have been losing their hair and the main reason that this is happening is because they are not getting enough protein and zinc/magnesium.  So I learned to prevent this from happening, all my meals with start with my protein first (because you fill up fast, you don't want to fill up on the non-essential foods) and take a multi-vitamin with zinc/magnesium.


I remember when I was on Belviq, I would get full when eating my meals.  I learned during this phase of my journey to not eat the foods that weren't giving you the nutrition I needed.  So I always started off with my protein and veggies, and if I had room in the gut, I would move to my favorite:  CARBS! (LOL)


My biggest anxiety point is the liquid diet after.  For those that know me well remember my reconstructive jaw surgery I had in 1998 when I had to eat through a straw for 8 weeks.  (I also had another jaw surgery in 1996 where I had to do the same but for 4 weeks).  To this day, I have a hard time drinking shakes, etc.  So, I will have to mentally prepare myself for this phase and accept that this is for a very short time.  Thank god I am not having my mouth wired shut (Although some of you. may wished I was LOL).


Anne and I are already Facebook friends.  She is AWESOME, AMAZING, SMART and over all a nice person.  She didn't fat shame me or anything.  No lectures, she was all about providing me the information I needed so I can be a big girl and make the right choices.


Now I am on to my next step:  Blood work which I will do Friday.  Next week is the Cardiac clearance and then all I will have is the endoscope and my 3 monthly diet check ins.  HOLY SMOKES this is moving fast!!!!!!!