so I'm pretty much marrying superman!

Thank you all for all your kind words and support for rick and I these last couple of weeks. Rick's lapband surgery was yesterday morning. It was scheduled for 10:15, but they didn't actually take him in till about 11:30, which drove me insane! He got out of surgery around 1:15, and I was able to see him around 2:15. He was sitting up straight and told me he was 'bored' lol. He was still in the post-op area, and was staying there until an overnight room became available, so I was only able to stay with him for a few minutes. Around 5pm he finally got a room and was able to be moved. I took many walks with him, and his pain stayed around a 3. He never took any of the pain meds until last night @ bed time to help him sleep. I picked him up this morning, and we're now home. He is eating lots of jello and broth and has had 2 protein shakes. I can't believe how strong and alert he is right now, its amazing! I am so proud of him for taking this giant leap and I can't wait to watch him progress. He started his journey @ 317 lbs, day of surgery he was 299lbs. His goal is to be down 50lbs his first year, and 100lbs @ 3 years. He is going to knock these goals out of the park, and I'm very excited for him. Here is a picture of him 3 hours post op:

Love you all! I will continue to keep everyone posted! xxoo

what do you think?

Your call- Protein Shake or Mudslide?

If you guessed mudslide- YOUR WRONG! This is the super yummo protein shake I made Rick tonight for dinner. I have been trying to mix things up for him, so this was one packet vanilla, and one packet chocolate and I lined the glass with sugar free chocolate syrup. It looked so pretty!!

Here in New England we are having an insane snow storm, my city last reported 18 inches of snow. Both Rick and I got to work from home today, which was really nice!

I also had my un-fill scheduled for today and yup I beared the storm and made the trek to the hospital. My nurse practitioner agreed that I most likely am tight due to wedding stress and took out .4cc's. She also said if I want to see her closer to the wedding she will take a little bit more out for me if I'd like for our honeymoon :o) It feels so great to not have to stress about pb'ing on our wedding night lol.

I also asked her about the throat/esophageal cancer concern from PB'ing and Acid Reflux. She said that there has been no link between the band and cancer, but generally severe acid reflux has been known to result in esophageal cancer. This made me feel a lot better, because although I've been super tight and spitting up a lot I hardly ever have acid reflux. whew!

I hope everyone is bearing the weather and staying warm and safe. xxoo

alright you conviced me...

With all this talk about being to tight, acid reflux, throat cancer from pb'ing- I have made an appointment for a slight un-fill on Wednesday. I'm assuming with my wedding approaching quickly, I am going to be getting more and more stressed equalling more and more restriction. So small un-fill it is. I will keep you posted on how it goes.

Quick update on Ricky- He started his liquid diet on Friday and is down 11lbs as of today. Lucky little bastard. He is really struggling with mind over matter, and not physically eating anything, but I keep telling him it will get better each day!

XOXO

New Year's Resolution

Back Story: While preparing for surgery, a lot of people would ask me what my goal was and I would respond: 'to fit into designer jeans' so for a congratulations gift my mom and dad got me a nordstroms gift card. Last Christmas I told other family member's I wanted a nordstrom gift card, because I was saving up to buy designer jeans once they fit.


Today: While playing online I was perusing nordstrom.com and saw that they had a pair of Joe's Jeans on sale 40% off. They are size 32 petite. I've never even tried on designer jeans, but I feel like having these will be a great motivator. They might fit, they might give me a muffin top, I might not even be able to get them over my knees, who knows. All I know is that I will soon have my first pair of designer jeans, and that I WILL fit into these this year! Here is a picture of them, wish me luck, I will post pictures and a review once I receive them in the mail!

Great grocery store find and NYE menu

Rick and I are spending our first New Year's Eve since we've been together in tonight, no party's no fancy restaurants, no friends- just me and him and our comfy home. We decided to make a 'fancy' meal and relish in the snooki ball drop on MTV lol. I searched all morning for a recipe that called out to me. I was craving all sorts of things, not things that necessarily go together. So here is our menu for tonight with clicky links to the actual recipes:

Italian Wedding Soup
Flank Steak with Balsamic Reduction
Parmesan Risotto

Breakfast tomorrow is:

Bacon and Cheese Quiche

Not all is 'diet-friendly' but I'm sure with our substitutions, it will be much healthier then anything we would have eaten out at a restaurant. Also, for the flank steaks I found a great find at the grocery store without even looking! I found these perfectly portioned flank steaks that are exactly 100 calories, 3.5 gms of fat a piece!

I hope everyone has an amazing New Year's Eve and New Year's Day! Be safe, see you next year! xxoo

Yummy Din-Din and Advice Needed

Hey Everyone, I thought I would go ahead and share an all time favorite recipe with everyone. Amy posted this recipe about a year ago, and it is probably my favorite meatloaf recipe ever! I make it about once a month and never get tired of it. I use a mini-loaf pan which makes 8 perfect 5oz servings. Here is a picture and the recipe:

Amy's Hot Meat:

1 pound ground turkey
1 medium chopped/diced onion
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup ketchup
1 cup mexican blend shredded cheese
1/2 cup feta cheese
1/4 cup honey mustard dressing
1 egg
Black pepper

Bake @ 350, until thermometer reaches 160 degrees. It took 35 minutes with my mini-loaf pan.
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Also a good meatloaf recipe is one Nicole shared with me last year, VERY good and moist! Here it is:

1 1/2 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 egg
3 slices bread, finely chopped (1 1/2 cups, lightly packed)
1 small onion, chopped (1/4 cup)
1/2 cup ketchup, chili sauce or barbecue sauce

*Substitutions*
I used ground turkey and used 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce it made it really moist! cooked it for just about 60 minutes, Also didn't do bread did bread crumbs.

1.Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, mix all ingredients except ketchup. Spread mixture in ungreased 9x5-inch loaf pan, or shape into 9x5-inch loaf in ungreased 13x9-inch pan. Spread ketchup over top.
2.Insert meat thermometer so tip is in center of loaf. Bake uncovered 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes or until thermometer reads at least 160°F. Drain meat loaf.
3.Let stand 5 minutes; remove from pan.

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Now for the advice I need. As Rick's surgery is quickly approaching, I am trying to think back to some post-op liquid/mushy recipes that I enjoyed. Does anyone have any favorites they wouldn't mind sharing? You can post them as a comment or email them to me at knwitham@gmail.com. I remember one of my favorites being a ricotta cheese bake, which consisted of:

1/4 C Ricotta cheese
1/4 C Fat free cottage cheese
1 ounce mozzarella cheese
dash salt/pepper and parm cheese
1/2 C Marinara

Mix all ingredients in your magic bullet or other blender devise. Pour into personal size casserole dish; heat in oven at 400 for 15 minutes or microwave for 1 minute 30 seconds.

Thanks so much!!! xxoo

80lbs down, FINALLY!

Praise the lord! I finally hit 80lbs down today, I have been waiting for this for a long time. It took me forever to move through the 70's! Only 33 more lbs to goal!! Want to hear something screwy? I am still freakin 'OBESE'! Can you believe it?!? I am in the 160's and still considered obese! I need to lose exactly another 10lbs more pounds to be considered 'overweight'. Have I mentioned how much I hate the BMI scale?

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this or not yet, but Rick got his surgery date! He is officially being banded on January 21st. We went for a bunch of pre-op appointments yesterday, it was like dejavu! He had a ton of blood work, an EKG, met with the anesthesiologist, and then met with the nurse practitioner. He was supposed to be down 20lbs for this appointment, but ended up weighing in +7lbs! Uh-Oh! Our nurse was not happy to say the least. She even threatened to postpone his surgery. She prescribed him 2 weeks of HMR shakes and instructed him to follow it to a T, and said that 3 weeks of it wouldn't hurt him. So January 7th, liquids it is. This should help me out as well, since Rick is the chef in our household, I won't be cooking to much.

I hope everyone has wonderful Christmas, I sure did! Rick got me a pandora bracelet with a bunny charm, a cupcake, and an engagement charm. From friends a family I got a snowman, a butterfly, the letter 'K' and the breast cancer charms. I love them all! I am thinking of making this a reward type thing for me, for every 10lbs I continue to lose, I buy a new charm. That would be a nice incentive!

Happy New Year's to everyone, I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's!! xxoo