The whole meatball

This is now my culinary world. See the baby spoon? I will use one of these as my main eating utensil for the next 6 weeks, in order to train me as to what a real bite size is. (The dime is added to show dimension.) The 2-oz. container? That will eventually be the size of one meal in a year or so. The baby bowl? I will take that to work to heat up my 2-ox. portion. I think that I'm going to start eating lunch at my desk, once I'm back to work. I have a few co-workers who will make great hay with this. *sigh*


Nine days post-op, and the surgeon put me on mushies already, which is ahead of schedule. Wisely and carefully using my baby spoon, I am now able to nibble on cottage cheese, poached egg, sugar-free puddings, and pureed meats. Also on the list, but not as far as I'm concerned, are applesauce, cream of wheat cereal, and mashed potatoes. This is no time to revert to the Typical American Diet (TAD) of sheer carbage. 


Yesterday, at the Queen Mary's Promendade Cafe, I ordered a bowl of the soup of the day, which was albondigas, or meatball, soup. In this luscious broth sat five meatballs, about the size of ping pong balls. How much did I eat? In total, about one baby-spoonful of meatball, well-chewed. I was full. (I think. I haven't learned all the signals yet.) I brought the rest of the soup home, but at the rate I'm going, it's going to take me 2 weeks to eat the rest. Not likely, I'm thinking.


I am very happy that my chosen Way of Eating (WOE) is low-carb, because it's going to make this whole re-training process much easier. The surgeon told me that sleevers seem to fall into two categories: Those who follow the rules, do well in the mushies stage, transition smoothly into stage 4, regular eating, and lose an adequate amount of weight. These folks maintain their weight loss. The others, they don't follow the rules, blow the mushies stage, end up back on liquids, and supplement with crunchy things, like crackers and cookies. They don't lose much weight, and usually gain back all the pounds. Scary.


The trick right now is to get in 60 - 90 grams of protein a day. I definitely can't do it with my current eating capacity, since my stomach is still swollen. So, for now, I supplement with Isopure Dutch Chocolate. It's also very easy to get dehydrated with a sleeve, so sip, sip, sip all day. 


There are vitamins that I will have to take bronto-amounts of for the rest of my life, like B-12, calcium, D, and B-1, and even as a post-menopausal chick, I have to take 18 mg. of iron a day. At this stage, they are liquids and chewables. One day, I'll get to take regular pills.   


Maybe one day, I'll be able to eat a whole meatball.


The Bionic Broad out.