One Year? Really?

I'm pretty speechless.  No really, I don't know what to say.  Today marks my one year surgery anniversary.  One year.  WOW!

After one year of struggles, pain, trials, friendship, smiles, crying, melting, cooking, adjusting, and everything else I am 125lbs smaller than I was a year ago today.  I'm skating in the roller derby, something the old me couldn't do...coincidentally something that the new me can't do because of a sprained MCL...but that's a different story for a different day.  I'm MARRIED....not just engaged but married, (Yeah that happened this past Saturday, January 15th.  Sorry for the lack of post.  Go to our wedding blog for the information on that.)  WOW!

So what does Lindsay look like today?  Well, for starters she is a size 14 bottoms with a Large top in all stores...well, all stores except Lane Bryant....you know...the store I no longer have to shop in.  She has short blond hair.  She wears skinny jeans and short skirts.  Sometimes, well 2 times a week, she wears leggings with boy short underwear over them with roller skates.  This new Lindsay wears an Alexandrite and Diamond ring on her left ring finger.  She has a curly haired woman holding her right hand and a black and white kitty man who is usually curled up on her side.

New Lindsay likes going for walks.  She doesn't get to the top of the stairs and have to stop to catch her breath.  New Lindsay will race you down the street...and jump down the stairs.  New Lindsay looks more like her mother than her father, although Old Lindsay was basically her father with boobs.

New Lindsay does not miss the Old Lindsay, but LOVES who she has become and will always be thankful to the Old Lindsay for making her who she is today.

So, today on my surgery anniversary, or  my new birthday I introduce to you the New Lindsay.  Her name is Lindsay Alaimo-Fuentes and she loves her life and everyone and thing in it.

Thank you everyone for the support and love over the past year, and then some.  And thank you Old Lindsay for stepping aside to let the New Lindsay come through.

Changed for Good

110lbs Lost!  Can you believe it?  110lbs!  That is equivalent to my little sister....MORE than my little sister in fact!

I have been so amazed by this process and wouldn't change anything about it.  Sure the staples hurt at the beginning, but I feel like a new me!  Or rather like the REAL me has finally come out!

To celebrate my weight loss, well, not to celebrate my weight loss but I see it as a celebration, Alex and I went to see WICKED, the musical last week with 18 of our friends.  If you haven't seen the show you really need to, it's fantastic.  After the show Alex had gotten us a backstage tour which I was so excited for.  So, after the show, we all hang out waiting for the stage manager to come and get us, and when he shows up only Alex and I can go on stage.  I felt bad for everyone else, but Alex was the one with the contact, I guess 20 people is just too much. (What do I know right?) We go onstage....side note...we are at the Boston Opera House which is the most beautiful theater in Boston, in my opinion. 

While up there, I realize that all of my friends have their cameras out and are sitting in the front rows.  Weird, but I would be taking pictures of my friends onstage too so not THAT weird.  Well...after a few moments of taking it all in, Alex says to me "So hun, this is the moment.  This is the moment that I give myself to you officially."  It clicked...

Alex was PROPOSING!

On stage, at the Boston Opera House (the most beautiful theater in Boston, in my opinion), at WICKED (one of my two favorite shows of all time...which is about Witches!)  "Are you shitting me" was all I could say.
In the end, I said yes!  (duh) and she gave me a ring that screamed me, with Alexandrite and diamonds., Gratuitous picture of my beautiful ring will be here soon.

I'll post the video that was taken at the end of the post.  So what a year this has been.  It started with surgery, followed by my 30th birthday, being accepted as "Fresh-Meat" into the Central Mass Roller Derby League (that's a whole different post for later), and now being engaged.  The 10 months of 2010 have really been the best in my adult life, even with the surgery.  Because of it, I've made some new friends, and gotten a whole new lease on the life I was always meant to have.  I would say that this surgery was the best decision of my adult life.  I have definitely been changed for good!

Celebrating and Big Changes

What is worth celebrating you ask?  How about hitting 100lbs!!!!!!  As of today I officially weigh 192lbs.  Ok, that is MORE than 100lbs, 103 to be exact, but how exciting is that?  The weight-loss has really slowed down now, but still almost 8 months out I feel like a new woman.  

How about some before and after pictures to show you how different 7 months have made me...

      

WOW!  So this is OBVIOUSLY something that needs celebrating.   My Girlfriend made me a deal before I had surgery that when I lost 100lbs she would take me to get a facial.  Guess what I'm doing next week!  Thanks Alex!  You are the best girlfriend ever!

A while back I mentioned that my hair was also falling out, well I decided that it was time to do something about that.  ESPECIALLY since it was effecting Luna, my kitty man.  He eats the hair and it goes through his digestive tract leaving hair sticking out of his bum with little pieces of poop stuck to it....NOT FUN!  I decided it was time to do something drastic...

      

YUP!  I decided to have a glass of wine!  How drastic right?!?!  

Nah, I chopped off my hair today.  Here is a before and after with a picture from last night and another with my best friend Jeff who I've known since I was 14, and who is also my hairdresser.

    

So there you have it.  My weight has fallen off and now my hair has too!  :-)  Let me know what you think about the new look.  I have to say, I'm totally loving it!  You know that there will be more and more pictures as time goes on so keep coming back to see some more.  I'll be making sure I'm checking in more too.

Vitamin D

Apparently Vitamin D is very important.  A common problem for people who have had Gastric Bypass Surgery is that they no longer absorb enough of anything, let alone Vitamin D.

For those who do not know what Vitamin D does, check out the Wiki Page here.

I recently found out that my Vitamin D levels are extremely low.  no surprise given my lack of Vitamin D Supplement, however still not reassuring.  On Wednesday of this week I went in and had some blood drawn for a multitude of tests.  8 Vials were taken, testing for everything from Cholesterol Levels to the amount of Zinc and Magnesium in my blood stream.  Both my Primary Care Physician and Surgeon wanted all of the results.  It's funny that although 8 vials was a whole lot of blood, it didn't seem like too much.  In fact, for the testing that they wanted to do it seemed like 8 wouldn't be nearly enough!  I'm not complaining though.

I immediately posted on Facebook how amazed I was that my labs needed 8 full vials of blood and had a plethora of people ask me if I was trying to get pregnant!  For those of you who do not know, you are not allowed to get pregnant for 18 months after surgery.  You don't want to damage anything going on with your belly and you certainly will be unable to sustain 2 lives, sustaining your own is challenging enough!  So no, I am not trying to get pregnant, thanks for asking though.  :-)

I'll keep you updated on how the rest of the labs go...until then, thanks for reading.  :-)

A month of stuff!

WOW!  How does a month go by without a post?  I hate to say it but boy am I slacking!

The past month has been SUPER busy.  June is notoriously crazy for me every year, as almost every person I know is a Gemini or a Gemini cusp, including me.  That's right, I recently celebrated my 30th birthday!  Goodbye 20's hello to a new decade of my life.  There are no pictures from the event, however let me tell you my partner planned a party that was perfect for me.  The theme of the whole day was "A kids party for an old lady".  We started the day rollerskating for an hour and a half at Roller World, in Saugus.  I had almost every birthday party there as a child, making it a total trip down memory lane.  (I always think about Bobby Cincotta with the fork in his nose....anyone else remember that?)  After skating we had a BBQ at my mom's house.  Alex created an atmosphere of fun and relaxation, which is what I wanted.  There were goody bags (Complete with toy dinosaurs, glow bracelets, Buffy the Vampire Slayer pins, and vodka nips), stick the horn on the unicorn game, and a crafting table for people to put birthday wishes on sheets of paper.  We are going to put all the wishes on a canvas and hang them in the house.  Gotta love craft projects!

The highlight of the day was the fact that Alex surprised me by driving 45 minutes, each way, to a bakery in Salem, NH called Chatila's Bakery for a sugar-free birthday cake and sugar-free / gluten-free cheesecake.  Both were super tasty and beautiful.  I have got to say, I am a very lucky girl.

Otherwise, I have been working my tail off, going to birthday parties for my friends, going to concerts (Dave Matthews Band is ALWAYS amazing live by the way), and trying new recipes.

I made an Italian style casserole that is reminiscent of baked ziti and stuffed peppers mixed together.  Thank you again for the inspiration Michelle from The World According to Eggface.  Her creations inspire my cooking so much and give me a place to start from and then build upon.  So my "stuffed pepper casserole" was almost exactly a combination of these 2 recipes:  Un-stuffed Pepper Casserole and Shelly's Turkey Stuffed Peppers.  Make the Un-Stuffed Casserole but put mushrooms, zuccini, and summer squash into the mix.  And instead of ground Turkey, I used leftover rotisserie chicken that I cubed.  Alex LOVED this one.

She also liked this pizza I made today.  It needs a name, but for now I'm calling it


Linz's Kitchen Sink Pizza

1 Ezekiel 4:9® 6 inch Whole Grain Flour-less Tortilla 

(I got them at Hannaford's Market but you can go to their website and look up the stores that carry the brand)

2 TBLS Tomato Sauce

3 slices of deli smoked ham (HIllshire Farms)

1/4 of a cup of leftover sautéed veggies  

(I had zucchini, summer squash, onions, mushrooms and garlic left over from the above casserole)

1/4 cup shredded Cheddar/Mozzarella Cheese

1/2 a Haas Avocado

A few squirts of hot sauce (I use Red Hot but any will do)

 A light dusting of Grated Parmesan Cheese

Again, I follow the instruction that Michelle at the Eggface blog give's .  If you do exactly what she says you will throughly enjoy any food you find at her blog.  Go check it out and enjoy her ideas.

So, the nitty gritty.  I hit 210lbs yesterday.  That means I have lost 85lbs since January 18th, 2010.  (5 months for those of you who are counting)  I'm in a size 18 and have gotten rid of everything but 1/8th of my original wardrobe.  Luckily, I was a clothing hoarder and kept things that I haven't worn since college, literally. I've also been lucky enough to have a number of people in my life who have gone through their own weight journey recently who have given me clothing that they can no longer use.  This is the smallest I have been since my sophomore year at Regis College.  That was 11 years ago!  

Here is a recent picture ...

Yup, that's a red cup.  I'm pre-gaming for the Dave Matthews Band Concert.  I can handle a single alcoholic drink now which is also really, REALLY nice.  An as for my little man Luna...

He can't handle his alcohol yet either...You have got to love being a cat!

My Latest Obsession

One word:  Casseroles!

So I've been looking into new food ideas.  I REALLY need protein so I've been reading various blogs and looking in cookbooks and in the end I got desperate and decided to purchase a rotisserie chicken and some Frenches Fried Onions. 

Yeah.....not much right? Well, when mixed with a bunch of stuff from my freezer and pantry and then baked, OMG!  So tasty!  I ate about a half a cup of the finished casserole and still had a TON of left overs.  In fact I had so much left over I have 4 servings in the freezer and had eaten it for lunch yesterday and today.  I have to tell you, it sounds kinda nasty, but I am telling you it's SUPER YUMMY!  And, for you post ops out there, the chicken was so moist that I had NO problems with it, and I always have trouble with chicken.

This is what you've been waiting for...the recipes!

Mexican Chicken and Veggie Casserole

2 rotisserie chicken breasts (Skin removed, cubed)
1/2 a medium Spanish Onion
1 TBLS chopped Garlic
1 TBLS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 bag of frozen mixed veggies (I used Shaws Brand Ranchero Mexican Veggies)
1 TBLS Cumin (Add more or less to taste)
1 TBLS Chili Powder (Add more or less to taste)
Black Pepper and "No Salt" to taste
1 Pinch of Cayenne Pepper
1 can Low Sodium Cream of Chicken Soup
1 can Mild Green Chilies
1/4 cup of Chicken Broth
1 cup of salsa
1 cup of shredded cheese
3/4 cup of Frenches Fried Onions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Warm the oil in a high walled saute pan.  Once the oil is warm, add the onion and cook until transparent.  Add the garlic, and chicken. Stir and cook until chicken is warm.  Add chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper stir until combined. Add bag of frozen veggies and cook until the veggies are warmed through.

In a separate bowl, mix the Cream of Chicken Soup, Green Chilies, and Chicken Broth.   Once veggie mixture is all warmed up add the liquid mixture. Stir until well combined.   Add more broth if the mixture is too thick.  (The liquids should spread just slightly when filling is pulled away from the pan.

Once everything is warmed though, pour the mixture into a casserole dish, top with the salsa, cheese and onions.  Bake for 30 - 35 minutes until bubbling.  Serve yourself a half cup of the mixture.

I'm telling you, this is SOOOO GOOD!  I made one tonight that was curry.  Same basic ideas but instead of the Cream of Chicken mixture I mixed Curry Paste and Greek Yogurt with a bit of Chicken Broth, skipped the cheese and salsa and used Indian spices instead of the Mexican ones. 


Chicken Curry Casserole

(I couldn't wait so I took a scoop out before I blogged.  It smelled so good)

2 rotisserie chicken breasts (Skin removed, cubed)
1/2 a medium Spanish Onion
1 TBLS chopped Garlic
1 TBLS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 bag of frozen mixed veggies (I used butternut squash, spinach, Asian stir-fry small bags or just half of each)
1 TBLS Cumin (Add more or less to taste)
1 TBLS Cardamom (Add more or less to taste)
3 Bay Leaves
Black Pepper and "No Salt" to taste
1/4cup Mild Curry Paste
2, 7oz. containers of Greek Yogurt (I used 1 Fage 0% and 1 Fage 2%)
1/4 cup of Chicken Broth
3/4 cup of Frenches Fried Onions

Follow the same directions as above.  You will LOVE THEM!

Thanks to Michelle at The World According to Eggface for inspiring me to be more creative with my cooking AND for sharing her casseroles which gave me something to base my recipes on.

My Reaction to Life

So I lost someone very important to me today.  When I was at Regis College, the Dean of Students was like another mother.  Whenever I had a problem, or a question, or a comment, or just wanted to talk, or just wanted to complain, or just wanted a hug, I could go to her and she would be there.

This woman was Lynn Tripp Coleman.

She passed away today.  She gave in to a 6 year long battle to breast cancer.  I don't really know how to wrap my head around this news.  Unfortunately, I didn't talk to her much once I graduated in 2002.  I saw her at my 5 year reunion and we talked for a while but I didn't talk to her again after that.  She changed my life....and I miss her.

So, what does all of this have to do with my surgery journey?  Well for the first time since I had the surgery I just wanted to curl up in a ball with a pint of ice cream and a large alcoholic beverage.  What an automatic response huh?

Food has always been a comforter, a friend and a family member.  Someone to commiserate with, laugh with, cry with, be pissed off with...yeah, all that was with food.  How do I break that habit?  How do I stop thinking that I need a drink or some ice cream instead of going for a walk when I'm freaking out?  How do I stop that?

I think I still have some deep seeded issues to work out.  Time to call a therapist?  I think so.

In the end, what matters is that I was blessed to have such an amazing person in my life, even if only for a short period of time.  She is someone who will not only be missed but will leave a legacy of young women who are not afraid to ask for help, take charge of their lives, and are never afraid to love or to cry.  Lynn, I'm going to miss you, but I am grateful that my life was touched by you.  Rest in Peace and enjoy whatever is beyond.  Until I see you again....


Photo is from RegisCollege.net Student Affairs page.