Day 297--The Surgical Diet
I ran into a friend/former student from the U of C and she had the same comment that everyone else has had: I look good for someone that had heart surgery. The comments from people seeing me for the first time after the surgery have all been something like,
"You've lost weight."
"You look great."
"I'm sure everyone has told you this, but you look like you've lost weight."
"You weren't heavy before, but you look like you've lost a lot of weight, especially around your neck and face"
"I know you know this, but you look like you've lost a lot of weight."
The best part is that I didn't know I looked like I'd lost weight. I knew, from all the trips to the doctor, that I had lost about 10 lbs. But I thought I just sort of looked like myself. Apparently, though, before the surgery I had about 10 pounds of extra neck. Thanks a lot, beer.
From what I've read, it's pretty common for people to lose weight after surgery--it's a pretty traumatic experience for your body, even if the operation isn't as serious as mine was. My goal, now, is to try to keep that weight off, especially if it all resided in my neck/cheek area. The blood thinners are having a bit of an effect on this, though. On one hand, the blood thinners mean I can't drink as much, which is good for the neck. On the other hand, the blood thinners limit which vegetables I can eat, which has had the effect of me probably eating more carbs and meat than I would otherwise. So I will try to eat more artichokes, green peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers, because I would love for there to be something positive to come out of this surgery (other than, you know, the not suffering a ruptured aneurysm).
"You've lost weight."
"You look great."
"I'm sure everyone has told you this, but you look like you've lost weight."
"You weren't heavy before, but you look like you've lost a lot of weight, especially around your neck and face"
"I know you know this, but you look like you've lost a lot of weight."
The best part is that I didn't know I looked like I'd lost weight. I knew, from all the trips to the doctor, that I had lost about 10 lbs. But I thought I just sort of looked like myself. Apparently, though, before the surgery I had about 10 pounds of extra neck. Thanks a lot, beer.
From what I've read, it's pretty common for people to lose weight after surgery--it's a pretty traumatic experience for your body, even if the operation isn't as serious as mine was. My goal, now, is to try to keep that weight off, especially if it all resided in my neck/cheek area. The blood thinners are having a bit of an effect on this, though. On one hand, the blood thinners mean I can't drink as much, which is good for the neck. On the other hand, the blood thinners limit which vegetables I can eat, which has had the effect of me probably eating more carbs and meat than I would otherwise. So I will try to eat more artichokes, green peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers, because I would love for there to be something positive to come out of this surgery (other than, you know, the not suffering a ruptured aneurysm).