day 19; week long update

Hey everyone!  Finally back to update.  This week has been pretty hectic for me, but I've managed to take note of my progress since my last update.  

Swelling: Only a few new things this week, as far as swelling goes, it's continuing to decrease veeery slowly, but nevertheless it's going down.  I've stopped taking pictures everyday because the difference on a daily basis is so minimal that I just take a new picture maybe every other day or a little longer.  

Smiling: I am FIGHTING to smile properly again hahaa, I think that's my new goal.  I guess I just need to wait for the incisions to heal more.  Can't wait until I can smile properly with teeth, have yet to see what I look like smiling so I'm getting anxious.  

Numbness: I'm still numb!!!  It's a little worrisome that even now I can't feel certain parts of my face still.  I know sensation takes a while to regain from this kind of surgery, but I'll be sure to ask my surgeon during my next appointment next week.  

Food:  This week I hit a wall pretty hard.  I managed to blend spaghetti one night and the next night I blended up lasagna (actually the same recipe that my cousin made for me for my feast).  Pretty much my diet for the past week was ensure, boost, and the like, then mashed potatoes and pasta. LOL. So random.  Unfortunately I'm a little disappointed that I strayed pretty hard from what I planned for myself.  I think I was just that upset.  Not to mention, the past thursday was my birthday and I felt like crap.  I'm pretty sure it was the crappy diet, but it didn't help make this lack lustre 22nd birthday any better.  With that being said, today I woke up this morning with a fresh perspective.  I made myself an AMAZING smoothie (which I planned the recipe for pre-surgery).  VOILA!  This is my berry pomegranate matcha smoothie with yogurt.  

I had a big ol' glass of that for breakfast.  Pretty much, a heaping of the frozen berries, with pomegranate juice, a big helping of matcha, and finished with fat free, no sugar added yogurt.  All I did was strain and pour it in a big glass.  Breakfast is served.  Also I'm proud to say today was my first day back exercising! 

Exercise:  Seeing as how I haven't worked out in almost three weeks, coupled with the fact that I'm still weak from recovering, I knew I had to take it easy.  Pretty much I just circuit trained using considerably less weight than where I left off just to ease my body back into it.  I finished with very light card just to get my heart rate up, but not enough to burn any chunk of calories that I already lack.  I can't say how excited I was today to start working out again.  I'm a freak like that!  It really helped me stay positive and get me out of my slump.  

Food: Immediately after, I made my VERY favourite shake, since I am a chocolate FIEND!  It's a chocolate peanut butter and banana protein shake.  YUM. Chocolate protein powder, half a banana, a spoonful of peanut butter and half chocolate milk and half unsweetened chocolate almond milk.  

Anyway, last night was my bf's sister's Jack and Jill.  Both him and I are in the wedding party, so I had to be there to show my support.  Plus, it's fun :).  Anyway, that's my novel for the week hahaha.  Here are pics of my progress!

Take care guys!  

day 12; it's all downhill from here

Back at this again!  Have been feeling more productive now that I'm able to be a little more physically active.  Friday morning was my boyfriend's convocation (graduating with his bachelor of health science; specialist in kinesiology) so proud!  I made my first public appearance on Friday.  I'm feeling more willing to be in public now that swelling has gone down a lot (not completely yet though).  

Updates in terms of my progress, no pain anymore, even my wrists and hands don't really bother me all that much anymore, so I'm planning on starting my ukulele learning this week.  Can't start biking yet though, face is still sensitive to bobbing movements.  I also managed to eat mashed potatoes the other day, hahaha.  Let me tell you, it's possible!  However, I felt slightly lightheaded from having to suck the mash potatoes through my teeth/braces; oh well it was worth it :P.  My advice is to make sure the potatoes are extremely well blended.  I had a second attempt at mash potatoes yesterday that didn't go well because it came with the skin in it.  Normally I like when potato skins are in the mash, but obviously, didn't go so well with being wired shut.  

Today is a bright and sunny day that I'm going to take full advantage of by going to my cousin's house for some swimming.  By swimming, I mean, standing since I don't know how well I'd do swimming like this...  Also, starting tomorrow, I'm going to start light exercising again.  I really miss exercising, and I've been withering away since surgery.  The last time I was under 110 lbs was when I was in elementary school.  At least 8 years since, I'm now 109.  Before surgery I was 122-125.  Last week I was a meager 105, but since I've been making sure to drink more I'm slowly gaining again.  GOOD!  Can't wait to get back into healthy shape!  That's all for today guys, here's a couple of pics to show you my face progress. 

This and the next pic is from bf's convocation, day 10, right side of my face is still more swollen then the left, but definitely considerably smaller than previously.  

In certain angles, it's hard to notice the swelling.  

This is from day 11, went to movies to watch Kung Fu Panda 2 with the bf (in the back), my sister and her daughter, my beautiful almost 5 year old niece.  As you can see in this picture better, right side is still more swollen.  However, you can start to see my cheekbones again.  Also, this is as much of a normal looking smile as I can muster yet.  I've tried smiling with teeth but I can barely open my mouth still with all the stitches yet.  I'm getting there though! 

pre-surgery: creating a meal plan

I think the most important part of planning for having your jaw wired shut for 6 weeks is to consider what you're going to be eating those six weeks… actually, more like drinking, since the diet is unfortunately all liquid for the entire 6 weeks.  I really tried to stay as healthy as possible with everything I planned.  The most important thing to remember is that you don't have to just drink ensure, Boost, and standard broth the whole time.... that would get boring too quickly!  Incorporating different fruits and vegetables and looking at other things that could be added to your diet to help provide as much nutrients is the best idea!  Here's a breakdown of what's included, no recipes in this entry though; post that in later entries.  

Soup: Personally, I know that it's inevitable that I'm probably going to lose a lot of weight (which I'm dreading btw).  However, I really tried to incorporate different foods that would help me stay as healthy as possible.  Liquid diets suck for most people because no one is really sure what else they can eat.  For the past 4 months I've been meeting up with my cousin at least once a week to cook different soups.  These soups are usually always made entirely from scratch; sometimes even the chicken stock.  They're not your standard soups, but any means.  A lot of them are lower sodium, pretty low in fat and packed with vegetables that are blended with the skins (skins of vegetables contain dietary fibre).  All the recipes include an added source of COMPLETE protein.  I have to stress 'COMPLETE' because vegetable proteins are incomplete unless there is a right combination.  For complete proteins, you need to combine grains (rice etc) with legumes (beans, lentils etc.), or grains and nuts/seeds, or legumes and nuts/seeds.  My favourite combination is brown rice and lentils.  It took a LOT of time and effort on the part of my awesome food master chef of a cousin (I love you<3) to come up with everything I need in pureed soup form!  I'll be happy to share a few of my favourite recipes with you guys later on if you're interested.  HELL NO TO BORING CANNED SOUPS FOR ME!  :) 

Quick tip! If you're worried you're going to be stuck eating the same type of soup for days at a time, don't worry.  My cousin taught me that you can make big batches of your favourite homemade soups ahead of time and then freeze them on ice cube trays.  When they're frozen, you can just pop them out and put them in a ziploc bag.  That way you have a few options to choose from and can portion how many you want! 

Smoothies and Shakes: Now obviously, soup can't be my only food.  I've also compiled a recipe book of different shakes and smoothies that I love to help me.  I love all things berries.  So I made sure to stock up on frozen berries.  Best part of frozen berries is that they're usually freezed immediately after being picked, so they maintain a lot of their nutrients and possibly have less pesticides since they are frozen.  Also, I LOVE bananas, so I bought a few bunches of bananas and cut them in half and froze them.  I recommend having enough of a quantity to last only two weeks though, since frozen bananas can only last so long.  I also stocked up on yogurt (normally just plain yogurt or no added sugar yogurt) as well as soy milk, almond milk, and regular milk just to have different variations.  These are things I can have readily on hand that won't go bad.  Other fruits, like avocados and mangoes will be bought whenever needed since they don't keep for very long.  

Green Smoothies:  I'm SO excited to add this to my diet.  For those of you who don't know what green smoothies are, they're just regular fruit smoothies with added green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale, or other greens.  Now I wouldn't suggest this for a lot of people since the idea of adding leaves and such into fruit smoothies sounds… well, gross. LOL. However, the benefits of greens is RIIIIIDICULOUS though that I couldn't pass it up; vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients etc.  I'm planning (depending on how well I grow accustom to the taste) to have a green smoothie every morning.  Also, I buy the greens frozen, since it keeps longer as well.  

Protein Shakes and Meal Replacement Shakes: I already have a favourite protein shake mix that I love, so I keep it handy just in case my stomach needs some filling.  Same goes for my meal replacement shake; one of my girlfriends gave me a can of meal replacement powder (I love her<3) so that I always get as much nutrients and good stuff as possible.  I plan on drinking my meal replacement shake everyday, and my protein shake especially on workout days.  

(hahahahahaaa, don't kill me! <3)

Miscellaneous food/drinks: LOTS OF WATER. Can't stress that enough.  I will always have water or green tea if I'm drinking anything.  I bought matcha green tea from the local Whole Foods (absolutely love this place btw; it's heaven).  Matcha has so many more benefits than just plain green tea, but it's so freaking expensive!  So I plan on using it for my matcha green tea shake!  I'll post all recipes later on whenever I make something new.  Another item I keep handy is fibre.  Although, I'm sure I won't have too many digestive problems on this 6 week liquid diet because it's pretty much like I'm going on a 6 week detox! (Scary thought).  Also, I picked up Agave nectar, which is supposed to be a healthier alternative to regular sugar when used in regular portions.  I'm thinking I'll add some if I even need to sweeten anything.  

But there you have it… My meal plan thus far.  I'm sure I'll modify it as time goes on though.  I did my best to include as many different coloured vegetables and fruits, leafy greens, fruits rich in antioxidants, complete protein, vegetable fibre and other varieties.  I have tons of recipes, which seems ridiculous… but I'm sure on a 6 week diet, drinking the same thing will get so boring.  Variety is the key! LOL.