The Call of the Tootsie Roll/Fun with diet products.

I decided a while back after a work out where I was especially short of breath, that it was time to get on the stick and loose some of this weight I have put on over the years. Then my niece announced her wedding date and it hit me that I could be the heaviest person at the wedding. Some folks will be there that I have never met, I don't to embarrass or to feel  embarrassed anyone. 
 The goal is not the number of pounds lost but will be the fact:
             *that I will be able to exercise without being so short of breath. 

             *I wont have to look around the room twice when entering to find out which chair will hold me.

        *Plus so many other reasons I wont bore you with. 

So I decided that my dieting and exercising were not enough. I kept a stable weight for a year. Clearly more needed to be done. So its time for a tool. The tool I chose was Lap Band surgery.  I will spare you all the details of the particulars.  Just to say my stomach will be the size of my thumb and I have to learn to take baby bites, with a baby fork and spoon and chew, chew,chew.

Where does the Tootsie Roll come in you are asking?  Well the week before I had to go on the before surgery shrink my liver, just drink 6 HMR shakes a day diet and oh ya I can have 2 cups of cooked non starch vegetables a day. (There is a one shake a day meal substitute but I refuse to give in to it. LOL)  Whoopee!!!!!!!!  I could not get enough Tootsie Rolls.  It was the weirdest craving I ever had.  It was like I had a Tootsie Roll tape worm.  

The first day I was on shakes I went to make one I was not prepared, I did not have a shaker cup. So I decided to use a folk cause the package said I could if I didn't have a blender. Well as it was fast approaching the time I should be leaving for work so I didn't have time for blender get it dirty and clean it up.  I also decided that I could add coffee to the chocolate  shake cause the recipe said I could.  So I mix it up and take a drink......and the flavor is good but the lumpiness is quite undesirable. So that's my first encounter....... fun with diet products. 

At this moment I am about 2 weeks in and I have discovered that if you want, you can have a lot of fun getting really creative with what you put together for a shake. Chocolate shake mix blended with sugar free cherry jello powder, gives you the flavor of a chocolate covered cherry.  Chicken soup mix with brocoli and seasonings will make a facsimile of brocholi soup.   I also discovered that you have to be wary of an explosion if you put hot coffee in your mug, the HMR vanilla and shake.   If you use the whole package of sugar free jello mix, not much water and quite a bit of ice you get the consistency of cake batter.   Yummy.. You can also if you are doing an experiment that goes wrong....make a HMR vanilla powder the consistency of frosting but I couldn't think of anything I could frost at the time.  To bad they don't have olive flavoring cause I suppose if they did I could have stuffed a celery.  Celery I will not be able to eat post surgery, its threads can get stick above and below the band....this causing an issue.  

My last thought of todays post will be how interesting it is to find out that my favorite raspberry plants are out of reach. Oh I could climb thru the flower bed, poor flowers would be crushed or I could climb the rock wall but just my luck I would slip get scratched up and have to cancel surgery. To much as gone in to coverage at work and planning that I couldnt take the risk. I feel next year they wont be around because hubby has gotten in the habit of mistaking my beloved raspberry plants for his despised black berry bushes.

Til later......