Sunday, April 9, 2017

Experimenting with New Foods

A week ago when I had my follow-up with the surgeon and nutritionist at MD Anderson, the nutritionist wanted me to start trying new things.  Basically all of those things she originally told me to avoid, like high fat foods, sweets, etc., she was now encouraging me to try.  It's a weird feeling to be setting yourself up to get sick, but the thing is, if you never try it, you'll never know whether you can have it or not and since all of this varies from person to person, you have to give everything a try.  So, for the past week, I have been trying new foods with mixed success.

First of all, a week ago Friday, I had ice cream.  I just had a small bowl of Bunny Tracks.  It was fine.  Didn't really feel any affects of it at all.  I had another bowl a few days later.  It came back up.  Why was it fine one day and not another?  I have no idea, but I do think it is sometimes more about my body on a given day than what it is I eat.  I think the second bowl was a little bigger, but not that much so that it should have made a substantial difference.  I don't know.  I'll have to try it again and see what happens whether ice cream goes back into my diet or not.  I've never eaten a lot of ice cream, but I do enjoy it.

Hamburgers - I tried hamburger at home first.  I purchased 93% lean and broiled it.  I had it for two meals and felt totally fine both times.  Tuesday night we went to a local hamburger place.  I ate most of a 1/4 lb. cheese burger, one onion ring and a few french fries.  As well as being the first hamburger I didn't prepare, it was my first fried foods.  It all did OK.  I actually didn't enjoy the burger as much as I have enjoyed theirs in the past, I think it was a little overdone.  After I ate, I felt a heaviness in my chest, I think it was from the grease and the fried foods.  It wasn't bad and it shortly went away.  I think it will be OK to do that again.

I've ate banana bread and pumpkin bread several times over the last week.  Sometime it does just fine.  Sometimes I've had a little cramping.  I've never felt really bad.  I think the answer to this and most other sweets is keep the quantities small.  If I just do a bite or two at a time, it is usually OK.  If I eat too much, not necessarily.

On Friday, I actually tried a couple of pieces of candy.  I had one miniature Reeces peanut butter cup and one Rolo.  I had no issues.  It did give me encouragement that as long as I keep the quantities small, I should be able to do most sweets.

Friday night I tried pizza.  I like all-meat pizza.  We got my favorite thin crust pizza with pepperoni, Italian sausage and Canadian bacon.  I think it was a bit much.  This time the heaviness of fat and grease felt like it was sitting lower, I would say in my stomach, but I don't have a stomach, so I guess in my belly.  About an hour later, it came back up.  I think it will be awhile since I try pizza again.

Saturday I tried bratwurst.  I ate about half of one and I didn't enjoy it, but it didn't make me sick.  Today I ate the other half and it seemed greasier.  Apparently, warming it up in the microwave brought the grease to the surface more.  I don't know.  I kept it down, but I didn't feel good for awhile after eating it.

The good thing is even when something doesn't set right and I don't feel good after eating, usually it's only 15-20 minutes and then I feel better.

I find it interesting that the hamburger, pizza and bratwurst all had one thing in common: they are all foods that I ate regularly before, that I was starting to miss after not eating for over 6 weeks, and I didn't enjoy any of them as much as I was expecting to.  Have my taste buds changed?  I don't know.  I can't explain it.

There's still more experimenting to do....

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