So, it has been 22 days since my gastric bypass surgery. That is 22 straight days of feeling about 100 years old. It has been hard to get out of bed, it has been hard to move about the house, it has been hard to even make my own meals. I figured it would be this way for a while but I didn’t think this feeling would last that long.
This low energy feeling is directly related to the fact that I haven’t been able to stomach protein shakes for such a long period of time. Having protein shakes 4 times per day has pushed me to my limit. If you go back an look at my Fitbit food log, you will see I have been hitting around 500-700 calories a day…and have the hardest time hitting my 70+ grams of protein per day. I think that has been my issue.
Having low energy has a serious domino effect. First of all, in order to fit all of your daily calorie and protein requirements, you need a full day to take in enough food to hit your numbers. I have been going to bed after 10pm, tossing and turning for a couple hours…then getting out of bed after 10am every morning. Then when I get out of bed I go to the restroom and take a long shower. But it is all slow motion, I can’t move fast. In fact, once I step out of the shower I am so exhausted that I usually lay back on the bed for 15-20 minutes in order to build up my energy again.
Once I actually get out of the bedroom I stumble into the kitchen and grab the easiest food I can get my hands on. Then I sit again and eat or drink my shake. Again, exhausted. I then proceed to try to squeeze in my daily requirements, but as you can see from my Fitbit log, this never happened. The lack of energy was one thing, but the insane dislike for these shakes paralyzed me. Just the thought of them made me want to gag. When you want to gag, not all the energy in the world would motivate me to make myself a shake.
This low energy domino effect is a vicious cycle. You don’t want to get into this place. You can’t let this happen to you. This is why you need somebody to hold you accountable and take care of you if needed. This person should prepare meals for you and keep tabs on your eating to make sure you are hitting your requirements. If you don’t have the luxury of having somebody to help you then you need to plan ahead big time. You need options and variety…your tastes will change from day to day…you need to be ready for everything.