Monthly Archives December 2011

First, Merry Christmas to everyone!  We feel like we have been celebrating Christmas for the last month…..all the holiday lights in Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Italy and now Switzerland have been magical.

After being in sunny Italy, we took the train over snow-covered Swiss Alps (just gorgeous) and landed in Zurich to spend 2 weeks with our Swiss hanai (adopted) family for Christmas.

Like me, I’m sure this past week has presented new challenges to every one who has been sleeved or is on a pre-op (OMG) diet.  Hope you were all able to get through without too much trouble.

Our beautiful (and slim) adopted family in Switzerland

None of them knew about my surgery and they hadn’t seen me in about 3 months (and they’re all beautiful BTW).  They were all very complimentary and happy about my weight loss and I felt really good being among them physically for the first time!

So here we are in Florence and traveling the Tuscan country side.  And HOW do I know how much I weigh????  Because once again I found myself looking for a clinic; thinking it was my damn bladder again, but to find out I’m OK.  BUT!  While I was in the clinic trying to converse with the Dr. who spoke no English and of course I spoke no Italian, I spotted a scale, stepped on and VOILA!!!  78 Kilos!!!   So while she was checking out my urine….I was whipping out my Iphone calculator and seeing that 78 Kilos was 171 lbs.  So I was happy even before finding out that the infection was gone!!!

Porto Venere, a charming medieval village that took our breath away.

So off we went to the charming villages, medieval walled towns and country side “Under the Tuscan sun!!!”  The weather was picture perfect (the photo here was taken Dec 19!).  We now understand why people are so taken with this area and Italy in general.

Most of our travel has been by train, but we rented a car for 4 days and had a great time (once we got out of the city with crazy Italian drivers!).

THE FOOD.  So here we are in what is not only one of the most picturesque places in the world, but it’s also known for it’s amazing food.  Maybe it was the WLS, but I have not had a good meal since we have been here (and even before my surgery in October, the food in Europe, to me, is not that great….my apologies to any Italians out there).

Venice, with canals and more tall, beautiful women

No pizza, no pasta, and no wine! This may not have been the wisest choice in places to visit nine weeks after WLS. There are 100 Italian restaurants to one of any other type; Italians don’t quite get the concept of diversity when it comes to eating. I think I am the only tourist in the history of Italy who visited and ate mostly soup!

Venice … just as gorgeous as you can imagine, but check out the blonde on the left who has legs that go on forever, and of course her thighs have probably never touched! (What does she eat???)

Our first night in Venice we went to a very charming, local, small, family-owned Italian (what else?) restaurant. Watching the people who worked there and the locals who came in was like watching a scene out of the movie The Godfather. Attention all casting agents: just have a cappuccino here and you will have all the characters you need for your next project! Another thing about restaurants here, if you don’t order vino with your meal, they look at you suspiciously. So when I ordered a pizza (scraping off the top again) and nothing to drink, and we didn’t eat the bread they brought, and I only ate one slice of this huge pizza, I’m sure they thought we were odd indeed. The proprietor asked (looking genuinely concerned) in his heavy Italian accent, “Wassamatta? You no-a like-a my pizza?” So another lie to just say I wasn’t feeling well.

Three countries, three train trips and a visit to a health clinic this past week.  Weiden (a small town in Bavaria), Prague and Vienna are all cities that are on architectural and picturesque steroids……the beauty and charm has been overwhelming.  Our weather, for late Nov and early Dec has been fantastic and the Christmas markets and lights everywhere are amazing.  We are walking a lot every day and most days I have had some pretty good energy.

I had a nice lunch on the train from Prague to Vienna.  It was a charming club car on this particular train and the menu was nice.  I ordered salmon and it was really good.  I only ate about 1/4 of it and tried a bit of the salad and they both went down fine.  Luckily, my husband was there to finish it off but even he left the mashed potatoes! 

We are staying in those charming European hotels and most mornings I think about eating some eggs and meat and cheese.  But in the end, I’ve just been having yogurt with protein powder.  It isn’t mentally satisfying but I just know I’ll be sorry if I eat something else; as in, I want to go and lie down after breakfast.  So, yogurt it is.  If they have tea in the room then that’s great; I have that when I first get up and after I shower and dress, then I’ll go down for breakfast.  But if they don’t, I get caught up in wanting to have my tea with my breakfast…..and that seems to be a problem, since I can only get a couple of sips of tea; then I get a headache……

One of the things I’ve noticed since we eat out so much, is that watching other people eat can sometimes bother me.  Either they are stuffing so much into their mouths that it’s uncomfortable to watch, or I start having a mini pity-party for myself as I struggle to eat a morsel of chicken.  Either way, I need to face away from the open room when we sit down.  I think that will help.