18 Weeks Post Op (Only 4.5 Months Out and Have Met My 6 Month Goal)

I'm now 18 weeks post op (about 4.5 months) and have lost 76 lbs. as of this morning. You can't see me but I'm jumping up and down! I never thought I'd reach this point. What an awesome feeling! So my 6 month goal was to lose 75 lbs. Now, I'm past that and still have a month and a half until I reach 6 months. Wow! I heart my sleeve!!!!

Jeans! Ugh and awww! I'm happy because I'm moving down in sizes but you know how it is when one size is too big and the next size down is too small. So for right now, I'm stuck in baggy jeans! I'll take that! I'm inbetween size 18w and 20w. This is a great problem to have after so long having the problem of being to huge for my pants... suffering in tight, tight pants and refusing to buy anything larger....I hope those days are behind me.

Blood Test!!! I finally got the results and everything is awesome. The nurse practitioner told me that she wished she saw more results like mine, that they were the best she'd seen in a long time. When I went to see the doctor 3-4 weeks ago, I told him I was tired all the time. He told me that it could be an iron deficiency but unlikely. Then he proceeded to tell me that it was probably because my body was still healing and getting energy back and that that could take a long time. He told me at that point to order an iron supplement which I did and have been taking since. I've also started taking a Vitamin D-3 each day after his recommendation on that too. I have felt a lot better since then but it appears that all my levels were okay before I started the additional supplements. Just thought I'd mention it because I've read about others being unusually tired around this time, too.

Self-esteem!!! It's coming back! I really and truly feel so much better about myself even though I still have a long way to go. I had no self-esteem before surgery and was very, very depressed. I hated being in that sad dark place in life. I don't ever want to go back there.

17 Weeks Post Op (Pictures and Boy, It's Been Awhile Since I've Updated!)

I'm happy to say that I'm now down to 209 lbs. That's 71 lbs. lost so far. I'm so excited about that! It seems unreal. It has been almost 10 years since my hubby and I wed. The day we married, I weighed 205 lbs. This really just blows my mind! And the most awesome part of it is that I'm not done losing. YaY!

So, not much has been going on lately. I've struggled a few times with not eating too many carbs. I'm fine now but I had like a week were they were calling my name. It must have been hormones or something. I was dealing with some depression issues that week too. So who knows! Sigh! Another struggle is just having any kind of appetite. Nothing sounds good at all! Sometimes I'm fine with that but sometimes is makes me sad and I feel like I live on vitamins. Most days I drink a lot of skim milk....very easy way to get my protein and liquid. I'll eat nuts, jerky, chicken....I know, not much variety. Sometimes I'm frustrated because I know that I can't eat much in one sitting so it's easier to go to something that is easy and quick. I will normally eat a little bit of what I cook in the evening for my family but even then I feel like my taste buds are super picky. Well, I suppose this is an awesome problem to have compared to the problem of not being able to control my intake before surgery.

Okay, I told you I would try to get a full body shot on here sometime. Here it is! I took my son to Lone Star History Days at Heritage Park in Dallas. It's not the best picture ever but it will give you an idea of where I'm at right now.

Now

Friday, October 14, 2011: 210 lbs. ~~~I still look huge but at least not like I did 4-5 months ago.

Before

 

This shirt and pants now hang on me. And see my feet overflowing my shoes...well, now these shoes are lose on me.

I thought this was funny because you can actually see  me yanking my poor son over in front of me! I know, sad!

This shirt completely hangs lose around me and these pants practically fall off. They were size 24w and now I'm in a size 20w.

Picture Update (14 Weeks Post Op)

Hi all! I'm so excited to share these pictures with you. We had the privilege of receiving 4 Dallas Cowboys game tickets for this past weekend and boy it was fun even though Dallas went sour in the second half. Well, my husband wanted pictures of us in front of the field before the game started. Of course, I still felt huge and so I hid behind my son. Now I wish I hadn't. I was so shocked when my husband showed me my pictures. I had to ask him a couple of times if that was really me! Ha! I'm still in shock! I just didn't realize what I looked like even though I look at myself in the mirror every single day.

So the first pictures are my before surgery pictures when I weighed 280 pounds. The after pictures were taken on October 2, 2011, when I weighed 212. Yes, I've dropped some more weight since last Thursday and I'm excited about that, too. I'm down a total of 68 lbs. I've almost reached my 6 month goal and I'm barely over 3 months out. This is so amazing to me! I would have never been able to lose this weight on my own and keep it off. Okay, so anyways, here you go............

Before at my heaviest.

 

After (October 2, 2011-just a little over 3 months out)

Me, My Son (8 y.o.), and my step son