21 Weeks Post Op (Almost to "Onederland")

Good Morning! So sorry I didn't manage to get back on here yesterday morning. Things have been super crazy around here.

So,  I was hoping that I would be able to report this morning that I was now in onederland! No such luck! But I'm very close! I'm now weighing in at 200 lbs. This means that not only have I lost 80 lbs. so far but that I'm not even 5 months post op and have already passed up my 6 month goal which was to lose 50% of my excess weight (75 lbs.). Once again, I love my sleeve! It's not always easy and I do have to make an effort to eat and drink the right things but for some reason, not sure why, my sleeve makes things so much easier. 

On another subject, my blog friend, Roslyn asked me about my sweet tooth and if I had one. Yes, I do have one but now it's a lot different than it was before surgery. My whole appetite has changed. Most of the time I have to remind myself to eat. But I do have days or weeks were my hormones are all over the place or my hubby and son are indulging in those "oh, so delightful" sweets and I find myself wanting them like crazy. I don't refuse myself. I just make sure I don't over do it. A tiny little bowl of ice cream or a small bite of candy....you know, I just don't eat and eat like I used to AND I have no desire to now. It doesn't take much to satisfy my sweet tooth. In fact, if I over do it, it makes me feel like I've had 2 big bowls of ice cream and am going back for more....YES, nauseous!

I wanted to mention this because right at this very moment I have a pumpkin pie cooking in the oven that I'm taking to my grandma, mom, and brother...along with a roast, potatoes, onions, carrots, and rolls.....at the nursing home that my grandma is at. We're celebrating Thanksgiving tonight because we will be out of town on a vacation next week. Anyways, was I craving anything at all this morning except for my coffee? No! Now that I'm smelling the pumpkin pie, my mouth is watering. So, yes Roslyn, I do still have a sweet tooth. :(  Am I really hungry? No way! :(  It just smells so good and my head says that I need it. Ha! So, I do have lots of head hunger, too. You'll figure out as you go how to control what actually passes over your tongue. But don't worry about it if you have a little here and there....even naturally thin people do....AND now you have the tool to work around those cravings and not over indulge. You are normal and I don't think that having a sweet tooth makes your surgery a failure. I'm pretty sure that that's pretty normal and that a lot of post sleeve people deal with their own little devils when it comes to food. Just have a bite or two and then stop! I bet you will be totally satisfied....oh, and make sure to eat some dense protein before you do....this will probably take away your sweet craving completely. Most of the time, that works for me but sometimes nothing will overcome the sweet tooth and I just have to have it. It's okay and not the end of the world!

Have a blessed day! I'm not sure I will be posting anything next week because we will be out of town. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and I will jump back on here as soon as I can.

Time to Buckle Down!

Well, my friends, I have to say that I've not done all I could to make sure I'm on top of things. This has left me feeling totaling out of control of my weight loss and in the mist of total chaos! As far as food, I've still tried my best to stick with what I'm suppose to be eating. I eat mostly protein and drink lots of water! I take all of my vitamins and my acid reducer. I kind of count my protein and water in my head as I go...that being said...that's scary enough on it's own, counting on my brain to keep track of it all! Also, I've been doing my physical therapy for my hip joint and it's been working wonders but....yes, there's a but....I come home and don't always continue to do the exercises. What's wrong with me???? I wish I knew! Where's my motivation? 

I decided to take my "Weight Log" out that I haven't been using and try to record when I lost the weight and how much. Ugh! This was no easy task! I went back through my blog trying to find dates and amounts. I found most of them but it was confusing and would have been much easier if I'd just weighed and recorded once a week, not just sporadically. I even missed out on blogging my last 4 pounds lost. I blogged about the fact that I was down to 225 but completely missed the boat on noting that those 4 lbs. were gone and when in the world that I actually lost them. Slap my hand! Good grief!!! That just frustrates me more than anything.

So, how will I change all this chaos? For starters, since my surgery was on a Thursday, I will start making that my official weigh in day and for goodness sakes, I will record what the scale says. Then, I can come here and announce my losses or my stand stills. Either way, at least I can look back and see how far I've come.

Also, starting tomorrow, I will record my protein, carbs, and calories on paper. Then maybe, if it's not to cumbersome, I will record my intake on my blog. I don't know! That will be a lot of recording and I might get frustrated writing it down and then typing it all out. I've never been good at that and that was one thing in the past while dieting that I didn't like at all. It will be hard enough for me to record everything on paper but now, I see the need for it. And I think it will keep me on track as far as making positively sure that I'm getting all my protein and water....and staying on the low side of the carbs. Also, I want to make sure that my intake of calories is somewhere between 600-1000. I think I've been coming up on the short end and my body probably thinks I'm starving myself.

And....And...this is the hardest for me....to try to do the exercises my physical therapist has assigned me. AND to start using my treadmill or getting out sometime during the day to walk, ride my son's pedal car, or to go swimming in our neighborhood pool. This is a goal for me to shoot for! I've always hated exercising and to be honest, I just don't want to do it. But between the cortisone shot and the physical therapy, I know it's helping my hip. There's such a difference! I've been almost pain free for over a month now! That's a miracle in itself.

So, this is where I'm at! I will get up tomorrow morning and pep talk myself about all of this again. Hopefully I will stick to my guns! Since I'm blogging this, I feel like I have to do what I'm saying I will do. So maybe I'll have all kinds of things to blog about over the next couple of weeks.

Have a great weekend!

New Weight Lost and Measurements

Hi all! I have managed to lose another 5 pounds over the last 2 days. I'm so excited! This brings my total wieght loss so far to 50 lbs. I will reach my 12 week goal hopefully by week 9 which is next week. I only have 2.5 more pounds to go. I can't tell you how wonderful this is to me.

I will say though, that I'm still feeling absolutely huge. I know my clothing is lose and my shirt size has dropped but I'm still wearing the same size pants as I was 50 lbs. heavier. Now, my pants are loser but I'm not down to the next size yet. This is frustrating to me! Even though I've always known that I will lose a bunch on the top first...this is how things for me have always worked. Sigh! It'll come off but the bottom half will be slow coming.

To make myself feel better, I decided to measure myself for the first time since pre-op.

Here are my measurements before surgery:

June 3, 2011:

• Waist:  53"
• Hips:    56.5"
• Chest:  45.5"
• Arm:    15"
• Thigh:  32.25"
• Knee:   20"
• Calf:     22"

Today, August 16, 2011:

• Waist:  47"
• Hips:    53"
• Chest:  42"
• Arm:    14"
• Thigh:  30"
• Knee:   18"
• Calf:     20.5"

Differences from then to now:

• Waist:   6"
• Hips:     3.5"
• Chest:   3.5"
• Arm:    1"
• Thigh:  2.25"
• Knee:   2"
• Calf:     1.5"

Total inches lost so far:

• 19.75"

Excess Weight and Goals AND Am I Really a Slow Loser?

Just so you know, just in case I haven't mentioned it before, I have continually felt as if I wasn't losing near fast enough after surgery. I'm sure that the 4 week stall I went through didn't help me any mentally. Also, when you jump on the forums and you read about all the people that are in about the same time frame you are out from surgery and their weight just seems to melt off...now, that's frustrating! I had got to the point that it was just too depressing to even jump on there and read anything. Okay, with that said, I really think that there's a lot of misconception out there about where we should be at any given point in this sleeve journey. My dietitian gave me a whole new perspective on everything. First of all, everyone is different...okay, we all knew that yet we still manage to compare ourselves to each other. Second, with that said, most of us start out at a higher or lower weight that some and our heights are different. Third, how do we know that all of our bougie sizes are the same....or for that matter, even if they are, some people can tolerate more water, more food at an earlier stage. I believe that the sooner a person is able to eat more normal foods, the faster their body tends to level out (in other words, our body stops freaking out) and we start dropping at a faster rate. So after my nutritional class, I've learned so much and have actually come out of it feeling like I'm right where I'm supposed to be.

So the other day when I went to my nutritional class, we discussed what the meaning of excess weight was. She, my dietitian, said that there's no magical number. It's simply the extra weight that you have to lose to get down to your goal. Your goal is whatever you think you should weigh when it's all said and done. Nothing more to it! So, I already had a goal in mind, 130 pounds. I've been there once before in my mid-twenties and probably could have lost an additional 10 pounds on top of that. Oh and she said that you should count the weight you lost before surgery during pre-op. So 3.5 weeks before surgery when I started my pre-op diet, I weighed 280 lbs. So at that point my excess weight was 150 lbs.

Now, when I hit 3 months post op, I should have lost 30-35% of my excess weight. So, 35% of 150 lbs. (excess weight) would be 52.5 lbs. So let's say that there are 4 weeks in a month...we all know that this can vary....so I'm guess-ta-mating (Ha!) that somewhere around 12 weeks out, I should be at my first goal of losing 52.5 lbs. That would be around Sept. 15. That leaves me with about 3 weeks to lose an additional 7.5 lbs. to hit that goal. How exciting is that? I couldn't believe it when she went over all of this with us. Here I was thinking that I was a slow loser and I was afraid that my surgeon would be very disappointed in me when I go for my 3 month check up. Ha! Not so!

Other goals later down the line....6 months, I should lose 50% of my excess weight and at a year, it should be 75%.

I think part of the problem is that when you're going through the process from the beginning until whenever they finally start talking about goals, you're just kind of out there floating around and trying to figure things out on your own. You don't really know where you're supposed to be at whatever that given point is in your journey. I think they should talk about this before you ever have surgery so that your mind and your emotions aren't all bent out of shape. It would have saved me a lot of grief. Oh well! Hopefully this post will lift someone elses spirits.