40 Weeks Post Op (And yes, I'm still alive!)

Oh boy! I hope I still have some followers out there. So sorry, I hope I haven't let anyone down. I've missed talking to my blogging friends. :(  Hope you're still there!

Though I've missed blogging, I've needed the break. We recently purchased some land and a home. The home has needed a bit of work before we could even consider moving into it. So, after an hour drive one way there and then an hour back AND all the work we were doing while we were down there...I was just too tired to even think of blogging. We've made so many trips back and forth AND I'm still schooling my son AND we've been passing around some kind sick...sigh! We are almost to the finish line though! I have a lot ahead of me over this next week or so but our plans are to move a week from this coming Saturday. YaY!!!!

I will tell you that I haven't been real religious about weighing myself lately. I suppose with everything going on, I just haven't made that a major priority. I know I'm not gaining and for the moment that's good enough for me. I WILL get back to it though hopefully real soon. The last time I weighed, sometime last week, I was down to 178 lbs. I'm in awe of it! That means that I have so far lost a total of 102 lbs. And the most exciting thing for me is that I'm not done! Big, HUGE smile!!!!

Now, for some NIVs! I've been mowing the lawn. This is something that I haven't done in probably 20 years. One, I was way out of shape. Two, I didn't want anyone watching me. And three, I was way out of shape! lol  I didn't think I would enjoy it but to my surprise, I loved it! It felt so freeing and so awesome that I could not only handle be that physical but that I couldn't wait to get out there again and again.

Another NIV! You know, way early on...somewhere back in my long ago post....I talked about my bottom half being my main problem. I talked about having huge legs that no matter how or how much weight I'd lost in the past, it just never seemed to change the shape of my legs. They would get smaller but still look really fat. Well, I'm losing different this time. I don't know why! All I know is that my legs are slowly slimming up. They're changing shape! My pants no longer suffocate my legs. I'm so happy about this.

And another NIV! I wore shorts for the first time in about 15 years. Yes, neither my husband or son had ever seen me in shorts. I wasn't sure about it at first but when my husband and son gave me compliments, I just couldn't believe it. It feels so liberating! As if I've finally been let out of big leg pants jail! I haven't worn them in public yet and nor do I plan on it anytime soon but I do see it in the future which is something I would have never dreamed of before.

AND another NIV! My thighs don't rub together any more! Love, love this one!

Okay folks, that's all I can think of right now. Miss y'all!

Totally Surprised!!!

Hey! I was over joyed yesterday when I was pleasantly surprised in my closet. Okay, for starters, I've been going on and on over the last week or two about my size 18 jeans not fitting right and even being a bit tight...remember? So yesterday, we were going to get out of the house for a little bit. I went in the closet and stared down the size 18 pants and really didn't want to mess with them. I even thought about putting back on my size 20's just to be comfortable even though they just practically fall off of me.  So, I got a little crazy and thought I'm going to try on one pair of 16's just to see how far I can get them up...thinking that this would motivate me to push myself a little harder. Wellllll, you won't believe this because I sure didn't, but I fit into that pair .... it was a perfect fit and comfortable. So, I thought, it's just the brand and how they cut them. So, I pulled out another pair of 16's. They fit, too! What is going on? So, I pulled out all 9 pairs (some pants, some jeans, some capri's) (And yes, I hoard my old clothes...always with the hope I'd get back into them one day) and started trying them on. ALL of them fit perfectly....now, 2 of them were a little tight in the waist but still, they fit. They're all different brands and so it's not just a different cut or anything. I'm in total shock! I'm thinking that my 18's were just a tighter cut brand...I only have 3 pairs of those.

Anyways, I'm so excited over this! I came out modeling for my husband with every single pair. He wasn't surprised like me...he said he could tell I'd lost more. He even told me I had some sexy curves! So, I'm feeling really good right now but I'm just blown away by this. So are my 18's really size 14-16's? Whatever, I love that 9 pairs of 16's fit!!!! Hot dog! I'm loving it!

Nice Things Being Said

Tonight, my son had Awanas at church. Because of things that where going on, we missed the last 2 weeks. So it's been 3 weeks since I've seen a couple of friends. Well, tonight, as soon as I saw one friend, she immediately grabbed my jeans and started going on and on about how lose they are. Then she told me how wonderful I'm looking. She actually pointed out one of her friends about 2 months ago to me that had had the sleeve surgery a year or two ago and she was so wonderfully thin. You would have never known that she used to be an obese person. I had asked her about her other sleeved friend...you know, about how large she was and if she had had big legs like me. These are things I'm curious about because in all my many weight loss losing days, I was never able to achieve thin, beautiful legs....even when at one point, I'd got down to 130 lbs......my legs were still fat and it was noticeable. So, my friend was telling me about her. She said she was much larger than I was when she had the surgery and carried her weight on her bottom half mostly, just like me. This seemed promising that this surgery was the answer to those kind of problems. So tonight, while she was grabbing at my jeans, she said to me, "And you were worried about your legs, silly girl!" This made me feel awesome!

Then another friend which I hadn't seen in about 3 weeks either, came up and was telling me that she could tell that I'd lost some more and that I looked really good. What an awesome, wonderful feeling! 

Okay, one more nice thing that was said. This didn't have anything to do with the weight loss itself but it sure made me feel loved and adored by my hubby. We were talking about what happened right after surgery when the surgeon came to talk to him about me. My hubby told me he'd already told me this but I didn't remember. He said that when the surgeon came out to tell him that everything went well and to give him the pictures of the surgery...which by the way, if you haven't seen the pictures, go here. Anyways, he said that when he saw the pictures, he didn't know whether to shake his hand or to knock him out! Wow! He does love me after all! No, I knew he loved me but to hear things that he was thinking like that, it makes my heart skip a beat or two. You know men, they are never really too open about how they're really feel.

Have a blessed night!

NIV's So Far!

This has definitely been an interesting journey so far. I have definitely had my share of ups and downs (not just my weight). It always seems that as I'm in the mist of feeling like, gosh, this just isn't working out for me, something happens to change my mind. I've given myself lots of pep talks and I've had cries in the mist of many frustrations. Yes, sometimes everything seems like it's going at a snail's pace but when I look back over the last 3-4 months, it feels like it has just flown by. I've now lost a total of 55 lbs. and that puts me at 225. That's less than what I weighed after giving birth to my son 8 years ago. So I suppose I could caught that as one NIV.

A few things that have happened over the last couple of weeks makes me almost believe that my looks are starting to change. When I look in the mirror, I still see a large person but my face has more definition. I can see my jaw bone. I can see some definition in my neck. So there's another couple of NIVs.

I have 2 sister-in-laws. One that I see pretty often and am so incredibly close to. She is my sis! Her and I think just alike. She's one of the most thoughtful and caring people that I know. I love her to pieces! Anyways, I picked her youngest son up from school about a week ago and kidnapped him for the weekend. At one point over the weekend, she came by and got so excited about my weight loss. She said I was looking so cute and ran her hands up and down my sides because they had thinned out so much. I was so excited! She made my day!...My week!!!! She told me that she could really see a difference. Wow! So this is really working! Awesome! Another NIV.

My other sister-in-law which I love also but I'm not as close to because she lives a couple of hours away and we just never see each other much. But I did get to see her yesterday. This was the first time since Christmas that I've seen her. She told me that she could tell that I'd lost a lot of weight and wanted to know what I'd been doing. I never told her that I had surgery and made the ones that knew keep hush, hush about it. Now?!!... I don't care who knows for the most part. So, I told her. She was in shock! But very supportive and told me that she thought I was a very brave person for doing it. That made me feel great! Another NIV!

My clothes are definitely getting too big on me. I've already gone down a couple of sizes in my shirts. My jeans? Ummmm...well, they are really super baggy and I can now get down into the next size. The next size is a 22w. That size fits fine but I like my jeans a little lose so I have still been wearing my 24w....which are a lot lose. HA! I love it! Another NIV!

This weekend I was going through some boxes in the garage that are full of old SMALL clothes and for once, it didn't depress me. I was excited because I knew that there was a big chance that I would be able to fit into a lot, if not all, by next summer...or sooner! Did I say that I love my sleeve?