11 wks - 55lbs! Broke that Plateau:)

Well, finally this week I broke that darn plateau.  It took me nearly three weeks to see that scale move back down again, talk about a tough battle of wits.  No matter what means one uses to lose weight, the journey itself remains the same.  It's funny because I'm lucky if I eat 500-600 calories/day but yet I lose weight at this point like before when on Weight Watchers.  But, the big difference is this is a good steady pace and I don't have the hunger or want to eat like I did before.

That is the biggest change I've noticed up to this point.  The fact that eating is no longer a fun thing to be enjoyed.  It's actually a pain to eat, because it doesn't always agree with you and you are struggling to keep up with the three meals a day, getting your liquids in and primarily ensuring you meet at least your 50grams/day in proteins.  It's exhausting to focus on these elements and you literally have to be thinking about it all day, even though you are not in the least hungry.

Yesterday, I had my first puking incident.  I have been queasy and nauseated all week, my boss pointed out that perhaps it was induced my stress - after that statement I realized he was right.  At any rate, it was the end of the week when I came home last night and decided to eat something before we went to the movie.  I had a stuffed chicken breast, in which I had eaten twice before with no incidents.  But like everything else this week, when I began to eat the chicken I could feel it wasn't going well.  I pushed on and eat nearly half of the chicken.  Big mistake, that horrible pressure built up in my new stomach area and I could feel the nausea again coming on.  I got myself to the bathroom just in time and sure enough every bit of that chicken came back up.  I knew better, garlic is definitely one of the culprits since I don't seem to do well with anything in garlic either.  Immediately after I couldn't stand that taste in my mouth so I grabbed a sugar-free orange popsicle and felt better right away.  I drank probably 3 1/2 - 16oz bottles that day, so for me that was very successful.  

Today, I feel so much better.  I good night's rest and feeling less stressed has made all the difference.  I was going to do a 5K today, but felt that my three work-out sessions this week were sufficient and that I would most definitely go to the gym tomorrow instead.

Walking, a whole other world to me now.  I had been part of a walking group on campus, where I work over the summer months and at my heaviest I was struggling to keep up with the group.  I would have to always turn back mid-way and start heading back because I wasn't fast enough to keep up with the faster walkers.  The other day a co-worker and myself did an entire walk that would have been done with my group, plus the walk back to our building in 45mins....I was talking the entire time and felt great!  The other walks were about 1hr. 10mins for me to complete so the difference to me is staggering, to say in the least.  55lbs. sure makes a difference and it has made the difference!  I feel so much better.  

For those still wondering if they should do this surgery - I'm telling you it is exactly what someone needs that has any issues with weight or food.  I know I am still in the beginning process and have a ways to go to show the final results, but I have NEVER lost 55lbs. before and lord knows I've been on enough diets in my lifetime where I could have had the opportunity to lose the weight.  I think the best I ever did was nearly 30lbs a couple of different occasions.  

2 weeks after surgery

So, again, for comparison purposes, I am going to post some pictures again so you can see the results thus far:

Before at my heaviest

8/27/12 - 4 weeks after surgery

10/11/12 - 11 weeks after surgery

I think the visual is always important.  It is nice to mention no more blood pressure meds, I've lost 6 inches off my waist, my shoe size has already dropped a half size.

Super excited and happy at where I am at for me.  Remember, this is only about yourself and no one else.  No one else can tell you what to do with your body, but when you are indeed ready to take on this challenge, just think of all other things you can achieve once this achievement has been succeeded?!

I'll leave you with one of my favorite poems, Author Unknown

YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK. 

If you think you are beaten you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't;
If you want to win but think you can't;
It's almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lose you're lost;
For out of the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will;
It's all in a state of mind. 

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger and faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can. 

My first plateau, so frustrating

So, it finally happened my first plateau!  It's not a great feeling, but at the same time I know it's to be expected.  I have now just started to really introduce working out to my schedule, so I am hoping that'll change it up to where I can start seeing the scale drop more.  However, on the plus side in a good way, my clothes keep getting bigger, so I am convinced even though one doesn't lose weight all the time, the inches continue to go away.

I feel a lot better than nearly 50lbs ago.  When I walked the treadmill yesterday for a total of 40 mins, I did not feel any pain whatsoever on my knees or fatigue at all.  If I had walked that before, I'd feel and my body would have hated me.  So much more energy and that overall feeling of tiredness and fatigue does not occur like it did before.

So, as I write this I am planning to go to the gym a total of 4 times per week, 1hr. per day.  I am starting out slowly to work up my stamina and strength.  Eventually I would like to be able to have the stamina and strength to enjoy day long hikes here for next summer.  Alaska has so many wonderful hiking trails, but sadly I have to really explore them since my arrival over two years ago.  Being too heavy prevented me from feeling like I could be any fun to explore with.  So, my vow is by next summer, I will conquer and hike like I've never done before!

This is a short entry today, because the frustration of this latest plateau has really diminished my excitement.  The emotional roller coaster of diets in general is not my favorite issue and in years past this is usually where I'd give up and say the heck with it.  However, I have to tell myself I have never lost 49lbs all at once before and this is to be expected.  I am not "cheating" and that is why I still get frustrated.  I am getting in about 50-60grams of protein per day and my liquids are still a struggle.  I am lucky if I get 30-40oz of fluids per day.

I am still having bouts of eating something one day, it agrees with me, and then the very next day I eat it again and boom, doesn't agree with me.  It's also frustrating.  Don't ever go buy a lot of what you think will agree with you, because it doesn't always mean it will.

When I started this blog, my intention was to state all the positives and negatives so others could see the possible journey they could have.  If you're like me, knowing a lot of the ups and downs to a process can help you better prepare for what lies ahead.  I still feel there is nothing like experiencing it though.  The psychological aspect is more than I thought it would be.  I feel great, my clothes are all getting too big for me and I am complimented daily on how much I've changed.  However, that stupid scale still doesn't have the numbers I want yet and that has always been a battle for me.

At least it's not that number I saw three months ago!  That's all the matters right now.  I am not on blood pressure meds anymore and the worst of the surgery is behind me.  Moving ahead, will get through this!

Yay, down 49lbs from my Heaviest!

Hi Everyone!

This has been a great day for me.  I woke up and weighed myself this morning and was absolutely astounded to see the number on the scale reflect a 49lbs loss total from my heaviest weight (this was last January).  The further I get away from that number the happier I will be!!!

Tonight, after work I went swimming with a co-worker of mine.  It felt great even though we only swam for 30 minutes.  I pushed myself a bit and felt great at the time, a big difference from six months ago.  Then I could only swim a length at a time.  Tonight I was doing two at a time and actually probably could have done more had I not been waiting up on my friend.  I didn't want to get too ahead of her.  It was probably just as well, i am feeling it now as I write this.

My stamina is back, my mind isn't as sharp as it was pre-surgery though.  I get frustrated at work as I tend to not think as cohesively as I did pre-surgery.  Is suspect the lack of food and energy sources may be the culprit.  I know I shouldn't drink caffeine, but perhaps it would help a bit more in my mind area.

The difference in the way I move is amazing.  That extra nearly 50lbs was just dreadful.  I can' t believe I allowed myself to get that big?!  Now that I've gotten it off, I can see I am so much better off.  I have not weighed this latest number since about 2006.  My goal is by the time I go home for Christmas this year, to be down a total of 75lbs!  That would be super awesome.

I have quit playing facebook games and now have spent more of my free time planning my new regimen for the healthier me.  It's a lot of work to plan meals and figure out what exercise one can do to "change it up" and keep it interesting.

This is a quick post, but I will post some more pictures here in the upcoming weeks.  I think it has been becoming even more noticeable in the past ten pounds.

I feel so darn good, it is so nice to have lost more weight at one time than ever before.  I have hit a monumental milestone for myself today and I feel great!

Here's a great quote:
"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

Will Rogers

6 weeks nearly and down 40lbs!

Well here we are, six weeks from surgery and now I am really starting to see and feel a difference.  I am going to include some pictures in this one as the progression of my change is beginning to become apparent.  This morning I had to toss three pairs of dress pants aside because they were just too big to wear at all now. Before surgery, they were so tight I really didn't want to go the next size up.  What a great feeling! I think the pictures will speak for themselves.

2 weeks after surgery-27lbs down

about 5 weeks after surgery-36lbs down

At my heaviest ever!

As a write this now and see the differences here I am astounded of the difference already.  Look how puffy I was in the picture on the left.  I was eating anything I wanted, and it showed.  I never want to go back to that again!  I could hardly move, to go up and down stairs to tie my shoes, all of it was too hard.  I never thought that would happen to me.  But it did.  Deciding to do the surgery probably saved my life, or even prolonged it for many more years.  I know I still have a lot of the journey to complete, but I have started and now am in the "mode".  I can no longer eat what I want, my body cannot tolerate most foods just yet.  And even when it does, I won't be able to eat more than a half cup to a full cup in one meal.  Fine by me!

I have now progressed to both semi and hard foods.  I am just so thankful not to be eating that crappy pureed stuff.  The re-fried beans, apple sauce, and instant mashed potatoes were getting very old!  Today I ate my first protein chip and it was awesome!  That "crunch" felt great, it had been over a month and a half since I've had that sensation.  I only could eat about 5 of them, but just savoring each bite was enough for me!

I look forward to the upcoming weeks of integrating my exercise program and learning how to work it all together.  I still have a ways to go, but I feel confident that I can get there!

Until next time!  

Daphne

Back to work- great one week, not so much next...

I went back to work a week ago, and the first week felt fine.  I was getting back my stamina and was working up to a big event on Saturday.  Unfortunately, I think I overdid it and did not drink much on Saturday as I got too busy and probably only drank about 8oz. of fluids all day.  By Sunday I was feeling a touch of nausea.  Monday at work, I was struggling, but I had so much to do I felt like I need to push through it all.

Then today, even after a great night's sleep, I woke up proceeded to get dressed and ready for work and as I was walking out the door I felt the nausea come back again.  I decided to try and tough it out again, but by mid-afternoon I no longer could stop thinking about it.  I just came home at that point.  I got onto the forums that I usually frequent on obesityhelp.com and found someone going through the same thing but on a much grander scale to where she had to go to the E.R.. It appears I may have a touch of dehydration.  I am not surprised because lately the plain water is just not going down too well.  I've tried herbal tea and other liquids, but it just isn't getting me back on track.  So, tonight is my goal to just keep drinking fluids until I go to bed.  Perhaps this will be the answer.  

I have always had a tough time drinking enough and eating enough at work.  This has been a bad habit of mind for years and it'll be more important now to make sure it doesn't continue.  Typically, before I got the surgery, I may eat lunch some days, or I would not.  Most often I would come home so hungry and just start eating even before my dinner was ready.  I would eat at night and then go to bed.  That was one of my worst problems.  Now, I am still forgetting as the day goes by to continually drink whatever is on my desk.  I try to eat, but with this nauseous feeling I'm not hungry.  At least at the moment, as I write this, I am drinking a 16oz. Crystal Light.  I am hoping this will help, and when I did get home I had a sugar-free popsicle.  As much as I don't feel like having anything I know this is important.

Funny, five weeks after surgery and this is when I start to not feel good.  I was looking forward to my doctor's appointment next week so I could move up to soft foods.  I sure hope I can stave off the hospital visit, if necessary I may have to stay home tomorrow and just rest up and drink more fluids around the clock.  This is not fun!

For what's its worth, I did call the doctor's office and the nurse did tell me this was normal around where I"m at in recovery.  I guess its my body trying to adjust and figure out what the heck is going on.  As I sit here now, I realize that it won't be all smooth sailing.  There will be times where I won't be perfect and I'll have to be okay with that.  I am grateful that I have a great job and they are completely understanding.

Until next time....hopefully I'll be much better:)

This really works!!! Smiles all day today:)

Well, today after so many days of waiting for the scale to drop like it did when I got home from the surgery it finally dropped nicely.  Now I am down a total of 32.6lbs since I started this process.  Tomorrow will mark my three week anniversary of the surgery.  I am totally content and have adjusted to this pureed diet well.  Not every day can I eat everything and not everyday do I feel I've eaten enough, but all in all I have done remarkably well without bad cravings and feeling sorry for myself.

One thing I did to get myself through this is make meals for my husband for when he gets home from work.  It forces me to face food that I cannot eat on a daily basis and the more I don't eat it the easier it gets.  I've gone to a movie and survived people eating that wonderful popcorn all around me.  By the end of the movie that smell, I was sick of it and wanted to nothing to do with it.  Sense of smell is a powerful tool and can be all a person needs to get the craving somewhat cured.  The pinto re-fried beans at Taco Bell are quite good too.  I longed for the Nachos my hubby had, but it wasn't long before the fullness returned to my stomach and I wasn't interested in thinking about eating anymore.

My next hurdle is to get the stamina level back up and be able to walk without any pain.  It's amazing how out of shape one can become recovering from surgery.  Last week I had little to no pain, now this week I can barely finish a walk with the excruciating pain in my upper back.  Either this is really good, or it's a setback.  I am too afraid to call the doctor, I'm just gonna suck it up.

I am hoping to go back to work next week, but I"m afraid it may be half-time for at least the first part of the week.  If this pain doesn't go away and if I don't up my stamina I won't be able to hack a full day at work yet.  I'll take it one day at a time, and if I'm not ready that's what it is.

I will keep posting as often as I can.  I really want people to get a good feel for what to expect when you get this surgery.  For me, there was a lot of things other people told me about it, but it's not like going through it yourself.  You really realize how drastic the decision you made was and embrace the loss once it begins.  I wished I didn't have to do this but it was really time to do something before things really started to happen that I could not back away from.  My line I used a lot was, "Oh, I'm still young I have plenty of time".  Truth is if you want to live a long healthy life you need to take care of yourself, the sooner the better.  I also want to grow old without a ton of health conditions that can prevent me from really enjoying life.  I want to be able to swim in the ocean with the dolphins again, zip-line across the rain forests, hike the Swiss Alps, or even wear a bikini for the first time in my life, publicly!  I know it won't be the answers to everything, but being healthy and fit will be far more easier to tackle life than the extra weight, high blood pressure, possibly diabetes and heart issues that can develop after a lifetime of abuse to your body.

Do yourself a favor, write a list of things you'd like to do...don't think about what you can do now but things you really want to do.  Look at the list and see how many of those things you can do now.  Take that list and map out your health and fitness to get you there.   What a sense of accomplishment once you get there!  Life is really short and it should be lived doing everything possible to get the most out of it.

I have a new lease on life and couldn't be more happier.  This is really just the beginning.  The joys of what will come down the road are waiting for me.  I can't wait!

Here is a good quote:

"No Matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of anyone who isn't trying"  

- Tony Robbins

Ten Days Since Surgery - all is going well

Hello!

Well, it appears it has been a few days since my last post.  I am still doing the pureed foods of course and will be for another 3-4 weeks.  I am finding that I struggle to get all the meals and snacks with my fluids in each day.  It's tough.  Spacing out a 1/2 hour at least between eating and drinking makes everything so timed and sometimes we don't want to feel like we're on a schedule, but really I am.  My daily meals have become: Breakfast - Oatmeal with sugar-free syrup and sugar-free/seedless blackberry jam
Mid-morning snack - if i get around to it usually is a popsicle, sometimes a protein shake
Lunch - Re-fried Beans 4 oz, or 2 oz of re-fried beans and 2 oz. of apple sauce
Mid-afternoon snack - once again either a popsicle or a protein shake. I seem to do this one as I get hungrier between lunch and dinner.
Dinner - Egg, a whole one if I can eat it.  Sometimes I do the egg for breakfast and mix all these dishes around.  Most times its egg for lunch and re-fried beans for dinner.
Late evening snack - if I get around to it, again a popsicle or a protein shake

I have been holding steady at 25lbs loss for a few days now (up and down a pound, kind of annoying).  I am a bit frustrated as I barely eat anything and my body is fighting me at the moment.  I know once I start any physical exercise that will make a difference.  I have been scared to lately though, I have had to contend with a pulled muscle on my left side rib-cage and I don't want to re-jar it again.  I find when I start doing chores around the house, about 5-10mins into it my stomach tightens like I've done a 1000 sit ups.  That's usually when I stop.  I am still not lifting anything and can't really for another 4 weeks.

I do have a doctor's appt in two days and will find it interesting to see how I've progressed in his eyes.  It'll be nearly two weeks since I had seen him last.

I am trying to keep myself busy as I am not one to just sit around and do nothing.  Between tending my small business at home, facebook, blogging, reading, watching the Olympics, and writing in my journal my days seem to go quite fast.  Reading has been hard on me, holding a book for long periods of time seems to be a challenge.  Even if I lay down to read, finding a comfortable position can be a struggle as my side begins to hurt and I am paranoid of straining my incisions on my stomach.

However, all things considered I am 25lbs less than I was when I started the two pre-op diet and since the surgery and that should make me happy.  It's nice to know that I am on my way!

Until next time...Thanks for visiting!

Here's an inspirational quote I like: 

"The virtue lies in the struggle, not in the prize." by Richard Monckton Milnes.