Post-Op Week 38 Progress Report

This week saw a slight uptick in the scale, but I’m not worried about it.  I ate a bit more salt yesterday than I normally do, and I also increased my carb intake this week to prep for yesterday’s race.  I’m pretty sure that the glycogen I stored is binding some of the water I’m holding on to.  Also, as one of my MFP friends pointed out, it’s possible that the workout I did yesterday caused my muscles to be holding on to some fluid as well.  Regardless of what it was that caused the slight gain, this week I’m cutting back to my usual 50 grams or less of carbs, and keeping my protein intake high as usual.

I am pleased to see that my belly is finally shrinking and that even though the scale isn’t showing much movement lately, my clothes are getting bigger, and I’m feeling and seeing muscles and bones in places I couldn’t feel them before.  When I had my fitness assessment two weeks ago, I had my body fat measured and it is considerably lower than it was when I began this whole process.  It is slowly getting closer to a level that I’d like it to be at.  I know that when I settle at my goal weight that I will technically be overweight per the BMI, but I believe that despite this, I will look healthy.

I’m due to see my surgeon in a little less than two weeks, and I’m hoping to be a little bit closer to his weight goal by then.  I’m hopeful that I can make that goal by the end of the school year.

This week was a good week, even if the scale didn’t say so.  There were many reasons for this:

• I finished my first 5K last night, and I am really proud of myself.  A year ago, there’s no way I could have done it, and now…I’m making plans to do another one in July, which will commemorate my 1-year surgery anniversary.  Who knew there was an athlete underneath all that fat?
• I am down two more pants sizes since my 6-month follow-up appointment.
• I can wear a men’s size large t-shirt.
• I can buy t-shirts at Old Navy now.
• I found a dress I’d bought two years ago during my last big effort to lose weight.  I’d bought it as a goal dress–one in a size that I wanted to try to get down to.  I unearthed it today while going through some clothes that I’m sending to someone and tried it on.  It fits like a glove.  I am excited, because it’s a great looking dress, and I look really good in it!  It also gives me another dressy outfit to wear for some of the professional presentations I will be doing over the next few months.
• I looked awesome yesterday:

I did some cooking for the week today.  Spring break derailed me a bit, so I decided to get back on track in the kitchen to fix some things for breakfast and lunch this week.  Dinners are tougher since Mondays are pretty much the only day I eat dinner at home due to the crazy schedule I keep.  Tuesdays, we have dinner out, Wednesdays I have my Rotary Club meeting so I eat at the restaurant where we meet, and Thursdays we sometimes eat out.  Friday nights are date nights and we always go out for those.

Today’s eating was pretty good.  I got in 95 grams of protein today, 31 grams of carbs, and 32 grams of fat.  Calories eaten were 815.  I’ve noticed that as much as I HATE sameness in my food choices, when I am consistently choosing the same things to eat, I do pretty well.  Boredom with my food is something I struggle with sometimes, but it seems that repetition is a good thing, I guess.