Post-Op Week 81 Progress Report

Finally the scale is creeping downward and the holiday regain is about gone!  I’m hoping this continues.   Still struggling to get motivated to exercise though.  Perhaps I should focus on getting more sleep first, because the lack of sleep is hurting my want to exercise.  When I am tired, the last thing I want to do is work out.  I know I’m not sleeping enough but I have so many things I’m juggling right now that it’s hard to get them all done in the 24 hours I am given each day.

I have to figure out a way to make more efficient use of my time, and try not to forget that I am my number one priority.  For too long, I was not, and it helped get me to the point where I needed surgery to get healthy.  I am terrified of heading back that direction.

I’d like to get another 5 pounds off by my birthday in March, and I know that getting my butt back into a regular exercise routine is the key.  I know 5 pounds doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but when it takes so much longer to lose weight, 5 pounds in about 8 weeks is pretty good given the normal ups and downs of this process.  I’m well out of the vaunted “honeymoon period” that people believe exists during the weight loss phase, when losing weight is supposed to be the easiest.  Now losing weight feels like the same fight every other person who hasn’t had surgery has to face.  And it sucks, but it’s reality.  At least now the playing field is somewhat level for me and I’m not trying to lose 200 pounds with a regular sized stomach.  I’m only trying to lose just right under 30 (28 more to goal!).  But my “just 30” is someone else’s starting 30.  Hell, they were my starting 30 18 months ago.

I know I need to be doing strength training because I need to put on muscle mass.  I also know that lean muscle will help me burn fat, but the muscles I most want to work on, I don’t know if I can work on.  I want to do leg weights so bad, but I don’t know if I can do any of them without possibly further damaging my knees.  😦  At the very least, I need to lift weights to get toned and prevent muscle mass loss.  I’m going to start looking for knee rehab exercises on Youtube that I can do here at home.  I also need to ask my doc if I can do leg extensions with the machine but without loading the plates on it, just to move my knee through its range of motion.  Hmmmm….it’s a thought.  But I don’t want to try it without running it by him first.

I’ve packed my lunches and breakfasts for the week.  I forced myself to eat breakfast at home all week except for one day.  I think that helped a lot.  One of the things I let out during my meltdown in the therapist’s office last week was that I was tired of eating the same thing Every. Single. Day.  I absolutely HATE sameness in my food, but I also know that consistency in food routine is one of the keys to success with weight loss.  So eating the same thing as much as possible, while a shitty thing for me to have to go through (I know, #firstworldproblems), is a necessary evil if I am going to get to my goal.  Like I said last week, I’ve got to nut up or shut up.  Eating the same thing day in and day out is me nutting up I suppose.  The added benefit of my eating breakfast at home each day is that I’m not spending $3-$5 to grab a breakfast bowl (usually just ham, eggs and cheese, sometimes beans for fiber) at Rudy’s every day.  So I save a little scratch too which is good.  That’s something I need to be doing anyway, especially if I’m going to have knee surgery in the near future.

I am going to make an earnest effort to get to the gym this week.  I didn’t last week but I did make sure I walked a bunch.  But the walking a bunch isn’t enough and won’t be if these last 28 pounds are going to find their way off of me and out into the universe.  So back to the bike and upper body weights it is.  I’m going to set my gym clothes out tonight so that I can just change as soon as I get home from school tomorrow evening.

Here we go…