Tag Archives: photo post

Post-Op Week 79 Progress Report: It’s Not All Sunshine and Roses, Y’all

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First week back at it and not too shabby, considering that I am now 18 months post-op.  If I can lose this amount or more each week, I will see my goal weight by Christmas.  I’m definitely learning patience right now!

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Post-Op Week 66 Progress Report: Achievement Unlocked–Misses Size Pants

image This week saw me lose most of the gain I had last week.  How, I don’t know.   This was a good week for the most part, though.
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Post-Op Week 65 Progress Report: Life Happens

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This week sees me doing the weight loss cha-cha yet again.  The week was full of challenges stemming from the fact that we are currently a one vehicle household since my car decided last Monday that it had had enough and it was time for a permanent parking spot in the garage in the sky.  I was also dehydrated from yesterday’s trip to the State Fair, which saw me not drinking nearly as much water as I normally do.  But it also saw me walk nearly 6 miles without tiring, and most of that at a pretty good clip.  I couldn’t have done that last year.

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Post-Op Week 63 Progress Report: Legs

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This week’s progress is surprising.  I didn’t expect to lose this much!  Guess I am finally off the plateau I was on for so long.  Perhaps it is all the stairs I now take, or the fact that I’ve changed my supplementation a bit (I now take a potassium tablet and have increased my magnesium intake), or the fact that I walk so much more each day, and that when I walk, I walk very fast.

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So Much More Than a Winter Coat

This happened today:

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Last week, I’d put out a call to my peeps online asking where to buy a winter coat.  I knew that I would need one, as the two winter coats I currently have in my possession are 4 and 6 sizes too big for me, respectively.  My requirements for a winter coat were that it had to have a hood, a zip out liner, be long enough to cover my butt, and be water repellent if possible (this was not an absolute necessity).

So today we had gone to the mall so that I could drop off my recyclables at Kiehl’s (and pick up some more body butter; theirs is awesome).  At this particular mall, it is easiest to go through Nordstrom to get to the Kiehl’s, so we did.  I stopped to browse in the women’s section because I just wanted to look around.  I picked out a couple of long-sleeved blouses to try on, which fit and looked great so I decided to get them since it was triple points day (!!!!).  Then I saw The Coat.

I was not expecting to buy a coat today.  I wasn’t expecting this one to fit.  It was a misses size large, and I’ve been wearing extra large in my shirts and sweaters because that is what fits.  I looked through all the coats on the rack and no extra large was to be found, so I was a bit disappointed.  I kept looking at the coat thinking the shoulders would not be wide enough for me.

My husband, ever helpful and optimistic, said, “Try it on.”

I said, “I don’t think the shoulders will fit.”

He nudged gently and said, “Just try it.”

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Random: Who Are You and Bariatric Snacks

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  • Giant workout shirt:  check
  • Compression capris:  check
  • Ponytail pulled through a ballcap:  check
  • iPod loaded with curated workout playlists:  check
  • Knee brace, the fitness accessory all active middle-aged women are sporting this season:  check
  • Fitness monitoring gadgets (Fitbit and HRM):  check
  • Liter bottle of water, to be downed during 70 minute workout:  check
  • Inner turmoil and confusion about who this woman is, because it doesn’t look like me:  check

I swear, looking at this picture of me, I really don’t look like me.  I look at it and I can’t believe that I inhabit the body in the photo above.  I’m trying hard to get acquainted with the woman whose body I have come to inhabit, and it’s tough.  I have enjoyed getting to dress her, but getting to know her…that’s a totally different proposition altogether and a tougher task.

On an unrelated note…

There is a lady in the weekly weight loss support group I attend that complains about how she’s always hungry.  So she tells us she goes to the kitchen and gets a “bariatric snack.”  When pressed to describe what the “bariatric snack” is, she tells us it’s a bag of chips that are marketed as some sort of snack food appropriate for WLS patients.

Now here you see 3 ounces of roasted boneless skinless chicken breast.  THIS is a “bariatric snack,” not a damn bag of artificially created protein chips.  When you eat real food, you stay satisfied longer, and hey.. this only has one ingredient: chicken.

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A REAL bariatric snack: roast chicken.

 

 

One Year Follow Ups

I had a one-year follow up with my primary care doc on Tuesday, which turned out to be fabulous.  My labs came back beautifully:

cholesterolratiosMy fasting blood glucose was 81 and my a1c?  Completely normal.  Liver enzymes were back down to normal levels after having been high the first two months of this year.  My iron levels are great, and all my electrolytes are normal.  Blood pressure is fantastic and better yet–my doctor used a REGULAR SIZE CUFF to take it!  No extra large cuff this time!  She was thrilled that my health was vastly improved, and we started talking about mammograms and all that jazz…yep, it’s time for me to start doing those on the regular as now I am a lady of a certain age.  Since my gyno isn’t practicing any more, I got a recommendation for a new one (who ONLY does gynecology, no obstetrics–thank goodness) who I will be calling to see in the fall once school starts.  I have to figure out if she is on our new insurance that goes into effect September 1.  UGH INSURANCE.

That was the first doctor’s appointment of the week.  Today’s appointment was the bigger deal since it was with my surgeon, who I had not seen since last August when my husband had surgery with him.

I went in prepared.  Like any other ‘A’ student, I had a list of questions to ask.

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Being at 70% EWL, or, Within Striking Distance

On the eve of my 11-month post-op mark, this happened:

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On the left:  me, minus 215 pounds.  This represents what I’ve lost since I weighed my heaviest.

On the right:  me, minus 172 pounds.  This represents what I’ve lost since I began this process nearly a year ago.

I am at exactly 70% of my excess weight lost.  I’m aiming for 90%.  As I told my surgeon last May when he said that most of his patients lose around 70% EWL, “That’s not good enough for me.  I am an ‘A’ student.”

I am within 5 pounds of my surgeon’s weight goal.  I will get there before my 1-year appointment next month.

I still have 55 pounds to go to get to my goal.  I have no reason whatsoever to believe that I won’t get there.  It just won’t be in record time,  and I’m okay with this.  My objective is to be healthy above all else.

I’m aiming for March 2015.  This is not unreasonable.  With the exercise I’m doing, continued therapy and support group attendance, and staying with my current eating plan (with tweaks here and there), I fully believe I’ll get there.

It will be the second best birthday present ever.  Having my surgery was the first.

You Know You’ve Lost a Lot of Weight When…

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  • People continually tell you that you are “wasting away to nothing.”
  • You are told pretty much every day that you look great.  Especially by people who didn’t pay you much attention before.
  • Your husband has a tough time picking you out of a crowd because now you look like everyone else.
  • You have to work even harder at the gym to achieve the same burn that you got when you were 50 pounds heavier.
  • Men who are not your husband check you out.
  • Men who are not your husband open doors for you.
  • You now wear a smaller bra than you wore when you first started wearing them as a kid.
  • You complain about your clothes not fitting properly now, not because they’re too small, but because they’re too big.
  • You find that getting dressed every day is a challenge only because you now own so many cute clothes that it’s hard to pick which outfit to wear.

And finally…you know you’ve lost a lot of weight when:

  • Your own doctors don’t recognize you.  Today on the way to my support group meeting, I ran into the doctor who did my last two followup appointments, and he flat out did not recognize me.  He gushed about how great I looked and couldn’t stop saying WOW.  Before we parted ways, he asked me how much I’d lost to date, and I told him and he pumped his fist in the air.  I told him I’d see him in July at my 1-year follow up.

Hopefully by then I’ll have at least another 10 pounds off and be inching my way down to my goal.  I’m already at 70% EWL and aiming for 90%.  To get to 90%, I need to lose 50 more pounds, which puts me squarely in my desired weight range.

Summer is coming, and this will be the summer of kicking ass.

#transformationtuesday

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Left (2010) Right (2014)
Heaviest weight 210 pounds lighter
Wearing a tight pair of jorts, size 32W Wearing a well-fitting pair of khaki shorts in size 18W
Wearing a tight t-shirt, size 4x (30-32W) Wearing a loose t-shirt, 1X (14-16W)
Hypertensive diabetic Nope!
Aching lower back Nope!
Crunchy knees Nope!
Aching knees Only when it’s humid out.
Resting HR:  96 bpm Resting HR:  58 bpm
Stairs?  What are those? Stairs?  No problem!
Run?  Are you f’n kidding me? Run?  Ok, sure.  But only if I feel like it, or I’m being chased.
Average recumbent bike ride:  5 minutes Average recumbent bike ride:  45-50 minutes
Sat on lab stool to teach all day long. Stands up nearly all day to teach classes.  Sits only when tired.
Mindless eater. Mindful eater.
Physically miserable. Most days, physically good.  Some days achy, but this is because weight is shifting around.
Self-critical and self-loathing. Gentler, kinder to myself.  More forgiving.  Learning to love the me I have always been. 🙂