One Hundred

Well, I did it. I lost one hundred pounds. That's like 10 bags of flour. That's more than my 14 yr old daughter weighs. I feel so much better. I get around better. I look better.

Rob and I just got back from a week's camping vacation. We went as far south as the Redwoods. Put about 1100 miles on the car. But we did not spend all our time in the car. We did a lot of hiking and walking everywhere we went. A lot of it was on fairly easy trails but some were a bit more strenuous. When we were at Mt St Helens, I climbed the path that led to a higher hill for observing the mountain. I had avoided this climb in the past, but I made it easily even in the 90 degree heat.

We went to low tide and climbed the rocks to see magnificent tide pools. You can see so much more when you venture onto the rocks.

The hardiest hike we did tho was the Oregon Caves. A half mile, up hill climb inside a mountain. I'm not sure of the elevation gain but there were 500 steps and the tour was 90 minutes long. Although it was 45 degrees in the caves when we finished I was sweating and feeling the 90 degree heat outside of the cave coming back down the mountain. But the best bit was that I did it and I knew I could do it.

I still have a ways to go to reach a truly healthy weight but I'm very proud of how far I have come. It's really nice to be an active part of the human race again.

Losing more than weight

I've dropped almost 75 pounds and I've lost some other things along the way. One is my sense of humor. I can't seem to find enough funny to write in my humor blog much. But that doesn't worry me too much, what I'm losing also that concerns me a lot is my hair.

They told me that hair loss could be a side effect of rapid weight loss. Well, I've got thick hair and just how much are we talking about. Well, I'm losing hair and altho it's not coming out in handfuls, it's still enough that my husband thought the cat had been laying on my collar. And it's not all over my head, just on the top. Yep, male pattern baldness. So far, no one can see a difference but I can feel the thinning when I run my hands thru my hair. I'm taking Biotin, which is suppose to help prevent hair loss, I'm eating lots of protein too.

I don't want to be that middle aged woman in a wig that everyone snickers at. At least I'm losing the weight and I won't be the fat middle aged woman in a wig.

Women have Curves

I got an offer for 30 days/$30 at my local Curves. I'd heard good and bad about this type of circuit training. I had decided to go in with an open mind and stretchy pants.

The gal who runs our local place seems very nice and took me through a fitness assessment and then helped my do a 30 minute workout on the machines. I figured since I've been swimming so much it would be a snap. I didn't do as much as the other women there, as part of my time on each machine was just learning what to do but I can tell that I did get a workout. My muscles are feeling it. I can't wait to go back.

I do see that it is a routine that is drive by you. You are only going to get out of it what you put into it. I like that I was targeting certain muscles that I obviously wasn't hitting by just swimming. So I'm thinking I will do Curves 3 days a week, swim twice a week and try and get a bike ride in the other days.

Protein

Getting the required amount of protein a day is a challenge. My doc wants me to have 50-60 grams a day spread over 3 meals. This doesn't seem like much but when you are eating less than 500 calories and your portions are small it's tough.

Luckily I love eggs, so breakfast is a no brainer. Lunch and dinner are more of an effort. I try to keep varying my meals but I fall into a rut and just grab the cottage cheese or beef jerky.

I'm not caring as much about food, okay, I'm not obsessing about food as much. I do think about sweets and that bothers me. I try to get some blueberries in everyday to help with that craving. My doctor approves of my choice, my nutritionist is not as receptive but I have to treat myself or I will go insane.

3 month Check up

I'm seeing my surgeon on Thursday this week. It's my 3 month check up and I'm looking forward to going over my blood work and showing him my progress. I've been tracking my weight loss from the time I started the process of getting ready for surgery. My weight was 332 in September of last year. By the time I had my surgery on Dec 22nd I'd gotten down to 308. When I left the hospital after surgery I was 314. So I wasn't sure what number I should track from after surgery so I went back to the beginning since that's when I started to change and get healthy. 61 pounds and counting.

One day at a time

I posted on Facebook yesterday that I'd lost 57 pounds. Why post at 57 and not 60? 57 lbs brought me to just 100 lbs over my driver's license weight. I've had my weight listed at 175 forever. I don't even know if it was accurate when it was first issued. My goal is to reach my driver's license weight. My nutritionist and surgeon have a more lofty goal in mind. They feel I can get to a healthy weight of 145 lbs.

I haven't weighed under 150 since jr high school. I've been heavy my whole life. But I feel for the first time, that I have a shot at reaching this. Although last month I had my doubts.

Lots of people think that having WLS is a magic bullet and that the weight will come off with no effort and life will be all sunshine and roses. We (my people, the fatties who are going in for surgery) are told that WLS is just one tool in helping you lose weight. But I went into it with the wish that it was magic and I'd be skinny in no time flat.

I lost weight right after surgery but it wasn't falling off that quickly. Although I was eating between 200 to 400 calories and exercising more than I had in years (face it, I don't think I ever got regular exercise except for chewing) I only lost a few pounds. I knew I was shrinking, my clothes were getting baggy and I was feeling better but the scale was not telling me what I wanted to hear. And I was still obsessing about food. About 10 days ago I started dropping pounds, I've dropped a pound a day. I have been thrilled. I know that I will go through many plateaus during this journey but I hadn't expected to have one right off the bat. I'm hopeful that the weight will continue to drop off.

This morning I got out of bed and noticed that my knees weren't hurting as much as they had even a week ago. I look forward to the small changes as well as the bigger ones. My surgery was not an easy fix but it is helping me. But when it comes down to it, it's me thats in control and it's up to me to make the right choices.

The Incredible Shrinking Chest

I've been feeling a bit frustrated as I haven't dropped many pounds the last couple weeks. But I am encouraged as I take my measurements. I have lost 3 inches in my hips, 2 inches in my waist and a whopping 6 inches in my chest. I had to take a dart in my bathing suit at the front so the "girls" would stop floating out! I'm wearing bras I didn't even remember owning. I'm in pants that I haven't worn in years and these are getting baggy. So it's working. I'm still swimming monday thru friday and I can see muscles in my arms and legs poking thru the fat. It's a long haul but I'm up for it.

Thank you everyone for all your encouragement.

Just keep swimming

I've been going to the local pool now for over a week and I'm loving it. I'm not a fast swimmer or a good swimmer but I can propel myself across the pool and back. I've only lost one pound since I started swimming but I feel so much better and I've gone down a size and I'm wearing a pair of jeans I haven't worn in a couple of years.

I went thru my closet and dresser and organized my pants. I have a pile of soon to wear, a pile of a little while yet and a pile of wow I can't wait to fit into these. After that I will have to get new pants. I also have a swim suit to wear fairly soon too.

Life is good

Its a New Year

Went to our friends' house for New Years Eve. It was fun, we played games, they drank and I sipped water. About 11pm we decided to have a snack. I ate some hummus and a small amount of Brie cheese. In hindsight I should have gone for the jello mousse snack. About 30 minutes and I started feeling hot, cold, nauseous, light headed. I headed to the powder room ASAP. What passed did not make me feel better so we ended the night early and went home. I laid in bed shaking for about a half hour until I fell asleep.

I know that this is a learning process but the lessons are hard ones. I'm hoping that it was the cheese that effected me and not the hummus, as I love the hummus.

On a happier note, Rob made his wonderful 3 meat, beanless pressure cooker chili last night. I pureed up some up with a bit of cottage cheese and I can't wait for lunch to have more. He is such a great buy that he cooked it a bit longer in the pressure cooker so that it would be extra tender. I savored every bite.