ObesityHelp

Wow, time does fly by, huh?  My one year surgi-versary has come and gone.  Life is happening.  I started a new, demanding job about 2 months ago.  Things are better in that dept.  Thank goodness.  It is a high volume work environment with a lot of stress.  I work in a food related industry no less.  Hah.  That's ironic, huh?  It presents some challenges with the many celebrations the company tends to have.  They feed us.  Buffet, all-you-can-eat style.  Thank goodness for my RNY.  I know I can't (nor do I want) to hog out that way. 

A year gone.  I'm not yet at goal.  To date I've lost a total of 87 lbs.  Not as much as I had hoped.  I need to lose another 50 lbs but I feel I will get there.  I keep reminding myself I'm not in a race with anyone, including myself.  This is a lifetime commitment and I'm committed to healthy eating about 97% of the time.  Ha-ha.  I occasionally give in to poor food choices.  Hey, I'm human.  Too, I am not entrapped to the idea of some "honeymoon" period of weight loss.  I can and will gain and loses weight for the rest of my life.  I am in control of how much.  I definitely need to work on the exercise more BUT.....I'm happy.  Despite some extra skin, I feel almost graceful in my shrinking body.  I'm bolstered by my first, honest compliment on an outfit I wore yesterday.  Someone actually admired my jeans and how they fit my still too big butt!  Ha-ha.  But mainly I feel soooo much better than a year ago, healthwise.  I've been fortunate in that I've not suffered any negative surgery-related issues like restrictions or bowel obstructions, etc.  I had a vitamin A deficiency and low D on one of my earlier labs but the NUT added supplements for that and on my last labs everything was fine.  I continue to take the additional supplements and am about to get my labs drawn again.  I hope to keep all deficiency issues at bay. 

To those who may read this, I can say that for me, at a year out, this was the best thing I've ever done for myself.  Anyone still on the fence needs to know weight loss surgery of any type is not going to magically transform you into a thinner, healthy person.  You get what you put into it.  It does take commitment to a healthy eating regimen and exercise for the rest of your life if you want to maintain your weight loss.  As oft said on these boards, the surgery, whatever type you may have, is just a tool.  Oh but what a wonderful tool to have!  I am so glad to not feel that starving, gnawing sensation in my gut.  My battle is no longer with insatiable hunger and it's exactly why I chose this surgery.  I knew what and how to eat properly but I couldn't control my portions with my former high volume gut.  Not for long anyway.  Yes, I am winning my battle with obesity albeit a little slower than the 20-30 yr olds do but win it I will. 

The last three weeks have been a little stressful thanks to a new job.  Due to the downed economy I sadly had to leave my last employer of nearly 6 years (trim & door company).  But equally thankful to be employed, now I am working for a food products company.  Great job for someone who is committed to eating better, huh?  LOL.  Fortunately, their line of foods are healthy ones.  At least when consumed responsibly.  Ha-ha.  Primarily they make salsa and avocado based food items and they are all natural with no added chemicals, taste enhancers, etc and are processed fresh.  And even luckier for me, my trainer and co-worker is on her own personal quest to lose weight and get healthy.  She has been so excited to 1) have desperately needed help and 2) someone with whom she can share, give, and receive support from about all things weight loss.  I have been able to provide great tips I've learned here at OH along my journey that apply just as well to non-WLS folks.  We are close in age too which just seems to add to our common ground in a lot of other things besides weight loss.  We are a good fit it seems.  And that's a good thing given the job we have running the order processing dept can be very stressful when you work for a company who ships nationwide and internationally.  So to relieve our stress and escape the bonds of sitting in front of the computer for hours on end, we take (or try to at least) two breaks each day.  When we are able to do this, and we strive hard to make it happen, we throw on our walking shoes and head outside to the parking lot where we make two, brisk laps.  Just enough to start feeling warmed up but not enough to break a sweat.  I'm in Texas for those who may not know.  It's mid-April and yes, we've had 80 degree temps already.  Spring is VERY brief here.  Soon, the blaze will be on.  Thank God I am 86 pounds down now.  I feel cold almost all the time when I'm not up and moving around and I know it's because my blood volume is now more normal, plus I tend to have low blood pressure as opposed to the high blood pressure I used to have.  Also, diabetes is still gone.  I did have a scary moment last weekend.  Before I became a type 2 diabetic, I had been hypoglycemic since my teen years.  I've read here where some RNY folk develop hypoglycemia over time after their surgery, sometimes severe cases of it like Melting Mama who has seizures.  I know exactly what the initial low blood sugar experience feels like and I know how to treat it and so I was able to deal with it when it happened last weekend.  Since I don't consume sugar and follow a fairly low carb diet I'm not sure what happened to have caused it.  I grabbed a cheesestick and wolfed it down and I was fine and have remained so ever since.  I also eat about 5-6 times a day and have been since my surgery.  This keeps me fueled and the blood sugar balanced out.  Despite that scary episode, overall I am feeling so great these days.  I am grateful for the continued employment and now a new weight loss buddy who is as serious about getting her health back as I am.  Oh, and just when I think I have become friends with chicken again, I had a bad experience eating it this past week.  Pouch was all accepting of dinner until that last bite.  I think I get too complacent and forget to chew it as well as I should.  I also had a first ever surprise (sick) episode taking my calcium one morning 2 weeks ago.  I know my pouch was empty at mid-morning because it was before my snack when I took my 10 am dose of calcium citrate.  Both went down fine but within 3 minutes of having swallowed I became violently nauseaous and had to run to the bathroom (opposite side of the bldg from my office no less).  I barely made it and tossed my crystal lite.  I didn't see the calcium but that doesn't mean anything since the toilet is white.  Sorry, TMI.  Anyhoo, I had the shakes for a bit but as soon as I felt better I had my morning snack.  I hope I'm not forming a stricture.  That would suck. 

Wow, life sure takes over, huh?  The past 6 months have been stressful at my old job.  Yes, my OLD job.  Unfortunately, the housing bust has taken its toll on the company I worked for these past six years and they are on the verge of bankruptcy.  But in every dark cloud there is a silver lining.  I just started a new job last week thanks to good friends and neighbors who tipped me off about an opening.  I am blessed to have a job but I had to take a significant pay cut.  Trade off is I have less responsibilities for now.  It is a new position as yet not thoroughly defined; basically a floater position.  So far I'm catching on to their intricately detailed order processing system.  And I get to re-learn it all again in about 2 months as they are transitioning to a new accounting software program called Navision (Microsoft).  Yay.  There are now 4 of us neighbors from the same street who work there and we're jokingly called the "Knots Landing" group.  Fortunately I'm considered one of the 'good' characters from that old 80's dramatic series....lol.  Overall it's a great company and again I feel blessed to have stayed employed.  Got one kid in college and a 2nd who will enter in a year from now.  I'm sure many can relate; Momma can't be unemployed.  Anyway, not much to report except weight loss has slowed to a crawl.  I'm down 83-86 lbs.  Weight seems to be bouncing a little now.  I'm sure if I would step up the exercise the evil scale would move down again.  I'm so close to One-derland now I can almost taste it....lol.  But despite the slow weight lossI do still seem to be losing inches.  All in the top half down to my waist.  That durned lower half is destined to be forever out of proportion with the rest of me.  Sigh.  It's been hard to make myself exercise.  I've let stress make me feel sorry for myself.  Parting from the old job & friends was very hard emotionally.  We were a great group and I miss them.  I know the new group of co-workers are good people too, it's just hard to make transitions the older you get.  At least for me it is.  Well, all the time I have for now.  Gotta scott off to that new job. 

Just a quick update.  Had my follow up appt yesterday with the Nutritionist.  Am eating all the right things, protein, calories, carbs, etc., are all in line.  Weight loss has slowed.  A lot.  Longest stall yet.  Only lost 11 lbs. since last appt. 3 months ago.  Holding steady at 79 total lbs lost.  Sigh.  Trying to keep my focus on the positives of surgery and not the number on the scale.  Probably need to increase exercise but is hard as hip socket is feeling the winter.  It is bitterly cold here today.  Artic blast they call it.  Sure is, had a light misting rain this morning around 3AM per night owl son who goes jogging at that hour.  Mist glazed everything in ice of course.  Stayed home from work, schools closed, wrecks everywhere, etc.  Sun has popped out now at 11 AM and everything appears melted but still not going in to work.  Took advantage of being home and started the laundry and have a load in the dryer.  Yep, think I will just stay home today and save my struggling employer a few payroll dollars and get my house in ship shape and not have to do it this weekend.  But the good news is my labs came back great.  Yay!  No more vitamin A deficiency or low D.  Both are back in line.  NUT said I can continue taking the vitamin A as I'm within range and with RNY I'm not in danger of hypervitamintosis (aka too much vitamin A).  The only blurb on these labs was my LDL (bad cholesterol) it was marked 'high' but in checking this level online the reading of 119 is categorized as 'near optimal'.  I am ecstatic.  Thank you RNY and the weight I've lost so far.  Before surgery I was on Pravachol because it was 220 -- very, very high.  I had stopped taking it after surgery, my own choice, because I wanted to see how much effect diet plays.  At least in my case the drastic change in eating habits are making me leaner inside too.  Now I need to get that spreadsheet that Pam Tremble offers and get my labs logged in so I can watch for any negative trends. 

Happy New Year all !