ObesityHelp

Ok, so I'm at just over 3 months post op, and I've finally lost 50 lbs from my date of surgery, which puts me at 230 lbs!  Yay me (doing a mini-victory dance..disco fever style   ).

Once I tip that scale into the 220s (I don't care if it's 229.4), I'll feel like Onederland is just on the horizon, so that will be some extra motivation for me.

Hmmm, what's been going on...Well, I had my first set of labs done.  Everything looks good.  The only flag for an abnormal value that I got was that my good cholesterol is a little low....soooo, I've gotta raise my cholesterol .  I was looking up ways to do that.  There are some foods one can eat, which will have a minimal impact during the best of times...I'm not sure that I could get in significant quantities to really make a difference, so I think that ramping up the exercise might be my best bet (I read that exercise increases good cholesterol...who knew?).

I had been doing really well with keeping in the foods that I put in (I haven't had a problem with making bad choices, protein is always the goal), but over this past week, I've been vomiting and nauseous more often.  It's odd, because I have these periods where everything that I eat stays down comfortably, and then I have periods where the same foods just decide that they they would rather not reside in my tummy....It's definitely not a stricture, because again, some foods sit still...others don't.  Oh well, this is life right now.  Sometimes I am able to get up and move around, and that helps the food stay put.  I do get in my greek yogurt everyday.  If I've had a particularly low protein day, or if I feel like too much of my protein has come up, I'll have a shake, but I mostly get in good amounts of protein from food.  When I pack my breakfast/lunch in the morning, I count the protein.  I was thinking the other day about just how different something as little as packing lunch is now...it's a numbers game for me, lol.

None of my clothes fit properly, so I've made my first trip to goodwill.  Can't say that I particularly enjoyed the experience, especially at my size (16s and 18s mostly), because there's still so much that I can't fit.  I was just mostly looking at size tags, and going ok, this will fit, I'll take it...it served a purpose though.  Can't wait to enjoy real shopping at a regular store...

I'm getting in much more fluid.  I don't know why, but I'm really enjoying taking my bottles of water, adding my sugar free flavor of choice (usually pink lemonade), sticking it in the freezer until it gets halfway frozen, and then I take it out and eat/drink it....it's odd for me, because I usually don't like really cold things.  I have really sensitive teeth, but this works for me, and I'm getting closer and closer to the 64 oz mark with it....

Life is good...that's all for now.

~elle

I was at work, and I work in a high security place.  The head security guy calls me over (in my building, when security calls you over, you go over, unless you want to be tackled to the ground).  Even though I'm leaving work, and I'm hurrying on to my next engagement, I go over.  He says 'I don't know what you're doing, but keep doing it.  You look beautiful now.' 

LOL, now Ireally am the type to call a person on that, and say something like 'what do you mean I look beautiful now, I wasn't beautiful before?  I could do that in a semi-joking manner, and keep it from getting negative with no problem, but I didn't have time on this day.  I just smiled, said thank you, and kept it moving out of the door...so now when he sees me everyday, he gives me a thumbs up.  I told my daughter about this 'compliment,' and she just burst out laughing.  It's pretty silly the way that people try to pay a compliment, but at the same time, the effort is appreciated....I knew what he was trying to say :-)

Anywho, how am I doing?  Well, I' at 3 months now, I've had my 3 month check-up.  Everything is going great (I have been given paperwork to go get labs done, so I guess that will give us a more complete picture).  Doc says I've lost 44 lbs, and that I'm doing well with the weight loss.  I'll see them again in 6 months. 

I have been getting in all of my protein, all of my vitamins, but not all of the water yet.  I get up to about 45 ozs of fluid.  I am working on upping that.  I have no doubt that I will get there.  I'm starting to be able to really get more in in one sitting, so I'm not munching on the same piece of meat for hours upon hours trying to get in the protein.  I asked my doctor and my nurse about bite sizes, because I don't really hear of people complaining about that too much, and I was just wondering if I am going to have to take pinky nail sized bites for the rest of my life.  That has definitely been difficult for me.  I'm told that I won't.  My nurse has actually had the surgery.  She assures me that it gets better.  My surgeon said that before long I'll wonder what I was worried about.

I really am feeling better about how things sit in my pouch altogether.  I'm pretty confident that I can eat, and manage to not vomit.  If I do feel that tight feeling in my chest as though my food is just sitting there, I'll stand up and walk around a little bit, just to get everything aligned, so it will go on down.  If the pain is too much, and it seems to be sitting there for a while, I will go and vomit just to get it off of my chest, but I'm finding that I don't feel a need to do that very often.

For the most part, I'm staying away from the drinking while eating.  It actually hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be.  If I've eaten something (like steak, chicken, or tuna), and I really need it to go down, because I need the protein, but it's hurting my chest really badly, I will take a tiny, tiny sip of water (slightly smaller than half of a bottle cap, we're talking drops of water here), just to add a little moisture to the food, so I won't have to throw it up (I am speaking about when I am in pain).  Usually it works itself out when I do that, which really drives home for me why we don't want to be eating and drinking at the same time in general.  I don't have a problem with feeling satisfied, or with controlling my appetite, but I can imagine how easy it would be to slip into washing food down just so that one could eat more.  That's dangerous territory, and I will be glad when my food moving through the pouch is less of a concern.

I went out to a mixer with one of my girlfriends.  I had 2 small drinks.  I had been wondering earlier how drinking through a straw would affect me.  When I received my drinks, they had those little cocktail straws in them, and just through habit, I was drinking through the straw, when I realized I was doing it...didn't cause any problems with gas or anything.  Also, I've heard lots of people say that post rny, they get drunk really quickly, but sober up really fast as well.  Before rny, I could drink one beer, or one cocktail and be tipsy.  I didn't feel anything at all after my two drinks.  I didn't feel tipsy at all.  The alcohol content seemed pretty strong too, just based on what I was able to taste in the drink.  I asked the bar tender to put more juice in the second one.  Anyway, I wasn't going out there to get wasted, and alcohol is something I could take or leave, so it was no biggie.  I was out, guys wanted to buy me drinks, I had a couple, when I first got there, turned the rest down, que sera, sera.

I ordered some samples from vitalady.  I'm feeling like I don't really need them now, because I am really doing a good job of getting in my protein from food.  I ordered like 5 or 6 different flavors.  I'm going to see which one I like best and order at least one, maybe two, just so I can have a back up on those days when I have too much going on, and I just can't get it in.  Strawberry mousse wasn't too bad.  Didn't have to add a lot of water to it, so I was able to drink it down pretty quickly.  I did have to hold my nose, because I don't like the smell of it, but the taste is fine, it doesn't taste like it smells, which is good.

So, as far as my count goes, I have 7 more pounds to lose, and I will have lost 50 lbs.  I am officially into the 230s right now.  I don't feel like I'll be here long.  The weight is really starting to move, and I'm pretty much in the mid 230s right now, so we'll see!

I have gotten on my elliptical, and done it for 30 minutes at a time, so I have started to get my energy back, 15 minutes of exercise is not doing it for me anymore.  I just find standing in one spot, and looking at that same wall so boring!  So, I've gone back to walking in the park.  I'll still do the elliptical, but the workout that I enjoy most is going to the park, so that's what I'll be doing mostly, until I have to ramp it up.  I still do my impromptu weight lifting sessions with 10 lbs dumb bells, just to try to keep my arms from getting too bad, we'll see how that goes.

That's all for now.

Take care all.

~elle

I stalled for what seemed like a really long time at 246.  When I came home from the hospital , I was making sure to get my workouts in, even though I hadn't been able to get in the protein and the water.  Basically, I was going around exhausted.  I took a couple weeks off of the working out to really give myself some time to heal, and to get myself together a little bit. 

I'm doing much, much better with getting in my protein and water.  I still can't get in 64 ozs of water a day yet, but I'm working on it.  I was watching this youtube video, where this lady was saying that her program required its participants to get in 90 grams of protein per day.  I think that's a good number, so maybe I'll try to work my way up to that.  I'm just about to come up on my 3 month mark later this month, and so I haen't had a post-op appontment with my NUT yet (she said that we would start after I hit 3 months), and I'm going to be having my 3 month follow-up with my surgeon this month as well.  I haven't been given a protein goal as of yet, I just know I need lots of it.  The research that I have done suggests that I need to be getting in atleast half of my ideal weight gm/lb, so since that's about 150 lbs, looks like I need to get in about 75 grams of protein/day.  I'm getting over 50/day, and I'm working my way up, and finding new ways to get in more and more everyday.

I get about 45 ozs on the fluids as well.  I'm working on getting this up, because I know it's important, especially with these hot summer months coming up in GA, but hey, my urine is clear, so I take that as a sign that I'm on the right track.

Oh yeah, my vits.  I faithfully take my B12 shot every payday (which is every 2 weeks).  Soon I'll be dropping it down to once a month.  I ordered a 90 day supply of multivits with iron, and calcium chewables from celebrate.  Cost me a 100 bucks with shipping and handling, which is pricey, but the pills desolve easily, and I haven't had any problems with them coming back up.  I've had so many problems with keeping my vits down, and I've felt so bad about the fact that I couldn't do it....it's worth the money for me.

Now, back to my work out.  Like I said, I took a little time to get myself together, and to get my energy up.  I'm getting back into the work out, slowly....which is hard for me, because I definitely am an all or nothing person.  I have been setting my elliptical to a resistance of 10, and raising and lowering my speed, from 4.6 to 10.8 mph, and I've been going for at least a mile daily....which only takes me about 15 minutes.  Which seems like absolutely nothing, and the first time I did it, I felt bad about it....cause I'm all or nothing, but at the same time, I was just at a point where I felt like I have to do SOMETHING at least.  That 15 minutes has caused me to lose like 5-6 lbs in less than a week.

I'm just going to concentrate on building everything, water intake, protein, and exercise.  Hopefully by the time I get to 3 months, I will be at full capacity with the water and protein, and I'll be able to go really strong with the exercise. 

Getting into the 230s this week!  :-)

~elle

I ate very well today.  I feel like I ate a LOT, but in all honesty it wasn't very much.  I had a small protein shake, some greek yogurt, some chicken, some veggies, some fruit.  I was able to eat several small meals...and I didn't vomit once!

I really didn't see how I would get to a point where I was able to eat the way that I see people posting their daily intakes on the board.  I mean I knew it had to happen eventually, because I couldn't survive on what I was doing, but really, it just happened overnight.  I vomited yesterday, I was super stuffed when trying to get things in yesterday...today, I ate practically all day (healthy stuff).  No vomiting.  Very happy about that, hope things continue in this vein.

I have received my trial of celebrate vitamins.  I'm still trying this and that.  I definitely recommend all to go to their website, and get the little 3 buck sample pack.  I'm still trying to decide which vits I'm going to buy, but I feel that they have done a pretty good job of making their products tastey enough to not be completely disgusting, and also, since they are formulated specifically for us, you don't have to take 40 million of them to get your daily dose in.  They're soft, some of them taste like candy, and it's over quickly.  I like that about them.  Makes it much easier to get them in, especially when I don't have to dread taking them.

I will say that my chewable centrum vits seem to have a lot more different vitamins in their product, but right now, as long as I'm getting what I need, and can stomach it, I'm good.  I may revisit centrum, or something more vitamin dense when I'm further out, and able to handle it in pill form, so it's simply down the hatch, and done.

Again, I'm doing great.  Today has been a good day.

~elle