***280 lbs.***

One pound. Meh. Not sure how this is different from regular weight loss. With the amount I have to lose, this is going to take forever. Is this normal for 10 yrs after surgery? A bit disappointing. And a bit envious of some of the smaller patients who were able to lose all of their weight in the "honeymoon phase". Pooh. 

I am eating all good things, and much smaller portions. I am under my daily caloric intake level (by quite a bit), which can't be a terrific thing. Yet, I don't want to eat five turkey burgers just to meet it... or eat garbage. I know I have to get back in the gym, but I don't want to until I've quit smoking. (Which is next on the agenda, but I've quit so many things at once that I don't want to overwhelm myself and fail). 

On the bright side... a couple of my issues have gone away and my nails are stronger. (I'd still prefer weight to go away).

P.S. Kathy... the mandolin slicer is awesome! There is no stand on it though. You lay it across a bowl or hold it at an angle. But the blade is very sharp and it cuts cleanly, it's simple to use and stores flat, standing up. I used it to slice zucchini for use in place of lasagna noodles. It has other blades so that you can also dice and julienne.

***+281.4***

Alrighty then... a gain of 2 oz.Barely any change, but not thrilled that it's in the opposite direction.

However, I did go from a week of clear liquids to 5 days of full liquids/soft foods and on the weekend, we had two restaurant meals. Saturday we went to dinner with my uncle at Olive garden. I was having some "movement" issues (too fast from liquids to soft foods I guess) and had two small plates of salad hoping that would help. I also had one bowl of minastrone, and a piece of salmon ala carte. I felt I chose wisely, but I was shocked to see that the herbed salmon was 490 calories all by itself! 

I need to make an apppointment with my doctor. I'm kind of winging it at this point, but I'm not really sure what I'm doing.

1. How much fat is too much?
2. How much sugar is too much?
3. How many carbs are too much?
4. How much protein should I be eating?
5. What is a realistic calorie level to shoot for at meal times?

Right now, I am WAY under what my calorie level should be for the day, yet I am not hungry for more food. I don't want to have to eat 12 lbs of salad to raise my calorie levels, but I don't want to eat crappy foods to reach it either. 

I'm doing ok with my water and vitamins. Had a couple of misses last week. I need to get something to carry pills in my purse. The water has been a bit more difficult. Because I am eating different foods and feeling more full, I'm not reaching for my water bottle as much as I did the week before.

I have three free phone apps that I am using to help me manage all of my new changes.

• Medi Safe-Reminds me when it's time to take my vitamins (and which vitamins those are) and keeps track of previous days so I can look back and see if and when I missed doses.
• Hydro Coach-Reminds me to drink water and keeps track of previous days as well. It also allows you to select the quantities that you usually drink at a time which will gauge how many reminders you receive in a day.
• Lose It! -Keeps track of weight loss, caloric intake, saves nutritional information for foods and custom recipes. Shows you how many calories you should be eating in a day per your weight, height, age, sex, and activity level. It scans grocery items with barcodes, or you can search for things such as fresh produce or restaurant menu items.

At some point tomorrow we should be receiving our Torani syrups! I can hardly wait! 

I ordered:S/F Almond Roca, S/F Brown Sugar Cinnamon, S/F Coconut, S/F Salted Caramel, S/F Pumpkin Pie, S/F gingerbread, and 6 dispensing pumps.

There are 3 of us in the house that will be using them, and the six pumps will allow each of us to use whichever one we want without having to commit to finishing one bottle. (Especially if someone finds they don't much care for one of the flavors). Options people... options. I will use these in protein shakes, overnight oatmeal recipes, flavorings for plain greek yogurt, etc. Lots of good ideas on The World According to Eggface. LOVE this blog. If you know of others like it, please share with me.

Later today, we should be getting our mandolin slicer and some silicon cupcake 'wrappers' to hold small treats in our bento boxes. I'm excited about the mandolin because it will allow me to (more easily) slice zucchini to use as noodles in lasagna, and also cucumbers for little roll up sandwiches. (But I am way more excited about the syrups). 

Have a good week!

***281.2***

Ok, so... I have been away for a few years. I ended up getting a job at Orange Lake Resort and Country Club. It required a lot of my time, energy, and more importantly, my attention. Unfortunately, I am one of those people who wholeheartedly THROWS themself into whatever I am into at the time, and this caused me to lose focus on my eating/exercise regime. 

At first, I didn't let this bother me. I was not noticing any weight changes really. At least not quickly. And I had been told that I could always start again by "re-setting my pouch" by doing the clear liquids, full liquids, etc. So I kept telling myself (and others) that I could start again whenever, and that I was going to do that soon. 

As you can see... soon turned into 7 years. 

I won't bother explaining or trying to give reasons for why... it doesn't matter. What matters now is that I have decided to pick up where I left off and finish what I started.

My lowest wieght after surgery was 265 lbs (from a starting point of 420 lbs). Read back through my logs if you are interested in my pre-op information, original "before" pictures, or posts regarding my journey from the beginning. The "before" picture that will be posted on the side of my blog now, will be one that was taken this month. It represents my new journey which officially started last week at 297.2 lbs. 

Today is Monday of week 2. I weighed myself this morning and am -15lbs! Yay me! 

I hope that any of you who read my posts find them helpful or inspiring, as the blogs and photos you've shared have been inspiring for me.

Here I go!

January 11,2009
***275 lbs.***

::Whew:: Out with the old and in with the new! We had a great Christmas, and we are looking forward to an equally great New Year.

The boys are preparing for H.S. graduation, and we are preparing for a trip to CA this summer.  There is much going on and we have lots of goals to meet.  With the economy being what it is, one of my goals has been to figure out a way to make a little money and help my husband to get us back on track. I am looking into AVON, as this will allow me to make money... but I will be free to leave to go to CA for 2 weeks for Tim's graduation. It will also allow me to be with him while still working this summer when he is here. I have some questions for them when they get back to me and depending on those answers... I hope to begin soon. 

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Recipes and Ramblings of a Former Fat Chick...

http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/

NOVEMBER 16,2005

Hi everybody.. I am officially in "Holiday Mode". Have been really since Halloween. That is when I start plotting and planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Most holidays for our family are spent at our house, so there's lots of shopping, menu planning etc. We also have a teenage son that lives out of state with his dad, so there are travel arrangements thrown into that mix as well. I so look forward to seeing him!

I am also planning a "Cookie Swap" party for December the 4th. I've been busying myself with that as well. Because of all of this as well as other things, exercise keeps getting forgotten. I'm not happy that I allowed myself to get out of that habbit. It's proven to be quite a thing to get back to it. The weight is still coming off, but not like it would be if I were moving more. I need a swift KICK.

OCTOBER 28,2005

***-100 total lbs...Member of the Century Club***
Wow..so much has happened within my household since that last update! Peace has not been flowing abundantly to say the least. Because of this, I have spent most of my time focusing on other things. I have still managed to lose weight during this period thanks to this wonderful surgery, however I have been bouncing between 310 lbs and 320 lbs for the last month and a half.

I pulled out the paperwork that my surgeon's office gave me right before surgery, just to kind of re-familiarize myself with everything. Boy am I glad I did that! You tend to get comfortable and think you are sailing right along, but wow.. there was alot I was doing wrong!

I had been depending on the sensation of fullness to gauge when I was finished. Unfortunately for me, I happen to be one of those people who can eat anything. I can also eat normal people size portions and do not ever get sick. Therefore, I need to pay closer attention to what I eat and how much. I had not been doing this. I had been relying on the feeling of fullness. I also quit working out as stress regarding other things mounted. Now I am out of the habbit. I will just absolutely have to jump start myself and try again.

ON THE UPSIDE of all this... I have lost 100 LBS.



My clothes have gotten big and I've had to buy new. I went from a 34w pants to a 28w. My shirts have gone from 5x/6x to 3x/4x depending on the store/catalog. I am also FINALLY to a place where I can notice a difference in my appearance in pictures. My face is much thinner and I think I look a bit smaller in the shoulder area. I cannot see much change from the front or back, but my profile looks a bit slimmer.

JUNE 23,2005

***-59 total lbs***
I went to Dr. Jawad's yesterday for my weigh-in/blood check appt. I went from 386 to 355!! I'm feeling very good about those results right about now. I needed a good dose of sunshine! I was concerned previously, as I am eating more than a cup of food at dinner time. I have been eating less than before though, since my last appt.

I have a membership with the National Training Center here in Clermont. It's a great deal. We've signed on the whole family and my kids and hopefully my husband work out with me. We have access to a pool there as well (which I must confess was what lured me). Here at this gym, when you become a member they set you up with a trainer who weighs and measures you and looks at your medical history. After that, he or she will walk through with you and set you up with a personal workout routine that is specifically for you to help you meet your goals. Every 6-8 weeks he/she will meet up with you and check on you as well as change your routine up so that you dont become bored with it. I have loved this and done very well. My routine is managable and fun. I'm very glad I went ahead and did this because at home with my own little treadmill all I managed to do was collect dust.

APRIL 28,2005

I cannot believe how much trouble I am having staying away from carbs! They were appearantly a bigger part of my life than I had thought. Seems as though everything I ate had some form of it or another. I think that is a HUGE reason why I'm not losing like I want to. I need to get creative. I need new recipes. Mostly my carb trouble is in the form of side dishes. ::sigh::

I'm very anxious for my weight loss to be visible. It's almost like it's not real yet. Maybe once it's visible, "SUPER-MOTIVATION" will kick in. I feel like my tail is dragging and I'm just sort of passing time. I don't feel as though I have any more energy than before..... which was zilch. I know all this will turn around. Just..... soon please?

APRIL 20,2005

***-28 total lbs.***
Hi all. Let's catch up a bit. I have for the past two weeks been eating "normal" foods as well as squishy foods. I have (unfortunately) tollerated everything remarkably well, which means I'll have to work harder. But anyway you look at it, it still won't be as difficult as it was before surgery.

I have though, been suprised at how much I can consume. Like last night.. I had a whole chicken breast (stuffed with string cheese and green chillies), 3 tomato wedges, probably 2 Tbsp of cucumber salad and 2 Tbsp of mexican style rice. I was able to eat every bit of it, save two tiny bites of the chicken. This to me, seemed like what a "normal" person would eat. No way should I be eating that much.

When I went to my appt. today I discussed this with Sylvia. She gave me a prescription for an upper GI. She said this was just to put my mind at ease. But that yes, it was a lot to be eating at this stage. I have no pain, no nausea, no vomiting, sooo... I don't know. We'll see.

As far as my wieght loss.. these past three weeks, I only lost 12 lbs. which is kind of a bummer. But really, I didn't expect that I would have lost a great amount. I need to remember that, still it is 12 lbs. less and not 12 lbs. more, so how can I complain? This time I will do better. I need to drink more fluids as well. She didn't say anything about this.. but I just know I need to. I am still having trouble getting down the required amount. Maybe if I drank more, I would eat less.

I also asked her about a "metal taste" that I had been having in my mouth. She said this was from the anesthesia so, good. No biggy there. Until next time! .............God Bless.