SusanLaRae

Send Message

Block

Add Friend

I recently have told a few people to check out my blog, then realized I haven't even been here myself. It's FaceBooks fault, I'm sure. I get there daily and don't make it here. I guess it's a sign of success but it is also abadonment. I love my OH Lightweight friends. How can I abandon them? I'll try to figure something out.

I hope I'm not the only one that does this. I feel bad... I have gotten so much support and help from the people here on OH and now I'm not helping and keeping in contact as I should.

I have to say this has been one of the best things I have done in my life and to think, I almost decided not to do it. I'll try to be better about posting and going to the lightweights message board more often.

Guess I'm just not able to even post once a month. I'll get back in the swing of things.... Promise.

Well until I get more enthusiastic again about writing I guess I am doing a monthly blog... Oh, well.

I guess now as I approach my goal weight I am wondering is the hardest part ahead. How do I maintain. I need to stop losing, but I don't want to gain. I'm sure it's going to be tricky I'm already facing some challenges. But I have set me 10 lb. limit. I will not let myself go over that. Even if I have to go back to liquids for a week or so. I've worked to hard and I'm enjoying this too much to let it go. I hope everyone is doing well. Happy Memorial Day to all...

Here I am again failing to post on a regular basis but yet again not wanting the month of April to slip completely away without at least one post.

I find more and more as I lose weight I have less and less time to be on the computer here at OH. Am I ungrateful?  Have I lost interest? NO, not at all.

I feel that this OH site has been the #1 most helpful resource in my weight loss journey. Now down 90 lbs. and very close to my goal which by the way keeps changing.

At first it was 140, then 130 now as I approach 140 I realize that my arms and legs are starting to look hideous. My husband wants me to stop losing weight 3 lbs ago. But I have this urge to at least make it to 137 witch will put me at losing 100 lbs. even.

I guess my feelings on that is because initially I would tell people from what I knew you had to be 100 lbs. overweight and people would argue that I wasn't 100 lbs over weight. I guess I need to show them that I could lose 100. But the only weight left on me is in my belly and apron area. Mostly skin, not a lot of fat just a bit. 

I got laid off from work last week and I've been a little concerned about what that might do to me. Make me lose more? Make me snack and gain? I just don't know. Time will tell.

See you next month.

I looked and saw that I last posted in February and had not even posted in March. Someone said it and I think it's true. The more weight we lose the more active we get and the less time we have to post and blog.

I still peek in almost daily if not daily but I seldom post anymore and obviously seldom blog.

Goodwill and I are like best friends but only after the Discovery Shop. I use to hate shopping and I go by those two shops once or twice a week and in each town I go to. I love it when I walk in to a room and people say "Oh, I just love that blouse" and I say $2.95 at Goodwill or $6.00 at Discovery Shop.

For those of you not familiar with the "Discovery Shop" all proceeds go to the cancer society and they keep the nicer stuff that is donated and send the rest to Goodwill. So I can get some pretty nice things there.

I started out in a size 22 Women's pants and a 3X Blouse. Now I'm down to 11's and 12's and Medium and Large Blouses depending on how the fit.

I have kept a old leather fringe coat that I use to wear when I was 16, I can now wear it. I'll take a picture and post it someday.

That's all for now... We'll see if I get more said next month.

That's been my thought lately. I guess it has a lot to do with the extra skin and wrinkles.
 
I do have an answer, I have mentioned it before and if I had advice for anyone younger than 30-40 I would say... Find out  your normal weight zone and never let yourself get more than 10 lbs over. That might even be a bit much but lets keep things reasonable. I truly feel if I had learned then what I know now I would have never allowed myself to get to the point that my skin has stretched beyond repair. The other thing is about losing muscle first then fat while on the losing side but when you gain you gain fat unless you are on a workout program.

My doctor does not want me to do weights right now and try to get my muscle back. He feels it sends that wrong signals to your body.  Here you are trying to lose, lose, lose. But lifting any heavy weights says build, build, build and your body can't figure it out.

So for now it's just walking and repetitions of very light weights (2-5lbs) and losing as much weight as I can in this very narrow window after surgery. THEN, after I've been at goal for a bit I will start to strengthen and build.

My friends Jackie and Janet are both doing real well and Jackie's daughter just had her surgery yesterday. I'm so proud of her and hope she has as much success as we have had.

I feel the need to write about how things feel and thoughts I'm having.

I'll first start with my mind because it was the first.
I noticed commercials first. I would see a "Chips Ahoy"commercial and think, they shouldn't be allowed to show that stuff on TV. The nation is becoming health wise and yet this stuff is still on the TVs pushing carbs. It's like pushing drugs, it's all bad for us.

Then I realized what I was thinking. I thought to myself. "I'm worse than a reformed smoker". Eight months ago if I saw that same commercial I would have gotten up and went into the kitchen and if the chips ahoy weren't there I would have made sure they were on my shopping list. Now that I've lost almost 70 lbs. when I see someone as big as I was I wonder why they haven't considered or already have had WLS. What they heck am I thinking!!! This aggravates me that I think this way, but I guess I just want everyone to experience and be as happy as I am about my weight loss. I also notice when I go to be with a group that I have been with before. Be it work meeting, club meeting etc. I see myself comparing my weight with the other women, at least the ones close to my height. I was at a meeting the other day and thought to my self that I use to be one of the heaviest and now I'm almost the smallest. I guess this is normal, but I feel guilty having these thoughts.

On to my body.
I lay in bed at night feeling parts of my body that for the most part I have never felt before. I have shoulder bones, I have collar bones. I can even feel my pelvic bone. At first I felt weird but as soon as the Dr. cleared me for "activities" I noticed my DH feeling those same things. Now we talk about it and laugh. He tries to be careful and not say the wrong things. He is not always good with words. Trying to show appreciation for my new body he is careful not to show that there was any problem before. He never showed or acted like there was but he did say something last night about it was like heaving a new girlfriend, after a bit of discussion he settled for new wife or lover. ( I guess it was the question about was there an old girlfriend).

Anyways, I'm having a great time and my lightweight sisters are all right. This is a wild ride.

I did it!!! I'm no longer OBESE. Now I'm just overweight. I've been waiting for that 169 to show up on the scale and it finally did this morning.

I went shopping before surgery and bought Xlarge shirts, now they are too big. Yipppeeeeee I'm so excited. I will have to say that things are slowing down. At first I was losing at about 1 lb per day. Now I lose about 1 lbs for 3 days. Not any better than before the surgery except that I had hit a plateau and already had lost the 50 lbs. I think sometimes. If I don't eat enough my body tries to hang on to the fat more. I ate better yesterday and WALLA! today I'm down 1½ lbs.

Yippppppeeeeeeeee

No more puree. Well, okay now I can have other stuff too.

I saw Dr. Dutta today for my 2 week post op. follow up. He gave me the green light to basically go ahead with everything physically. He said just use common sense. He predicts I will reach my goal in 4-5 months. It doesn't seem possible until you realize I was half way there when I finally was called for the surgery. He said I will probably lose at abouat 10 lbs. per months. and all I have left to reach goal is 46 lbs.

Tonight I baked chicken breast in the oven and added some chicken broth to keep it from drying out. Also had green beans.

I can't wait to have a scrambled egg in the morning!!!