Happy Anniversary to All!

Hi all you wonderful November people!

How did you celebrate your 1  year anniversary?  Did you buy yourself a fabulous gift?  Did you have a party or special celebration? 

How are you doing with staying on track with your eating and exercise plan?  How have you done with your weight loss?  Inches loss?  Clothing sizes loss?  How close are you to your various goals?

What great things have you accomplished this year that you never dreamed you could do?

How are you feeling?  Is your head on straight and in tuned with your body?  Are you proud of yourself?  Do you realize how fantastic you are? 

What struggles have you overcome?  What changes have you made in your life (that don't relate to the scale)?  What goals have you set for the coming year? 

C'mon folks... share your story!  (And share some pictures while you're at it!)

Pam

Hi Pam,

I don't post very often but i thought i might as well share my progress as well.  I had my surgery Nov 14 2007 and weighed 348lbs, now i am 211lbs and would like to get down to about 175lbs.  I exercise daily for at least 30mins and continue to follow my Nuts rules.   I have been a slow loser, i guess they say it's common for pear shapped women. 
  The main reason I had the surgery was because i was having a terrible time at work going up and down stairs and was worried i would have to quit my job.   I don't even notice the climb anymore, it's funny but at the same time... it's great.  I am so happy that i had my surgery and am feeling great except that i am now anemic.   I had been taking OTC iron pills when i was one month post op and continued that till my labs dropped below normal values.  My PCP has given me a scrip for iron pills 3 times a day and I am hoping that helps.  I really don't want to have to do iron infusions, but I will do whatever is needed. 
On a positive note, i have met a wonderful man and I do think he is planning on asking me to marry him .  I live in Canada and he lives in VA... 8hrs away....  He is more than willing to leave his job, friends and family (siblings and parents) for me.  I love him dearly and I know he loves me.  If i didn't have the surgery, there would have been no way i would have met him because i was just so self conscious about my size. 
So things are going very well for me and i couldn't be happier.  I hope others have inspirational stories as well. 

Happy Anniversary to all

Toni

 Toni - 

Congratulations on your success!  It sounds like you're doing great and well on your way to reaching all your goals.  And finding the love of your life -- how wonderful!  :-)

I just had my blood drawn this past week and I'm anxious to see how my labs come out.  My iron has been fine all along and I'm hoping its still alright.  But my Vitamin D has been deficient since month 3, hoping it's up where it needs to be now.  

Guess I should answer my own post, huh?  I'm going to go write it out now.  :-)

Pam

Hi all - 

Guess I should answer my own questions, huh?  

The past year has been a whirlwind of adventure and challenges and wow moments.  I'm amazed at what's happened in such a short time.  

I started at 300 pounds and a size 28.  I'm now at 190 pounds and a size 16.  I've got about 20 pounds left to lose to hit my first goal weight.  My surgeon's goal is about 55 pounds away and I'm not sure if I'll shoot for that weight or not, but I'm surprised that I'm actually that close to those goal numbers.  

My relationship with food is a healthy one.  I'm not religious about every single rule, every single day ... but when I'm eating something that's not 100% healthy, I'm well aware of the decision making process behind choosing to eat it or not.  In the past I'd eat mindlessly and not give it a second thought.  About 90% of the time I'm on track and do a good job.  I need to get better at not beating myself up mentally during that 10% of time when I'm not perfect.  

Exercise became a huge part of my life over the summer.  I joined a formal training program which ended in walking a half-marthon (13.1 miles).  Unfortunately I injured my ankle a couple weeks before the race and we off training for 2 weeks before the race.... then reinjured it during the race, so was off for another couple weeks after.  But I got lazy and didn't start working out again.  I took almost 2 months off.  But I've joined a gym and I'm getting my butt back on track now.  

I've been working on a bunch of stuff that doesn't really relate to the scale or eating or exercise.  My whole body and mind health.  I've gotten more involved in my community.  I'm planning to go back to college in January to finish up my degree.  I've been working on my relationships and making new friends.  I'm dug a bit deeper into my spirituality.  I've revamped my financial health and have been decluttering my house as much as possible.  It'd kind of fun to see all the changes that I've been making in the past year.  I'm excited to see what the next year will hold. 

~Pam

Hi all you November Anniversary Babes!
Wow! What a ride we have been on.  My  surgery date was 11-26-07,  I was completely complication free.

Here are my stats:
highest weight= 299, clothes 3-4x or 26
surgery weight= 289
current weight= 165, clothes pants 10/12 shirts XL (extra skin)
goal weight= 150

I no longer have any of my comordities with my biggest one
being Asthma.
For the most part, life has been good.  I do have carb demons that sometime get the best of me.  I really try to low carb to keep the weight loss going, although it's slow.  If I don't reach goal, I'm still OK with that.  I've lost 80% of my excess body weight.  Energy is abundant!  I actually have all my christmas presents that I've bought wrapped.  I also have been "spring cleaning" the house room by room.
Here's my before and in progress pix's


Judy

Judy -

You look great!  Congratulations on your outstanding success!

Pam

Good  Morning.   Hope  everyone had a wonderful   Thanksgiving  week.  I did and it was great.

My labs were great.  My vitamin d  was 32  and normal is  30  but i  have been taking   a perscription  supplement  we made the decision to keep me on  it for at least another six months and then go off and check  it again  at  my two year   out  blood work.  and  then  make a decision if i should stay on it.  I have a feeling that i will need the  extra as the first time they  took  the test and found it low was in the summer when i was outside  in the river alot.  It should of been fine and it wasnt. 
I take  three 2500  B-12 sublingal a week  and  two  children  chewables.  and  4  citracal petites a day.

I have copd and asthma and do not take any medicine for those  now.    Maybe years from now i will need medicine but for the current time i am off all medicine.  I take no blood pressure medicine anymore.  woo hoo.

My weight loss has slowed down seems like i lose  8 pounds in three months but as long as it is  going down i will not   complain.   My  dietician   recalculated  the  weight goal  as they  have decided that  the way the   doctor has given us a  goal  is a little   unattainable  but not always.
My doctor had said  160  my pcp  had said  180  and i said  180  then i would try for  160.  The  dietician has now said  172  so now that is my new goal.   I am at  60 percent of  excess weight loss  and  success is  50 to  70 percent.  so i am happy with that.  I use to  wear  26 to 3 x  clothes and now i am  large and xl tops  i like  lose tops   and  14 w   jeans.   I have lots of  lose skin around my  belly   but i am still losing  inches  and that is a plus.  I am not sure if i will have  my excess skin off or not.  I do have  yeast problems  that i have to stay on top of.  But  i  want to lose more  weight  before i make that decision as that is where most of my weight is is in my belly.  I  am to the point that  diet is now  back in my vocabulary  and i know that  this is still a calorie game  that i can  do now!!!!



This has been an amazing  journey.   I  do exercise which was  unheard of before  and I   make  for the most part  healthy  choices.   I do have to  stop grazing and have been sitting down  to meals instead of grabbing on the run.  I find that i eat less when i sit down  and  get my protein in first.

Hope  everyone  has   a great  holiday season!   I  wish you all the best on your continued weightloss  journey.   Have  a great day!!!

 Congratulations on your success so far!  It sounds like you're doing an awesome job.  

I like that your nutrition and PCP are working with you to adjust your goal weight.  I have my 1 year follow up this week and hope to have that conversation with my doctors too.  Right now my surgeon's goal is 135 which is pretty unrealistic in my mind and I think that number was chosen for statistical purposes only.  We'll see.  

My Vitamin D has also been low since my 3-month draw and have been on the 50,000IU/week Rx.  My numbers were up to 38 at 6 months, but that's still not nearly high enough.  Vitalady and AndreaU.  and other RNY vitamin gurus recommend us RNY'ers need to be up in the 80-100 range with our Vitamin D.... so I have a long way to go.  If my numbers aren't significantly increased with this drawn (I'll find out tomorrow) ... I'm going to switch to Dry Vitamin D to get things moving a bit faster.  Good luck with getting your numbers up - I know how frustrating it is when the stupid pills don't seem to work. 

Size 26 to 16!  Isn't that wonderful?!??  I bet you're going through clothes like crazy.  I know my bedroom/closet is in a constant state of explosion with all the clothes going in and out.  Goodwill is my new favorite mall.  LOL!

I'm a bit concerned about your vitamins.  The ASMBS (American Society of Bariatric Surgeons) recommends 200% RDS of an ADULT multi-vitamin per day.  And also 1500-200mg of calcium citrate.  It sounds like you're on the low side of both of those.  Here's the docment with the recommendations.   It just came out in July, so many surgeon's haven't even read these or started using them yet.  Check out the chart on page 7 for the list of recommended minimum vitamins we should be taking.  

Thanks for sharing your story!  I agree... this is an amazing journey.  What a fun ride this has been so far!

Pam