buzybee7

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• Its been 13 months since I started my weight loss journey.  January 2013 I started my preop diet (lost 38 pounds) and March 14th 2013 I had my VSG surgery (lost 131 pounds since surgery, 170 pounds total) ! Its been an amazing year.  I can't beleive I am where I am.  Now I'm beginning maintenance stage and the real work begins!  A couple of weeks ago I celebrated my new body with a professional photo shoot.  Updated pics are in my album.  Here's to another fantastic year!!!

I can't believe I'm already here!  It seems like just yesterday I started this whole journey and now I'm down 135 pounds and feeling great!!  I have reached my original goal of reaching 170 pounds....though I never thought I'd get there!  Now that I am I think a new goal is reasonable.  I think I could go down about 15 more pounds and see how that looks/feels.  I've never been this small even as a teenager!!  I'm on untraveled land :-)  Can't wait to see where it takes me!

Last Thursday I graduated college (my 2nd degree).  I graduated with high honors due to my GPA of 3.83 and was on the honor society.  I was awarded a partial scholarship for my 3rd degree.  I am very proud of this degree because of what I have overcome to get to this point.  I worked a full-time job (50+ hours a week), was raising 5 children (1 with special needs), went through a divorce, had VSG surgery and still came out with high honors.  I have compared my journey with school with my recent weight loss journey.  When I feel discouraged about my weight loss I remind myself about my journey through school.  I had to proceed slow and steady and I made it with great success.  I am excited to see how successful my weight loss journey will be.  :-)

I had a two week stall during my 2nd month post-op so I think that is why my numbers are so low for this month.  I am down 9 pounds for month 2.  I have lost a total of 73 pounds since I started my pre-op diet in January. 

Starting at 4 weeks post-op I was in a stall.  I am so happy to say that the stall is over!!  It was almost a 2 week stall.  I was very patient and waited it out.  It is true, the stalls can't last forever.  Yay!! 

Lost 4 pounds this week for a total of 64 pounds including pre-op diet! 

1 month post-op total:  26 pounds!

As of today (3 weeks and 2 days post-op) I have lost 23 pounds since surgery and a total of 61 pounds since January 2013.  I started pureed foods and was honestly terrified to take the first bite.  I had the food sitting in front of me for several minutes as I cried.  I wasn't sure what was going to happen.  I found this incredibly ironic that I was afraid to eat.  I didn't get to my weight by being afraid to eat.  I was in unfamiliar territory.  Everything had been going so well until this point I felt that something had to go wrong and maybe it would be that I couldn't eat.  I had been on a 3 week liquid diet and was able to tolerate everything so far.  I had a great recovery, very little pain, no nausea, no trouble drinking, excellent weight-loss etc... I guess I was expecting that something would go wrong.  Maybe its because of my past.  I've not always had it easy and started to expect that when things are going well something will happen to change that. 

I was excited to be able to get back into the pool this week, start my pureed food and to be able to start taking my vitamins again.  I didn't think I would make it to this point but I did!  One big hurdle down.  Next week I start regular food! 

This journey has been interesting so far.  I'm sure I will run into more bumps in the road but I know I will be able to pull it together and get through.  In case I forget how the early part of my journey was here's  a reminder:

Typical Menu

Breakfast:  protein drink

Lunch: 2 TBSP cottage cheese, 1 TBSP natural applesauce

Dinner: 2 TBSP tuna with lite miracle whip, 1 TBSP cream of wheat with added unflavored protein powder 

Liquids:  about 50-60 ounces (struggling to get all liquids in since adding food)

Vitamins:  chewable multivitamin, sublingual biotin,  and a sublingual B12.  I'm adding new ones, one at a time to not upset my tummy.

Exercise:  Walking, or water exercise 3-4 days a week 30-45 minutes each time.

Post-op Weight Loss: 

Week 1:   6 pounds

Week 2:  9 pounds

Week 3:  7 pounds 

Pre-op Weight Loss:  38 pounds

Total Weight Loss:  60 pounds

Today I have reached the lowest weight I have been able to get to as an adult!  One big milestone down and several more to go!!

I had gained 2.5 pounds in the hospital.  Today's weigh-in says I've lost the 2.5 pounds plus 6 more pounds.  I made it to the gym today and walked on the treadmill for 45 minutes.  Two more weeks and I can get back into the pool!

Tomorrow I will be one week post-op.  So far I'm doing well.  I have not used any pain meds since Saturday (2 days post-op).  I am using a timer to make sure I'm drinking every 15 minutes while I"m awake.  I am having a little trouble getting all 64 ounces in but I have been tolerating all the liquids I have tried.  So far I've been drinking:  diluted apple juice, water, chicken broth, powerade zero, sf carnation instant breakfast, sf jello, and crystal light.  However the crystal light tastes really strong to me.  I am having trouble getting the protein drinks in but I keep trying.  I have been experiencing some mild cramping and spasms in my tummy but they are tolerable.  I have been taking my Levsin every 4 hours to help.  I am feeling good and ready to add more walking to my routine. 

My surgery experience went well.  In the recovery room I remember being really nauseous but not really having much pain.  They gave me several meds for the nausea and also a patch behind the ear (which helped the best).  I did not have any problems introducing liquids.  I was really groggy for the first two days but by day 3 was feeling more awake.