Maria P.

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 Just checking in to share that all is well with the pregnancy journey. I have no major issues worthy of complaining about. Thank God for no morning sickness- neither my mother nor my sister had morning sickness as well. Now as for frequent urination, heightened sense of smells, nosebleeds, and now sciatic nerve pain well they have all been minor issues I have had to deal with. But overall I have felt great most of my pregnancy. Now I have 67 days left and am making trips to the toilet nearly every 30 minutes or so and my sciatic nerve makes me walk slow and causes pain sometimes. But again, I am not complaining. I am however, looking forward to meeting my little one and pray that all goes well from here until B-day time. I opted for a natural water birth with a midwife and using "hypnobabies" self hypnosis. I have read so much about how the epidural can slow down labor and increase the pain of contractions, and then they can wear off if given too earlier. So, I pray that the peace and grace of God will sustain baby and me through our special day. As for my weight loss journey, I believe I was still losing weight at the beginning of my pregnancy. Fortunately, my doctor says that the sleeve should not play a role in the development of the baby. The midwife just asked me to focus on proteins, water, and vitamins. So needless to say this has not been a problem for me since I am a" meatarian" - LOL. Until till next time...

It has been quite a while since my last post and there is no way I can track every detail of what has been going on. In short, I got married on November 27 and found out that I am also pregnant, due date- August 11, 2010. This is what I have been praying for and God has answered my prayers. I have to put my weight loss on hold until after the birth of my first born. I hope, trust and pray that everything goes well with my pregnancy and eventual labor and delivery. I will try to keep posting when I rememember but am available for individual e-mail messaging if you have any questions about the surgery or my experience withthe pregnancy after weight loss surgery. 

So for the last month I have been in a major stall fluctating in the 170's. I admit it has been all my fault. I got caught up with eating all the wrong things. So, when I changed my bad eating for the right one and I still wasn't losing, I decided to do a Raw Food Diet/Fast. Eatng all natural fruits, vegetables, and nuts has been a lot easier now that I am sleeved, although the first time around I lasted for 13 days. I had to do something to stop my eating sweets, the fruits are a perfect substitute. You might be a meatatarian and not interested, in that case, read no more.

Here's my routine:
Breakfast - Smoothie
Snack - Fruit
Lunch - Salad with nuts
Snack- Fruit or veggies, nuts
Snack - Fresh Juice
Dinner - Veggie (raw food recipe or Lovingitlive.com)
Snack- Smoothie
I also have plenty of distilled or spring water and take the vitamin supplements (Multivitamins, fish oil, B12 and Calcium)

I am down 5 pounds since Monday (5 days). I am going to keep this raw food lifestyle for at least the work week but maybe fulltime. It's just that the foods taste so much better than cooked food and my body is responding so well to it. I will watch my protein intake because I want to make sure I am getting enough. Suprisingly enough a lot of veggies do have proteins and of course the nuts have it. If you are considering this to help you out be sure to read all the websites that tell you how to do it right, I have done this three times now and everytime by day three I had to run to the restroom for a serious inner colon cleanse that occurs from eating such healthy food filled with fiber and more. Here are some site for more information www.alissacohen.com rawguru.com, www.thebestofrawfood.com or just do search engine research on raw food, or go to: http://www.rawfoodplanet.com/. There are also some mail order raw food restaurants that will deliver in case you are in a location with no restaurants - www.welikeitraw.com.

Well I it a major stall at 6 months, but I decided to purchase some B12 and it is working. I am once again losing weight two days in a row. Most of my family says that I am no longer fat and in fact look great. At 175 now, they question how much more weight I need to lose. According to my calculator I have 55 more pounds to go to reach my high school weight 120, we shall see. Now, I am thinking about marriage and a baby. Who will I marry, well that is the question, God will answer it one day soon. In the meantime, I am getting ready to travel to St. Petersburg, Florida this coming weekend for a family reunion and then on to Fort Lauderdale to celebrate my dad's 75th birthday at his friend's condo on the beach. It's a big party I have been planning and I can't wait to see his diamond blinged out bday cake. I even made a jeopardy game with facts on his life and my mom is doing a Power Point photo collage. I start back to work on August 3rd, thus ending my 6 week vacation. I can't wait to hear what everyone has to say about my weightloss. Oh yeah, I also started wearing this body magic shape molder and it is amazing, it really does work, all of my excess rolls of fat, that have yet to melt away are amazingly sucked in by this medieval type undergarment. My sister convinced me to buy one from her and I am glad I did. I need to host a party for my coworkers, I know they will want one once they see how slimming it is and how it actually helps you to lose weight just by wearing it. Well these are my updates.

I had a fabulous trip to NYC over Memorial Weekend. I went to see two musicals- Ruined and Wicked. I also saw ground zero and toured other spots I used to visit when I lived their for two summers. The downside to the trip happened when I foolishly decided to live on the wild side and try some sushi with a friend who eats it all the time. Well, wouldn't you know it I would eat the piece that was contaminated and posioned me. This next sentence is not for the faint of heart, so stop reading if you can't handle it.

I was vomitting bile - yellow fluids. I also was foaming and dry heaving. All of this happened on the day I was to return to home to Atlanta. So, I tried myself to drink fluids, but they just wouldn't stay down. So when I get to the airport they, of course, take my gatorade and do not sell any type of drink like that in their stores. So I drink some airplane water, but it does not go down easily nor in the quantity that is needed for all the fluid I lost.

The side effects of the food poisoning lead to me be severely dehydrated, that caused me to have a near blackout on the plane ride back to ATL. So, I went to the hospital when I got off the plane. The hospital did not give me enough iv fluids,  electrolytes or minerals and so my heart went into atrial fibulation (irregular heartbeat). This caused me to become very weak and tired. When tried to take my blood pressure we kept getting error messages (it was just that low) and my pulse was racing over 130. So, my mother made me go back to the ED (Emergency Department) even though I just wanted to rest in bed. But it is a good thing I did, because I learned how dangerous a-fib can be (it can lead to a stroke). The ED doctor at Emory immediately admitted me and gave me more iv fluids and meds to slow my heart down. My cardiologist had me do an echocardiogram and blood work which lead her to see I needed electrolytes and minerals (Magnesium and Potassium). Once my heart went back into normal rhythm for a period of time the doctor released me.

Needless to say, I will never eat Sushi again and will probably sip on one gatorade each day of the summer to ensure I have enough minerals and electrolytes in my system.

I'm 50 pounds down and it hasn't even been 5 months and if I were eating and exercising properly I know it would be more. I met with my old trainer this past week and he is amazed at how good my body is looking-no sagging or stretchmarks showing up. He told me I need to come back so that he can help me tone up because my muscles are to soft. I agree and am making plans to start with him this summer when I am on vacation from work for 8 weeks. I also got word that I am good to go with scheduling my final defense for my dissertation and graduating on June 20th. Wow! Next stop steady boyfriend, marriage, and a baby.....At least that's what I would like to happen and pray God says yes.

Whew! Oh my goodness family I am 199 and dropping. I have not weighed in the 100s since God knows when. But I'm here and I made it. Yeah!!!! I also had my three month checkup -Upper GI. Good report - no leaks!!!! Yeah!!! I did my bloodwork today with my PCP so we will see how that goes next week. He mentioned B12 shots, but hopefully the supplements I am using is enough.

What really let's me know I have lost about 40 pounds is that at work men are actually saying that they have noticed my weight loss and I am looking great. When a man notices weight loss, it is a big deal. The women noticed around 20 pounds ago. Funny how men and women are so different in the way our brain processes. Anyway, I'm doing good and getting used to eating slowly and chewing my food well. I just need to do better with my exercise plan. I've been preoccupied with my dissertation and the move into my parents house. But still there is no excuse. I have to do better.

I am so amazed how this sleeve is working. I am losing weight daily. I am now 204 and counting down. I simply do not eat as much as I used to and it proves that that was my big problem. I just can't believe this. I think that my making some changes to what I was eating really helped me in this recent spurt. My goal was to give my stomach a break since it had been feeling a little achy when I ate to fast and brought the food back up. So I decided to do what the nurse said do, always go back to liquids when feeling not so well. So then I focused more on liquid proteins and less on carbs. I started with either a protein infused broth for breakfast or lunch and a smoothie for either breakfast or lunch and then a dinner with a few carbs but protein concentrated - mexican or german type meals. Whatever the case, I am losing weight and I'm about to hit the 100's, a place I have not seen in  a little under a decade. Woo who!!

I have not posted in a while. I have been so busy with work and my students and life....But I did want to post that I am feeling 100% and am still losing weight inspite of my efforts to come close to sabotaging my efforts. I won't go into details but let's just say I have not been following my plan as I stated I would. I have been too tired to exercise after work, but thankfully my sleeve is working for me. I simply cannot each as much as I used to and know I am almost close to being under 200 pounds. Today I weighed myself after eating dinner and I was 209, which means I have lost at least 29 pounds and more like 33 poounds from my all time high. So yes, I am glad I did this surgery and have no regrets. the biggest lesson learned so far, is that I cannot rush my food down or it will rush its way back up. That's it for now.

Simply put - I hate food. I am so tired of eating. That sounds so weird right? But with this new sleeve comes new lessons. I am worried about not getting enough water in between my meals. I'm trying to make this sleeve work the right way, but eating is really becoming a problem. I can't find anything that I like eating. I'ts like I used to enjoy and savor the tastes, but now I eat because I have to so that I do not get sick and so I can loose weight. But I end up throwing away so much food because i just don't like anything I try except for this mango smoothie by Mix 1 from Whole Foods. That tastes really good. But other than that nothing tastes like it used it and I get tired of having to eat. Most things are becoming too sweet-even the smoothie mix by unjury, which I thought would work well for me, but it just tastes to darn sweet and I'm not usually in the mood to deal with that taste. This is all new and different for me. Who would have thought I'd be so picky with eating. Even the television commericals that used to get my appetite all worked up are no longer appealing to me anymore. Something is definitely happening. I'm not sure where I'm going with all of this, but I do know that I need to eat. I'm actually thinking of trying baby food next. I wonder if this is a normal stage and if it will ever go away.
On the plus side, since i have been eating just 3 times a day and waiting 90 minutes to drink after my meals, my stall has come to an end and the scale is once again going down.