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I can't believe how the time has just flown.

This time last year I was laying on in the hospital, getting ready to say "night-night" for my 8am surgery to begin.

Later today, will be 1 year since I took the first steps out of my hospital bed and put myself on the path to better health. At the same time, one year later, I'll be enjoying a Turkey Day party at my Daughter's daycare, because I won't be secretly embarrassed to be seen by the other parents.

I have my health back, better self-esteem and am able to live my life more closely to how I've always envisioned I should be living it. To no longer be plagued by pain, physical challenges, needing to use the C-Pap or being Diabetic, is plenty enough to be thankful for.

As much as I have gained from losing, there is still work to be done.  I need to work on the head issues and self-esteem issues. I need to remember that my while my weight/body doesn't define who I am, I do deserve to take care of me in the way I take care of those I love.

This will all come one step-at-a-time -- just like the first steps from the recovery bed. It is all necessary for long-term success.

Thanks also to those who support and encourage all of us to be better than we already are.

"There is a voice inside which speaks and says: "This is the real me!"
William James - (1842-1910) American philosopher and psychologist

Last weekend I completed the Tour de PInk. It felt soooo good to be able to ride my bike. When I have experiences like that, I am so thankful I had the opportunity to not just have my life back, but to actually LIVE my life and be ACTIVE in my life. Best of all, I feel like I can be an honest role model for my Daughter. :)

Here are a couple pics!

Okay, last night I made my return to spin class. *applause*

I'm not sure I have mentioned just how great it feels to be able to do everything... but it does. It's simply amazing! Of course I have; silly me. Well, you'll have to hear it over, and over, and over again for a while!

I know I worked hard pre-op, but heck, any 300+ lb. person taking spin class does! This just feels different. It's like I can actually feel my body getting stronger. I did damn near every jump, hover run and sprint. For the first time back, that's pretty good.

I will say though, that after class I felt extremely weak, like I never had before. Luckily I was armed with a banana (a good glycemic replenishment), and I felt much better.

Tour de Pink, here I come! By the way, my new boss made a $100 donation! I was floored!!

I have been so fortunate in that I was able to seize the opportunity to have my life back. God, I'm so thankful for having the surgery.

Tonight I have a strength training session. Ever since we changed the way we're training (higher weight, 1 set of reps to failure) the weight has been coming off. I went almost 2 months without any change in pounds, but still lost inches.

The focus is now on building strength/muscle and cardio, just for the sake of cardio. Before I was doing more of a circuit training with the weight, monitoring my heart rate and recovery, so it was kind of like a cardio combo weight session. In any case, it's working!

At some point I'll have some prettied-up pictures -- I always think to take them before or after going to the gym!

Here are the measurements




The before pics are just hours before my surgery!

2007 OH Conference in Austin

This past weekend I had Hubby was nice enough to pull some extra "Daddy Duty" so that I could go attend the Obesity Help Conference in Austin. I love Austin, so I figured, if the conference was boring, at least I'd be in Austin -- a Win-win situation for me.

Luckily as it turned out, for the most part, the conference was pretty good (I do have some feedback for OH though). Lots of room for improvement, and rumor say that most conferences are 2 days, whereas Austin was just one. There were three things/people who really "hit" different spots for me. One was a post-op who described his story, the other was a Dr. MaryJo Rapini, a psychotherapist, and the emcee of the event Jackie Guerra. Of course props go to the others who were there donating their time, but I got the most from these three people.

With regard to my recent inner-conflict (or whatever the heck you call it) I decided I am going to get some help. There is that, as well as some other issues I have uncovered (which are not for sharing here), but need to be addressed with a professional. Dr. Rapini's no-nonsense attitude is exactly what I want from a therapist -- I don't want/need coddling. I need someone to candidly point me in the right direction. Make Sense?

I learned a lot about post-op plastics from Dr. Lomonaco; now I see why the post-ops love him. :) Okay, and it has to be said, he's pretty easy-on the eyes too. LOL He has a great attitude and seems very sincere in his efforts to help "restore normalcy" to a post-op's body. He has some really great ideas that support the post-op effort, that if they come to fruition, would be really helpful for full recovery.

Jeremy Gentile, the exercise physiologist from OH, was also there. He did a great presentation on fitness. I have to e-mail him to get the slide presentation, but he cited a lot of studies done with various bariatric patients and the results from doing cardio only, resistance training only and a combination of both. It was great stuff; unfortunately I think it might have been over the heads of most of the audience. I got to talk to him one-on-one about my fitness effort and got some pretty good information.

I can't say enough about Jackie Guerra though! I'll be honest, when first saw her face on OH, I was like, okay she looks familiar -- but I really couldn't place her. Then when I got to the conference, I heard about who she was and what she's done. Among other things, the was in the movie Selena, as was a friend of mine, and I totally forgot to ask her if she knew her!

Putting aside the fact that she's "famous", you can tell she is simply a good person -- she is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside! The way she talked to everyone at the conference left feeling you feeling like you made a friend. The way she just have one-on-one attention to those who wanted it. The way she showed empathy for those on their journey.... she was just beautiful! Overall she was very inspiring and so open about her own story, not to mention hilarious.

Currently she's devoting her time to the weigh loss surgery effort. She recently authored a book "Under Construction" which she was selling at the conference and the proceeds from conference sales are going to a fund to help others who need WLS and can't afford it. She also has a syndicated show on XM Radio (Air America, channel 167) , and in July will be focusing on WLS.

That's it... more later.

Well, I've hit -80 lbs., and my weight loss has screached to a halt it seems.  While the number on the scale doesn't change much, the inches are coming of.  I'm very happy that I take my measurements regularly; it's the only thing that keeps my sanity, I think.  It's nice to know that out of 227 lbs, 146 of it is lean muscle mass.  I've done the opposite of most post-ops, I've actually put on muscle instead of losing, which a accredit to my trainer.  If I keep going like this, I'm going to be the skinniest 170 lb woman on the face of the planet.  LOL

Can't give-up or give-in just because of a number.  I must not let a stupid number dictate my disposition for my day.   It just seems like it's been increasingly challenging for me, vs. my peers in my November 2006 group.  They seem to be hitting 100+ lbs. lost, and here I sit, struggling to say 80!  I know I've done everything right and continue to do so.  I just have the need to vent from time-to-time, because it's so frustrating.

I desperately need to update my pictures; I've been horrible with keeping my blog updated as well.