Melissa F.

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I just wrote a blog post about my 2 year journey!  Feel free to check it out!
www.wlstrusttheprocess.blogspot.com

Size 28/30 Lane Bryant Pants.  Size 12 now : )

 

Taken from my blog: www.wlstrusttheprocess.blogspot.com
16 month Before and After Pictures

  Here they are - 16 month before and after pictures! I did a collage style this time around to see the progression.  The top left is the night before surgery (1-5-10, 327 lbs), top right is 6 months (7-4-10, 244 lbs), bottom left is 1 year (1-6-11, 195 lbs) and the bottom right are the most recent 16 month pictures (5-5-11, 177 lbs).  My highest weight was 347 (picture also included) and my current weight is 177.  When I started this journey, my ultimate goal that I never wanted to say out loud to anyone was to get to 180 or below.  It seemed impossible at the time and that number was something I only saw during my junior year of high school.  Some days it's hard to remember those 170 pounds that I've lost, but after compiling these pics tonight - it really hit home.  I really do think learning to cook and trying new recipes has been a HUGE part of my success.  My number one supporter (my hubby Ryan) has helped me along every step of the way - I couldn't do it without him!!!

Picture of high weight (347 lbs, July 2009)

I'm laughing after typing that title - but today is a BIG day... today I am officially 'just' overweight (BMI of 29.6).  It's been 12 years since I've been here (junior year of high school) and it feels great.  My ultimate goal weight that I set for myself was 180 when I started this process.  Dr. Brader kept resetting my goal as I kept blowing by them : ) At one point, his goal for me was 188 and then in Jan. he reset it to 180.  As of today, I am officially 178.  Before and after pictures will be coming soon.  I've celebrated the day by spending time in the kitchen making 2 new recipes with a new one on the docket for dinner tonight.  To see those recipes, visit my blog at www.wlstrusttheprocess.blogspot.com

Thank you everyone for your support along the way - so excited!

Happy Easter Everyone!  Just made this recipe tonight and it was a big hit - wanted to share.  Would be perfect for warmer weather coming up.  The full recipe/post is on my blog:
www.wlstrusttheprocess.blogspot.com

Double Chocolate Filled Strawberries!

 
Ingredients:
24 large strawberries
1/4 cup (or 2 oz.) of Philadelphia 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1 cup cold skim milk, divided
1 pkg. (1 oz.) Jell-o White Chocolate Flavor Fat Free Sugar Free Instant Pudding
1 cup thawed light cool whip topping
10 drops of lemon juice
4 squares of Baker's bittersweet Chocolate
Other items needed: cup cake trays (24 total), zip lock bag and 24 cup cake liners

Directions:
1) Cut the stems off strawberries.  Cut "X" in bottom of each berry (this will be at the top); spread pieces apart to create opening in the center - try not to break any of the pieces off to leave the strawberry in tact.
2)Whisk cream cheese and 1/4 cup milk in medium bowl until well blended.  Gradually whisk in remaining milk. Add dry pudding mix; whisk 2 min. Stir in Cool Whip and add lemon juice.  Spoon into resealable plastic bag.
3) Cut small corner from bottom of bag; use to pipe filling into berries.  Melt chocolate in microwave (approx. 2 minutes for 4 squares) and drizzle over berries.  Chill in fridge for 15-30 minutes and serve!

Find this and other recipes on my blog at www.wlstrusttheprocess.blogspot.com

Omelets

  I've posted about this before, but we ended up having this again tonight and wanted to repost the idea because of how easy and how good it is.  Not to mention, it's loaded with protein and veggies!



Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp. of milk
• 3 pieces of crumbled turkey bacon (or other lean meat of your choice like thinly sliced ham)
• 1/4 cup of shredded cheese
• Additional Veggies: I add all sorts!  Tonight I added left over corn, yellow pepper, green pepper, mushrooms, green onions. I've added spinach, asparagus, tomatoes, black olives, yellow onion and other things before.  It's basically whatever is in your fridge!
• Seasoning adjusted to your taste (I like all spice seasoning)

Directions:
Beat 2 eggs in a small bowl.  Add milk and whisk together.  Add other ingredients in.  Season if you prefer.  Pour into microwave omelet maker and cook on high for 3 min. and 15 seconds.  Serve with slice of whole wheat toast and 2 extra strips of bacon.  Additional fruit also makes for a nice plate : )

New Blog posts are up with more recipes to come!  Check it out at www.wlstrusttheprocess.blogspot.com

Weekly Menu 3.0

  What brings you your sense of calm?  Is it veggin out in front of the tv, working out and hitting the treadmill, or maybe it's shopping mindlessly at the mall?  Well, I've tried all previously mentioned tactics and found that they offered some sort of immediate relief, but it wasn't long before I was feeling overwhelmed and out of energy again.  What has seemed to work with more of an impact for me is menu planning (and blogging of course ;).  And there you have it folks, I'm officially a NERD!
Hear me out though, there are valid reasons for this:

1. I get to use all of my planning skills to work within a budget, capitalize on ingredients that we already have and throw in a little creativity because we're trying new recipe items that we haven't tried before
2. It involves cutting coupons to get the best deals on the groceries that make the meal
3. Eating in is better on the budget than eating out (and trust me - we've tried the other way giving it a full run for the money!)
4. I have to care about nutrition or I'll end up right back where I started a few years ago
5. Nothing brings me a bigger sense of calm, especially after an insane day at work, to come home and know that our meals are planned - all ingredients are accounted for and on average, I know how much time it's going to take to whip up dinner.  Not I said planned, not pre-made or "easy out of bag".  We owe ourselves that 30-40 minutes to make a good dinner, right?  Lord knows, I give at least 30 minutes of my day to someone else every single day... I should be willing to do the same for myself and our family! 

Here's how I go about making our meal plan.

1. I take 2 week chunks and list out all evening activities (It's looking like our current menu will last us 3 weeks, hence the 3.0 post title).  Lately, there have been a ton of late nights with our work and school schedules.  I make special note of  those nights that we need leftovers or something easy.
2. I make a list of all protein based items we have in the house (checking the deep freeze is important)
3. I make a list of items we have that are going to expire or go bad in the next couple of weeks.
4. I look for recipes using the protein as the main ingredient.  I try to keep in mind what we have on hand and what items we'd need to buy.
5. I pull together a list of 20-24 possible recipes.  
6. Then I consult the cupboards to see what we have and what we don't.  This narrows the idea list down by about 4 or 5 each week.  My rule of thumb is that if I need more than 4 ingredients (assuming our cupboards are relatively full) then we don't do that recipe.
7. Run ideas by Ryan (this usually narrows down the list by at least another 5!)
8. Finally, I consult the coupon organizer to find out what has good deals and how to make our meal plan budget/waistline conscious.
9. Make a sub-menu for lunch and breakfast items to round out my grocery shopping list.  Again, consulting coupons and considering leftovers.

Taking a big leap of faith putting my hyper organized life out there... anyone else function like this?  I'm lucky that the person I married does, so all is good in our hood ; )  However organized I am - I still procrastinate with the best of them.

So this brings me to the end of my posting escapades from today...  Below is a list of what recipes I need to post (already made) and what recipes are coming (will post after this week when the cooking is done and before I tackle the new list!)

Recipes to post that we made this past week:

• Deconstructed Lasagna
• Turkey Meatloaf
• Chicken and cheese quesadilla
• Chicken Stir fry
• Pot Roast
• Breaded pork cutlets with asparagus
• Smothered Cheese burgers
• Beef and Cabbage Stew

Recipes planned for the next week and a half:

• Garlic Roast Pork with Sauteed Peppers
• Cuban Sandwiches
• Fettuccine with beef and mushroom ragu
• Tuna Melts
• Omelets
• Low Fat Chicken Enchiladas
• Grilled Chicken and Delicate Mustard Herb Sauce (the word delicate almost made me skip this recipe - I thought it sounded ridiculous!)
• BBQ Pork Sandwiches
• Sweet and Salty Pork Stir Fry
• Curried Chicken and Cauliflower Soup
• Soup with whole wheat rolls

Had a great week with 3 new recipes.  To see what we made and how we made it, check out the blog:
www.wlstrusttheprocess.blogspot.com

I've been cooking up a storm (and shopping up a storm too - with coupons of course!)  New recipes posted on the blog (9 in total) with at least 7 more coming in the next week or so.

www.wlstrusttheprocess.blogspot.com

Feel free to follow the blog or ask me to add you to my sender list - I'd be happy to do so!

1 Year pictures are here!

  Yesterday (Jan. 5, 2011) marked my 1 year anniversary of my surgery.  Tonight I went to support group and received my purple ribbon to signify more than 125 pounds lost.  I've had a really great experience  and all my hard work is paying off. Not sure I'm ready to be reflective quite yet (that usually happens on the weekend when I can think straight) but as they say - a picture is worth 1,000 words.  Okay, 4 pictures - but I think each one is worth it : )

Highest weight ever: 347 (to see me at 347, visit my first blog post)
Doctor Consult weight: 341 / Size 28 and 3x
Surgery weight: 326 (328 on hospital scale)
1 year weight: 195 / Size 14 and M/L

I have not been back to post on OH in a LONG time.  May, according to my profile.  I have been busy posting on my blog that I share with people outside of the WLS community (even though my blogs are usually related to something WLS).  The blog website is: www.wlstrusttheprocess.blogspot.com  I've recently have a couple of pre-ops from support group tell me how helpful it has been for them to look at the blog.  I thought sharing here might also help - I know this is one of the main places I came when I was pre-op and newly post-op.  Below is a post (copy and pasted) from about a week ago that I think sums up where I'm at.  I'm glad I wrote that when I did because this week when I weighed in, I saw a 1 infront of the 3 digit number.  This is the first time in over 12 years/senior year of high school that this has happened.  Knowing how goal oriented I am, I think I would have blown right past this HUGE milestone had I not had the time to reflect the week before on my blog about Thanking every version of ourselves.  This is long... fair warning =)

Happy Holidays everyone! ~Melissa

What is a blog and what is my story???

  I thought about this question on my way home tonight from a conference I'm attending.  What really is a blog?  I suppose it could serve many purposes.  Some professional (if you want it to go there), some purely personal and some even financial.  Clearly, my blog is no "get rich quick" scheme.  And, as a few of you have commented, it's not professional based on the content of my brief mentioning's of my professional life.  Instead, my blog is purely and utterly self indulgent.  This is the space that I go to when I feel like writing to my hearts content.  Do I have followers... yes! According to the side of my screen, I have 7 followers.  Hey, everyone has to start somewhere, right?  Actually, as much as I appreciate those 7, and yes - I do appreciate (and personally know) each and every one of you, it's just as important that I allow myself the time and space to capture my thoughts.  There are plenty of personal things that happen in my life that are not included in the blog.  And I'm fine with that.  This is not a bitching post, this is not my diary, and this is not my brain dump at the end of every day - this is instead, my story.  Whatever piece of that story I'm wanting to tell myself for the day.  Notice how I said myself?  Let me explain...

Today in a workshop at this conference, we learned about helping our clients and students by letting them author their own story.  This couldn't have been a better topic for me to listen to.  I needed to be surrounded by people today that are not in our business for the red tape, the correct political answer, or the "who has the appropriate title to do this job or meet with this client" mentality.  Today I listened to a very wise, and I hate to say it, but I'm going to - "seasoned", career counselor.  He has an amazing career, with a long and respected history.  He said many wonderful things, all things that I wish my hand was fast enough to capture while scribbling my notes in his 2 and a half hour session.  Two things I did scribble were:

"If everything goes as planned, you have no story". 
AND
"Find your pain, look for the hole in your heart, and it is there that you will find what made you strong enough to be you".

He also asked, what is your cliche message or tag line?  What saying do you find comfort in or buy into?  For me, it's "Everything Happens for a Reason" and/or "Trust the Process".  Now from what I gathered during his very informative talk, these two sayings I gravitate towards because of early issues of control I developed.  I probably find comfort in them because they allow me a quick escape to bring sense, logic and delusional control to whatever situation I am in.  I'm done self-diagnosing those for now, but plan to revisit why those 2 popped up immediately in my head when asked.  In another session we were asked, if you were any box of cereal on the shelf, what would you be and give 3 reasons why.  You're probably asking yourself - what the F do these career counselors do all day... but I promise there was a reason behind it.  That will most likely be the topic of a future post.  I did survey some friends, family and loved ones to get their opinions.  I'll report those to you all when the results are in.  Current front runner... Honey Bunches of Oats.

I'm going to divert for a moment, so just follow me...

The other night, I was asked to speak at our support group for WLS patients.  About 2/3rd's of the room was pre-op people or recent surgery people and the other 1/3rd was veterans.... yes, at 9+ months out we are considered veterans.  Anyway, the overall topic of the night was how to prepare, handle and survive the holidays.  I focused on a few messages.  One was: prepare yourself for the reality of only having control over YOUR expectations, not others.  So much about our WLS process is about controlling and managing our environment.  2 things I love spending my time on (controlling and managing ;).  I'm not sure I have this down yet, but it's worth talking about and helping others become aware of it.  We talked about food choices and judgments that come with that: "Can you REALLY eat that?" or "Do you eat anything "normal" anymore???"  Whatever those opinions, expectations or judgments might be - you can't control them.  All you can control is what your expectations are and how you handle whether or not your expectations are met.  Gone are the days of turning to food for comfort, answers or out of anger.  Welcome to the new world of voicing those concerns, opinions, thoughts and feelings AND knowing that you deserve to have every single one of those!

Another message, one that I feel was my most important was this:
Celebrate, honor and thank yourself.  Every version of yourself.  Because without all those versions, you wouldn't be who or where you are today. (I don't think I was this articulate when talking to the large group - but it was my intention to get this message across).

Starting to see the full circle, Oprah "aha" moment that I had today at the conference???  Either way, keep reading... I appreciate it ;)

So many times, my friends from WLS group or those that I hear speak up say they are working so hard to leave that old person in the past.  To get rid of their bat wings (flabby arms) or rid themselves of the tire (the soft doughy section of flab that will just not leave).  This is hard for me to hear.  I guess we all got to where we are in different ways and each need to come to terms with that in our own way.  I would never want someone to LIVE in the past by dwelling, but what I would hope and want for people is that they RESPECT the past.  And by past, I mean ourselves.

If you're anything like me, you remember your life phases, stages and milestones by the outfits that you were wearing.  For example: 7th grade band concert, long red pleated formal dress with lace collar.  I believe mom bought me the blue one (exact same) just to make sure I had 2 dresses that were extra fabulous - and I did LOVE those dresses.  How about the green silk shirt in my sixth grade picture?,  Oh picture day, a day that we all knew was going to be captured forever and would be a daily reminder of who we were on that day as we had to use our school ID every day for the next year.  Moving onto high school, my size 16 denim shorts and size XL coral button down top that I wore to a bowling alley my senior year from New York and Company.  Memorable because it's one of the last things I remember buying from a "regular" store.  If Carley is reading this, she might remember the coveted pair of Calvin Klein denim overalls from VonMaur.  Oh, those were downright amazing.  I'm sure they'd be like today's ugg boots.  Something where knock-offs are just not the same, but you wear them long past their due date.  In fact, I think mine got chub-rub holes in the thighs. And that my friends, was a sad day... 

I'm at a place in my life where both personally and professionally I need to start authoring my own story.  I need to reflect on the past and put a voice to the future.  I have a goal that this next year will be a year of reflection.  I plan to tackle this by making a list of goals (Because I make LISTS dammit!) and whatever during the upcoming year doesn't relate to or affect those goals - I'm going to let roll.  PS - I'm not ashamed of those lists.  It's how I function, it's part of my "story".  I promise not to go on and on through the blog about my story.  What I can say is, I'll mention it.  I'll mention my goals to help keep me accountable to my cyber friends.  I'll reflect on the process - because as the title of this blog says, it's all about trusting the process.  And finally, I'll be truly and utterly self indulgent (in the blog).  It is only then, that I'll be able to become comfortable with myself and my story - whatever piece of that story I feel like sharing with myself on that day.

So in closing of this "novel" - something I could have continued writing for hours - I leave you with a picture.  A picture that I would like to say THANK YOU to.  This picture represents a version of me that makes me who I am today.  It also represents all of those hard years I spent working towards that version of myself.  And it was hard work.  It's hard work for any of us to be us - we all have a story, and we all deserve to tell ourselves that story - any (self-indulgent and well deserved) day.

Picture Day: June 2, 2009.  I will always have my school ID to look at and say THANK YOU even when the mirror no longer looks like this.