3 1/2 Month Update

Feb 21, 2009

3 1/2 months post op and officially down 70 pounds!  How amazing is that?  Life after gastric bypass surgery is definitely feeling more and more normal as the time passes.  Life after surgery has certainly been kind to me.   I'm having a great time with finding/creating new recipes and I feel like I eat a great variety of delicious food.  My tastes have changed a bit since surgery....the most significiant changes in tastes are that I now really enjoy eating fruit (pre-op I was never really a fruit person) and have a bit of an aversion to some meats (white meat poultry, some beef).  I have a theory that my brain is somehow telling me that the meats are gross because it knows that my stomach won't be able to  handle them.  I'm able to tolerate salads and fresh vegetables....they're great "treats" once I've finished my protein. 

I now use "the daily plate" to track my food...I'm kind of obsessed with it...but in a good way.  Tracking my food and getting to see the nutritonal info in everything that I eat has really  made me make better food choices.  Seeing the nutritional information of "restaurant" food had led me to the point where I'd rather pack a lunch or eat at home rather than eat out because I can usually make something 1. more healthy and 2. tastier than an "acceptable" item on a menu in a restaurant.  I never thought I'd see the day where I didn't get excited to eat out!  I was a huge fan of eating out pre op.  Don't get me wrong....I still eat out and enjoy it...its just not every day and I really try to balance out my food choices for the rest of the day (ie: eat a light dinner because I ate out at lunch, etc.) Case in point:  last Friday we were going to  Chick-fil-A for lunch.  I really wanted the chicken strips salad but once I saw the nutritional info, I decided against it.  By my standards the salad wasn't worth the calories/fat/sodium and I wound up picking the grilled chicken cool wrap with fat free honey mustard dressing.  I wound up eating  half of it....and it was pretty good.  I always check to see if the restaurant I'm going to has a website with nutritional information before I leave the house.  Being able to pick out what I'm going to eat ahead of time based on the nutritional information is great.  It really helps me make better choices. 

My clothing situation is getting more and more bleak as the weeks pass.  I've managed to go through all of my clothes and weed out everything that is too big....its A LOT of stuff.  The clothes that fit me are from 5 or 6 years ago when I lost 50 pounds on weight watchers.  I'm glad I kept some of that stuff but I know that it isn't going to last too long.  I'm going to need to get all new spring and summer clothes......which is exciting but worrisome because its so expensive.  I'm really going to have to look for sales and try and go to thrift shops. 

I'm getting self conscious about the jiggle in my stomach.  My skin is really starting to sag and hang and its pretty unsightly when I wear a t shirt.  I've been trying to wear more structured clothes to try and mask the jiggle.  I have a few blazer/jackets that have been life savers....a denim one, a black courduroy one, and an army green one....I've been wearing them like crazy.  When I was going through all of my clothes I came across a pair of size 26 denim bermuda shorts that I wore all the time over the summer.  I never realized until that moment that I was wearing a size 26...I always thought my biggest size was a 24.  Well, they look absolutely huge now....I put them on and they just fall to the floor....the don't even stay up!  I'm keeping them as my "before" pants since they're the biggest ones that I've ever had to wear. 

There are some beautiful pieces of clothing that I can't bear to give away yet....a few really nice dresses and some really nice professional attire.  I just left them hanging in the back of my closet.  One day I'll make peace with giving them away....but I want them to go to a good home....to someone who will love them as much as I did.  I was definitely NOT prepared for the emotions that came along with giving away the clothes that I adored and worked so hard to acquire to make myself look good on the outside while I felt like crap about myself on the inside.  When I weighed 306 pounds I made a conscious effort every single day to have on a great outfit that fit well along with coordinating jewelry/shoes/purse.  I made sure that my hair was always done and that I always had on make up.  I had to be sure that no one ever had an opportunity call me a slob, or messy, or unkempt.  It was as if being stylish made me less fat and more likely to be accepted.  

I had a little scare this week with a dramatic increase in heartburn and burping coupled with abdominal pains and diarrhea.  I prepared myself for the worst (gallbladder problems, stricture, ulcer, etc.) and called Bayview.  They wanted to see me the following day so when  I went to Bayview the NP felt that I had 2 different issues going on.  She said that the burping, nausea, heartburn was unrelated to the pains and diarrhea.  I had a low grade fever and she felt that I had a bit of a stomach bug.  She gave me a prescription protein pump inhibitor (Nexium) because my OTC Pepcid clearly wasn't cutting it with the heartburn.  Once I started taking the Nexium I felt back to normal in a day or so.  I am so thankful that my problem had an easy solution and that it wasn't a serious issue at all.  I've noticed in the past few weeks that my hair is thinning.  I started noticing that quite a bit of hair was coming out when I'd wash my hair....and then I looked at the back of my head in the mirror one day and noticed quite the baldish/sparse hair spot on the back of my head.  I got some good hairspray and have been poofing up the back in an attempt to hide it.  I suspect that only *I* know its there.  Regardless,  I started taking Biotin...we'll see if I have any results from it.

I'm still plugging away one day at a time.  My biggest challenges right now are: 1. Making smart choices when I want to snack in the evenings 2. Meeting and trying to exceed my daily fluid intake goals and 3.  Making myself get to the gym AT LEAST 4 days per week 4. Getting in each and every supplement every day (I developed a new organizational system to try and help)

Today I got labs drawn for the frist time since surgery......keeping my fingers crossed that all is well in that arena!

Thats all for now!

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