Let's Get Physical

With my crazy commute behind me, I have been able to work out more and with the gym across the street from me, I really have no excuse to not work out.  I try to keep it varied.  I go to AquaFit twice a week (my fave!) and I've added Zumba twice a week as well.  Two other days I either run on the treadmill or swim laps.  I will never be one of those people who live to go to the gym  It's just not going to happen.  I do make an attempt to get there 5-6 times a week.  It obviously helps with the weight loss, but it also is just good for overall health.  And on days like today, when I'm iced in and can't go anywhere, I ride my exercise bike.  There are some crazy people out there who are attempting to drive in this mess, but I'm not one of them.

Current Stats
Previous Weight: 217.8
Current Weight: 215.0
Lost: 2.8
Total pounds lost since 26 June 2013 (270):  55.0 

Back to Business

Ah, long time - no post.  To say I've been a little occupied would be an understatement.  Since Halloween I left my job in Boston, moved to Texas, completely unpacked and moved into my apartment (seriously, there are no unpacked boxes left), and started my new job on Monday.  Whew.  

So backing up a bit...on November 11 I got in the car with Jack and Kate and a few possessions and made the 28 hour drive to Texas, arriving on Wednesday morning.  As luck and the moving gods would have it, the moving truck arrived there when I did.  What followed was a bevy of unpacking and trips to Target.  I knew there was no way I was going to be able to start work the following Monday with a clear mind if I wasn't completely unpacked.  By Saturday evening, I was done.  Sunday I rested.  I got to visit with Jim and Billie-Jo and the kids.  We had a delicious lunch and I got lots of hugs from Jackson and Lila.  

I also made sure to get over to the gym across the street and sign back up.  I've been a few times already, predominantly to use the pool.  I've done laps and also taken an AquaFit class.  Oh how I love having a gym with a pool.  I'd love to go back to another class tonight after work, but I have a Board of Trustees meeting that I've been requested to attend.  AquaFit will have to wait until Saturday.  One of the bonuses of the move is that I have more time (and energy) to work out.  When I was taking the train to Boston for work I would leave the house at 6am and walk in the door close to 7pm.  When I would get home I just wanted to relax a bit, have dinner, and go to bed. I was only working out on weekends.  My commute is now 20-30 minutes.  I'm not so rushed in the morning and I have time to make it to classes at the gym that start at 6 or 7.

Current Stats
Previous Weight: 222.6
Current Weight: 217.8
Lost: 4.8
Total pounds lost since 26 June 2013 (270):  52.2 

October Posts

Hello All - for the month of October please follow me over at my other blog: http://nichole-longandwindingroad.blogspot.com/

For the last few years I have participated in a blog challenge - 31 for 21 in honor of Down Syndrome awareness month.  I already missed day one.  Shoot.  I'm hoping for 30/31 days.  Once October is done, I'll be back to posting updates about my weight loss surgery over here.

See you in November!

Shopping...In My Closet

 The most exciting aspect of being post-weightloss surgery at the moment is the incredible shopping I've been doing.  Shopping in my closet that is.  It's like I have a whole new wardrobe.  Clothes that I haven't worn since I started my new job last year.  Clothes I bought that didn't fit that I held on to for when I lost weight.  I think today is the first day that I've repeated an outfit in almost two weeks.  It feels wonderful.  I'm trying to wear as many things as I can before they don't fit anymore.  And by that I mean, before they're too big.  It's been a long time since I've been able to say that.

Current Stats
Previous Weight: 239.8
Current Weight: 233.6
Lost: 6.2
Total pounds lost since 26 June 2013 (270):  36.4

Home and Away

Eating during the week is easy.  Weekends are hard.  Eating while traveling is even harder.  During the week it's easy to plan and pre-pack my breakfast and lunch for work.  I have a good rotation of options that allow me to change the menu a bit every day so I don't get tired of eating the same thing over and over again.  Weekends are a little more difficult.  It's not so much what I eat, but when.  I've become one of those people who have to remember to eat.  Traveling?  You can't plan for where or when.  While I was in Charlotte this weekend I made some good choices and made sure to eat when I was supposed to.  I was only there for the weekend which made it a little more difficult.  If I was there for a week, I would have done a little shopping and bought a few of my staples, but for the 2 days I was there, it would have been a waste of money as I wouldn't have been able to bring the food back with me and I wouldn't have finished what I bought.  All in all, eating wise, the weekend was a success.  It was also fun to spend the weekend visiting family - there never seems to be enough hours.

Current Stats
Previous Weight: 243.2
Current Weight: 239.8
Total pounds lost since 26 June 2013 (270):  30.2

Normal Eating

In deciding to have the surgery, I had to come to grips with the fact that my eating habits would be different.  My eyes would always be bigger than my stomach.  As someone who loves to eat out, this is probably the hardest part.  Since the surgery, I have done well when I've gone out to eat.  I generally try to find something on the appetizer menu, which can be smaller on the plate and leave me thinking that I'm not leaving so much food behind or that I'm taking mass quantities of leftovers home.  I've only eaten out twice since the surgery, but both times went okay.  I'm good about skipping the bread and not drinking before the meal, leaving me with more room for my actual meal.  Because that's the heart of it - there just isn't room and after all of that recovery and the liquid diet and the soft foods, I refuse to do something that will impede my progress or worse, cause my stomach to expand and negate all the hard work of my surgeon (and me, post-op).  My stomach is about the size of a small banana, shaped kind of like it too, so I am truly limited as to how much food I can consume at any given time.  I'm weighing out my portions, I'm keeping a food journal, and I'm trying to get in exercise when I can.  

Current Stats
Previous Weight: 246.5
Current Weight: 243.2
Total pounds lost since 26 June 2013 (270):  26.8

With the Nutritionist

As part of my pre-op I had to meet with a nutritionist.  Now that I'm post-op, I still meet with the nutritionist. I have free lifetime access to the nutrition staff at Brigham.  My nutritionist is Meghan.  She's great.  We talk about any issues I'm having with food (I need to work on my pacing at dinner, I need to continually work to slow down my pace).  We also talk about what I'm eating and how much.  I showed her my food journal, which she said looked good.  I explained that I've had no tolerance issues, I seem to be digesting everything okay, including spicy foods.  

With that, she said that I could start incorporating regular food into my diet.  Yeah!  So I went all out last night and instead of having mashed potatoes with my turkey, I had beets.  I know, I live dangerously y'all.  I still need to be wary of rice and pasta, but I can start to eat just about everything else.

Current Stats
Previous Weight: 248
Current Weight: 246.5
Total pounds lost since 26 June 2013: 23.5

Back to Work

Last Monday I started back to work.  I'll admit, it was kind of bittersweet.  I was eager to get back to the office because I had so much to do, but after being away for 2.5 weeks, it was going to be hard to get back into the normal work routine.  I've been diligent about weighing my portions and packing my meals at night.  Since I leave the house so early in the morning, I generally wait until I get to the office to eat breakfast.  It's usually yogurt or oatmeal.  Lunches consist of tuna or some sliced turkey.  I'll have some sugar free pudding in the afternoon if I'm looking for something sweet.  All in all, the soft food diet is going okay.  I meet with the nutritionist on Friday.  I've been a good little do-bee and have been chronicling all of my meals in a food diary which I'll show her then.  The first week on soft food I didn't lose any weight - I was a little nervous.  Surely I hadn't plateaued yet, I was only 3 weeks post surgery.  But over the weekend the weight started to come down again which made me feel better.  

Current Stats
Previous Weight: 249.2
Current Weight: 248
Total pounds lost since 26 June 2013: 22

Food, Glorious Food

I had my post-op appointment with Doc on Tuesday.  It went well.  Everything looks good.  I was hoping he would let me go back to work on Wednesday, but no dice.  He said that they would prefer that I had a few days of eating solid foods in me before going back to work.  So I start back on Monday.  He also said I could start eating solid foods on Day 15 post-op.

Today was Day 15.  Hooray for solid food!  Not all solid foods mind you - I have a list of approved soft foods.  I'm so thrilled to be off the all-protein-drink diet that I don't mind that I have limited options for the next 3-6 weeks.  So what did I eat?  For breakfast I had 3oz of non-fat Greek yogurt.  I mixed a mashed banana and some sugar-free Torani Vanilla syrup into it.  The vanilla really gave it an extra kick.  I had a little bit of cottage cheese for a snack.  For lunch I had 2oz of tuna with a tsp of chipotle dressing and a half a container of sugar-free vanilla pudding.  Dinner was a half of a black bean burger with ketchup and mustard (no bun) and 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes.  Finally, for a snack I had a slice of American cheese and a slice of deli chicken.  With some subtle variations, this will be my diet for the next 3-6 weeks.  

Current Stats
Previous Weight: 252.6
Current Weight: 249.2

It's Been Awhile

It's been awhile - over a year.  And in that 15 or so months so much has happened.  I got a new job, I left Texas, and I returned to my hometown.  I also made a huge life decision once I got home.  A week and a half ago I had bariatric surgery.  When I made the decision I told some friends and they were all shocked.  They insisted I couldn't qualify for the surgery, I couldn't meet the criteria.  While flattering, I had to explain that I had struggled with my weigh since I was a teenager with varying degrees of success and more often than not, failure.  My body liked to hold on to the fat.  I also dressed well and was able to camouflage a bit.  However there were silent issues related to being overweight - like high blood pressure.  I was obviously not one of those people who could be fit and fat.  Losing weight is hard.  I am envious and in awe of those people who can lose weight on their own through good old fashioned diet and exercise.  

Starting my new job, I was looking over the health benefits and discovered that for qualifying individuals insurance would cover bariatric surgery.  I had already given this some thought and had done some research when I was in Texas.  This was not a fly by night decision.  After much consideration I decided on the sleeve gastrectomy.  I also decided to have the operation at Brigham & Women's in Boston.  I worked in one of the best medical cities in the country, why not put it to good use?  So why the sleeve?  Well, the idea of the lap band didn't sit well with me.  While I was fine with the doctor going in and removing a large portion of my stomach, I was less enamored with a foreign object taking up residence in my abdomen.  I had similar issues with the gastric bypass.  There was rerouting and what not there.  The sleeve seemed much more straightforward.  In removing that much of my stomach they would also be removing the part of the stomach that releases the hormone that alerts you to hunger. Bonus!  Since I felt like I was always hungry, this seemed to be a good option.

I did all my pre-op - doctor's appointments, nutrition appointments, a psych eval, a lot of reading.  All of which I passed.  Insurance gave the go ahead and on June 26, I had the operation.  I've never had surgery - not like this in any event.  You can't really compare having part of your stomach removed with having LASIK or having your wisdom teeth out.  I was nervous, but they put me under anesthesia and the next thing I knew I was in my room on the 15th floor with six small incisions on abdomen.  I spent the next two days sleeping, a lot.  I also attempted some water and some crystal light.  I was sore, but not in a lot of pain after that first day.  The worst was the nausea, which didn't really go away until halfway through the day after the surgery.  By Friday, I was ready to fly the coop.  I wanted out.  I dutifully drank my two protein drinks, kept them down, and was discharged late in the day.

I spent the next few days resting.  I watched a few Top Chef marathons until the urge to actually eat again kicked in and I realized I was torturing myself.  So I switched to Wimbledon and Mad Men (almost done with season 1).  The hard part now is the diet.  I call this part a diet because it is short term.  Protein drinks and sugar free liquids (crystal light, G2, water...).  That's all.  The first week was fine.  I had no desire to eat, so having Mom and Rich stop to get food on the way home from the hospital was nothing to me because I had zero appetite and zero interest in eating.  Around the one week mark, I got really tired of the protein drinks.  I keep going though.  I see my doctor on Tuesday and I am hoping at that point he gives me the all clear for the soft food stage of the diet.  It will be easier watching other people eat if I have my own food to eat as opposed to only being allowed protein drinks.  I know why I'm on them - my stomach and digestive tract are still healing.  I get that and I don't want to do anything to hinder that recovery.  I just want to eat real food.  There are a lot of things I'm able to eat on that stage so I won't feel deprived when others around me are eating.  Keep your fingers crossed that Doc gives me the okay on Tuesday.  I'm really looking forward to mashed potatoes.

So now that I'm eleven days out how am I doing?  Well, I feel great.  I've been up and moving well since the one week mark.  I can tell in my face that I've lost weight.  When I start getting dressed for work next week, I should be able to tell in my clothes as well.    This is my new journey - one with a smaller stomach and a new eating lifestyle ahead of me.  I'm excited as to where this will take me.

Stats
Pre-Surgery Weight: 270
Current Weight:  252.6