Pictures

Here are the 6 month pictures, along with comparisons to preop and 3 months.  The last picture is my pre-op jeans compared to the jeans I wore today.

 

And the pants:

Halfway there!!!

FINALLY!  I reached my (revised) 6 month goal.  This morning my scale read 255, which means I am down 95 lbs AND I am halfway to goal. 

Yesterday afternoon, I looked up the dates for Dr. M.’s seminars and found out that there was one last night.  Since Eric was home with the kids, I decided to go ahead and go.  I took a couple of my before pictures with me.  Dr. M was really happy I came and after he gave his presentation, he had me come up and talk and answer questions.

First, I passed around my pictures because I wanted people to know that I am a real person.  You could really put anybody up there and say, oh look she’s lost 90+ lbs.  I gave a quick version of my story and then answered questions for over an hour.  The seminar was long.  The doctor talked for about an hour.  It was a really big crowd (at least twice as many as the seminar I went to) and lots of people asked multiple questions.  However, there were people who just got up and left in the middle of him speaking and even more while I was speaking.  I wasn’t offendedthat they left, but people have to realize, this is LIFE CHANGING.  If you can’t sit through a seminar to learn about this for 2 hours of your life, maybe you really aren’t ready to have surgery.  I think that people need to be fully informed about this.  I don’t know–it was just something that kind of bothered me about the whole thing.  I think too many people think this is some easy road, that you’ll just lose weight without even thinking about it or without changing your life.  It isn’t that at all.  It is just a tool.  Every pound that I’ve lost has been earned, band or not.

Tonight I have the support group.  I’ve decided that I’m not going to be bitchy (which I have a tendency towards LOL), but if anybody starts freaking out the newbies, I’m going to set it straight. 

Pictures coming soon.  Probably tomorrow since I have the group tonight.  I took a set of pictures this morning–the before and now clothes.  I got the idea from some people on Lap Band Talk.  I put the clothes that I’m wearing today on the ones I wore before surgery.  I will post those with the pictures of me.

Saw the doctor today

I saw Dr. M. for my 6 month post-op check up today.  He walked in and said, “Wow, look at you!”  I lost 18 lbs since my last visit 6 weeks ago and he’s very pleased with my pace.  I told him that I feel great, my hunger/food intake is right where I want it, and everything is going great.  He said that he didn’t think I needed an adjustment and I told him, no, this is great.  I asked him what he had set as his goal for me and he said between 105-150 lbs lost, hoping for the higher end of the scale on that.  I told him that I’d set my own goal of -190 lbs and he thinks that is very possible, especially with where I am now.

The highlight of the visit was that he asked me if I would like to come speak at a seminar!  He said that I am already a success story and he would love to have me come and tell my story and answer questions.  He also said to make sure to give him before and after pictures.  He has a bunch of others on his website.  He didn’t say, ok come to the seminar on this date, so I’m not really sure if I should just show up at one or what.  LOL

Well, that’s it.  Things are getting hectic with school just starting and all that.  I sent my baby off to her first day of kindergarten last week.  My big guy started second grade too.  I feel old!

Tomorrow is my 6 month bandiversary so pictures will be coming soon.

90 pounds down…

Only 100 pounds to go.  Or about that.

As of this morning, I am at 260 exactly.  That’s -90 lbs in less than 6 months.  I don’t know that I’ll be able to pull off losing 10 more pounds in 2 weeks, but I’m going to try.  If I can at least say I’m halfway to goal (95 lbs), I’ll be happy.

I have been thinking about my goal a lot lately.  I know that I want to be in the 100s, but I don’t think I can really say at this point where exactly I want to be.  My body is a lot different now than it was when I was 260 before.  At that point, I wore a size 24 pants and a 3x shirt.  Right now, my 22s are getting loose and my 2x shirts are baggy.  Even my shoes are getting too big!  How bizarre.  So, it may end up that I decide I am happy with 180 or 170 or 160 or even 150.  I can’t imagine I’ll want to be lower than 160, but I really don’t know.  Judging by my past, and where I’d like to get back to, approximately 160 fits.

Forgot to add

I forgot to add a couple of other tidbits about my doctor appointment yesterday.  Prior to surgery, I had mildly high blood pressure, running about 140/90 or so usually.  Yesterday, it was 102/70.  My pulse rate was always really high before, usually around 95-105 beats per minute.  Yesterday, it ran around 70.  It is kind of weird that these things are so normal already because when I was previously at this weight, I had those problems.  I guess eating better and exercising help.  Or my body is just so freaking relieved to not be carrying around all that extra weight.

I also saw my new primary care doctor last week.  I’d intended to go back to my old one, who is Eric’s PCP, but he was out of town so we saw his new partner.  I really liked her, plus she was trained by Dr. M. when she got out of medical school!  She ordered a bunch of bloodwork, just to make sure everything looks ok.  Among other things, B12, iron, cholesterol, etc.  The office called yesterday and everything is normal!  I’ve never had high cholesterol in the past though.  The first time I saw Eric’s PCP, back in 2005, he told me, “I bet you have high cholesterol or diabetes or something.”  Idiot.  He called me himself when the results were in and told me that my cholesterol was perfect–he sounded so surprised.  And people wonder why I hate most doctors.  Hopefully things work out with Dr. B.  I’m tired of not having a primary and going to urgent care when I’m sick or whatever. 

I totally flaked out on exercising yesterday.  That was the first time since I started Spark People.  It was my last day of vacation, though.  I just wanted to relax.  I am going to walk today to make up for it, though.  I don’t usually do cardio on Tuesdays, but I’ll walk and do my strength training today. 

I have been starving lately, especially at night.  I’m not sure if I need another adjustment or if it is from exercising.  After I workout, I HAVE to eat.  I think part of it is stress.  No matter what I try to do to fight it, when I get stressed, I want to eat.  Blah.  We have some school crap going on with Christian (they have assigned him into a class that will NOT fit with his needs).  I called the school yesterday and I am waiting for someone to call me back.  It makes me anxious…I don’t want to be THAT mom–the bitch–but I will fight for what my child needs.  Damn them for making me want to eat ice cream and cookies and Snickers bars.  I haven’t eaten that stuff, it isn’t in the house, but damnit I want to!  LOL

Wow…just wow…

Today I met with a new pulmonologist.  In anticipation of this appointment, I had requested the report for my sleep study that was done last October.  I’d read it and knew it wasn’t good.  There were something like 489 apnea episodes in about 3 hours and 15 minutes without cpap.  There was also something called (I think) the apnea-hypopnea index.  The nurse practitioner explained that 1-5 is normal, 5-15 is mild apnea, 15-30 is moderate, and anything over 30 is severe.  Mine was 182.  :-O 

Because of the former severity of my sleep apnea, they don’t want to do a sleep study now.  The doctor thinks when I get closer to 200 lbs, the apnea will be resolved.  Right now, though, the pressure feels too strong and I’m not feeling rested.  I will have an auto titration study done, where I will get a new machine that will have variable pressure throughout the night and they can determine what pressure I need now. 

I can’t believe how bad the sleep apnea was before.  That was a real eye-opener.  Thank God for my Lap Band!

What plateau?!

Well, this week I have broken my plateau in a BIG way.  I lost 5 lbs this week, going from 267 to 262.  Woohoo!!  It’s weird, I have been SO hungry all week, probably partially from exercising and partially from being off work all week.  I haven’t been home much, but definitely more than usual.  I go back to work on Tuesday so we’ll see if the hunger continues.

I’ve been a little more creative with my cardio this week.  Monday, I walked the track at our local high school in 100 degree weather.  Wednesday, Eric and I did the 2 mile Walk Away the Pounds DVD.  Yesterday, we took the kids to a local parm/farm, Grant’s Farm.  We parked down the road (free! lol) and walked about 1/4 mile or so to get into the park and then back to the car, plus all the walking we did while we were there.  I got a pedometer and wore it the whole time and it logged 1.44 miles.  I’m not sure how accurate it is because today I wore it at Wal-Mart and Target and it logged 16 steps.  LOL  Weird.  I am supposed to do cardio today, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do.  I want to go to the track after Eric gets home, but it looks like it might rain.  If so, I guess we’ll do WATP again.  I viewed a couple of SparkPeople cardio videos and, well…not yet. LOL

Last night, my arm was tense and I was rubbing it and thought, wow my arms feel muscular.  LOL  My shoulders and biceps seem to be developing nicely.  Calves too. 

Here is a picture of the four of us at Grant’s Farm yesterday:

Not the usual progress

Well, this has been a weird week.  For the last week, since last SUNDAY, I have been the exact same weight, within a few tenths of a pound.  I’ve been walking at work, moving up from about 1.5 miles to about 1.75 miles each time.  I walked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and today.  I met and actually exceeded my SparkPeople goals for the week.  I did my strengthening workout on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. 

Now the progress part.  Last night when I was getting ready for bed, I glanced at myself in the mirror and realized that I’m already getting better muscle definition.  My endurance is growing quickly.  I feel great after I exercise.  I don’t dread it, most of the time. 

My food intake is in check, too.  The scale has to give sometime soon.  I did my last measurements last Sunday.  I think I might do them again tomorrow to see if there is any progress there.  I’d really like to see some scale movement though.

Oh, that damn scale is playing with me too.  On Thursday, I stepped on it and the first reading was 262.2.  I thought, WHAT?!  Wednesday it was like 267.something.  So I got on it again and sure enough, 267.4.  Blah.  Stupid scale.

*Edited to add:  I went ahead and did some measurements today.  My waist went down 1.5 inches, hips 2 inches, my bigger upper stomach went down an inch, calves down an inch and upper arms down an inch.  WOW!