4 Months Post-Op Today!

Today I am 120 days post op.  Hard to believe it's been 4 months already, where does the time go?  Friday was a very happy day....I'm down 4 pounds to 195 pounds!  I am quite pleased with the amount that I have lost, a total of 65 pounds, but I am still in disbelief, if that makes sense?  I see the numbers on the scale going down, the clothes getting smaller and hear the compliments from people noticing, but when I look at myself in the mirror I don't really see the changes.  Kinda frustrating.

Hair loss.  Yup, I noticed it about a week ago.  When I'm conditioning my hair in the shower and run my hand through my hair, it's like I've just pet Chewbacca, lol.  I knew it was coming so I'm not overly surprised or upset.  It is most noticeable along my hairline on my forehead.  Ah well, what can ya do?  I'm taking my vitamins and getting my B12 shots (every 2 weeks now) and making sure I hit 80 grams of protein each day, which is still hard to do.  I have really plan out my eating and drinking timeline for the day.

For those of you that are wondering what I am eating, 4 months out, it's pretty simple things.  Breakfast is typically fat free greek yogurt with fruit, either raspberries or 1/4 banana.  For lunch or dinner I will have a Stouffer's Meatloaf & Mashed potatoes (2 meals for me) or 2 oz chicken breast with 2 tablespoons spaghetti sauce and 1 tbsp shredded parmesan cheese.....for the past several weeks.  Yes, I'm a creature of habit.  Plus, it's just so easy to eat these things.  Not a lot of prep involved.  I've recently started experimenting with pre-made protein drinks since I still find the powdered protein a touchy thing.  It's been great for drinking at home, but to take it to work and make it is a whole different story.  It doesn't mix as well resulting in "chunkies" which make me gag.  I'll let you know how my search goes.  Protein powders/drinks are essential to getting in enough protein each day, so I keep plugging along trying to find ones that work.

A note to my followers:  THANK YOU for your virtual support, it means a lot to me.  :)  I'm glad you're here.  THANK YOU!!!!!

ONEderland!

Yup, that's right ladies and gents!!!!  I hit ONEderland this morning.  It feels hella surreal, but good.  At first I thought I had read the scale wrong.  My solution?  Go back to bed.  I went back to bed and slept for another few hours then got up again.  I had a face-off with the scale (I hate you, you hate me....) then climbed on....yup, 199 lbs, 111 days post op, total loss: 62 pounds.  Wow.  I'm trying to think when I was last in ONEderland.....it must have been in 2006 - 5 years ago.  Feels good.

Stats and a Surprise

I decided to keep a running "tab" of my stats in my dayplanner so I can see everything all at once.  Here are my stats so far:

Start Weight: 261 lbs
25 July 2011: 240 lbs (-21 lbs)
05 Aug 2011: 230 lbs (-10 lbs for a total of -31 lbs)
12 Aug 2011: 225 lbs (-5 lbs for a total of -36 lbs)
10 Aug 2011: 231 lbs (+6 lbs - UGH, PMS)
26 Aug 2011: 227.5 lbs (-3.5 lbs)
02 Sept 2011: 220 lbs (-7.5 lbs for a total of -41 lbs)
05 Sept 2011: 215 lbs (-5 lbs for a total of -46 lbs)
23 Sept 2011: 210 lbs (-5 lbs for a total of -51 lbs)
07 Oct 2011: 205 lbs (-5 lbs for a total of -56 lbs)
14 Oct 2011: 201 lbs (-4 lbs for a total of -60 lbs)

SURPRISE!  So, those work pants I bought a few weeks ago, the XL ones, are already baggy!!!!!!!!  I noticed when I got ready for work this morning there was a little more room in the stomach/thigh area.  Yup, feels good!  That's all.

Yayyyyy, no plateau!!!!

My "Triple 0"

Well, not yet.  BUT, after cutting out sugar and cream from my tea and coffee this past week, my weight loss went from a measly 2.5 pounds to a 4 pound loss.  Amazing that tea and sugar can do that much damage.  I replaced my brown sugar cubes which I usually use 1-2 in my coffee, sometimes one in my tea, depending on what kind of tea I am drinking, with liquid Sugar Twin.  It's a beauty, it really is.  I call it the "triple - 0" since the calorie/sugar/carbs count is all zero.  Plus, I don't notice the taste difference, if any, so it's a straight out bonus.  For cream, I just started using 1% milk.  It has obviously cut the calories out since I use enough creamer/milk to make my coffee a "tan" color, however, the taste is definitely NOT the same at all.  It's "do-able" but nothing to get excited over.  I picked up a fat-free coffee creamer while grocery shopping today, so we'll see how that tastes tomorrow.  I also bought a bunch of flavored teas - cinnamon apple, cranberry apple and some jasmine tea (one of my favorites).  I'm trying to get off the coffee.  Wish me luck, LOL.

So, here I am, 2 pounds away from ONEderland.  I am determined to lose those 2 pounds come next friday, dammit.  I don't want to plateau yet, or ever for that matter, which is unrealistic, but please!  Plateau gods, please wait until I'm at least in ONEderland.  I am going to keep pushing ahead following my coffee/tea requirements that I have established for myself for this upcoming week.  My slightly unrealistic goal would be to get down to 196 pounds (5 pound loss), but with things starting to slow a bit (I'm sure a plateau is near) I would be happy with getting down to 198 pounds.  It's still too early for me to tell if my weight loss has been hampered by the sugar/cream calories or if this is just the natural progression of the plateau (no one is immune to it my friends) or if I just really need to start getting some cardio/weights back into the mix OR, if there is some sort of mix of all things.  I'm sure the exercise is a big portion of it, either way.  I have found some resistance bands that I really like but will be ordering off the web next pay-day and I also discovered an at home work out with resistance bands in the "Oxygen" mag that I read.  So, yeah, I'm pretty excited to start trying that workout with my resistance bands when I get them.

I am still adjusting to my new job working between two new facilities; actually, I am learning four new jobs between two new facilities with different hours, so I am not sure if I am going to make it two the gym this week.  Going to the gym has been right at the forefront of my mind, like a rash on one's ass.  I know it's there, I haven't forgotten it's there and I'm sure as hell wanting to soothe it.  I have two more weeks of scheduled training and then another three weeks after that point where I feel I need it.  So, my schedule is going to be out of whack for another four to five weeks at least.  I'm going to try though...I'm sooooo close!

A Mix of Things

I know my American friends won't be celebrating for a while yet, but I hope all my Canadian friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday.  Mine was great and went on without any problems.  I was a little worried about it, but not because of gorging, self control or anything like that.  I was worried about the comments on the small, very small, plate that I ate off of in comparison to everyone else's.  As I have mentioned before, not everyone in my family knows and there are reasons for that.  I don't trust all in my family not to say anything and I sure as hell didn't went Thanksgiving to be the day where I sat at the table and explained myself to everyone.  Anyhow, thankfully, it was ok.  I eyeballed my portions and one family member raised her eyebrows about my plate but I simply said to her, "it's all I need", and she shrugged her shoulders.  That was the end of that.  I guess she figured I was on "another diet".

I have this really neat App for my iPhone, Target Weight, which I have been using to keep track of my weight loss. When I entered in my new weight a few days ago, it calculated that if I continue to lose weight at the same rate, I should be at my goal by 28 Feb 2012 (my goal is 120 pounds).  That got me really excited because I was giving myself 16 months to get to my goal weight.  With that being said, do I think I will be at my goal weight at the end of February?  No, I do not.  I spent some time earlier this evening looking over my numbers and I have noticed that over the past 32 days, I have only lost an average of 2.5 pounds per week.  Before it was an average of 5 pounds per week.  That realization was like someone gave me a good punch to the face.  Deep down inside, I have doubts that I will fail too at this, that somehow I will screw things up.  To see the numbers on paper makes me feel sick.  I think I am heading for a plateau soon and that really sucks.  I am only 6 pounds away from ONEderland and now I'm gonna hit a plateau?!  *sigh*  I knew it was coming, but I was really hoping and thinking that it wouldn't occur until after ONEderland.  Anyhow, after this disturbing discovery and my initial intense thoughts of failure (it's hard to get out of this mindset when it is all you have known) I had to do research online and on my stomping grounds, gastricsleeve.com, to realize that this is a normal, expected part of the journey.  It just sucks.  Big time.  BIG TIME.

I decided to prowl through another app, Lose It!, where I have recorded what I've been eating and drinking since the end of July to see if there was anything in there that could otherwise explain this apparent decrease in weight loss besides a plateau.  I noticed that I have been drinking increasing amounts of coffee over the same period of time and I do, unfortunately, add sugar and cream to my coffee (old habits die hard!).  As of tomorrow, that's going to stop.  I bought 1% milk, sugar twin and stocked up on my favorite herbal tea today. We'll see if this helps anything.  I am determined to hit ONEderland before I start plateauing dammit!!!!  My goal is to get to 200 pounds by friday, a 5 pound loss.  

Life is Good

Yesterday I couldn't wait to weigh myself, I was so curious to know if I'd lost any more weight. I have. I am 205, only 6 pounds from ONEderland. I am so freaking excited right now.

Also, I had bought some new work clothes last week and didn't have a lot of time to try everything on, so I just grabbed my normal sizes - 2XL for tops and bottoms. On the weekend I tried on all my outfits to make sure everything fit ok and they were all too big. So I ended up going back to the store and exchanging all of my pants for "only" XL. I ended up keping the tops the same (2XL) since I usually end up wearing long sleeved shirts underneath even though I can fit into an XL top....it is just a little snug.