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AnaA

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  1. AnaA
    ONE YEAR AGO TODAY ... (Mmmm)
    I made a decision that changed my life. I decided to get weight loss surgery at the OCC. The decision was not made lightly. I researched Dr. Ortiz and surgeries in Mexico first I suppose out of curiosity. The lower price certainly led to that curiosity. I suppose somewhere in the fore front of my mind I had no intention of going to Mexico for surgery. (not because of the ignorant stories...) I just wanted to see what people said about the experience. And in the back of my mind, I knew my feelings about surgery in Mexico were just the same as my feelings about surgery in England. It made me uncomfortable to think of surgery in any other country but the US. And then I thought it through. Did I personally think Dr.s were better or worse depending on their country of origin? No. Then what were my concerns? That I have a good Dr. who knows what they are doing and operates in a top notch facility with staff who imbibe that high standard. Certainly I have had my share of uncaring burnt out Dr.'s with sincere medical limitations, alongside burnt out nurses who make big mistakes here, as has my Mom. And I have had good care here as well. So I just concentrated on the Dr., what the Dr. was like, what their facility was like, and what the staff were like and then I made comparisons to others in that field and that country and this one. And standing here, one year out, I am so amazed by Dr. Ortiz. THANK YOU DR. ORTIZ, bless your Mama for making you By the state of the art OCC facility, By the caring nursing staff (Thank you for comforting me), and by not only the amazing plication operation that they performed but also by the unique technique Dr. Ortiz has developed that creates this positive result. I love when I can look back on a decision that I have made one year out and smile with the satisfaction of knowing I done good.
    It has been an amazing ride. Worth saying twice. And for those of you new to this forum/blog who want to know what the journey has been like I have been blogging the entire year about it. This last week I have come away from my previous three month weight fluctuation (163-167) by returning to the simple clarity of tracking my calories and journaling about my relationship to food each day. And I learned that I was just taking in more than I needed to be. This having been said and altered has resulted in my return to weight loss. This morning I weighed in at 161. But it's not just the number. I feel really trim. My clothes fit fantastically. I am just 12 lbs away from my goal weight. I began Zumba 4 days ago and I have embarked upon a new journey to cook healthy gourmet foods, gourmet being the operative word. One of my dinners this past week consisted of a potato vegetable pancake with a slice of smoky flavored salmon with fresh rosemary and garlic. The entire meal was better than restaurant and under 300 calories. Post eating, I felt entirely satisfied and did not want anything else to eat. That is my goal. To eat that meaningfully all the time. To realize that taking a break from healthy eating is silly because it means eating junk. Why would I want to do that? And I realize that the key to all of this is gourmet. To do this in a way that I am eating more flavor packed sensuous foods than I have ever done before. To eat really well.
    I feel like this coming year I will be blogging here about my health journey through gourmet cooking, juicing, and dehydrated raw foods. Because I feel like my first year was about becoming healthy in measure to pounds which was necessary. Now, this next year will be about becoming healthy in relation to how I nourish my body, deliver it amazing flavors, and keep it active. I look foward to every post.
    To Year Two! :) :)
  2. AnaA
    Hello Fellow OCC'ers,
    Here I am 3 days into week 36 which for me ends this Friday 3/29.
    My last entry was at the end of my 6 month anniversary on week 26 January 18, 2013. After that, I decided to go off of my regimental OCC blogging, personal journaling, calorie tracking, way of being and merge myself back into a 'new regular' routine. I wanted to see what that would be like.
    What I found is much like what I saw posted in the forum. After 6 months I find myself losing and gaining the same 4 lbs. I fluctuate from 158 - 162 (In my after picture I am at 164). This is without counting calories, eating pretty much what I want (sans sugary stuff), having alcohol occasionally, etc.
    Overall, I feel really great. I have no complaints! I love being at this weight. I was at 221 and I have lost 60 lbs. It is amazing, this difference! I can wear really nice clothes, and feel great being out and about. I feel sexy. My restriction is fantastic, so portion control is STILL fabulous. I realize this has EVERYTHING to do with strictly adhering to the no eating or drinking within 1 hour of the other. I do. On 3 occasions I have lessened it to 40 minutes. So I guess what I’m saying is I’m discovering how to be flexible, what to allow and when, and how not to take advantage of that and stay in control.
    I have set an emergency weight for myself. It is 165. What that means is that while I am fluxing between 158-162 if for some reason I get up to 165, I will do a two week lean and green cleanse, or a juice cleanse, or a liquids cleanse. Hey, two weeks out of my life is WORTH not ballooning up to 221 which I will NEVER again do.
    I just love that going through this procedure with the OCC has taught me to control my weight, given me this thin life and given me fantastic tools like lean and green that thanks to fantastic restriction work for me and give me tools to fight possibly going in the other direction.
    I feel really happy that I have found this balance. My health is really good. I am good.
    Now that I have given myself this time to figure out how to ease back into life without journaling, etcetera, I am ready to enter a new phase. I will keep blogging for up to my first year so others can see if they want what the first year is like. But I will blog monthly instead of weekly.
    Also, I am just 13 little ole pounds away from my OCC set goal weight of 149 lbs. And while I'm totally happy here at 162, I am going to get down to 149 just to see what that looks like, and so that when I do my one year check up at the OCC I can go in there at goal or a tad lower.
    All this weight that I have lost so far has been without one single stitch of exercise. I know... terrible for me to admit that.. lol and I’m definitely not saying you should follow my lead. But I have just purchased ZUM BA!!!! And I am going to start working out and tightening up, sooooo, I will give myself until my 1 year anniversary, 4 more months, in July, to lose those additional 13 lbs. I got this. Because I'm only 13 lbs. away from goal, I have just posted a before and after picture of myself in the gallery. I figured i'm close enough to goal for all to see the huge difference the OCC has made in my life.
    Continued Success Everyone!
  3. AnaA
    Ok, this is my last blog entry of 2012! As such I think it merits positive reflection.
    Last year, I brought in the 2012 New Year weighing 221 lbs. I was wearing size 18/20 clothes. I was fat, the vein in my right thigh was throbbing and numbing up, and I felt sluggish, all around awful and was steadily heading to Diabetes in a pre-diabetic state. My health was bad, my spirits were low, I looked blah.
    This year, I am grateful for the changes that have occurred in my life since my plication at the OCC on July 20th. I began my pre-op diet at 221 lbs. I lost the 5% of my body weight necessary to do the procedure (a whole 15 lbs!) and entered the surgery room at 206 lbs. In the last 5 months and 8 days post-procedure, I have lost 44 pounds! Add to that the 15 lbs I lost pre-surgery, and I have lost a total of 59 lbs to date! I now wear size 9/10 jeans, HALF the size I was at 6 months ago! I have gone down 6 sizes of clothes and I feel great! I feel thin and feel very happy. I just went in for my physical check up and blood work last week and the Dr. was raving about my results! I am hundreds of miles away from pre-diabetes! My good cholesterol is UP! More than most adults, yessssss, and my bad cholesterol is way down. WOW! Everything was wonderful. I am in tip top shape! It just feels like such a blessing to bring in 2013 in this new healthy way. I feel proud of everything that I have accomplished and could NOT have done this without the plication as the most fantastic weight loss tool ever!
    I still get fantastic restriction. And if I ever feel that my restriction wasn't as tight at a meal, then I make sure the next meals to eat much lighter and that fantastic restriction returns. For me, I have finally learned that if you stretch something regularly, well, the natural response is stretching. But if you keep it in its current shape it stays that way. There are so many many lessons I have learned throughout this journey. I feel great when I look in the mirror and every single time I put on my skinny clothes! I never take that for granted anymore. This is the last time in my life I will have had to go through this weight loss journey so I give it the highest precedent in my life and honor it daily by eating smart.
    This week I have lost 1.4 lbs!! Yea! I am just 13 lbs away from my goal weight of 149 as set by the OCC! Under 20 lbs away from goal! And while I enter the new year weighing 162, Three pounds off from the 5's I was hoping for, it doesn't even matter really, because I know in a week or two, i'll be there.
    Happy 2013 Everyone!
    :) :)
  4. AnaA
    I'm super late at posting this. The holidays have been absolutely chaotic true to holiday form.
    I lost 1.2 pounds this week! Yea! better than the up 2 ozs and up 4 ozs the two previous weeks. I am happy enough with this and still feel like I have the chance at greeting the new year in, in the 5's. We shall see.
    To next week! (which due to late posting is tomorrow... lol.....)
  5. AnaA
    This is the second week in a row that I have gained weight. Last week I was up 2 ozs and this week I am up 4 ozs, so I have gained 6 ozs in 2 weeks which is not a major catastrophe, but means I am not losing. That part is yuck.
    I have still had the stomach flu this week. It feels like it's on its way out, but I have still had quite a bit of gas and bloat and other stomach nastiness. Also, for my birthday a week or 2 back I didn't get to celebrate so did that this past week. That consisted of going out with friends for drinks, 3 days this past week and i'm sure the alcohol stalled my metabolism.
    Because it's so easy to get caught up in the alcohol celebrations during the season, I am making sure that I do not drink again until New Years Eve. I would like to drop at least 4 lbs in the next 3 weeks, totally realistic. It would be great to start the year off in the 5's for 2013! I can do it!! And ofcourse, I loved that for my birthday I was over 50 lbs slimmer than last year's birthday, I dressed up and my man took me dancing. It was fantastic. I felt so petite in my little dress. Aahhhh. Here's to breaking 164 next week!
  6. AnaA
    Week 19 has been very positive. But it started out pretty scary. And because of that I had to get disciplined.
    After Thanksgiving for weigh in I was down 1 lb last week and happy about that. But I had pumpkin pie and cool whip for Thanksgiving on Thursday, 1 slice, then again Friday, 1 slice and Saturday, 1 slice. After having pumpkin pie and cool whip 3 days in a row I began to notice something startling! I started getting mental cravings and Sugar cravings!! I found myself thinking of having pie after I'd eaten it on Friday and counting down the minutes until I could have it on Saturday and then after eating it on Saturday feeling like I really needed to have just 1 more slice. But I did not. And I decided not to eat any on Sunday. Also, instead of my eating 3 times a day, I was snacking into the night, two separate times and I did this on Friday and Saturday. And even though my snack choices were healthy ones, I felt them going toward unhealthy things like salty tortilla chips. All mental cravings. The power of the sugar craving was strong and constantly on my mind, but I denied it. The mental cravings were more alarming in that I recognized eating sugar triggers a need to eat salt which was an old pattern of mine, candy or frosting and then salty chips. *GULP*
    Sugar cravings!!! *sigh* This is the problem I have with sugar. I was VERY disgusted with feeling like this. I knew that I needed to address this right away and discipline myself and get things under control before they got out of hand, because OOOH how easily they get out of hand. And I am not that woman anymore, the one who let's this get out of hand. The day of my surgery that all changed and I refuse to allow it back in.
    I wanted to get a handle on this ASAP so that in retrospect I could look back on this time and say, ok, don't eat sweets, even 1 slice 3 days in a row, not even 2 days in a row. Also, I wanted to handle this immediately so that I could look back on the end of week 18, (and Saturday and Sunday of week 19) and say, Ok, it got ugly, but you took charge, contained it, handled it and beat it! And I did.
    This is what I did to get back in charge.
    Beginning Monday 11/26, when I was back in my own home, my own kitchen (went away for 4 days during Thanksgiving) I made the conscious decision to cleanse the sugar out of my system. I remembered how FANTASTIC the OCC lean and green diet was for losing that 10% pre operative weight. I pulled out my Spiru-Tein protein powder, chocolate (it does not taste sugary), blender, bought broccoli, minestrone soup, and lean cuisine meals and I did the lean and green diet for 4 days, Monday - yesterday. (Actually, i'm still doing it today too). I lost 5 lbs this week as a result!!!! :) Not only did I lose 5 pounds of fat, but I cleansed all the sugar craving from my body and do not feel any need for it. I put myself in control of my health, I took charge and did not let pie undo me, and I weigh 164 lbs!! Wow! I will be in the 5's in no time! Just 15 lbs until I reach my goal weight. In the 4 months and 10 days since I had my plication, I have lost an astounding 57lbs, 25% of my body weight and I have proven that sugar will NEVER gain control of me again. I feel fabulously victorious! I WIN!
    ADDENDUM TO LEAN & GREEN:
    During my 5 days of lean and green (including today) I added prunes for obvious reasons, (I never miss a day of eating them) and from Tuesday - Today added 1/4 c. of almonds. It is delicious and nutritious. I slice 5 prunes into 1/4ths and added in the almonds and had a healthy organic trail mix with fantastic results.
    HEALTH BENEFIT BONUS OF PRUNES & ALMONDS:
    Prunes:
    Stimulating effect on bowel motility, helps to build and preserve bone mass, antioxidants found in prunes help to prevent oxidation of cholesterol in the blood stream which could lead to plaque formation in the arteries, the high potassium content in prunes helps to normalize blood pressure, while the soluble fiber promotes heart health, they are a great source of Vitamin A
    Almonds:
    Eating almonds as part of your regular diet helps raise HDL cholesterol, or "good" cholesterol, levels, and also reduces LDL cholesterol, or "bad" cholesterol, levels, they are high in potassium and low in sodium, both are factors that regulate blood pressure, fiber in almonds has a detoxifying effect, the fiber allows food to move through the digestive system more efficiently, cleansing the system and preventing colon cancer, Almonds also have a stabilizing effect on sugar and insulin levels after meals, offering protection from diabetes, they help with weight loss due to their nutrient density and have the effect of making you feel full and nourished, and therefore are less likely to have cravings and over eat, having four to five almonds every day will prevent constipation, they are high in fiber, and a diet that is high in fiber is an effective way to stay regular, they boost energy, reduce the risk of heart disease AND! almonds also contain phenylalanine, a brain-boosting chemical that aids healthy development of our cognitive functions
  7. AnaA

    End of Week 10 Post Plication

    By AnaA,

    Ok. Technically tomorrow (Friday) is the end of week 10 but I doubt anything super dramatic will happen from here to there. I gained 6 ounces this week and frankly, am surprised that's all i've gained. I am still in the same place I was last week. Menstrual cycle 15 days late now (not preggers, I checked), horrendous constipation, and a lot of gas. I think I might know what's going on. "MIGHT" i've been eating laughing cow cheese pretty regularly, on a daily basis sometimes 2 times a day and while calorically it's fine, i believe my intolerance to lactose is creeping in on me and asking, what gives?? I am ok to have some cheeses periodically, but I never had them daily, and without even thinking about it, have been having LC quite a bit, so I think my stomach said that is it. That and hubby and I ate something rotten last Friday and we have had terrible stomach issues all week. So, that said, i'm just really trying to push through this and know that the scale will move downward soon as all this is passed. I've omitted LC from my diet just to check. Looking forward to week 11...
    With Hope
  8. AnaA

    3 More Days . . . ! :)

    By AnaA,

    WOW!
    I am three days away from my 1 year anniversary! I had my plication procedure at the OCC on July 20, 2012. It has been the most amazing journey. I can not say enough positive things about the beautiful OCC (YOU changed my life! I changed MY LIFE!) and I am looking forward to going back for my 1 year post op follow up. I am going to prance, uh huh I said it, PRANCE in that door. (I will post when I schedule that, thinking mid Aug. and about the process.)
    SO from my last 2 posts you know that I have been trying since March (4 months ago..) to get some sort of exercise program going. (I did not exercise one lick through my entire post plication time, up to and including yesterday. NO, that's NOT bragging). I kept hearing it said over and over again, when you're thinking about incorporating activity, make sure it's something you ENJOY doing and you are over half way there. Truer words NEVER said. To that end, I bought my much sought after highly anticipated Zumba work out DVD's! And I could NOT wait to try them! Back in March. Only I did wait. There was so much in the way. I had some serious family crisis and my energy levels were just zapped and I was in a bit of a funk there for a bit too. WELL, this is where the power of friendship comes riding in on a beautiful brown horse to save the day!
    I had lunch with a good friend of mine yesterday. She started telling me about how she was really into and loved doing Zumba. Wow. I told her my story, and also confessed to her that after 1 year of utter inertia, I was afraid that I just no longer had what it took to be active. I'm 42. It was a concern. (Hubby and I used to jog 3-5 miles three times a week). She said that just wasn't the case. She was so beautifully matter of fact about it too! She said, look, you were active before and your body remembers that, so just start again and trust it to remember that. I felt really hopeful!
    Didn't realize Just. How. Much. This morning, I got up. I got dressed. I went to my zumba dvd's. I popped in the 60 minute zumba fitness basics and did that. I liked it. Then I did the zumba fitness 20 minute express because I was having SO MUCH FUN shaking it and dancing that I didn't want it to end. I popped in the Zumba Fitness Cardio Party after.. Aye! I did HALF of it! 25 minutes of bomb shaking booty and the biggest hip swiveling, shoulder shaking moooooves. WoW! WHHHHEWWW! After that 25 I knew it was time for me to stop. But wow, I honestly did not even realize that I had actually just worked out for 1 hour and 45 minutes because it was fuuuuuuunnnnnn! It's the first time in my life that I haven't had the usual post workout thoughts that go like this: "ok, I did it. there. job done. when should i go again? ok. day after tomorrow?" And then feeling like i'm rolling a boulder uphill when the day after comes... LOL Nope. With THIS, I'm going to hit THAT ritmo again tomorrow because I loooooove to dance cumbia's!!!! I've been dancing them with my Mom and Tia’s at house parties since I was little and I had no idea it was so intensive in the way they roll it out with Zumba. Those, the salsas, merengues, sambas. (I'm still uhm, ah, working out Reggaeton, I'd never done that before and it kicks my butt! lol but I love it).
    And I have to let those of you out there suffering with constipation bouts (like me!) in on a little something something. After my workout, I had some serious results in that arena as well. Movement is a great addition to the almonds and prunes and prune juice. I did not know. So there. I did it. I got over my hump in hip swaying shoulder shaking style. And I honor that it took me 3 days short of a year to get to the point that I honestly wanted to move my body. And now? I weighed in at 164.5 today. And I KNOW that this last 20 lbs I need to shed is as good as gone. It is a fore drawn conclusion. I'm not even bothered to know WHEN. It's as good as done because I am loving what I’ve just begun doing. Fun really is the key. And I can NOT wait to see how my body tones as a result. :) :) I'll be going to a wedding this weekend, and I can't wait to bust my moves!
  9. AnaA

    Nearly 1 year!

    By AnaA,

    Well,
    I am coming up on my one year plic-anniversary. It has been an amazing year. All told so far I have lost 56 lbs. I keep hovering around 165. I am still 16 lbs away from the ideal set for me at the clinic of 149. I had planned to begin zumba fitness and have yet to start!
    It has been a C H A O T I C time since I wrote in March. My family has gone through some huge crisis and that has enveloped much of my 'should have been productive' time. I am left feeling sort of physically drained, so no zumba yet.
    But every cloud has a silver lining and I can honestly say that I am amazed that I have not piled on 20 lbs during this time, which would HAVE been the outcome before plication. I have fluctuated from 163-167 during this time and am now at 165.
    I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel from this fam.-fiasco and now have to figure out how to realistically become active. A thing in motion stays in motion and all that. I think I need an excercise buddy. That would help.
    My restriction still feels pretty good. I have been having major issues with constipation again. This is pretty significant considering I eat a daily regiment of almonds and prunes which helps with that. I called my advice nurse and she said that I should drink warm prune juice, warm is the key apparently. I drink about 4-6 ozs. warmed in the microwave for a minute and then can get results within 20 - 30 minutes or so. I wish I could get on without having to do this while simultaneously being grateful at least there is something that works for me.
    I notice that my body seems to work better when I juice. I do ths every other week and it feels really good. I had previously juiced 5 days in a row, lost 5 lbs then put it back on right after, so I changed it up some. Now I juice twice a day for 3 days, eat a sensible meal (like lean and green but the juicing replaces the protein shakes and soup) and then for the next 4 days I juice for breakfast, have a protein shake for lunch and sensible dinner. This results in lasting weight loss which is the key here.
    I think that I need to start counting my calories again. Having gotten away from that for a time was nice, and I will at some point go without it again, but for now, I really need to track myself because of all the weight fluctuating and constipation.
    Ok. I will report back at one year! I will also be making my 1 year follow up appointment at the OCC soon, but likely it will be on or around mid-August because I have to save up for the follow up and the travel etc. etc.
    Happy Losing All
  10. AnaA
    WOW. What a month it's been! *6 Month Anniversary*
    I really got out of hand. My holiday eating threatened to undue me. It's really quite deceptive. When I look at my weight during this time, I see that i spent 3 weeks having gone up in ounces with the rest of the time not losing more than 1 lb. That's very different from other weeks. But what really did me in was convenience foods. I began to have GF pizza 3 times a week. I think somewhere in my mind I thought, since it's gluten free pizza it's healthier. I was definitely making that connection. It is a false one. Also I was having low calorie chips so that I could grab and go, a concept that's fine as long as you're not making the kind of choices I was. But what really helped do me in I feel was all the holiday alcohol consumption. It really did loosen my inhibitions and make me feel warm and relaxed so I wasn't worrying about how it's not the healthiest way to consume calories.
    I began to head crave. That is a nasty fiend I was sure i'd seen the back of. At 10pm at night I found myself thinking about what was in the refrigerator and having to fight myself not to get up and eat. THAT'S when I knew I was in trouble. Because that didn't just happen one night. It began to be a theme for weeks 24 and 25. I was in steep trouble. I knew that I had drank hot chocolate twice during those two weeks putting 2 teaspoons of sugar in each cup and I wondered if that was it? Sugar has and always will be my biggest problem. I just didn't think in that amount it could undue me?? I decided that to help myself I needed to educate myself. I went to the library and started to look for books on sugar. I could NOT believe it! That sh1t is in everything! Bread, chips, processed foods, sugary sugar sugar. The food industry has been ruthless about sugaring EVERYTHING! I never realize how prevalent it was. No wonder I lost my mind. I had 2 literal teaspoons of the drug, then was having it in pizza and chips. What an eye opener.
    And the education did not stop there. I was surfing the documentaries on netflix for something to watch last week. I came across one called Hungry For Change. The documentary exposes the secrets the diet, weight loss and food industries use to keep us addicted to dead food. (dead food is food with no nutritional value) It also defined "food products" which sadly, is not real food and is what most of us eat. The problem with it is that it just does not nurture our bodies. I never even realized until that film that we could simultaneously be over eating AND starving ourselves! WHAT?? Another great thing about this film is the way it draws correlations between eating, overeating, acceptance and inclusion among family and peers. Jeez. After watching that documentary I was really motivated to quit eating dead food and began to look for ways to get back on track.
    How I got my groove back:
    I acknowledged that I needed to detoxify my body and cleanse it out. I had heard a lot about chia seeds and found some great online information about the benefits of chia seeds and purchased a quantity. (this is just a sneak preview of chia seed benefits:) http://www.mychiasee...iaBenefits.html
    Then I remembered juicing. It was something that I had heard about and wanted to try 2 years ago! I had even purchased a juicer back then that remained untouched. Hubby broke the juicer out and I went to the library for some literature.
    I found a great book called "Detox For the Rest of Us: Safe and Easy Plans to Cleanse Your Body, Boost Your Metabolism, Lose Weight, and Feel Great!" By Carole Jacobs. It has 15 different detox plans that one can try, each different in nature from juice detox, to cholesterol flushes to liver detox, lactose detox, gluten detox etc. so that it is varied in its methods for people who have multi dietary needs/preferences. I know that the way we live, power lines, computers, pesticides in food and fruit, sugar in every freakin thing etc. meant my body needed detoxification.
    Last Saturday with book in hand hubby and I broke out our grocery bags and went to the local organic farmers market. We picked out enough fruits and vegetables to begin a juicing cleanse. Sunday 1/13 we began our juicing cleanse. Hubby did a 3 day cleanse with me (Sun, Mon, Tues) and I did a 6 day juice cleanse which will end tonight. We each will continue drinking 1 juice a day for breakfast this Saturday - Monday.
    You know what? I would NOT have believed this had I not done it. The first day I was on juice cleanse only, it STOPPED ALL OF MY HEAD CRAVINGS after the first breakfast juice. That is how bad my body was screaming out for nutrition. I no longer have that worry. It is gone. Each day for the last 6 days I have had juice followed by 20 ozs of water for breakfast, lunch and dinner along with 1/4 cup of almonds and 5 prunes. I sprinkle 2 tablespoons (daily intake serving) of chia seeds on the breakfast juice and I have felt full and satisfied. It has been fantastic being back on liquids again. I love the way it cleans my mind and the fact that I am detoxifying my body. My hair is shinier and my skin is brighter. Whew. Disaster averted. This gal, back on track!
    It has now been 6 months since I was plicated. This week I am grateful to report I have lost 5.4 lbs. and I am in the 5's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I weigh 156 lbs. I am just 7 lbs away from goal weight! The last time I was in the 5's I was 16 years old! That was 26 years ago. I am not only very happy, I am very healthy.
  11. AnaA
    The post I did for week 24 was just one day before the end of this week 25 post and the change was a negative. I am up 2 ounces at the end of week 25, so that 8 ounces that I lost at the end of week 24 turned out to only be 6 ounces. I feel really bothered by my weight gains. I have now spent 8 whole weeks in the 6's! That is longer than I have spent at any other 10 lb. period. I looked back on my food journal. While I was staying within my caloric intake, holiday alcohol and the lack of quality foods I was ingesting were the total problem. I needed something to take myself out of this danger zone. A detoxifying cleanse.
    What has been so bad about getting to this point is the mental hunger that it caused. I am eating at 10pm at night and looking for what else there might be and steadily pushing my caloric intake higher and higher. It doesn't matter that I'm still within the occ caloric intake, because the type of foods I am having are bad. I started reintroducing low fat pizza's, pop chips, these types of 'quick' 'convenient' foods for when I was in a rush. Also the holiday alcohol is not a good thing either. I began to have drink a couple of times a week throughout December which is a lot of caloric intake and just overall blah for my body. *sigh* a sad reminder that I just can not afford to think that way. It is a fat way of thought for me. So. I leave this drudge behind me as it is Friday and time for me to post a much more positive entry! To week 26! (again...)
  12. AnaA
    I'm getting a bit sloppy about posting.. and not just that.. Well at the end of week 24, on Jan. 4 I weighed in at 161.2 lbs. I lost 8 ounces from the week before but it's my sloppy holiday 'nasties' that's bothering me. I'm afraid i'm facing my first weight loss challenge. I let some bad habits creep in during the holiday season and my eating has become mental.
    My means of combating this is to write it here. I hold myself accountable through my blogging. It's the thing that keeps me on track and it shames me to write how sloppy I've become. I can not let this become a habit. It would just undue all my hard work and i'm worth more than that. My health is worth more than that. So. I have come here to admit to the world that I GOT SLOPPY. And with that, i intend to make an honest start to being back on track first thing tomorrow (Thursday 1/10). I have been in the 6's for the last 7 weeks and i'm sure that I will weigh in in the 6's for this week too, so that will be 8 weeks in the 6's! That is the LONGEST that i'll have taken to get through any number yet. My admission and disgust at this is key to getting past it. I have the will power that it takes to conquer this.
    Ok. To week26! (because I know weight in day after tomorrow at week 25 won't yet reflect the positive changes that I will undertake to get back on track tomorrow.
  13. AnaA
    Wow. This week was challenging. I gained 2 ounces and i'm sooo thankful it was not more.
    I weighed in every day this week, and at one point (Wednesday) the scale was up to 168!! Luckily I only count Friday's, but seeing the scale go up 4 pounds after my lean and green end last Friday of 164 was pretty frustrating.
    I had my monthly which took its time falling and I know that contributed to weight bloating, I had stomach flu which was terrible. It interfered with my BMs making it sluggish to non existent, despite my beloved prunes. Then suddenly I had diarrhea and severe cramping which was abdominally painful right up until yesterday and I was substantially gassy for 3 days in a row and it was painful too. In the wars. I had to take pepto which stops/slows the BM and papaya enzyme for the gas. That papaya enzyme is awesome! I took them 3 times in one day and it severely reduced that gas. The pepto was rough. It did it's job but slowed me up. Whew!
    My stomach feels calmer today but not 100% so I hope that this stomach flu will not shadow me into next week. I feel somewhat calmer today and I'm relieved that I only gained 2 ozs but definitely want to see that go down by next Friday. Onward to week 21!
  14. AnaA
    Wow.
    There are many good things to report about week 18.
    I managed to lose 1 lb the week of Thanksgiving Holiday! That is NO SMALL TRICK! I just told myself to relax, I could have a little of whatever I chose. I partook in the carrots and celery with onion dip mix, just 2 TBSPs of dip, but it was well enough, carrots are so low calorie and they were delicious! I had faux turkey, faux ham, they were fantastic, 1/2 c. of mashed potatoes, 1/2 cup of corn, and a fantastic delicious rosemary GF gourmet roll, which was so delicious! I chose not to drink wine for the holiday so that I could concentrate my calories on food and remain in control of what I ate. I think that was a wise decision.
    When I finished eating I felt satisfied, but also like I needed to move around, so we gathered the kids and some of us big kids and went outside to run it off by playing Red Rover. That was fun. We came in a couple of hours later and I had a slice of gorgeous pumpkin pie with cool whip. Thank you GF gourmet meals!
    I am just really happy that I did not over eat on Thanksgiving day and that I am now in the 6's!!!!!!!!!!!! To have both of those things happen in 1 week is a very sweet victory! Woo!!!!!!!! I am also very excited that just 20 little old pounds more and I am at my goal weight!! I am glowing. I feel so happy. Every week when I do weigh ins and then the weight loss tracker, I see that mini-me run closer to my weight loss destination and it just makes me so happy. Just 20 pounds until goal. It's worth saying twice. And I have lost a whopping 52 lbs already!
    I have been on a house cleansing lately too. I got rid of all my old clothes, cleared clutter and everything is looking and feeling great.
    Life is Great.
  15. AnaA
    It is the end of week 12 and I am happy to report I lost 2 lbs this week! AND... are you ready for this!! NO constipation!! WOO!!!! I am sooo happy! I have lost 31 lbs post plication, 46 lbs total with pre-procedure weight loss, I have lost a staggering 21% of my body weight! and now have a BMI of 27.4. Just 26 lbs to go until GOOOOAL! And NO Constipation!! It's worth saying twice
    The solution was so simple it totally escaped me for the longest time. PRUNES! Wonderful beautiful sexy hard working Prunes! I decided to try them out. I mean haven't our grandmothers said all our lives if you need to go have prunes??
    Well the synthetic constipation remedies weren't working for me, especially met a mucil which bloated me and wasn't productive, so I decided to go a-naturale.
    When I went grocery shopping Monday I bought a bag of prunes. On Monday night I had a 1 oz serving size which is 4 small dried pitted prunes, in 20 minutes it was productive. Wow. I thought, oh please let that not be a fluke! So the next day, Tuesday I decided to have 1 serving of prunes first thing in the morning and 1 serving last thing at night. That was a trial because I didn't want to take too much too fast and knew if it made me gassy I would cut it back to 1 serving a day for a week then slowly increase.
    Beautiful. I have had the 2 servings a day since Tuesday and it is going soooo well. I feel really good and the fiber intake is perfect. I was looking online for naturally fibrous foods and read this good article that said if you eat too much fiber too fast you'll be gassy and bloated and I definitely did NOT want that. So I was a little apprehensive about taking 2 servings a day but I am so glad I did, it worked for me. The intake of fibrous prunes along with not having cheese for 2 weeks (the regular 2x's a day of laughing cow was doing me in) really helped my digestive tract to function again. Whew.
    This week was very much about re-regulating my routine. Getting sick while going on vacation last week really threw me off. As it turns out I ate way below my recommended calories because I was worried I would go over and restaurants and other places don't post their nutritional information as prevalently in the UK. In one restaurant when I asked for the nutritional caloric value of the food I considered ordering the chef came out and glared at me. I also didn't drink my 64 ozs of water everyday or have my daily protein. This was all due to being sick as a dog. I didn't find it easy to work up an appetite or feel thirsty, so some days 16-32 ozs of water was all I could force without consequence.
    So, this week has been much about saying, Ok, your flu is ALMOST gone... and you're feeling better every day so drink, eat, and reintegrate those daily vitamins which were also only taken sporadically while on vacation. I think there were only 2 days I took my vitamins, so 6 days without it. Again, all due to flu on vacation. I can honestly not remember that last time I got THIS sick! It was severe and the deep puncture throat coughing and mountains of mucus were the pits.
    But I'm back and that is the lesson for me in this all. If I go abnormal for some reason for 5 days or so, get right back up and on track. I feel good that it was a severe flu that threw me off, not the vacation and that I erred on the side of caution when eating out and bought my groceries instead of eating out the entire time, AND this week a particular man in my life has begun to say, "you're looking really sexy", yes, he said sexy, not 'good' or 'slimmer'. Those are all tangible victories! All in all I think I did pretty good. (I didn't let the flu keep me away from shopping on Oxford Street in London. A gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do come flu or high water)
    Have a great week. On to 13!
    Happy Losing!
  16. AnaA
    Ok, I was on vacation from last Thursday, Sept 30 until just Friday so I am posting late. What a rough week! I finally had my period but it was very unusual, on and then off and then on... Also, I had a meal at my favorite vacation restaurant, and the healthiness of it really got things moving bm wise! SO! Finally, the constipation spell is broken. I have had 4 blissful days of movement. Now to figure out how to keep that going. I've read that if you bombard your body with fiber too fast you can get gassy and bloated so I am beginning today by buying fibrous fruit: Asian pears, raspberries, apples, prunes, and then will continue by cooking fiber-full dinners beginning tomorrow and hopefully that helps to regulate my body. *relief sigh*
    Secondly, this started on week 8 and please do reply if you have had this experience. About week 8 I started breaking out with red spots all over my legs. It started slow, and the bumps "look" like mosquito bites only they do not itch, and are deep red. They began spreading all over my legs and then last week, end of week 10 I noticed that they began to show on the underside of my arms. I had 3 and then within 2 days 10 - 12 on each arm. I have no idea where they are coming from. I have never had this happen before and have an appointment with my Dr. to check them out but that's not until next month. I have no idea if they are procedure related or just something entirely else but I am concerned and have a call in to check this out. Anyone had anything like this?
    Now, with things finally starting to move again, and having had my period, it's no wonder that I lost 5.8 lbs this week!! That's after 3 weeks of losing nothing, being backed up and no period, SO, that sounds about right. I am now at 177 and very happy to be in the 7's! Wow. I think about where I was back in July, at 221 lbs. I was feeling really heavy and uncomfortable in my own body. Now, an entire 44 lbs later I feel so much better. I have lost 3 clothing sizes, amazing! And I have lost 20% of my entire body weight! Incredible. Post plication I have lost 29 lbs and am happy with the progress. The biggest challenge has been constipation. I have to figure out a balance here.
    Also, this last week I have noticed that my hair has begun to fall out in pretty significant amounts, very noticeable in that i'm finding it everywhere and can't even run my fingers through my hair without bringing some out with it. I am going to try a rinse that a friend of mine, who has not had surgery, and has had her hair fall out a lot naturally, uses. If this works for me, I will post the recipe. Fingers Crossed! To a bow-ally productive week 12 with minimal hair fall out!
  17. AnaA

    End of Week 9 Post Plic

    By AnaA,

    OK.

    I'm starting to notice a pattern of 3 weeks good weight loss and then a 4th week, gain or maintain. Weeks 7 and 8, I had good weight loss, but for week 9, I’ve only maintained the same weight as last week. That's definitely better than gaining, for sure, but it's the bleh's that came along with it that I’m not feeling great about.

    Although I am the same weight this week as last week, my stomach is noticeably distended and it was flat last week. All this week I have been having abdominal cramping and for two days it was to the point that if I even leaned over a little bit it felt painful. Also, I upped my metamucil from 3 caps to 6 caps a day since Monday. It worked nicely the first day, Monday, and then after that I had to take milk o mag again with it. I think I’m going to look for an alternative to metamucil. I just don't feel like it's very productive and I really don't want to swallow 6 extra pills for the sheer joy of it because there is no joy in it.

    This week was really challenging for multiple reasons. My caloric intake has been between 1050 - 1160, right around there, but on Saturday night I felt really sick: shaky, dizzy, weak, nauseous, really nasty. It came out of nowhere and I felt like I needed something substantial to eat to prop me up so when I got home, having already taken in my calories for the day (1,026 calories) I took in another 404 for a whopping total of 1,430. I felt sick about that, not physically, but mentally. It helped the shakes, etc., but just having eaten that much for the whole day was psychologically debilitating. I only did this Saturday and have been super cautious to be on myself all week, but that felt really sloppy and out of control and I am just so cautious of those nasty feelings: sloppy, out of control. They are from another life I simply want nothing to do with.

    Also, I’m 8 days late on my period and I’m sure that is contributing to this staying at the same weight. Those abdominal cramps at first felt kind of like it might be coming on, but then again no. They hurt a h3ll of a lot more than the menstrual cramps I'm accustomed to and felt different. More severe and lower, more lower abdominally.

    Well. With all that being said I should be thankful I didn't gain! Jeez. Here's to hoping I have a much more PRODUCTIVE week 10 in every single way. By the way if any you reading this have any suggestions for what to do for constipation I would be much obliged. *sigh*
  18. AnaA
    Ok. I'm UP 8 ozs this week. It was a rough week. I got a nasty cold again and that made my bowel movements sort of irregular despite my beloved prunes. Also, because of being sick, I did not drink as much fluids as I normally do. I find it really hard to take water when i'm sick, so the drop in intake i'm sure had a hand in this up 8 ozs. thing. Then, I ordered my vitamins in enough time, but there was a backlog in the shipment of the vitamins I take, so there were 4 days where I went without. Another factor. And I had my period, another factor in weight fluctuation. Also, I think that i'm not making healthy enough eating choices. I did good for breakfast but for lunch and some dinners, I just didn't do as good this week because it was a crazy week and I did piss poor in pre planning. (that sounded peter piper picked a peck of pickled pepperish..) so all these things together made this past week a poster child for how NOT to do things. I hope that this week will be better, but I am out of state in DC and have been having to restaurant it, a thing I loathe doing. I am making the best choices possible, but I don't feel fantastic about all the eating out. I hope that Friday I see some loss, even 1 lb. will make me VERY happy considering the circumstances of this week on the heels of last week! WOW!
    On to week 17.... :\
  19. AnaA
    Wow. Seems wild posting on the heels of my last post, but here it is, the end of Week 17! And what a week it was. I spent the week in DC so I had to eat restaurant food for lunch and dinner... yikes. Breakfast I was able to manage in my room. I was worried about possible weight gain during this week, but I did make sure to keep my prunes on hand and I did A LOT of walking every day around the National Mall. (Stunning Stunning Stunning!)
    I am happy to report that this week I am at 170.2 having lost 2.2 lbs this week! I wasn't sure that I would lose because I had a couple of drinks and while I counted my calories as usual, I didn't have the exact nutritional information (what I LOATHE about eating out, the typical restaurant reply: we have no idea how much fat you're ingesting...) so I had to guesstimate as much as I could with a calorie counting tool. I will blog about tools next because I don't think I have done that.
    I found that the first 3 days I didn't get as much water in as I needed to and that left my body feeling terrible! I actually felt dry throughout and it kinda hurt, you know, the way your plants get wilty when they need to be watered? I've never realize how a body can yell or scream for water like I do now. I made up for that these last 3 days getting at the very least 48 ounces in, which was not near enough. But I am home now and back on track and that feels GREAT!
    I am excited to get my water drinking and delicious home cooked eating back on track! I do love that about home, and I am strategising for Thanksgiving! I am not concerned that I will over eat because of the fantastic restriction.
    While eating out in DC, the restaurant food, I found that sometimes I would take 6 bites and feel completely full! That 'full' sensation I now recognize when I feel the food filling and touching the walls of my stomach, the only way I can describe it is that I know the size of my stomach and can tell when I have sufficiently filled it. After that, I just don't eat anymore. THAT was fantastic. For the first time in my life, I realize that I know what it feels like to feel I have had enough. Before this life changing procedure, I knew when I had had enough because I felt extremely full, which 20 minutes later turned to stuffed and felt literal pain and discomfort over that.
    I love my new life! I sure do feel like next week I am going to see some much awaited and anticipated 6's!! To 18 and beyooond!
  20. AnaA

    End of Week 8 Post Plic

    By AnaA,

    Today is the end of week 8 for me. I have lost ANOTHER 3 lbs of bad health!!! I feel super excited! I am now down to 182 and that fence is getting lower and lower, I can see those super slimmer 7's from riiiiiiight here
    This was another week of pretty high constipation. I had 3 days where I struggled to go at all. Thank goodness for milk o mag. I took it for five days in a row. The first 1 1/2 days I had little to no results, but last night it finally kicked in. Just in time for weigh in. Seems like every 2 weeks or so I go through a nasty bout of constipation. bleh. I still continue to take 3 metamucil caps a day and hope that one day that is enough to maintain consistent regularity.
    Next Friday I come up on another anniversary. Next Friday I can stop taking Inhibitron! Yea!! One less pill. Seems like I take a whole ton of them with the 6 bariatric vitamins, the inhitibron, the 1.5 calcium and the 3 metamucils. It will be nice to take one less.
    Week 8 Done.
  21. AnaA
    It's the end of week 15 and I lost 2.4 pounds this week! Yeaaaa! I hope that by next week I will be out of the 7's and into some super 6's. This journey has been pretty amazing. To think that I have lost 50 pounds! Wow.
    I wanted to talk some about liquid intake. I take liquid in 3 times a day. After breakfast, lunch, and dinner. What that does for me is it allows me to feel completely full. Liquid deprivation creates pangs in the stomach that are indecipherable to food hunger pangs so I make sure to keep that at bay. Each time I drink liquid per day I drink in one 16 oz bottle of water chased by one 20 oz bottle of sobe 0 calorie water and/or one 16 oz bottle of vitamin water, so all totaled, on a daily basis I get from 96 - 108 ounces of calorie free liquid. It keeps my body very satisfied.
    Also, I have discovered the joy of baking sweet potatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, onions and carrots sprinkled with basil and fresh rosemary from my window garden, I spray with pam so as to use non fat spray, but it is nice with olive oil carefully rubbed on the veg, and drizzle a small bit of honey on it, not saturate. Wow is that filling and fantastic! I ate it 3 times this week for dinner and it is very productive on the fiber front too! Blog followers will appreciate how much I love movement on the fiber front! Only 335 calories measured out, and it is quite a bit of food! I have to eat it 3 separate times to finish it and it is so wonderfully nourishing.
    This brings me to another topic, post operative food intake restriction 15 weeks out. I am happy to report that I still feel great restriction. I still eat only a small portion of what I would have done before and feel completely satisfied. There are moments before my period where I have to fight off mental cravings, but those are totally mental. I still have NOT eaten candy since my operation which is soooooome accomplishment considering we just passed Halloween!! PHEW. On to week 16!
  22. AnaA

    Top 5 Weight Loss Tools

    By AnaA,

    I thought I would share the day to day top 5 weight loss tools that I use to keep me on track. They are not in order of importance because I consider them all equally critical to my success. These tools are created with my own personal needs in mind.
    1. Water: Yes, A Major Tool.
    When I went on the pre and post op liquids only diet, I realized that on liquids alone my body could not only be sustained, but satisfied. It was surprising to me. I was actually sad about having to transition to soft foods! That knowledge taught me that I need to rely on water primarily and use food to get some nutrients in between. I typically have 64 - 96 ozs of 0 calorie drinks per day, 48-64 ounces of that is water and the rest is a 0 calorie drink like Vitamin water (love the acai berry flavor) and Sobe 0 Calorie water (love the pear apple and the kiwi cherimoya, yumberry and well, all of the flavors are good). If I have one of those days where i'm feeling ravenous, I make sure that I drink more water than usual. This helps me to feel full. I also drink a protein drink when i'm feeling ravenous because a protein drink (I use nectar, 25 calories 25g protein) makes me feel full, and chase it with 16 ounces of water. Also, being thirsty and needing water induces a thirst pang that the body can not differentiate from hunger pangs, so if you find your stomach is growling, it could be craving water if you have not taken in enough, not food. For me, I feel like transitioning to liquids only post procedure was a valuable moment in my life because it taught me that liquids are enough, vital, nourishing, and body necessary. Rely heavily on water.
    2. Journal: A Fantastic tool!
    I have kept a journal since the first week I went on soft foods. Every single thing I eat every single day is counted in calories and written down in this journal. At first, I kept the journal just as a means of trying to track, but then weeks into it I found that it was keeping me honest! No Cheating. I record everything. If I cheated, who would I be cheating but ME? And now, 4 months post plication, I love my journal. I rely on it. It let's me see my patterns, what can cause weight increase or decrease. I can see on average how many calories I consume for breakfast, lunch and dinner. What this does for me is if I know i'm used to having 300 calories for lunch, and I pick something up i'm thinking of having for lunch that's say 150 calories, like yogurt but i'm feeling hungrier for lunch this day and the yogurt is not enough food for the calorie amount then that tells me to look for something more satisfying,like a sweet potato and broccoli and I keep myself on caloric track while feeling satisfied. It goes the opposite way too. If i'm just not feeling hungry for lunch I may have a piece of fruit and yogurt. This way I don't have to make myself eat too much and get the calories in. The journal also helps me understand the flow and rhythm of my body and it is a record of my final journey to weight loss. My journal looks like this, an example from the first day:
    Friday Day 1 8/10
    B- (stands for breakfast, takes up 1 line) 7 tsp oatmeal, 1/4 toast = # of calories
    (i typically write the amount of calories for each item above the food item so i.e. above 7 tsp oatmeal I would write 50 and over the 1/4 of toast I would write 10)
    L- (lunch, 1 line)
    same as above, i itemize what I ate, write calories for each over the food and total
    D- (same as B and L)
    TF: (total calories from food)
    TLIQ: (total calories from liquid)
    Calories: total intake for the day
    I leave 3 lines after the Calorie total and here is where I write things like: feeling sick, constipated, feeling low, head and body aching, etc, things that I notice are departures from the norm. I use these notes to just be aware of my body's reactions and to post updates to my blog on what influenced my outcome for the week. Now you may not need to keep a journal or one as detailed as this, but I do it because I know me. This is the last time I will have been obese and I am serious about that and part of that means understanding what my body feels through paying absolute total attention to it and so for me, this journal is a total blessing!
    3. Calorie Counting App. Must have!
    I have an iphone and found this app called MyfitnessPal. The icon on the app is a very fit person leaping in the air with arms raised out. The background color is blue. What I use this app for is to find the amount of calories in a food. This is what I use to guesstimate what I am eating when I am away from the comforts of my calorie tracked kitchen. It is great because it allows me to keep calories counted. If you don't have an iphone and this app isn't available on android another fantastic tool is the weight watchers calorie counter book. And I am sure that there are other calorie counting books in the shops that you can pick up. It just helps to know what I eat. Post plication I have NEVER eaten something that I can not track calorically. I just can not do it. Things like salad dressing and cheese are so fattening in such tiny amounts that I find I just have to make smart choices and anyone following my progress can see what happens when I do not.
    4. Pre-Preparing.
    I have been ill prepared twice now since my procedure in July. Each time this happens it just results in bad decisions and weight gain which means set back and no weight loss. I end up eating high fat things: something quick like GF (gluten free) cheese pizza or a cheese quesadilla (grease and high fat cheese...) and even though at the end of the day following my journal they are still within the OCC caloric recommendations, they still make me gain because that is a lot of fat and cheese and fat and cheese is not healthy or body friendly. So even if it is within my calories, it is not smart choice eating. I am in the process of finding out a way to pre prepare for trips etc, putting together an emergency way to get by. I will update that in this blog when I get it down.
    5. Know Your Weakness(es)
    This is a critical tool also. Everything I have listed here is what is necessary for me. My weakness is sugar. Sugar sugar sugar. NOTHING will throw me back into my old fat hell quicker than sugar. Nothing will plummet my health like sugar. Nothing will make me get alarmingly close to diabetes, stroke and heart trouble like SUGAR. And I know that. I knew that before plication but I always welcomed it and caved in to it as though I did not know it thereby allowing it to keep me under its will. Can you imagine? Being under the power of sugar?? An inanimate object?? I guess I did not want to know it. But I know it now. When I decided to have my surgery, before the actual procedure, I got real with myself. I acknowledged the destructive role sugar played in my life and I began to look at it for the ugly thing it was. Post plication I have not eaten candy. THAT was a HUGE weakness. I have stayed away from sweets wherever I go and when I do want something sweet I have a mango, strawberries, apple, or banana. That is the only sugar I take in now. It was hard. It was such a weakness but I prepared for the fact that I needed to abstain from it before surgery. I said, when you have surgery, it will remove the need for sugar. If you have sugar it will undue your stitches and your health. I talked my brain into believing these things because if I didn't, I might not have made it. SO. Know your weakness and do whatever you have to do to get it under control. Now I have control over sugar. It does not control me. And when I pass candy or cake or sweets counters, I look at them in disdain and turn my nose up at it and think, yea, ... right. I don't think so. And I walk away and smile knowing I control this now. I do. Not sugar.
    Hope this helps. As I said, these are necessary tools for me. They may work for you they may not. What is most important is getting your own personal routine going. Something you use daily that changes your life from what it was prior to surgery. We all invested so much to have surgery, financially, physically, mentally, so it only seems right we get the spiritual in line and make life changes to bring us up to where we belong from here on out.
    Happy Weight Loss
  23. AnaA
    I lost 2 lbs this week! I feel very happy about that. I learned a lot from last week and kept the cheese down to just 1 meal and the grease out of it. It never ceases to amaze me how much grease and cheese can trip you up. It might sound obvious, but just witnessing my body as it changes and went up then held steady then dropped, I realized that is a lot of time to spend waiting for the effects of cheese and grease to go away. Too much precious time.
    I am still taking prunes daily. They are my daily regiment and thanks to those dark beauties I have not had a problem with constipation. I continue to get my liquids in and feel like that is a very important part of this process. I have been drinking 72 ozs of liquids a day. 32 of that is pure water and 40 ounces of that is vitamin water or sobe life water. Wow those flavors are amazing. I have yet to drink one that I didn't like. What is amazing to me is how much my taste buds have changed.
    In the beginning, I needed to drink something heavy in acids like soda to draw the most flavor out of it. That was the level of 'numbness' my taste buds were at. When I first went on liquids and drank the vitamin water, acai berry, my taste buds translated it as a subtle flavor. I liked it, but it was really subtle. Now when I drink vitamin water, acai berry, lemonade, the flavors are very flavorful, robust, not subtle at all. I had to detoxify the harsh acidic things I was feeding to my poor inundated buds to get them to fully get the full flavor of vitamin waters. Now if I have cranberry juice I definitely have to cut it with water or it makes my ears pop! I feel very proud of myself to be at the point to do this.
    I have found the pleasure of cooking at home. I love making healthy food to serve myself and my man. We both eat healthy and as a result, he has lost a load of weight without the surgery. He is now at his ideal weight. I feel proud that my decision to have this surgery has positively impacted our health as a couple. We are both much more active and I just went down another size in clothes! I will never get tired of the sensation of wearing a pair of jeans having them fit if a bit snug and then weeks later pulling them away from me for inches because I have undergrown them. This was the best decision I made for myself in my life. On to week 15.
  24. AnaA
    OK. This week I am up 1 lb. I gained. :/ I know why.
    I discovered gluten free pizza from the local and we ate it twice this week. Also, I had a corn quesadilla in a quick pinch because I was running late on another night, and taquitos on another night. Yep. That's a lot of grease and cheese.
    Thanks to prunes, it didn't constipate me, but it was too much grease and cheese even though I only did eat a little part of them. SO, this coming week, no cheese anywhere and no grease. I'll be cooking at home which I prefer because at least I know what goes into it. I normally cook anyway. This week was just hectic and not planned out. So, ok, i'm at 176 this week, a 1 lb. setback and no loss. To keep me motivated I just appreciate the weight I have lost, know I will lose more beginning next week, and focus on how good it feels to be in slimmer jeans. Also! A major victory, I have not had anything sugary like candy, frosting, or the like since my procedure! Might not sound major but my weakness is sugary things like that. They are the thing that derails me every time. And I have not had 1 single piece nor will I. When I feel in the mood for something like that, which is not easy 2 weeks before my period, I have a tablespoon of peanut butter and even that is in large moderation.
    I know my lack of planning and ungreat choices threw me off this week and will change that. On to week 14!
  25. AnaA
    Today is the end of week 7 for me and it was DEFINITELY a better week! After an extremely pain stakingly slow week 4 and 5, then a slowed 1.8 lb loss week 6 I was starting to feel discouraged but trying with all my might to be positive and note other victories!
    I just realized something SUPER EXCITING!! I am HALF way to MY GOAL!!! I have lost 36 lbs and have 36 left to go!!! Here's to making it ALL THE WAAAAAAY!!!
    Today is that day of redemption. I lost 3 lbs!!!! WOOOOO HOOOO! It feels SOOO good to see that scale take a dive in numbers. At 185 I feel safely out of those nasty nines! It feels fantastic.
    This week my calorie intake hovered between 1150-1190. On two days I went up to 1200 but am most comfortable staying in the 1100's. I actually caught sight of myself in the mirror and wow! I really notice my stomach has slimmed considerably! The jeans that I was finally able to get in to are comfortable and dare I say... roomie! And I can see the change happening. To date, I have lost a whopping 16% of my body weight! Wow. My BMI is 29.0, I have lost 21 lbs post plication and a total of 36lbs! For all these reasons I feel very victorious today. Happy. Steady on.. Steady on!
    Just for the record I continue to drink 64 ozs of water a day plus, take the liquid 16 oz of 23 grams of protein. Still take my vitamins and calcium and the metamucil. That development, taking 3 metamucil caps daily was since week 6 when I had the nasty constipation.
    All is well.
    To another high loss week! Cheers!
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