Vacation Victory

This past week my kids were on spring break and I had saved back a little money to take them on a small vacation to the mountains. In times past when we would go I would keep up with my family but it was a struggle and I would have to have lots of breaks to sit down and rest. I also had so many issues with IBSD that I was miserable and very often in a great deal of pain and sickness that would cause me to miss out on fun and activities with my kids. 

This trip was the first time in my life I have ever gone as an "average" size person. Due to not carrying around all the extra weight I had a ton more energy. We walked and walked and walked all day every day. Everywhere in the mountains also has tons of stairs and I had no problems keeping up with the physical demands of the trip. There were some days that my tracker counted between 11 & 15 flights of stairs! It was amazing when my two teenage kids were wore out and I was still ready to keep going. This, I believe, has been one of the very best non-scale victories yet.  I look forward to having many more adventures that I am able to fully enjoy. 

Just Life

Well, I haven't posted in a bit, guess I haven't had a whole lot to say lately.  Life has just kind of become the monotony of the everyday lately.  Weight wise things are alright.  I still have this last 10-15 pounds that I want to lose but they seem to want to hang on for dear life.  I have always heard the last few pounds are the hardest to lose and that is holding true for me.  I won't give up though because I want to reach my goals. 

As time goes on I have found that there are some cravings that have been trying to kick back in.  I have never really been much of a stress eater over the years but the last few months have been somewhat of a struggle to not fall into that category.  I have been dealing with some behavior issues with one of my children and other stresses with my grown child that would all make it very easy to seek out comfort in carbs and chocolate and all those oh so good tasting bad for you foods.  That is why they are called comfort foods after all.  However, I have been trying very hard to keep myself focused on the positives in my life because honestly there are many, many things to be so very grateful for.  Some things at work came across my desk in the last few weeks that really made me see that even with all I have had to deal with things could always be so much harder.  I have to remind myself that the attitude that we face each day with is a choice that we have to consciously make each and every day.

Have I lost enough?

So today was my 15 month check up with the surgeons office.  I actually hit the 15 month mark a few weeks ago but this was when it worked out for me to go due to some things at work.  Anyway the whole point of me going today was because my doctor wanted to check in with me to make sure that things were going ok and that I was doing well still.  See, last time I was there 3 months ago I was fighting off depression. Through Christmas and New Year's I let myself slide just a bit because through the holidays my goal was to maintain as oppose to continue losing this year.

Today's visit started off like every other visit where the tech takes you back and does all the normal vital checks and takes my weight and all of that fun stuff.  Which I was very happy to say that I have lost 17 pounds since I was there last time.  Then I go back to the room for the check in with the Doctor.  This lady is really wonderful and caring with me.  When I see her it is more like a visit with a friend and I almost feel like I should hug her when its time to leave.  So we go over my numbers and I am pleased to say that she feels like I am at goal weight and should be done losing weight.  I told her that I would like to lose about 10 or maybe 15 more pounds and she said it would be ok for me to do so but to just be cautious if I do so that I don't look too thin.  I am proud to say that I am officially in all the normal ranges for weight, blood pressure and body fat percentages for my height and age.  At my last visit my body fat percentage was right there at the highest tip end of the normal but that has dropped a few points now and so I am really "in" the normal range now.  This is truly exciting to me.  We talked about some options for the loose skin and I hope to be able to take care of that some day.  She thinks I have about 10 pounds of extra skin at the moment.  I don't know what I will do with myself when I finish losing.  LOL, that is a problem I have never in my life thought I would face but it is one that I welcome.

Looking back with a new perspective

Tomorrow marks 15 months since I had surgery. My life has changed so much during this time. Not only in the physical but in every area of my life. I have energy now to do things and I have found that I often have a hard time just sitting around the house any more. 

My two youngest kids and I have made a trip back home to visit my mom this week and the difficulty in just sitting around has become more apparent then ever. This is my second trip home since surgery. The first was back in April and during that trip there were plans to meet with old friends and things to do each day. This trip was more to focus on having some time with my mom and one of my very best friends in the world. In past trips before losing the weight I would be ok with just coming here to sit around and watch tv and eat. That is what we did when I would come home, the entire trip would be planned around hitting all my old favorite places to get pizza, slushies, and ice cream. It's really no wonder I was as heavy as I was when my adolescent years were focused around food and eating out. 

This time I have been eating only when hungry and went to the store to bring in things like Greek yogurt and light cheese and things that I can feel good about eating. Due to mobility issues with my mom we still have been primarily hanging around her house. The sitting has been making me a bit crazy but at least I know my food choices have been better and I have had the energy to do things to take care of my mom while I am here.

While I love my mom and I am grateful to have the ability to spend time here I am looking forward to being back home where I have my treadmill and other exercise equipment. In the beginning of this journey I truly hated exercise. I had gotten to where I was having a hard time even doing a few minutes on the treadmill at a zero incline. I now miss it when I can't get to it. My mom had asked me why would I still exercise when I have lost so much weight. This was so eye opening to me because that is how my attitude toward exercise used to be, why bother if you don't have to. The changes in my life and attitude continue to amaze me. 

"Normal".....who me?

Ok, so let me start off by first saying that I am not one of those folks who live and die by the BMI Chart.  I for one feel that it is not a really accurate reflection of ones health or what and I tend to rely more on body fat percentage as a measure of where I am and where I should be. 

However, with that being said this week my scale has read 150 pounds even for a few days now.  Out of curiosity I plugged my stats into a BMI Calculator and the result was 24.9 which puts me into the "Normal" range and out of the overweight category!  I have never in my entire life not been considered either overweight or obese.  Just to give a little perspective when I was at my heaviest recorded weight my BMI was 63 and I was considered morbidly obese. 

I am very close to reaching my ultimate goal weight and so that will bring a whole new set of issues with it.  I am going to have to learn how to maintain my weight.  I have never done that before.  My entire life has been either not caring what I weighed or working to lose weight.  Learning to stay steady will be a new lesson to learn.  I do believe that I will be able to handle it though.  I have developed many good habits that are just my normal now in how I deal with food and portions and choices that I make.

Size what!?!?

So I have been wearing around a size ten jeans for a little bit now and I have found this one particular style of dress pants that I really like the cut on. While I was out today I thought I would go ahead and get a pair in a size 8 to put up in hopes of wearing them at some point.  For the heck of it when I got home I tried them on and they fit! I have never in my life put on anything that was a single digit size.  It is very surreal for me to think that I can wear these.  

My life has been turned upside down the last few months and it has been hard to keep trying to focus on getting to my goal.  This accomplishment today has refuled my resolve to keep working and finish this marathon to get to where I want to be and reach my goal weight.

Here are my biggest pants compared to my new pants!

The one year check up

A few days after my one year anniversary of surgery I had my check in with the surgeons office. They had me do a swallow study to check on the reflux I was having and they said the reflux was still pretty prevalent so I have to stay on the reflux meds a while longer.  Not a huge deal in my opinion. 

I see the nurse practitioner when I go for my check ups. She was so happy with the amount of weight I have lost. According to the numbers the top range of a healthy percent of body fat is 33% and I have reached just that. She said that with sleeve surgery people generally expect to lose 60-70% of their excess body weight and I have lost 72% of my excess weight so far so at this point they consider me a success. It was good to know that I am doing well according to what the doctors have to say.