GOAL HIT: 222 pounds!

Today I was surprised to find that I hit my closest goal! I was 222 pounds on the scale today and that was before pooping, LOL.

My next goal is 215. That will have me out of the 220's.

The weight is dropping off so quickly. It has been just two months since I had surgery.

I stood in a restroom yesterday looking at myself in a full length mirror and the thinner person that I saw just didn't look like me. I am so used to looking into a mirror and cringing. There was no cringing as I saw the person in the long black skirt and white sweater. I looked lean and trim.

And, other than this blasted cold, I feel good.

Feeling better after adding new foods.

I went to my facebook bariatric group and asked about my concerns about my eating being too focused on just protein and water. I was given some good suggestions and after going shopping and buying foods that are good for me, I am feeling much better:

Clearer in mind, less angry, less feeling like being cheated out of life. Calmer. And I dropped 4 pounds over the weekend, which was totally unexpected.

I even had a poo that was normal with no bleeding. Praise the Lord!

I swam today for 20 minutes at a good hard clip, swimming freestyle laps and plan a walk for later. I am going to walk 20 minutes, rather than the 45 minute death march that I had been doing.

I had been so worried that I would mess up my progress that I had forgotten that the main success of the sleeve is that even though we still eat, we eat much less. So I was able to eat a bit of cereal with some unsweetened cashew milk and a sprinkle of stevia and be ok.

I was able to have a Fiber one brownie and be ok.

I think that this increased fiber is why I had a decent experience in the bathroom without bleeding. 

The DIE in DIEt.

Today I am feeling low. My energy is low, I am tired of eating protein. I want candy. I want to shove carbs into my face or at least go out and buy a lot of stuff. Shopping or eating. Either one would do.

And I have the butt bleeds again. I have one persistent hemorrhoid and whenever I eat too much of something (I have not identified it), probably protein, I get a bad case of the butt bleeds. Then it's back to wiping with Tucks and swabbing the deck with Preparation H.

I do have a GI doctor, so it's ok, I have had it checked out, it's an external little bleeder that he says not to provoke by getting constipated.  Will 80 grams of protein constipate you?

Oh yes.

It's the weekend, which is not, to me, the joy that it is to you worker bees. Weekends mean that everyone is here and my stress is through the roof. I had to drive my son into the city to work and pick him up and it is in the twenties here. I am cold, tired and hungry.

I am also tired and forcing myself these past 4 days to use the CPAP even though it's a misery for me. I have another sleep titration set up for mid-April. I am hoping to get through this readjustment without having to keep that appointment.

I feel like I am dying. My hunger is back with a vengeance.  I want a solid food that is not protein. I know what God meant in the bible which talks about when the children of Israel were in the wilderness and they didn't want the Manna from heaven, they wanted meat:

^{Psalm 106: 
7} Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.
⁸ Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.
⁹ He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.
¹⁰ And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
¹¹ And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left.
¹² Then believed they his words; they sang his praise.
¹³ They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:
¹⁴ But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.
¹⁵ And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.

I think they had the butt bleeds. God sent them Quail to eat. I would gladly take the Manna and not grumble.

My eating is out of balance. I need to get some balance. I need to bring some foods other than protein into my diet. Now.

 

7 week update photos

At surgery I was 256 (262 according to my doctor) and today I am 227. Here are some photos of me at surgery day and today. The purple shorts are from today.

Can you see a difference? The belly is still pretty huge, but it folds now, LOL.

Disney is coming up in early May. Will I be out of the 200's by then? Hard to tell. I am back to swimming several days a week, usually four or five. I also walk, but the weather has turned really cold again, so I have cut back on that.

I am now doing static weight lifting. I did a video on this. It's a different way of lifting weights for people who have joint problems.

Out of the 230's

It has been a journey, these past seven weeks. I am learning that I have to put a whole lot less angst into these weight loss slowdowns.

I am now out of the 230's. I hit 229 yesterday and was still there today. I just have to realize that when I watched all of those videos about people losing a hundred pounds, they didn't lose it in a month.

I was able to tuck in my shirt today. That felt good. I am feeling better all the time. I started some running, but my knee really hurts, so I am going to keep it to just walking until I am stronger. My lower left belly also hurts now.

So afraid of Failure.

I am 6.5 weeks out from my VSG surgery and I guess I am doing the right things. It's hard to tell because I have zero support from my doctor. I haven't even seen her post op. It was a PA for my two week checkup and a nurse for my six week checkup.

I eat about 650 cals a day or so. I swim about a half hour a day and usually take a 1-2 mile walk.

In the past two weeks, my weight has done the following:
March   7th  233
March 10th 232.4  
March 16th 231.7  
March 17th 231.5
March 18th 231.8
March 20th 230.9
March 21st 230.8

That's a loss of 2.2 lbs in TWO weeks.

My stomach is working. My workouts are fine, it's got to be my eating.

What the hell am I doing wrong?


IN the two weeks prior to this cycle, my weight dropped about a pound a day. Oh, maybe it just seemed like it was that fast, but I had a couple of days when it was just kicking butt.

Feb 28th I was 239 and on March 6th I was 234.9

I guess I am looking for miracles here. I just want progress that I can see. I want a return on the investment that I made and I want it NOW.

Even though I have eaten a ton of cheese. I am back to eating cleaner and trying to straighten up.

UPDATE: I erred when I did not look at the whole picture, which is to look at the entire trend of weight loss. My average loss per week is 4.38 pounds, but I won't lose that every week, some more, some less.

Feeling Better After Changing Diet

I had been so down. I was eating pure protein for the past two weeks. About 100 g of pure protein. Now, keep in mind that I am not like your average Joe. I have diverticulosis, which is potholes in the colon, too much protein can kill me.

Yesterday I added the following to my diet at about 6 pm:

1. some fruit from a can (no syrup)
2. some raisin bran cereal with a little milk (I am dairy sensitive, but decided to chance it).
3. a couple of pork rinds (my first time eating them ever) with some spinach dip.

This morning I had the first natural poo that I have had since my surgery. The first one unassisted by miralax or stool softeners.

I had been so fried for the past week or so. Miserable, tired, cranky and my diverticular pain was back.

Yesterday I swam 30 minutes of hard freestyle laps and burned about 525 cals, but had only taken in 328 cals of pure protein for the day. I felt like I was going to die.

Eating some carbs, even thought they probably were not optimal really helped me. I took in a total of 884 cals and expended 525 on the swim.

And I was down today on the scale.

I decided to skip the morning protein shake and try to see how I do getting my protein from food, which is what my doctor recommended on Monday. She also told me to balance out my eating, but I was too afraid to stray from  the pure protein. She was the one who suggested the raisin bran.

So, this morning, instead of egg beaters (which have so much crap in them) I had Egglands Best Egg Whites with a sprinkle of cheese and some diced ham and about an hour before that, I had a fiber one bar and right now I am having COFFEE. Black coffee.

I decided to skip the morning protein shake and try to see how I do getting my protein from food, which is what my doctor recommended on Monday. She also told me to balance out my eating, but I was too afraid to stray from  the pure protein. She was the one who suggested the raisin bran.

What?

I hear Angels singing.