Three H: Holy, Healthy, Happy

It's been a while, but I've been doing great! This Friday will put me at 23 weeks post-op. This morning I was pleased to see that I am 75.6 pounds lighter than I was on the morning of my gastric sleeve surgery. A lot has happened since I last wrote.  I changed jobs, back to that commuting job I really loved (and which paid better than the local job) but now I only have to commute 2 days out of the month. The rest of the month I can work from home! This is exactly what our family has been needing: me physically close and able to be involved with my family, but fulfilled in my work with a paycheck that someone with my skills and qualifications deserves.  Working from home has allowed me to prioritize my health, which is especially important right now with the pandemic situation. In the shape I was in before surgery, I would likely have been one of the casualties of COVID-19. Now, my body would stand a much better chance of surviving should I contract the illness. We're still ...

Well, on the day my daughter would have gone back to school after being out for two weeks for her tonsillectomy and recovery, school was cancelled. Her school has scrambled to determine a way to continue instruction remotely for the duration of this pandemic situation. I had to visit 5, nay 6, stores before I found a sizable pack of toilet paper which will last my family a couple weeks. I've still been unable to find hand sanitizer so my husband and I split the contents of one 75% bottle between us, using that little bottle to refill an empty one we had laying around. My dad, in his 80's, has stayed home more than usual, but not as much as would make me feel secure.  My husband is home from work and intends to stay home as long as this lasts, especially since he is home with our daughter. I had planned to only work three days this week anyway because of my surgery, but honestly I feel the need to hunker down at home. We've had our first case in my county; it's t...

Today completes four full months on the diet and medications prescribed by Dr. Pate at BioSymmetry medical weight loss. Thus far, according to my own scale at home, I have lost a total of 44 pounds. That's great! I lost more quickly in the beginning, but I am still continuing the downward trend as you can see in the graph below. I could be moving along more quickly if I were stricter, but I am still living my life in a world filled with holidays and birthday parties. Progress during November 2015 Here are some notes I made to myself in my daily weight log: 11/13: Big victory for me! I went to Belk to do a little Christmas shopping for my mom. I wanted to get her a couple of nice vests and long sleeved tees to match. As soon as I walked in, there was a large selection of vests right by the door and I saw several I liked for myself. Luckily, they had them in my size - 3x! So I grabbed a few to try on and was shocked to find that the 3x was TOO BIG! I've been wearing a ...

It's been months since my last post. Over six months, in fact, and sneaking up on seven. You've probably assumed that I fell of the wagon. And you would be right. But as that old Chumbawamba song from my high school days goes, " I get knocked down, but I get up again ." (Let's just ignore the fact that the song is about drinking and pissing the night away and I've never even been a drinker.)  When I last wrote, I had just seen my OBGYN and I weighed 269.6 pounds on my scale at home. For that entire month of March, my weight hovered within a few pounds of that number. The highest recorded weight was 270.2 and the lowest recorded weight was 267.6. But there was no downward trend whatsoever. It zigged and zagged up and down. I also wasn't walking the way I planned to. I think I looked at the exercise goals I had set for myself as TOO easy and therefore not worth the time.  Then, at the end of the month, family issues struck. I had been told earlie...

Well, despite all my progress so far this year, I'm feeling a bit discouraged. I just left an appointment with my OBGYN. I was proud of how well I have been doing with losing weight, but he never mentioned my weight. He usually mentions if I have made any gains or losses, so I asked what I weighed last time I saw him. He said "274. You've come down half a pound." Arrrrrgh!!!!!!! I told him I've lost quite a bit but I always seem to gain and lose between seeing him again. He said I probably gained when I stopped taking the metformin (which is true) and then came back down again as I started taking it again and dieting (also true). *sigh* In my head, I can hear Hermione lashing out at Ron Weasley at the Yule Ball; "You know the solution, then, don't you {Ron}?! " Only it feels like I'm lecturing myself. So what do I do? Comfort my wounds with a Snickers bar like I used to do, or renew my resolve which had already begun to dissolve anyway? Bef...

Earlier this week I began experiencing signs of ovulation. I have been having these symptoms preceding my period per usual, however this go round I seem to be producing more of the “EWCM” one reads about in Trying-to-Conceive message boards. I’ve also had a heightened sense of smell which has, in the past, caused me a false sense of excitement when I believed I might be pregnant but never actually was. (Earlier this week I even thought I could be pregnant... but this is also after I got to hold a cute baby on Monday!) After reading about other women’s experiences online, I discovered that sometimes the heightened sense of smell is common between ovulation and the period arriving. So I'll take that symptom with a grain of salt from now on.  I have a feeling that, although I haven’t lost a huge amount of weight, perhaps my fertility has been restored. Women with PCOS often go through their cycles as usual but that doesn’t mean an egg is actually released; this is why some wome...

16.8 Pounds Lost in Two Months!

In the beginning I was hesitant to put a face to the name on this blog. I've since decided that "Before" and "During" photos would help motivate me on days when "After" seems either impossible or forever far away. I didn't take any measurements or photos on the day I started and, since I'm usually the person taking photos, I am not in very many of them. I had to go back to September to find one of me for the "Before" image. The "During" image was taken just a few moments ago, after 7 weeks of dieting and about 17 pounds of weight loss. Much of the weight has come off my midsection, but I've also noticed that my face, neck, and chin are feeling and looking a bit smaller than a few weeks ago. "Before" and "During" Project 52: Health Improvement Week by Week

Adding Exercise Next Week I’m gearing up for adding exercise into my plan for improving my health week by week. So far I have only been cutting out carbohydrates (rice, bread, cake, pancakes, sugar, ice cream, candy, potatoes, and corn). In 7 weeks I have lost and kept off 16.8 pounds by diet alone. That’s less ass to haul. :) It will really help my feet, legs, and back for when I get started exercising next week. In addition to giving myself a chance to lose some weight, I decided to wait until the first week of March to add exercise to give the world a chance to tilt itself closer towards spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Warmer weather makes exercise easier. We’re still a bit too far out for this weather forecast to be very accurate, but it looks a heck of a lot better to walk in than the ice and 15 degree temps we had last week! The days circled in red are the days I'll be walking the first week.  Walking Goals for March I’m starting incredibly small by walk...

Wondering what you can do with a Veggetti? Here's an easy recipe I enjoy!  Ingredients: Two large, fresh zucchini Minced Garlic tsp, or to taste. Handful of Chia seeds ( Why? )  Butter, tbsp. *Gasp!*  Salt & Pepper (to taste) One jar* of Classico Florentine Spinach and Cheese pasta sauce (Use two jars if you are also preparing traditional pasta for your family). Aidell’s Chicken Meatballs- Italian Style with Mozarella Cheese (packaged pre-cooked) ¼ Cup Shredded whole milk mozzarella cheese Instructions: Melt butter in a skillet on medium heat Cut the ends off the zucchini and cut in half so you have two small cylinders. Insert the zucchini in either end of the Veggetti gadget (thin or thick; I prefer thin). Twist the zucchini in the Veggetti gadget and it will create “noodles” of zucchini. (You will also end up with leftover “cones” of zucchini. I toss them, but you may wish to use them somehow.) Sautee the zucchini noodles in butte...

On days where the number on the scale ticks up a pound or so, it helps to step back and look at the overall trend. I zigzag up and down, but the overall trend is downward. 

Progress How am I doing? Well, my weight has crept back up a tad, but it’s also the week of my period so I’m not overly concerned. This morning I weighed in at 270.6. I’m trying to focus on the overall trend rather than the day to day zigzags… and so far, I’m still trending down. Since I’m Catholic and yesterday was Ash Wednesday, I found myself fasting (one normal meal with two lesser meals just enough to keep me going) and abstaining from meat as we begin the season of Lent to prepare for Easter. (FYI- We Catholics are the reason that the fast food chains boast about their fish sandwiches “coming back” each spring. Think about it! We fast from meat every Friday between Mardi Gras and Easter. That’s a lotta beef they’ve got to make up for!) We recently had an ice storm in our area; weathered northerners would find it laughable, but since we don’t have as much infrastructure here to deal with ice and snow, we basically just hibernate and sit tight until it’s over. By yes...

I'm a musician, nerd, and I like Disco. A few years ago, my husband gave me this for Christmas: It is a bust (no pun intended!) of the Marvel Comics character Dazzler. She's a mutant with the power to transduce sound into dazzling light displays. She's also a singer and performs on stage wearing rollerskates. In short, she totally rocks. While I don't look anything like Dazzler, this is a bit how I see myself. In my mind, Dazzler is sort of an ideal version of myself. I don't mean that in a harmful "I-played-with-too-many-Barbie-dolls-as-a-kid" sort of way. I mean it more in a "Dazzler is a sexy woman and so am I" sort of way. It's just that the blonde hair and bust are about all we have in common (right now).  My daughter found this little statuette one day and told me, "Mommy, I found your statue of you." I laughed and asked her, "Why do you say that's me?" and she replied, "Because she has the blond...

What am I doing to stay on track? The biggest thing that has helped me stay on track with this year's resolution to improve my health is the way I constructed my goal. Instead of saying "I want to lose X pounds by the end of the year" I said "I want to make a health plan and follow it all year long." This simple change has made a huge difference in my mindset and ability to stay on track. I feel that I finally have the horse in front of the cart. If I do the steps and take the measures, the weight loss will naturally follow. While seeing the weight come off has been motivating, there are days that the weight has gone up. Having PCOS, I cannot rely on weighing in only once per week to see my progress. Because my body responds inappropriately to certain foods (similar to a diabetic) I can't go an entire week between weigh-ins because progress may be easily masked. In the past I have fluctuated as much as 5 pounds overnight. Suppose such an outlying data po...