Spring?

It's been a gorgeous couple of days here in Washington DC--up to the 60's in temperature with shiny sun, which makes everything feel better.

The shedding-clothes season has begun! People are already starting to shy away from the winter coats, scarfs, hats, and mittens of winter and break out the spring jackets, the bright colors, and short sleeves. We're not yet to sandal weather, but we're close. I love having naked feet, so I can't wait until flip-flop season is upon us.

This summer will technically be my second summer post-WLS, but really it will be my first summer really enjoying my weight loss. I'm so close to "normal" shopping--where all my clothes can come from any store in the mall. I know that I'll be there in the next few months, which will be awesome.

At work, I started a "Fit Club." It's a two-month "program" with a $20 buy in; the winner takes the pot. The goal is to be the person with the most workouts at the end of the two months. We've established some rules already--walking to work doesn't count (in a pedestrian friendly city, many of us walk to work already) unless you walk with weights. A workout is defined as a half hour or more of continuous activity. A 1 hour workout doesn't count as two workouts, but workouts space more than 4 hours apart from each other do count (for example, walking to and from work with weights). The other clicher is that a entrant who does not have three workouts in a 7 day period pays a $5 penalty into the pot. Everyone at work is excited to get involved (I work in a small office of 12 employees total and we're all pretty healthy, or trying to be...), and we're all so competitative, that I think this is really going to help jump start my weight loss!

I also have my first appointment with a personal trainer at my new gym next Monday. Hopefully, she'll give me a good starting workout (I'm more concerning with strength training info than cardio help) and we can follow up a few times during the next few months to tweak it so it keeps working.

I do have some weird exercise goals that I'd like to accomplish this year--why don't I share them with you?

• Be able to earn a Presidential Physical Fitness Award. This was something I never was able to (and frankly didn't try) do in High School, but I'd love to be fit enough now to make it into the 85th percentile category in 5 events: Curl ups, Shuttle Run, 1 Mile, Pull ups, and vertical sit ups. I'm going to aim for 85th percentile as a 17 year old girl, and we'll see how far I can get. :)
• Run a 5K. My goal in this would be to run the entire distance, rather than run/walk.
• Do a GI Jane push up. Yes, you may remember a shaved Demi Moore getting brutal in SEALS training in the movie. That's what I want to do. At least one!
  

Ok, back to work.

Big *WOW* Moment

Today is the 8 month "anniversary" of my surgery. This morning, I woke up at 7(ish), got ready for work, then walked 1.5 miles to the gym, and for the first time in my life...

I RAN.

Ok, jogged. But whatever...I moved at a rate faster than plodding, faster than marching, faster than strolling, and even faster than speed walking. And, I did it for a significant amount of time. I was on the treadmill for 30 minutes and I walked/ran 2 miles. I alternated from a 3 to a 4.5 speed, but stayed between 3.7 and 4.2 for the majority of the time.

How awesome is that?

Work borrowed my scale to weigh the luggage of our international guests before they left for the airport and I haven't brought it back in yet, so I'm not sure how much impact the last few days at the new gym have had on my weight, but I think I'm getting closer to onederland, which is fantastic!

If you can beleive it, I've lost 120 lbs (at last weigh in) in the last 8 months! That's an average of 15 pounds a month lost--which is ridiculous when you compare it to any of my other attempts at weight loss, the best of which culminated in a 40 lb loss over the course of a year!

I've gone from a size 28/30, 4xl to a 16 top 16/18/20 bottom, XL top/bottom. :)

I had another epiphany as I walked to work this morning. I went to bed last night at 1am after a very long day of work. My alarm started ringing at 6:45am and I was up by 7:15am -- so about 6 hours of solid sleep. But as I was walking to work at 8am, I realized I didn't feel tired. I mean, I will never be a morning person, but I used to wake up exhausted after 5-6 hours sleep and I definitely could only push myself to do that two or three days in a row before I needed a night of 10-12 hours of sleep. Now, I get less sleep all the time, but I don't feel it. I have a TON of energy now. I can't stay in bed past 10am, even on days off/weekends, because there is too much I want to DO. Seriously, this surgery totally changed my life and I am so flipping happy I got it!

Keeping it Real

My weight loss has definitely slowed in the last few months. I know the next 40-60 lbs are going to be the hardest/slowest to lose. I'm still very committed to the program, but I have definitely become more lax on my eating habits. I'm no longer militant about bread/carbs, although I still can't tolerate anything with a high sugar content. I still don't use a straw when I drink or drink carbonated beverages, but I do have an occasional glass of wine/sips of beer. I think as you progress with this surgery and lifestyle, you have to constantly walk the fine line between what is doable for life and what is the slippery slope to weight re-gain. I struggle with the line more now than ever, but I feel like, on the whole, I've done a great job of being able to keep perspective and focus without becoming a total food maniac (eating only protein shakes and salads). I know that the longer I'm out, the easier it will be to allow bad habits to creep in. I can only hope that by continuing to acknowledge the struggle and be a more reflective eater will help keep me in check.

Well, that, and the upcoming swimsuit season! :)

Kidney Stones!

I'm coming back from a combined few days in the hospital dealing with Kidney Stones. Just wanted to share my story, in case it has (or God forbid, will) happened to anyone else.

Woke up Monday Morning 5:30am in excruciating pain radiating front to back on my left lower abdomen. Since I am not a morning person and it was VERY early for me, all I could do was writh and ask myself, "WTF?" Having just finished my period, I went to the bathroom, thinking I was having either really bad cramps or really bad gas. Neither was the case and the pain would. Not. STOP.

Of course, I did what all sane adults do--I called my mom! My mom (also woken out of a deep sleep) confirmed that it wasn't appendicitis (appendix is on your right side, not your left), and asked me to call my Dr. Even though I have a PCP, since Surgery, I've treated Dr. Harrington (my WLS surgeon) as my PCP--I really trust him more, plus this is an abdomen pain, which is clearly in his domain, right? His service pages him and tells me that if he hasn't called back in 15 minutes to call them back.

I got through about 7.5 of those 15 minutes before I was like "eff this!" and caught a cab to the hospital. I was in the emergency room at 7am, sitting with my head to my knees trying to keep the pain down (btw, this is something I never could have done before surgery--my belly was too big to allow me to bend over that far!). Once they brought me back to the room, right away, everyone (nurses, doctors) thought I had a kidney stone. They did a CT scan and then an ultrasound and confirmed I had a 3mm kidney stone just outside my left kidney (in the ureter from the kidney to the bladder). They gave me some pain medication and a urine strainer and told me to follow up with a urologist. The only other thing of note that happened when I was in the ER was that when they gave me an IV of morphine, my blood pressure went down to 85/45--so they bagged me with a thing of saline to hydrate me.

I left the ER Monday afternoon around 2pm and went home. I had really bad pain Monday in the middle of the night, had a pretty good day Tuesday, and woke up with bad pain on Wednesday morning that stayed until about 3:30pm. At about 6pm, I called my mom again, telling her that I'd been in a lot of pain and was really nauseous (I threw up twice Monday morning). I hadn't had anything to eat on Wednesday, but was trying to keep drinking water. When I had to hang up the phone on my mom to throw up the three sips of water I'd just taken, she made me call my doctor again.

My Doctor admitted me into the hospital Wednesday night because he was concerned that I was becoming too dehydrated. I spent the night Wednesday and all day Thursday in the hospital, getting bags of Potassium Chloride and a little pain medication (although I was more nauseous than in pain at that point). My doctor discharged me yesterday evening--again with pain medication and a strainer to wait out the kidney stone. (Kidney stones can take up to a month to pass through your system!)

A couple of comments:
1) My doctor said that there is a known correlation between WLS and kidney stones due to the malabsorption of minerals in our bodies, which can cause buildups in our kidneys ("calculi") that are kidney stones. There are some surgical treatments for kidney stones, but they all have a slight risk of damaging my renal system (kidney/bladder/ureter/urethra), and I'd rather deal with the pain of passing the stone than a lifetime of urinary problems!

2) Our "normal" blood pressure range changes a lot with our weight loss. My "normal" BP used to be 120/70, but I never even got close to that in the hospital, which made me quite nervous that I was very dehydrated. My blood work came back ok, and it was my surgeon who suggested that my BP has probably lowered b/c of WLS. I plan on getting my BP checked a few times in the next few weeks so I can start to see what my new "normal" BP is. If you were on BP meds before, you probably already knew this, but if, like me, you never had a BP problem, I bet you didn't realize that your BP range still probably changed with the weight loss.

Anyway--I'm doing much better now! I'm hoping to rest this weekend and be back to 100% early next week.

Guess Who's Back?

I'm back again (finally). I've spent literally the last four weeks traveling--first home for the holidays, then a week in Turkey and a quick trip to West Virginia. I'm back for a while now, which is good.

I'm down 3 pounds since New Years, which means I'm on track for my 6-7 pound weight loss per month, although I haven't yet been to the gym. I want to get started ASAP--I may go in tomorrow and get signed up. I'm excited to have a new set of goals and the help of a trainer.

I wanted to share two funny moments with you. When I was in Turkey, I had a meeting with a guy I hadn't seen in about a year--I last saw him in February 2005, when I was just about at my highest weight. The look on his face when he saw me again was *priceless*! He could not stop staring at me! It felt really great!

Second, on my way out of the country, I had to go through passport control in the Istanbul airport. The Passport agent actually kept me there for several minutes because he couldn't believe that it was really me in the picture in my passport!

Well, take a look for yourself:

My passport photo (1998), My Driver's License Photo (2001?), Jan 2006 Photo.

Now, if I could just get a date.... :)

Happy New Year!

First Goal

Ultimate Goal

Happy New Year!

What an amazing year it has been! Take a look:

On the left, Christmas 2005, on the right Christmas 2004.

This year I've lost ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN POUNDS! That's 72% of my excess weight in less than a year! Every year, I resolve that THIS will be the year I lose weight. I can't believe that it really happened in 2005!

I have 46-61 pounds to go to reach my goal(s) in 2006. I KNOW I can do it this year! Can you imagine my first summer EVER feeling comfortable getting into a swimsuit? Wanting to hang out at the beach? Unbelievable!

2006 Resolutions:

1. Get to a "normal" BMI. (164 is 24.9 BMI for my height, 5'8")

I'm currently at 32. If I go down one BMI point (6/7 pounds) each month, I'll be at 25 by August (my 30th birthday). Then, from August to December, I can work on assessing my true goal weight (although I admit to being partial to 150).

How can I lose 6-7 pounds a month CONSISTENTLY for the next 8 months?

* Exercise!! I have slacked off on an exercise program through the busy holidays. I'm comfortable with that decision, but the holidays are over and I need to get back into a routine. I'm going to sign up for a new gym on January 20th (when I get paid again), and work with a personal trainer. I'd like to have a personal trainer work with me once a month, so I can get weighed and measured and have my workout tweaked. I also think having those short term accountability/goals will help me keep working! I've always wanted to be GI Jane or Elektra or Lara Croft, and I know that lifting weights will also help tighten me (and my skin) up, so I'm excited about that!

* Eat Right!! Luckily for me, this surgery took away my biggest weakness--sugar. I still can't eat things with a lot of sugar without feeling terrible! But, carbs (breads, pastas, etc.) I have no problem with. In order to get this weight off, I'm going to need to be stricter with myself on focusing on protein and staying away from carbs. I'm spending the first half of January in Turkey (for work), but when I get back, the carbs are going to go--I think I may instutitute a carbs one day a week rule, so I can still get a "fix" in, but not at the expense of my continued weight loss.

* Vitamins & Water In. I still haven't gotten my lab work done from NOVEMBER people! I am pretty diligent about vitamins--I just get a little sloppy with my afternoon calcium and my before bed multi-vitamin. I also go back and forth with my water consumption. I need to make both of these a rote habit so I stay vitaminated and hydrated--keeping me healthy!

2. Get my Finances Right. I suck at keeping a budget, always have. Just like last year was the year for me to make big, drastic changes to get my weight in order, this year is the year for me to make big, drastic changes to get my finances in order. I'm 8 months away from 30 and in a crushing amount of debt (mostly grad school loans, but STILL!). I don't save, I don't have a retirement plan, and I am not even really living paycheck to paycheck (I am always scraping by the week before my monthly check on $0 - $20 bucks). This has got to stop. I want to feel good about answering the phone and opening my mail and know that I am putting myself in a position to be a) debt free b) with savings c) and retirement and d) ready to buy a home and e) start a family. I know that I can do it, I just need professional help! This month, I promise to call an accountant/financial advisor and start getting my money in order.

I was going to post other goals/resolutions, but really, these two are pretty big goals, and for me to be successful at them, I really can't afford to divide my attention any further. I want to travel more (but making my finances work comes first) and I want to be dating (I'd say more, but I'm not dating at all now, so ANY dating will be an improvement), but I think that if I work on these two areas, those goals and others I have will come along in due time.

I'm really proud of what I've accomplished so far and am really looking forward to being a satisfied, happy, healthy 30 year old.

Welcome, 2006. I'm ready for ya! :)

Me and my youngest cousin Elizabeth at Christmas.

Me and my cousins (different side of the family). The thing that strikes me most about this photo is that I FIT IN. I don't look like the humongo blobby cousin that is taking up half the couch. I'm so "normal" looking, I don't stick out at all. That is a-freaking-mazing to me!!