Gone for a while...in one-der-land now!

Hello! I've been gone for a while, and wanted to check back in. Last I posted I was having my left hip replaced, and it went very well!  I am in such less pain and can walk without a cane. I'm even doing stairs. I still have arthritis in my other hip and at least one knee, but the pain reduction is remarkable. As some might remember, my main motivation for doing the gastric bypass was health--because my orthopedic doc needed me to reduce weight to make my hip replacement surgery safer--and so that goal has been firmly met!

Of course there have been many other health benefits, including increased energy and a lower dose of blood pressure meds. And I DID make it into one-der-land! I have about 16 pounds left to the conservative goal I set when I began this journey. It will leave me in the "overweight" category, and if I want to keep losing I can, but I feel comfortable with all the "gains" I have had due to my "losses."

I've been having some episodes of sharp pain at the top of my abdomen, radiating to my back (between/below my shoulder blades), and leaving me in agony for 60 to 90 minutes. No help from Gax-X (and it doesn't feel like gas) or tylenol. All I can do is curl into the fetal position with the hot bag and wait. :-( In any case, I'm not putting off my 1 year check up with my surgeon any longer so I can get that checked out. Might be gallbladder or ulcer, or maybe just something I am eating that I should avoid, although I can't track it to anything specific. I was able to get an appointment for next week.

Okay, that's it for the quick update! Hope everyone is doing well, and happy weekend!

--Karen

P.S. I set a goal for 2014 to read 100 books! I started with this series and really enjoyed it:

Am I really approaching One-der-land?

I was stunned to enter my weight at My Fitness Pal today (I have lost a few more pounds in the past two weeks), and see that I appear to be getting close to a dream-land for us larger folks: getting under 200 pounds.  In fact, there's a name for it--when your weight starts with a "1" (instead of a "2" or "3") you have entered ONEDERLAND.  I've been so focused on getting ready for my hip replacement this summer, that this goal snuck up on me.  In 8 pounds, I'll be there!

Is it like the one in Alice in WONDERLAND?  When you think about it, there are actually a lot of food and size concepts in that book.

There's the famous "Eat me" and "Drink me" items:

There's the Tea Party with the Mad Hatter where Alice never seems to get anything to eat or drink:

There's the mushroom (complete with Caterpillar and his hookah) where one side makes you larger and one side makes you smaller:

And of course, we have the scene where Alice grows to an enormous size, and only can shrink when she eats pebbles that are thrown at her and turn into cakes:

No wonder Alice is confused!  I kind of lived this life for years...bigger then smaller, then repeat.  Now I'm 8 pounds away from a number I hardly remember.  Today I put on a pair of pants that started with a "1" (size 18).  All I can say is...I'm grinning...like the Cheshire Cat.  :-)

Checking back...

Well, it has been many weeks since I've made a post here.  Life DOES get in the way, including one of my co-workers having a stroke, my dad having surgery, and going out of town to a conference.  Since my last post, I have lost another 20 pounds (so down a total of 120), but it should have been more.  My body and mindset went into a maintenance-mode, so I didn't gain, but didn't lose.  I am now 7 months post-gastric-bypass, and I'd like to lose another 40 pounds before my surgery anniversary date in December.

I know I can do it--I lost 40 pounds BEFORE my surgery, getting ready--but I need to re-focus.  One of the things that has really gotten in the way for me is my continuing pain from arthritis in my hip.  I had hoped (and my orthopedic doc had hoped) that losing weight would reduce the pain, but that didn't happen.  I finally went in for updated x-rays, and we found that not only do I have no cartilage left in my left hip, I have significant bone spurs on each side of the joint.  So...I am going to go ahead and have it replaced.  At least losing weight has made the surgery much safer for me.

The hip replacement is scheduled for August 16--exactly 4 weeks from now.  I need to start on some specific exercises for my hip to get ready, AND I want to see if I can lose 5 pounds by then.  I still won't be able to do too much walking on my treadmill, but will do what I can.

So, that's my update!  I hope to get to check in on some of your blogs, and stay more connected.  Leave me an update on yourself or link to your blog if you read this!

P.S. I am looking forward to doing the the My Tiny Tank Walk/Run sponsored by Tracy over at My Tiny Tank!  It's in celebration of her 13th year surgery anniversary, and is on July 24th, so check it out if you want to join in...you choose your own mode and length of walk/run, so it's right up my alley right now!

100 pounds down!!!

Yes, it's true!  I have lost a total of 100 pounds!  It's not an April Fools' Day joke either. :-)

That's 40 pounds before gastric bypass on December 14, and then 60 pounds after. Woohoo!

I have to make this short but sweet, but just had to announce this...

Have a good week!

Finally using my new scale!

A while back, I won a great scale in a give-a-way from Tracy at My Tiny Tank.  It's an EatSmart scale.  I got it in the mail, and before I could start using it, or take any pictures, I got sick.  :-(

However, now I am well, and I got out my new scale today!  Here are some pictures of its first use:

New scale on left...old scale on right!  

Weighing out 1 oz of Tillamook Medium Cheddar.  (When I have cheese, I would rather have a small amount of the real stuff.)

I am vegetarian, so rely on cheese and dairy for some of my protein.  Rather than buy the expensive pre-packaged string cheese, babybels or cheddar squares, I buy a larger size from Costco and slice it myself.  Of course, cheese is on the high-fat side, so I want to stay very aware of how much I'm having!  I've been using an antiquated scale...maybe from the 70's?  (Okay, I'm making that up, but it IS very old and I think it's actually supposed to be a postal scale.)

This new scale makes it SO easy to measure out 1 ounce, and put it in separate ziplocks. All ready to go into my bento-box-style lunch box for work (from Laptop Lunches)  Then I re-use the ziplocks for the next round.

Thanks SO much to Tracy at MyTinyTank (her facebook page is here:  MyTinyTank) and to Karen at EatSmart Products (their facebook page is here: EatSmartProducts) for this wonderful gift!

Feeling better...

Well, that flu thing caught up to me.  I had a flu shot, and thought since I'd made it through January (the first month after my surgery) that my immune system had survived...but...no.  I have now been sick nearly two weeks, and luckily just have the cough and some head congestion left.  (I kind of feel like my head is underwater...weird.)

During this time, I have not done hardly anything I am supposed to.  I didn't log my food.  I didn't exercise.  I didn't get in all my vitamins.  I certainly didn't get in all my protein, since I had several days of broth and popsicles  due to the yucky sore throat. :-(

However, I didn't gain, and actually kept slowly losing.  Of course that may change now that I'm getting back to eating "normally" (well, normal for my tiny tummy).  I've actually lost 90 pounds now total--50 since surgery in December.  :-)

I'm WAY behind at work (have been doing online work at home even), so don't have much time to say a lot more, but wanted to get a post in here to help me in getting back in the swing of things.

Hope everyone is doing well, and I look forward to catching up on your blogs soon...hopefully this weekend.

Another advance...crunch, crunch!

Yes, I've been "advanced" again...this time to the "advanced" foods.  I saw my surgeon and his team yesterday, and got the okay to eat whatever I can tolerate.  That includes salad and raw veggies!  I've been cooking my veg. soft (not quite mush, but bordering on it) for the past 6 weeks, so I am looking forward to the change.  Since I'm vegetarian, I haven't had to deal with the experience of eating and perhaps not tolerating meat-substances, so protein sources will remain pretty much the same.  However, a little more crunch will be welcome. :-)

Since schedules meant my 2 week follow-up was at 3 weeks, and my 6 week follow-up was at 9 weeks, we decided to have my blood drawn yesterday and skip the 3 month visit.  (It would be 3 weeks away...seemed a little much.)  They gave me a B-12 shot and sent me on my way.  So long as everything continues to go well, I will go in again in the middle of May.

And, they say everything IS going well.  I've lost 82 pounds, 42 of it since my surgery December 14, so according to them, that puts me right on track as far as weight loss.  They warned it might start to slow soon, and that exercise would be especially important moving into that phase.  I am having a lot of pain in my left hip (where I have no cartilage left), so may ask my primary care doc for a referral to PT again to see if some new exercises of the hip muscles are in order.  I thought it was interesting that my nutritionist mentioned the changes our bodies must make as we shift our weight (either up OR down).  She is pregnant (due in April) and used herself as an example!

   On a somewhat related topic, my clothes have been falling off me (especially my pants), so I went out to a couple of thrift shops after my doctor's appointments yesterday.  However, I came home with pants that were too small!  I think I was compensating for the annoyance of having to hitch my pants up when I walk--but it is very frustrating.  Now I'll have to go out again, probably to different shops because they didn't really have good choices in the next sizes up anyway.  I really was clueless about pants sizes, but think I overestimated my progress.  :-(












On a totally UN-related topic, it's a three day weekend!  Although I of course have grading and such to do, it will be nice to have three days to sleep in a little and hang around in my (very baggy) casual clothes.  If you get a holiday also, hope you enjoy it!