Rising_Phoenix

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I was out to dinner with friend's on 4/12, just living life, when the significance of the date came creeping out of my unconscious - 3-years post RNY! Wow!! Life has changed in so many ways. I started this journey at 353 lbs and now weigh-in between 156 and 164 depending on the day and how good I'm being with getting my exercise and monitoring my intake. I am typically able to eat just about whatever I want without issue - which is a blessing and a curse. I do have reactive hypoglycemia on occasion - but I generally know when I am setting myself up for that and only have myself to blame. A few things will make me quiet sick to my stomach if I eat them too fast - pasta being the worst - but my boyfriend is Italian so there is a lot of pasta around me these days! I am not always great about taking all my vitamins and ended up with anemia - but after 3 months of high-dose iron supplementation I am much better. Right now I am struggling the most with taking the Calcium but I know I need to! 

I am 9-months post extended tummy-tuck, breast-lift with augmentation, and arm-lift. I just saw my PS today and scheduled a spiral thigh lift and butt lift (as well as some slight revisions of the tummy and breasts) for late July. I'm not so sure I'm ready to go through the craziness of PS recovery again - but I know I am ready to have these thighs of mine look better!! 

All-in-all life is good. RNY is the best decision I have ever made for myself. I have since had 3 friends/colleagues pursue some sort of bariatric surgery and they are all happy with it as well. :) 

Where ever you are in your journey I wish you much luck!

 

I am 14-months post-op as of today! I am down to 183.8 pounds for a loss of 169.2 pounds since surgery! I'm wearing a size 14 in jeans - though sometimes can get away with smaller. I'm usually in Large or Medium top. Never ever every thought I would be able to say that! Sometimes I don't recognize myself in pictures. I'm working 4-5x per week. I'm running at least one 5k race a month and working up to 10k distance. Never thought I'd love running - but I do! I feel terrific and I'm loving life. I want to take off about 20-30 more pounds and then start the reconstructive surgery process - but my surgeon thinks I should go ahead and start working on having reconstructive surgery now. Weightloss is really SLOW now but it is till coming off. Lost 4 pounds in April and 7 in May (which is pretty decent).

I get teary when I look at my before pic and my current pic - it just doesn't seem possible!
The night before surgery (4/11/2011)


At a recent 5k (5/2012) In the middle


From my Birthday (4/2012) I'm second from the left

I figure it's time for an update. I'm down to 205 - so close to being under that 200 mark!! I can hardly wait!  My weight loss has slowed down a lot. Still managing to lose about 9-10 lbs a month. I'm in a size 16 jeans - but they are too big - just haven't gone shopping for a smaller size yet. I'm wearing shirts in a size large. It still amazes me and takes my breath away when I can fit in these sizes. So hard to imagine that I am going to get even smaller. I am only about 11 lbs away from my surgeon's goal weight - but he just gets his goal weights by figuring out what I should weight if I lost 80% of my excess weight - well, that's too bad because my plan is to lose as close to 100% of my excess weight as possible!  

I am totally committed to the whole lifestyle change. I am loving who I am becoming. I think I am probably driving some people crazy because I talk about diet and exercise - especially running - all the time!  Oh well.  I ran a 5k this morning (well, I ran most of it - walked some of it) and finished in about 38-minutes. I'm signed up for another one next month and my goal is to beat my time - 36-minutes sounds good to me!  :)  

Just a quick update and a new picture...  I am surviving the holidays and managing to lose weight despite all the temptations and some very blatant indulgences.  I am weighing in at 225lbs which is down 128 from surger on 4/12/11. I am so happy with my progress. There are days, of course, when I want it all to go faster but I know it will come with time.  Only 25 more pounds until I break into the 100s!!!!  I honestly can't remember the last time I was under 200. I weight about 255 when I graduated high school - so I am under my high school graduation weight. I am at my lowest weight in well over a decade! These most recent pics were taken about 2 weeks ago at my office holiday party (I loved my red dress!)







And as a reminder.... this is from whence I came:

Figured it was time for a quick update! I am down 117 lbs!  I am feeling good and I am MUCH more active. I am wearing a size 18 jeans and a 14/16 top - quite the change from 30/32 I was sporting in April before surgery!  I managed to lose 2lbs this week despite Thanksgiving and all the temptations it brought with it. I even got up early Thanksgiving morning and did a Turkety Trot 5k with my mom and sister - granted I can't run a full 5k yet but I'm getting there! I'm still working my way through the C25K program. I LOVE that I can actually run for any length of time at all!

So, I will officially be 5 months post-op on Oct 12th and have lost 83 pounds -woot!  Had some pictures taken this weekend and I can finally see a difference. I had been able to feel the changes but just couldn't see them. It's nice to finally have the brain catch up! Loving life!

So, I'm a little over 4 months out from surgery and I've lost about 76lbs. How great is that!? I'm getting very close to surpassing my previous weight loss record! I've been reflecting on changes in my life in these short 4 months. My clothes are finally all too big - it seemed to take a long time for the weight loss to really be noticeable. I have a pile of clothes in my living room that I need to give away or toss. I'm wearing more dresses these days and starting to feel pretty again. I'm wearing heels - and not the chunky kind - actual thin high heels! Granted they aren't that high - let's not get crazy! I can fit comfortably in the seats at the movie theater - no more having to raise the arm rest between me and the person next to me!!  I sleep better. I have more energy. I took a strength training, yoga, and pilates combo class - it was tough at first but I got stronger and more flexible! I have joined a gym and had my first session with a trainer today! I am actually excited about working out - whoa!  I have noticed that my weight loss is slowing down a bit and I am hoping that amping up my workouts and adding more strength training will really help with that. I need to have some new pics taken so I can compare and see my progress. There are days I look in the mirror and think I look exactly the same - even though the pile of clothes in the living room says otherwise!  All in all, things are going really well and I am excited to see what the next 4 months bring!

Stepped on the scale this morning and have hit the -60 mark!  Yay!  Had my 12 week visit with the surgeon et al on Thursday. According to them I am doing very well. My labs reportedly look good - I forgot to ask for a copy. I am having an awful pain in my lower left abdomen when I bend over or try to do certain pilates or yoga moves. It feels like a stabbing, ripping, burning kind of pain but as soon as I get out of the offending position it stops hurting (there might be a slight residual pain but not bad). However, it hurts so bad when it happens it takes my breath away and brings tears to my eyes. My surgeon said he had a few people complain about this but has no idea what it is as he didn't do any work in that area. His best guess is that it is some type of nerve pain.  Ugh - I really want it to stop because it is inhibiting a lot of things I want to be able to do!  Aside from that I generally feel pretty darn good. I'm still not getting the full 80g of protein per day and not because I'm eating a bunch of carbs or other crap - I'm just not intaking enough. I am getting between 60-75 most days though.  I'm exercising for an hour 4-5 days per week. I am finding that I like taking exercise classes much more than just walking on a treadmill or riding an exercise bike. I do want to buy a bicycle soon but I'm waiting until my weight drops a little lower. Maybe at the 6 month mark.  I will try to get some pics taken this weekend for 3 month comparison pics. 

Woooo-Hoooo!!



This absolutely made my day - great way to start off the week! My weight seemed to sloooow to a crawl once I got close to this point and then overnight - bam - 1.8 lbs lost and I am finally under 300 for a grand loss of 53.8 pounds since surgery on 4/12!  Yayayayaya! 

So, I happened to have a reason to get dressed up last night and decided to have a friend take some full body pics for me so I could do another comparison. There has only been about a 10 pound loss between the second and third pics (they were taken about 20 days apart).  I've been struggeling with negative thoughts lately - but trying to refocous myself on the positive!  Trying to remind myelf how well I have done so far and that there is absolutely no reason why this can't continue!!