Weigh In Wednesday - April 29, 2015

Hello everyone! Today is the four-month anniversary of my sleeve surgery. Prior to surgery, I was on a liquid food diet and had lost 20 pounds. I have now lost a total of 33 pounds post-surgery and 53 total overall and am really happy. I am really proud of my progress to date. Although I have had a few upsets, I have continually lost weight.

I started exercising by walking around my apartment complex twice, which was  exactly one mile. During my initial walks, I was out of breath and my feet hurt. I couldn't wait to get back inside my home. However, I continued to go out.  Eventually, I became bored with walking around my complex, so I started to walk up the street. Before I knew it, I was walking three miles, then four and five. Now I walk up to six miles! Yes, I'm exhausted and my feet still hurt when I am done, but I couldn't be more proud of my accomplishments. Prior to surgery, I would have never gone out walking , much less six miles of it.  Here is a link to today's walk which included my BFF Andi:  http://www.mapmywalk.com/workout/965073879

Yesterday, I saw one of my neighbors out walking. I was so happy for this neighbor because prior to that when I saw her, she was sitting down by the office chatting with the neighbors. I am proud that she is walking or following my example after seeing me go out.  

Today, I weighed myself, and I'm at 209.8 pounds. My family tells me that if I get down to 200 pounds, we will celebrate, so I chose my celebration of choice. I told my family I wanted to hike to Paradise Falls in Thousand Oaks, CA. This is a one-mile hike, and although it sounds simple, I hope it will have an incline and give us a good workout.  

As for my diet, I rarely have liquid meals anymore, but when I'm busy, I will have one to make sure I stay healthy. The drink I buy is from Costco and has 30 grams of protein. When I do eat, I forget that I'm post-surgery and tend to eat either too fast or too much, and 99% of the time, I throw up my food. This happened today. I had a hot dog, but I only ate half of it before some of it came back up.  

I sometimes cheat and have candy, because I often get a sour stomach. I have found that the Sees peppermint chocolates are the only thing that calms my stomach. Of course, I don't stop at just one candy, and the scale shows my cheating ways.  

I've gone down a couple pant sizes, and since I don't have any plans to return to my old weight, I've decided to either sell or give away the clothes that no longer fit me. When I weighed almost 300 pounds, I wore a size 26 pant. Now, I wear a size 18.  

Last week, I attended a support group sponsored by my doctor. I found this very comforting; it was good to hear other people’s stories. After the session, one of the people in the group found me on Facebook and we starting communicating. She is just starting on her weight-loss journey and has questions that I am more than happy to answer.  

I wish you and yours all the best. If you want to walk and need a partner or just want to discuss the strategies that are working for me, please look me up. I'm more than happy to share.