The Holiday's are Almost Over!`

YAY! I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE HOLIDAY'S TO BE OVER!

I don't want them to be over because I am not into the holidays, I love the holiday's. I am just tired of all the extra food around. Since I know my husband doesn't read this, I will admit, he is an eater. He loves food, and it is his motivation. If I ask him to go do something in town he usually would rather just sit home and watch TV unless I say, you want to go out to lunch. Then he is out the door and in the car in a flash. So, of course, he has been pigging down the food like usual over the holiday's and I have been baking cakes, cookies, fudge, food dishes, making eggnog with brandy, and whatever other fattening dish of food there is. Thank goodness I have a small stomach right now or all this food would be hard to say no thank you to.

So far I have noticed not very much of anything upsets my stomach or gives me dumping. According to what I have read, dumping is basically a hot flash with flushing and racing heart beat. Since I am used to that having already went through menopause, I don't even notice it. I have noticed with me, my so called "dumping" doesn't happen from food of any sorts, but rather by over exertion or pain.

Since my side is still not fully healed and I have issues doing my normal daily physical activities, exercising at a normal pace, and anything that requires some strength from the stomach. I am amazed at how much your stomach is used during your daily routine until you begin to do small things, like lift up my dishes to the cupboards and I feel those muscles pull and I almost drop all the dishes.
Anyhow, pulls and pains like this begin to sting and burn and then my "dumping" begins. I start sweating and flushing and my heart races. So, I have associated my dumping with pain rather than food, and it really isn't that bad. 

Once New Year's is over and hubby has had his sauerkraut and black eyed peas, he is ready to begin to watch what he eats and exercise. That I will see if he sticks with since after about a week, he usually has an excuse to not do it with me.

HIt the 170's!

Woo Hoo! I am officially in the 170's weighing in at 179.8 today. I am thrilled that after so many months of not being able to do my normal routine and my super slow weight loss due to inactivity, I am finally feeling 90% normal and beginning a light workout plan and the weight is slowing coming off just a few ounces at  a time, but happily, it is coming off!

Now, I have a new goal, to be in the 160's!

Got my haircut today!

I officially broke down today and went to the salon to get my haircut. I was pleased to find out they had a new girl there who moved here from New York, YAY! Finally someone who has been trained to cut hair outside of the state of Texas, that means she will know how to cut hair other than the 2 hair styles they know how to do here.

She did an awesome job! She looked at my thinning hair and made a suggestion and made my hair look fabulous instead of thinning drying hair that made me look old and frumpy.

I did confess to her that I had ordered a couple of wigs to wear out in public so as not to show off my terrible thinning hair and balding spots, and then she gave me pointers in an effort to make sure that I do not lose more hair by wearing the wigs too often.  I feel blessed to have this new stylist here in town and have her to cut my hair in the future. I just hope she doesn't move away.

Just one pound away from the 170's!

So today I got on the scale expecting to have a small gain and still be at my 182 to 183 pounds. I was pleasantly surprised when I weighed only 180.8, since I have only been at the 181 pound mark for the past day or two I really didn't expect this.

Now I am pleasantly excited about losing just one more pound so I can officially say I am in the 170's.

Since I am finally feeling well enough to do some exercising I think it is helping to contribute to moving the scale in my favor.

One more pound, I can do it!!!

Wishing I was losing faster

Well, today my weight was 181.6 pounds. I am getting anxious to get down to 179 so I can say good-bye to the 180's. It seems now it is taking its sweet all time in losing. I am realizing I can eat larger portions of food already without incident. The other day I ate a 6 ounce Greek yogurt and did not have the feeling of being too full, but was perfectly comfortable.

There are times when I first eat and only get down a few bites and it hits my stomach pretty hard and hurts for a while.

My goal this week is going to be to exercise a little each day in hopes that next week for my weekly weight loss weigh in that I have made my goal of 179 pounds.

My First Workout Since the Surgery

Finally, after 3 1/2 months post-op, I began my first bit of exercise with Richard Simmons "Party Off the Pounds". I only made it 12 minutes, but I can feel it burning in my core. It can only get better from here.  Now, the real test will be to see how I feel by evening and especially tomorrow morning.

I have hit 182 pounds exactly today, with only 67 pounds left to lose. With the possibility that I can handle exercising again, I will exercise everyday in hopes to lose the rest of this weight and hopefully at a better pace than I have up until this point.

Thanks Richard Simmons for having these not to difficult workouts for people like me.

Time for a haircut.

     As we all know, our hair falling out is part of the process of gastric bypass surgery. I haven't been upset about it since I knew it was coming and I also have (had) very thick hair.
     I did ask my doctor at my last visit how long it lasts, he said it could last up to 6 to 9 months, it just depends, but it only happens during the rapid weight loss phase. WOW! I was thinking at that moment, I better get all healed up soon so that use this time to really lose all the weight I need do.
     Since I had so many set backs from complications, I am wasting part of my time to take advantage of this time to lose more weight than I should. After all, I am still at only 40 pounds lost after 3 1/2 months post-op. 
     Well, I decided today to take a picture for those of you who wonder how much hair actually falls out. This hair is what came out of my hair today taking a shower. There was still more that washed down the drain, but this is just the hair that comes out in my hands as I wash my head.
     I have decided today that I will go and get a much shorter hair cut so when it does fall out it won't be as noticeable and it won't pull out so much when I brush it out.
     So for all you ladies in a panic, this is normal.

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND!

     First off I just want to say I am thankful to be alive! When I went in for surgery this past August, I expected a couple of weeks recovery at the most and life back to normal for the most part. Boy, was wrong. Not only did I feel like I was going to die after I had surgery and the few days that followed before they went in and did the revision to fix the leaks, I was so wore out and swelling that I could not wait to get back to the US to be near my family to recover. Little did I know that I would be back in the Hospital, but the Trauma Center Hospital 96 miles away from my home for 10 more days. Even there is was day by day and the code blue incident was a reality check of how serious my condition was.
     With all that being said, and still not 100% and back to a normal life, I am very thankful to be alive today and had the opportunity to share this holiday weekend with my husband and two children still living at home. I am thankful that God was so gracious to me and bestowed such mercy on me in providing a bariatric physician, and a Christian, to take me as a patient. When I reflect back on the things that could have been worse that could have caused my life to end, either in Mexico or back home, I see God's design in watching over me.
     We celebrated as a family this year with our prayer of Thanksgiving and I cooked all the traditional turkey dinner fixings, and I cooked so many different flavors of pies. My family has yet to eat them all and I have had to freeze some to pull out one at a time.
     The day after Thanksgiving, we drove to San Antonio, my first long car ride since I have been released from the hospital. I did well on the ride. I did well sleeping in the hotel bed too. We spent two days at Six Flags for the Holiday in the Park. It was wonderful. The first day, I walked for about 2 hours, sat down a couple of hours, then used my walker for the last few hours until we went to the hotel. The next day, I was very sore and had some issues just standing up from a sitting position and walking was painful, so I rented an electric wheelchair/scooter thing for the day from the park. This made enjoying the lights, Santa, and my kids faces enjoying themselves at the park absolutely wonderful.
     I am happy to be home and back in my own bed and not overdoing it, but talking it one day at a time, doing a little more than the day before to push myself in my recovery.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday as well.