ONE YEAR POST-OP!!!!!!

ok so i know that my calling in life is clearly not blogging.... i stink at it. however here i go giving you all an update. Things in the past year have been crazy! we have accepted a new job and relocated to Hermiston Oregon. We bought a house, got a new dog, three cows (one is already dead), i started and quit a new job and am now enjoying being a spoiled housewife!!! now onto the weight loss side of things. I think last time i had updated you guys was maybe a month or two since my surgery. Well i am happy to announce I am within 15 lbs of my goal weight. I am about 150 lbs right now and have leveled out quite a bit. I did do an unofficial 5k for thanksgiving with my family and am still going to do one. I have seen a lot of my skin shrink up really well (thank heavens). I am still working hard to try and lose that last 15 lbs. I have what looks like a life supply of protein shakes in my pantry and love it!

Let see things that i am able to do now that i have never been able to do before. I ran a full mile without stopping or being exhausted.. I went running in Utah and ran up to the top the canyon by my grandparents house. I live in a place that gets into the 100's in the summer and finally don't feel like a disgusting sweaty blob!!! In fact i wear sweatshirts just about everywhere i go because i am freezing all of the time!!!!

I went from 285 lbs to 150. A total loss of 135lbs so far. I went from a tight size 24 to a 8/10 now. Right now i could not be happier. I am so thankful for my second chance at life and want to thank everyone who has supported me throughout my journey. You are amazing and i would have been able to see such success without you all. I am so thankful for my husband who is so supportive and understanding and i want to thank him for helping me stay on top of things when sometimes i dont want to. I also want to thank him for giving me numerous pep talks (sometimes in the middle of Walmart) about how far i have come and to not get down on myself. Thank you all!!!! I will try to be better about posting more often!!!

                                  THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT!!!!!!

First couple of days Post-Op

ok so for those of you who follow my blog or for whoever just read it, I had my surgery on friday the 11th just 3 days ago, and I am very happy to report that my surgery went very well. the surgery went really quickly. he said it usually takes 2 1/2 hours but it only took 1 1/2 hours for me. he said he didnt find any hernias that needed repaired. He also said that my liver looked great. that it didnt look at all close to someone who is overweights would have looked. the last couple of days have been quite the experience. I have 6 insisions(sp) on my abdomen. and Brian says the swelling has gone down a lot. the first day was a little rough. i was in a lot of pain and the morphine and the saline drip made me really really nauseus so i eventually just stopped taking the pain meds. I also couldnt sleep for more then 30 minutes at a time. so i spent a lot of my time walking around in the halls. pain and nausea werent as bad when i was walking. i slept really well last night in my own bed and i think i am doing pretty well with keeping down my liquids. i havent thrown up today so i think thats good cuz i did twice yesterday and it was unbelievably painful!!!! sneezing and hiccups also hurt but i think i am slowly getting better and better. I do have some preop pics and some pics of my insisions. but i am waiting to find a heaviest weight picture before i post them on here so you can see the difference. I want to take the chance to thank you all for your wonderful support and friendship. you all are so wonderful  and i am so lucky to have you all as friends. thank you so much!!!!!

SURGERY DATE!!!!!!!

I am very excited to let all of you know how things are going! I went to my preop appt today i i scheduled my surgery! I am very excited to announce that i will have my surgery on May 11th, 2012!!! that is exactly 2 weeks from today and i am extatic!!!! I check in to Auburn Regional Medical Center at 6 in the morning that morning! i am so excited!!! I also gave myslef a shot today!!!! of saline but still!!! I did i myself which is awesome cuz needles used to give me the heebie jeebies!! ha ha ha but if anyone has any questions about anything please feel free to ask!!!!!!

I Have My 5K Race Date!!!!!

Ok so for many of you that read my blog you already know that one of my big goals is to run a 5k by the time i am 6 months post op. well i am very excited to tell you that i have found the 5k that i will be running. I took me a while to find it but i finally found a website that has all of the seattle marathons for 2012. the date of the 5k is November 24th, 2012 at 8:30 am!!! it will be cold i think but i am very excited! if you are interested in joining me or just cheering me on the website is www.seattlemarathon.org/5k. i would love to have your support!!!!! Also i want to let many of you know that this will not be my last. Some of you already know that my grandmother Ida Arlene Mortimer passed away in November of 2011. Because she passed away of cancer i want to run in a charity run for her. I am planning on making a Tshirt with her picture on it. I loved her very much and miss her very much and i know that she will be so proud of me for taking control of my health and my life. i know that was something that she worried about. but she wont have to anymore. I will continue to keep you all updated as i continue on my way through this journey. Love You All!!!!!!

Month 2

ok so I am a week late but things have been kind of crazy lately. I have concluded the first month. I had a couple of things happen in the past week. I went to my nutritionist on friday the 24th and it went really well!!!! i sat down with her and she looked over my food logs that i have been keeping over the past month and she says i am doing great and that i have been meeting all of the goals that i have set so far!! She weighed me at the end and according to their scale I have lost 10 lbs since last month so i was at 259!!! So thats is a total of about 20 lbs less then my heaviest. I set my next appointment for the end of march and cant wait to get the 2nd month down and on to the final month.

One of the things that i am required to do prior to my surgery is make sure that i have a proper, reliable form of birth control. because it is very important to make sure that I dont get pregnant until my weight plateaus at my goal weight that can take anywhere from 9 months to 2 years. YOu can imagine how hard this has been for brian and i considering we have tried to have kids for the past three years. It was very hard but I like to think that my children that are waiting for us in heaven understand that i want to give them the most healthy place i can for them to grow when they come to us. So i decided to go with a non hormonal IUD.... i am very happy with my decision to go non hormonal, however.... I did not expect to experience so much pain!!!! The first week has been the hardest and i am pretty swollen which has made me gain a few pounds(which i am not happy about). I have been in a lot of pain lately but i am just going day to day pushing forward. Because i have been in so much pain it has been hard for me to go to the gym because it makes the cramping much worse. Once my body gets used to it will be much better.

I am going to take some pictures and post them onto my blog very soon i want to make sure i get some for sure before my surgery.

So i want to talk a little bit more about some of my goals for after. I have been looking and reading many other peoples blogs and watching other peoples wls journeys and i have noticed that many people make goals for themselves and work towards it both before and after surgery. SO here are some of my goals.

         - I want to run a 5k marathon by the time i am 6 months post op.
         - I want to be back at my college weight (200) by the time i do my 5k

I have never been much of a runner but that was because I had a lot of weight to be running around with. I have always wanted to be a runner so with this opportunity for the first time ever it is within my grasp. I am very excited to start getting ready for it though!!!

Some problems i have been running into is still learning to sip instead of gulp.... i love my water and so it still has been hard for me. And of course the working out is not going as well as i wanted it to be for the past week.

So i hope you all enjoy my updates and if you have any questions or comments for me go ahead and leave me one!!!! By

Month 1

I have been on my High protein, Low Carb Diet for exactly 1 1/2 weeks and to be honest its really not bad! I use a food log to track my meals and snacks(4-6/day), my water intake (48-64 oz/day), my protein intake (60-90 grams/day). I have goals everyday to focus on:
             - No drinking liquids 30 min. before and after meals
             - Practice eating and drinking slowly
             - No Caffeine or Carbonation
             - Have 4-6 small meals/snacks per day
When I met with my dietitian i was also given the goal to find a protein drink that i like. I have had samples sent to me and have like 15 different samples to try out. I have Nectar samples and so far i have tried the Pina Colada (ewwww), Roadside Lemonade (ok), Twisted Cherry (good), and today i tried the fuzzy navel (fantastic!!!).
       
So after a week and a half of changing my diet, I made chocolate chip cookies and had  one.... i made me super sick! I have my faltering 2 minutes and it backfires. To be perfectly honest it was GREAT!!! I don't feel like I'm starved, a small bit of food fills me up and lasts for a while.

I workout after work every day during the week and it's going pretty well. i haven't been very sore and i have lost a little weight already.  I feel all of my muscles working hard and hopefully getting used to it!

The hardest part so far is practicing sipping water slowly. After my surgery i wont be able to gulp anymore. they say that 1 oz of water should be consumed over 10 minutes.... i can drink 10 oz in less then 1 minute... I am having a hard time getting used to sipping. does anyone have any ideas?! i thought about using small ice cubes and sucking on one every 5 minutes.....

Also it not easy tracking your proteins of the day. I have to make sure i have 60-90 grams of protein everyday. However now its not too hard because I'm eating more but after my surgery i will only be able to eat 1/4-1/2 cup of food all together! Getting my protein count of the day will be very very very important for me because i know it sounds terrible but one of the main goals besides weight-loss for me is to not lose my hair. I have been growing out my hair since i got married and its finally about mid back and when i braid my hair i have a huge braid and i want to keep it that way. I know that i will have some hair loss but i don't want a lot of it to fall out.


SO IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS OR COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS, PLEASE JUST ASK... OR TELL!!!!!

The Journey Begins

Ok. So since I hit puberty it was nothing but weight gain, weight gain, weight gain. it never really bothered me, i just accepted myself as being a big girl and tried to live my life. When I went to BYU-Idaho in 2008 i weighed 230 lbs. while i was there i worked out everyday for at least 2-3 hours. by June of 2008 had dropped that 30 lbs and for the first time in my life i weighed under 200 lbs. that lasted about 3-4 months until i met my wonderful husband, got married and started the gaining game again. 3 years later my highest weight was 275! To be honest i hadn't really noticed it had happened until all of my pictures had double chins and i was starting to not even recognize my self anymore. My decision to change my life was easy. My grandmother recently passed away in November of 2011. I loved her very much and i noticed in pictures that i had the same body type she had in her 50's and 60's that I have in my 20's. It scared me to death. I have done diets and been working out at the gym off and on for 5-7 years. So i do have the dedication. it's seeing lasting results that is the hard thing. So being tired of the yo-yo weight gain game. i decided to make a life changing decision.

after years of research i went to a weight loss surgery seminar. while i was there i learned a little more in depth of the different surgeries. i also learned a little more about the diets before and after surgery. So armed with more information and more confidence i pressed on.

In January of 2012 I went to my first meeting with the surgeon. We discussed what type of surgery we thought would be best for my body. We decided on the Sleeve Gastrectonomy. We set up appointments to meet with the Dietitian and the Exercise Physiologist. a week later I met with my dietitian and learned in depth the diet that would lead up to my surgery date (that still has not been set). the exercise physiologist helped me tailor workouts and stretching for before and after surgery. I have 3 months to prepare my body mind and soul for the healthiest chapters of my life.

I WANT TO MAKE SURE EVERYONE KNOWS THAT I KNOW THAT MY SURGERY IS NOT A MAGICAL FIX!!! I KNOW THAT IT WILL TAKE HARD WORK AND DEDICATION FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE TO MAKE THIS CHANGE PERMANENT!!!!