I took myself out to lunch today and ordered a bunless cheeseburger with sweet potato fries. I actually ate about half the cheeseburger, the slices of tomato, some pickle slices, and 3 of the fries. The cook came out and I ended up telling him that the food was delicious, but I just couldn't eat any more. I was so full, but that cheeseburger was SO good.

The point of that is that you can have ANY food you want after surgery. You just won't be able to eat as much. I'm pleasantly full and not in carb overload from my meal. I'm just now finishing my unsweet iced tea and it tastes divine as well.

93 pounds lost feels really good today, especially knowing that I can eat anything I want.

Oh, and for my appetizer and dessert, I had 7 flights of stairs on either side of my meal. Being able to walk up and down those stairs without pain is a MAJOR incentive for me!

My Exercise Journey So Far

Exercise is a BIG issue for those who have had WLS. Non-WLS people don't seem to understand that we do have to exercise to get to our goals. I hate the comment about us taking "the easy way out". There's nothing easy about this. It seems like some WLS patients don't get it either. They really believe that this is a magic bullet that's going to make us lose weight with no effort on our part. That's not true.

When I first had WLS, I couldn't walk from my car to my front door without being winded. When I started researching WLS, I saw people who were crazy about exercise and I thought they were nuts. But, now I get it.

As I've progressed with my weight loss, I've also progressed with exercise. At first, I was literally walking up and down my hallway, then around the small end of my building, then the larger end of my building. At 3 weeks post-op, I was THRILLED when I managed to walk around the lake in my apartment complex. Wow, that seems like it was so long ago.

Over the last few months, I've added in more walking on the treadmill and then lots of time on the recumbent bike. Last week, I walked home from the gym and found that I can't walk as far on real ground as I can on the treadmill, but that's okay. My attitude now is that it WILL get easier as I continue to walk, so I'm making it a point to walk to and from the gym when I go to work out. That adds an extra 1.5 miles a day to my exercise totals.

I also started a weight routine right after surgery. At first, I did well to get in 10 repetitions with 2 pound weights. Now, the 2 pound weights have been moved to the car and I use them to get in some arm work while I'm driving long distances daily. I'm now using 5 pound weights for my "regular" weight routine and 8 pound weights when I'm doing abdominal crunches.

My workout routine is definitely low-intensity compared to some of the exercise gurus I see on the boards, but it's working for me. Nope, I'm not Bo Derek yet, but I'm seeing results. I have biceps; I have a waist...and my butt is looking pretty good, or so I'm told by some guys I know. I'm not training for a marathon. What I'm doing is incorporating exercise into my life, hopefully in a manner that I can follow for the rest of my life.

So, like the turtle, I'm taking it slow, but I will get to goal! :)

Sunday update

I guess I should update a few things around here.  I'm now at 261, and a size 16/18, depending on cut of the clothes. While my weight loss has slowed, I've been increasing my workouts and I'm now up to walking 1.5 miles (to/from gym) plus at least 30 minutes on the recumbent bike while at the gym. I have two goals on exercise: sweat profusely and get in at least 7 miles on the bike.

I'm seeing results, both in my clothes size and in my body. When I first started on the bike at this gym, my butt and hips rubbed my hands when I grabbed the side bars. Now I have at least 2 inches on each side between my hips and my hands. NSV for sure!

I have less restriction than before, although I still can't eat a lot at one sitting. I've recently been adding in more carbs and veggies because the carbs seem to help keep my endurance up for the workouts I've been doing. I'm still doing weights as well. I carry a 2 pound weight in the car and do my arm exercises while I'm driving long stretches. When I'm home, I use 5 pound weights for those arm exercises. I'm seeing results in my arm muscles from that as well.

The last couple of weeks have seen me add more protein replacements into my diet in order to meet my protein goals. I bought some GNC Total Lean protein shakes yesterday...meh. I'll drink them because they aren't horrible, but they aren't great either. OTOH, Clif bars are YUMMY! They have 15 grams of protein each and taste good, although the bars are kind of ugly looking.

Stir-fry has been my go to food lately. Lots of shrimp and steak stir-fried with veggies. I bought a couple of different sauces to try in them and the philly cream cheese sauces are okay. I haven't tried the two chinese sauces I got, although that's on the agenda for this week.

For some reason, my visit with my surgeon last week has really upped my confidence level about my weight loss. I feel like goal is really achievable now. I'm so close to 100 pounds lost that I can almost taste it. I'm anticipating the happy dance for it already!! :)

Today's Exercise Check Up

Okay, so I've been KICKING BUTT on the bike lately, to the tune of 7.5 miles in 30 minutes!I love my own butt - it's getting SWEET! I can also walk 4 miles on the treadmill. I decided to do some moving things around this afternoon that resulted in my having to walk about .7 miles home on a paved road...no problem, right? Yeah, no problem my aching thighs and calves! Apparently walking isn't as easy on real roads as it is on the treadmill...

Seven Month Check Up ... and Awesome NSVs!

So, I went in today for my six month check up with my doc...even though I'm already 7 months plus post-op. He gave me a graph of my BMI and weight loss since my first visit with him. The graph was eye-opening! I think I'm stalled, but his graph shows that I'm losing steadily.

After I asked my questions, including for a copy of the video of my surgery, he asked me a few questions. He gave me some samples of different brands of bariatric vitamins for me to review for him and asked that I let his office know if I like them. I'll do that over the next month.

Then he asked me if I'd mind answering a few questions online for him. I thought he was asking me to take some kind of online survey at first, but as he went on I realized that he wants me to answer questions for visitors to his website! WOW! I'm so flattered to be asked and, of course, I am more than willing to do that!

From what he said today, I've already exceeded his expectations for my weight loss and fitness level and he mentioned that I'm staring 100 pounds in the eye. He expects that I will be well over 100 pounds lost when I go back at the end of July for my 1 year check up. My anniversary isn't until the end of August, but to accomodate both or our schedules, I have an appt nearly a month early.

I've mentioned before that I think my surgeon is the bomb and he proved it to me again today! In just that short appointment, he managed to make me feel wonderful about my progress insteadof the frustration I've been feeling for a few weeks. He also explained a few different things to me about what to expect going forward. That really made me feel better about the next stage of my journey.

I was worried that I am out of the "losing" stage and now am into the "have to work really hard at it" stage. I want to be his poster child for the sleeve and he assured me that I already AM a poster child for the sleeve because of the loss I've had so far and how hard I am working at my weight loss. He also told me to expect big losses over the next few months, both because of the sleeve and because of my newly formed exercise habits.

I'm feeling pretty awesome tonight, especially for a sleever who went in fully expecting to find out that my results are disappointing. I'm actually pretty far ahead of the curve!