Tuesday, August 6, 2013

What 15 months and 107 lb weight loss looks like!

Here's the nitty gritty on what my body looks like fifteen months post-surgery. Photo montage over 15 months, and a video of what I look like today. Enjoy! Jo




15 Month Update: Top 10 Things I've Learned

Hi all! Wow, can't believe it's been 15 months already. Holding steady at 143 lbs, down from 250.4 in May 2012 when I had surgery. I've learned a lot from the process so far (with much more to learn I'm sure!), and put together a bit of a Top 10 Things I've Learned list. I put the summary below, but you can watch the video for the details and commentary. Hope you're well! Gastricsleeve4me (aka "Jo")

  1. Bad habits won't change with surgery alone.
  2. You can regress at any time.
  3. A bad day won't hurt, but a bad week will!
  4. The honeymoon doesn't end when you reach your desired weight - and the period when you start to maintain is a critical one.
  5. Exercise matters. Maybe not for weight loss, but DEFINITELY for maintenance.
  6. You will lose weight. You will also lose your hair and have saggy skin. Sorry.
  7. Losing weight doesn't make you successful. Keeping weight off for 50 years does.
  8. If you're feeding your emotions, you'd better have a plan for dealing with it.
  9. Surgery and rapid dramatic weight loss is traumatic for your body.
  10. You need a team. Really.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

38 Week Update

Time for an update! Let's start with the stats...

Surgery day (May 21, 2012): 250.4

Monthly (e.g., every 4 weeks)
Week 4: 226.1 (24.3 lbs month/24.3 lbs total)
Week 8: 211.8 (14.3 lbs month/38.6 lbs total)
Week 12: 201.3 (10.5 lbs month/49.1 total)
Week 16: 189.5 (11.8 lbs month/60.9 total)
Week 20: 178.9 (10.6 lbs month/71.5 total)
Week 24: 168.9 (10 lbs month/81.5 total)
Week 28: 160.3 (8.6 month/90.1 total)
Week 32: 160.3 (0 month/90.1 total)
Week 36: 151.9 (8.4 month/98.5 total)

Recent Weigh-ins
Week 37 (Feb 4): 151.7
Week 37.5 (Feb 7): 148.4 Passed the 100 lb mark and 37 1/2 weeks!! About 8.5 months after surgery.
Week 38: 148.7 (oops...got excited and gained .3 lbs)

1 week weight loss: 3 lbs
Total weight loss: 101.7 lbs

Obviously a big post this time since I finally passed the 100 lb mark after dancing near it for a few weeks. After a month of not losing (but not gaining!) around the holidays, I was so excited to see a 8.4 lb loss in the four weeks following returning to work post-new years. And 2 weeks later I'm down another 3 lbs so the loss continues, even though I've not really been tracking too closely. That said, I've been following my routines with eating, continuing to run for 20+ minutes three times a week training for a 5K, and lifting weights with my boyfriend 2-3 times a week on top of that. My body is definitely reaping the benefits.

Check out my video for a body shot and hear me talk about my recent visit to the nutritionist and "goal weight". Later! Jo


Sunday, January 6, 2013

My Favorite Foods

It's been over 7 months since surgery and I've learned so much about food. How to cook it, what I like, what's easy, what staples to have, etc. I definitely have built the confidence I needed to know I can live perfectly happy making my own dishes and loving it. This list includes a number of recipes, staples, and more that I find myself returning to again and again. Hope you enjoy!

Protein Shakes
I still do a protein shake just about every morning. Nutritionally, I still swear by Isopure powder (I prefer creamy vanilla). However, sometimes I want different flavors so I reach for Syntrax Nectar in Kiwi Strawberry or Chocolate Truffle. Lately, I've been doing ready to drink shakes. My go-to items are Muscle Milk Light Chocolate, EAS AdvantEDGE Carb Control, or Oh Yeah!

Breakfast
When I first get up, I drink a shake and take my vitamins. But around 10 AM or so I'll eat "breakfast". I'm a fan of Fage Yogurt. If I'm home, I'll eat plain and add Torani sugar-free raspberry syrup because the calorie and sugar content are WAY better than the flavored ones. But if I eat flavored, flavored Fage is freaking awesome (I like honey!) because the "flavoring" comes in a little side container and you can just eat a little of it and save yourself some calories and sugar. Lately, I''m totally addicted to ricotta pancakes from theworldaccordingtoeggface.com and spread it with a little bit of almond butter or PB2 mixed with water.

Meals
Sunday is pretty much cooking day. I make up a bunch of stuff for the week. My favorite recipes typically involve Mexican food and can be found on my Solid Foods page. As far as prepared items and staples, here's a few faves:
  • Salmon burgers
  • Baby back pork ribs in a crock pot (seriously - dry rub them and throw them in on low for 6 hours with NO LIQUID. Amazing)
  • Chicken Meatballs
  • Whole wheat tortillas or flatbread (do your homework in the store and compare carb, calorie, and protein grams by gram of tortilla and pick the best)
  • Turkey pepperoni minis
  • Buffalo wing sauce (I like Frank's or Archer Farms from Target)
  • Chickenless Crispy Tenders (I toss in wing sauce - they're seriously yummy and the perfect sleeve size)
Snacks
There are plenty of snacks that I've tried that could be considered healthy in moderation, but if I stray from protein-based snacks I really can't control myself. Nuts and any sort of carb-based stuff (Pop Chips, Kay's Naturals, etc.) just has a hold on me that I don't like so I try to stay away. So I pretty much keep it simple; cheese, hummus, beef jerky, or yogurt.

33 week update

Holy crap. 33 weeks. It has absolutely FLOWN by and I couldn't be happier. Let me get right down to business. You can check out the video to hear more about my weight loss to date.

Surgery day: 250.4

One month 226.1 (24.3 lbs month/24.3 lbs total)
Two month: 211.8 (14.3 lbs month/38.6 lbs total)
Three month: 201.3 (10.5 lbs month/49.1 total)
Four month: 189.5 (11.8 lbs month/60.9 total)
Five month: 178.9 (10.6 lbs month/71.5 total)
Six month: 168.9 (10 lbs month/81.5 total)
Seven month: 160.3 (8.6 month/90.1 total)
Eight month: 160.3 (0 month/90.1 total)
Week 33: 158

1 week weight loss: 2.3 lbs
Total weight loss: 92.4 lbs

Apparently I'm at week 33, not 34 - forgive my video reference to week 34, lol. I didn't talk about it in the video, but about my calorie intake...I stopped tracking back a couple of months ago. Recently, I've started periodically tracking a couple times a week. I've been taking in about 1500 calories a day and maintaining with regular exercise, but as you see above, the weight loss has pretty much stopped this month. I can tell from my history that 900-1000 calories will be my sweet spot for kicking the weight loss back in gear. So, that's my target for now. Enjoy the video! Jo