Cookout time!

Yesterday I attended a BBQ/Meet and Greet/Health Seminar hosted by Jackie and Sue, who I met through the OH board. They run a support group in Fredericksburg called Obesity Freedom. We had a presentation of Isotonix vitamins, ate (WLS-friendly food of course!), had a hula demonstration/lessons (thanks, Ann!), did some jewelry shopping, but most of all - talked. And talked. And talked. :) I was a little nervous about going - it would be a big crowd, and people that I knew "virtually". I had met a few of them in person, and they were great, but still. You never quite know, do you? What people will really be like? And it's easy to feel very anonymous on-line.

I had a great, great time. I loved meeting people that I knew on-line and people that I didn't. Everyone was so great. This is going to sound weird, I know. But I was amazed at how many of them knew who I was and knew that my surgery was coming up this week! (by the way, tomorrow I'm planning on posting about thoughts as I get ready for surgery - it's too much for today!) It made me feel accepted and like I was a part of the group. Which may not seem so important or exciting to any of you skinny and/or popular people out there - but trust me, it was.

Very few people were just as I had imagined them - I guess I need to work on my people skills! :) It's hard to tell online if someone is loud or quiet, or what kinds of things will come out of their mouths when they're not replying to a specific post. But I will say this - they all exceeded my expectations. There wasn't a lot of gossiping about others or negative talk (that I heard, anyway), just people catching up and sharing stories about life. I bounced from group to group all day - I think most people did - so I feel like I got to talk with a lot of different people.

Anyway, I'm happy to be a part of this group. My friends and family have been wonderful supports as I prepare for surgery, but it's also nice to be able to talk to people who have been there.

Pre-op testing DONE!

So I went today and had my physical with Dr. Elliot, then I went to the hospital to do my pre-admission testing. I got asked the same questions over and over and over again, did a lot of waiting for a lot of different people, signed a lot of forms, and watched a computer slide show about my procedure. All they did for my pre-op testing at the hospital was take some blood (actually, they took a lot of blood for a lot of different things) and did an EKG. If something comes up abnormal, Dr. E's office will call me but I don't anticipate that happening.

Dr. E gave me my manual, which I'm ready to dive into and read thoroughly. But here's the most exciting thing - he said that since I had lost so much weight already

I DON'T HAVE TO DO THE LIVER SHRINKING DIET AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know if you can tell or not, but I'm pretty psyched about this :) He said if I could lose some more weight, that would of course be great, but all that he was going to require was that I not gain any weight in the next two weeks. Needless to say, I am one happy camper right now.

Body Age pt. 2

So I'm finishing up my pre-op Boot Camp at "the Center", and today they did a second Body Age test to see if I've made any improvements over the last 3 months. My first test, in March, said my Body Age was 50. Today's test, after 3 months of exercise and nutrition counseling, showed some significant improvements, including a new "age" of 36. The highlights:

• I've lost 28 pounds.
• They measured my neck, shoulders, chest, abdomen, waist, hips, biceps, forearms, thighs, knees, and calves. All of my measurement have decreased, adding up to a total of 28" gone.
• My nutrition score went way up.
• My bicep strength, situps, and pushups all increased. (In one minute, sit-ups went from 12 to 20 and pushups went from 12 to 22; bicep strength went from pulling 56 lbs. to 62 lbs.)

So I'm excited about all of that. I'm still stressed that with 6" gone from my waist, my clothes still aren't fitting any differently! There's something wrong here...maybe my clothes really were just super tight before. Anyway, hopefully that means that post-op losses will show up more quickly in my clothes. I'm really glad that I did this whole Boot Camp extravaganza, but I'll have to post my thoughts on that another time.

Right now I'm getting ready to go out for my "last meal". Tomorrow I have my pre-op appointments and I'm expecting them to put me back on the dreaded Liver Shrinking Diet. :O I really thought that I would be sad at the thought of saying good-bye to food, and feel like I needed to eat a lot tonight. But I don't. I really think that my attitude about food has changed and, while I'm still dreading the LSD, I'm ok with the changes in eating habits that the surgery will bring. I'm not worried about feeling deprived anymore. I think this is partly due to my research and talking with others, and partly to the changes that I've already made. But going out to a nice dinner is always fun. So we're going to Maggiano's, a really nice Italian place.

Tomorrow I'm in for several hours of test and being poked and prodded. Then I'm taking the train overnight to Charleston. I'll report back when I can...

Life goes on

So I've just been plugging along. Doing well with the eating and exercising some days, not as well the others. Still working on it.

Cheating

Hi from Charleston! I just got here (around 10 pm) so I won't get to see that sweet baby until morning. I can't wait!

I totally cheated tonight. On the way here, I did something I haven't done in a long time - stopped at McDonalds for dinner. I haven't had McDs in 6 weeks since I started all of the special diets. Also - I got a Diet Coke! I haven't had one since I gave them up 2 months ago. And guess what? It was gross. Hated it. All of it - even the coke. I couldn't even eat it. Before I would eat it when I wasn't even hungry.

So I guess I really am changing, which is a good thing. I know I have to be careful so I don't change back. But it makes me feel like I really can do this thing. I've been worried because one of the benefits of the RNY surgery is that you get sick when you eat things you shouldn't. In the past, that hasn't exactly stopped me from eating them. But tonight I learned that it can. And it will.

Happy long weekend!

Total meltdown

I completely melted down today. I'm so tired from running, running, running all the time and trying to think about what I'm eating and getting my exercise in and all the other 1,000,000 things that go along with preparing for this surgery in addition to the job and being in a new city and all. Of course, I had less than 5 minutes for my meltdown. So I don't know if that really counts or not.

Here's what prompted the meltdown - I fell in the shower. I had about 20 minutes to shower and get ready to go back out (cards with the girls!) and I got in and fell down. *Side note - I've been feeling very off-balance lately. I've almost fallen several times. Hmmmm* I wasn't hurt, but it shook me up. You know how falling can do that? And I did grab the shower curtain on the way back down and it pulled the rod out of the wall a little bit so now I have to call and get them to fix that.

Here's what I melted about - I went to work out with Bryan today and it was fine. He weighed me and I've lost 5 pounds since last week. Which is great. I know it is. I'm excited about it. It means that, since the liver shrinking diet, I've lost a total of 20 pounds (some of those pounds I've lost twice - put them back on and lost them again :) ) Which I am happy about. But here's the thing - I still don't look any different. I don't feel any different. And even my clothes aren't fitting me any better. There are two things I do notice - I fit into my jeans straight out of the dryer. (But once they're on, they feel the same as they did before once I had worn them a little bit) And I have to work harder to get my heart rate up. Which I know is a good sign, but all it really means is I'm working out really hard and my heart rate is like "*yawn* whatever. I'll just stay here in this mediocre range" Shouldn't I at least feel better or have more energy or something? Or my clothes feel a little loose? Generally, losing 20 pounds will take you down a whole size! Maybe my clothes were just really tight before...

Getting my butt kicked by 10 year olds

I have such a hard time with taking things slowly - I've been working out with Bryan for about 2 months now, so I am convinced that I should be able to do anything at all! Um, that is definitely not true. Remember how Zumba kicked my butt last week? So, ask me what I did. Go ahead. (And no, I didn't go back to Zumba)

I tried a different class. Basic Step. An introductory class. Advertised as "family friendly". There were three 10 year olds there - fresh from field day, no less! They kicked my butt. Totally kicked it. I'm not even going to mention their perfectly-clad high-energy jumping around mothers. I had to stop several times "for water". And I did some of the exercises on the floor instead of using the step. DANG it was hard work. Of course my heart rate was way too high, so that was another reason I took some water breaks. Live and learn. I'm pretty good and the living part - it's the "learning" I'm having trouble with. Remind me not to go back and do that again, ok?

My new water bottle came yesterday! On Dawn's recommendation, I ordered a Sigg water bottle. Mine looks like this:

I'm super excited about it and had fun carrying it around today. I'll admit, I like it because it's pretty :) But it's a good water bottle, too and we all know how important water is! I need to order the thing that goes around it with a caribiner attached, though, to make it easier to carry.
I also ordered an awesome lunch bag since I have to take my lunch now. Although you can see it's awesomeness from the picture, when I tell you that it has a zipper, you'll be even more wowed by it. Ready? It has a zipper. A red one.Clearly, I still need to work on short posts. Oh, well. It is about 8:15 on a Friday night and I'm about to head off to bed. It has been a busy, busy week.