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AnaA

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Blog Entries posted by AnaA

  1. AnaA
    ONE YEAR AGO TODAY ... (Mmmm)
    I made a decision that changed my life. I decided to get weight loss surgery at the OCC. The decision was not made lightly. I researched Dr. Ortiz and surgeries in Mexico first I suppose out of curiosity. The lower price certainly led to that curiosity. I suppose somewhere in the fore front of my mind I had no intention of going to Mexico for surgery. (not because of the ignorant stories...) I just wanted to see what people said about the experience. And in the back of my mind, I knew my feelings about surgery in Mexico were just the same as my feelings about surgery in England. It made me uncomfortable to think of surgery in any other country but the US. And then I thought it through. Did I personally think Dr.s were better or worse depending on their country of origin? No. Then what were my concerns? That I have a good Dr. who knows what they are doing and operates in a top notch facility with staff who imbibe that high standard. Certainly I have had my share of uncaring burnt out Dr.'s with sincere medical limitations, alongside burnt out nurses who make big mistakes here, as has my Mom. And I have had good care here as well. So I just concentrated on the Dr., what the Dr. was like, what their facility was like, and what the staff were like and then I made comparisons to others in that field and that country and this one. And standing here, one year out, I am so amazed by Dr. Ortiz. THANK YOU DR. ORTIZ, bless your Mama for making you By the state of the art OCC facility, By the caring nursing staff (Thank you for comforting me), and by not only the amazing plication operation that they performed but also by the unique technique Dr. Ortiz has developed that creates this positive result. I love when I can look back on a decision that I have made one year out and smile with the satisfaction of knowing I done good.
    It has been an amazing ride. Worth saying twice. And for those of you new to this forum/blog who want to know what the journey has been like I have been blogging the entire year about it. This last week I have come away from my previous three month weight fluctuation (163-167) by returning to the simple clarity of tracking my calories and journaling about my relationship to food each day. And I learned that I was just taking in more than I needed to be. This having been said and altered has resulted in my return to weight loss. This morning I weighed in at 161. But it's not just the number. I feel really trim. My clothes fit fantastically. I am just 12 lbs away from my goal weight. I began Zumba 4 days ago and I have embarked upon a new journey to cook healthy gourmet foods, gourmet being the operative word. One of my dinners this past week consisted of a potato vegetable pancake with a slice of smoky flavored salmon with fresh rosemary and garlic. The entire meal was better than restaurant and under 300 calories. Post eating, I felt entirely satisfied and did not want anything else to eat. That is my goal. To eat that meaningfully all the time. To realize that taking a break from healthy eating is silly because it means eating junk. Why would I want to do that? And I realize that the key to all of this is gourmet. To do this in a way that I am eating more flavor packed sensuous foods than I have ever done before. To eat really well.
    I feel like this coming year I will be blogging here about my health journey through gourmet cooking, juicing, and dehydrated raw foods. Because I feel like my first year was about becoming healthy in measure to pounds which was necessary. Now, this next year will be about becoming healthy in relation to how I nourish my body, deliver it amazing flavors, and keep it active. I look foward to every post.
    To Year Two! :) :)
  2. AnaA
    Good Evening Fellow PLay Cats (Plicators) & WLS-ers:
    I wanted to share my story with you here.
    My decision to be a PLay Cat (be plicated) came out of a need to be healthy. My health. I'm 41 and I had this super candid conversation with my mom not long ago. She's had a mild stroke (10 or so years ago) and a major heart attack all fairly recently. But her health decline? That started when she was 47 (20 years ago). That's the age she became diabetic. The big bad D. As a result, her health took a slow and steady decline. Well I went to the Doctor 4 months ago, and he told me that I was just a few points away from being Diabetic and that if I didn't start to lose weight I would have big problems.Nearly diabetic? At 41? Six years ahead of my mom?? And what's worse? What triggered my visit to the Dr.'s was this hot numbing pain in my upper right thigh. The Dr. said that was because my weight was pushing down on that vein, and while the vein is regenerative (thankfully!) the fact that my weight was triggering pain in me delivered a pretty tough message very quickly. I looked at this unfolding total health picture: being over weight, potential diabetes, the talk with my mom, potential strokes, arriving in a world of heart disease ahead of schedule vs. possibly not at all. All this happened within 3 days. And I thought, do something now while the warning is mild. It became brutally clear that at the rate I was going, I would get diabetes younger than my mom. I have seen my mom suffer through those life shocking diseases, it's pretty bad. And wasn't I the one who said to my mom as I held her hand in the cardiac room before heart (bypass) surgery that I knew it would be hard to change her way of life, but that it was now a matter of life? And wasn't I also the one who used to think, "I would rather change my habbits of my own accord, however rough, versus being told I had to?" Yes. That was me.
    I need to be healthy.
    RIght now, I feel good about having reached my "lose 5%" goal, and know that for the next 10 days I will add to that weight loss, especially with the pre-op liquid diet and fast.. And that is me. That is my story. I honor you all and I want to take this moment in time to honor the courage you have for even coming here. Please feel free to email me here or reply if you'd like to share the ride. PLay Cats, Bandsters and all walks of WLS Life Welcome.
    Inner Peace,
    PLay Cat Ana
  3. AnaA

    12 Days and Counting

    By AnaA,

    Twelve days to go until plication. (why did the 12 days of Christmas just pop into my head?? ...12 pounds before op, 11 lbs the next week, 10 lbs week after.. ok i'm stopping now ) Today I went out dancing with friends at this really hip inclusive club. The music was fantastic, the ambient was perfect and there was the sweetest breeze. Every one had a drink in hand. This was my first "2 weeks to go until procedure" temptation challenge. I am not a major drinker, but I do like to social drink. All my friends and my sweetie had that vibe going. But I put some thought into this. I thought, no, no alcohal from the day I began to cleanse 3 weeks ago, and that means even at social outings. I figured, i'm going to have to learn how to deal with this kinda thing anyway for awhile so might as well start now. I ordered a cranberry on ice with lime. It was put in the same kinda vessel everyone else had so no one even knew the diference! When I was asked what I was drinking I said cran and everyone was cool with that, and 15 minutes later they'd forgotten anyway lol I felt really super proud conquering that. It seems simple. DUH, just say you're not drinking. But we all know what peer pressure is like. Permitting myself to not drink and feel content with that made a big diference in my choices and those who asked me why I wasn't drinking we're supportive when I said I was on a cleansing and needed to drop some lbs. for my health. It was very important for me to work everything out like I did totally acknowledging what I was feeling and why and then allowing myself to be who I was in that moment, a woman in process of losing weight. And as it turned out, it only heightened the ambiant.
  4. AnaA

    24 Days and Counting!

    By AnaA,

    Day 24
    I am counting down until I have my plication procedure. This is the first day of my blog. I feel very excited/nervous [excervous??] about everything. I find myself catching sight of my body in the mirror as I walk by it. I wonder. . . what ME will emerge post plication? How Exciting! I can not wait to find out! I am happy about my decision to take control of my health.
    I began my pre-op dietary instructions 2 weeks ago. I chose the protein shakes and the low fat frozen dinner with ample greens: salad and soup. I started 1 month early because the 5% body weight that I had to lose came up to 11 lbs. and I wanted to make sure that I met it! So far I have lost 10 lbs and need to lose 1.5 more in 24 days. I know that this is no problem and feel good about being on task.
    This fantastic thought just occurred to me yesterday. For the last 12 days I have begun a permanent weight loss journey. My weight from here on out will only go down. As I sit here smiling with this thought in mind, visions of great looking clothes dance in my brain.

  5. AnaA

    3 More Days . . . ! :)

    By AnaA,

    WOW!
    I am three days away from my 1 year anniversary! I had my plication procedure at the OCC on July 20, 2012. It has been the most amazing journey. I can not say enough positive things about the beautiful OCC (YOU changed my life! I changed MY LIFE!) and I am looking forward to going back for my 1 year post op follow up. I am going to prance, uh huh I said it, PRANCE in that door. (I will post when I schedule that, thinking mid Aug. and about the process.)
    SO from my last 2 posts you know that I have been trying since March (4 months ago..) to get some sort of exercise program going. (I did not exercise one lick through my entire post plication time, up to and including yesterday. NO, that's NOT bragging). I kept hearing it said over and over again, when you're thinking about incorporating activity, make sure it's something you ENJOY doing and you are over half way there. Truer words NEVER said. To that end, I bought my much sought after highly anticipated Zumba work out DVD's! And I could NOT wait to try them! Back in March. Only I did wait. There was so much in the way. I had some serious family crisis and my energy levels were just zapped and I was in a bit of a funk there for a bit too. WELL, this is where the power of friendship comes riding in on a beautiful brown horse to save the day!
    I had lunch with a good friend of mine yesterday. She started telling me about how she was really into and loved doing Zumba. Wow. I told her my story, and also confessed to her that after 1 year of utter inertia, I was afraid that I just no longer had what it took to be active. I'm 42. It was a concern. (Hubby and I used to jog 3-5 miles three times a week). She said that just wasn't the case. She was so beautifully matter of fact about it too! She said, look, you were active before and your body remembers that, so just start again and trust it to remember that. I felt really hopeful!
    Didn't realize Just. How. Much. This morning, I got up. I got dressed. I went to my zumba dvd's. I popped in the 60 minute zumba fitness basics and did that. I liked it. Then I did the zumba fitness 20 minute express because I was having SO MUCH FUN shaking it and dancing that I didn't want it to end. I popped in the Zumba Fitness Cardio Party after.. Aye! I did HALF of it! 25 minutes of bomb shaking booty and the biggest hip swiveling, shoulder shaking moooooves. WoW! WHHHHEWWW! After that 25 I knew it was time for me to stop. But wow, I honestly did not even realize that I had actually just worked out for 1 hour and 45 minutes because it was fuuuuuuunnnnnn! It's the first time in my life that I haven't had the usual post workout thoughts that go like this: "ok, I did it. there. job done. when should i go again? ok. day after tomorrow?" And then feeling like i'm rolling a boulder uphill when the day after comes... LOL Nope. With THIS, I'm going to hit THAT ritmo again tomorrow because I loooooove to dance cumbia's!!!! I've been dancing them with my Mom and Tia’s at house parties since I was little and I had no idea it was so intensive in the way they roll it out with Zumba. Those, the salsas, merengues, sambas. (I'm still uhm, ah, working out Reggaeton, I'd never done that before and it kicks my butt! lol but I love it).
    And I have to let those of you out there suffering with constipation bouts (like me!) in on a little something something. After my workout, I had some serious results in that arena as well. Movement is a great addition to the almonds and prunes and prune juice. I did not know. So there. I did it. I got over my hump in hip swaying shoulder shaking style. And I honor that it took me 3 days short of a year to get to the point that I honestly wanted to move my body. And now? I weighed in at 164.5 today. And I KNOW that this last 20 lbs I need to shed is as good as gone. It is a fore drawn conclusion. I'm not even bothered to know WHEN. It's as good as done because I am loving what I’ve just begun doing. Fun really is the key. And I can NOT wait to see how my body tones as a result. :) :) I'll be going to a wedding this weekend, and I can't wait to bust my moves!
  6. AnaA
    I am not sure if I will post my results at the end of every week, but I wanted to post at the end of my first week which this is and then I will post if something notable happens or I need advice or want to give tips, and barring that, I will update montly. I feel compelled to update monthly because when I was going through my decision making process what I wanted and didn't feel I got was someone who updated regularly. Peeps eventually dropped off the radar.
    Kay. Today is my 1 week post plication procedure anniversary and I weighed in at 199! I am sooo excited to be in the 19's! Wow. It is a great feeling to leave those 20's behind.
    Today I also started the full liquids so it was the first day I had soup and a protein drink, met the 64 oz. consumption of liquid intake and the 30g of protein intake Boy! Did I feel water logged! lol I was sloshing in my shoes. So much to keep track of! Until it becomes autonomic and I am sure it will, I am on myself to monitor the proper intakes to make sure that I don't get dehydrated because I had some baby signs of that. My 64ozs consisted of 1 liter of water, 10 ozs of ensure clear peach (I love this drink: tasty and protein!), a protein shake that recommends mixing with 1 cup of water, i changed that and made the protein powder scoop with 16 ozs of water, it was perfect! Not too thick, nice and watery which is how I prefer intake at this time. (I use GNC's Spiru-Tein High Protein Energy Meal protein shake, vanilla & chocolate because they are soy based and not made with milk) The soup I had was gluten free clam chowder. I have a couple of food issues pre surgery, I am gluten intolerant and lactose intolerant so I don't eat bread or drink milk products. I put the clam chowder in the blender. Wow, it was superb. The brand was progresso. They do nice soups. And for my probiotic because I can not drink yogurt I drank yakult which was pretty pleasing. I had an otter pop too.
    After I finished eating/drinking all that throughout the day I felt stuffed. I kinda had to push myself to get all that in. I am curious as to how this is going to go tomorrow because I have events to attend all day. Hmm. My gas/burping is still present but lessoning all the time. All in all I am very pleased with my procedure and my healing.
  7. AnaA

    End of Week 10 Post Plication

    By AnaA,

    Ok. Technically tomorrow (Friday) is the end of week 10 but I doubt anything super dramatic will happen from here to there. I gained 6 ounces this week and frankly, am surprised that's all i've gained. I am still in the same place I was last week. Menstrual cycle 15 days late now (not preggers, I checked), horrendous constipation, and a lot of gas. I think I might know what's going on. "MIGHT" i've been eating laughing cow cheese pretty regularly, on a daily basis sometimes 2 times a day and while calorically it's fine, i believe my intolerance to lactose is creeping in on me and asking, what gives?? I am ok to have some cheeses periodically, but I never had them daily, and without even thinking about it, have been having LC quite a bit, so I think my stomach said that is it. That and hubby and I ate something rotten last Friday and we have had terrible stomach issues all week. So, that said, i'm just really trying to push through this and know that the scale will move downward soon as all this is passed. I've omitted LC from my diet just to check. Looking forward to week 11...
    With Hope
  8. AnaA
    Ok, I was on vacation from last Thursday, Sept 30 until just Friday so I am posting late. What a rough week! I finally had my period but it was very unusual, on and then off and then on... Also, I had a meal at my favorite vacation restaurant, and the healthiness of it really got things moving bm wise! SO! Finally, the constipation spell is broken. I have had 4 blissful days of movement. Now to figure out how to keep that going. I've read that if you bombard your body with fiber too fast you can get gassy and bloated so I am beginning today by buying fibrous fruit: Asian pears, raspberries, apples, prunes, and then will continue by cooking fiber-full dinners beginning tomorrow and hopefully that helps to regulate my body. *relief sigh*
    Secondly, this started on week 8 and please do reply if you have had this experience. About week 8 I started breaking out with red spots all over my legs. It started slow, and the bumps "look" like mosquito bites only they do not itch, and are deep red. They began spreading all over my legs and then last week, end of week 10 I noticed that they began to show on the underside of my arms. I had 3 and then within 2 days 10 - 12 on each arm. I have no idea where they are coming from. I have never had this happen before and have an appointment with my Dr. to check them out but that's not until next month. I have no idea if they are procedure related or just something entirely else but I am concerned and have a call in to check this out. Anyone had anything like this?
    Now, with things finally starting to move again, and having had my period, it's no wonder that I lost 5.8 lbs this week!! That's after 3 weeks of losing nothing, being backed up and no period, SO, that sounds about right. I am now at 177 and very happy to be in the 7's! Wow. I think about where I was back in July, at 221 lbs. I was feeling really heavy and uncomfortable in my own body. Now, an entire 44 lbs later I feel so much better. I have lost 3 clothing sizes, amazing! And I have lost 20% of my entire body weight! Incredible. Post plication I have lost 29 lbs and am happy with the progress. The biggest challenge has been constipation. I have to figure out a balance here.
    Also, this last week I have noticed that my hair has begun to fall out in pretty significant amounts, very noticeable in that i'm finding it everywhere and can't even run my fingers through my hair without bringing some out with it. I am going to try a rinse that a friend of mine, who has not had surgery, and has had her hair fall out a lot naturally, uses. If this works for me, I will post the recipe. Fingers Crossed! To a bow-ally productive week 12 with minimal hair fall out!
  9. AnaA
    It is the end of week 12 and I am happy to report I lost 2 lbs this week! AND... are you ready for this!! NO constipation!! WOO!!!! I am sooo happy! I have lost 31 lbs post plication, 46 lbs total with pre-procedure weight loss, I have lost a staggering 21% of my body weight! and now have a BMI of 27.4. Just 26 lbs to go until GOOOOAL! And NO Constipation!! It's worth saying twice
    The solution was so simple it totally escaped me for the longest time. PRUNES! Wonderful beautiful sexy hard working Prunes! I decided to try them out. I mean haven't our grandmothers said all our lives if you need to go have prunes??
    Well the synthetic constipation remedies weren't working for me, especially met a mucil which bloated me and wasn't productive, so I decided to go a-naturale.
    When I went grocery shopping Monday I bought a bag of prunes. On Monday night I had a 1 oz serving size which is 4 small dried pitted prunes, in 20 minutes it was productive. Wow. I thought, oh please let that not be a fluke! So the next day, Tuesday I decided to have 1 serving of prunes first thing in the morning and 1 serving last thing at night. That was a trial because I didn't want to take too much too fast and knew if it made me gassy I would cut it back to 1 serving a day for a week then slowly increase.
    Beautiful. I have had the 2 servings a day since Tuesday and it is going soooo well. I feel really good and the fiber intake is perfect. I was looking online for naturally fibrous foods and read this good article that said if you eat too much fiber too fast you'll be gassy and bloated and I definitely did NOT want that. So I was a little apprehensive about taking 2 servings a day but I am so glad I did, it worked for me. The intake of fibrous prunes along with not having cheese for 2 weeks (the regular 2x's a day of laughing cow was doing me in) really helped my digestive tract to function again. Whew.
    This week was very much about re-regulating my routine. Getting sick while going on vacation last week really threw me off. As it turns out I ate way below my recommended calories because I was worried I would go over and restaurants and other places don't post their nutritional information as prevalently in the UK. In one restaurant when I asked for the nutritional caloric value of the food I considered ordering the chef came out and glared at me. I also didn't drink my 64 ozs of water everyday or have my daily protein. This was all due to being sick as a dog. I didn't find it easy to work up an appetite or feel thirsty, so some days 16-32 ozs of water was all I could force without consequence.
    So, this week has been much about saying, Ok, your flu is ALMOST gone... and you're feeling better every day so drink, eat, and reintegrate those daily vitamins which were also only taken sporadically while on vacation. I think there were only 2 days I took my vitamins, so 6 days without it. Again, all due to flu on vacation. I can honestly not remember that last time I got THIS sick! It was severe and the deep puncture throat coughing and mountains of mucus were the pits.
    But I'm back and that is the lesson for me in this all. If I go abnormal for some reason for 5 days or so, get right back up and on track. I feel good that it was a severe flu that threw me off, not the vacation and that I erred on the side of caution when eating out and bought my groceries instead of eating out the entire time, AND this week a particular man in my life has begun to say, "you're looking really sexy", yes, he said sexy, not 'good' or 'slimmer'. Those are all tangible victories! All in all I think I did pretty good. (I didn't let the flu keep me away from shopping on Oxford Street in London. A gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do come flu or high water)
    Have a great week. On to 13!
    Happy Losing!
  10. AnaA
    OK. This week I am up 1 lb. I gained. :/ I know why.
    I discovered gluten free pizza from the local and we ate it twice this week. Also, I had a corn quesadilla in a quick pinch because I was running late on another night, and taquitos on another night. Yep. That's a lot of grease and cheese.
    Thanks to prunes, it didn't constipate me, but it was too much grease and cheese even though I only did eat a little part of them. SO, this coming week, no cheese anywhere and no grease. I'll be cooking at home which I prefer because at least I know what goes into it. I normally cook anyway. This week was just hectic and not planned out. So, ok, i'm at 176 this week, a 1 lb. setback and no loss. To keep me motivated I just appreciate the weight I have lost, know I will lose more beginning next week, and focus on how good it feels to be in slimmer jeans. Also! A major victory, I have not had anything sugary like candy, frosting, or the like since my procedure! Might not sound major but my weakness is sugary things like that. They are the thing that derails me every time. And I have not had 1 single piece nor will I. When I feel in the mood for something like that, which is not easy 2 weeks before my period, I have a tablespoon of peanut butter and even that is in large moderation.
    I know my lack of planning and ungreat choices threw me off this week and will change that. On to week 14!
  11. AnaA
    I lost 2 lbs this week! I feel very happy about that. I learned a lot from last week and kept the cheese down to just 1 meal and the grease out of it. It never ceases to amaze me how much grease and cheese can trip you up. It might sound obvious, but just witnessing my body as it changes and went up then held steady then dropped, I realized that is a lot of time to spend waiting for the effects of cheese and grease to go away. Too much precious time.
    I am still taking prunes daily. They are my daily regiment and thanks to those dark beauties I have not had a problem with constipation. I continue to get my liquids in and feel like that is a very important part of this process. I have been drinking 72 ozs of liquids a day. 32 of that is pure water and 40 ounces of that is vitamin water or sobe life water. Wow those flavors are amazing. I have yet to drink one that I didn't like. What is amazing to me is how much my taste buds have changed.
    In the beginning, I needed to drink something heavy in acids like soda to draw the most flavor out of it. That was the level of 'numbness' my taste buds were at. When I first went on liquids and drank the vitamin water, acai berry, my taste buds translated it as a subtle flavor. I liked it, but it was really subtle. Now when I drink vitamin water, acai berry, lemonade, the flavors are very flavorful, robust, not subtle at all. I had to detoxify the harsh acidic things I was feeding to my poor inundated buds to get them to fully get the full flavor of vitamin waters. Now if I have cranberry juice I definitely have to cut it with water or it makes my ears pop! I feel very proud of myself to be at the point to do this.
    I have found the pleasure of cooking at home. I love making healthy food to serve myself and my man. We both eat healthy and as a result, he has lost a load of weight without the surgery. He is now at his ideal weight. I feel proud that my decision to have this surgery has positively impacted our health as a couple. We are both much more active and I just went down another size in clothes! I will never get tired of the sensation of wearing a pair of jeans having them fit if a bit snug and then weeks later pulling them away from me for inches because I have undergrown them. This was the best decision I made for myself in my life. On to week 15.
  12. AnaA
    It's the end of week 15 and I lost 2.4 pounds this week! Yeaaaa! I hope that by next week I will be out of the 7's and into some super 6's. This journey has been pretty amazing. To think that I have lost 50 pounds! Wow.
    I wanted to talk some about liquid intake. I take liquid in 3 times a day. After breakfast, lunch, and dinner. What that does for me is it allows me to feel completely full. Liquid deprivation creates pangs in the stomach that are indecipherable to food hunger pangs so I make sure to keep that at bay. Each time I drink liquid per day I drink in one 16 oz bottle of water chased by one 20 oz bottle of sobe 0 calorie water and/or one 16 oz bottle of vitamin water, so all totaled, on a daily basis I get from 96 - 108 ounces of calorie free liquid. It keeps my body very satisfied.
    Also, I have discovered the joy of baking sweet potatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, onions and carrots sprinkled with basil and fresh rosemary from my window garden, I spray with pam so as to use non fat spray, but it is nice with olive oil carefully rubbed on the veg, and drizzle a small bit of honey on it, not saturate. Wow is that filling and fantastic! I ate it 3 times this week for dinner and it is very productive on the fiber front too! Blog followers will appreciate how much I love movement on the fiber front! Only 335 calories measured out, and it is quite a bit of food! I have to eat it 3 separate times to finish it and it is so wonderfully nourishing.
    This brings me to another topic, post operative food intake restriction 15 weeks out. I am happy to report that I still feel great restriction. I still eat only a small portion of what I would have done before and feel completely satisfied. There are moments before my period where I have to fight off mental cravings, but those are totally mental. I still have NOT eaten candy since my operation which is soooooome accomplishment considering we just passed Halloween!! PHEW. On to week 16!
  13. AnaA
    Ok. I'm UP 8 ozs this week. It was a rough week. I got a nasty cold again and that made my bowel movements sort of irregular despite my beloved prunes. Also, because of being sick, I did not drink as much fluids as I normally do. I find it really hard to take water when i'm sick, so the drop in intake i'm sure had a hand in this up 8 ozs. thing. Then, I ordered my vitamins in enough time, but there was a backlog in the shipment of the vitamins I take, so there were 4 days where I went without. Another factor. And I had my period, another factor in weight fluctuation. Also, I think that i'm not making healthy enough eating choices. I did good for breakfast but for lunch and some dinners, I just didn't do as good this week because it was a crazy week and I did piss poor in pre planning. (that sounded peter piper picked a peck of pickled pepperish..) so all these things together made this past week a poster child for how NOT to do things. I hope that this week will be better, but I am out of state in DC and have been having to restaurant it, a thing I loathe doing. I am making the best choices possible, but I don't feel fantastic about all the eating out. I hope that Friday I see some loss, even 1 lb. will make me VERY happy considering the circumstances of this week on the heels of last week! WOW!
    On to week 17.... :\
  14. AnaA
    Wow. Seems wild posting on the heels of my last post, but here it is, the end of Week 17! And what a week it was. I spent the week in DC so I had to eat restaurant food for lunch and dinner... yikes. Breakfast I was able to manage in my room. I was worried about possible weight gain during this week, but I did make sure to keep my prunes on hand and I did A LOT of walking every day around the National Mall. (Stunning Stunning Stunning!)
    I am happy to report that this week I am at 170.2 having lost 2.2 lbs this week! I wasn't sure that I would lose because I had a couple of drinks and while I counted my calories as usual, I didn't have the exact nutritional information (what I LOATHE about eating out, the typical restaurant reply: we have no idea how much fat you're ingesting...) so I had to guesstimate as much as I could with a calorie counting tool. I will blog about tools next because I don't think I have done that.
    I found that the first 3 days I didn't get as much water in as I needed to and that left my body feeling terrible! I actually felt dry throughout and it kinda hurt, you know, the way your plants get wilty when they need to be watered? I've never realize how a body can yell or scream for water like I do now. I made up for that these last 3 days getting at the very least 48 ounces in, which was not near enough. But I am home now and back on track and that feels GREAT!
    I am excited to get my water drinking and delicious home cooked eating back on track! I do love that about home, and I am strategising for Thanksgiving! I am not concerned that I will over eat because of the fantastic restriction.
    While eating out in DC, the restaurant food, I found that sometimes I would take 6 bites and feel completely full! That 'full' sensation I now recognize when I feel the food filling and touching the walls of my stomach, the only way I can describe it is that I know the size of my stomach and can tell when I have sufficiently filled it. After that, I just don't eat anymore. THAT was fantastic. For the first time in my life, I realize that I know what it feels like to feel I have had enough. Before this life changing procedure, I knew when I had had enough because I felt extremely full, which 20 minutes later turned to stuffed and felt literal pain and discomfort over that.
    I love my new life! I sure do feel like next week I am going to see some much awaited and anticipated 6's!! To 18 and beyooond!
  15. AnaA
    Wow.
    There are many good things to report about week 18.
    I managed to lose 1 lb the week of Thanksgiving Holiday! That is NO SMALL TRICK! I just told myself to relax, I could have a little of whatever I chose. I partook in the carrots and celery with onion dip mix, just 2 TBSPs of dip, but it was well enough, carrots are so low calorie and they were delicious! I had faux turkey, faux ham, they were fantastic, 1/2 c. of mashed potatoes, 1/2 cup of corn, and a fantastic delicious rosemary GF gourmet roll, which was so delicious! I chose not to drink wine for the holiday so that I could concentrate my calories on food and remain in control of what I ate. I think that was a wise decision.
    When I finished eating I felt satisfied, but also like I needed to move around, so we gathered the kids and some of us big kids and went outside to run it off by playing Red Rover. That was fun. We came in a couple of hours later and I had a slice of gorgeous pumpkin pie with cool whip. Thank you GF gourmet meals!
    I am just really happy that I did not over eat on Thanksgiving day and that I am now in the 6's!!!!!!!!!!!! To have both of those things happen in 1 week is a very sweet victory! Woo!!!!!!!! I am also very excited that just 20 little old pounds more and I am at my goal weight!! I am glowing. I feel so happy. Every week when I do weigh ins and then the weight loss tracker, I see that mini-me run closer to my weight loss destination and it just makes me so happy. Just 20 pounds until goal. It's worth saying twice. And I have lost a whopping 52 lbs already!
    I have been on a house cleansing lately too. I got rid of all my old clothes, cleared clutter and everything is looking and feeling great.
    Life is Great.
  16. AnaA
    Week 19 has been very positive. But it started out pretty scary. And because of that I had to get disciplined.
    After Thanksgiving for weigh in I was down 1 lb last week and happy about that. But I had pumpkin pie and cool whip for Thanksgiving on Thursday, 1 slice, then again Friday, 1 slice and Saturday, 1 slice. After having pumpkin pie and cool whip 3 days in a row I began to notice something startling! I started getting mental cravings and Sugar cravings!! I found myself thinking of having pie after I'd eaten it on Friday and counting down the minutes until I could have it on Saturday and then after eating it on Saturday feeling like I really needed to have just 1 more slice. But I did not. And I decided not to eat any on Sunday. Also, instead of my eating 3 times a day, I was snacking into the night, two separate times and I did this on Friday and Saturday. And even though my snack choices were healthy ones, I felt them going toward unhealthy things like salty tortilla chips. All mental cravings. The power of the sugar craving was strong and constantly on my mind, but I denied it. The mental cravings were more alarming in that I recognized eating sugar triggers a need to eat salt which was an old pattern of mine, candy or frosting and then salty chips. *GULP*
    Sugar cravings!!! *sigh* This is the problem I have with sugar. I was VERY disgusted with feeling like this. I knew that I needed to address this right away and discipline myself and get things under control before they got out of hand, because OOOH how easily they get out of hand. And I am not that woman anymore, the one who let's this get out of hand. The day of my surgery that all changed and I refuse to allow it back in.
    I wanted to get a handle on this ASAP so that in retrospect I could look back on this time and say, ok, don't eat sweets, even 1 slice 3 days in a row, not even 2 days in a row. Also, I wanted to handle this immediately so that I could look back on the end of week 18, (and Saturday and Sunday of week 19) and say, Ok, it got ugly, but you took charge, contained it, handled it and beat it! And I did.
    This is what I did to get back in charge.
    Beginning Monday 11/26, when I was back in my own home, my own kitchen (went away for 4 days during Thanksgiving) I made the conscious decision to cleanse the sugar out of my system. I remembered how FANTASTIC the OCC lean and green diet was for losing that 10% pre operative weight. I pulled out my Spiru-Tein protein powder, chocolate (it does not taste sugary), blender, bought broccoli, minestrone soup, and lean cuisine meals and I did the lean and green diet for 4 days, Monday - yesterday. (Actually, i'm still doing it today too). I lost 5 lbs this week as a result!!!! :) Not only did I lose 5 pounds of fat, but I cleansed all the sugar craving from my body and do not feel any need for it. I put myself in control of my health, I took charge and did not let pie undo me, and I weigh 164 lbs!! Wow! I will be in the 5's in no time! Just 15 lbs until I reach my goal weight. In the 4 months and 10 days since I had my plication, I have lost an astounding 57lbs, 25% of my body weight and I have proven that sugar will NEVER gain control of me again. I feel fabulously victorious! I WIN!
    ADDENDUM TO LEAN & GREEN:
    During my 5 days of lean and green (including today) I added prunes for obvious reasons, (I never miss a day of eating them) and from Tuesday - Today added 1/4 c. of almonds. It is delicious and nutritious. I slice 5 prunes into 1/4ths and added in the almonds and had a healthy organic trail mix with fantastic results.
    HEALTH BENEFIT BONUS OF PRUNES & ALMONDS:
    Prunes:
    Stimulating effect on bowel motility, helps to build and preserve bone mass, antioxidants found in prunes help to prevent oxidation of cholesterol in the blood stream which could lead to plaque formation in the arteries, the high potassium content in prunes helps to normalize blood pressure, while the soluble fiber promotes heart health, they are a great source of Vitamin A
    Almonds:
    Eating almonds as part of your regular diet helps raise HDL cholesterol, or "good" cholesterol, levels, and also reduces LDL cholesterol, or "bad" cholesterol, levels, they are high in potassium and low in sodium, both are factors that regulate blood pressure, fiber in almonds has a detoxifying effect, the fiber allows food to move through the digestive system more efficiently, cleansing the system and preventing colon cancer, Almonds also have a stabilizing effect on sugar and insulin levels after meals, offering protection from diabetes, they help with weight loss due to their nutrient density and have the effect of making you feel full and nourished, and therefore are less likely to have cravings and over eat, having four to five almonds every day will prevent constipation, they are high in fiber, and a diet that is high in fiber is an effective way to stay regular, they boost energy, reduce the risk of heart disease AND! almonds also contain phenylalanine, a brain-boosting chemical that aids healthy development of our cognitive functions
  17. AnaA
    OK! Today is end of week 2 for me. I have lost 2 lbs. for a total of 24 lbs! This week was a challenge. I was already taking in 8 ozs of pedialyte daily when I showed signs of dehydration. This week I noticed some slight signs again and determined to stay ahead of it I upped my pedialyte intake to 16 ozs now. Still showing some signs, and have upped my liquid intake. I have seen some positive changes this week. I notice that my favorite jeans, jeans that I could NOT fit into before pre-op diet are now loose! I can pull them 2 inches away from me easily and that makes me feel good. I definitely feel like I have gone down in inches, and can see this in the mirror. I opted not to measure that stuff so no specifics, but it is notable. My energy level has been pretty good and that is saying a lot considering that before I even heard of the OCC my energy level was a constant struggle and low! I have been increasing my walking and am looking forward to resistant training and exercise which I can begin at the end of week 3, next Friday. I feel proud of myself that I have been on liquids for 17 days and feel good. I would have never thought it possible for ME? to stick to something like this for this length of time and I just feel very proud of myself.
  18. AnaA
    Wow. This week was challenging. I gained 2 ounces and i'm sooo thankful it was not more.
    I weighed in every day this week, and at one point (Wednesday) the scale was up to 168!! Luckily I only count Friday's, but seeing the scale go up 4 pounds after my lean and green end last Friday of 164 was pretty frustrating.
    I had my monthly which took its time falling and I know that contributed to weight bloating, I had stomach flu which was terrible. It interfered with my BMs making it sluggish to non existent, despite my beloved prunes. Then suddenly I had diarrhea and severe cramping which was abdominally painful right up until yesterday and I was substantially gassy for 3 days in a row and it was painful too. In the wars. I had to take pepto which stops/slows the BM and papaya enzyme for the gas. That papaya enzyme is awesome! I took them 3 times in one day and it severely reduced that gas. The pepto was rough. It did it's job but slowed me up. Whew!
    My stomach feels calmer today but not 100% so I hope that this stomach flu will not shadow me into next week. I feel somewhat calmer today and I'm relieved that I only gained 2 ozs but definitely want to see that go down by next Friday. Onward to week 21!
  19. AnaA
    This is the second week in a row that I have gained weight. Last week I was up 2 ozs and this week I am up 4 ozs, so I have gained 6 ozs in 2 weeks which is not a major catastrophe, but means I am not losing. That part is yuck.
    I have still had the stomach flu this week. It feels like it's on its way out, but I have still had quite a bit of gas and bloat and other stomach nastiness. Also, for my birthday a week or 2 back I didn't get to celebrate so did that this past week. That consisted of going out with friends for drinks, 3 days this past week and i'm sure the alcohol stalled my metabolism.
    Because it's so easy to get caught up in the alcohol celebrations during the season, I am making sure that I do not drink again until New Years Eve. I would like to drop at least 4 lbs in the next 3 weeks, totally realistic. It would be great to start the year off in the 5's for 2013! I can do it!! And ofcourse, I loved that for my birthday I was over 50 lbs slimmer than last year's birthday, I dressed up and my man took me dancing. It was fantastic. I felt so petite in my little dress. Aahhhh. Here's to breaking 164 next week!
  20. AnaA
    I'm super late at posting this. The holidays have been absolutely chaotic true to holiday form.
    I lost 1.2 pounds this week! Yea! better than the up 2 ozs and up 4 ozs the two previous weeks. I am happy enough with this and still feel like I have the chance at greeting the new year in, in the 5's. We shall see.
    To next week! (which due to late posting is tomorrow... lol.....)
  21. AnaA
    Ok, this is my last blog entry of 2012! As such I think it merits positive reflection.
    Last year, I brought in the 2012 New Year weighing 221 lbs. I was wearing size 18/20 clothes. I was fat, the vein in my right thigh was throbbing and numbing up, and I felt sluggish, all around awful and was steadily heading to Diabetes in a pre-diabetic state. My health was bad, my spirits were low, I looked blah.
    This year, I am grateful for the changes that have occurred in my life since my plication at the OCC on July 20th. I began my pre-op diet at 221 lbs. I lost the 5% of my body weight necessary to do the procedure (a whole 15 lbs!) and entered the surgery room at 206 lbs. In the last 5 months and 8 days post-procedure, I have lost 44 pounds! Add to that the 15 lbs I lost pre-surgery, and I have lost a total of 59 lbs to date! I now wear size 9/10 jeans, HALF the size I was at 6 months ago! I have gone down 6 sizes of clothes and I feel great! I feel thin and feel very happy. I just went in for my physical check up and blood work last week and the Dr. was raving about my results! I am hundreds of miles away from pre-diabetes! My good cholesterol is UP! More than most adults, yessssss, and my bad cholesterol is way down. WOW! Everything was wonderful. I am in tip top shape! It just feels like such a blessing to bring in 2013 in this new healthy way. I feel proud of everything that I have accomplished and could NOT have done this without the plication as the most fantastic weight loss tool ever!
    I still get fantastic restriction. And if I ever feel that my restriction wasn't as tight at a meal, then I make sure the next meals to eat much lighter and that fantastic restriction returns. For me, I have finally learned that if you stretch something regularly, well, the natural response is stretching. But if you keep it in its current shape it stays that way. There are so many many lessons I have learned throughout this journey. I feel great when I look in the mirror and every single time I put on my skinny clothes! I never take that for granted anymore. This is the last time in my life I will have had to go through this weight loss journey so I give it the highest precedent in my life and honor it daily by eating smart.
    This week I have lost 1.4 lbs!! Yea! I am just 13 lbs away from my goal weight of 149 as set by the OCC! Under 20 lbs away from goal! And while I enter the new year weighing 162, Three pounds off from the 5's I was hoping for, it doesn't even matter really, because I know in a week or two, i'll be there.
    Happy 2013 Everyone!
    :) :)
  22. AnaA
    I'm getting a bit sloppy about posting.. and not just that.. Well at the end of week 24, on Jan. 4 I weighed in at 161.2 lbs. I lost 8 ounces from the week before but it's my sloppy holiday 'nasties' that's bothering me. I'm afraid i'm facing my first weight loss challenge. I let some bad habits creep in during the holiday season and my eating has become mental.
    My means of combating this is to write it here. I hold myself accountable through my blogging. It's the thing that keeps me on track and it shames me to write how sloppy I've become. I can not let this become a habit. It would just undue all my hard work and i'm worth more than that. My health is worth more than that. So. I have come here to admit to the world that I GOT SLOPPY. And with that, i intend to make an honest start to being back on track first thing tomorrow (Thursday 1/10). I have been in the 6's for the last 7 weeks and i'm sure that I will weigh in in the 6's for this week too, so that will be 8 weeks in the 6's! That is the LONGEST that i'll have taken to get through any number yet. My admission and disgust at this is key to getting past it. I have the will power that it takes to conquer this.
    Ok. To week26! (because I know weight in day after tomorrow at week 25 won't yet reflect the positive changes that I will undertake to get back on track tomorrow.
  23. AnaA
    The post I did for week 24 was just one day before the end of this week 25 post and the change was a negative. I am up 2 ounces at the end of week 25, so that 8 ounces that I lost at the end of week 24 turned out to only be 6 ounces. I feel really bothered by my weight gains. I have now spent 8 whole weeks in the 6's! That is longer than I have spent at any other 10 lb. period. I looked back on my food journal. While I was staying within my caloric intake, holiday alcohol and the lack of quality foods I was ingesting were the total problem. I needed something to take myself out of this danger zone. A detoxifying cleanse.
    What has been so bad about getting to this point is the mental hunger that it caused. I am eating at 10pm at night and looking for what else there might be and steadily pushing my caloric intake higher and higher. It doesn't matter that I'm still within the occ caloric intake, because the type of foods I am having are bad. I started reintroducing low fat pizza's, pop chips, these types of 'quick' 'convenient' foods for when I was in a rush. Also the holiday alcohol is not a good thing either. I began to have drink a couple of times a week throughout December which is a lot of caloric intake and just overall blah for my body. *sigh* a sad reminder that I just can not afford to think that way. It is a fat way of thought for me. So. I leave this drudge behind me as it is Friday and time for me to post a much more positive entry! To week 26! (again...)
  24. AnaA
    WOW. What a month it's been! *6 Month Anniversary*
    I really got out of hand. My holiday eating threatened to undue me. It's really quite deceptive. When I look at my weight during this time, I see that i spent 3 weeks having gone up in ounces with the rest of the time not losing more than 1 lb. That's very different from other weeks. But what really did me in was convenience foods. I began to have GF pizza 3 times a week. I think somewhere in my mind I thought, since it's gluten free pizza it's healthier. I was definitely making that connection. It is a false one. Also I was having low calorie chips so that I could grab and go, a concept that's fine as long as you're not making the kind of choices I was. But what really helped do me in I feel was all the holiday alcohol consumption. It really did loosen my inhibitions and make me feel warm and relaxed so I wasn't worrying about how it's not the healthiest way to consume calories.
    I began to head crave. That is a nasty fiend I was sure i'd seen the back of. At 10pm at night I found myself thinking about what was in the refrigerator and having to fight myself not to get up and eat. THAT'S when I knew I was in trouble. Because that didn't just happen one night. It began to be a theme for weeks 24 and 25. I was in steep trouble. I knew that I had drank hot chocolate twice during those two weeks putting 2 teaspoons of sugar in each cup and I wondered if that was it? Sugar has and always will be my biggest problem. I just didn't think in that amount it could undue me?? I decided that to help myself I needed to educate myself. I went to the library and started to look for books on sugar. I could NOT believe it! That sh1t is in everything! Bread, chips, processed foods, sugary sugar sugar. The food industry has been ruthless about sugaring EVERYTHING! I never realize how prevalent it was. No wonder I lost my mind. I had 2 literal teaspoons of the drug, then was having it in pizza and chips. What an eye opener.
    And the education did not stop there. I was surfing the documentaries on netflix for something to watch last week. I came across one called Hungry For Change. The documentary exposes the secrets the diet, weight loss and food industries use to keep us addicted to dead food. (dead food is food with no nutritional value) It also defined "food products" which sadly, is not real food and is what most of us eat. The problem with it is that it just does not nurture our bodies. I never even realized until that film that we could simultaneously be over eating AND starving ourselves! WHAT?? Another great thing about this film is the way it draws correlations between eating, overeating, acceptance and inclusion among family and peers. Jeez. After watching that documentary I was really motivated to quit eating dead food and began to look for ways to get back on track.
    How I got my groove back:
    I acknowledged that I needed to detoxify my body and cleanse it out. I had heard a lot about chia seeds and found some great online information about the benefits of chia seeds and purchased a quantity. (this is just a sneak preview of chia seed benefits:) http://www.mychiasee...iaBenefits.html
    Then I remembered juicing. It was something that I had heard about and wanted to try 2 years ago! I had even purchased a juicer back then that remained untouched. Hubby broke the juicer out and I went to the library for some literature.
    I found a great book called "Detox For the Rest of Us: Safe and Easy Plans to Cleanse Your Body, Boost Your Metabolism, Lose Weight, and Feel Great!" By Carole Jacobs. It has 15 different detox plans that one can try, each different in nature from juice detox, to cholesterol flushes to liver detox, lactose detox, gluten detox etc. so that it is varied in its methods for people who have multi dietary needs/preferences. I know that the way we live, power lines, computers, pesticides in food and fruit, sugar in every freakin thing etc. meant my body needed detoxification.
    Last Saturday with book in hand hubby and I broke out our grocery bags and went to the local organic farmers market. We picked out enough fruits and vegetables to begin a juicing cleanse. Sunday 1/13 we began our juicing cleanse. Hubby did a 3 day cleanse with me (Sun, Mon, Tues) and I did a 6 day juice cleanse which will end tonight. We each will continue drinking 1 juice a day for breakfast this Saturday - Monday.
    You know what? I would NOT have believed this had I not done it. The first day I was on juice cleanse only, it STOPPED ALL OF MY HEAD CRAVINGS after the first breakfast juice. That is how bad my body was screaming out for nutrition. I no longer have that worry. It is gone. Each day for the last 6 days I have had juice followed by 20 ozs of water for breakfast, lunch and dinner along with 1/4 cup of almonds and 5 prunes. I sprinkle 2 tablespoons (daily intake serving) of chia seeds on the breakfast juice and I have felt full and satisfied. It has been fantastic being back on liquids again. I love the way it cleans my mind and the fact that I am detoxifying my body. My hair is shinier and my skin is brighter. Whew. Disaster averted. This gal, back on track!
    It has now been 6 months since I was plicated. This week I am grateful to report I have lost 5.4 lbs. and I am in the 5's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I weigh 156 lbs. I am just 7 lbs away from goal weight! The last time I was in the 5's I was 16 years old! That was 26 years ago. I am not only very happy, I am very healthy.
  25. AnaA
    (again just transfering the first months weekly updates from the forum to my blog)
    OK!
    Today there is A LOT going on! It is the end of week 3 and I have lost a total of 4 lbs this week! I am so excited about this! So far in the last 3 weeks since my procedure I have lost a total of 13 lbs! I've never used so many exclamation marks!! lol And over all including pre op weight loss I have lost a noteworthy 28lbs, over 12% of my body weight! BMI going down.
    There's a lot for me to report on. Today was/is my first day of soft foods and THIS transition has been an experience in itself let me tell you. I have a lot to say about this part of the experience so I am going to blog that so as not to suck up too much forum space haha.
    Carry on. That is all.

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