Day 4 Post Realize Band (Gastric Banding) Surgery

Day 4 after surgery and wow, another 2 pounds gone this morning. I am somewhat flabbergasted at how the weight is dropping off my body. Yes, intellectually I get it that I am eating less food and therefore I should be losing weight. However, it stills seems a bit like a miracle that it is actually working. It must be the many years of dieting that didn’t pay off for me influencing my thoughts about this procedure. I still remain a wee bit skeptical about the weight continuing to drop while still accepting this is a permanent solution.

Man oh man, this is freakin’ awesome. Sorry, lost my head for a moment. IT IS WORKING. What is that a sign of … euphoria mixed with doubt? Oh well. So far since the day BF and I went to NWWLS seminar I have lost 12 pounds. Some of that was due to the pre-op 800-calorie diet and the rest due to recovery and liquid diet. Next week I get to eat semi-solid foods. Okay, I am all about the mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs for next week!! I am a salt-tooth not a sweet tooth so the protein drinks and pudding are getting a mite bit old for me. V-8 juice has been my life saver. I even made a fake tomato soup with milk in my V-8. I couldn’t find a high-fructose corn syrup free version in the grocery store. We are going shopping this afternoon and I will check all the soup brands. Sheesh, the food industry needs to get a clue that some of us don’t want the crap excess corn products. Stay tuned, I am on a roll.

Day 3 after lap band surgery

All is going well on this Day 3 after surgery. I am pleasantly surprised that I am healing so fast. Reminder that I am giving huge credit to my personal trainer for working me out tough for the previous 3-months. I am not experiencing hunger in the usual way so that is good. Lost another pound overnight and suspect that will continue at 1/2 to 1 pound a day until I can eat something solid. Walking every day, only 20-minutes so far but will increase that every day until I am back to 45-minutes plus. Not going to do my personal training session on Weds as I can't bend very well from the waist yet without annoying my stitches. Plan to do training session next Saturday although with very light weights.

My BF has been an absolute gift. He is very careful to make sure that I am not trying to overdo things. I can't stand being such a panty-waist right now. I hover because I can't help with much, argh! Okay, I did try to lift a couple weights, BAD. Recovered well but won’t be touching them again for a week. Isometric exercises are a better choice right now.

Day 2 after Lap Band Surgery

Couple cups of tea w/milk for breakfast. Waiting to be hungry which isn’t happening. Have to walk 10-minute stints to get surgery gas out of system (hey, I aim to keep you informed; it ain’t pretty and according to the BF not smelling great). Also used "greens to go" to promote the first BM much better choice that Milk of Gag-nesium, yuck. Now I am back to normal.

I’ve had a couple of questions related to where and how much. I had the surgery at www.nwwls.com in Everett, WA and it cost a pretty penny out of my pocket because I do not have health insurance. If I lose all the weight I plan to lose, it will average about $200 a pound. Good bargain in my opinion. I have heard that you can have the procedure in Mexico for about $7000 and all the risks that go along with that choice. With NWWLS, I get 13-months of follow up care free. Well worth the expense and ease of mind that goes along with that care. I have dropped ½ pound from yesterday and expect that rate to continue while on the liquid recovery diet. That portion of the diet gives the band area a chance to heal properly before introducing soft foods and then normal foods. I plan to be back with my personal trainer doing minimal low weight and no abdominal work in 5-days. I have a plan and I am going to win this freakin’ weight battle once and for all.

Post Lap Band Procedure

(Day after surgery) I chose the Realize Band as my lap band as it has a lower fill port profile (ever hopeful I am about weight loss results). Post surgery twinges last night and regular bouts of gas. Actually weighed more after surgery last night probably due to the gas from surgery (inflate the abdominal area) and the fluids I was drinking all day. Today I am back to pre-surgery check-in weight. All the exercise I have been doing the last 3-months seems to be paying off in minimal pain today. I give credit to my personal trainer (Health Happenings with Meghan Manning) who had me doing mucho abdominal work as well as all over strength training. The pre-op diet also helped the recovery process by making it easier for my surgeon. Having a spot of tea with milk this morning along with a protein drink (don’t want to lose muscle mass so drinking protein is good). I have only taken a couple doses of children’s liquid ibuprofen (cherry flavor but tastes like cherry-coconut, yummy).

Episode 001: The Realization

The good news, I have been consistently training/working out since February! The not so good news, I haven’t lost any weight. I feel much better, my body is getting stronger and my eating has actually improved in quality. I need to make up my mind about eating less food and hope it sticks when my body goes into that feeding frenzy mode. Thinking hard about gastric banding because when hunger strikes, it is real, stomach growling real, hand shaking real, so focused on getting food real.

Current strategy is eating slower. It is working but it is a new habit I must form. My addiction to food is more than likely inherited. My dad can’t control his eating. He literally woofs his food down and then starts eating off everyone else’s plates if he can. Unless I work through it now, I am fated for the same. Several of my siblings have recognized the same potential food addiction in themselves.

Got My Booster Shot Indeed…

Step one achieved, personal trainer hired and doing her magic with my workouts. I could barely walk the couple of days after my first workout and then I had another workout! Four workouts in two weeks have reshaped my workout methodology. I was not working as hard as I should have been during my home based workouts. Here is a plug for my PT, Megan. She is great and I consider her one of my “peeps”. PT isn’t cheap but then being unhealthy isn’t cheap either, make a choice. Lost 5-lbs the first week and gained 3-lbs the second week. Fingers crossed for the official 2nd week weigh-in on Monday morning.

www. HealthHappenings.net

I now need to find a great outfit for my niece’s February wedding taking place in Arizona. My clothing choices are usually pretty casual so hopefully I can find something that works. Found a great couple of sweater tops in CostCo last week from ECI New York and may wear one of them for the wedding rehearsal pool-side affair.

Boost by Personal Trainer Required!

Egads! Hard to believe it has been over a month since my last blog. Here is my new vow to blog every day, right after exercise and breakfast. Speaking of which, I have just hired a personal trainer to kick my butt into gear. The boyfriend indicated that I tend to slack off and not hit the weights or exercise as hard as I should and I agree with him on this one. So after watching another episode of The Biggest Loser and seeing the big people do intervals on the treadmill, I sucked it up and tried it for myself. Mind you, my intervals were only 30 seconds just like the show. I usually do the treadmill at a speed of 2.5 and vary the incline. This time I started at 2.6 (get out of my comfort zone) and popped the speed to 3.0 every 2 t0 3 minutes for the 30-second interval. Oh my gosh, it worked and I dropped a couple of pounds (yes, I know some of it is water) by this morning.

With that success under my belt and my boyfriend’s words ringing in my ears, I took myself downtown to sign up with the local personal trainer. I have spoke with her previously and she has all the kick my butt requirements and understands I come from knowledge (my KB & Pilates certification). She is also providing a high protein 1200 calorie diet plan. I am pretty sure I have no idea exactly how many calories I consume in a day and I absolutely refuse to count calories. I would much rather pay attention to what I am eating in food types.

On the job front, the site LinkedIn is absolutely great for connecting with people and colleagues from the past. I look forward with pleasure to 2009!