6 Month Surgiversary

Well, I hit the 6 month mark last week, but I didn't have time to blog and to be honest I wasn't feeling too positive. I realized that since my 4 month surgiversary I had only lost 10 pounds. I know some of you are like "SHUT UP! 10 pounds in 2 months is great!" Yeah - but not in Pam's little gastric bypass world. I hit a major stall in there where I played with the same three or 4 pounds. I seem to have broken that stall, but am still now losing at a much slower pace than I was just following surgery. I am at 85 pounds down since surgery and I was really hoping to be close to 100 pounds down by now. That was my own self-imposed goal. My doctor is very happy with my weight loss to date. My nutritionist is also quite happy with my progress and feels that some of the slow down is because of my drastic ramp up in exercise with my running, etc... So the trade off with the increase in exercise is a bit of a slow down in my weight loss, but in the end this new attitude toward exercise will benefit me much better in the long run - so I guess I will just have to take it.

As I have said before, I don't always see the changes in me. I know in my head because the scale is going down, the sizes are going down, etc..., but living in it day to day can sometimes blind my eyes to what changes are actually happening. In an effort to see more clearly I will sometimes look at comparison pictures. Today I want to look at some cold hard facts - measurements.

Measurement Pre-op 3 Months 6 Months
Full Bust 50 44 40
Rib Cage 46 39 35
Waist 46 39 37
Hips 56 50 45
Thighs 30 26 24
Arms 15 14 13
Total 243 212 194

Here is how some of this breaks down. Since surgery I have lost 49 inches! That is 4 feet y'all! That just blows my mind!

I have gone from a size 24 to a size 14.

I have gone from a 46D bra to a 36D bra. I haven't been a 36 anything since college I think.

My BMI has gone from 47.4 to 32.4.

Underweight less than 18.5
Normal 18.5-24.9
Overweight 25-29.9
Obese I 30-34.9
Obese II 35-39.9
Morbid Obesity 40 and above

So I have gone from Morbidly Obese to just regular ol' Obese. I have 15 more pounds to go until I am just Overweight. Can I just tell you what awful awful awful feelings I have in my gut when I hear the word obese? I can even remember the first time I heard it said about me. All of those feelings come rushing back. But then add morbidly as an adjective - seriously I want to hurl. I digress.

Then if I look at percentages - I want to loose 130 pounds total. I am 65% to that goal!

I also wanted to look back at some of my goals and update them. They are listed below and include my comments from 3 months out in red - my most recent comments in blue:

• I want my feet to stop hurting. Well they hurt - but because of my new tattoo! I recently went on vacation and we went to an amusement park. We were there from open to closing and my feet did not hurt. I even ran around a bit of the park trying to meet up with the rest of our group on time, etc... It was great!
• I want to be able to walk more than a mile without stopping because of my back. DONE! I now walk 3 miles without stopping at all. And I have taken to jogging! I can jog 2 miles without stopping! I now RUN! I have done two 5K races, and most recently a 4 mile road race. I am targeting a 10K in the fall and I have upped my workout runs to five and a half miles!!!! I never stop when I run anymore.
• I want to stop wearing my CPAP machine at night. I have not worn my CPAP since surgery! I don't snore (much) at night anymore! In fact, I gave my CPAP away! Hope you're enjoying it, Tim! The vacation we recently took required us to take a 20 hour drive to our destination. So we stopped to spend the night in Tennessee -giving the kids an opportunity to get out - play in the pool - and generally enjoy spending the night in a hotel which is a special treat for them. I shared a bed with my daughter, Megan, and in the morning she said "MOM! You didn't wake me up with your snoring!" Yeah!
• I want my knees to stop hurting. My knees still bother me - I have arthritis in them, but they don't hurt ALL the time like they did before - only when I really push myself exercising. I have seen my Primary Care Physician who is also a sports medicine specialist and a triathlete. He recommended that I not run on consecutive days and then add in strength training in the intervals. This has made a huge difference on the pain in my knees as well as my pace in my running.
• I want to be able to cross my legs comfortably. I can do it! I want to be able to be a little more comfortably doing this and do it longer, but I can do it! Even in church in the pew where there's not much room! I cross my legs all the time now! I love it! I can do it comfortably and keep that position for a good long while.
• I want to be able to run around with my kids. I even got on the trampoline with my kids! I also go bike riding with them now! They love it when I get on the trampoline. They always want to go for walks, etc... I play in the pool with them now that it is so hot.
• I want to feel like I don't have to avoid mirrors. I still avoid mirrors a lot. This will have to be something I work on. And when I look in them I still see me 3 months ago. But my friends are helping me work this out. I'm a little better in this regard. But I don't like looking at myself much. I plan to address some of the body image issues in a future post.
• I want to be able to fit comfortably in a roller coaster when we go on vacation this summer. I haven't done this yet, but I'm feeling good about the possibilities this summer! I did it! We went to Silver Dollar City in Branson and I had a blast going on all the roller coasters! And I fit just fine in them - even had some room in some of them. I had such a blast!
• I want to be able to fit comfortably in an airplane seat. On my trip to see my sister I had no trouble with the seatbelt and didn't feel like I was imposing on the person next to me. Yeah!
• I want my blood pressure to go back to normal. I was on 3 different blood pressure medications prior to surgery because I am allergic to ACE inhibitors. I have not taken ONE of them since the day of surgery! My blood pressure has been phenomenal since surgery. I just took it now and it was 114/68! My blood pressure continues to be great and my resting heart rate has plummeted! It used to be in the high 80's to low 90's. Now it's in the mid 60's.
• I want to be able to go to the doctor and not have my blood pressure go up just at the thought of having to get on the scale. So I've only had one doctor's appointment since surgery and my blood pressure was 122/72. That is pretty freakin' good for me! My last appointment my blood perssure was 118/70! I just about did a happy dance.
• I want to shop in a "normal" store for clothing. I am so close to this I can taste it. It is possible I could actually shop in normal stores right now, but I am going through clothes sizes so fast right now I can't bring myself to spend money on new clothes that I will only wear for a little while. A lot of clothes I am currently wearing are just too big and that is just how it will be. I plan to make a trip to a local thrift store soon and see what I can find. I am officially shopping in regular stores. I still find myself drawn to a size 24 - just automatically. But I am in a size 14. A lot of my clothing doesn't even have the X in front of the L! WOO HOO!
• I don't want my kids to be embarassed by their fat mom. My kids spend a lot of time telling me how good I look when I have a new outfit on, etc... In fact, the day that the kids came to the hospital after my surgery my daughter, Marissa, took to telling everyone in the elevator that she was coming to visit her mom and that her mom was in the hospital to "get skinny". Having my kids at the finish line of my first 5K made me quite verklempt. To have them high fiving me and cheering me on - wow - I can't even write about it without tearing up. It meant so much to me.

And now I have added a couple of new goals for myself:

• I want to see my collar bone. Isn't that strange? I can feel it now, but I don't feel like it is quite visible.
• Along those same lines - I would really like to see my hip bones. That might be a long time in coming simply because of all the extra skin I have in that area. That may have to wait for the tummy tuck.
• I want to be able to buy cute bras and panties. HEHEHEHE. Yeah - big girl panties and bras have been what I have always gotten - but I'm now in a size that I can buy those cute little sets! I haven't done it yet because the sizes have been changing so fast, but I'm feeling more comfortable with this now.
• I want to no longer see myself as the fattest person in the room. Even though I have lost so much weight, I still see myself as "the fat girl".
• I want to get the the "century" mark in my weight loss. I actually want to loose 130 pounds total - but this is a good progress mark for me.
• I am now adding some distance goals for my running. I want to run a 10K this fall, and hopefully a half marathon in the winter. I can't believe I just said that.

So this is my 6 month update. Here is a picture to go with it all:

That is my man. We recently celebrated our 15th anniversary. This was a sunset dinner cruise that we went on while in Branson to celebrate our anniversary. I think it's safe to say he is enjoying the new me on a lot of different levels as well.