One year ago today ...

One year ago today I was off to see the wizard! I can't believe that it has been a whole year since I had my gastric bypass surgery. 2009 has been one wild year for me. I have discovered more about myself, my faith, my marriage, my family in this past year than I ever imagined possible. The most important nugget of truth I have received out of all of it this year has been "I can do it!" I believed a lie about myself for so long - I wasted so many years thinking that my dreams were unattainable. But I am here on the other side of a long journey (that isn't really even over - I feel it may have just begun!) to tell you that if I can do these hard things - you can too.

 

Here is a list of goals I set for myself about a week before surgery:

• I want my feet to stop hurting - check!
• I want to be able to walk more than a mile without stopping because of my back - check - I run 3-5 miles regularly now.
• I want to stop wearing my CPAP machine at night - I bid this farewell early on.  Hope you're enjoying it, Tim!
• I want my knees to stop hurting - not nearly as bad or as often as it was before.
• I want to be able to cross my legs comfortably - I almost always sit with my legs crossed now.
• I want to be able to run around with my kids - I beat their butts on Wii Fit today.  :)
• I want to feel like I don't have to avoid mirrors - I don't avoid them but I still don't love them.  :)
• I want to be able to fit comfortably in a roller coaster when we go on vacation this summer - that was fun!
• I want to be able to fit comfortably in an airplane seat - don't have to sit with my arms folded across me the whole flight to keep from feeling like I'm in other people's personal space.
• I want my blood pressure to go back to normal - check!
• 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 - check.
• I want to shop in a "normal" store for clothing - check.
• I don't want my kids to be embarassed by their fat mom - having them cheer me on when I run is the ultimate experience for me.

Goals added at 6 month mark:

• 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. - check!
• 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. - Yeah - so not happening till I get rid of some of this extra skin.
• 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. - check!
• 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". - still working on this, but getting a lot better.
• 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. - check!  110 pounds (sneaking up on 115 now) down!
• 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. - this got derailed a bit with my surgery this fall, but I'm anxious to still meet these goals in 2010.

Measurement  - Pre-op - 3 Months - 6 Months - 1 Year

Full Bust 50 - 44 - 40 - 39
Rib Cage 46 - 39 - 35 - 35
Waist 46 - 39 - 37 - 36
Hips 56 - 50 - 45 - 42
Thighs 30 - 26 - 24 - 23
Arms 15 - 14 - 13 - 12.5
Total 243 - 212 - 194 - 187.5

 

My BMI has gone from 47.4 to 29.5 (Morbidly Obese to plain overweight).

And finally - here is proof in pictures.

And so I can proudly say that I have met my goals.  I have lost 85% of my excess weight in a year.  I have faced many of my personal demons surrounding food and why I eat it when I shouldn't or don't need to.  I have made exercise a regular part of my life.  I have started running!  I got my PMP!  All of this in just the last year.  Who knew I could do all of this in one year?  What a wild ride it has been.  I look forward to what is ahead in 2010.

2009 in Pamelot

I had a lot of fun making this little video on slide.com.  I think these pictures speak volumes about what I have experienced in this past year.  It's been one wild ride.  Would love to hear what you think of it!

Thanksgiving and WOW Moments

I know, I know, I know - I have been neglecting Pamelot yet again.  I apologize profusely.

I had a great Thanksgiving.  I was able to go visit my sister and have Thanksgiving with her as well as go to a surprise birthday party for my grandmother.   She is an amazing woman.  She is 90 years old and still lives alone in her own house.  It was great fun to see cousins I don't get to see very often.

So I've been thinking about some things that I am thankful for and I wanted to get them down.

I am thankful for:

• my family
• healthy children
• healthy parents
• my marriage
• my job
• my health
• my friends

The list could go on and on.  I am a very thankful girl.  And as I reached my 11 month surgiversary I am especially thankful for how different my life is this year than it was last year at this time.  I am down about 110 pounds from when I had surgery.  And amazingly enough - I still get some WOW moments on this journey.  Here are a few I have had recently:

• I have never, ever, in all my life, shared clothes with my sister.  She's always been much smaller than me - even as adults - we're just built completely different.  But when I got down to my sisters I tried on some of her clothes!!  And they fit!!!!  I even managed to fit in a size 10!!!!!!  You just have no idea how great that felt.
• I love hanging with my sister.  LOVE IT!  We went out on the town one night and something happened to me that HAS NEVER happened to me before.  I got hit on.  HA!  I have been with my husband since I was 15.  Those there waters have never been chartered before.  I didn't know what to do with myself.  Thanks to my brother-in-law for keeping the wolves at bay for a while.  :)
• I have been wanting to commemorate 100 pounds down and I did while with my sister - I got a new tat.  No - I can't show you where.  HAHAHAHAHAHA!  I'll just say it's not somewhere that would be affected by any future plastics - which I hope to get at some point.  Have I mentioned how much I hate all this extra skin?
• I also love seeing my cousin, Angie.  While together down in the Keys for my grandmother's party we went running together.  I don't know if she will ever know how much that little moment in time meant to me.
• While down in the Keys for my grandmother's party we all stayed in a fantastic vacation home - a ton of us.  In the past this would have filled me with dread - the thought of being in such close quarters with others while I was sleeping - because I snored.  I didn't just snore - I really really snored - wake the dead with the sound snored.  But I didn't have to worry about that.  I shared a big room with a lot of other people and no one heard a peep out of me. Normally I would have had to lug my CPAP machine with me, make sure I was sleeping next to a power outlet, get it all set up, and wear it at night to ensure that I didn't snore.  NO MORE!
• When I got home from our trip I had an appointment for a stress test.  Doesn't sound like much opportunity for excitement, but I passed with flying colors.  The most impressive thing was that my blood pressure was great.  My diastolic number stayed around 70 the entire time.  My doctor was impressed with how much better I am doing since this time last year.  It felt good.

So as I approach Christmas and my 1 year surgiversary I am anxious to revel in all the changes that 2009 has brought into my life.