On December 21, 2015 I embarked on one of the most personal and rewarding journeys of my life. While not as exciting as the day 14 years ago that I became a mother, for me this journey signifies my beginning of a whole new life. It took me a long time to get to this the point. I struggled for years and years trying to lose weight "my way". Only to fail time and time again. Diet program after diet program; cleanse after cleanse; counting calories until I felt like my head was going to explode, but I just couldn't succeed. I just couldn't get the pounds to come off. And the worst part was that I seemed to be gaining instead of losing, even when I restricted myself to 800-1000 calories a day.
In March 2015 I decided to take a leap of faith and attend a seminar about weight loss surgery and the options that it provides. Sitting there listening to that nurse talk about what happens when you have a weight loss surgery, I knew immediately that this was my answer. It took several months to prepare and complete the requirements for my doctor & my insurance, but I did it and on December 21st I had a vertical sleeve gastrectomy. So what is that? It is a procedure where the surgeon removes 80-90% of your stomach and then staples the remaining portion so that it makes a "sleeve" the size of a medium banana. For the first week after surgery I was on a liquid-only diet. Because of that, I lost a lot of weight really fast. As I started to slowly learn how to eat again and what I should and shouldn't or could and couldn't eat, the weight didn't fall off as fast. But I was starting to feel better.
The first month after surgery it was all about letting my body heal. I was off work for the month and for the most part, did nothing but rest. But then I had to go back to work and had to get myself into a habit of eating my 3 meals a day, drinking 64 oz of water each day and making sure that I got 50-60 grams of protein each day. Sounds easy right? Oh but it's not! It is the toughest thing that I have had to do and I am still not perfect at it. But I am not giving up.
And then there is the exercise requirement! That truthfully has been the hardest part. I used to love to work out and keep myself in shape. I used to enjoy weight lifting and riding a stationary bike - but now that I have spent that last 14 years of life morbidly obese - I just don't like to do it for fear of failure. But what makes me think I am going to fail? I don't know - maybe the years of hearing people talk bad about me and my weight. Maybe it's the fact that I am older now and just not as confident. I don't really know, but I do understand that exercise is an important part of this journey and I really need to jump onto that bandwagon again.
Now I have been back to work for nearly a month. It is getting increasingly difficult not to fall back into my old ways. For example, my boss bought the whole office pizza today. OMG do I ever LOVE pizza. But I am not supposed to eat it anymore - way too high in carbs and low on protein.
As of this writing, I have lost a total 47.6 lbs. I am ecstatic! It's been a long time since I could say that I lost that much weight in only 8 weeks! For now I am going to celebrate all of my weight loss accomplishments. And I am still committed to making healthy habits a part of my life again.
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