Since the local library was closed yesterday for the holiday I called today about using their meeting room to hold a weight loss support group meeting.  The guy who answered the phone said just to come in and fill out an application.  So I headed over there before going to the gym this afternoon for Family Zumba to fill out the application.  Once I got there the lady at the desk told me that reoccurring group meetings were not allowed to be held there and there was a maximum cap of how many times someone can rent the meeting room a year (only 4 times a year which doesn’t work for me!).  She did however give me a list of other locations in the area that had meeting rooms available.  Most of them were hotels that charged a large fee or they were churches that did not allow reoccurring meetings.  I did find one location in that list that had a fee free meeting room so I wrote down the info and gave them a call when I got home.  I think it is going to be a great location for a support group meeting since it has lots of room, lots of seating (can seat up to 45 people), full AV technology hooked up and available, and lots of parking.  If the parking in front of the building is full there is a large, new parking garage right next door.  The first hour is free and any additional time is only $1 per hour.  I sent out a couple of emails to some people who live a little distance away who expressed interest in coming to meetings to get their opinion on what days and times would work best for them but I am almost certain that I will be setting the support group meetings up on the first and third Wednesday of the month from 7:00 – 8:30 PM.  I asked for an hour and a half just to make sure we had plenty of time.  I know some of the hour long meetings I have gone to see too rushed when there are lots of people in attendance so we have that 30 minute buffer if we need it.  We should start holding physical meetings starting in August!

So what are some of the hardest obstacles you have faced?  Motivation seems to be a common obstacle and I am working on some ideas for that.  I have so many ideas that I want to implement!  I am very excited to be moving forward with this but nervous, too.  I always have the fear I am going to just screw up big time so I do not try to tackle anything that I am not 200% sure of.  I am going to just take a deep breath and try my best!

So it has been 7 months since I had my DS and I am down 150 pounds!  OMG!  Here is my 7 month progress picture:

BTW, this is the dress I bought to go to my best friends wedding in July.  It is a size LARGE and I bought it at Kohl’s.  In the Juniors department!

Today, I bought a new shirt at a regular clothing store.  It was a size SMALL.  A SMALL?!  WOW!  I am still in shock.  Here is a pic:

How AMAZING is that?!  I am so happy with my surgery and progress right now.  I am THIS close to being under 200 pounds and I am trying so hard to get there!

More updates soon!

Person number one we will call Bob.  Bob is in his mid-thirties, has an unsatisfying job in customer service and lives at home with his Mom because he can’t hack it in the real world.  He is a total mommy’s boy.  Bob develops a crush on me and it is quite evident.  I politely inform him I am not interested in him in that way and continue to try to help him through his WLS journey by answering questions and trying to be supportive.  Bob thinks that having surgery is going to make him thin and attractive immediately (in his words “maybe not immediately but within a year or so”) which will then allow him to have a girlfriend for the first time in his life and get him the career he so desperately wants.  Apparently no one informed him that the reason he doesn’t have a girlfriend or the career he wants is because of his personality, not his weight so imagine how he felt when I told him the truth!  His response was well my Mom says I have a great personality.   I reduce contact with Bob to a minimum but continue to answer questions he has as a new post-op until he calls me two weeks after surgery asking me if it was a bad idea to eat a sandwich and some ravioli for lunch.  I became very angry at this point and told him to stop calling me because he doesn’t listen to me anyway.

Individual number two I will call John.  John is very young and pretty naive.  John thinks that he can continue to live his life how is does already and just lose weight because he had WLS.  I tell John about Bob and he say “Oh I would never do anything that stupid”.  John also thinks the ladies will come running once he is skinny.  John needs to lose over 400 pounds to even be close to having a “normal” BMI so I am thinking eating whatever you want and not exercising is not going to equal skinny, with or without WLS.  John also thinks he will get his dream job once he is skinny.  He believes because he is so young that his skin will just bounce back after being stretched out to carry almost 700 pounds.  Which it might but I think a snowball has a better chance at surviving in hell (which is just MY opinion on the subject).  Anyway, he is basically Bob all over again but swears he isn’t going to be like Bob post-op.  Guess what?  He is a couple weeks out from surgery and is eating sandwiches and tacos.

Take away lesson:

1)      WLS will not suddenly make the ladies (or guys) come running to you.  The weight loss might make you physically more attractive to some individuals but if you have a shitty personality you still are not going to get anywhere with finding a mate.

2)      WLS will not suddenly make someone offer you the job you have always wanted.  Again if you have a shitty personality and are lazy with a bad work ethic no one is going to hire you anyway even if you do get skinny!

3)      Statistically you will not be as skinny as you want to be.  Sure some people get to their ideal weight but most people will still be overweight or obese after WLS.  I am not telling you that you will fail (unless you are Bob, whom I did tell that to)- I am giving you information backed up by science (statistics), but losing that 100 (or 200 or 300) pounds is going to be better for you then not losing all that weight!  Just be realistic in that your end result might not be what you want it to be!

4)      Do not test the limits of your stomach just after having surgery.  Your stomach is still healing and doesn’t want to have to deal with sandwiches, ravioli and tacos two weeks after having 90% of it removed!  In this case the individuals had a duodenal switch (DS).

5)      Do not call Lisa crying that your stomach hurts because you ate sandwiches and ravioli two weeks after surgery.  She will laugh at how stupid you are and tell you not to call her anymore.

So total I have lost 64 pounds already!  I feel great!  I have gone down 8 sizes in jeans already in 2 months!   I do get tired pretty easily and have some exhaustion issues but I bet when I do my labs next month it has to do with iron levels.  Other than that it has been an awesome journey post-surgery.  Still have to get used to drinking at least 80 ounces of water a day and taking in all my vitamins but I have been able to get 80-100 plus grams of protein in a day just from eating food and some protein bars on some days.  Protein shakes make me ill and vomit.  I’m still trying them out to try to find one that works!  I have lots of vitamin and protein reviews to get done, as well as some recipes.  One of my resolutions is to update my blogs at least 4 times a week but I am hoping for 7 days a week.  We will see how well that goes!  Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years!

My recovery has been fantastic!  I have more energy and I can breathe easier an don’t get short of breath anymore.  As of last week when I started my Wii Fit project (more on that later) I found out I have lost 55 pounds so far!  I started at 340 pounds and am now down to 285 pounds in 5 weeks!  I have learned some things post surgery:

• I can not seem to tolerate protein drinks anymore (makes me really sick to my stomach and puke)
• When you lose weight and it comes off your butt it hurts to sit on your butt for long periods of time
• I have a hard time eating most meats so I have to eat small amounts at a time and east super slow
• I have collar bones and hip bones!
• I go through sizes every week or two right now and I am running out of things to wear!

About the Wii Fit project- wince the weather right now is not exactly comfortable to be taking walks in (but I walk at least 5-7 miles a week anyway) I decided to give the Wii Fit a try.  My goal is to lose 15 pounds a month (at least) so I will track my progress here every two weeks.  And now for the best part- progress pictures!

]]> http://www.intuitionjuice.com/2009/12/18/progress-down-55-pounds-in-5-weeks/feed/ 0 http://www.intuitionjuice.com/2009/09/29/the-scale-can-be-your-best-friend-or-worst-enemy/ http://www.intuitionjuice.com/2009/09/29/the-scale-can-be-your-best-friend-or-worst-enemy/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:23:48 +0000 Lisa http://www.intuitionjuice.com/?p=195

When you are trying to lose weight it seems like the bathroom scale becomes a fixture in your life.  When you lose weight the scale is like your best friend but when you gain weight the scale can feel like it’s working against you and is your enemy.  I’ve heard it from doctors and I seen it for myself- weighting yourself everyday is not going to go your way.  It is best to weight yourself once a week on the same day of the week and at roughly the same time.  Weighing yourself daily is going to drive you crazy and your weight is naturally going to fluctuate (especially for women- got to love those hormones and PMS!).  I found I often got discouraged when I was weighing myself daily and I would gain a pound or two and then I would sometimes eat more because I felt well I can’t lose weight anyway what is this going to hurt.  I have finally stopped doing that and I have set backs from time to time I feel like I am doing well and keeping on track this month.  My goal for the month was to be able to use the Wii Fit balance board (it has a weight limit of 330 pounds on there).  I am right at 330 (finally!) but I want to lose about 5 more pounds before I try to use the board just in case.  I am so close to my goal!  At my highest point this year I was 343 pounds (in around January) and now I am at 330.  The weight has come off slowly while I am waiting for weight loss surgery but I have been able to do it!  I have started weighing myself every week and logging it into a journal and writing anything significant about that day- like if I was tempted to eat something I shouldn’t and didn’t or if I have gone a week without forgetting the take all of my vitamins throughout the day (I take the vitamins 6 times a day to try to prepare more for having vitamins spread out throughout the day after surgery) or if I went for a walk or something that day.  That way I can go back and look at my weight loss journal and see how well (or not well in some cases) and can add new goals or adjust some things.

This is my Emily the Strange Morphing Journal (Emily morphs into a black cat on the cover) that I use as my weight loss journal.  Find a journal that you really like as an added bonus!