Fat Woman With A Band

It’s been one year since I was banded.

I’m pleased with my weight loss and my health improvements.

I’m pleased with being able to by clothes in “regular” stores.

I’m pleased with my increased level of activity.

I’m confident I can continue and meet my goal.

Yeah me!

I’ve been pondering what to do next, that is what to do when I’ve reached my goal weight with this exercise regimen. I need to think about what kind of exercise I’ll do to help keep my weight in check, and not be “soul-sucking” using Jackie’s words.

I’ve been pondering doing a half-marathon walk. I know I can do the walk, but whether I can do it in a quasi-competitive way is another thing. Also, I wonder how you train for that, and then which marathon would I do? I think I’ll percolate on this for a bit. One of my first thoughts about this is that I’d need to train by walking – no duh! – but winter is just about to begin for us and I seriously dislilke winter weather and walking on the icy, snowy, slushy, yucky streets. Treadmill? That kinda invokes the soul-sucking analogy for me.

Anyway, as I say, I’ll percolate on this for a bit.

The weight loss is trickling along, just about what’s to be expected. I have about 29 pounds to go ’til goal. I really hope that it won’t take 29 weeks to do that, but it’s feeling like it might. Now THAT feels soul-sucking.

Carrying on.

When I think about comfort food I often think first of food my mother cooked on Sunday mornings for Sunday lunch. My parents were Hungarian so the food we had at home was Hungarian.

So when I visit my relatives in Budapest I look forward to a lot of home cooking. And they never disappoint. My aunt, a cousin, and a cousin’s daughter-in-law are all great cooks. I don’t crave fancy meals, just everyday cooking. My cousin likes to prepare more elaborate meals, but there’s always an “everyday” course even there.

I’m quite satisfied that I had pretty much all the food that I wanted with two small exceptions. I had fried chicken, chicken soup, dumplings, and fish meals. All y-u-m-m-y. I had a couple pieces of pastry, and some Hungarian crepes.  I didn’t get to langos, which is a fried bread dough that can be enjoyed savory or sweet. And I didn’t have any strudel.

My relatives were very helpful in that they asked me what I could eat – to which I answered EVERYTHING. I was also very conscious that I was being observed for signs of, well I don’t know why exactly but I think they weren’t sure in the first few days that I wouldn’t start gagging at every meal. When they realized the lapband wasn’t a thing to worry about, they all relaxed.

I didn’t do as much exercise as I wanted to, but I did the best I could. I had two good walking days, and one so-so walking day. Jackie gave me an exercise routine to do in my hotel room which I did every second day. And my room was on the seventh floor so I took the stairs up and down at least once a day, and sometimes twice.

I had only one day that was uncharacteristically hungry and that was the day coming home. I ate every single bit of airline food available, and happily it was relatively plentiful. Breakfast, lunch, one small salty snack, and one heated veggie snack.

If I have one complaint it’s this – I had a lot of problems staying regular, and I’m still in that place. I don’t know what exactly is going wrong, and I’m going to concentrate on fibre, veggies and fruit this week to see if I can get back to normal.

So, in the end I lost weight. Not a lot, but enough to have reached my second last milestone – I am now overweight. My BMI says I am no longer obese.

I have 30 pounds to go to goal. It still feels a long, long way away.

Often when we’re learning something new we think of the process as following a steadily climbing curve, which at some point begins to decrease – the bell curve. As time increases our learning may get more difficult to begin with and then begin to drop off as we’ve “learned it all.”

In the past week I’ve been thinking of my progress curve as it relates to fitness. I don’t feel my progress has followed a standard bell shaped learning curve. Rather it feels like improving my fitness level can best be shown as a series of steps. It feels like I just arrived on the top of one of these steps or the tread after a very, very long riser.

Though my workouts haven’t been easy, I feel like I’m recovering faster between sets of exercises, and I’m able to get to the next exercise a bit faster. It’s not consistent, but I feel I’m making progress.

Also on my regular walking route around my place I used to do it in about 1 1/2 hours, with the last 30 minutes a bit of a struggle. I walked this route the last couple of days – I powered my way through it in about 1 hour and 10 minutes. I was able to sustain a faster pace, and I wasn’t dragging my butt at the end.

And I lost another two pounds. A grand week, all in all.

I think I’m doing pretty darn good. Physically.

The pounds are dropping a bit more slowly than in the first few months, but that’s to be expected. I’m definitely more active. I meet with Jackie twice a week, do the same workout by myself one more time during the week, go to aquafit three times a week, a bodyflow class once a week, row most everyday, and walk most everyday.

I figured out that I needed to up my game a bit when the weight loss started to slow, so that’s what working with Jackie is all about. The happy fallout from that is that I’m actually enjoying it … not so much the exercise, but the feeling of accomplishment when I’ve completed the session.

The mental part of my weight loss is a bit more difficult to deal with. It’s been said that the obese eat to medicate themselves – our drug of choice. When I choose not to overeat as I’m doing right now – obviously the lapband provides some motivation to not overeat – I find not only that I have more energy, but that I also have a great deal more difficulty staying focussed.

For example, I haven’t been able to read a book in more than two months. And most everyone irritates me – actually strike that – EVERYTHING  that EVERYONE does irritates me.

This irritation phase is starting to dissipate now, after being around for about three or four weeks. And not a moment too soon.

Exercising helps stave off blowing up at everything, but the only activity that really helped was being by myself. So, thank-you one and all for putting up with me and my mood. Really. Thank-you.

I’m into my third week with Jackie, a personal trainer. I’ve had four sessions with her, and did three sessions by myself last week as I was away. I finish out this week with another session by myself.

The most obvious signs of the workouts, so far, are my skinned knees. After the first session I had skinned elbows and I still can’t do the exercise that caused the boo-boo because my wound hasn’t healed. I got the skinned knees today as I did three sets of push-ups on the carpet rather than the mat.

I also got a two new workout shirts and a pair of shorts. I’m such a jock-wannabee.

I’m pretty much doing some activity six mornings out of seven. I’m grateful I don’t have to work full-time as I don’t know how I’d do all this stuff if I was employed.

I’m also grateful it’s just a couple of skinned knees.

I may not be the energizer bunny. I do, however, have a lot more energy. I notice that I can walk longer before I feel tired, and even longer before I feel tired enough to rest. Also, my recovery time is decreased, and I can keep going a bit longer. As with the weight loss, I have a long way to go improving my physical stamina, and I’m pleased that I can feel the progress.

I’ve also signed up with a personal trainer to work two days a week beginning July 6. I feel that as my weight loss slows down strictly through eating less, I’ll have to increase my activity level to ensure my weight loss continues.

In the last week on two occasions I didn’t get to eating lunch. I got busy doing stuff, and didn’t work a meal break into my plan. I didn’t feel hungry, which was unusual, but my energy didn’t seem to wane either. It’s not a good thing to miss eating, I know, and that’s definitely not something I want to do frequently. I’m glad I could deal with it appropriately, as I didn’t overindulge at dinner time, just ate the right amount.

June seems to be a month full of eating challenges. Lots of birthdays, lots of special occasion gatherings, and happily a bit of travel. I feel equipped to get through it, and I’m not going to be hard on myself. I want to enjoy the social experiences, and not worry about the effect on my weight loss goals. I’ll happily indulge by tasting even those foods usually not on diet menus, e.g., birthday cake.

I’m coming up to my six month anniversary with the band, I feel in a good spot, and I’m feeling my goal is achievable.

My perception is rose coloured because I’ve lost more than 50 pounds. I was hoping on losing close to 50 when I stepped on the scales this week, and happily I had lost even more. And that was even after being away on vacation last week.

I have to remember this for those weeks when the scale doesn’t move or when I go up. Because I know that will happen. Plateaus are common for anyone losing weight and I’ve had them on previous diets.

I’ve had a couple of days this week where I haven’t eaten enough. I eat at least 1200 calories per day, but I’m o.k. even if I get closer to 1300 or 1400. A couple of days I think I’ve come up short for a couple of reasons. The first is poor planning. I didn’t spend enough time thinking about where I was going to be around meal times and I didn’t have anything appropriate to eat with me. By the time I got home it was too late to prepare and eat a meal. I ended up having a protein bar.

The second reason was eating too quickly, taking big bites, and then not chewing enough. I then had to do a few productive burps. Not only did I lose the food, I also couldn’t continue eating. Obviously I haven’t mastered the skill of eating with a lapband successfully. Yet.

I’ve been walking and rowing at least six days out of seven, and participating in aquafit at least three days a week. I’m very glad the weather is warming up as it’ll make walking that much more enjoyable. I don’t even think of these activities as exercise anymore.

Boardwalk here I come.

Do it when you’re ready and not a moment before.

What’s “it”? Pretty much anything, really. My “it” is all about weight loss. Here’s how the timing worked for me, and the process I took to lapband surgery.

1. I was feeling very unhealthy, again, and I knew I had to do something about it, again. But, I was having a very hard time getting motivated. I had been looking at weight loss surgery alternatives, but just couldn’t convince myself to do more than read about it.
2. A friend has a friend who had lapband surgery, and was very successful losing weight. My interest goes up a notch.
3. I do some research on the procedure and can find lots of positive information about it, and not much negative. Interest is definitely climbing.
4. I make an appointment at Slimband (then called TLBC), and even though it’s a marketing blurb, my interest continues at a high level. I give myself a deadline to make a decision in the vein of “shit or get off the pot.”
5. It’s the end of the year – a time to think about how the year went, and how next year could be better. What could be better than getting healthy?
6. I sign-up for surgery.

So, the tipping point (aren’t I fashionable?) was researching weight loss surgeries and then finding a person who has undergone the procedure with good results.

So I’ve changed my eating habits substantially since surgery 13 weeks ago. More fibre, more fruit, more veggies, and less bread, pasta, and fried foods. I roast or steam my vegetables, have roasted chicken or turkey, and much more vegetarian or soy products. Lots of water, and no soft drinks. Tea more often than coffee, but usually only one cup of either each day. I think I’m doing pretty darn good. But …

I’m bored of my own cooking. If a make a batch of stuff, I eat it almost everyday until it’s all gone. I never think to freeze the portions – I’m going to have to work on that. So, it’s very good timing for me than I’m off to NYC next week. Not only is it one of my favourite cities, but it has lots of food choices.

I’m not going to “fall off the wagon”, just make the best choices I can without making myself crazy or worry about whether I’m eating too much, or not the right things.

The change will do me good. Then when I get back I’ll be able to get back into my kitchen and start cooking again.

One of the threads on the lapbandtalk site is NSV, or Non-Scale Victories. These victories are those that come about because you’re losing weight, and are related to weight loss, but not specifically THE weight loss.

Examples:

• fitting into clothes that you’d outgrown
• reducing medications
• compliments from family, friends, or strangers
• more energy.

And that last one is the biggie for me. When I’m medicating myself with food, I never notice a surfeit of energy, because I’ve used it all up with gluttony. When I eat with moderation, I have a huge jump in energy.

I also notice a bit of on increase in the inability to concentrate. I’ve got about four books on the go, and I just can’t seem to sit  still long enough with any of them to complete them.

I’ve also just about completed the first week with a fill. Thankful, in the last few days I haven’t had any problems related to eating too fast. I now have to figure out if I need another fill, or if this is the correct amount. I’m going to make a concerted effort to monitor how quickly I get hungry after eating. I am pretty sure, though, that I can comfortably eat more than one cup worth’s of food at one meal. Hmm … maybe I’ve answered the question – I think I’ll need another fill.

I’ve increased my rowing time by five minutes per day in the last couple of days. I’ll increase it gradually until I get to 30 minutes a day, and then stick to that.

Maybe cross-country skiing is next? Uh, no. No it’s not. But maybe some mall walking – that sounds warmer.