Week 13 Weight Stagnation

Over the last two and a half weeks my weight has only dropped by a few hundred grams.  This has been a bit frustrating and a bit disheartening.

But I am not actually surprised when I think of what has been going on over the last few weeks.  And I think I know what the problem is.  Sugar.  Good old empty calories.

For the past few weeks I have been craving sugar and I have have been satisfying this craving with all sorts of sweet treats.  Now for me this is quite unusual as I do not have a sweet tooth.  In fact I am all about the savoury foods.

But none the less I have been snacking on sweet biscuits, cake, and the odd bit of chocolate.  And all those empty calories is what I think has halted my weight loss.  That and the fact that I have not done any exercise for the past few weeks.
This just goes to show that the sleeve is a tool for weight loss not the ultimate solution.  If you eat junk and do no exercise then you will not loose weight.  Full stop.

So tomorrow is a new day and I am determined to make sure I am not filling up on empty calories or sugary foods.
Now doesn't that sound just like something you would say when on a diet....

Well the reality is that even with a sleeve it matters what you put in your mouth.

I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave. Feel free to ask questions.
If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.

Downsizing My Clothes

This week I had to face the fact that there are some things I can no longer wear.

Not that this is a bad thing.  In fact it is something to be celebrated.

Thankfully I have clothes in a range of sizes that I can downsize into as I have put on weight gradually over the last 5 years.  So I have been trying on things that are in my wardrobe trying to work out what I can no longer wear, what I can wear a bit longer, what I can wear that looks good and what I will be able to wear in the near future.
I have a pile of clothes that are destined for the op shop and the pile is not very big at this stage but it is growing as I go through each draw and cupboard.  When going through my clothes I kept thinking I should keep some of these clothes in case I need them again in the future.  But then I realised that I will never be this size again and by the time next summer rolls around there is no way I will be able to wear anything I was wearing in the summer just gone.  So I really need to be more ruthless and just get rid of all my summer things.

I work from home but go into the office once a month and during my last visit to the office my boss commented that my clothes were looking way too big for me.  She was right.  I had found that my work pants were really baggy and my shirt was billowing.

The benefit of working from home is that I am not having to go out and buy lots of new clothes as I loose weight.  I can get away with wearing baggy things that are too big most of the time and then the few things I have that do fit well are worn when I go out and work in the office.

So far I have not had to buy anything new and I hope to keep this up as long as I can since it will be a waste of money to buy things I may not wear very long.  The few things I think I will have to buy before anything else are new underwear and bras.  Having my knickers fall down or having breasts going unsupported are not experiences that I fancy inflicting on myself or the world at large.

I am looking forward to buying new clothes in the future and I cannot wait to have a much greater range to choose from.  Something tells me this is one of those things that all fat people look forward too when they loose weight.

I will hold out as long as possible but I am excited about shopping in the future.

I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave. Feel free to ask questions.
If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.

Nearly There - 2 days To Go

So here we are with only 2 days to go and I can't wait to get this op done.

So how has it been?  Well I am well and truly sick of diet jelly (I hate artificial sweeteners) but other than that not too bad.  I have not been hungry but you never feel satisfied from just shakes, jelly and veggies.

I have really missed meat and cheese and a few days ago I had a piece of cheese about the size of  matchbox and it was divine.  On Sunday I had to go to my brother sister in laws baby shower where they were having a BBQ.  My dietitian suggested I stick to a small piece of steak and salad which I did.  I also took along a zuccini and grilled it on the BBQ.  All in all it was a good option.  But ohhhh the smell of BBQ sausages, potato bake and then there were bread rolls and real butter.  I had to look away.  But I have been good other than that.

But the best thing is that I have lost 6kg which is great according to my dietitian.  He tells me that it is a sure sign my liver is shrinking.
My meeting with him today was to discuss my post op plan and this is how it goes:

14th Feb - Operation Day, no drinking allowed IV only
15th Feb - no drinking allowed IV only
16th Feb -no drinking allowed IV only
17th Feb - allowed to drink shakes and water @ a rate of 60ml per hour that is 1 teaspoon every 5 minutes
18th Feb - Time to go home still drinking as above.

After 7 days I can increase my liquid intake to a rate of 100ml per hour.

Apparently it will take me about 3 hours to get through 1 protein shake... crazy.

Well that is it for now and I am not sure if I will blog again till after my op.

So see ya on the other side... maybe.

I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.  Feel free to ask questions.

If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.

The Scales Don't Lie - The Before Photos

So I am starting this journey at 116kg and that is my heaviest weight ever.
In my 20's I hovered around 85 - 90kg but over the last few years the weight has crept on.  Bloody 30's.

For me it is really hard to see myself as I really am and apparently I have been fooling others too.  The other day I was discussing with a good friend my surgery and the fact that I wanted to loose  nearly 50kg and he just about choked on his coffee.  He was shocked and told me there was no way I needed to loose that much weight and he was having trouble understanding why I was doing something so drastic..  I asked him why he thought that and he said that I did not over eat or eat bad foods.  He is correct that I don't over eat that much and I eat really healthy food but my hormones really affect me.  Then he says "plus you are not really that big", guess I had him fooled.
He got me to stand up and he said he still couldn't see it.  So I laughed at him and told him how much I weighed.  Then he got it.
He got up and hugged me and said "now I understand".  Until that moment when I put it in numbers he had now idea.

So I have taken my before photos so that I can track my progress.  Even with the dusty mirror soft focus on you can still see that I carry all my weight around my middle, the worst place to be fat due to the organ damage it can do.

Anyway this is the starting point and I will never again be this big.

I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.  Feel free to ask questions.

If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.

Dealing With A 12 Month Wait

I had my first appointment with my surgeon 12 months ago and at the time I weighed 113 kg.
Because I needed to upgrade my level of private health insurance to cover my operation I had to wait 12 months before I could have the surgery.
At the time my surgeon warned me not to just go out and eat like I would never eat again.  He said it was quite normal for people to put on weight once they knew they were having bariatric surgery.  But for most people the damage they can do is relatively minor as their surgery is in the not to distant future.
So with 12 months up my sleeve I had to be very careful.
For the first half of my 12 month wait it felt like it was so far in the future that I didn't think about it that much and life went on as per normal.  But as the day has gotten closer the reality has started to set in and with 4 weeks to go my mind is consumed with thoughts about the operation and my future eating habits.

I had read about people having last suppers and going on massive binges before their operation.  It was something I could not really understand.  I mean if you are having a gastric sleeve you will be able to go back to eating most things just in smaller amounts.

But you know what?  I have been thinking about foods as I eat them wondering if this will be the last time I eat them.  I am not someone who eats junk food on a regular basis and I would say that it would be less than once per month that I ate chocolate, chips, burgers or any other type of take away.  But the other day I went and had a burger from those big golden arches.  It is not somewhere I eat that often but for some reason I felt I needed to go.
And since then it is like my subconscious has taken over because all I can think of are the things I want to eat before I have my op.  And the things I want to eat are not take away foods.  On the list is steak and roast lamb.  And I also want to go out for a really fancy 3 course meal.  There is nothing else at this stage but I am sure there will be in the weeks to come as I count down.
The main thing with only 4 weeks to go is that I have managed to limit my weight gain to just 3 kg.  I plan to do some cutting back before I go on my shakes so hopefully I will get rid of that 3 kg.

I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.  Feel free to ask questions.

If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.