Yo-Yo Week

This week has had it's ups and downs. Weight-wise, I have only lost 1.8 since last Saturday. I was supposed to get my period on Thursday, and I haven't gotten it yet. My weight loss this week has simulated what happened the other time I got my period, but then it didn't come. I guess I may still get it, but it's a little discouraging since last month I had gotten it exactly 28 days from the first time I got it in the hospital. I'm not really disappointed about the small weight loss this week. I know that each week can't be 5 or 6 pounds. I did measure my inches from the day before surgery, and I have lost 10 INCHES in my waist since surgery!! I'm very excited about that, and I can definitely tell in my pants. I had been buying more shirts in smaller sizes in the few weeks after surgery, and now I realize I have to get some more pants, since everything is getting too big. :)

Yesterday was the first time I truly got sick from something I ate. On Thursday night, I went to Chili's for dinner with Kelly and her kids, and Chris. I ordered the Monteray Chicken dish. I ate about 1/3 of the chicken, with a few bites of mashed potatoes, and everything went down fine with no problems. I took some for lunch yesterday, and I ate about another 1/3 of it. About a half hour after lunch, I started feeling a little sick. After I went to the bathroom, nothing really happened, and I started feeling better. About an hour later, I felt sick again, and this time I threw up. I will qualify this by saying I approached feeling sick a little differently than I had before. The other few times I thought I was going to throw up, I tried to swallow it back down, take deep breaths, and try hard for it not to come out. This time, I thought it might make me feel better sooner if I gave myself permission to do it, and it came out. It was over pretty quickly, and I felt a little better afterwards, but my stomach was not "normal". There were lots of strange noises going on in my stomach, which they said will happen because of this type of surgery. I left school a little early, and came home, just in case I got sick again. I began to get worried about my protein and water intake, since I hadn't drunk anything in about 2 1/2 hours, and I hadn't had my afternoon meal. I decided to drink some Boost, so I'd get the protein without having to eat anything. Well, that proved to be a mistake too. I got terrible heartburn, and then realized that I had forgotten to take my Prilosec that morning. I took my Prilosec, and waiting a little while, but the heartburn wouldn't go away. I felt terrible. Around 5:30, I threw up again, and it was mainly the Boost, which I had only taken 4 or 5 sips of. My chest and arms really hurt after I did it, but slowly I started feeling better. I waited about 2 more hours to eat or drink anything, when I felt my system had finally calmed down, and then had a small dinner. Everything went down fine, and I feel okay now. After I've reflected today about the whole experience, I've learned a few things: 1) I need to eat lighter foods at lunch time. Usually I would eat lunch-type foods, but in reality I only have 20 minutes to eat it by the time I drop my kids off and have to pick them up. I'd be better off to have a smaller meal like yogurt, or what I normally eat around 3:00 for my snack, and eat my lunch-type food at 3:00, when I have more time to eat it after school. 2) I need to be more careful with "rich" foods. Even though the chicken dish went down well on Thursday, it did have cheese on it, bacon, tomatoes and BBQ sauce, and that combination is probably too rich on my stomach at this point. I need to go back to foods that are a little more bland to make sure I can tolerate them well, before going back to foods like that. It is hard not to eat the things that I was able to eat before the surgery, but I know that it's only temporary and that my stomach will be able to tolerate some of those foods again after more time has passed. 3) When I feel sick, I can't worry about my protein and water intake. I need to let my body settle down after things like that happen, and know that I can always make up for those things later on. I think if I stick to these three things, I can eliminate this from happening in the future.

A good thing from this week, is that I can wear a favorite pair of khaki pants that I had when I lost weight before, and they are even a little loose! One of my problems with pants, is that I need them to be a certain size in the waist, but my legs aren't as big as someone with my waist size would need, so they still end up looking too big. I need to try to find some pants that are a little relaxed in the waist, but slimmer in the legs, so they don't look like clown pants.

I went to the gym on Monday afternoon, and then didn't exercise again until yesterday. On Thursday, Chris and I had heard about a media story about Carnie Wilson, and how she had gained some weight back after her weight loss surgery. After she had her daughter, she gained about 50 pounds back from the 150 she had lost from her surgery. I started to think about how I really need to be exercising so that I am maximizing my weight loss potential, and getting healthy habits that I can keep up once I get down to my goal weight. Chris and I talked about it, and decided that most of our problem with working out after work is that we're so tired. We just want to come home and watch TV all night, and have a hard time getting motivated to get dressed and go for a walk or go to the gym. Walking at night at home has been a little easier for us to do, but with the rain this week, it meant we had to go to the gym, which we didn't make the effort to do. When we first got married, and were living in our apartment, the school I student taught at started later than my school does now, and we would get up around 6:00 and take Spencer for a walk. It was fall then too, so it was colder and easier to be outside since you didn't really sweat. Thursday night we talked about this, and even though it would be SUPER EARLY to get up at 5:00, we would try it on Friday morning. If we could do this 5 days a week, then we wouldn't exercise on the weekends, and we would try to go to bed a little earlier. 5:05 came pretty early, but we did it, and it felt great! We walked for a half hour, got home and I got ready while he watched TV and ate breakfast. I took my breakfast in the car, and finished it at school, and I felt like everything worked really well. I did go to bed last night at 9:00, so obviously my system will not be able to handle going to bed around 10:30 anymore on school nights, but I think this could work. I'll keep you posted next week as to how things went, but we've got nothing to lose, right?

Overall, I am feeling good, and really happy about my weight loss. I know the road on this journey isn't always going to be smooth, but I think the way I approach the bumps in the road will define how this overall journey is going to go for me. Thank you for all of your positive emails, comments, and talks we've had. You, my friends and family, are an integral part of my journey, and I'm so glad I have you here with me along for the ride! :):):)