I am so pumped!

This morning I did my first 5K - the SoJo (South Jordan) 5K/Half-Marathon/Marathon. Wow - what a rush! Before my surgery 7 months ago, I couldn't even walk a block, and when I had to walk, I walked very slowly and stopped often. Today I walked 3.1 miles in less than a hour, and it felt so good! All those long walks with my granddaughter Ellie in the stroller while I was in Illinois really helped keep me in good condition for today, so thanks, Ellie Jean!

Last summer at my weight loss surgery support group meetings, they started talking about something called "The Walk From Obesity." I checked it out online, watching for the announcement about the Utah walk this Fall. When it was finally announced, I was disappointed to see that the official walk was only a half-mile - I was already walking 1 to 2 miles several times a week. Then our support group leaders told us that we could join with the SoJo run and still get credit for doing the WFO, and I started to get excited. I waited till a couple of weeks before the race to register so I would have a better idea of what size tee shirt to get. I know, I know; that sounds very vain, but I really wanted a shirt that I knew I would fit and look good for more than a month after the race. And guess what size I was brave enough to order?

Size Small!!!! And it fits!!!!

Jack and I left bright and early this morning, before the sun was even up, found a good parking spot and waited in the car till about 40 minutes before race time. By then it was light enough to see, but very chilly with a brisk wind. We stood close to the outdoor heaters till time to head for the starting line, and I moved out. Jack had brought the camera, so we have a few pics to share:

Freezing in the wind before the race

And we're off!

The last leg of the race (I'm on the right)

Down the home stretch

Crossing the finish line

It was great after the race to talk to people there and tell my story and hear their stories, as well. Oh, and the Walk from Obesity people had several prize drawings, and I won a $25 gift certificate toward any play at the Hale Center Theater! All in all, it's been a very good day!

Vacation

For the last three weeks, I have been on vacation. I now have two married kids in the Midwest - a son in Green Bay, Wisconsin and a daughter in Coal City, Illinois (just south of Chicago). Since my daughter in Illinois just gave birth to my 25th grandchild - a beautiful and precious little boy named Greyson - I decided I needed to go back there.

I had the most wonderful time! First came the plane ride. I must confess that the last time I was on a plane, I couldn't even buckle the seat belt around me. Having the armrests down on both sides was extremely uncomfortable, because I was squished between them. When I lowered the tray table, it wouldn't lay flat, but would rest against my enourmous belly. Anyone who had to sit next to me would get this "Oh no, a fat person" look when they first realized our seats were together. I really love to fly, but the "sitting on the plane" experience has not been pleasant for a long time. This time, so much was different! I sat down in my seat next to the window and giggled because I had space inside my own seat on both sides of me, even with both arm rests down. I buckled my seat belt and pulled it snug, leaving an 8 to 10-inch tail! The person who came to sit beside me actually smiled and looked relieved when he saw me and sat down. When the plane was fully airborne, I lowered my tray table and giggled again. There was a 6 to 8-inch gap between the table and my body! The person in front of me even put her seat back a couple of inches, and there was still space. Picture me smiling!

While we were there, I thoroughly enjoyed loving up my grandchildren. I snuggled that new baby close and danced and played with almost-two-year-old Ellie. Almost every day I was in Illinois I put Ellie in her stroller and walked with her for two or three miles. We saw leaves changing colors and squirrels gathering nuts and fields of dried cornstalks and flowers and birds and even baby bunnies! I am going to miss those walks with Ellie. In Wisconsin, I went to the botanical gardens and the wildlife sanctuary and walked and walked and saw more glorious things in nature with four-year-old Tabby. I talked and got better acquainted with my teenage grandsons Ben and Sam and Jack, and was even able to help celebrate Jack's 18th birthday. One interesting experience happened when Grandpa took everyone for ice cream in Green Bay. I was sitting and talking at the table with the family while they were all enjoying their ice cream, when Tabby suddenly said, "Grandma, why aren't you eating any ice cream?" So I told her that I can't eat any because ice cream will make me sick now. Later that evening, she was sitting on her daddy's lap and saying that she was feeling sick. I put two and two together, and realized I needed to explain why. So I told her that I had been in the hospital and the doctor had fixed my tummy to help me feel good, but now that my tummy was fixed, eating things like ice cream and candy would make me feel a bit sick. She decided then that she was really okay.

Too soon, it was time to come home. The plane ride home was even more fun than the plane ride out, because Jack was with me and watching the differences. Our last connection home, the plane was just over half full. I was able to curl up on two seats with my head in Jack's lap, and was quite comfortable! And, when I got up this morning and stepped on the scale, I found that I had lost six more pounds during my three weeks of vacation! How about that?

A Good Week

I intended to get this written and posted on Sunday, but as they say,"The best laid plans...."

Last week was a good week. From Sunday to Sunday I lost 3 pounds. A few months ago that would have been a normal weight loss, but at six months out from surgery, 3 pounds in one week is quite a bit. Those 3 pounds dropped my weight loss enough that I now have less than 20 pounds left to lose before reaching my goal weight.

Tuesday last week was my monthly measuring day, and I found I had lost another 9-3/4 inches (along with a 10-pound weight loss) since mid-August. Those lost inches included a 2-1/2 inch loss around my waist! My waist is now smaller than my top and smaller than my bottom for the first time in years - woo-hoo!!! I tried on the clothes in my drawers and hanging in my closet and found that (drum roll, please) the size sixteen pants and few remaining XL shirts are just way too big and baggy now. I can fit easily into the size 14 zip-front designer jeans (Eddie Buaer, Ralph Lauren, and Style& Co.) and the size 12 zip up and pleated front dress slacks and the size small pull-on warm-up pants that were tucked away with the "not-quite-yet" clothes.

One day last week I went grocery shopping with my 39-year-old daughter and was asked if we were sisters. Goodness! I am 24 years older than she is and have gray hair! I guess if the flabby skin is covered and I am smiling, I don't look like I am in my sixties.

One more thing to report. I got my hair trimmed up on Friday, as I am leaving town tomorrow for three weeks to visit my children in Illinois and Wisconsin (and see my brand-new grandson!). As Linda was combing through and cutting my hair, she commented, "It looks like you have a little buzz cut going on here underneath your longer hair!" Yay! My hair is starting to grow back in - and it is all that nice silvery white!

Yes, it was a very good week.

Six Months

It has been more than a week-and-a-half since my last update, so I need to add something here. This week, I not only had a new baby grandson born (welcome, Greyson!), but I also had my six month "surgiversary" yesterday, and feel a need to give a progress report. I have lost a total of 105.5 pounds, which is 43.5% of my original weight. My weight loss is now averaging 2 pounds a week. My clothing size continues to drop. The clothes I have now, are getting almost too loose to wear - guess it's about time for another DI (that's Deseret Industries, a local thrift store) shopping trip. My hair has stopped falling out, and I hope new hair starts growing back in soon. My health continues to hold good, and my strength and stamina continue to increase. I am still walking on an almost daily basis - no matter what the weather (when I set out on my walk yesterday evening, it was threatening rain and sprinkling a bit; before I arrived back home, the heavens had opened, and I was drenched!). I am gearing up to walk a 5K in the annual Utah Walk From Obesity, which is coming up the middle of October.

As my appetite has picked up a bit and my activity level has increased, I have been able to increase the amount of food I eat at each meal. I am now up to 3-1/2 to 4 ounces of food three times a day - still 70% protein and 30% vegetables, substituting fruit for the veggies a couple of times a week - with a 1-ounce protein snack (usually cheese or nuts) once or twice a day. I can eat basically any kind of protein and any kind of vegetables.

People whom I see on a regular basis have started asking me if I have reached my goal yet. I am getting very close. When I drop another 14 pounds, I will have reached a normal, healthy BMI of 25, and will have lost 50% of my original weight. I want to bring that BMI down to 22.5, which will mean losing an additional 8 pounds after that. So only 22 more pounds will bring me to my goal, which is 52.5% of my original weight gone.

Last Monday, I saw a picture my Mom had taken of her and her children on her 85th birthday, nearly a year-and-a-half ago. As I looked at myself so huge in that photo, I asked "Who is that woman?" My dear sister-in-law replied, "No one we know anymore." And that is really the truth. As I find myself again, I truly do not know who I was as that morbidly obese woman that I had been. I am so grateful for a doctor who said "Do it!" in response to my desperate question, "What do you think about weight loss surgery?", for the surgeon who talked to me about it and performed the surgery and all the follow-up, and for the wonderful family and friends who have supported me all the way. While I had to make the decision to go on this journey, it would have been a much more difficult undertaking to travel the road alone. Thank you all for everything!

Good News

Well, I had my every-four-month appointment with my endocrinologist this morning. He's the one who watches my diabetes and my cholesterol, triglyceride, and enzyme levels. He is also the doctor who recommended I have my gastric bypass and suggested my surgical team. Since my last visit with him was only about six weeks after my surgery, today's results (from the labwork he ordered last week) were the first to really reflect what impact the surgery has had on my metabolism. Here's what has happened in the last four months:

He didn't order cholestoral/triglyceride testing this visit, so I have no reports there. In four months my weight has dropped 53 pounds. My blood pressure has dropped from 130/80 to 114/72. My A1c test - measuring average percentage of glucose in your blood stream over the previous 2-3 month period - dropped from 7.5 to 5.0 (readings for non-diabetics can range from 4.5 to 5.7). And here's the really amazing part - my liver enzymes are now only 10% of what they measured four months ago, and are well within normal levels!

Doctor was very well pleased, and I was ecstatic!

Hair today, gone tomorrow....

Or should I say,"Hair yesterday, gone today"? One of the side effects of this surgery, is hair loss. The surgeons' guidebook/instruction manual says that a recovering patient will usually start losing hair at about three months after surgery. It states further that the hair loss should continue for a couple of months, with total hair loss reaching about one-third of the original hair volume. Regrowth would then begin at about the six-month post-surgery mark. I had read this and, intellectually, I knew that it would happen to me. But I've gotta' tell ya' that I wasn't prepared.

All my life, my hair has been very,very fine; but I have always had a lot of that very fine hair. I guess I was even a bit vain about my thick head of hair. Even when I started wearing it short all the time, and even when it went gray, I loved my hair. My gray hair was silvery white, and I loved it when so many people would tell me that I had beautiful platinum hair. It had thinned a bit with age, but there was still plenty of it. When I started losing hair by the handful about two-and-a-half months after surgery, I was a bit shocked. For almost three months my hair kept falling out. I would blow it dry after gently washing it, and a whole little cloud of silver would float down to the floor. At the end of every shower I would pull a wad of white hair from the drain grate. I was continually brushing hair from my clothes. I thought it would never stop falling out!

Finally, about two weeks ago, the hair loss began to slow down and I started losing less and less every day. I have been assessing the total damage. For one thing, instead of losing about one-third of my original hair volume, I have no more than about one-third of that beginning volume left on my head. For another thing, the hair that has fallen out has been my most beautiful platimum hair, and I am left with very fine and very thin medium blond hair shot through with darker gun-metal gray. My friend and hairdresser came up with a cut and style that will allow me to create a bit of fullness with little stress on my hair, and introduced me to hair products formulated to strengthen and help rebuild very thin hair.

In another twelve days I will reach my six-month mark, and I am waiting for the regrowth to begin. I guess I'll have to just wait and see what happens. I am hoping to have a full head of hair again by my one year "surgiversary" next March, and hoping against hope that what grows back will be that nice silvery white color that I have lost. I must admit, though, that even if my hair stays very thin and dark gray-blond, I am so happy with all the positive changes in my body that it will take a lot more than thin, non-platinum hair to get me down. It's a small price to pay for finding myself again.

Wanna' See How Much I've Lost?

I just bought new dog food this morning, and realized that my weight loss is one pound more than the combined weight of three of those big bags we buy. Since they were on sale, I bought three and Jack took some pictures. So here I am with a few visual images of those pounds that I have shed:

Look what I did!

My conquest

Sitting on the evidence

Happy lady

Just plain fun