Halloween!

I'm psyched about Halloween this year as it falls on a Saturday. A friend is hosting a party here in NYC, and Alex and I are debating costumes.

I suggested we get Biggest Loser t-shirts (for sale here) so we can go as Biggest Loser contestants, but that didn't go over too well! Ha! In fact, we could one up ourselves and go in weigh-in garb (ie: close to nothing). Suprise surprise, that idea didn't fly either.

So instead, I think we'll be little red riding hood and the big bad wolf. It'll be nice when we're thin and won't have to buy specialty plus-sized costumes even!

But in this case, I'll probably just make them actually, except for Alex's wolf mask.

Surgery Give-aways!

So I was just in a meeting playing with my pen (leading this big mtg by the way), when I realized that the pen I was using is from my surgeon! It's clearly says "NYU Program for Surgical Weight Loss"!!!

Needless to say I quickly slipped it into my pocket. Just hoping since it was a pen that the writing was small enough that no one noticed!

Oops!

BMI Mini-Victory

I was so excited about fitting into my skinny jeans that I didn't even notice that meeting this particular goal also just put me below 40 BMI.

I started at 45 and that was one of the main deciding factors in having this surgery. According to the chart I looked at, I was in the highest category of obesity shown. See below from Wikipedia.

BMI Ranges
Normal = 18.5-25
Overweight = 25-30
Obese Class 1 = 30-35
Obese Class 2 = 35-40
Obese Class 3 = 40+

So now I'm at 39! Obese Class 2. No longer in the "worst" category.

A little at a time...

My first Sisterhood Package!

I just got my first Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants package. As many of you know, there's a community of bandsters out there that shares clothes once they no longer fit. You just have to agree to keep sending them along once you're done with them.

I got four great tops including a lovely blue button-down from Talbots and a red and white striped sweater than I just love!

Thank you Sarah!

See more about the sisterhood on Sarah's blog, Losing Weight, Gaining Tons.

Make your next fill more successful

Just read a really great post on Who Hid the Donuts. She provides a number of really excellent tips on how to make your next fill more successful.

There's lots of new info here I hadn't read previously, so definitely check it out!

Woke up this morning to find I'm two pounds down!

Yay! I was actually a bit hesistant to weigh myself this morning since I wasn't very good last week or this weekend. So I was shocked to see I'm two pounds down.

I did miss my most recent goal, to have lost 35 pounds by the shower, but I've lost 33 pounds, so I'm only two away!

My next goal is 40 pounds by my 35th birthday party/bachelorette party the weekend of Oct 16th. Super excited about that. I'll have to wrap those 2 lonely pounds into the next goal. So 7 pounds in 18 days.

I'm revisiting the protein shakes today to help make that happen because I realllly want to make that goal!

My bridal shower

So I had my bridal shower this past weekend. Thanks to all of my bridesmaids and my mom for hosting!

Thought I'd share a few pics. Me with my bow bouquet for the rehearsal above. Opening gifts below, and the last one is me in one of the the toilet paper wedding dresses we made. That one was made to look like my dress!

Although I'm not where I want to be weight-wise, at least I didn't cringe at any of the photos of myself. Especially seeing people I hadn't seen in so many years. I could not have said that 2 months ago!

If anything, this process has been enlightening about just how much weight I had gained this past year that I hadn't realized! In my head, I was 30 pounds lighter.

My wedding dress fits!

On a whim I tried my dress on again today. I was inspired by the couple of pounds I lost.

That plus a better foundation garment made all the difference. It zips up now! I'd still like to lose more weight before the wedding, but worse case scenario I wear it as is, and it'd be perfectly fine.

I was getting a bit worried about having bought a dress that was too small! So now i can rest assured it fits.

My wedding dress arrived! Now I just need to lose 20 more pounds!

My wedding dress came in a few weeks early, so I was able to try it on. I ordered it a size too small knowing I'm losing weight post-surgery, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that it went on and looked great!

Mostly... Okay, so the top of the zipper wouldn't quite close! But I love it. I think if I even lost 5 pounds it'd zip. 10 pounds it'd really fit, but 20 might mean no spanx!! :)

The good news is that I have 50 days or 7 weeks to lose it!

I'm 30 pounds down!

I'm finally really moving in the right direction. Today I'm another pound down, so I've officially lost 30 lbs! Yay! My next goal isn't for another 5, but I'm happy.

Finally heading in the right direction!

So I *finally* lost another pound. Seems small but I had been stalled until I got my fill this past Monday. The fill definitely made a difference and I can't eat much at a sitting. Haven't been feeling the need to compulsively eat either (my head doesn't seem to care if I'm full or not!)

So, this last pound finally dropped off. I'm one more away from 30lbs and 6 away from my next goal. My calf is healing. I can walk now, but am taking it easy on stairs etc.

Our surgeon does botox?

I was shocked to see a sign for "a different kind of adjustment" when I was at the doctor's office Monday. It turns out that our surgeon and one other doctor are both doing botox injections! I was actually shocked by this, but Alex didn't seem phased by it.

I guess it just makes me take her a bit less seriously. I'm surprised the NYU Program would go for that in terms of professional reputation. What do you guys think?

My first fill

So yesterday I went to NYU again and had my fill. Our surgeon asked Alex and I to come together, so he was there too for his 7-10 day follow up. Alex is doing well and got an all clear.

The surgeon seemed more hesitant about giving fills this time. She was like, are you sure, not everyone needs one. But I told her I've been hungry, so she gave me one.

I've read that a lot of places put a local anesthetic, but she didn't. She was also pretty rough about putting in the needle and jerking it around to find the port. I asked Alex his take on it and he said she seemed a bit aggressive about it. Basically, for some reason, she put the needle in where my scar is and then tilted it over an inch or two to get the needle into the port. So that was uncomfortable.

She told me originally that it wouldn't hurt and that I'd feel it less than taking blood. Not true at all. I think it might not have been *that* bad if she'd been gentler and more efficient about it.

But it's done. It didn't click beforehand that I'd have two full days of liquid and then two days of soft foods. That'll be a good kick start to losing again I hope!

I thought the band went in with either no fluid or .5cc's (out of a total of 10 cc's i think); however, the doctor wanted to do an unfill (by removing the liquid in there) to see how much I started with. I was thinking, didn't they document how much was in there in my file when they put it in?

So she removed it to measure it, then put it back in plus some. Turns out they put in 2cc's during surgery, plus added another 1.5 yesterday.

When I got home last night, I was starving, but I just tried to refocus myself since I couldn't have any real food beyond liquid. However, given my calf injury, I had a fair amount of distraction, so I just put my leg up and stayed in bed.

Didn't have too much to eat today either. It's hard to get much down. I guess that'll change a bit over the next few days as I adjust.

It'll be interesting to see how what I can eat changes. I'm going to take it easy so i dont gag on anything!

Just pulled a calf muscle

I felt/heard a pop in my calf while on the eliptical at the gym today and there went my leg. Ouch! I just looked it up and read that it is likely a sprained calf -- when the muscle pulls away from the tendon.

Having trouble walking, which in NY without a car just suxors, as Alex would say. And the gym is all stairs on three levels, so that was fun getting back to the locker room and then back up and out and over to the office. Walking back to work, I was just reminding myself "never take my health / physical abilities for granted."

I happen to have my first fill today, more on that later, so I'll just mention the sprain to the doctor since it did happen while working out to lose weight. So it's not entirely unrelated!

The surgeon asked Alex and I to come in together as this is his 7-10 day follow up. I'm a bit afraid of the fill, but I'm trying not to think of the big 'ol needle. DON'T LOOK!!!!

Motivation

As a part of this whole process of weight loss and life revision, I'm trying to be more active. Whether that be getting out of the house more, working out more, walking the dogs longer, or being more active around the house.

I have an ambitious list of things to do around the house today. Strip and refinish our dining room table, sand the coffee table, paint at least one kitchen wall, organize the linen shelving and clean the hell up!

I actually said to myself before I went to sleep last night, I'm going to wake up in the morning and get really active and do all the stuff i want to do. So far so good: dogs walked, laundry taken, shopping x2, grocery shopping, and even a street fair (on the way to the store).

Posting this now to have some accountability. I'm okay if I don't do ALL of that, but i want to get at least some of the first three items done while the weather is good. I'll check in later for an update! Now I just have to get off the computer and get to it!

(It's the first day of football season, so I'm motivated to go do my own things while Alex indulges in all things football!)

We ordered out for the first time

So Alex is on to soft foods now. Yay! As of yesterday, he's lost 30 pounds! Major congrats to him. You can really see it in his face especially, and he's been shocked the last few days getting dressed because his shirts are all loose on him now.

So last night, for the first time in months, we ordered delivery. I never ordered delivery before moving to NY. Except pizza of course. But here, anything you want you can get at your door. For us, delivery took the place of fast food. Delivery was a major downfall for us as we ordered out most nights of the week.

For whatever reason, we decided to order out last night. Alex's was psyched to be able to eat again at the end of his liquid diet and this place had refried beans and cheese for his soft food diet. I ordered sopes and chips. Sopes are thick grilled tortillas with beans, sour cream, cheese and veg. Normally I would've ordered something else as well, but I couldn't even eat half my meal and most of the chips are left. Alex felt the same way.

Looking at what we did eat, we were thinking, wow, there must have been a fair number of calories in that, so just imagine how many we were consuming before!

This won't be becoming a habit however but it was nice to order out and be "normal" again.

I joined the gym today!

And I'm super excited about it!

It's a relatively posh gym near work. I worked out for the first time today. I was a bit surprised that I got tired pretty quickly, but I'm planning on going back this weekend.

Hypnotherapy

So I had my hypnosis session yesterday. It wasn't at all like you'd think in regard to a swinging pendulum and anything like "you are feeling sleepy..." It's more like therapy while meditating. We got a bit sidetracked in this session, but even still, it was subtly effective as far as willing me not to eat and highly effective in terms of therapy. The next day I didn't feel the same compulsion to eat, and I felt fuller faster. But it's not a magic fix, just like the band itself isn't.

One thing my therapist said really stuck with me. Very significant change will take a significant effort on my part. None of this is easy!

FEED ME!

That's me the last few days.

I've tried to reset my "switch" to being back in diet mode after the Labor Day weekend here in the US, but for whatever reason, I have a serious appetite. At work I find I'm hungry, but by the evening I'm just noshing.

I had the opportunity to talk to my surgeon before Alex's surgery, and she asked me if I'd been in for my first fill yet. I couldn't get an appointment until the 14th however. She said to be careful because 75% of all lap-band patients gain wait between the end of their post-op diet and their fill.

I'm not gaining, but I'm having a hard time losing, and I definitely have a big appetite. I wasn't at all aware of this even with all the research I did. I'm still eating way less than I would on a binge before the band. I'm probably at like 2000 calories a day or just more when I don't at all pay attention. However, that doesn't help me on the weight loss front!

Less than a week until my fill. Also, on Thursday I'm going under hypnosis to help with my urges to eat!

Wish me luck!

I bought a new wedding dress

So as I've mentioned Alex and I are getting married Nov 7th. I'm very excited! However, I was having my wedding dress customized, and when it came in the mail for the first fitting, I just didn't like it! I guess that's the chance you take.

Wedding dress shopping in general was frustrating because of the lack of plus size dresses I could try on. And the general policy is that if you buy it, you can't return it. So I wasn't in a position to even order any of the dresses that weren't in my size to try them on.

So when the dress came in recently, I made an appointment to at least try some options at the new David's Bridal that opened in Manhattan knowing that at least online they have more plus size options.

While they didn't have any of the dresses I had liked online, they did have things in my size I could try on. (yay!)

So on a whim, I got a new dress (shown here). It was a steal of a deal price-wise which made it not as bad that the first one didn't work (that one was a steal too!)

The catch is, I had to take a guess on the size since I'm losing weight. So I ordered one size lower than what I tried on.

So nowwwwww, I better get to losing! The dress arrives early October, and I'll be upset if it doesn't fit. Of course, I've already thought I might be wearing double spanx if it doesn't fit! ha!

The wedding isn't until Nov 7th however, so I have 2 months to lose one dress size. Definitely doable.