you are what you eat...

Hi Guys and Gals!  Sorry, I know it's been a little bit since I posted.

Let's catch up!  Ok, so had my last dietitian appointment last Thursday...the conversation was all about how to avoid the side effects...

I don't vomit well.  Actually, that's an understatement.  I will suffer for hours rather than vomit, I hate it that much.  You know that I really loved my children since I vomited violently for 7 months with the first pregnancy and still had two more. ( I actually lost about 30 lbs during that pregnancy.)

Anyhoo, I'm really looking to avoid side effects.  So I will pay attention.  I will eat slowly.  I will chew at least 20 times before swallowing. I will NOT drink for 30 minutes after I eat.  These will be words to live by.

Monday was the last support group I needed to attend for insurance.  It was great! There were 7 people there that had been sleeved.  Tony (you remember the trainer?) was leading the group but basically let us spend the whole hour just asking them questions.  Did I mention it was great?  The lady sitting behind me, had her sleeve done on June 30th... less than a month ago...she's lost 38 lbs!!  One of the guys was 13 months out and he had lost over 100 lbs.  One of the other guys had his sleeve done the beginning of February and ran his first 5k the middle of March.  He was not that young a guy.  Every Single One Of Them said they would do it again in a heart beat and their only regret was not doing it sooner.  Pretty eloquent, huh?

Conversation drifted over many areas from exercise, pain, what meds they were able to stop outright, losing the sleep apnea machines, and of course, our favorite subject...FOOD.  We all share the love of food. It is so reassuring to hear that while you still love food, you get satisfied with so much less.  We were talking about different types of protein and Tony made some comments about the type he uses.  He said that even though he loves junk food as much as everybody else he looks at the fact that our bodies are regenerating cells all the time.  They literally use what we eat to do that.  So we are what we eat...really!! Do you want your body building itself out of junk?

It was a very mixed group of people that had had the sleeve.  Some ate everything right up until the day they had to start their liquid diet (day 3 was the worst) and some lost more than 40 lbs pre-surgery.  They pretty much agreed that you need this time that it takes to get approved for your date to adjust to what you're going to have to do.  And everyone agreed that they knew no matter how much they lost pre-surgery, they would have gained it all back, and then some, if they hadn't been sleeved. They know because they'd done it before...many times...as I know...I've done it before, many times.

There seems to be a 3 year blip where people gain some back.  So the goal is to go a little lower in weight than you might have originally thought so you have a bit of flex in your maintenance stage.  I have that built into my goal already.

Today was a good day...I'm completely hydrated and walked over 8,000 steps.  I know, it's still not the ultimate goal of 10,000 but it is progress...and that's really all we're looking for, isn't it??  Forward progress...little steps...slowly we climb toward our goals...and when we look back...wow!!  Look how far we've come!!  ;)

The scale is didn't move this week, but that's ok...you know why?  I'm getting healthier....and the weight?  Well, it's days are numbered!

Keep moving forward whatever you goals are peeps, and keep smiling.  Thanks for traveling another week with me.  :)

~Mikki