Monthly Archives July 2012

Centers for Disease Control:
Height: 5 feet, 3 inches Weight: 145 pounds Your BMI is 25.7, indicating your weight is in the Overweight category for adults of your height. For your height, a normal weight range would be from 104 to 141 pounds.	BMI Weight Status Below 18.5 Underweight 18.5—24.9 Normal  25.0—29.9 Overweight 30.0 and Above Obese

WOW – WEEK 41. I am 9 months post op and I’m only 4 lbs from the top range of my goal weight according to the chart above from the Centers for Disease Control (click on link to calculate your status). My BMI is only .7 away from me being labeled as NORMAL. A far cry from my starting weight of 223 (OBESE) and a BMI of 39.5. So, although this last 10 lbs is taking forever to lose, I’m at least within striking distance. Not sure where I will land, but I think bouncing around the 130’s will be a good goal to aim for the future.

This was all I could eat at a meal, one month post op

9 months post op, I eat a nice sized healthy salad!

What do my meals look like 9 months post op? Much better, much healthier, and much more volume now than a month or two after surgery. I also am able to drink a little with my meals, unlike the first few months.

There are saltine crackers on both plates; these are a staple food of mine, not so much because I love them, but because they seem to keep my stomach ‘settled.’ When I eat them, they seem to stabilize the other foods in a way that my stomach doesn’t feel as heavy after I eat. They don’t sell these in Amsterdam; I had to have a friend bring me some after surgery and will have to be sure our friends who visit us always come with a fresh supply! These and Pretzel Thins are my favorite foods.

Try picking one of these up; it’s not easy….and I’ve lost the equivalent of two of them!

The last 9 months have been such an interesting time no doubt. I remember being one month out, having lost about 30 lbs and feeling so good, almost thin; that was at 189 lbs! Now here I am at 9 months out, 145 lbs, and I can barely pick up a 40 lb weight in the gym just to move it out of my way! And in total I’ve lost almost 80 lbs!

Aloha all from Hilo again this week, where hysteria is on the calendar…. And what is HYSTERIA? Well, it used to be defined this way:

“A medical disorder, marked by excitability, irritability, misbehavior and emotional extremes, occurring mainly in women.” Wikipedia describes it as: For at least two thousand years of European history until the late nineteenth century hysteria referred to a medical condition thought to be particular to women and caused by disturbances of the uterus.

The Death of a Medical Word!

Lucky for us, in 1952 (took them a while!) this diagnosis was reversed as women started becoming more independent and the theory that women were ‘excitable’ had nothing to do with a medical condition but everything to do with their overall dissatisfaction with the control they had over their lives and their own bodies. I can only imagine a lot of politicians (men) discussing this around the table back in the ’50s…. hmmmm, reminds me of something that happened just this past year; lots of men discussing the future of women’s bodies, without asking the opinion of well, women! I guess we’re still fighting the good fight.

Hysteria the movie. Check out the trailer here.

What does this have to do with Hilo and this week’s blog? There’s a new movie out called HYSTERIA starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy, Rupert Everett and Felicity Jones about this subject that is well worth seeing if it comes to a theater near you. It is a light, funny, romantic comedy set in London in the late 1800s, based (loosely) on the true story of the invention of the vibrator! More important, it is a strong message about women earning the right to speak their minds and take control over their lives. We saw it last year in Amsterdam at a film festival and were thrilled when it made it to little Hilo. Today, we’re taking a group of friends to see it. If you have a couple of extra minutes, please watch the trailer here: Hysteria the Movie.

Toasting to our 21 years of being married.

This week, Week 39 of 52, I am simply, thankful.

My husband and I celebrated our 21st anniversary this past week and even though we had a wonderful dinner out, I managed to lose the 2 lbs I had gained the previous week. So even with a dinner of champagne, sashimi, steak, shrimp and a yummy mud pie for desert, I still lost. How? Well I just ate a few bites

It doesn’t look like much, but it was plenty and delicious, plus I had champagne and some mud pie!

of each item we ordered (still a big meal for me). But the real reason is that I pushed myself to work out a little longer and harder to get myself back on track and cut out my afternoon cookie most days. This is how it works, folks. Seems so simple now. Why oh why didn’t we learn this way back when? But then when you have felt fat most of your life, a couple of lbs seemed so trivial. Now that I’m heading towards being thin, a couple lbs is more of a big deal. And the interesting thing is that I can feel I’ve gained a couple of lbs, or lost them, unlike before. So it’s all an interesting learning experience.

Reality hit this morning. 3 week vacation and 2 lb weight gain.

I gained 2 lbs this week and I probably deserved to gain it; after all I was on vacation for 3 weeks, ate and drank more than I do at home and was not on my regular exercise program. I didn’t get back home to Hilo until Tuesday and didn’t start my regular exercise until Wednesday…..and then, I had to ease into it again. It just shows you that you have to be on top of this all the time; which is what thin people do….it’s what my husband and my friends have always done. When I gained 3-5 lbs in a year I didn’t think that was a big deal, but I did it continuously for 10 years. If we thought we were getting a free ride by removing most of our stomachs, I guess this is where we need to think again.

I didn’t have much exciting to talk about this week anyway other than working on a bathroom remodel in Honolulu and packing away here in Hilo, so today’s post is about how I have worked exercise into my daily life. Even though I did eat differently on vacation, for me, I’m convinced I gained weight because I had stopped exercising aerobically. So even though I’ll watch what I’m eating a little closer this coming week, I’ll  step up my exercise and see what happens.

Here’s the TOP TEN THINGS I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT EXERCISE in my 38 weeks since surgery. (Keep in mind, I was NEVER athletic, and always pathetic at regular exercise before WLS and I’ve always been very weak in my upper body).

I took this photo with my little camera!

Even though Stockton has been in the news lately because the city just announced bankruptcy and they have a crime problem, you would never believe it if you were at my sister’s house. She lives in one of the most gorgeous neighborhoods I have ever seen; tree and flower-lined streets, classy houses that remind you of the old part of Beverly Hills, and there are amazing views. Brookside, the area where she lives, put on an incredible fireworks show the night I arrived….nice welcome! Her house is a dream house complete with a beautiful pool and patio overlooking a golf course – I’ve had a very relaxing week here, especially after last week which was so busy! I’ve had a some good long walks around the neighborhood listening to my music and admiring all the architecture and gardens. Very different from Hawaii and a world away from Amsterdam!

One of the many goodies my sister made or had at her house this week!!!

My sister’s house (like my mom’s house when she was alive) has always been filled with fattening food, so cookies, candy, chips, and unwise choices are everywhere…..but I’ve managed to have some of those things along with good choices too, and even lost one more lb. this week! But I seem to have settled into a 900-1200 calorie day no matter where I am and as long as I keep exercising and trying to get my protein in, I think I’ll be OK. I have to admit though, when I read other people’s posts on the forum who are so strict about what they eat, I feel like I’m not doing the right thing by eating a sweet or two every day. But I feel healthy, my blood work is good and in general, I eat well. Just don’t ask me to give up my afternoon coffee and goodie!

At the 4th of July party, one of my sister’s friends said “wow, I can sure tell you’re Linda’s sister!” Now today, it happened again…. this never happened in the previous 58 years of my life……no one ever thought we were even related in the past and on occasion, people thought I was older (she’s 6 years older than me, beautiful and very petite). So that was nice to hear and makes me feel even closer to her! I can see myself that indeed we do finally look related and she even mentioned that she can see our mom in me now. WOW.WOW.WOW.