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| Before surgery |
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| Three months after surgery |
First things first, I’ve officially lost 53 pounds! My next goal is to be less than 200 pounds by Christmas.
I had my final band adjustment (hopefully for a while) a couple of weeks ago. The band around my stomach is now pretty tight. I am able to eat about one cup of food at a time. That is not much at all, but I still feel great. This adjustment was quite a bit tighter and has been kind of hard to get used to. I have to do the things I’ve been doing all along, but much better and a little more extreme. I absolutely have to chew all my food up to mush and eat super slow. I have to literally think about every bite I put into my mouth and evaluate when I can swallow. I also have to pay close attention to when I’m full so I don’t eat too much and get sick.
A week after my adjustment, Eli and I took a trip to Destin. I won a week at a fabulous condo from one of the partners at the PR firm I work for. Super generous. Super lucky me. The vacation couldn’t have come at a better time. We were thinking about taking a trip somewhere, but couldn’t decide what to do. Eli and I have both have been working long hours. That paired with all the changes from my surgery has made for little time to spend together. I don’t think either of us realized how much we needed a break until we got there.
What a journey getting there was…
The air conditioning went out about an hour into the trip. We felt it getting warmer, so Eli switched it off to give it a rest. When he did this, we heard a part fall off the car and tumble down the interstate. If you know me, this is not good. I don’t do hot. I then proceed to slightly lose my mind. I did a pretty good job of stomping and throwing a two-year-old-level tantrum (but with a lot more cursing). Poor Eli. At least it wasn’t directed at him, and I eventually figured out I would just have to deal with the heat.
This part gets a little graphic…
It was so hot we decided to hit a drive thru for lunch, instead of getting out of the car. I’m driving and munching on a hamburger patty. All of the sudden I have that awful feeling like I couldn’t breathe. My stomach was clogged. This has only happened a couple of times, but I can usually drink some water and make myself burp to get the food to pass. In a matter of two seconds, I realized this was going to end badly and threw up all my food. It went all over me while I was driving down the interstate. As it was happening, all I could think about was how I had to pull the car over safely. I had to change all my clothes on the side of the interstate. I had a good sobbing pity party for myself, and we got back on the road. So, I survived my first official throwing up incident. It’s a miracle I made it this long.
As soon as we got to Destin, Eli rented tools and bought the parts to fix my AC. He then spent the next four hours working on my car. I can’t tell you how blessed I am to have such a smart and understanding husband.
We then had a fabulous vacation. I made sure to eat breakfast and lunch according to my diet and then loosened the rules a tiny bit for dinner. We made sure to work out every day and I was even able to lose weight. I never thought I would be one of those people who worked out on vacation.
Working out has become a must for me. I don’t feel right if I miss even one day. We try and do something active every day, if possible. We try to add new activities and keep it from getting boring. For example, I bought Just Dance for the Wii. I learned I have no rhythm, but can work up a sweat trying to dance.
I’m also cooking a lot more. I started to get bored with all the food I was eating, so I had to venture out a little. I bought all of George Stella’s cookbooks and use them almost every day. Eating lower carbs has become a way of life and it gets easier all the time. Just tonight I made a homemade pumpkin pie with whipped topping. It’s all homemade; nothing from a box. It’s also low carb with no sugar added.
I’m almost three months out from surgery and am amazed at how my life has changed since then. I look better. I feel better. I’m going to make it!
