What I'm Eating:
Before surgery, I never thought I would be able to make it through the day without eating. It sounded so weird and impossible to me. I thought surely my body will need that food and calories to burn in order to have energy. In the case of most people, this is the truth. I'm not in any way advocating not eating if you are on another weight loss journey! That is surely dangerous and will only cause you to gain more weight later. I do eat, it's just not much right now. I maybe eat once or twice a day and then I'm eating super small amounts. I am still on the soft foods/semi solid proteins stage right now, so I eat a lot of cheeses, canned meats (usually mixed with a light cream soup or light mayo so it goes down better), eggs, re-fried beans, and thin sliced deli meats (very well chewed). I had some browned ground beef with some cream of mushroom soup the other day that tasted sooooo good to me! I'm really ready for week 5 when I can finally start adding other things to my diet like veggies. I have experimented with a couple things that have not set so well. And by not sitting well, I mean I get monster heartburn and I go and say a few prayers to the porcelain gods. So far, pickles (which I loved before) and Wendy's chili are a no go. I have been craving crunchy carbs (like Chex mix, and crackers) and pizza all this week and it's hard to remind my brain that I don't need them and that I am not really hungry! The mental part of this whole thing is really the hardest struggle, the physical part, not so much.
The Physical Part:
Since surgery, my body has been through an overhaul so far, and it's letting me know it's not that happy about it right now. I'm sure in time it will change it's mind, but until then I've been putting up with some not so pleasant issues. The first thing that happened, started even a week before surgery when I had lost 20 lbs already. My outside of my right thigh started to go numb. At night when I would lay down for bed it would stop being numb and burn like crazy. I have since found out from the Physician's Assistant that it is a lovely condition called Meralgia Paresthetica. It's where your femoral/lower abdominal nerve is pinched by pressure. Apparently, my lower stomach (pannus) is pressing on that nerve more as I lose weight and it's causing the nerve to act up. I can handle it most of the time, because most of the time it just makes my leg numb, but every once in a while it will start shooting pains through my leg, and will just feel very uncomfortable when I'm laying down to go to sleep. It should pass soon, maybe in the next couple months, but in the meantime it sucks. The second lovely issue, has been a muscle that's been acting up on the lower left side of my abdomen. It's been going on for two whole weeks now, and is driving me batty! At first I was concerned that it might be a hernia considering that hernias are very common after weight loss surgery, but now that it's FINALLY starting to get better, I'm sure it was just a bad muscle strain from trying to move around without effecting my incisions, but it hurts like a mother sometimes! It hurts when I am sitting up, it hurts when I lay a certain way in bed (which happens to be my favorite way to lay in bed), and it hurts when I bend over. Today is actually the first day it has felt better since it started. The pain is pretty mild so hopefully that's a sign that it's on the mend.
Getting Physical:
As far as the exercise I have been doing, I have only just gotten started as of the 1st of January. I got outside on New Years Day and walked 1.7 miles. I can't tell you the last time I walked that far! I don't think my body remembers either because my legs were crying by the end of it! However, my back, which used to hurt on a near daily basis, didn't hurt at all! The weight I have lost so far helped so much, and I can already stand up straighter. Since that walk I have walked once more for another 1.7 miles and it didn't hurt as much that time. Today, I actually joined a gym (Planet Fitness) and I am going tonight to work out! I know if I am paying for it, I am going to make more of an effort to go at least 5 days a week. I also got some new trainers and a gym bag for motivation (the money I save on food is paying for other cool stuff). Tonight I'm just going to focus on getting some time in on the treadmill and maybe the elliptical (15 minutes each), just to get myself started. If I have any fitness buff friends out there that want to join me (I'll be going to the PF on 410 and McCullough across from North Star Mall), or if you have any advice on what kinds of workouts I can do, please let me know!
I've decided that I am going to add my stats at the end of my blogs from now on. It's something I have struggled with in the past, because I didn't want people to know my weight, but I'm trying to come to terms with that and just get over it basically. So, I'm going to start sharing it with you all.
Start Weight: 451 lbs.
Weight at Surgery 12/10/13: 428 lbs.
Current Weight: 388 lbs.
Total Weight Lost: 63 lbs.
(soon I will put inches lost on here, but I haven't measured yet!)
Current Mood: Motivated
