What happens to your health when you lose 54 pounds?

Today I weighed in with a total loss of 53.7. Of course I’m thrilled to be wearing smaller clothes and looking hot… but more than the outward appearance, I’m thrilled with the dramatic changes in my health. Here are a few things that I’m rejoicing about:

• I’m sleeping! Since the week after surgery I’ve been able to sleep through the night without getting up 5 or 6 times to potty, or just wake up for no reason. And it’s deep restful sleep too. This is the most amazing feeling in the world – to have enough sleep to function like a normal person. I never realized how bad my sleep habits were until I experienced normalcy.
• Asthma disappears! I’m no longer taking Singulair or Advair and I only occasionally need my fast acting inhaler (once every ten days or so, maybe). I’m breaking better and feeling like I have a lot more power in my lungs.
• Allergies diminish! I don’t know why, but my environment/indoor allergies seem to be disappearing. I don’t know if it has to do with my weight loss or that my asthma is no longer a big issue – but I’m now off my daily allergy medication and only take a Benadryl every once in a while when I have a flair up.
• High Blood Pressure goes away! Officially yesterday I’m being weaned off the high blood pressure meds. Yippee! After taking my own blood pressure readings with a home-style cuff for the past week I noticed a disturbing trend that my readings were super low (like 95/60 or 100/65). So within another couple weeks I’ll be rid of those meds too!
• Energy abounds! I can walk up a flight of stairs without hyperventilating. (Ok, it’s not like I literally hyperventilated before, but I certainly was out of breath.) I did this yesterday when I was at the doctor’s office and didn’t have to stop and catch my breath at the top of the stairs.
• Knee and Back pain leave town! I used to avoid the stairs because my knees would be killing me with the added strain. Not anymore. Also I used to put my back out every couple months and have chronic lower back pain between those episodes. No pain in my back for the past couple months. WooHoo!

But there's one thing losing weight does NOT help you with when it comes to be healthy. It doesn’t do a bit of good when you slice your finger open with your brand new knives. Duh! I bled like a crazy woman and it hurt like mad. But I didn’t want to waste my Saturday at the ER, so I just put a band-aid on it and went about my day. It continued to bleed off and on the rest of Saturday, but it’s looking much better today. Hopefully it’ll heal cleanly and quickly. So here's a warning ... if you lose 54 pounds and you start to feel like Super Woman, that doesn't help you one single bit when it comes to razor sharp kitchen knives. I’m plowing through the 240’s pretty quickly. Can’t wait until I hit the 230’s. ~Pam

The Second Brain

About a year ago, I first learned about Dr. Lee Kaplan and his research on obesity and the digestive system's "second brain." I've even got his name set on my Google Alerts so I'll get any new published research he puts out. And yep, you guessed it - I got an Alert on him today. It's an older article, but I thought I'd share it here anyway. Very interesting information.

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The Second Brain
A study on why weight loss can be so difficult

As a young man, Michael Gershon, professor of medicine at Columbia University, went against the wishes of his father and the advice of his professors who urged him to study the brain. Instead, he set off on an exploration of the bowel. Intrigued by some long- forgotten 20th century scientific discoveries about an independent nervous system in the gut, Dr. Gershon’s research uncovered how this sophisticated physiological wiring functions essentially as a "second brain." The gut, it turns out, has a mind of its own and plays a major role in deciding when and how much we eat. When the brain in the head says eat less and in moderation, the "second brain" in the gut can override the brain in the head and propel us to eat more and without restraint.

Obesity expert Dr. Lee Kaplan and his team at Massachusetts General Hospital compare the body’s hunger drive to the human body’s response to running up six flights of stairs. You can force yourself to breathe slowly for a few seconds, despite this exertion, but ultimately your body will demand more oxygen and you’ll breathe faster. When it comes to decisions about how much to eat, a similar battle occurs between your conscious will and your subconscious. And if your subconscious brain wants more food, it wins and you eat more.

A study of gastric bypass surgery has led Dr. Kaplan to a compelling discovery about how the body regulates food consumption, and the hope that someday surgery can be avoided altogether. Dr. Kaplan has found that weight loss in surgery patients is not just a result of making the stomach smaller. The surgery actually reduces the feeling of hunger by cutting some of the nerves in the bowel, which changes the signals that flow between the gut and the brain. It also alters the way the hormonal system gets its information from food and sends it to the brain. "By manipulating the gut, even in a small way, we end up changing the communication to the brain and the brain acts differently to manage our weight and metabolism," says Dr. Kaplan. His goal now is to completely replace surgery by developing a pharmaceutical that alters these intricate circuits in the same way that an invasive operation currently does.

Source: http://www.pbs.org/previews/fat/

Let’s Talk About Weight Goals & BMI

So often people who have WLS begin their weight loss process with a very specific, set-in-stone, can’t-compromise weight goal where they want to be at the end of the process. They set their sites on a specific number and live their whole lives around that number.

I personally don’t want to be SO focused on a specific number on the scale that I lose focus of what this journey is about in the first place.

But it is still a good idea to know the numbers, right?

Weight-loss surgery is considered successful when a person loses 50% of his or her excess weight. This is according to the “experts” – those people at NIH and surgeons who perform bariatric surgery. Once you hit the 50% mark, you are added to your surgeon’s Success List.

Estimates for the other end of the scale of weight loss range anywhere from 70% to 85%. So it’s expected that RNY patients will lose 50 to 85% of their excess body weight.

But how do you know what the real number is for the “excess” weight? If you use the BMI scale, you’ll notice that the Normal range of weight has a 40 pound variance. For instance, for me to be in the Normal Weight category I would need to weight anywhere between 115 and 154. So I’ve done some math to try and come up with the 50%, 80% and 100% benchmarks of losing excess weight.

Normal BMI for woman at 5’6”
115 pounds = 18.6 BMI
154 pounds = 24.9 BMI

I averaged the two numbers and came up with 134.5 pounds. So for argument’s sake, let’s set my Ideal Body Weight at 135.

My starting weight on the day of surgery was 299.4. Which equals a BMI of 48.3. Yikes! Now let’s figure out how much weight I need to lose to hit the benchmark percentages.

50% = 82.5 pounds Weight of: 216
80% = 132 pounds Weight of: 167
100% = 165 pounds Weight of: 135

So what does all this really mean? And what is my current Goal Weight?

When I hit the mark of losing 82.5 pounds, I need to do a little celebration that in my surgeon’s eyes, I’m a success. When I hit the 132 pound mark, I need to do a little celebration that I’m a success based on the upper end of the expected weight loss scale. Big Whoop!

Right now my Goal Weight is officially “160-ish.”

When I hit the 160’s, I’ll figure out if I want to continue down to 135 or if I’m happy with my body and my health at 160. I really don’t want my total and complete focus to be some stupid number on a scale. And I especially don’t want my goal to be a number on the BMI scale --- the archaic BMI scale --- because I honestly do not believe it gives a true picture of health and well being.

I'm more focused on my health and the way I feel than some stupid number on a scale!

So for now, I’m posting this just so I have my math calculations written down some place that I won’t lose them (and don't have to re-do them!). I'm also posting this because my friend, "M" pissed me off yesterday with his preaching about my having to achieve a certain weight in order to really be a success.

~Pam

Black Bean & Chicken Soup

I made some soup this weekend and it's delicious! Not sure where I got the base recipe for this, but I've added a few things from the original. Here's my version:

Easy Black Bean & Chicken Soup

• 2 cans black beans (juice and all) 
• 1 c. chicken (I used some leftover rotisserie chicken both white and dark meat) 
• 1/2 c. chopped onion 
• 1 c. salsa 
• 3 c. chicken broth 
• 1-2 t. minced garlic (use fresh if you have it, I used the jars stuff)
• salt and pepper to taste 

Add it all to the slow cooker and let it simmer for several hours. You could also puree this a little bit with a hand blender if you want a thicker consistency (a great option for newbie WLS patients). 

Enjoy!
~Pam

50 Pounds Lost!

This morning I hit my 50-pound-goal! What a great way to start my week after such a rough weekend. I'm thrilled with myself and can't wait until I can get to the jewelry store to buy my reward! Next goal: Hit the 75-pound mark!

What a Rough Weekend!

I have today off work (MLK Holiday) so I consider this still my weekend. Boy has it been a rough one! Saturday --- I got up, showered, made a list of errands and got all ready to go. Then my car didn't start. Turned out to be a frozen fuel line that didn't get fixed until my dad and brother arrived around 6pm Sunday --- Since I didn't get my errands done on Saturday I went out on Sunday to get my running done. Had a great day and found some good deals while shopping. Got home to find my house lights going crazy. Power surges that made my lights turn on SUPER bright and even blew a few bulbs, then a few minutes later I'd get a brown out and stuff would shut down because there wasn't enough power. To top it off, the furnace wasn't working. I called the power company and they came out and fixed it. Furnace still not working. So I left a message for the furnace company and requested an early morning service call. Then headed over to my parents house to spend the night in warmth (did I mention it was below zero here in Michigan last night?) Monday -- Furnace guy comes and finds a transformer blown on the furnace. $180 later, it's fixed and I've got heat again. Then ... I settle down to check email and stuff only to discover that my modem is fried from the power surges last night. I call the ISP and they offer to replace the modem, so I had to go pick it up at their office. So here it is.. nearly 2:00 on the last day of my long holiday weekend and I'm exhausted! What a rough weekend it's been. Hopefully I won't find anything else that's been fried and the rest of the day will be relaxing. On a positive note ... I'll have to tell you about the fantastic deals I got during my Goodwill shopping sprees! I should be set for dress clothes for a few more weeks, no problems! Whew! Pam

Comprehensive Holistic Wellness Plan

I mentioned last week that I'm going through a 10-week group therapy session with my psychologist's office (it seems to strange to say "My Psychologist" - it's not like I've ever done anything with him besides get my psych eval for surgery, but suddenly I'm being very possessive).

Anyway, this 10-week session is called the Comprehensive Holistic Wellness Plan.

Throughout the sessions we'll explore various areas of our lives, set goals and develop a plan for our overall wellness. Some of the areas we're covering is not just the expected health and exercise, but also financial health, spiritual health, vocational health, emotional health, the health of our relationships and more. We've had 2 sessions so far and I'm still very excited about where this is leading me.

I'm in the midst of some very BIG life changes right now - this surgery kind of forces you to make those big changes, doesn't it? So if I'm making all these changes, why not have a plan and specific goals to follow? (Guess I need to blog a little bit more about how I'm feeling emotionally and what changes are going on in my life at the moment, huh?) So anyway.... The Google-Head that I am had to go find definitions for each of the words in the title of the program we're doing. Comprehensive Holistic Wellness Plan.

Seeing the definitions really help to get a clear picture of what this thing is all about.

Comprehensive Of large scope; covering or involving much; inclusive; covering completely or broadly; extensive understanding

Holistic Emphasizing the importance of the whole and the interdependence of its parts. Emphasizing the organic or functional relation between parts and the whole

Wellness The quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of deliberate effort.

Plan A scheme or method of acting, doing, proceeding worked out beforehand for the accomplishment of an objective

More later ...
~Pam

I Resisted Cake

Birthdays around here at the office are always accompanied by cake. We had a gathering in the breakroom this afternoon (just a few minutes ago) and Doreen had made homemade lemon and raspberry cake. Yum! But I resisted a piece. Actually, I resisted even a bite off someone else's plate. Instead I ate a small strawberry from the Edible Bouquet that was there and just socialized with the group that was there. It was easy! And I didn't feel deprived at all. Yes, I'll eventually try some cake. But I would prefer to do it at home or with family so in case I do get sick or dump I'm not doing it for everyone to witness here at work. ~Pam

I Love Edamame

Yep, I love edamame. Actually I've loved it for years. My friend Sarah introduced me to edamame in the pod when we ate as a Japanese restaurent while in Seattle several years ago. And I've used it on my own a lot since. But whenever I'd cook with it, I'd always just add it to whatever recipe I was making (beef vegetable stew or stir fry). But I've never eaten it just plain on it's own. That's what I did today for lunch though.

I measured out 1/2 cup of edamame (out of the shell) and put them in a bowl. Packed them in my lunchbag with an ice pack and off to work I went, like normal. Then at lunch I added about 2 or 3 tablespoons of water to the bowl and microwaved them for 1 minute. Add a generous dash of salt and enjoy!

If you've never tried edamame (which is the Japanese word for soybeans) then you must try them! I'm going to do some searching and see if I can find some simple recipes that feature edamame!

Enjoy!
~Pam

photo credit: http://www.kanalydesign.com

Mulit-Vitamin Comparison

UPDATED 1/22/09 --- I've added some additional vitamins to the spreadsheet to include the new "bariatric" products. Be warned, just because a company slaps the word "bariatric" on the label doesn't mean it's a good choice for us after WLS. ---

I have done an extensive amount of research on the differences in multi-vitamins. I first started with the list of vitamins my surgeon recommended, then as I got additional recommendations from other post-op folks, I added those as well. My spreadsheet just keeps growing! I wanted the chance to view the nutrient values of all these different recommendations side-by-side to figure out which one would be the best for me.

My original plan was to do the prescription prenatal vitamins because it would be so much cheaper - but once I saw exactly what nutrients (or lack thereof) were included, I changed my mind.

My ultimate choice for multi-vitamin? I use Centrum. Chewables at the beginning, but now I'm using the normal pills. Two per day!

(Click the link below to download the file to your computer for further review.)

PRINTING -- to print the spreadsheet below, right click on the picture, choose "Print iPaper". Then in your printer preferences, be sure to change the orientation to "Landscape" before you print.


Multi-Vitamin Comparison Worksheet

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Spreadsheets comparison Uncategorizable-Unca

2 Months Out Today

I just realized that it's January 13th. That makes today my 2-Month Anniversary. WooHoo! Guess I should take another round of photos and take my measurements. And maybe write a thought provoking, introspective blog post about my journey so far, huh? I should be all celebratory and stuff. But I didn't plan very well and don't really have any earth shattering greatness to write about today. And I'll do photos tomorrow when I'm not in my PJ's. Measurements might happen tonight, we'll see. Hehehe... I'm so lame! ~Pam

Is My Obesity a Result of Nature or Nurture?

There was a post on OH with the following question. I thought I'd post the answer I gave here too. Is your pre-surgical weight the result of Nature or Nurture. It's a combination of both. Nurture --- because my family never at healthy as I was growing up. Oh sure we had a veggie as a side dish for our meals, but the main dish was something high-fat, high-carb. Snacks were things like ice cream, popcorn or soda - never fruit or veggies. So I developed some pretty bad habits that I carried with me into adulthood. I got to the weight I was pre-op because of my own dumb self. Nature --- I believe that genetics plays a large roll in my weight gain as well. My dad's side of the family are all overweight or obese and my mom has struggled with her weight all her life (she has RNY 4 years ago). But once I got to a certain point in my weight, the PCOS took over and I couldn't lose the weight if my life depended upon it. My body wouldn't release a single solitary fat cell in the 2 years that I dieted and exercised like a mad woman before surgery. In fact, I was very afraid that because my body was so riddled with PCOS and the whole insulin resistant thing that I wouldn't lose any weight after surgery. I was fully prepared to only lose a little bit, or to be a super slow loser. Thankfully the weight is coming off and I'm happy it is. Pam

Trail Mix Recipe

I was asked for my trail mix recipe today. Thought I'd post it here too. It's more of a dump-type of project rather than a set-in-stone recipe. Whatever you've got in the house or want to buy, just dump it all together to make a big batch of all your favorite flavors mixed together. Here's what I put in my last batch: 1 can mixed nuts (got them for Christmas) 1 can peanuts (the kind without the skins) 1 can toffee roasted almonds (these are naughty, but in 1 serving I might only get 1 or 2 nuts) some cashews (have a huge bag in my freezer, so used about equal to a can or so) some walnuts (again, found 'em in the freezer) some sunflower seeds 1 bag of soynuts 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (another guilty pleasure but you only get a few per serving) 1/2 a box of granola (guess it's about 10 ounces??) I don't like raisins, but if you do, go ahead and add them. Dried cherries would be my preference or maybe dried cranberries. Dried fruit is pretty high in sugar, so go lightly here. 1 ounce serving: about 130 calories, 8g protein, 10g carbs

A lot of support

Since August of 2006 I've been going to the monthly support group meetings in Bay City. The women of this group has been a great support and encouragement to me and I love them to death! We met last night and had a great meeting. I feel close to this small group of outstanding friends. Right after my surgery I started attending the support group meetings held by Hurley Bariatric Center. They are much more structured and hosts a large group of about 20 to 35 people. It's informative and a nice change of pace from the social support in the Bay City group. When I attended the Hurley Support Group for the first time I found out about the "informal" Flint Support Group. From what I've been able to see, it's most of the same people from the Hurley group, but it's not as structured and it's much more relaxed. I enjoy this group very much and I'm looking forward to going again. So that's 3 support group meetings that I'm attending every month right now. The Flint groups are difficult to get to because they both start at 5:30pm and that's the same time I get out of work. With a 45 minute drive from my office to the meeting location I'm always the last to arrive and miss out on valuable information at the beginning of the meetings. Guess all these group meetings fall into one of my 2008 Goals --- making new friends. I'm also starting a 10-week group therapy session with my psychologist's office, but I'll tell you about that in another post. So I'm getting lots of support these days. This has been a busy week with 3 meetings back to back on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and the 2nd week of each month will be like that for a while. But I am enjoying myself anyway! ~Pam

Cool Recipe Website

Thought I'd share this link. http://www.recipematcher.com/ It's a recipe website where you put in a list of the foods you have in your pantry -- or specifically want to use for a meal -- and the Recipe Matcher comes back with a list of recipes you can use based on what you've got. Cool, huh? ~Pam

Tuesday Weigh In

Not sure that I've mentioned this before, but I only weigh myself once a week for my "official weigh in." It's always on Tuesday mornings (the same day of the week I had my surgery). So yesterday I weighed myself and had only lost 1/2 pound. Putting me at a total lose of 42.8 pounds! Yep, a mere 8 ounces in a whole week. In fact, it was a week of very low calorie counts because of all the yucky tummy days I've been dealing with. But still it was only a half of a pound lost. But it's alright. I'm fine with it. Pretty much, anyway. Lately I've noticed a certain cycle with my weight loss. I'll go about 2 weeks with little or no weight loss at all. Then on the third week I'll be down anywhere from 4 to 7 pounds in a week. Then back to the 2 weeks of not much. Guess it's just the rhythm my body has set itself to or something. BTW -- for those who wonder. I am tracking my weight loss starting from 2 weeks before my surgery. The liquid diet portion of this process was the hardest weight I ever had to lose so I'm counting those 15 pounds! ~Pam

Good days and Bad days

This morning I realized that I tend not to blog on bad days. Yesterday wasn't a great day and felt sick to my stomach most of the day ... but rather than document it, I just hibernated. But why document the bad days, you ask? A couple reasons, actually. First I want to have a true record of my journey for my own information so I can look back a year from now (or whenever) and see how I was feeling/doing at different stages of my WLS journey. Second, I want to paint a true picture of this whole process for others who might be reading this blog -- either those who have already had surgery or those who are thinking about it. I don't want to make it seem like it's all roses and sunshine all the time. There are hard days. Really hard days. No, the hard days don't outweigh the good days .. but they still need to be talked about. So yesterday started out alright. I had a protein shake in the morning like normal. Lunch around 1:00 was a different story. I ate a half of a Thomas Lite Multigrain english muffin with a smear of peanut butter and a touch of sugar free jelly. (I'm trying to add more fiber to my diet.) Actually I ate about half of it before it started to feel like a rock in my tummy. About 30 minutes later I was suffering from the dry heaves. So far I've never truly vomited anything ... but the dry heaves seem to be my trademark on sick days. After about 5 minutes of heaving I felt somewhat better. Almost like the heaving routine dislodged the muffin from wherever it didn't want to be. On a queasy stomach I tend to crave one of the Popsicle Brand sugar free popsicles. So I slowly ate 1 to settle things down. I went out and ran some errands mid-afternoon and stopped at Barnes and Noble bookstore to browse around a bit. I kept hearing about the new Starbucks Cinnamon Dulce Latte, so of course I had to try one. It was a decaf, soy, sugar-free Cinnamon Dulce Latte to be exact. And it was so good!! Before surgery I used to be a morning coffee addict but I quit about a month before surgery to eliminate the caffeine. So this was my first coffee in about 3 months. Wow! After my incident with lunch I was weary to have anything solid for dinner. I should have known better and just had soup. But I pushed my limits and had some roast beef and squash. After a few bites of the beef I knew things were not good. I stopped eating right away and waited for the heaving to start. It didn't. It took me about an hour before I started feeling better again. So that was my yucky day yesterday. Today I'm going to give my pouch a break and focus mostly on liquids. Soup will be my friend today. I will do a better job of documenting both the good days AND the bad days from now on. ~Pam

Hot Chai Protein Tea

I concocted a new recipe this morning for my daily protein drink. It's pretty delicious! Hot Chai Protein Tea (I have a 12oz mug, so if your's is smaller, adjust accordingly) 1 scoop Nectar Vanilla Bean Torte Protein Powder 4 oz. Oregon Sugar Free Chai Tea mix 7 oz. Soy Milk (I use the kind with added fiber) While milk is warming in pan on stove, mix together Chai mix and protein powder in mug. Stir like crazy to get out all the lumps. I actually put it in the blender cuz I was lazy this morning. Add the hot milk and mix again. Yum!!!

8 Goals for 2008

1. Continue on my Journey to Health by following my surgeon’s rules, being smart about my food choices, exercising like a crazy woman and focusing on my emotional well being.
2. Follow my Retirement & Emergency Savings Plans (which includes a savings account for a trip to Italy for my 40th birthday!!!)
3. Learn to knit
4. Develop my photographic skills and immerse myself in the hobby of photography
5. Go to more events – movies, plays, concerts, museums, productions and shows. There are tons of opportunities all around me and I'd like to do more this year!
6. Get your butt back to school
7. Purge the clutter. (Storage room cleaning project begins next week!)
8. Make new friends, but keep the old. (One is silver and the other gold.... sorry, couldn't resist.)

Say Thank You

I found this link on another blog and thought I'd spread the word. Take the time to say Thank You. It's easy. Watch the Movie. ~Pam

Goals and Resolutions

I’ve been thinking about what goals I want to set for myself this year. I’m still thinking. I’ve got a few in mind but I want to expand the list a bit. Might take me another day or two to nail this down. What are your goals and resolutions for 2008? Pam