Share Your Goals!

Me too!!! I'm so jealous of both of you!!! 

Ok! Ok!

I will,,, as soon as it gets warmer ;)

I want to kayak. Technically there are kayaks that hold heavy weights but kayaking with a large belly would be uncomfortable.  

I also want to enjoy hiking again.

Snowshoeing.

Bicycling.  I bought a bike two years ago that held my weight and I've really enjoyed using it, but my belly gets in the way of comfortable riding and I just don't have the stamina for any long distance riding.

Of course I want to weigh less and wear smaller clothes but so much of what I want out of this surgery is to be able to live my life to the full and no longer be limited by my size.

Hi ddkVSG,

I don't know where you live but we could be buddies  I just recently signed up through a site called Meet Up for Kayaking, hiking and biking.  We are having such rains here they advised us newbies should wait until spring.

YOU WILL GET THERE!  Let's stay in touch and I want to see those photos of you Kayaking, hiking and biking 

Thanks for the encouragement!  We are in the rainy season here too!  Of course, that's 9 months out of the year in the PNW. 

My husband and I are getting ready to purchase kayaks now that my weight is low enough and I'm way more active and flexible! I can't wait!!!

How cool is that!  

Goals:

1. Get back into onderland 
2. Meet surgeon's goal of 185
3. Meet my own goal of 170.
4. Bucket goal of 160, which would be more than half my body weight (a loss of 169 pounds)
5. Save enough $$ for all the plastics (I'm young at 35 and don't want to have to dress like my grandma did at the beach)

If you are getting back on track here is a great list that helped me!

Planning/Preparing

Remember when we were preparing for surgery?  How many meetings, classes and such did we attend?  We were told the more prepared we were the better our chances were for success.  And they were right. Go through the house, car and work place and get rid of trigger foods.  Stock up on foods that will keep you on track. I removed every bad carb/sugar temptation and replaced it with lots of protein, veggies, grains and fruits.

Journaling

Get back to journaling.  This will help you identify when you feel like eating, stress factors and any triggers in your life.  Once you identify these factors, this will help you put tools in place to keep you from eating.  It became clear I was not taking time for me anymore. I worked my day job and then spent the rest of my time caring for my husband.  It was easy to reach for fast, prepackaged food.  Since I purged my home I have to eat clean as there are no other options LOL

Use a tool to track you're eating and exercise like Getting Started with Health Tracker.  Once I started to track ever bite and drink it became clear why I had gained.

Goals/Rewards

Make a list of goals for yourself.  Make them realistic and small.  Some of mine were move more, purge all junk from my home, eat more protein.

Food

In general, a long term post-weight loss surgery eating plan includes foods that are high in protein, and low in fat?, calories, and sugar. Important, vitamins and minerals are provided as supplements. (if you had a different surgery adjust this to your food plan).

Water

Water is our Best Friend. I have to say I never went back to pop or any bad drinks, however I was drinking tea like crazy. What is wrong with drinking tea?  I was either using sugar or 3 equals and 3 sweet n lows per 32 ounce glass.  So I was either pushing to be diabetic or get cancer.  I found once I started carrying a bottle of water around 24/7 (yes had one at my bedside) I lost the cravings for the sugar and I KNOW those artificial sweeteners are not good for me. Look I am old and if you add up all the artificial sweeteners I have consumed I am sure I am at the rat in the lab getting cancer threshold.

MOVE!

I can't say enough about how key this was for me. The reason I kept my weight off for almost 10 years was no matter what, I kept moving.  If I could not go to the gym I would walk. I loved Zumba, bootcamp workouts, lifting weights. When I stopped, the weight started coming back.  So for me I am starting slow to avoid injury by walking and using some of the workouts on my Demand TV.  Find something you love to do and it won't feel like a pain in the *** to do daily.

Support

If it's an option "run" don't walk to a support group.

Keep me posted on how you are doing.

So I've reached so many already, I'll try to recap:

• Back to Onderland (Check!)
• Back to 179 (my lowest post-children/pre-surgery... Check!)
• Lose ALL the plus size clothes in my closet! (Check!)
• Pack up the C-pap and put it away (Check!)
• Lose enough weight to equal what my daughter weighs, and then I'm picking her up and taking a picture (coming soon! she weighs 110 roughly)
• Get to a normal BMI (6 more lbs!)
• Rugged Maniac mud run (will be accomplished April 29th)
• My goal weight when I had to pick a number with my surgeon 145 
• Already feeling the need to surpass that goal weight!

There are a multitude of goals (NSVs?)  that have been reached because of those goals already reached, things like sitting in a booth, airplane seat comfortably, arena seating, walking in heels comfortably again, losing the triple *****ok, so I have the chicken skin, but I'll take it!), dancing forever... and so many more!