VSG Maintenance Group
02/04/19, Monday
- Within Range: over by two
- General Wellbeing: 7 on SS
- 10,000+ Steps: 10,466
- Fitness: walking two dogs individually
- Self-Care: Reiki
- Play/Leisure: See #4
- Intentions: Seek balance & relax, rejuvenate, & recalibrate !!
It made it to 54 degrees yesterday AND I felt sun on my face !!!! Gratitude!
So, I hate weighing at the doctor's office... different time of day, different scale, not naked. At some points during my obese decades, I just refused to get on the scale. It counted as a refusal in my medical records and made it more challenging for pre-approval insurance (VSG) to document my weight over time, and significant yoyoing. When I went to the cardio last week, I weighed in with boots, clothes, heavy coat and was nine pounds higher than my AM weigh in at home. I haven't seen that number for close to four years and I was pretty proud of my ability to intellectually and emotionally anchor back to the morning number. This morning, I am three pounds up from yesterday, and flipping out. Intellectually, I know I ate on plan yesterday and I know I've been giving my muscles a good workout. I need some good potty time and my legs feel a bit tight with fluid, so my head knows to give it a day or two and it will resolve. I am so grateful that, thus far in maintenance, I have kept blips from shaking my new found confidence and hard won resolve and I've managed to avoid the what the hell - why bother tapes, which have initiated regain in the past. I must decrease the gap between intellectually sound reason and equally rational emotional response and the time it takes me to get there.
Age: 64; 5' 5"; High weight: 345; Start weight: 271 (01/05/15); Surgery weight: 218 (05/27/15); Pre-Op (-53); M 1 (-18); M 2 (-1.5); M 3 (-13.5 ); M 4 (-13); M 5 (- 8); M 6 (-12) M 7 (-5, Xmas); M 8 (- 9) Under surgeon's goal and REACHED HEALTHY BMI 12/07/15!! (Six months and one week.) AT GOAL month 8. Maintaining at goal range (139- 144) ~ four (4) years !!
Weight 125.6, calories ? There was super bowl eating and drinking going on! Obviously we are happy for the win.
Yesterday was nice and warm at the pool after the thick morning fog burned off. Today appears to be more of the same. It is easier for me to eat/drink on plan during the day on pool days because I'm not hovering around the house.
I booked our trip home this morning: May 19. It will be fairly hot here at that point, but that is the best date from a cost/timing standpoint. I have also sent out feelers to family members about staying with DH if I go to Aruba alone. DS already said he can do 5-6 days. SIL says she can help with meals, but no personal care. I'm not sure that will be terribly helpful at that point. I would have options to use an assisted living facility part-time (they do that but at a high cost of course), have someone come to the house part-time, or use daycare for part of the day. I'll have a few months to figure it out but need to get at least some family commitments during the next month so I can book my flights at a reasonable cost. BTW, I think SIL expected me to invite her to come (she has in the past), but I need a break. This is one time when it is a good thing that she never takes the initiative because she won't ask if I want company (I will have plenty there anyway).
Have a mostly good Monday!
Liz 5'3" HW: 219 SW: 185 GW: 125 LW: 113 Desired maintenance range: 120-125 CW: 119ish
on 2/4/19 5:48 am
Hi everyone! Today is my last day in Buenos Aires before flying home tonight. It's been so much fun, but I'm ready to be home if for no othr reason than to try to cut back on my eating! We've been pretty active (two bike tours, a hike, lots of walking) but nothing can save me from myself when presented with unlimited food!
I'm so glad our trip ends in Buenos Aires, because it is absolutely my favorite spot that we stopped on our trip. Such a beautiful city. You would be hard pressed to not think you were in Europe. And it's been the only days where the weather was perfect - mid-70s and not humid. The rest of the trip, the consensus was we've never, ever been hotter in all our lives!
I'll try to upload some pics...
Cecily, thanks for vividly reminding me about everything colorful and alive in Buenos Aires ! Those ornate, thick, massive wooden doors offering glimpses of courtyards always intrigued me ! Prepare for my cruise storm story !!
Age: 64; 5' 5"; High weight: 345; Start weight: 271 (01/05/15); Surgery weight: 218 (05/27/15); Pre-Op (-53); M 1 (-18); M 2 (-1.5); M 3 (-13.5 ); M 4 (-13); M 5 (- 8); M 6 (-12) M 7 (-5, Xmas); M 8 (- 9) Under surgeon's goal and REACHED HEALTHY BMI 12/07/15!! (Six months and one week.) AT GOAL month 8. Maintaining at goal range (139- 144) ~ four (4) years !!
Can't remember my weight exactly from this morning, but was in the 170s, so that made me happier.
179.4?
Diane O.-I'm with you on not wanting to weigh in at doctor's offices in the past. And even now this can become such a negative tool. Unfortunately I think it's consistently maybe the best metric I have for keeping myself honest. But when it begins to creep up it can trigger that old thinking or make me think "yikes I need to DIET (remember that is a scary 4 letter word for me) so eat anything and everything NOW." And then I don't weigh for several months...to much more damage. Hell, even in pregnancy I make such a mental mess of myself over the number. I know some are a fan of measuring or how their clothes fit. Measuring is too complicated for me and honestly by the time my clothes are all tight I just feel like **** about it. Gosh, I used to be able to go up 20lbs. without changing sizes! But like you, I'm trying to remember if I did the right things on paper or not. I'm amazed by how some days I eat right,e xercise, and gain.
Liz-It's nice to have plans in place and know an end date. I think it would be terrific for you to try and take that trip to Aruba, especially if you know Paul will be in good hands. I know things might get more complicated in future years. Cecily's experience is reminding me how wonderful it is to travel which....
Cecily-Your photos are gorgeous! You look to be having such a great time! I believe it that Buenos Aires feels European! There is so much of South America I'd like to visit, BA definitely at the top. I guess my only question is: did you feel unsafe at all?
Peps-I don't know if I've told you enough recently, but I'm so proud! I had something I wanted to say about forgetting we were obese but now it escapes me.
AFM I had a pretty full weekend. That's how they seem to go around here anymore. Looked at nursery furniture and then the duplexes on Friday. I think we may try to get back into being landlords. I'm scared and excited. It's risk and I hate risk. But I also know you cannot avoid risk, only mitigate it. I think I'll go with the crib to match our existing cherry wood guest room furniture. I was torn, but it's a large room and so much children's furniture is poorly made. I don't feel excited to drop thousands of dollars only to get cheaply made furniture so I think instead we found a match and will swap out king size cherry poster bed for cherry crib.
Unfortunately highschooler had to bail on babysitting Friday night. Musical rehearsals! So I can't hold it against her too much--plus I had really been missing my baby and stepkids got some individual time with their dad. So it didn't turn out too bad. Saturday was a nice day of running errands and playing and we took Becca to a kiddo's birthday party. That evening I had friends over to watch South Pacific. Instant pot Asian pork was terrific, cheap, pretty easy, made a lot. ONly downside is for the cheap pork, it's awfully greasy. Perhaps next time I'll make in advance, refrigerate, skim fat, and reheat. Served that over rice and a bagged sesame chopped salad and frozen pie. So it was not my old-fashioned "homemade" entirely meal, but I'm really trying not to let perfection be the enemy of progress! Yesterday we did take Becca to the zoo--where she promptly fell asleep and mom and dad were freezing their tails off! Thankfully the sun came out and Becca woke up! And I got in some steps!
Today I need to really put my nose to the grindstone at work. Really trying to work on being more disciplined. I'm not one who's totally into inspirational speakers--sometimes they seem a little flat to me. But the podcast I've been listening to recently has been pretty uplifting. So this one today: "Every goal we have is preceded by a process. The secret to success is to be committed to the daily process." So once again, the point here being that you don't need to have certain traits really or secret weapons so succeed. You don't even have to be ultra disciplined. You need to work smarter not harder. Is it any secret that I relate almost ALL of this back to weight loss? LIke my sister tells me time and time again that I need to focus on eating the same foods. I love food and cooking, so I like to switch it up. But successful maintainers do seem to eat the same breakfasts day in and day out. So perhaps a secret to weightloss for me would be, at least for certain meals (like breakfast, lunch, snacks?) to stick to a pretty mundane selection with a preapproved calorie count.
