VSG Maintenance Group
04/04/2020 Saturday
My goal for this coming week is to be an empathetic listener for my daughter without internalizing what she shares, resulting in depression and despair. It seems to be cathartic for her to share profound experiences and I am so grateful I can be that touchstone for her, but I have to find a way to refill my reserves tout suite. I don't want to make a habit of posting here as a release, as many of us are struggling with waves of enormity. NYC DD is spending her weekend baking and volunteering to help out another PharmD at a hospital right in Brooklyn, merely rechecking filled Rx orders for accuracy. There will be no patient interaction, no subway, and she feels the simple sort/classify/count process will be restorative ... plus she doesn't want to eat everything she bakes !
I hope to get outside to do some raking and yard clean up. Please check our safe place for a TT message.
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 123.6, WW Bluepoints 8.
Like Mother, like Daughter, Diane. Your DD is truly on the front lines and I can't even imagine what she and her co-workers are going through. You are a good mother to be willing to absorb what DD needs to say. Try to find a way to decompress after those talks - watch a funny movie? Take a walk? Whatever you need.
Weight is at the lowest since February 3, 2019. I am going to stay off wine all wee****il Easter in an effort to really get it down. I also need to stay mostly away from it to ensure good sleep and to keep away feelings of dread which tend to come when I am overtired. I have been tracking my BP which seems to be up too high. I think I need more medication. But on Easter evening, we are having one of those Zoom ****tail parties with friends at home. So there will be a reason to comb our hair, put on makeup and get dressed up.
In the meantime stay in, stay safe, stay healthy.
Liz 5'3" HW: 219 SW: 185 GW: 125 LW: 113 Desired maintenance range: 120-125 CW: 119ish
Liz, love that you'll be getting dressed up for a get together tonight. DH's birthday is this week. Part of our plans are decorating the dining room with NYC things we ordered from Amazon while he's at work. I'm thinking about wearing the dress I bought for the dinner party we were having in NYC, maybe even the crinoline :)
Liz, I endorse all your plans, especially the get dressed-up plan for an Easter ****tail party.
And DD, I love your NYC in Minnesota dress-up party plans! Could be a hot night on the town tonight. :)
ANN 5'5", AGE 74, HW 235.6 (BMI 39.2), SW 216, GW 150, CW 132, BMI 22
POUNDS LOST: Pre-op -20, M1 -10, M2 -11, M3 -10, M4 -10, M5 -7, M6 -5, M7 -6, M8 -4, M9 -4,
NEXT 10 MOS. -12, TOTAL -100 LBS.
Weight: 132.2 (down 2 pounds overnight)
Veggies/Fruits: 7
Macronutrients: Cals - 1,874, Carbs - 185, Fats - 59, Proteins - 94, Fiber - 41
WW Green Points: I have no ******' idea.
Fitbit Recorded Sleep: 9'59" YEEHAW!
Exercise: 8,867 steps
Well, I guess I have a whole new set point and a whole new quarantine metabolism ("Q-metabolism") I'm going to have to feed. Again, not as proud of this as I once would've been.
But more importantly, would ya look at those sleep numbers! Ten freakin' hours! In the bed! At a single stretch! So what made the difference? I took my post-op muscle relaxant Rx and slept using my travel pillow, which let me sleep on my back and not my side. Apparently, I'm not a fast learner, but eventually I do get there.
Thanks to those ten hours of sleep, I'm feeling more settled today than yesterday. This afternoon I will go outside and start The Big Spring Cleanup. The surgeon won't let me bend forward yet, but I can certainly rake, and there are tons of twigs I can rake into piles and start picking up next week when I can bend over.
I've been having such good visits lately with friends on Zoom (a lovely ****tail party last night with 40 long-time friends and work colleagues) and on FaceTime (this morning with a dear friend in Europe who's undergoing chemo now for breast cancer). I am so very, very grateful that I switched last fall from an Android phone to an iPhone and that I went to unlimited data with Verizon. I'm really loving my iPhone. Makes everything so compatible with my friends and family, nearly all of whom are also on the i-wagon.
DianeO, your daughter's recent message buoys my spirits. I think she's right that doing something that she's good at and that isn't dangerous this weekend, but still contributive, is just what the doctor ordered! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE your message over on TT. Thank you so very much for your generosity. You are so lovely!
I could blather on, but will give you a break and won't. Later ....
ANN 5'5", AGE 74, HW 235.6 (BMI 39.2), SW 216, GW 150, CW 132, BMI 22
POUNDS LOST: Pre-op -20, M1 -10, M2 -11, M3 -10, M4 -10, M5 -7, M6 -5, M7 -6, M8 -4, M9 -4,
NEXT 10 MOS. -12, TOTAL -100 LBS.
Ann, I suspect the reason you could get together so many people together for an online party is that everyone is quarantining. I bet like you, many if those friends were off exploring the world before the Corona Virus, and you were unlikely to all be available at the same time. My daughter has a group of 10 young women who all did a semester together in Italy. (Remember when? Sigh.) They call themselves the Roma Girls. There are yearly Roma Girl get togethers, and now some Roma Girl weddings. But being a bunch of young women at the beginning of their careers, they haven't all been together at the same time until their zoom meetings these last 2 Sunday's. So weirdly, social distancing, safer at home, has helped us reconnect with far flung friends. Singing in the lifeboats.
Diane your goal is a worthy pursuit. Your daughter really needs you, and the world needs her. You have made actual tangible contributions to the fight through your tireless sewing. Helping your daughter process and go onto to fight another day is another huge contribution. It comes at a heavy price to your heart. It's wise to think about how to help her, as only you can, and also keep yourself sane. And because I live quotes so much, To decide to have a child, is to decide to have your heart walking around outside of your body for the rest of your life.
