These Are Not My Pants (or are they?)

I really didn't have a grasp of how much weight I've lost until I held these jeans up for a picture.  I used to wear these all the time.  They are a size 28 from Lane Bryant.  The pants I currently wear are a 20, though I think I might be able to wear an 18.  I've now lost 65 lbs.  Physically, I feel better though I don't feel like I've lost that much weight.  I notice that I fit better in tight places (like the area by my washer/dryer or the driver's seat of my car when my husband has the seat pushed all the way up.)

I haven't been to Curves in a few weeks.  I injured my shoulder and am now going to physical therapy.  My diagnosis is internal rotation tendonitis.  I'll be going 3 days a week for a month and hopefully that'll relive the swelling, get rid of the pain and strengthen my shoulder.  Since I can't take NSAIDS, they are going to try a couple topical medications.

I had to give a persuasive speech for class last week.  I chose the topic, "Bariatric Surgery - It's Not The Easy Way Out."  I think I did very well with it, used very convincing statistics and people were impressed with before/after pictures.  Especially the ones where I and a friend lost a lot of weight and then regained it all back.  I got an A on the speech! 

In my last blog entry, I promised a couple product reviews.  I've been using Celebrate Vitamins Grape Flavor.  I've found that I can tolerate them a lot better than the Bariatric Advantage.  I absolutely love the Celebrate Hot Cocoa Calcium.  It's a little gritty but it's delicious. 

I recently switched from a Blackberry to a Droid 2.  I'm using a couple of applications that have made life as a bariatric surgery patient so much easier.  One is Drinking Water.  It reminds me throughout the day to drink my water.  The other is Med Minder.  I put my meds and vitamins in and it'll remind me at points throughout the day (of my choosing) when I'm supposed to take them.  I haven't missed any since I started using it, I highly recommend it!

It's Been A Long Week

It's been a very long week... actually a long couple of weeks.  I just haven't had time to post an update, but here it is.  Last week started with me moping about not losing any weight.  I figured that it might have something to do with exercising so much but not increasing my calorie intake.  I typically get between 600-800 calories.  I decided to up my calories on the days that I work out to see if it would work.  Before I could do that, though, a tragedy struck my family.

See the baby girl in this photo?  She belongs to my cousin.  I blocked out her face to protect her identity, but she is the most gorgeous little angel I've ever seen.  She was born Wednesday afternoon.  They immediately noticed something was wrong and flew her to St Louis for emergency surgery.  They found that there was nothing they could do to save her, so they sent her back home to spend her last hours with her parents.  They originally gave her less than 24 hours.  She was a fighter, though, and they bumped it up to 72 hours.  Once again, she proved them wrong.  Sadly, she lost her battle at only 73 hours old.  I'm not sure how much into detail I've went before, but I am a social work major and my plans are to work in perinatal hospice.  I am already the executive director of a nonprofit organization that provides support and services to families who have lost a baby.  I've lost a baby myself.  My cousin asked me to handle all of the arrangements, so I did.  This precious little angel was laid to rest this past Tuesday.

If that wasn't enough to deal with, I also had jury duty.  It was a very interesting process.  Fortunately my time was up before the baby's funeral.  I did face a problem with food and drinks.  They allowed me to drink whenever I needed to, but food provided a bigger challenge.  Do you know how hard it is to find a nonperishable food for the soft diet that is sleeve friendly and will fit in your purse?  It's one thing if I could have protein bars, but I'm still 2 weeks away from that.  So I took nothing.  And when I got home, I ate an entire Starkist Lunch Kit!  I was starving, I actually felt stomach hunger.  It filled me up and I felt satisfied.  There's been other things going on the past couple weeks.  Meeting with my kids' school, my mom had surgery today and I was also inducted into an Honor Society at my college today (yeah, this is my second honor society and I'm kind of a nerd I guess!)  I have not been to Curves since Wednesday of last week and I've lost *drumroll please* ....................... 5 pounds!!  I'm now down to 225.  It's hardly believable, that's 61 lbs total.  Amazing.

I have some more things to write about - I've tried some new vitamins, things like that.  Look for those in the next post!  Right now, I'm going to go figure out what's for dinner.  Maybe I'll actually sit down and breathe.