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About this blog

28 yrs old and finally discovering my potential

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Day 6 Post Op.... Where Have I Been?!

Well today marks day six. Six whole days since I've had my lap band installed ::hehe:: Let me start from surgery until today to catch y'all up!   Day of Surgery: Woke up, got to the surgery center at approximately 6am. The nurses and staff were wonderful - all very caring and good at their jobs (I don't even have a bruise from the IV in my hand!) I spoke with Dr. Nirmul, my surgeon - funny guy, very nice and happy to answer questions and Dr. Opara, my anesthesiologist - whom my mother decided to call Dr. Oprah just for giggles <enter eye roll here> Amazing how at 28 years old my mom can still embarrass me haha But I love her and she was worrying about me.   I was in surgery by 7am and was on my way home, in the car, calling my boss to tell her I was out of surgery by 10:30am. I went home and rested pleasantly for a few hours before all H3LL broke loose at my parents house. I wont go into details, simply because it's too exhausting to discuss. All I will say is I didn't get much sleep the day of surgery and had plenty of emotional/mental stress. Yay siblings!   Days 2 and 3: Pretty uneventful - drank chicken broth and ate sugar free popscicles - slept on and off throughout the days.   Day 3 afternoon: went home from parents house and showered, changed, and relaxed. Ate some chicken broth/tomato soup.   Day 4: Hungry. Stayed busy but hungry. But sadly used to being hungry. No more green eyes of jealousy when people eat in front of me.   Day 5: First day back at work and OMG - I think I'm going to die from the hunger. Pain in my neck Trapezius (shrug muscle), use a heating pad and try to massage it throughout the day. I am verging on *grumpy*. I stop and get frozen yogurt for dinner and eat about a 1/4 of it. The hunger has dissipated and I'm back to being happy.   Day 6: Self promoted to the mushie stage, was NOT going to have another miserable day like yesterday. Stopped by Tacobell -because I only really decided to go mushies today while making my 35 minute drive to work- and got two sides of Pintos and Cheese. Sooo happy, I was singing about then in the parking lot of work. Ate those for breakfast/lunch. Got a Pineapple Mango smoothie from McDs and Banana/Blueberry oat meal for lunch. I'm about half way thru the smoothie and ate/will eat all of the oatmeal by the time I go home tonight. MUCH happier day. Still have Trap pain, took some GasX Stripes to try and kill it but I don't find them to be all that helpful. Probably just some referred pain from my diaphram. Not much I can do about that except keep using the heating pads and suffer through it. I'm hoping it will be gone soon though, it is distracting.   Well that catches you up to the present. I was excited this morning for my first NSV (non scale victory) I put on a size 38 DDD bra - normally wear a 40 DDD, and those were tight - and am happy to report that this bra is not hurting at all I will say that perhaps the DDD isn't sufficient to hold the girls if I go down to a 38 band but It's just nice to know that the 38 bras fit again
BikiniBodby30

BikiniBodby30

0
 

Let The Countdown Begin!! T Minus 62.5 Hours

Hello All   As you can probably guess, I'm a little over 2 days away from my surgery. I'm very excited to share that I have lost a total of 13lbs on my pre op diet with 2 days left! The pre op diet has been mostly learning how to eat sparingly and making the right choices. I have experimented with several different kinds of protein drinks, my absolute favorite is ISOPURE. I picked it up at Hi-Health here in AZ. Not cheap, $4 a bottle but it has 40 grams of protein and I can sip on it throughout the day. Much better than the milky type shakes. Those are sickeningly sweet to me. I have had every experience from birthday parties to now Father's Day. Believe me, eating less in a party environment is hard. I showed monumental will power yesterday, I made brownies, from scratch at home for my Dad. I was told they were to die for. If I can make it through not tasting that, and chocolate is my weakness (and cheese), then I can make it through anything. I am just down to the next few days and I'm sure they will fly by.   I don't know if other people have felt this way or not but I'm just kind of indifferent about the whole thing. I'm excited, yes, but not like I think I should be. I'm not nervous. I had my tonsils out only 9 months ago, again outpatient, without any complications. I don't like needles but I can tolerate them. I can give blood without any real problems. And I've had two tattoos done so I'm not averse to pain. I think I'll be ok.   I'm not even all that excited about the 13lbs that I've lost. All I can think of is, "this is nothing! Only 13 small little pounds. I need to lose 13 times that!" But I guess I'm doing good on this. I have to remind myself that when I did Weight Watchers (WW), it took me 3 weeks to achieve a 13lb loss, sometimes more. Ang this has only been 12 days. That's a pound a day! I like those numbers.   On another note, I've been thinking about what I want to name my band. Any Suggestions?
BikiniBodby30

BikiniBodby30

4
 

Upset, For Nothing

Today, I've experienced emotion similar to that of PMS. I feel like I'm extra sensitive today, almost to the point that I could cry over a simple coaching. Something that any other time, I'd take with a grain of salt and continue on with my day. So why am I so thin skinned? I read about others experiencing similar emotional rollercoasters on their pre op diets. I wonder what causes this and PRAY PRAY PRAY that this is no a preview of what's to come.   If anyone has any advice or guidance regarding their pre op diet and subsequent emotional (almost) meltdowns, I would greatly appreciate the feed back.   Thanks
BikiniBodby30

BikiniBodby30

3
 

End Of First Weekend On Pre Op Diet

Ok, so the first weekend went much better than I thought it would. Especially considering all of the hurdles I needed to jump to get to Monday. I NEVER thought I would look forward to the work week like I did this past weekend.   Friday night, I went home and made chicken breast with green beans. Very simple but still good. My roommates were home so we watched "The Woman in Black", good movie - creepy but good.   Saturday, I woke up and hung out for a bit before deciding to go to the gym. Brief aside, I've been a member of this gym for oh 2 plus years(?) and have never gone with any real consistancy. My cousin was interested in joining so the front desk guy took us to an office where he looked me up and asked, "How can we get you to come in more often?" Now, outrightly this is not a pushy question. This is their job, I know, I recognize, I understand. But I've also heard it a hundred million times over the many years I have been struggling with my weight and regularly with the three different personal trainers I've had in the past ten years. So I told him the truth, "Nothing. You guys can't do anything to get me in here more often. This is something that I'm commiting to and I need to do on my own." He didn't like that answer very much. ::shrug:: oh well. My cousin and I then had a very enjoyable 45 minutes swimming laps in the pool.   After the gym on Saturday, I went to my friend's daughter's 3rd birthday party. Complete with hot, delicious pizza and sinfully sweet cake. These are among my favorite things to devour but I was strong, I abstained. ::pats self on the back:: I left promptly after cake was served and presents opened - no sense in torturing myself by being around things I cannot have. I kept busy the rest of the evening to ensure no boredom hunger/eating.   Sunday was best friend day - self explainatory. We met for breakfast, I had an egg white (crepe, which, I didn't know was a crepe until it was served) and I was unable to remove it without destroying my meal so I guess I cheated. I had a 2 egg white omlet with bell pepper, spinach, and avocado wrapped in a crepe, a side of fruit and two turkey sausage patties. I know this seems like a lot of food, and it probably will be once I get banded; but for now, it was delicious and healthy. Yay Me! I made it through my first restuarant meal with only the smallest of deviance.   Sunday afternoon was my niece's 11th birthday party, again with no food that I could munch on. Sub sandwiches, chips and dip, cake and ice cream. Again, I am left sitting on the side lines, unable to indulge even the smallest bit because I'm going to make certain that my liver is the smallest and least fat laiden as possible so I can have a healthy, uncomplicated, grossly successful surgery. But I digress, after the party. My friend and I left to pick up her wedding dress - so much fun for realsies - but first we stop for a drink at Sonic. Hmm, what to get here? I can't have carbonation... I opt for a diet cherry limeade. Probably still has a small amound of carbonation but not a whole lot and it is calorie free. I decide that this is truly the best option for me at Sonic and realize that Sonic may be on my X list moving forward. After doing wedding related stuff, we ended Best Friend time at Yogurtini, I had cookies n cream yogurt, only 110/serving. Only later did I realize, that I had about 3 servings Guess I'll need to be more careful about that in the future.   My day, although full was not over yet. I managed to get a phone call that sent me reeling. I'm talking anger so white hot that you could spit fire, if only the obsenities would stop spewing from your mouth. Needless to say I was emotional... which as I've stated before, emotions lead to eating for me. Before I walked into the kitchen, I made a conscious decision to go to the gym. Thank goodness I did, it took every bit of 25 minutes on the treadmill before the evil was leached out of me. After my 30 minute treadmill jaunt, I decided to work out my arms. Clearly, I have not done this in some time because after 3 sets of 12 reps using itty bitty 5lbs weigths, my triceps are sore today. I'll need to make sure that I work out with weights more regularly and ease into it so I don't hurt myself.   The good news is, after all this the hunger from the inital few days has subsided. I still get hungry but I'm learning to ignore it now. Food still smells amazing (dirty look at my co-worker who just made popcorn ) But it's nothing that can't be managed with a piece of minty fresh gum.   Thank you everyone for your encouragement, I know this is a tough journey and I'm glad that I found this site.
BikiniBodby30

BikiniBodby30

0
 

Measurement On Day One Of Pre Op Diet

This is going to be short and sweet. Everyone keeps on saying how they have NSV (non scale victories) and can feel their clothes getting looser or falling off completely and while those are fabulous victories, I'm a numbers girl. So here I am baring it all - the weight was pretty hard to disclose to begin with but now I'm going to share my measurements. My hopes are to be able to document how steadily I lose these inches (hopefully many and quickly). I did take "before" pictures last night but have not had an opportunity to upload them yet, those will come later.   So on to the public mortification   All in Inches Left Side Right Side Bicep 18.5 17.5 Fore Arm 13.5 12.75 Thigh 35.5 34 Calf 22.5 21.5   All around   Hips 60 Waist 47.5 Chest 44.5 Boobs 49.5 Neck 14   Sizes 22 pants (snug but 24 are very loose) 18/20 top & XXL 40/42 DDD   This is where I start, I'm not proud of it but I look forward to seeing the numbers come down.
BikiniBodby30

BikiniBodby30

1
 

Day One Pre Op Diet

End of day one and....... Yeah, I'm hungry. I don't expect this to be easy. And the weird part - or maybe not - is that I wasn't all that starving during the day but as soon as I got home, I ate a chicken breast for dinner and a protein shake blended with skim milk and strawberries a little later. Perhaps this is the "head hunger" all of the other bandsters are talking about. I will need to be aware of this so I don't fall victim to it's wiles. In other news, I'm going to be taking my "Before" pictures and measurements tonight. Oh and I have a headache too - stupid food cravings.
BikiniBodby30

BikiniBodby30

2
 

Grrr

Ok, so I've had my first "Grrr" moment today.... I was sitting with my manager at work and I mentioned that I am starting my pre op diet tomorrow. She already knows that I am having the surgery due to the fact that I needed her approval for time off etc. So anyways, her response after a couple questions about the surgery was "You better not be eating chocolate; otherwise I may have to say something" Which, Ok, fine, please do say something but last time I checked, this is MY journey. I don't see her policing every other person on the team that may be on a diet   Anyway - just had to rant. My first experience with people criticizing my every bite.
BikiniBodby30

BikiniBodby30

2
 

Surgeon Consultation

Today I had the consultation with my surgeon, Dr. Gowen Nirmul. He seems friendly enough and took time to answer my questions thoroughly before our 15 minute time slot was up. I was slightly concerned that the team wanted me to start my pre op diet only 2 weeks before surgery since the guidelines I was given indicated 3 weeks for those that were over 50 BMI. Dr. Nirmul assured me that since I was not very far over the 50 point mark, two weeks would be more than sufficient. Whew!   True Results gave me plenty more reading material along with my Success Kit. As with before, the team is a wealth of information and ever so patient with the multitude of questions that I ask.   Surgery is set for June 21st.   Pre Op diet starts June 7th. One more day of 'normal' food before the two weeks of Hell On Earth   Wish me Luck!
BikiniBodby30

BikiniBodby30

3
 

Entering Into The Unknown

Welcome to Peeling Off the Layers!   This is my blog about my weight loss journey with the help of the LapBand. I have been on this website for several days prior to posting anything and have gained so much knowledge and inspiration from my fellow bandsters. I hope this blog can be as motivational and encouraging as those I have read.   A little bit about me, I have struggled with my weight for the last 18-20 years - yes, since I was eight or ten years old. I discovered early on, much like my counterparts, that I am an emotional eater. If I'm happy, I eat. Sad, donuts are there to comfort me. Angry?! There's a food for that too. Couple this with the fact that I've also dealt with depression for 8 years and its no wonder that I'm a good candidate for LapBand!   Understanding and recognizing that I use food as a crutch was the first step on my journey. You know what they say, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. It's more difficult to realize this when the emotions are not always bad... Now that I've come to terms with this aspect of my addiction I can find other, more healthy ways to deal with my emotions.   I began my LapBand journey with a certain other facility that is widely know here in AZ for offering the LapBand. After their seminar and financial consultation, I was told my insurance would cover it but I would need to fork over an additional $4k. This was 2 years ago, which at that time - and honestly now, $4k is not a feasible option. I heard a radio ad for True Results with payment options which naturally peaked my interest. I hesitate to admit that I was in the drive thru for Chik-fil-A at the time of hearing this... Ha Ha.   I contacted the True Results team in Scottsdale, AZ and set up my initial consultation. Cari Green, the patient advocate was phenomenal. She walked me thru the procedure and, having already contacted my insurance company, was able to go over approximately what it would cost out of pocket before surgery. The monetary difference was astounding! I would only have to pay my In Network deductible and could set up payment options with the surgeon, etc.!   Needless to say, with the financial burden out of the way, I underwent the necessary testing for heart and lungs THAT DAY! This all started on January 25, 2012.   I made the decision at the time to tell my parents, my greatest supporters, that I was going to try for the LapBand. After some initial hestitation, they were on board and became my biggest cheerleaders.   My insurance required that I have four monthly visits with the True Results team, have a proven history of obesity greater than 40 BMI for 2 years, complete the Psych Eval and Blood work. After I jumped through all the necessary hoops and the paperwork was submitted, I got approved!   Even before True Results had the opportunity to call me, my Bariatric Nurse Courtney from the insurance company called to congratulate me I have opted to participate in their support program through the insurance company as well in order to have just that much more accountability.   I know this was super long and I apologize, it was such a long time coming from January until June. In order to understand my blog, I felt the need to start from the beginning. I promise the coming entries will not be as long!
BikiniBodby30

BikiniBodby30

2
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