karen_marie

Been awhile since I've come and posted anything, but realized I should share that on July 21st I ran my very first half marathon! And did it even faster than I was hoping!! 2:53:50 for 13.1 miles  The following week, I had a follow up appointment with my surgeon and I got a pic of me and Dr. Wallace while wearing my finisher medal. He was super excited! Now I'm featured on their website and Facebook page, and I even raised my hand to come in and speak to prospective patients at his info sessions about my experience. Right now I'm at 173.2, down from a HW of 300. First goal is to hit 160lbs, then I think my final weight goal will be somewhere around 140lbs. Excited for my next running challenge at the Disney Princess Half Marathon this upcoming February. I'll be doing the Fairytale Challenge - run a 10k on day one, then run a half marathon on day 2. Who knows, maybe I'll plan to do my first full marathon in late 2019!

Been awhile since I've come and posted anything, but realized I should share that on July 21st I ran my very first half marathon! And did it even faster than I was hoping!! 2:53:50 for 13.1 miles  The following week, I had a follow up appointment with my surgeon and I got a pic of me and Dr. Wallace while wearing my finisher medal. He was super excited! Now I'm featured on their website and Facebook page, and I even raised my hand to come in and speak to prospective patients at his info sessions about my experience. Right now I'm at 173.2, down from a HW of 300. First goal is to hit 160lbs, then I think my final weight goal will be somewhere around 140lbs. Excited for my next running challenge at the Disney Princess Half Marathon this upcoming February. I'll be doing the Fairytale Challenge - run a 10k on day one, then run a half marathon on day 2. Who knows, maybe I'll plan to do my first full marathon in late 2019!

Been awhile since I've come and posted anything, but realized I should share that on July 21st I ran my very first half marathon! And did it even faster than I was hoping!! 2:53:50 for 13.1 miles  The following week, I had a follow up appointment with my surgeon and I got a pic of me and Dr. Wallace while wearing my finisher medal. He was super excited! Now I'm featured on their website and Facebook page, and I even raised my hand to come in and speak to prospective patients at his info sessions about my experience. Right now I'm at 173.2, down from a HW of 300. First goal is to hit 160lbs, then I think my final weight goal will be somewhere around 140lbs. Excited for my next running challenge at the Disney Princess Half Marathon this upcoming February. I'll be doing the Fairytale Challenge - run a 10k on day one, then run a half marathon on day 2. Who knows, maybe I'll plan to do my first full marathon in late 2019!

As of last Friday, I dropped back into Onderland!!! Can't believe it! Last time my weight started with a one was at least 10-15yrs ago. Pic from this Saturday with my hubby and his mom at our house warming party. Other pic is me at my heaviest last summer. The transformation blows me away! As a reward for hitting this big milestone, I'll be signing up for a horseback trail ride - the first one I've been able to do in over a decade due to weight restrictions. I'm sooo excited!! I'm also training for my first half marathon - ran my first 10k on Sunday  It's incredible what I'm able to do now, and everyday I'm thankful for this amazing tool that is helping me realize some big dreams.

As of last Friday, I dropped back into Onderland!!! Can't believe it! Last time my weight started with a one was at least 10-15yrs ago. Pic from this Saturday with my hubby and his mom at our house warming party. Other pic is me at my heaviest last summer. The transformation blows me away! As a reward for hitting this big milestone, I'll be signing up for a horseback trail ride - the first one I've been able to do in over a decade due to weight restrictions. I'm sooo excited!! I'm also training for my first half marathon - ran my first 10k on Sunday  It's incredible what I'm able to do now, and everyday I'm thankful for this amazing tool that is helping me realize some big dreams.

As of last Friday, I dropped back into Onderland!!! Can't believe it! Last time my weight started with a one was at least 10-15yrs ago. Pic from this Saturday with my hubby and his mom at our house warming party. Other pic is me at my heaviest last summer. The transformation blows me away! As a reward for hitting this big milestone, I'll be signing up for a horseback trail ride - the first one I've been able to do in over a decade due to weight restrictions. I'm sooo excited!! I'm also training for my first half marathon - ran my first 10k on Sunday  It's incredible what I'm able to do now, and everyday I'm thankful for this amazing tool that is helping me realize some big dreams.

Eager to post some photographic evidence of my progress so far!  This week will mark the beginning of my fifth month post-op.  The before photos I weighed in at 280.1 the night before my surgery.  The after photos were taken today at my current weight, 229.8.  
Some new NSVs include being a size 0 in Torrid dresses and finding my newly purchased size 18s are getting looser and looser.  

After a week of keeping my mind on the goal, I got down from 196.2lbs to 193.9lbs. I am soo happy. I have not words to describe it. It gave my a renewed hope that I can come down a bit more. I personally don't like being so close to the 200lbs because it is soo easy to get back up to that amount. 
This weekend, I spent time looking at my older workout videos and that the one that gets me is the pull up. My first time, I did 3 and 1/2. I struggled soo much to do that. Then the next week, I was doing 6 and I was not struggling as much. It just reminded how far I had come.
Sometimes we focus on the finish line soo much, we do not take time to look back and see how far we have come from the starting line. I have come to the conclusion that I may not get to my weight goal due to my love of weight lifting and strength training but I will take being able to do a pull up and one day hopefully as push up any time. 

I'm doing so well on the new plant-based way of eating! It's been 1 month since my final diet visit, where I found out I had gained about four pounds since my previous visit in November. That meant I had only lost 3 pounds overall from March-December 2017. Ugh, sad trombone. However, in the last 3 weeks of eating a plant-based diet I've lost 13 pounds from my December visit weight! And that includes Christmas and a vacation! So definitely not a "perfect" month by any means. I'm really hoping this way of eating will support my goal of reaching and maintaining 100% of excess weight lost. 

At my WI this past Friday, I surpassed 60 lb total loss! That's 20% of my body weight from my highest weight this summer  I lost 20ish lbs before surgery, and another 40ish lbs since surgery. Happy to keep moving onward and DOWNward! 

At my WI this past Friday, I surpassed 60 lb total loss! That's 20% of my body weight from my highest weight this summer  I lost 20ish lbs before surgery, and another 40ish lbs since surgery. Happy to keep moving onward and DOWNward! 

At my WI this past Friday, I surpassed 60 lb total loss! That's 20% of my body weight from my highest weight this summer  I lost 20ish lbs before surgery, and another 40ish lbs since surgery. Happy to keep moving onward and DOWNward! 

2 month post-op check in
Highest weight: 300 (this summer)
Surgery weight: 279.4
Current weight: 244.4
Lost since surgery: 35 lbs
Total lost overall: 55.6 lbs
Those numbers are so hard to believe...that's an average of -17.5 a month, or -4.375 a week. Overall I'm doing AWESOME with the losses after surgery. My biggest hurdle right now is that there are some foods I can eat again without issue (i.e. taco dip and tostito chips). And I think my loss this week shows that (only -2.2, which is the least I've lost in a week so far). So I will need to be vigilant about what I'm eating and really do my best to track what I'm having. It's also possible that I may be edging into my first stall, so I'll just have to stick to the plan and wait it out. I've also started up my birth control pills yesterday, so that may affect my weight loss a little bit while my body adjusts to the hormones again. So eating right is DOUBLY important this upcoming month!
I've been drinking the premier protein shakes more lately, just because it's fast and easy for breakfast. But I think it's a good thing, because it has half of my suggested minimum daily protein in that one shake. I'm finally making a dent in the two boxes I bought at Costco before surgery, so I think once I'm low I'll go pick up another box or 2. Chocolate again for sure, then maybe try something other than bananas & cream.
Last weekend, my sister Nikki and I went to some thrift stores and I got some new clothes I mostly got cardigans, since those will be easy to wear for a long time as I keep losing. But I also got a few other random things, including this super cute spring green jacket that will be awesome to wear in early spring for work! Nikki was more than happy to help look for stuff for me, since she knows that they'll all be handed down to her once they're too big for me and she starts losing weight after her surgery lol. She actually got her PPO card in the mail yesterday, so she finished her info packet and is mailing it to Kane Center today. Looking back, the one thing I didn't try on and buy were smaller pants....bit of an oversight, as I keep having to pull my pants up lol but I got a little caught up in being able to fit into smaller sizes in the tops, and I never made it to the pants section haha. I'll have to go again after Christmas to pick up some pants. 
Excited to take more progress pics tonight when I get home from work! I've decided to take them every month out from surgery so I can watch the progression  

Seeing how well I've done from the surgery so far has convinced my sister to move forward and start the process for RNY as well  She's even heavier than my highest weight, and has more health issues than I do/did, so I know this will be a life changing journey for her. Soo excited for her journey, let alone mine! hahaha I'm going to my doc's free seminar again with her in a few weeks to be there for moral support. I've always said whatever she chose to do was fine, this surgery isn't for everyone. But I'm really glad that she wants to do it to better her health. Proud big sister over here 

I finally got my last weight loss reward. I have a fur for the winter to combat being cold all the time. I can't begin to express how much joy my new car and wardrobe bring me. I would have never comfortably fit into a sports car before losing weight, and it is nice to be able to wear a fur without being the size of an actual bear.

Hi, my name is Karen and I had my bypass surgery on October 11th 2017. I had been researching various kinds of weight loss surgery for a while, first in the UK where I was born and lived until 7 years ago, and then in the US. I first looked at the band back in 2008 but the process in the UK was long and expensive and my bariatric surgeon was very unfriendly and very conceited. I had to put things on hold when we decided to make the move to the US and it took some time to get life set up here. In 2013 I broke my knee - the tibial plateau in particular, and was not allowed to weight bear for nearly 12 weeks. Of course, I packed on more pounds during that time and even worse, the rehabilitation from that injury was made significantly harder by being morbidly obese. In 2015 I decided that I had had enough and I contacted a surgeon in the local area. I started the process to get approved by insurance and part of that was a six month supervised diet. During that time I lost over 50 lbs and the nutritionist encouraged me to carry on losing by myself without the surgery. That worked for a while, but stress and going back to work meant a return to my old habits and the weight soon came back. Before I could put all of those 50 lbs back on, I got back in contact with my surgeon as I had decided that I really could not do this on my own. Insurance accepted my six months supervised weight loss from the previous attempt so all I had to do was get the psych evaluation done again plus an EGD. That surprisingly took way longer than I imagined since the surgeon's office managed to mess up both appointments plus leave me out of pocket for the psych eval. Anyway, my papers finally got submitted this September, insurance approved me within 4 days and surgery took place just over six weeks ago. I am down 31 lbs from my highest weight and 23 lbs from my surgery weight and feeling so much better already. My now arthritic knee (from the break) is benefiting from the weight loss and clothes that had once again become too tight to wear are now fitting nicely again. It's early days but I am happy with how things are going!

So I'm almost done with the blended/pureed part of my diet progression back to solids. Thankfully, I really haven't needed to blend much of anything. As long as I stick to the foods I'm allowed to have during this 2wk phase, and chew to it's basically pureed before I swallow, I've had no issues. MUCH more palatable than actually blending everything up lol. Looking forward to the soft foods starting this weekend! I'll still be chewing to a pulp before swallowing (basically forever on that), but at least I can start to introduce more foods into my diet again. REALLY looking forward to some fish, been soooo long!

After many years of losing myself to weight loss and gain, many months of planning, eating better, Dr's appointments and seminars, and many many days of worrying, the time has finally come.  I'm scheduled to get to the hospital today at 12:00.  Everyone warns you about nausea after the surgery but nobody warns you about it before...the anticipation is driving me insane! I have a little tote packed with earplugs, headphones, comfy pjs (just in case), my unflavored protein, and lots of fidget toys.   I know this is going to be the start of something great for me but I might go crazy waiting!  I'm trying to stay as busy as possible but my entire body knows something big is looming and it's in overdrive.  See you all on the other side! 

I must be losing my mind... I got approved for surgery, but found out my surgeon is on vacation for the next couple weeks so I cannot see him until Dec 6th. That is when I will schedule surgery. I asked if she knew aprox when the surgery will be, and she told me he may not be able to operate until after the first of the year depending on his schedule... this has me so bummed that I am not even celebrating that I got approved... WTC is wrong with me??

Had my surgery on Friday 10/27 afternoon. I was doing so well in recovery that they released me after only one night in the hospital  I've been super fortunate so far, only needing one pain pill in the hospital, and right now just taking liquid ibuprofen. I've been burping since the hospital, but today was my first day at home with protein shakes and finally started passing gas - yay! lol Most of my discomfort is from soreness from the surgery and gas pressure. No issues getting my protein shakes in and keeping them down. All of my docs were super happy with my recovery, and my surgeon said the procedure went perfectly. Here's to the start of my new life!

Down 9.6lbs a week out from surgery! That's INSANE. I'll take the crazy losses while I can get them lol

Down 9.6lbs a week out from surgery! That's INSANE. I'll take the crazy losses while I can get them lol

Had my surgery on Friday 10/27 afternoon. I was doing so well in recovery that they released me after only one night in the hospital  I've been super fortunate so far, only needing one pain pill in the hospital, and right now just taking liquid ibuprofen. I've been burping since the hospital, but today was my first day at home with protein shakes and finally started passing gas - yay! lol Most of my discomfort is from soreness from the surgery and gas pressure. No issues getting my protein shakes in and keeping them down. All of my docs were super happy with my recovery, and my surgeon said the procedure went perfectly. Here's to the start of my new life!

Had my surgery on Friday 10/27 afternoon. I was doing so well in recovery that they released me after only one night in the hospital  I've been super fortunate so far, only needing one pain pill in the hospital, and right now just taking liquid ibuprofen. I've been burping since the hospital, but today was my first day at home with protein shakes and finally started passing gas - yay! lol Most of my discomfort is from soreness from the surgery and gas pressure. No issues getting my protein shakes in and keeping them down. All of my docs were super happy with my recovery, and my surgeon said the procedure went perfectly. Here's to the start of my new life!

Had my surgery on Friday 10/27 afternoon. I was doing so well in recovery that they released me after only one night in the hospital  I've been super fortunate so far, only needing one pain pill in the hospital, and right now just taking liquid ibuprofen. I've been burping since the hospital, but today was my first day at home with protein shakes and finally started passing gas - yay! lol Most of my discomfort is from soreness from the surgery and gas pressure. No issues getting my protein shakes in and keeping them down. All of my docs were super happy with my recovery, and my surgeon said the procedure went perfectly. Here's to the start of my new life!