So many transitions

I am really pleased with post-op life with my Lap-Band.  Every time I turn around, there's another little victory.  A new accomplishment.

Take for example yesterday:  I put on my Body Bugg, as I love to track numbers.  It keeps track of calorie burn (theoretically), steps taken (quite accurate) and cumulative time spent moving. For some reason it wouldn't activate.  I couldn't figure it out.  What gives?  I just changed the battery and everything!

I figured it out on the drive to work.  I had lost enough weight in my upper arm that the contacts weren't in contact with my skin anymore! I tightened the arm band and it worked.  Last night, in the transition world, I changed the arm band to the NORMAL SIZED ONE!  It was just too tight to use when I first got my bugg last year.  Now I can wear it with room to spare.

Another transition, which I am quite pleased with, is my transition from morbidly obese to obese!  I am no longer morbidly obese!  Take that, fat cells!  Mwaahahahaha!  Technically I am severely obese (BMI 39.6), but when I drop my BMI just a few more points, I'll progress to Just Plain Obese.  Oh yeah, there will be much partying that day!

For reference purposes, here are the classifications of obesity based on BMI:

• Normal:  BMI from 18.5 to 24.9
• Overweight:  BMI from 25 to 29.9
• Obesity, Class I (Just Plain Obese, my technical term):  BMI from 30-34.9
• Obesity, Class II (Severely Obese):  BMI from 35 to 39.9
• Morbidly Obese:  BMI > 40
• Super Morbidly Obese:  BMI > 50

With weight loss this week from starving all day and adding walking to my routine, I have dropped from Morbidly Obese to Severely Obese! (trumpet fanfare interlude)  Obviously, I'm working my way down to normal (BMI less than 25), but that's going to take time.

But to remind myself of how far I have come, my BMI when I started this journey was nearly 47!!!  So I'm down 8 points already.  Off to a very good start.  I just had a bad shudder realizing I was only 3 points away from being super morbidly obese.  Wow.  Can you say, "Reality check?"

Speaking of all these transitions, it seems my stomach muscles have healed well enough for me to relinquish the potty chair.  Sigh.  Back to big girl toilets for me.

A good day

My second day at work was a good one.  My head is still a bit foggy (I blame anesthesia!) and I didn't get a whole lot done, still catching up with everyone.  But I am pleased with how things are going.

I got in my two walks today, skipping the shuttle in the morning and afternoon.  It felt good, actually.  I hate those buses!  And great weather is the perfect incentive to walk.

On the flip side, today I was RAVENOUS!  Twice I was stomach growling hungry.  I drank tons of Crystal Light to offset that, which had me in the bathroom almost once an hour.  Hey, that's a way to get those steps in, right?  Mid-afternoon, I broke down and had a cup of Carb Master yogurt.  I didn't care for the peach flavor, but that didn't stop me from practically licking the cup.

I also popped upstairs to visit the kids in Randy's lab.  That place is a mecca for junk food!  I sat at one lady's desk and she had chocolate dipped coffee beans (OMG!  YUM!).  Someone else said there was carrot cake in the break room.  Then there was a mass exodus of lab members to Ben and Jerry's (just across the street) because it was Free Cone Day. Get me outta there!!!

But I was good and didn't touch a thing.  Ran downstairs to the digestive safety of my office and ate my yogurt.  I resisted temptation and stayed in control of my choices.  And made good choices at that. After the walk to the car, I had only 9700-ish steps on my counter.  So I snuck Missus Tuesday out for a nice walk around the block.  She had a fantastic time, and I exceeded my 10,000 step goal.

I know the exercise is what's pushing me over the top with the Extreme Hunger.  But I'm sure my body will adjust eventually.  Eating a mere 800 calories a day plus 40 minutes of walking makes for some serious confusion for the old bod!  Right now I'm getting by on The Band Rules and pure willpower.  I'm sure I'll adjust but I am kinda looking forward to getting my first fill so I'll have a little help with the hunger pangs.

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle!!!  <-- The old gut says hello!

It's OFFICIAL!

Yes, I am officially less than 50% fat!  I am a mere 49.9%!  

Of course I think I repressed the whole concept that I was over half fat because that's kinda gross.  I just dug through my WLS surgery notebook to see if I could find some of the earlier numbers.  You get a printout every time you are weighed in.  But of course, I cannot find any.  GRRR.  I wanted to see how much higher my fat percentage was when up an additional 40 pounds.  Just for comparison purposes and to further inflate my big, fat ego!

So yesterday I went to the clinic to check in with Jessica.  It was my first foray on the 100 Oaks Shuttle bus and it was pretty good.  Except they put my least favorite shuttle driver ever, Big 'n Greasy, on that route.  After yukking it up with Jessica, I went looking for a ride back to campus.  I saw a bus out there and was like, yippee!  Good timing.  On my way to 100 Oaks, I missed a bus by literally 15 seconds (not running for it--it jiggles my pork), so I was excited I didn't have to wait for the next one.  

The driver was absent, probably taking a leak or something.  I sat there, enjoying the quiet until something caught my eye.  The driver.  Awww, damnit!  Big 'n Greasy.  He annoys me because he 's a chatty Cathy, always babbling on about inane topics.  Dude, shut up and drive.  And of course I was the only person on the bus.  Great.  He prattled on about having a whole hour for lunch while drivers on the campus routes only get 30 minutes.  And how he's working the disaster drill at the airport today.  Blah blah blah.  I just replied with Mmmhmm's and enjoyed being able to look at all the homes and shops on the route back to campus.  

Jessica was pleased with how I am doing and I seem to be "right on track," which is good.  I'm kinda stuck weight loss-wise, but I'm almost due for my next period, which always makes me gain weight beforehand.  So not going up at all is actually good.  I'm also getting used to the work routine again after being spoiled at home for 2 weeks.  I'm sure with the addition of the shuttle-skipping walks, things will start to pick up quite soon.

I am most proud of my blood sugar!  Yesterday my morning sugar was 154, so I had to take 4U of insulin with breakfast.  But, the rest of my readings were well below 150 all day, so I didn't have to take any more.  This morning's was 142, so yeah!  No insulin this morning, either!

I need to fax my week's records to my endocrinologist (a feisty Chinese lady who cracks me up.  When she put me on Byetta a few years back, she said, "If you experience row brood sugar, you can have haf  can sodaaah, 4 ounce joooce, or seeex gummy bear!") and see what she thinks.

Okay, gotta wash dishes, eat breakfast and get ready for work.  I can't wait to see what impact today's walks have on my blood sugar!

40 pounds down!

Yaaaay!  I weighed today and I am down 40.2 pounds since October 3. That was the date of my first consult with Dr. Williams.

Truthfully, I have lost more than that . . . I went up about 5 pounds the week before my liquid diet.  I kinda splurged on my favorite things that week and put on a few.  And then there were the holidays. Yikes.

From the day of my liquid diet (8 days prior to surgery) to today, I am down 15 pounds.  That seems crazy!  But exciting.

Here's my weight loss ticker: (FYI, it will change over time as I update my weight)

Another good day!

Man, I am feeling good.  I mean, I still have some itchiness (enough with the damn rash, already!) and I'm worried about pulling my pork loose from doing too much too fast.  But aside from that, I am quite pleased!

Today I spent more time out in the yard planting veggies and berries in pots. I even hung some bird feeders with fresh seed for the finches and cardinals.  Additionally, I spray painted a boring black plant hook with some cool metallic paint so I can hang another feeder on the front porch.

I also spent the morning revising and updating my food diary.  I saw the The Gastric Band Companion at Lulu.com and was excited!  I had designed my own food journal (using Excel, then Numbers for Mac) and was manually printing the pages onto unlined pages from FranklinCovey.  Thing was I just got tired lugging my planner around all the time.  So it was very easy to not take it, and then eat whatever I wanted because, oops!  Left my journal at home!  I liked Suzette Kroll's book (her website is great too), but there were things I wanted in my own, like tracking blood sugar readings as well.

So I revised my diary and then google-searched my way through uploading my files to Lulu so I could publish my own spiral bound, purse sized (6 x 9") food journal.  LOVE IT!  It is a bit of a pain in the butt to do it with a Mac (note to self:  print, save as postscript, upload the postscript file to Lulu.  Lulu is not compatible with Preview type PDF documents), but I did it.  I made my first one a bit on the short side, just in case I hated it.  I knew how I thought it would look.  But would it actually turn out that way?

My first one turned out perfectly and now I'm down to the last 10 days. I made some minor revisions (typed in the nutritional information in the appendix for some of my favorite, frequently eaten foods, added enough daily pages for 3 months worth of tracking), uploaded it again and ordered a new copy.  By the time I'm finished with my current one, the new one should be here.  YAY!

I'm especially glad I have the diabetes tracking, especially when I get to write down numbers like 116, which was what my blood sugar was before lunch today!  Oh yeah!  And funny-funny:  the color of the cover almost perfectly matches my One Touch Mini meter!!!