Week 8 thru 12 - Life as a Post-Op Bariatric Patient

Read me first, if you are new to my weight loss blog!
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5-7

Week 8 - 12
So as many of you know, October at my house is non-stop activity.  I had maybe 4 days where I could get to the gym if I wanted to... but had NO energy or nmotivation to do so.  I know, I know... some of you might be thinking "girlfriend has time to go to Disneyland 5 times that month, she couldn't bust her butt to work out a bit?  Gym's open til 10 ya know..."  Well, that's where "being human" comes into play.  Being human, I am prone to mistakes.  Mistakes such as "well, I suppose 1 piece 10 pieces of candy won't hurt" or "finally, a day of rest... I think I will!"  Mistakes like getting OUT of the habit of going to the gym frequently.  Mistakes like thinking that I should test my boundaries and eat as much as I can knowing the LapBand will stop me when I am full.  FAIL.   The LapBand is a tool, like Weight Watchers, let's say.  Weight Watchers gives you guidelines and rules and tools to use to help you lose weight.  But it's up to you to actually do the program correctly.  Same with the Lap Band.  You CAN fail if you put your mind to it.  You can overeat and stretch out the top of your stomach like you willingly did to the bottom of your stomach.  You can eat ice cream and consider that a liquid, like water, therefore you are still hungry for real food.  You can not exercise and watch your weight loss go from 20 pounds lost per month to maybe 5 pounds per month.

So, imagine my whole month - 5 weeks of not going to the gym, eating chocolate and halloween candy, and going to how many birthday parties with cake, and even throwing one of my own, complete with ME cooking a cake, cupcakes, cream cheese dips, artichoke dips, chips and dips... oh my!  What did that do to me?  Especially since I did NOT get a band tightening during week 10 like I probably should have.  The doc was on the fence... he would have tightened it if I asked, but I was having a problem keeping foods down (turns out it was my chewing issue, not necessarily what I was eating because it was all good healthy stuff) so I elected to go without the tightening.  Besides, I knew that I was having a party in 48 hours and the first 48 hours after a tightening is rather restricting .... liquids only!

So after almost a month of not seeing the inside of the gym, I went yesterday for a weigh-in.  Well the great news is that I hit my post-partum weight low from Fall of 2006.  I'm actually rather excited about it because my friends all commented that I looked great after the baby weight fell off because I had essentially dropped 105 pounds (60 of me, 45 of baby even though I gained those 45 during losing the 60... it's weird math, sorry)!  Anyway, now at the end of 12 weeks post-op, it's a total of 35 pounds lost but since my last blog post in mid-september, meaning I lost those 7 pounds in September after my tighening, then stayed flat for October.  I'm excited because even after all the crap I ate, I didn't gain anything!  Averaging the 35 pounds over the 12 weeks, that's 3 pounds a week, which is pretty awesome for a diet and/or lifestyle change, right?!

I'm still so happy my "tool" (aka LapBand from the oBand Surgery Center) is still working for me regardless of whether or not I help it work or follow the rules.  I'm going to "work it" in November and lose 10 pounds.  Really!  I'm going to, darn it!  I'm also going to start blogging my diet.  It will hold me accountable for my food consumption.  I don't want to have to admit eating a bag of chips and cheese dip!!  But I'll start tomorrow. 


photo credit:  google images