Has it really been THAT long?

So, since I posted last I had a BEAUTIFUL baby girl.  She is amazing and adorable and I love her dearly. Isn't she gorgeous?!?!

Miss Embry Aaryn

I am now 4.5 months post partum and I'm doing well on my weight loss.  I'm still not quite back to where I was before I got pregnant, but I'm getting there.  At my first weigh-in 2 weeks after the baby, I had gained 32 pounds.  So, now 4 months after that I'm back within 9 pounds of where I was before the pregnancy.  I still haven't started exercising regularly.  I AM nursing and chasing three children, 3 & under.  That counts right?  No, but seriously, I do want to start working out.  I just have to find the time when I'm not cleaning something, diapering someone, feeding someone, or napping.  It's hard work being a mom of three.  I miss riding my bike both indoors and out.  I guess I need to just get down in the basement, jump on my stationary recumbent bike and peddle those pounds away!

I didn't have many problems with the lap band and my pregnancy.  My bariatric docs took out all of my saline and I was able to eat a normal diet full of all the things a pregnant woman wants.  ALL OF IT.  Good or bad, I still maintain that I only had gained 30 pounds after I gave birth.  Granted with my other two I weighed less after giving birth than I did before getting pregnant, but this was #3. I get a little slack.  I had a bit of site soreness right where the port is as I got bigger, further along into the pregnancy.  At one point you could almost see the port under the skin.  It gave me and my husband the heebie geebies to touch it.  LOL!  Other than that I had no problem.  We did have a little issue filling after the baby.  My doc told me to come in 2 weeks after having her and get refilled.  I still had quite a bit of fat around the port, and the nurse practitioner had a hard time finding it.  We had to have a second NP come in and do the fill... but it eventually got done. 

Currently I am back to 6.1 ccs of fill.  It's working well.  I'm easily satiated and I'm comfortable.  I consume around 1 cup of food per meal.  Give or take.  Once in a while I do get "stuck" or I have what they call "first bite syndrome" (where the pouch seems to close up and not allow food to pass - usually followed by vomiting), but I'm learning to deal with it and I'm not feeling starved or too hungry.  I eat three meals a day and maybe one snack when I need it.  I talked to the dietitian at my last fill appointment and she reminded me that high protein snacks like Baby Bell Light cheese, string cheese, wheat thins, and other high bulk, low fat, low cal foods are good snacks.  They keep you from grazing and yet satisfy a craving. I also budget each day for a sweet at night.  My favorite is sugar free chocolate pudding with whipped cream and pecans.  Just enough to kill the craving. 

I've also discovered the wonders of instant espresso!!!  God be praised for instant espresso!  It's wonderful.  I put a heaping teaspoon in my protein shakes in the morning and I'm set.  Not only am I satisfied, and I stay that way until lunch time, but I get some caffeen that really does give me a little boost.  There for a while I was quite addicted to McDonald's Caramel Frappes.  Lord have mercy!  A medium has 550 calories and 24 grams of fat!  Hard to believe isn't it?  (http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/food_quality/nutrition_choices.html) My protein shakes have about 300 calories, 5 grams of fat, 26 grams of sugar, and 30 grams of protein.  Most of the calories, fat and sugar come from the 1% milk I put in it.  I could put in skim milk, but I buy 1% so the whole family can drink it.  PLUS my shakes are HUGE!  I blend them with ice and it's supper yummy.  Here is the one I like - http://mydietshopz.com/newyochpumix.html

I'm glad to be back in the world of Bandsters. 

Cheers, and I hope you will see Less of Me soon!

Not much progress

So, I haven't had much progress with my weight loss because we found out a few weeks ago that I'm pregnant!  Yea!

More on that later!

Losing inches and a few pounds

What a difference a few months have made!

40 Pounds

Finally after being on this plateau for what seemed like four years (in actuality about 4 weeks), I have lost another two pounds and I'm down 40 over-all.  Maybe the bike riding and being much more conscientious about what I'm eating is FINALLY paying off.  Hopefully I'll get a bit more down the line before I hit another road block.  They are so discouraging. 

Little by little I'm realizing why it was so difficult for me to lose any weight before WLS.  I would hit a small roadblock after only losing a few pounds and get discouraged.  I'd figure "well, I'm not making any progress, might as well just give up".  Thankfully now I have a built-in anti-discouragement device.  Even if I wanted to over eat or do something silly, the band kicks my tush and makes me realize how dumb it was. 

I bought myself some super yummy grilled chicken yesterday from KFC.  Just one single grilled fillet.  I took a bite, and obviously didn't chew it well enough.  OY!  Did I suffer!  Felt like I had a rock right under my sternum.  Such horrible pain.  I had to get up walk around the house and practice my Lamaze breathing techniques.  It finally eased up, but I was done.  One bite into a small palm sized piece of boneless chicken and I was finished.  Couldn't eat any more.  The band totally disagreed with what I was doing and let me know about it. 

Much later on, I took smaller bites, chewed like there was no tomorrow and it was much, much more pleasant.  KFC's grilled chicken was really good.  Eating it reminded me of cook-outs with our dear family friends growing up.  I could smell the grill at Mayeux's home.  It made me very happy to be flooded with such good memories. 

Isn't it funny how food, a substance that is supposed to fuel our bodies, can bring back memories, make us happy, sad, or bring us comfort? 

I'm comforted by the thought of seeing less of me next time!
cheers,
shan

Plateaus

I've hit a bit of a plateau the past few weeks.  Meaning I've not had any significant weight loss, which is a real bummer!  Some say it's because I've hit the wall until the band fill "kicks in".  Some say it's my body building muscle while I amp up my cardio.  Hopefully after I get my body in better shape it will be more efficient at burning fat and it will just DRIP off of me!  LOL! 

One of the amazing fellas on my favorite forum - BARIATRICTV.COM said this:

Shannon what's happening to you is perfectly normal for post WLS patients - Your body has just gone through major surgery and needs time to adjust.

We like to call them WTF moments. Because basically that's what your body is doing.... it's taking a timeout and thus putting things on hold.

Every single patient gets the feeling that they're the one that this surgery won't work for. As long as you follow the rules YOU CAN NOT FAIL!

Here's some other info to digest regarding stalls:

***
Pull back from your ‘daily’ charting, and look at a weekly or even monthly. There are up and down spikes each day, But if you ‘graph’ the highest to the lowest, I’d bet there is still A downward slope over the course of the month.

There’s an 8 to 10lb. volume of "wiggle room" due to water alone. And it comes into play a lot. This has to do with our bodies using glycogen for short term energy storage. Glycogen is not very soluble, But it is stored in our muscles for quick energy – One pound of glycogen requires 4 lbs of water to keep it soluble, And the average glycogen storage capacity is about 2 lbs.

So, when you are not getting in enough food, (Like when you drop down to your calorie intake) Your body turns first to stored glycogen, Which is easy to break down for energy. And when you use up 2 lbs of glycogen, You also lose 8 lbs of water that was used to store it Voila -- the "easy" 10 lbs that most people lose in the first week of any diet.

As you stay in caloric deficit, however, Your body starts to ‘realize’ that this is not a short term problem.

You start mobilizing fat from your adipose tissue And burning fat for energy. But your body also ‘realizes’---- (by way of your liver releasing hormones signaling low Cal intake) ---That fat can't be used for short bursts of energy – Like, to outrun a saber-tooth tiger. So, it starts converting some of the fat into glycogen, And rebuilding the glycogen stores.

And as it puts back the 2 lbs of glycogen into the muscle, 8 lbs of water has to be stored with it to keep it soluble. So, even though you might still be LOSING energy content to your body, (Thus showing negative Calorie load overall) Your weight will not go down or you might even GAIN for a while As you retain water to dissolve the glycogen that is being reformed and stored. Yes? The whole ‘weight-loss’ process is not a straight "Slide" down the scale. More like "Stair-Steps," (Down then forward, then down, then forward, etc... As your body cycles fat out of "deep storage" and through the Liver Into the muscles as Glycogen.

The muscles and Liver can hold about a 3 weeks supply. This is why many people find that their "Stall" or "Plateau" Breaks when adding a bit of exercise And upping their water intake, or in the case of an "extreme exerciser," The total Calorie or Protein Intake, To signal the liver to let go of more Glycogen.

Hope this helps some. You are doing Great! Keep it Up
***

Ian

2 Month's Progress

 January 26, 2010

 Feb 26, 2010

April 1, 2010

Pumped!

I'm pumped up now.  Literally.  I got my first band fill today and It went very well and I'm surprised at how it works. 

Here is an illustration of the band/port.   The goldish part of the device is the port.  It has a silicone bulb on top that allows the doctor to inject saline in it to inflate the band. 

 Dr. M found the port, around the middle of my belly on my right side.  He numbed the area where the port is located then had me do a mini crunch (hands behind my head tensing abdominal muscles) to bring the port closer to the surface.  He injected 4 CCs of saline solution then drew it back out.  This is his way of checking to make sure he hit the right spot.  Saline came back out into the syringe and he knew he was in the right spot.  He re-injected the saline and said I was done.  Easy Money.

He had me drink a few ounces of water to make sure the band wasn't too tight and food and liquids would pass through.  So far so good. 

I'm back on a full liquid diet for 48 hours.  This means soups, sugar free pudding, light yogurt, sugar free, caffeine free, carbonation free drinks, and grits/cream of wheat.  Not too bad. 

He said it could take up to 4 weeks for the fill to take effect.  Hopefully with excersize and watching my intake I'll be back on the losing side again.  I've only got a few pounds left until I hit 40 lost. Hopefully it will slide right off easily.

Hope you will see less of me soon!