Health Progress Report and Stamina

So it's been a while since I started my journey to getting healthier. I only have a few more pounds to loose before I'm ready for surgery. I also have to go and get my psych clearance and go to a support group meeting. So it's looking like it will probably be at least January before I have the surgery. I cannot wait. I know that sounds weird because it will be a hard journey after surgery. Like I won't be able to eat a vegetable for something like four months after the surgery. I'll be on a liquid diet for a few weeks. I'll most likely have some sickness afterwards but honestly that will all be worth it!

How do I know already that it will be worth it? Well I'm already noticing so much change in my energy and stamina. Last night I worked a full shift and then stayed an extra half an hour to help a co-worker with some of her stuff. Now 6 months ago after a night like that I would be in so much pain. I could barely walk and I wouldn't want to do anything the whole next day. But last night other then a sore back from sleeping wrong the night before I felt great! We even did some grocery shopping afterwards. Today I still feel great. I'm in a tiny bit of pain from a burst ovarian cyst but I'm still full of energy and feeling nice!

The other thing that is great is that normally before after a few days of work I would need my first day off to be a rest day. Like I would do some light cleaning and stuff around the house but no big farm things. and now I keep saying I'll need a rest day and then I decide I have too much energy and I want to go outside and do something on the farm. Or play with the ducks. I am just full of energy everyday! It's amazing and that is all with just a tiny bit of weight loss. Imagine how I'm going to be after the surgery. Like my joints feel better especially my feet and ankles! I just can't get over how much better I feel. I am so ready to be healthy again. and as I am normally quite hyper especially for someone in poor health I'm gonna be kind of obnoxious when I'm done with this journey. Sorry not sorry!

I know it's somewhat worrisome for my loved ones that I'm choosing to go through this surgery. However, it is going to lead to such amazing things. I just know that I will feel like I'm living a whole new life!

My journey begins

I have had my first meeting with the bariatric department. I have a binder to study, a book to read, and a food journal to keep. This doesn't worry me. So far my concerns are my food allergies. Like if I can't eat nuts and I don't eat fish then how do I keep enough protein in me? Well I was thinking yogurts and chicken will become a big part of my diet along with some whey protein powder. I would love if anyone has high protein recipe's to share! I also have been practicing chewing everything to the consistency of applesauce and eating slowly. I put my fork down in between each bite. This will be an adjustment but my current concerns are, How will I keep up my energy? How painful will it be after surgery? How much longer until I can get it? I'm so anxious and a little excited. I'm also concerned that I will not absorb all the vitamins I need. I already take a daily vitamin because I have trouble absorbing certain vitamins. I hope that as I get closer to the surgery day I will feel more and more excited and less and less nervous. My next major hurdle will be to give up Soda completely. I drink a lot of juice and water but I still like a soda a day. I will have to quit that cause it can make me sick. I think we have decided to do the Gastric sleeve surgery instead of the bypass because there is less malabsorption.  I have lost 4 pounds so far and I have 12.4 left to loose before surgery! My journey is starting and I'm pretty excited!

Living life to the fullest not the fattest.

This is a hard subject for me because I never thought I would be at the weight I am today. I was a little chubby in my adolescent years but I became addicted to exercise and toned up as a teen. I even did some modeling. At this point in my life I worked a paper route every morning and walked at least 2 miles delivering to 2 apartment complexes and one neighborhood. I would go home and do 1,000 sit ups a night. It helped me sleep. I ate healthy and I drank mostly water. I never thought I would get this bad.

It's easy to see someone and judge them. Easy, but not right. The turning point from super healthy teen to gaining weight for me started with a car accident, and then another, and another, and another, and one more. All in 3 years I was in 5 accidents. I wasn't driving in any of them. It was out of my control. I sprained my whole back on one side. Kind of a sideways whiplash from being T-boned. I had a horrible seat-belt injury and had to be monitored for internal bleeding with a different accident. I would just start to get one body part rested enough and I would injure another. I had so much determination to stay healthy but 5 accidents slowly crumbled my wall of strength.

I don't like excuses and I'm not trying to tell excuses. I'm sharing my story. Yes I had a choice I could have risked further injury and continued my workout plan. Yes I could have eaten the healthy choice every time and not the convenient choice. We can always make different choices. However I'm only human. I had days when I was in so much pain I could hardly breathe. I was trying not to use pain medications because addictive behaviors run in my family. I thought I was making the good choices and in some ways I was in others I wasn't.

The first time my doctor told me my weight was affecting my health was a rough day. I have always been the little hyper one in my family. I have always had a lot of allergies and chronic, Ear infections, Strep, and Asthma. But I am Tuff I kept on truckin. I have always been the one who handles stuff in my family and I was loosing control of myself of all things.

There truly is a cycle. I gained weight which caused health issues which would then cause more weight gain. I am ready to tackle this. I'm ready to feel like I am my own age and not an 80 year old fragile woman. My poor family has to try not to treat me as though I'm too fragile or it makes me sad but in truth I am. I have more health issues then I can name.

I am ready to change. I have reached the point where my doctor and I agree that I have tried almost everything. We have kept a food diary and all that told us is that my body can stay fat off of only 750 calories. How is that possible? Well when I get home from work my body will just run out of energy and this isn't just the typical tired after work. This is my body forces sleep and attacks me with pain to let me know how mad it is that I worked hard.

One of my Co-workers frequently tells me I'm either 120% there when I'm at work and trying to do my job plus anything extra I can or else I'm 60% just holding on and trying not to get sent home sick. This as you can imagine is a hard way to live. I want to be 120% everyday. I would love to always be running around keeping busy. And eventually I will.

I have a long journey in front of me. Next Wed I will go in for my intake appt. for Bariatric surgery. We are leaning towards the Gastric sleeve surgery. We have done hours of research online. We have attended an informational class. I have told my boss that I will have lots of dr. appts. and this is why. I have a wonderful support system. Granted, they are worried because I am fragile. but I want my health back. I want to get healthy so I can make happy healthy babies and work a full work schedule and just in general LIVE! I want to get back to thinking about what fun things I can do and not when my next lab or appt is. I kinda have to dive into that world for a while but when I come back out I'll be a whole new me. and won't that be WONDERFUL!

The good and the bad

So this is going to be a post about my health and weight. I had always been a very active person. I was even told I was to addicted to working out and needed to limit myself. This was when I was doing over 1000 sit ups a day. Then one day I got in a car accident and had what they called sideways whiplash. basically I sprained most of the muscles on one side of my back. I had to stop working out. I could barely move and I started gaining weight. I was then in 5 car accidents in 3 years (I was a passenger in all 5 I'm not a horrid driver Lol) but this made it so that I would just start to get healed and I would re injure it. This was what started my weight gain, made me lose my motivation because why should I keep trying if I just get told I'm overdoing it everytime. I then started eating more junk which I think it what most 19-20 year olds do. and I've had trouble getting the weight off since. Today was one of my lazy days but I still made an effort to drink more water and get on the treadmill. I'm talking to my doctor about going into the program for weight loss surgery. we've tried monitoring what I eat and I tend to eat about 750 calories most days. My doctor say's that my body is storing everything I eat so I am taking a long time to digest because my body thinks I'm starving it. So hopefully we can move towards a healthy solution for me. I know it will be a lot of work and I'll happily put in the work if I get to see results because right now diet and exercise just isn't working. This isn't to say that I will have surgery. I'm just starting in to the program to see if it will be a good fit for me and fix some of my health issues. because I'm in a bit of a cycle right now. My health issues make it more difficult to loose weight which then causes more health issues. I have been slacking on my food diary and need to still be drinking more water but I'll try! Here's hoping I can get healthier!