On my way to Goal

Well I didn't make my birthday goal. I did get down to 210 pounds. That means that I have lost 227 pounds since my journey began 18 months ago.

I went to Curves today and did my 30 minutes and then went to Target and walked the store then came home and went for a 20 minute bike ride around the neighborhood. Not bad for a 55 year old.

I have also joined water aerobics again. I will go to that on Monday and Friday mornings. It lasts an hour and it is continuous exercise, the only time we stop is to get our water dumbbells to use. It is a lot of fun.

I promised a couple of new photos. The one is from Easter last year with Kennedy and then this Easter so you can compare. The other is from Olin Miles for our church directory and then one taken from a friend at our church's Food Pantry.

Everyone here is doing good. I don't know if everyone has heard that I will be a grandma in October. Scott and his fiance Amber are going to be parents. I'm all excited. No date for the wedding yet, but I think they are just going to go to the JP and let us know afterwards. But I will let everyone know what happens.

George seems to be doing better. The new medication seems to be working. We will keep our fingers crossed that it continues to work.

Hope you like the pics.

6 month checkup with Heart doc.

I had my 6 month check up with my heart doctor yesterday. Everything is fine. He said that "there's nothing that I can do for you, see you in 6 months". He told me to get more exercise, but that everything was great. I told him that I had joined Curves and that I ride my bike about 3 1/2 miles several times a week.

I am currently at losing 216 lbs. since I started my journey. Only 3 pounds to go to have halved my weight, and only 21 lbs. till I reach my birthday goal. All in all everything is going great.

My son Scott got engaged the day before Valentines Day. He asked his girlfriend, Amber to marry him and she said yes. No date as of yet, but will let everyone know when I know. Well that's all for now. No new pictures to post yet, but will get some soon.

One year check-up

I went up to see the doctor today for my year check-up since the surgery. All is great. He said that I am doing great. My blood work was good. My protein is still down a little but he wasn't concerned. I don't have to see him again for 6 months. I also went to support group last night. It was interesting. I have been going to Curves for exercise and riding my bike, but haven't been doing any weights. Dr. Reyes said that we needed to do weights also. I will start out slow, I have 2 pound weights and will work on my arms to start. Other than that all is great. I have lost 205 lbs altogether. As soon as the wind dies down I will get out on the bike again.
Will keep everyone updated.

I can't believe that it has been a year already!

A year ago today I was in the hospital all drugged up. I can't believe it has been a year since I had my gastric bypass. I want to thank everyone for their encouragement and support during this time.

The first goal that I set for myself was to lose a 100 lbs., then 150 lbs., and then 200 lbs. Well I hit the 200 lbs. lost this past weekend. The next goal that I have placed upon myself is to get down to weighing 200 lbs. by my birthday. A friend told me today that she did the calculations on my weight loss and I averaged 4 lbs. a week. If I could continue that I will make it plus more for my birthday.

I have had to buy a new wardrobe for myself. All my outgrown clothes I have donated to our church's clothes closet that we have along with the food pantry.

I went today and did my lab work for the doctor. I don't actually see him until the 10th of February. I hope everything is fine. I have been doing more protein and that is the only thing that has ever been low.

I will have to take some new pictures to post. The ones from Christmas Eve is the latest taken. Our church is doing a new picture directory and will be having pics done by Olan Mills. When I get those I will post them along with the old one from the last directory.

I will keep everyone up to date as I go on. Hope everyone has a great year.

1 Month to surgery anniversary

Well here it is Dec. 28th. I month until the surgery anniversary. It has been a very interesting year and well worth it.

Since I started my journey back in the beginning of October 2007, I have lost a total of 192 lbs. Since the actual surgery I have lost 154 lbs.

Here is a before picture of me taken in October 2007.


And here is a picture taken on Christmas Eve 2008.



I won't say that it has been an easy road all the time, but the rewards are well worth it. The best thing of this whole year was being able to attend my daughter's wedding and not feel bad because of my size. I was able to dance the night away and not get winded like I would have a year before.

I did not do this all by myself. I am so blessed to have had the support of my friends and family during this time.

I am looking forward to this next month and hope I hit "my goal" of losing 200 lbs by the 28th of January. I do not see the doctor until the 10th of Feburary for my check-up, but will post on the 28th from my scale.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! It is my first Thanksgiving with my new eating habits. We had our annual Thanksgiving dinner at church this past Sunday and I believe I did very well since there was a whole lot of food that I could have splurged on. I did my turkey, some mashed potatoes, green beans, and a little dressing and for dessert GRAPES. It was all very good.

We are going to my sisters for dinner today. I made myself a pumpkin spiced cheesecake bar for my dessert. Got the recipe at my support group meeting. We will have the turkey and all the trimmings, will just take a little of what I can eat.

Now for the good news, since last October I have lost 184 lbs. and since the surgery 146 lbs. I feel really great and went for a 3 mile bike ride this morning. I have hit another plateau and haven't lost in a week, so I thought I should get in some extra exercise. I bought a speedometer for my bike and it also is an odometer. I wanted to know how far I've rode. I had to take the bike in to the shop this week so they could fix the pedal crank, it was rubbing on the chain guard and making it hard to pedal. Now it is really a lot easier to ride.

I did something to my left arm the night before we left from Illinois. I thought I just slept wrong but it is still sore. The doctor thinks its nothing and probably just a pulled muscle, but I would of thought that by now it would have gotten better. Oh well, I'll deal with it.

I go to see my pulmonologist this coming Monday (Dec. 1st) and hoping that he will take me off of the oxygen machine. I have bought me some of the Breathe Right nasal strips and they help alot, so hopefully it will show up on the sensor that I'm sure he will make me take home and sleep with and bring back to get the results. I will post again after that.

That's all for now, everyone have a great Thanksgiving.

A Beautiful Wedding

We left for Chicago on October 24th driving. Everything went fine I thought. We first drove to Wisc. and spent Sunday and Monday with Jen and Dan. They have a really nice apartment. My left ankle hurt and was a little swollen. We left to go to my brothers on Tuesday morning. It was 25 degrees out when we left and we had had snow flurries, nothing stuck. When we got to my brothers on Tuesday my ankle had gotten more swollen. My sister and brother put me on house arrest and had me ice my ankle and elevate it. My sister had an extra compression stocking with her and had me put it on. That helped alot. In driving up the only time we stopped was for gas and potty breaks. I didn't realize that I should be stopping every couple hours and just walk around. I learned my lesson. On the return trip I made sure that I stopped and walked. My ankle did fine.
Now to the good stuff. I weighed myself at my brothers and the scale said I lost a total of 6 lbs while there. After the wedding I was sure that I should loose with the dancing that I did. It was a lot of fun. When I got up this morning before going to Curves I weighed myself and it said that I had lost another 3 lbs. That makes a total of 9 lbs while on vacation.
Now the wedding was beautiful. I had to exchange the top I had bought in September while I was at my brothers. I was about to go down one size. Jennifer was a gorgeous bride and Dan was a handsome groom. Here are a few pics that I took.
This is Jen and Dan, Porsche and Aislinn, the maid and matron of honor, and the two best men, Dan's brother Mark and Dan's best friend Kevin.
This is Ava the flower girl. She is the daughter of one of the other bridesmaids.
This is me with my best friend (from grade school/high school)Patti Hajek, it was so good to see her.
It was such a fun wedding. The kids did a great job on planning it. Everyone said that they had a great time. We even saw them the next morning before they left for the airport. They went to Disneyland and then to Las Vegas. I am glad we are home now and everything went well. Now it is time to recuperate.