Glimpses of a Future Abbi

It's been awhile! I'm now down about 65 pounds! It's amazing the differences that I'm seeing. Some good and some not so great but I will take what I can get. I'm now down to a size 18/20 and feel fantastic. I have more energy than what I know what to do with. I didn't realize that I didn't have all this energy when I was 65 pounds heavier but I'm excited to be experiencing it. When I started this journey I was wearing a 26/28. I'm noticing and so is everyone else that I have curves where I'm supposed to have curves. My mid section is slimming down quite a bit, my boobs although I think they are smaller are apparently "perkier" according to my mother and I have an ass! Lol. These are all things I'm adjusting too! Overall it's fantastic!


Here are some dresses that I was trying on. I was looking for dresses to wear to the rehersal and bridesmaid luncheon for my brother's wedding!

In the Valley Deep

Okay, so maybe it's not that bad. I have to admit this past week has been absolutely horendous in regards to my diet! I despise mother nature sometimes in more ways than one. Mother nature has not been very kind to my body and I have been craving all sorts of junk food! Therefore, eating things that are packed full of carbs and sugar....extremely bad for my body. I fall for the craving and then feel guilty afterwards. It's so aggitating and makes you feel as though you are in this awful rut. So, in turn I'm attempting to work on meal planning that way I don't even have the temptation staring me in the face. I'm going to try to make these Breakfast Egg Muffins which I think I will enjoy because I can have a little variation and they look absolutely yummy!

So here is the recipe:

1 Red Bell Pepper
2 Roma Tomatoes
Basil Leaves
3-4 Green Onions
6 whole eggs & 4 cups of egg whites

1. Chop up all of your veggies! Then mix them together in a large bowl. Next, whisk your whole eggs and egg whites together in anotehr bowl.

2. Line your muffin tins with cupcake holders and spray with PAM. If you don’t have liners, you can directly spray PAM onto the tin. Then fill your cups with about a tablespoon of egg mixture.

3. Next fill the rest of the cup up with veggies! Then fill to the top with the rest of your eggs. You can pretty much fill to the brim.

4. Pop them into the oven at 375F for about 20-30 min or until you see that they are firm on top.

Possible Variations: Spinach, Cheese, Sausage, and Bacon. Let your mind be a little creative with it! :D

Now on for my next rant: Exercise!!!!

Here is my deal with exercise. Once I'm doing it (mostly walking/jogging) I love it! However, I'm feeling the need to more exercising that includes some toning. Losing weight is wonderful but I do not want to be stuck with a huge sack of skin just hanging from my body. Therefore toning is a necessity. I'm not exactly sure where to start with this and on top of it finding time is so hard with my schedule. I work two jobs and a single parent. It makes things a little rough sometimes finding the time time to accomplish a workout.

So here is my goal for this upcoming week: I'm going to get up early and have Lorelai to daycare by 7am so that I can go workout before I go to work. Maybe this will be exhilirating and give me a little more motivation getting through my long days at work. Getting up is going to be the hard part! I will report back and let you know how it goes next week!

My Body Is Changing

I just have to say I'm super excited about some of the changes occurring in my body and at the same time having a hard time with other changes that are occurring. One of the changes that I have noticed is that I have  had these god awful brown patches around my neck and on my chest for years. We have tried so many different things trying to get rid of them. Even to the point of using about 80% Salicylic Acid hoping this would get rid of them. Well nothing has worked. Finally after years of trying things I'm happy to report that these sticking brown spots that have embarrassed me for years are finally gone! It's amazing how much a change in the kinds of food you eat can affect your body so drastically! Now one change that I'm not so excited about is the fact that my under arms are starting to hang more even more than they were before. Therefore, it's truly time to join a gym and start doing some toning. They say this first year after surgery is the most important time to work on toning and losing the most amount of weight. Therefore, I'm now on the search for a gym to help on the toning part of things. 

4 WEEKS POST SURGERY

Well it's officially been 4 weeks since my surgery! In those weeks I have worked my way from fluids all the way up to solid food again. I'm so excited and it has been quite the journey. I'm learning that I have more will power than I ever though I did. I'm also learning that I enjoy doing things like going out for walks and going to the park with my daughter because I have the energy to do so. It's been a huge blessing in my life.

So here are some of the accomplishments that have occurred since surgery: I'm now walking about 1 to 1.5 miles three times a week. I went to the doctor yesterday and found out since surgery date I'm down 21 Lbs and my BMI has gone from 46 to 43. I have found that I can now fit into about an XL or 18/20 in shirts. My bridesmaid dress for Brittney's wedding that didn't fit before surgery, 2 weeks after surgery it partially zipped up, and 2 weeks following that it is totally zipped up! I love it! Since the application process to now I have lost a total of 53lbs! Not only that but I'm 9Ibs away from being under 300Ibs which I haven't seen since probably my freshmen or sophomore year of high school!

This is a picture of me on my birthday last year 4/25/12 and me on my birthday this year 4/25/13!  I'm making some progress and yes I realize I'm wearing the same shirt and no that was not planned! Alrighty everyone enjoy life and stay positive!

Love ya all!
Countess of Pounds :)

Surgery Day!!!! 4/5/13

Here it is April 5, 2013....Surgery Day!!!! Thursday afernoon the secretary from Boone Hospital calls me to let me know that I have to be at the hospital by 6am and that my surgery is scheduled for 7:30am. I'm grateful for being able to get in there early because it means I will be able to go home sooner than what I expected. I got home Thursday night and I truly don't remember what I did but I know I did something to keep me distracted so I wasn't getting to terribly anxious.

I woke up Friday morning about 5:30 am and got some things packed and ready to go. Mom came and picked me up and we headed over to the hospital. I finally get checked in and back to a room. Get my gown on and the nurse asks me for a urine sample. So, I go to the restroom and come out...I ever so politely explained to the nurse that Mother Nature had other plans for me today and I had started my period. The nurse in a very non chalent way turned to me and said it's no big deal. This in turn baffled me. My thought is OMG it's a huge deal! You are going to be operating on me and I'm going to be bleeding on the operating table and then in my bed..GROSS! Anyhow, she assured me everything would be fine.

I finally get settled in to the not so comfortable hospital bed and turn the TV on again to distract me. Mom comes back and joins me. Next thing I know I have another nurse coming in to start an IV. She first tries to start one in the side near my wrist. That didn't work well. Then she tries to get it started in my arm but on the side again. This again doesn't work. The third time she tries she just sticks me in the arm and gets it. Finally! Meanwhile, the anesthesiologist comes in to talk to me about the anesthesia. While, I have the nurse trying to get an IV started I also have the anesthesiologist going tilt your head back and go ahhhhhhh. So, I'm doing this a few times for him. He then explains that I'm going to be difficult to put a breathing tube in due to my "God given anatomy." Great that's what I want to hear I'm now a nervous wreck thinking about how painful this breathing tube thing is going to be. Next thing I know, Dr. Pitt (my surgeon) comes walzting in to check and see if I'm ready and making sure everything else is going fine. What is this with everyone coming in at the same time. Anyhow, the anesthesiologist reassures me that the breathing tube will be put in after I'm asleep and taken out before I'm awake. That made me feel much better about the whole thing!

Next thing I know Mom is giving me hugs and kisses and wishing me good luck. The nurses come in and whisk me away down the hall to the operating room. The last thing I remember is getting into the operating room. Moving myself on to the operating table and the anestheologist putting this oxygen mask type thing over my mouth and nose and asking me to take a few deep breaths. You know how in movies when people are about to have surgery and they show them like in this half hazy state. That's exactly how it was.

I'm trying to wake up and sit up and I keep hearing the nurses to tell me to lay back down. However, I want to sit up and I don't know why they won't let me sit up. This becomes very frustrating to me. I eventually stop fighting with them and lay back down and fall back asleep. The next thing I remember is waking up and sitting up (which the nurses were okay with at this point) and wanting something to drink because my mouth was dry. The nurse brings me a cup of ice chips that is only filled enough to cover the bottom of the cup and tells me this has to last me a couple of hours. I was about ready to scream. I had no concept of how that little bitty cup of ice was supposed to last me a few hours when my mouth was as dry as the Sahara Desert at this point. Anyhow, as I'm sitting there sucking on little pieces of ice I'm also falling asleep in between bites. This again is very frustrating to me because I feel like I'm ready to be awake already.I finally give up and just lay back down to take another nap. The nurses eventually come and whisk me away down the hall to this hallway that has been divided into like little bays. All I remember is getting there and the nurse that was transporting me telling the nurse who was going to take care of me that I was a little sleepy, by the way a little sleepy was an understatement. This is the point where mom came back to see me again. I was happy to see her even though she probably doesn't know it because I was so sleepy. I took another nap and woke up and asked for something to drink. At this point I had ate all the ice chips. The nurse was sweet and brought me back a seven up. I had to let it sit and go flat but it was good to have something with some flavor to it. About an hour after that they said I could go home. So around 1:30 I left the hospital and went home to rest for a bit. I took a little nap and then woke up around 3:30. That day was the day of the memorial for a close family friend who had been murdered in Colorado. I thought it was important that I be there. So, I asked for my dad to come pick me up so that I could go with him to the memorial. After that it was a whole weekend of me dozing in and out of sleep trying to shake off the anesthesia.

All things considered I think it all went really well. I'm excited and anxious to see the progress! :)

The Beginning of My Weight Loss Journey

The goal of this blog is to document my weight loss progress and the journey to reaching my goal of being 180lbs. I'm anxious to get to that goal to regain some energy and take control of my health so that I may be around for a long time to see my daughter grow and develop into an amazing human being! Now, I have told you what my goal is I haven't told you how I'm accomplishing that goal and what that journey has entailed! I'm going to have the Lap Band surgery done on April 5, 2013!!!!! That's right....4 days from today!!!!

This journey has been crazy, fun, exciting, nerve racking, stressful, caused some unease in my thoughts of my self control, but overall so far anxious for a new beginning! This journey began about 23 years ago when I was born in Richmond, VA to an amazing set of parents. When I was born I was as everybody says a big baby. If I remember the story correctly I was over ten pounds! I remember practically my entire life being big. My childhood included some of the typical being picked on but I always just ignored it and kept on with my life and hanging out with my friends. Now, the real struggle truly began when I was in high school. High school was the beginning of my weight gain. I gained my freshman 15 in my freshman year of high school not college. Over my four years of high school my weight continously increased as I was continuously dieting trying to resist it. By the time I graduated high school I weighed around 300 pounds. Now, it's always been hard to tell this because I'm approx six feet tall so the way my body carried my weight made it hard to tell that I weighed 300 pounds but I was still big compared to everyone else. The fall after I graduated I found out the reason for my weight issues other than the typical answer of it just being genetics (my dad's side of the family has a history of being over weight) and that answer was PCOS. I had no clue what that was, no idea what that meant, or how it even affected my body. My doctor proceeded to tell me that it's a disease where women can have cysts on their ovaries and that it causes major hormonal imbalances that have a wide variety of effects on your body. The one thing that stuck out to me when she was telling me this was that everything I ate essentially turned into fat! It was my ahh ha moment of finally having an answer as to why I was having such an issue with my weight. The next year consisted of trying a medication that completely made me nauseous and have bowel issues (let's just say that was no fun at all.) I finally quit the medication and decided I would try some dieting and exercise. At this point the yo-yo dieting really began. You gain some and then you lose some and then you gain it back again. Around the time that I was diagnosed with PCOS is when I started to look into the option of weight loss surgery. I spent a few years looking at having the Gastric Bypass surgery done. I just couldn't decide if I was ready to have a surgery at that point but the thought never left me. In 2010 I found out I was pregnant w/ my beautiful baby girl and I was weighing in at about 315lbs. I only gained about 15lbs during my entire pregnancy. However, if you looked at me I looked like I had gained much more. After Lorelai was born my weight slowly began to increase until this past year I hit 340lbs. Now, around Lorelai's 2nd birthday in October I decided it was again time to try and take control of my weight not only for me but for my daughter. She deserves to have a mother that has enough energy to run and play with her and be just as active as she is. This is when I dragged my mother along and we went to a conference at Boone Hospital about the Lap Band surgery. I gained a huge amount of knowledge and decided I wanted to give it a try. So, they went ahead and processed my application and we found out my insurance would cover 80% of the surgery cost and I would be left to pay for any pre op/post op visits and 20% of the surgery. This was kind of disappointing news only because at that point I just didn't have the funds to cover that. So, I choose to wait awhile and then in late January I decided it was time to get the ball rolling.....

Thus the true beginning of this journey (atleast the surgery part of it.) So, the very first thing you have to do is to have appointments with the dietician, physical therapist, and a psychologist. Somehow, I was lucky enough to be able to do all three of the appointments the same day. The next appointment was to go see the surgeon for the first time. This occured the following week for me. I think I was more nervous about seeing him than going to the rest of the appointments. At this appointment I found out I had already lost 14 pounds! I was super excited!! The surgeon then said everything looked good and I was okay to have surgery. After this appointment is when all the paperwork gets submitted to the insurance company and you wait for their approval. This can take a few days all the way up to about 30 days for them to give you an answer. This waiting time was the most nerve racking time for me. I was anxious to get an anaswer and really get things moving where I felt I could be 100% committed to this process. After two weeks of waiting I finally got an approval from the insurance company. I was extremely excited! Now, it was time to call and set up a surgery date and set up appointments with the Dietician, Surgeon, and to go have what they call a PASS appt done. The PASS appt is when they do blood work, xrays, and an EKG to make sure you are okay to have surgery. Also, in the midst of all this I began my low carb/no carb/high protein diet. This included protein shakes as well. Which finding a protein shake that I liked was hard but I finally settled on one. Secondly, in this phase of things I had to write down everything I ate and drank and then give it to the Dietician to look at during my second appt with her. Again, I was able to get my Dietician and PASS appt all on the same day. At my second Dietician appt I found out I lost another 6 pounds! This is really working.....The week afterwards I went to see the Surgeon for my Pre Op appt and he again said everything looked great and I was able to have surgery. At this appt I found out that I had lost another 3 pounds! That was in a week! This makes a total of 23 pounds since the beginning of this process. Meanwhile, while I was having the appt w/ my Dietician she gave me the schedule for the the pre op diet, and the 4 phases of the post op diet. Needless to say the Pre op diet started the Tuesday after I saw her and it's a clear liquid diet for 10 days before surgery! I have to say this has been the hardest ten days I have ever gone through. It has taken tons of self control and let's just say my life has consisted of nothing but water, tea, coffee, broth, sugar free popsicles, and sugar free jello! At this point I'm down to 4 days before surgery and I'm completely anxious and excited to see how this is all going to turn out.

So, I'm using this as my before picture. It was taken around christmas and I weighed 340 pounds at that point. Christmas 2012!