05.27.08
Posted in wls at 3:55 pm by Shari
When I was diagnosed w/ Type II Diabetes, it was just at the threshold - 6.0. A year later, it was 6.6, which was the kick I needed to decide to have wls. During the prep for surgery, we got it down to 6.2, though that was with a change to medication. Now it is 5.3!!!! Can you imagine the big smile on my face???? 
But, I am still on all the meds that I have been these last few months, including continuing the blood pressure med and beta blockers. I was hoping to get to drop at least one of them. 
Dr K is very happy w/ the progress, though, as am I.
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05.26.08
Posted in Crafts, wls at 10:54 pm by Shari
It’s been 12 weeks since my surgery. I’m still getting used to the idea of eating slowly and not much. I have started adding some fruit to the diet - apples and bananas, though a whole banana is too much and a whole apple works only if it’s a small one. I usually have them with some peanut butter. I’ve also been eating some veggies, like raw red pepper, mushrooms, and cucumbers. Often I’ll pair the cucumber sticks with hummus. Cottage cheese, string cheese and yogurt remain staples - they are so easy to pull out without having to think much about it.
The other night I wanted to get Chuck out of the house, so I suggested his favorite burger joint up the road. We’d been out mowing and it had gotten pretty late by the time we changed. Lo and behold, they were closed. We tried several other places and each one was closed. By that point I was DETERMINED to find someplace to get something out - I wasn’t about to go home then and cook. We finally ended up at Guida’s in Webster. I order fried mushrooms and a steak fajita wrap. Yeah, sure…. I had 3 or maybe 4 mushrooms and just a little of the meat/onions/peppers from one 1/2 of the wrap. The rest of my dinner sans the wrap ended up in an omelet the next night for the two of us for dinner. They had some great looking specialty pizza slices, so we got a few of those to bring home. The next day I had my one whole slice, as 2 different meals and was stuffed each time, even after giving the crusts away to Chuck and the dog.
I’ve got to get better about drinking. I do pretty well when I’m at work, but at home it’s a different story. Then I get extra thirsty and end up drinking too quickly - not a pretty sight!
Walking is going pretty well. On Sparkpeople I’ve been trying to keep up with the days in a row challenge - set a goal to do every day. Mine is to meet or beat my average # of steps. My reasoning is that if I can beat it each day, it naturally goes up. Well, that’s mostly going pretty well. I had 15 days in a row that were good, then a bunch of days of hit and miss, then 6 good days, missed one and am back to 3 in a row. Today I went for a GREAT walk. I’ve been working up to walking around the “block” That block is about 2.75 miles. So today I went out and did it. I was tempted to stop at a friend’s house about 2/3 of the way through the walk, but I kept going I also clocked the other “block” to the south of us and that one is just a touch over 3 miles.
Also over on Sparkpeople, we set up a group for patients of Dr. D’s to keep in touch. Of course, at the moment I’m the only one there, but as I meet other patients and let Teresa at Dr. D’s office/support group know, we’ll let them know about it. I doubt I’m the only computer geek in his practice, so I’m hoping that others will find it to be a good way to find peer to peer support between support groups and appointments.
Tomorrow I get the results of my bloodwork from last week. Dr. K didn’t want to wait as long as Dr. D does for that post-surg check, so I got 4 tubes pulled last week. I’m most interested in hearing the A1C results.
Knitting and other crafting has been taking a back seat lately. I did get some fabric today to make a cover for my calendar - it’s got antique clocks and chronometers all over it. I grabbed a couple of fat quarters to go with it as well. I also saw the schematic for a simple reversible purse in Simple Sewing that I want to try and I’m thinking I can get it out of 4 fat quarters, so I got a combination on blues that I liked for that. I’ll probably make it to use as a lunch/knitting bag and if it goes well, it’ll be a good pattern to use for some brocades I got with Shaun in mind many months ago. I also have to get some projects done for work. Open house is this coming weekend and I need to get some samples done by then. Fortunately they are very little projects.
In the meantime, it’s time for bed so I can get to work tomorrow and then to the doc’s office all on time.
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05.23.08
Posted in wls at 6:55 am by Shari
I’m not sure why it took so long to register, but I realized 2 days ago that if my home scales were fairly accurate, I was actually down by 1/2 of my goal! So off I went to Dr. D’s office yesterday to check and sure enough, I am down 89 lbs and 88 is the 1/2 way point.
My average steps/day has just (barely) hit 7000 now. Lots of days it’s a nighttime walk that gets me over the average, but I’m back on track at beating the average. I had gotten to 15 days in a row, then had a bunch of days where I alternated between hitting it and not hitting it. Mother’s Day was particularly bad - less than 1000 steps that day. I felt sick and I was tired, so I slept a LOT - never leaving the house at all.
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05.08.08
Posted in wls at 1:49 pm by Shari
So today I had my “real” 8 wk followup w/ Dr. D. Yippee! I am down a total of 81 lbs now.
I’m allowed to eat “whatever I want”, being sure to avoid breads and if I eat meat, cut it small and chew, chew, chew it. Last night, in anticipation, while I was walking the aisles at Wegmans and Tops to get my step count up, I got a few veggies - cucumber, red pepper, zucchini , mushrooms and a few other things that I’m hoping will be good for me to try. I’m thinking cucumber sticks with the hummus that I’ve been eating will get some crunch into my mouth. And I am planning to roast the zucchini, red pepper and some mushrooms soon to see how that goes. I also recently discovered Morningstar Farms’ Mushroom Lovers Burger patties. YUM.
Now I get to add new stuff and see how it all goes. I also get to work on making sure I get the diet balanced so I don’t feel like I need protein drinks or supplements. He said 60% protein, so that’s the goal. I forgot to ask about #of calories, though. Sparkpeople will help with seeing how it’s all going.
I took some time the other night to go thru the clothes I got from Mary. I’ve already worn a bunch of them and have a lot that I can wear right now - over 1/2 of what I brought home. It’s so weird to be able to wear these pants that are woven fabrics rather than the knit pants I’ve worn for so MANY years. It’s also driving home just how BIG all those clothes have gotten.
Most of the rest of my classes at the HS (continuing ed) have been cancelled now, so I’ll be able to make it to the next support group meeting. I was really sorry to miss that last one, so I’m glad I’ll get to this one.
In the meantime, there’s that work thing that needs to be done, and dropping off the title for the van that is junked so we can get some $’s out of it.
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05.02.08
Posted in wls at 10:41 pm by Shari
That’s right… I’m down 77 lbs right now - 99 to go to hit my goal.
I didn’t get to go to a “real” doctor appointment this week. Suffice to say that cars suck and can really throw you off your schedule pretty quickly when they break down.
But, I was able to stop at the office and weigh myself, chat with Theresa (the nurse) about what was going to happen at the support group I was going to miss, and even talk to Dr. D for a few minutes.
Today I went to Kate’s house. She had a lot of clothes from Mary (who has also lost lots of weight) in a bunch of sizes. I felt so GREEDY, taking 4 kitchen garbage bags of clothes home with me. I’d guess I took about 2/3 of what was there. Later Mary told me she had taken over 30 bags (!) of clothes over to Kate’s, so I didn’t feel quite so bad about it then. I got a good combination of stuff for now and stuff for later, stuff for work and stuff that may not quite be something I’d normally wear, but as Kate said, as I lose the weight, I may find myself willing to try the things that aren’t currently “me”. Tonight I wore one of the new pairs of pants to work and when I got home, changed from my work shirt to one of the new shirts. This will make it MUCH easier to dump my old clothes. That’ll be one of this weekend’s tasks - sorting my old clothes to toss/donate and sorting the new into what I can wear now and what I’ll hold til later.
On the walking front, the goal of beating my average steps/day was going great. I had 15 days in a row (I have been posting to a thread on Spark People about a days in a row challenge - look at the graph to see how much of an impact beating my average that many days is having). I missed it yesterday - mainly because it was a slow day and I figured I’d go out for a walk when I got home. I went into the grocery store, did a little shopping and came out to rain. That was 9:30pm, so I decided that I wouldn’t be too hard on myself about missing one day. I’m back on track today though. As for the 28 day average hitting 7500, I’m probably a bit off the mark. I’m at 7304 today. It was up to 7390 a couple of days ago. Tomorrow promises to be a busy day on the feet at work - I’m working a cashier shift which will be lots of walking, so maybe I can get the average up there.
This week I took 2 walks that were 2 or more miles. It’s amazing to me that I can do that and come home NOT exhausted. There’s several walks this Sunday for different causes that I was thinking would be good to try to do but 1) they are longer than I’ve been doing and 2) I am working Sunday afternoon, so I don’t know if I could get done in time. BUT, I will look for opportunities for things like that in the future, especially if I can find some for causes that I care about.
I’m having mixed feelings about Spark People. There’s lots there to help, but I spend so much time there trying to do it! I’m tracking my steps/day as an “other” goal, tracking my food, glasses of water, exercise minutes and 3 goals - packing a lunch, talking to a positive person about my progress and going for a walk. I don’t really understand how the reports on the goals work. I’m also being shocked by the total calories/day I’m eating - something like 300-600. Theresa said that’s NOT ENOUGH. But I’m finding myself afraid to eat much more. Anyway, this is the “fast break” mode, which is just getting used to the system. I gather that after the first 2 weeks, it’ll change modes and I kinda anticipate that it’ll be even more tracking stuff there. Maybe I’m offbase on that - I hope I am. It is useful, though, to see the calories and grams of protein.
It’s late and I have a lot to do tomorrow, starting with starting work earlier than I normally do.
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