4+ Weeks (I'm sorry I've disappeared!)

Tuesday, October 23 was my 4 week surgery anniversary!  I'd be lying if I said it's been a perfectly easy journey to this point.  It hasn't been the hardest though, either.  It's 98% a mental game for sure.  You see food, smell food, get offered food and you just want it.  Especially when you haven't had any solid food for over 6 weeks.  I'm so lucky (sarcasm) in that I get to sit next to the microwave at work.  So everyone's amazing smelling food just makes my mouth water.  People bring in treats that I would love to try, but I can't.  And for good reason.  I clearly don't need it.  I want it out of habit and addiction.  I'm spiraling here...

As of today, October 25, I'm down 63.5 pounds total since 8/28/2018.  I definitely feel like I'm 63.5 pounds lighter.  Before surgery I lost 33.3 pounds, and since surgery it's been 30.2 pounds.  So awesome.  I've experienced a couple small stalls (my body is constantly adjusting to this food deprivation and lack of caloric intake, so it's totally to be expected) but I get past them in 3-4 days or so.  I'm relatively patient.  It definitely still boggles my mind that I've had the surgery and when I think about where I'll be in say 6 weeks, I'll be looking at lost to another 20-25 pounds down by then.  By my 40th birthday next summer, I'm really hoping to be around 125 pounds down (from surgery weight).  

Here are some notable events that have happened in the last couple of weeks around my surgery:

• Just after my 2 week mark I had 2 teeth pulled.  That's been fun.  Luckily I was already on fluids so no big issues with chewing or anything.  They are close to healed. I'll be glad when the pockets close up a bit more.  No issues with them. 
• I've managed to start getting my vitamins in each day (most of them).  I haven't been able to get myself to take the Vitamin C since it's so sour and I already am dealing with sour stomach. But I'm getting in at least 1000mg of the calcium, my Vitamin D, and my multi.  Every other day I take the B12. 
• I went to dinner with a friend (Pho) and had some broth.  Was able to socialize and feel like a normal person.
• Have graduated to soft foods (actually a couple days early was given the ok to move forward) so I've been having 3 small meals a day of thinks like cottage cheese and deli turkey, lunch meat and soft cheese, beans and cheese with sour cream and salsa and guacamole. It's going OK, but my eyes are definitely bigger than my stomach.  I have a baby stomach again and not being able to get in more than 1 ounce or so is really hard.  I'm a normal person so I want more flavor, but too much flavor means too much food believe it or not. I still have to drink 2 protein shakes a day *gross* but I need to make sure I'm getting in at least 65 grams of protein a day.
• Was intimate with the hubster. Things worked just as they should. No pain.  No issues. It was fun!
• All of the glue has come off of all my incisions.  Almost all the scabs are gone.  My skin isn't itching as much from the tape from the drain.  I don't feel any nerve pain really.  Overall it's great.  The worst one is right above my belly button and annoys me because it his my pants all the time so that's annoying.  But I'm only a couple more weeks away from being released to regular lifting and being able to go into the hot tub or swimming pool.  

Truth be told though, I'm a bit behind on my walking.  I am struggling a little bit with getting all my walking in.  I need to buy my gym membership so I can start going and hitting the weights and the stair machine.  I also should doing the stairs at work.  I work in a building with 4 floors so there is no reason if it's raining why I can't go do stairs for 15 minutes or so.  My endurance is already so much better without that 63 pounds on me.  So I need to keep working on building my muscle and burning fat.  

Next week, on Halloween is my official first follow up appointment.  I'm hoping to hear things like how much they expect me to lose by my next visit (around February 2019), whether or not I'm meeting their expectations, is my blood work looking good (I'll not hear that until after I'm guessing), and how my diet may or may not progress. I haven't tried anything but soft food and am dying to know when I can have pickles, olives, and crunchy things.  I bought these awesome cheese crackers (literally crackers made from just cheese) and they are high protein and would be great with some tuna, chicken, or egg salad.  I have a whole list of questions to take with me and hope to get them all answered before I leave.  

To wrap this up, overall I think I've been a pretty good patient in recovery.  I've been going to therapy, and I feel good overall.  I haven't thrown up once, so far no issues from the surgery.  It's a huge learning curve.  Making sure that I keep in mind that from now on I'm eating to live, not living to eat (which is sooo hard because I'm totally a foodie!).  I know it's early in the journey for me, but I know that I have big goals to accomplish and being successful with my surgery, self-care, diet, and increasingly healthier lifestyle will all help me achieve those goals!