I know it has been awhile since I’ve updated my progress since my gastric bypass surgery on Aug. 6th and I do apologize. I’ve been focusing on structuring my eating, constructively dealing with emotional and mental obstacles and overall generally putting all my energy into getting healthy, enjoying life and taking one step at time to achieve my goals. It’s been a time where I feel I needed to withdraw a bit and just focus on my top priorites – my health, my family and the day to day challenges as well as the daily suprises and joys.

The past couple of weeks were a roller coaster at first, with a lot gaining for a few days followed by struggling to lose and ending up frustrated. However, after my last doctor’s visit Sept. 14th that showed yet another gain, I decided I was going to go back to doing things my way (because I know my body and what works) and sure enough for the past couple weeks now I have been dropping weight.

Here’s the scale weighins:
Week 26 9/5/09 – 238 lbs
Week 27 9/12/09 – 239 lbs
(Doctor visit weighin 9/14 – 244lbs, a 1 lb gain from previous visiit on 8/20)
Week 28 9/19/09 – 236 lbs
Week 29 9/26/09 – 230 lbs
Week 30 10/2/09 – 227 lbs – a day early because we will busy tomorrow

Total lost so far: (starting weight: 306.5)
From start date 3/3/09 weight lost during pre-op process to now: 79.5 lbs lost
From 8/6/09 (weight 252 lbs) -weight loss since gastric bypass surgery – 25 lbs
(current weight 227 lbs)

What the doctor recommends is 64 oz or more a day of water, 60 grams (or more) a day of protein, allowing a small amount of veggies ONLY after taking in a lot protein if there is room in the “pouch” (2 oz stomach that is created by gastric bypass surgery), and daily exercise. This was regime was NOT working for me at all and I was gaining weight.

What seems to have kicked in the weight loss finally is doing what my body needs to do – which means I lowered the amount of water I take in to about 40 oz a day (instead of the 64 or more oz), lowered the amount of daily protein to about 40 to 50 grams a day (instead of the 60+ grams), and cut out almost all exercise – because whenever I do anything, even just walkin to much at a store or outing I gain a LOT of fluid weight.

My body can not handle a ton of water or protein. Part of the reason I think I can’t handle the protein is because of a fatty liver. I doubled my dose of Livertone tables to help the liver out – since it will be processing a lot of fat as it leaves the body, along with the fatty deposits already in it the liver can become extremely sluggish, it definitely doesn’t need a lot of protein putting a strain on it. When I exercise I can feel the fluids building up in my body (mostly under my arms and in the groin area where the leg meets the hip) – my theory on what causes this is a sluggish lymph system since where the water is building up is where the lymph nodes are. This is probably what contributes to not being able to handle a lot of excess water intake also.

I am eating only three meals a day that include a lot more vegetables and a little lean protein and\or whey protein shakes. I am keeping my calories around 600 to 700 a day (which is a little less then the 800-900 calories I was on before the surgery). I am also taking chewable vitamins – a multi, calcuim, Omega 3, a sublingual B12, and other supplements (Liveratone for the liver, kelp for the thyroid, and red algae capsules from Hawaii which is a powerful antioxidant to help reduce inflammation and support my immune system.

I am feeling much better and I have a lot more energy then I did when I was eating almost all protein with very little vegetables, and gaining a lot of fluid weight from taking in much water and trying to exercise every day.

As I lose more pounds I will be increasing my activity, I will also be watching the scale. If I gain, then I will take a break to lose the fluid build up and a few more pounds, and then try again.

From past experience, I will have to lose a lot more weight before I will be able to do any kind of exercise without gaining fluids. The last time I lost over 100 lbs and got to just under 200 lbs, I tried exercising and gain a lot – 9 lbs over night and then 16 lbs the following week. I am hoping that when I reach around 175 lbs I may be able to exercise regularly, but only time will tell.

I have my next post-op follow up visit with gastric bypass office director on Monday (Oct. 5). I am sure he will be pleased to see my weight loss. And even though I have explained to him over and over again why I was gaining he insisted that it didn’t make any sense. Well now I can show him my weight loss and tell him how I’m doing, and I don’t care if it makes sense to him or not – as long as it is working and I’m feeling healthy I will be sticking with my plan.

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