A long-overdue update

Wednesday May 12th. 8 weeks ago today I was in the hospital getting this little implant of mine. I still haven't named him/her, maybe I won't. Maybe I haven't because the little thing hasn't given me issue yet so most of the time I forget it's there.

Let's do the numbers, first of all (this always makes me feel good!)
First surgical consult 1/22/10: 273
Day of Surgery 3/17/10: 260
8 Weeks post op: 234


I will be so ecstatic when I am out of the 230s, but hell, I'm pretty ecstatic now! I had my first fill almost 2 weeks ago and things have been going well since then. Well, actually, things have mostly been going well since I re-focused myself last Saturday and started eating low carb more intentionally. Up till now I'd been following the traditional wisdom of low calorie/low fat but was finding that I tended to eat things that weren't helping me work with my band. Crackers and breads, even if I only ate a limited number of calories of them, go right through my band at its current fill level and don't help to fill me up at all. Then I would be left limiting myself to certain amounts of meats because I didn't want to go over calorie budget for the day.

Well, I picked up my copy of The South Beach Diet and started reading it and I picked up my audio recordings of The Gabriel Method and started listening, and I got a major attitude adjustment. Said goodbye to cereal, crackers, bread, pasta, rice, and have been enjoying all the fresh vegetables and meats and cheeses and nuts and beans that I want - which (surprise, surprise) doesn't allow me to eat all that much and I'm probably eating less calories than I was anyway. But I'm not counting! Who cares? I'm losing weight and I'm not hungry and it's easy and it's working.

All the obsessing over calories and counting and measuring my portions was doing nothing if I didn't stay around 1200 a day. Well, nothing except stressing me out. At the moment, I feel freer than I have in months and in 4 days, the scale has gone down 2lbs. And yes, I'm drinking tons of water, exercising a bit every day, but it's so much easier and more pleasant to do when I'm not hungry.

Finally, I'm letting the band do its job and I couldn't be happier with it. I also have remembered the power of positive thinking and visualization exercises. Last week, I was telling myself things like "I'm one of those people who can only lose weight if I'm eating extremely low calories" and "It doesn't matter how many salads I eat, I'll never be able to shop at ___ store." This week I am keeping thoughts like "My body wants to be thin" and "It is safe to be thin" and "My body loses weight effortlessly" in mind and I can't say enough good things about the power of positive thoughts.

So, here I am... I need to take and post some more before/during pictures. People at work definitely make comments about being able to see it. I do once in a while but not entirely. I know clothes are fitting that never would have before though, so that's encouraging. And I'm turning into a shop-a-holic. Not really, but it is hard to resist one or 2 new items a week as I realize new things fit.