I feel like a 12 year old!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE riding my bike! I rode 10.6 miles today in 90 minutes. It was tough but fun. I love going down hills crazy fast with the wind at my face feeling like i'm flying...just like I did when I was 12! I have a very sore gluteus maximus!

I'm doing well eating-wise today also. After my ride I had Rudy's BBQ for lunch. I had half of an ultra lean brisket sandwich, half of a small container of potato salad, pickles, and unsweet tea. 406 calories. For a snack I had half of a pb&j sandwich for 215 calories. I've been trying to eat at least one serving of protein, one serving of carbs, and one serving of fruit/veggiese at each meal. I'm counting pickles for a vegtable :-p.

Since I slept through breakfast I have quite a few calories to spend and i'm contemplating dinner ideas.

On the WLS front, I saw my PCP, who is also a pulmonologist. He is writing my letter of necessity and giving me cardiac and pulmonology clearance. He's also the medical director of my unit which is totally awesome. He also prescribed me metformin to help with my insulin resistance.

I got a second job in recovery room today and i'm really excited about that! Today is just plain awesome. I hope you're having an awesome day too!

In response to a comment

Like you said, you don’t know me or my circumstances. I have severe insulin resistance, gaining weight after successful weight loss is inevitable. In order to maintain my weight loss and continue to lose I have to keep cutting down on calories and increasing my activity level. My insulin levels stay sky high making me feel like a starving lunatic 24/7. This surgery will eliminate my insulin resistance, allowing me to maintain weight loss for the rest of my life, and avoiding the diabetes and heart disease that my mom and maternal grandfather have.

Is it disappointing that I have to gain 30 lbs in order to have the surgery covered by insurance? Yes. I wish that with my risk factors and current comorbidities that my insurance would pay for it. But that’s not how it works, so if I have to play their game in order to avoid paying 20,000 out of my own pocket, then I will.

I’m not writing this blog to be an example to anyone, this blog is skinnynurseb-an icu nurse trying to lose weight, not skinnynurseb-do exactly as I do and you will lose weight too!. This is a BLOG, an online journal for ME to record my progress. Being a nurse has made me hyper-aware of the risks of the surgery as I understand exactly what they are. I have spent a great amount of time watching actual surgeries, speaking to patients of my surgeon, and reading experiences of others online. I’m not jumping into this because it’s the “easy” way out! Weight loss surgery is not the easy way out, and if you think that you’re ridiculous. Life after the surgery is difficult, mentally and physically. I’m as prepared for that as anyone can be until they begin to experience it themselves. I have an excellent support group to help me along the way.

I laugh at your statement about me not retaining any information from seminars because I’m just trying to jump through hoops. I have a second Bachelor’s degree…I understand nutrition better than 95% of the population. If I didn’t have insulin resistance I wouldn’t need this surgery as I would be able to maintain weight loss. I love to exercise and I love eating healthy foods.

My life isn’t going to dramatically change once “the weight” is off. I haven’t always been overweight. I started gaining weight when I hit puberty and developed PCOS, which triggered my insulin resistance. I’m a very confident, strong individual who knows what she wants in life and knows what she needs to do to get it. Thanks for taking the time to comment on my blog!

Day #289 Changing Course

The last time I weighed in was June and I weighed 202.6. Over June and July I hovered between 200 and 212. Quite a few of my coworkers have had gastric sleeve's done and I was very curious. I did some research and read blogs (of course!) of people who have had the surgery done and decided that this was something I was very, very interested in doing. Unfortunately my BMI was only 30 and I wasn't a candidate to have my insurance company pay for the surgery.

After talking to one co-worker in particular I decided to gain enough weight to have a BMI of 35. It took me most of August and all of September but I finally weighed 233.4 on September 29. That's the date of my first appointment with my surgeon. The surgeon that I have chosen is awesome! He always comes to the unit to put in cvp's and is very skilled. He also used to be my neighbor, which is cool too.

So, these are the things i've done so far in order to meet the insurance requirements:
9/28 Attended Weight Loss Seminar at my hospital
9/29 First appointment with surgeon
10/5 1/2 Support Groups
10/6 Meeting with Bariatric Coordinator, 1st Nutritionist Appointment, Psych Eval (Passed)

On 10/6 I was cleared to start losing weight by the nutritionist (who happens to be my buddy!). I started on a 1500 ish calorie diet and have been trying to exercise on my days off. Most of my meals consist of chicken or ultra lean beef, pasta/rice, vegetable, and fruit.

On 10/7 I walked 3.5 miles to my Aunt's house and then she dropped me off at home. I worked the next 4 days.

On 10/12 I walked 3.8 miles to my Aunt's house (different path) and then rode her bike back to my house (different path) 4.5 miles. I had a drinkable tiny yogurt when I got there. For lunch I had a subway 6" ham and turkey sandwich on wheat bread with american cheese and avocado. I also had a broccoli and cheese soup with 4 club crackers. NO CHIPS! To drink I had crystal light. I had two chocolate chip cookies for 100 calories for dessert. For dinner my husband got chick-fil-a grilled chicken sandwiches and I had the fillet and bottom bun, he also cooked broccoli pasta, and corn. For dessert I had a jello chocolate pudding. Total calories for the day 1585. Estimated exercise calories ~830. I weighed in this morning at 222.0.

I have my appointment with my PCP who is also a pulmonologist tomorrow. He will write my letter of necessity and provide my pulmonology and cardiac clearance. After that i'm pending one more support group, a physical therapy eval, and monthly nutritionist visits until I have a total of 6, then submission to the insurance :-)

Day #176 Cruising

I'm just cruising along. Today was a great day at work, I had easy patients who were not very demanding and appreciated my hard work. I started getting really hungry about 2 hours before my shift was over and didn't pack any snacks and I was THIS close to going downstairs and grabbing something from the caf. Thankfully I didn't! I kept my eye on the prize (reaching that first huge goal of 50 lbs) and ate two saltine cracker packets (4 total) and drank water. I'm at 1400 calories for the day and i'm not eating anything else. 2.6 lbs! I just keep telling myself 2.6! whenever I have cravings. I hope you had a fantastic day as well :-)

Day #175 Weigh-In & NSV

When I went out of town last week I took some clothes that don't fit me anymore to one of my best friends who is preggo and she gave me some clothes that she can't fit into anymore. I decided to wear a pair of shorts that she gave me today, size 18, and they are literally falling off as I walk to the point where my entire underwear are showing, lol. I had to come back home and add a belt!

Since I felt really skinny with these loose shorts I decided, what the heck, i'll weigh myself right now in the middle of the day, after eating lunch...and I weighed 202.6 lbs! That's a loss of 2 lbs from 3 days ago and a total loss of 47.4 lbs. After maintaining my weight loss for so many weeks it's as if i've started over with weight loss and am losing weight quickly. I'm enjoying it and definitely not complaining...I know it's going to get hard again and it's going to slow down, that's it just water weight, etc.

I worked at my office manager job today and caught up with everything there for half a day, but was off from the hospital. I work the next 5 days in a row which are going to be physically and mentally exhausting, but i'm going to keep thinking about all the fun my sister and I are going to have for those 5 days off in a row afterwards to get me through it!

Day #.....172? Re-dedicating myself to blogging :-)

Hi everyone! I'm back! The last few weeks have been a roller coaster as far as my weight goes. I have fluctuated between 206 and 211 the entire time. I didn't think about what I was eating, but I wasn't really gaining back all of the weight either. I consider my first attempt at maintaining my weight loss a success.

This past Thursday I re-dedicated myself to my weight loss journey. I weighed in at 211.8 before I left for going out of town that day, and behaved during my trip. I weighed myself when I got home from work today and I weighed 204.6! I was SO excited! I can't WAIT to get into ONEderland :-) I'll officially be halfway to my weight loss journey once I get to 200 but 199 is going to be such a sweet victory.

How are things going for YOU?

Day #117 Losing Inches & Gaining Muscle

Whoa! Time is going by so fast! I've been working so many days in a row, two weeks ago it was 5 in a row and this week it was 6 in a row. I haven't been losing a whole lot of weight these past two weeks, in fact i've been fluctuating between 206 and 208 the last two weeks.

Today when I put on my jeans I felt like they were really loose, but the scale wasn't budging, so I decided to measure myself and I have lost 10 INCHES off of my waist and hips! I think i'm gaining muscle weight in my legs from walking so much at work and losing inches off my belly which I love!

Things are going well over here, how are they going for you?

Day #102 Back on track!

I've been bad, really really bad! I haven't been tracking calories, i've been eating because i've been stressed from working so much, my dog was very sick, i've been sick, and (insert more excuses).

I didn't want to face the damage so I didn't look at the scale when I weighed, I had my husband look. He said it's 209. something. I have been feeling bloated and huge and was expecting to weigh 215 so i'm really grateful!

I'm also trying to combat the stress by taking care of myself. I got a cute new pair of shoes, I had a treatment done to my hair to make it softer and healthier, I got my eyebrows waxed and a brazilian, and I had a girls day with my godmother. I also went out for a drink after work last night and caught up on sleep today.

I counted calories today and stayed under my target of 1460! This is going to be a good week!

Day #96 Sick

The last few days I have been sick with what started out as throat irritation and has now made my lymph nodes in my neck turn into rocks. I had to call in yesterday to work b/c of fever which I hate hate HATE to do because I know how much it SUCKS when you're working and someone else calls in. I will go in to work with any illness as long as I don't have a fever.

My body has been demanding more calories these last few days as well and I just stopped counting calories because I felt like I was going so far "overboard". Today when I got on the scale I weighed 207...wait...how can this be? I've been eating like a crazy person, I should have gained 2 lbs, not lost it! We'll see if this sticks for my Friday weigh in or if it's just a fluke.

What is your favorite substitute to make foods "lighter"?

Day #93 Weigh In

I'm becoming a major workaholic! I'm loving all of the new things i'm learning in ICU :-D Things are going well, i've been eating well, and walking a lot at work.

Yesterday I weighed in at 209.0! Down 1.4 lbs this week and 41 lbs overall!