My mom said I needed a side-by-side picture of myself. So here is a present picture and a picture from the day before surgery. Still when I look in the mirror I wonder to myself "Is that me?"

A New Year

So here we are into 2010. I personally do not do New Year's resolutions, but always excited to start a new year through all the fun events and holidays from each season to the next.
I have recently been receiving many compliments on my weight loss and lots of questions about how did I do it? I am very reserved with "my story". I am always justifying my reasons for choosing to do what I did. The other day Reid looked at me and said "You do not have to justify what you have done, or plan to do to anyone." I know he is right, but it is so hard. I know I didn't take the easy way out, but I feel like people may think that. Crazy as it sounds I have always been against gastric bypass. Obviously I am now an A class hypocrit!!! I did not do it because I couldn't stop eating, I have a disorder that prevented me from losing weight. I know everyone has a reason for doing what they did, no one has to agree with the choices we each make, but still it is hard for me. My mom made a good point today: She said: People think gastric bypass, they think skinny. What they don't know, for that matter what I never knew, is all that comes with it. the surgery is a tool, not a cure.

All celebrations require food (and lots of it)

I sit here wondering why every event we celebrate involves food? Not "good for you" food, but high fat, high calorie, high sugar food. Of course I helped contribute to the "celebration" food. I baked up a storm again this year. Chocolate whoopie pies with kuhlua filling, rocky road tassies, cranberry almond bars, sugar cookies, spritzer cookies, red velvet whoopie pies with peppermint filling, chocolate mint-oreo bark, white chocolate peppermint bark, chex mix, and pig-in-the-blankets (I am sure I missed a thing or two there). Mind you this is scaled back from years past! The only difference was I ate zero, nadda, zelch, nothing, of the sweet stuff. I did indulge in the chex mix, which was high fat, but did have protein (nuts). I did eat exactly one pig-in-the-blanket, it just did not taste as good as it use to. Of course I was surrounded by temptation, but really it did not bother me at all. When I feel the urge to eat bad stuff I remind myself of the journey I am on, have far I have come, and the fact that I take ZERO meds, and am conquering my PCOS (it will never completely go away, but is such more more managable). I look back to when I was on weight watchers, and I still baked all this food for the Holidays, and I still lost weight. Christmas 2005 I lost 25lbs. between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That was after I had Kendall and still could succeed at losing weight. Wishing you all a blessed Christmas, enjoy your family!!!!!

Protein

Protein is so very important in our daily nuitrition, especially us WLS people. I am suppose to have 72 grams daily. At first I thought this may be tricky, but thanks to creative thinking and eggface (She's a blogger with super cool recipes). I eat tons of nuts, cheeses, and meat. I try and stay away from complex carbs, hardly ever eat breads, heck I don't have a lot of room for food anymore so I have to get the biggest bang for my buck!!! I basically live on a south beach type eating lifestyle (stage 2 & 3). I put protein powder in so many things!!! I make protein smoothies for breakfast with fresh fruit and fruit juices. I add protein powder to instant sugar free pudding, my favorite drink at Starbuck's is a sugar free vanilla protein latte. My new guilty pleasure is protein ice cream!!! I make several batches and flavors and then put them in my freezer in 1/2 cup containers. My most recent flavor is chocolate peanut butter, totally orgasmic!!! I use to love ice cream, a huge love/hate relationship. Well now I eat it almost every night and it is actually good for me. Anyone dieting should try it!!!!

Shelly's Peanut Butter Cup Protein Ice Cream

1 cup Milk (I use 2%)
2 scoops Chocolate Protein Powder
1 Tablespoon Peanut Butter, melted (I used Jif Creamy)
Optional: 3 or 4 Sugar Free Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, chopped

Nuke peanut butter for 25 seconds to thin. Mix together milk, protein & peanut butter. I used this gadget to mix it up. It makes it airy and lump free. Pour into ice cream maker. Follow your machine's instructions for freezing. 5 minutes before done add the optional chopped SF Reese's. You can eat it right away it is soft serve-ish but I like to put it in the freezer to set for an hour or so.

Check out her other flavors and other recipes, she is amazing!!!!
http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/

Slacking on the updates

Well of course I have been a total slacker when it comes to my blog. There is no excuse for it, except I am a busy stay at home mom to three kids, with a husband who works LOTS of hours ;0). So I am doing great, had my first blood work done and my numbers are excellent!!! My cholesterol went down 75 points and is currently at 157. That alone tells me how worth it this surgery was. I have so much more energy and I have been told that I look years younger!!! I am flying through sizes and have a tons of clothes to donate. So here are my most recent pictures:

Candy-Less Halloween

So we are quickly approaching my first candy-less Halloween. I couldn't be happier either. Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed plenty of candy, especially twix bars and reeses, but I will eat some almonds and remember how great life is!!!! My kids are so excited of course. Addison is going to be a rockstar cat, Kendall is going to be a witch, and Kooper a dinosaur. Reid has been working like crazy so we are hoping he has the night off to go ghouling with us!

3 Times A Charm

So 3 times is a charm!!! Once I had Kooper I could not lose the weight. I actually looked pregnant and have actually been asked when I was due. As much as it hurt, how could I blame anyone for thinking that, I was hideous. We tried for a fourth for almost a year. My endo said the preganacy and weight gain most likely increased my side effect of PCOS, causing me to not ovulate (sorry I know TMI). I was beyond frustrated, I worked out like crazy, with no results. Well I shouldn't say no results, I did go down a size in pants, but my weight remained the same. My endo put me through various tests to find out if I had other "issues" beyond PCOS. I kept track of my food intake. I was eating right and exercising with no resluts. Talk about wanting to throw in the towel. Luckily exercising for me was my new stress reliever so I actually enjoyed it. I figured there has to be at leats one fat girl in every exercise class, so I will be her. I contined to see my specialist, she even put me on various prescribed weight loss drugs. I was never able to lose more then 5 pounds. I was doing twice a day injectables too. We did this for over a year. Finally I was in tears and told her I need to find a way. I want to see my grandchildren grow up. It was at that point I started to look into lapband. My mom asked me why not go for the whole kit-n-kaboodle, meaning gastric bypass. I said no way, that is the easy way out. My mom said not if there is no other way out. I pondered............

I started doing mega research on weight loss surgeries, the type, costs, side effect, recovery, ect. I went on many message boards, talked to others with PCOS who had gone through surgeries and what their results were. I did research on surgeons and hospitals in Michigan. I decided to go to a seminar of a highly recommened surgeon in the area. I sat through his presentation and then Reid and I met with him privately. At that point I was leaning towards lapband surgery. He told me that with my PCOS I would not get much success with lapband. That all the PCOS related "stuff" would be "cured", but only with bypass. He is the expert so I think I should listen to him.