I love this time of the year! Spring reminds me of everything being fresh and new.  The new leaves coming out on the dead looking dreary trees along with the beautiful flowers that pop up after being dormant underground for the winter-all welcoming signs of springtime.  Along with the beauty of spring is a time to get ready for our own so call beauty.  I call it "unleashing of the flesh"...a phrase I got from my good London friend, Vicki Day.  It's a time when so many people ALLOW their flesh....toned or  not toned to be unleashed on the rest of us. This unleashing has prompted me to become sort of a "fashion police" on our summer attire.  We all have our imperfections but some of us don't quite see them.  If you weigh 300 lbs you probably do not want to wear boy shorts and a tank top during the summer.  It just doesn't look the same as if Angelina wore the boy shorts with a tank top.  Get my drift?  I use to say that I had the disease opposite of anorexia.  When I would look into the mirror I would think I was skinny but I was really very fat.  I have determined over the years that  a lot of people suffer from this very same disease.  They desperately need help and might even need to attend some support groups if any exist.
I've been reading Dave Ramsey's book, The Total Money Makeover and so far I like what I've read.  As Dave put it in the book, we all have to look into the mirror and realize that WE are the ones responsible for the shape we are in...whether literally or financially.  Until we get out of the denial stages that we are what we eat...things will never change.  If you keep doing what you're doing you are going to keep getting what you're getting.  Do you like what you are getting?  Do you like the way you look?  Do you like the way you feel?  Is your health where it needs to be?  Those are the questions that I asked myself last year when I was contemplating the gastric bypass.  I finally realized that I was getting no where with trying to lose weight on my own and I felt that I didn't have another year to try to lose it before something major came back to bite me in the butt.  So I made the decision last March and I am so glad I went through with the surgery.  I feel better than I have in years.  I know I have added years to my life.  I am no longer on any medications except for my daily vitamins of a multi, calcium, and B-12.  How awesome are those beans?  I have more energy than ever and the one thing that I absolutely love being able to do now is cross my legs.  It's really not a good thing for your veins and legs but I do love to do it. 

So now with springtime here and summer is fast approaching I am working on exercising and toning up that flesh that I might be forced to unleash.  I would hate to make people sick so I'm going to work on it. 

As of this morning I have lost 59.6 lbs.  My goal is to lose 40 more and then I will be satisfied. 
I really don't care what I weigh so to speak but I do care that I'm healthy and that I feel better. 

So here's to UNLEASHING OF THE FLESH.....  :)

Layering Delicates

The past month has been very eventful.  It started off about 3 1/2 weeks ago with a kidney stone waking me up out of a deep sleep at 4am in the morning.  I had no idea at the time it was a kidney stone and was in extreme pain.  Since I had the gastric bypass surgery my sister (who lives across the street) decided against driving me to the hospital and called an ambulance. 

I had never been in that kind of pain before except maybe when I broke my left arm really bad.  Anyway...it was awful and I was begging for relief.  After having a CT scan at the emergency room it was determined I had a 2mm kidney stone that was only half way to my bladder.  I got two pain shots at the emergency room and then they sent me home with 7 prescriptions.  Almost two weeks after the emergency room visit the kidney stone decided to move again which caused me great pain and literally put me in the bed for the weekend.  After the weekend was over the pain subsides and I go on with my days.  Then this past Wednesday I get a phone call from the a nurse out of the radiology department.  She states that when the radiologist was looking over my CT scan that he saw something suspicious on my pancreas.  As you can imagine this news turned my world upside down.  I get an appt the same day with my primary care doctor and they get it set up for me to have another CT scan but with contract (the dye).
I get the contrasting CT scan the next day and on Friday I hear from doctor that everything is okay with my pancreas...THANK GOD....but my liver enzymes are slightly elevated by it could be because of the surgery.  Also my beloved kidney stone has now made it's way to my bladder.  So hopefully I will be passing it very soon.

As far as the gastric bypass surgery is concerned I'm doing great!! I've lost 52 lbs. so far and trying to walk at least twice a day.  I basically eat to live not live to eat.  I'm never hungry and only eat because I have to eat.  I still crave chocolate but I don't eat much because one I don't want my much and two too much will make me feel bad. 

That's been the last month....