not much

Not much has been happening lately it seems like all I am mostly doing is counting the days til I see Dr. Mayo and hopefully get the ok for the surgery. On Thursday I met a person that is having her surgery next Tuesday she is having the RNY just like I am going to have to do but she has a different surgeon and is on a liquid diet for 2 weeks. I will not have to be on a liquid diet which I think is a good thing.

I have been spending my time well I am waiting I have started to sew. I bought a sewing machine and a serger and I have been creating all sorts of different projects. I made pajama pants, a quilt a couple of purse and a tote bag since I started sewing last month. Right now I am working on making a dress for my niece Katie and then I am going to start my second quilt.

Right now I have to continue to work out and write down everything in my food journal so that I am able to maintain or lose weight before my surgery. I have also started to not drink while I eat which is pretty hard to get used to but I guess I better get used to this before the surgery because I will never be able to do that again after the surgery.

One of the reasons why I have not told everyone that I know about my upcoming surgery is some of the people that I have told have been really negative about it. When I told them or when they found out they spent all of there time trying to convince me not to have the surgery. They handed me weight loss books and told me there weight loss strategies and I was pretty hurt. Here I am although completely surprised that I was approved for the surgery I was pretty excited that I was approved and now some of the people that I saw all the time and that I thought would support me had that reaction to my decision so then in my head I thought it would be easier to tell people after the surgery so I would not have that reaction from anyone else. But now I have decided that I do not need to care about what other people think of my decision. It is my personal decision to have the surgery and I no longer need to try to please everyone with my decision. That is why I decided to tell everyone who reads this blog about my surgery.

I just realized that I just made my final payment on my car yesterday!!! I new that it would happen pretty soon but I did not think that it would be for a couple of more months!!! I am so stoked!!!!

On Monday I finally had time to figure out how to thread my serger that I bought off of Kijiji a couple of months ago. We had a unexpected evening where we had nothing to do because there was a snowstorm so we were not able to go to our churches congregational meeting. So instead I watched YouTube Videos to figure out how to thread the machine because it did not come with an owners manual and then last night I made my first Item on it a new purse and it turned out really well. Now tonight I am going to make some flannel pants with it and then I am going to start my second quilt. A couple of weeks ago Michelle and I went to FabricLand and purchased fabric and patterns for really cheap because they had a really big sale. So making myself some flannel pants is only going to cost be $9.00 which is way cheaper then buying them in the store and I made a work purse for Shauna and a purse for me. Right now today I am using it but I am not planning on using it every day. Probably just for Bible Study which I am going to start going to next week. Every week since September I have been trying to go but have had something come up and I am not able to go so I will be going next week for sure because I have nothing planned.

Update

Today I had a visit to the clinic as I had not gone to see the nurse or my dietician in a very long time. Right now my file is on hold until I get a letter from Dr. Mayo so my surgery will be in the new year unless there is a cancellation. But now I kind of know when I will have the surgery and after waiting 8 months I guess 2 more months is not that long.

It was kind of weird to go and see the dietician because my former dietician was promoted and so now for the first time in a year and a half I had a new dietician. She seems like she is really nice but I just do not like to change who I am seeing because you develop a relationship with them over time and it is easier to talk to people when you have got to know them a little bit better. I also have to continue to maintain or loose more body weight. If I gain any weight the surgery will be cancelled. I have known this all along so I have worked hard to maintain my weight even though I was on some medication that one of the side effects is you gain weight and Dr. Mayo said he would be surprised if I never gained weight so it is a relief to know that I have maintained my weight for the 3 months that I was on the pills and hopefully I will start loosing weight when I finish taking the pills in 3 more days.

The new thing that I have to work on is to not drink anything 30 minutes before I eat to 30 minutes after I eat. The reason for this is that after the surgery I will not be able to drink anything while I eat. Because at first my stomach will be so small that if I take a sip of water I will be full so I will have to wait to eat after each meal. They say that it is better to start this before you have the surgery because then it will not be such a big change after the surgery.

I will also have to start to eat every 2 hours during the day with small meals instead of having 3 larger meals and snacks. This is also so that your body is already used to eating often and you are used to not eating large meals any more. Right now when you eat you are supposed to eat your vegetables first, protein second and your starch last. After the surgery you have to make sure that you get enough protein so you would eat your protein first and then some vegetables and then if you are still hungry you can eat a form of starch. The reason for this is your body still needs the same amount of protein or your body will not be able to function. So I will have a protein goal that I will have to reach each day instead of a calorie goal. Because you are not able to eat as much food it will be hard to eat that many calories although you have to ensure that you are eating proper healthy food or else you will gain back all the weight you have lost.

Well I have to get back to work so I will try and update this soon.

Changes...

So I have decided to change the contents the topic of most of my blog posts because I have not been reveling everything that is happening in my life on this blog and I want this to be a written record of the journey that I am on right now and the changes that will be happening in my life in the next months.

All my life I have struggled with my weight and 3 years ago my doctor referred me to a dietitian who placed me on the waiting list for the Weight Wise program at the Royal Alex Hospital. It took 2 years to get it but in July 2010 I was accepted into the program and had my initial visit. Since then I have been meeting bimonthly with a dietitian and a nurse and they have been helping me with this journey to loose weight. They helped me keep myself accountable and assisted in helping me loose the weight that I have lost so far.

In April 2011 I had a consultation with Dr. Birch and he approved me for gastric bypass surgery. Because of the amount of weight that I have to loose the team and I both agreed that I need to have a tool to assist me with loosing the rest of my weight so that I can be a normal body weight. This is not because I was failing at loosing weight but because I was successful at proving that I am able to loose the weight that they accepted me. This is not the lazy way to loose weight because although you have the surgery if you do not watch what you eat and exercise you will gain back the weight and it will all be in vain.

In July 2011 I was scheduled to have the surgery but it was cancelled because there was an overbooking in the operating room. I also had a lot of pain on my left side so my doctor did an ultrasound and noticed a cyst on my ovaries. I was then referred to a Gynaecologist who place my gastric bypass surgery on hold in September until the cyst was removed and I finally had it removed on October 17, 2011.

I am still planning on having the surgery and it will probably be in December or January as soon as I have the a letter from my doctor approving me for the surgery. I am excited to begin this new phase of my life although it is a extremely scary step for me as a divulge into the unknown. I am planning on making this blog as the story of my weight loss journey.

Ramblings

So I just bought myself a brand new sewing machine and a serger on Kijiji so I have not really been on the computer that much lately. Currently my days consist of work, going to the gym and then sewing until it is time to go to bed but I have almost finished my second project so it is almost time to start my first quilt. Well technically it is the second but the first one is not as versatile as this one will be. I want to eventually figure out how I can get cheaper fabric so that I can make baby blankets and sell them online for a profit. Also the church education season has started again at our church so I made 25 sock monkey kits for the children for the craft at Kid's Club so far they are loving the project but right now all they have done is stuffed there monkeys so hopefully they still like it once they start hand sewing the arms. legs, ears and noses on each of the monkeys.

This weekend is Thanksgiving which means that it is a long weekend!!! I really need an extra day off right now as I have been really tired lately and I just need a change in scenery for a while. I am going to have a week off in 10 days when I have my surgery but I think that maybe I will take a little mini holiday in November so I can really relax and not have to recover from surgery when I have time off. Right now I am just waiting for a call from the hospital to confirm the time of my surgery so hopefully it comes soon.

Rebecca, Michelle Richard and Katie are coming up to our house for the weekend and it will be really nice to hang out with them again as it seems like it has been forever since I last saw them Although last weekend I did see them for 1.5 hours in Calgary when we went out for breakfast together. Well I should get back to work as my lunch break is almost up. I will try to post again soonish.

Whats new with me

So I am an Auntie to a cute little baby Girl Katie Jolene born on July 8, 2011. I also started a new position at my work that allows me to have every evening free something I have not had in a long long time. This allows me to lots of extra time to swim and go to the gym so although I have my evenings free I am still hardly ever home. I have discovered that I am not a great writer but I am trying to get better.

Right now I am trying to plan a baby shower last minute for Michelle with my mom and my sisters. Hopefully most of the people that we invite are able to make it.

My blog has been neglected...

So I finally have time to blog after months of running around like a crazy person I am happy to say that I passed all of my courses this year and I only need one more course to graduate. The unfortunate thing about this is that I have to wait until January 2012 to take the class because they cancelled it last minute and they do not offer it for a year. So I have to wait 12 more months to graduate which is a long time to wait (or so I think).

This year I helped with our Churches Kids Disciples club and today we are finally finished for the year. Although it was a lot of fun I am kind of happy to have my Fridays to myself. At least until the fall that is when it starts over again.

I am also happy to announce that I am going to be a aunt in the summer. I am really excited to become a aunt and I have been buy perfecting my crocheting. I even made sweaters and hats something I never thought that I would know how to make but I realized that it is easier to make than it looks.

This week at work has been the most stressful week that we have had at work since I began working there almost 5 years ago (I cannot believe that it has been that long) One person left for a doctors appointment and has not come back and we are not even sure what is happening with him because he took off out of the city. And another person was fired leaving our already limping staff two people short which made for a really stressful week. I was also offered a new position at work that I am debating about taking. Although it would be a less stressful job it would also be the same thing every day that I am not sure that I would like. But I am thinking about it and will get back to them on Monday with my decision.

Since I have began my weight lose journey I have now officially lost 45 lbs. I am pretty stoked but I have kind of plateaued and not lost any more weight since that achievement but I am hoping to have a breakthrough pretty soon.

Well thats all for now I should get going to sleep.

2 posts in 2 days??? What is up with this?

So the weather man says it is going to snow another 20 cm. After the 45 cm that fell NW of Edmonton last weekend that will make 65 cm in under half a week. Yikes!!! Right now it seems like that is what everyone is talking about in Edmonton. The Weather. Not only are they expecting a record amount of snow in Edmonton. It has snowed the most amount of snow in a 24 hour period since 1989. Yes Rebecca that is since you were born so a long time ago. Now they are expecting the coldest cold snap since the early 1960's so I am glad to be in my warm house. :-)

Tonight I started school again for this semester. I cannot believe that in only 4 months time I will be a college graduate!!! It is pretty exciting.

This week has been crazy at our work. Yesterday Nancy and I were thinking that we should have just pretended that we could not get to work and just go home. Everybody has the same old questions. When is my snow going to be removed? Are you going to clear the parking lot? The snow contractor only did half the property? When is he going to come back etc.

One of the highlights from this week was my bosses solution to fix our leaking roof because of the ice damming. Just put some ice melt on the ice it will melt it.

Snow

It has snowed over 35 inches in the last 2 days. The roads are almost impassable and church was even cancelled because of the large amount of snow that has accumulated on the streets. Not only are the roads treacherous but you cannot park on any of the roads because everyone would be stuck. So we have had a couple of snow days where we have stayed home out of the storm.

I enjoyed time playing Empire Builders, Sequence and watching Despicable Me. Which is a great movie.

Tomorrow I am starting the Biggest Loser Class again so I am very excited to start again. It is a lot of fun and I like working out better in a group then on my own. I am much more motivated.

Hopefully the roads are clear and the parking lot at our office has been cleaned out when we get to work tomorrow or else we will all get stuck in the parking lot.

Rebecca I will update soon.