New Game Plan!

I've had a decent plan going, but I felt a little scattered and was trying to gain some focus, and wasn't quite sure how to go about that. And then I met Stacey. :) Remember that super empowering spin class teacher? Yep! She does personal training and coaching! So this week I met with her and hired her as my coach. She put together a plan for me, and I am so excited! She believes in me so much that I am so pumped about what I can accomplish this year. She wrote me a plan with 3 cardio days and 3 weight days per week. I did her leg workout yesterday and her cycling workout today. Whoo! She knows her stuff! I can't walk or sit down now, but I can tell its working! This month we are focusing on leaning me out, getting my body burning fat like crazy and then in another month or so we will start focusing more on cycling to get me ready for my events. I am seriously so excited! Who know I could be so excited about so much pain. Haha! I check in with her every day right now, and it really makes me not cheat on my workouts. No more skipping the lunges. :)

I can also tell that having more focused has me more on my game in the kitchen too. I have to fuel myself well, so I've been planning a little better and eating a little better. But, I'm happy to say i'm not obsessing. I've been counting my calories, but not stressing. I'm not beating myself up when I have a little treat. I'm not beating myself up if I have a bad meal. I'm not stressing about the ups and downs with the scale. I'm just doing better overall and trying to be positive about myself. I love how much happier I am when I take this approach.

I forgot to take official 7 weeks post-op pictures this week! I haven't changed much this week. I feel like my swelling is going down though, which is great. I'm still wearing my surgical binder, but I'm totally used to that now. And my incision is looking better and better. Its still not completely healed, but I can tell its getting close. The rest of the incision looks really good. Its thin and smooth. Its still pretty red, but I can tell as it heals its going to be a really nice looking scar. Here are some random pictures of my in different clothes. I'm kind of obsesses with how different my clothes look on me, I take a lot of pictures. :) I'm also obsessed with wearing workout clothes now. They make me feel like a million bucks. I just bought a bunch of new ones. I might need a workout clothes closet soon. Haha!

Progress

I've been thinking a lot about a lot today. :) Mostly about how far I've come. I did a spin class today at my new gym. I wasn't sure I was up for the intensity yet, but I was excited to try it out. I LOVED IT. Was I pushing as hard as some other people in the class? Probably not. Does it matter? NOPE! My heart rate was sky high when it was supposed to be, I knew I was pushing my limits, I was sweating buckets, and I was loving it! And I did everything the teacher asked us to do. When I did my first spin class about 2 years ago, I couldn't stand up and pedal for more than 15 seconds. I was literally incapable. My first 2 classes I left half way through in tears. I haven't done a ton of spin classes since. I have done a few, and I knew I had improved, I mean I did spend a lot of time on a bike last year, but spinning is different! I really didn't know what to expect, especially after surgery. But I went, and rocked it, and I felt like a super star! The teacher was awesome, as was her playlist. She was very motivating and empowering. I bought into everything she said about us being more capable than we believe, about the fact that our legs will do whatever our brain tells them to do, and about the fact that I AM AN ATHLETE. She told a little bit of her story, she didn't step into a gym until she was 33, she walked on the treadmill for 5 minutes and thought she would die, but she kept coming back, and 1 year later she ran her first marathon! That is amazing to me! So often I get down on myself, I feel like I got into this living healthy thing too late in life and made it a lot harder on myself. But, who cares?? Its hard, yes. But its worth it! I teared up on several occasions as I was pushing hard, standing up out of the saddle, legs on fire, listening to the teacher cheer me on. I have come so far!

Before the class I met with a trainer and did what is called the "MyHealthScore" test. It went over my weight, body fat, water levels, cholesterol etc etc. I knew there would be a few things that I need to work on, but I'm happy to report I score a 92/100! The only deduction was for a higher than optimal body fat %. I knew that. That is my goal this year! Get my body fat down and my lean body mass up! For my own sake, I'm going to list a few of my numbers here so I can reference back as I work on these things.

Body Fat: 31.7%
Total Cholesterol: 158
HDL: 39 (needs to come up)
LDL: 102 (could stand to go down a bit)
Triglycerides: 85

I'm glad I can look back and see how far i've come. I'm glad I can see a healthier me in my future.

 Proof that I worked my tush off in spin today!

New Comfort Zone

This is my goal! I want to step away from my comfort zone and find my new happy place. I have a meeting with a personal trainer later this week. Its mostly a go over my goals, see where I'm at right now kind of meeting. As i've been thinking about it and what I want to say and what my goals are, i'm so happy to see that my ideas have changed. I don't care so much about the numbers, I just want to create muscle and endurance, and create healthy change in my body and mind. I want to find peace in myself, mind, body and soul. I keep saying it over and over, but its true that I am so happy to see myself making these positive mental changes. I'm so happy that I can actually see myself achieving my goals, believing in myself, and getting to where I want to be. It might not happen when I want it to, but I genuinely believe that I can actually make it happen now. And that makes me SO HAPPY! I posted on Facebook yesterday that I keep seeing these glimpses of what I am capable of, those glimpses don't always stick with me, but just knowing that I can see them for a moment lets me know that they are there, I can become whatever it is I want to be, I am capable. So here is to stepping out of my comfort zone and making those glimpses my reality.

Success!

I completed every one of my scheduled workouts this week, every day Monday-Saturday. WOOT! I walked 4.95 miles on my treadmill (briskly and usually with an incline of 1-3%), rode my bike 25.61 miles, and lifted weights 3 times. I'm feeling really good. My eating has not been as stellar this week sadly, I'm really good breakfast through lunch, but late afternoon and evening are a struggle for me (plus I didn't make it to the store for a major grocery shopping trip this week, so we were scrounging a bit)! So I'm not seeing much weight loss yet, but it's at least a slow downward trend. I have a Withings scale that tracks my weight, body fat and heart rate, and gives me all sorts of charts on my phone and I love it, it helps me see that despite the ups and downs the trend is still good. I definitely am not obsessed with my weight any more. I don't really care if I ever hit "that" number. But I can't wait to start seeing changes in my body again. I want muscle definition and strength and endurance! I joined a new gym this week to give me some classes and machines that will help me mix up my workouts, and just looking at all of the toned people around me is a great motivator! But I gotta say I was feeling pretty good in my workout clothes there today. WOOT. I call that great progress. I get a session with a trainer next week to find out my baseline and get some tips on workouts and food, so I'm hoping to take full advantage of that and get some good ideas for moving forward toward my goals. 15 weeks until I leave for my first ever tropical vacation. I've got some work to do!

5 weeks post-op

Today is 5 weeks! I'm feeling good. I'm working out. I'm doing all of my regular activity. My incision is still giving me trouble, but they told me it would probably take a month to heal up, so its expected. It does hurt, but its not horrible.

The biggest question I get is if it was worth it. If I am happy I went though it. The answer is a resounding YES. Was it painful? Yes. Was it stressful on my family? Yes. But it has totally changed things for me. I feel confident again for the first time in 8 years. I went to the mall yesterday and it was SO MUCH FUN! I actually like trying on clothes! Right now I'm not even a different size than I was in most things, but everything fits me so much better that I love it. I expect I will go down a pant size as the swelling decreases, but even if it doesn't, I'm happy. If nothing changed from how I am right now (except my incision closing) I would be happy. Even if the scar stayed red and visible, and I stayed as swollen as I am today, I would absolutely be happy.

I should mention that as of right now my weight is within 1-2 pounds of what I was pre-op. This was not a weight loss surgery! They removed about 5 pounds of tissue, but because I haven't been active, and I have swelling, my weight is the same. I am trying to lose a few pounds during the healing process to get to my goal range, and it would be good to do it soon while my skin is still healing so it stays tight, but even if I don't succeed in that, I'll be happy. I am tracking my measurements and i'm down 3 or 4 inches since surgery, and as I said, I expect it to keep going down as the swelling decreases. The pictures from today were right after an intense workout, so about as swollen as I get right now, and I'm pretty happy with how its coming along.

Skinny jeans and a fitted shirt, never would I have worn this combination before surgery!

A picture of the binder I'm always talking about. Just a giant stretchy band that goes from my hips to my bra line and velcros to itself. I still wear it 24/7 except to shower.

And the belly. The sweats kind of push up my love handles, they look better than that when I'm not wearing a tight band around my hips (note to self, wear the looser pants for pictures). :) As you can see the sides of my incision are very inflamed, the side on my left is the open wound, about an inch long and 1/2 wide, I decided to spare you a close up picture. The right side has a small sore but it is healing up nicely. Overall, I'm very happy. I'm excited to be back to my workouts this week and see how that helps things tighten up even more. I'm nice and sore from my lifting workout yesterday, and I LOVE IT! I put 10 miles on my bike this morning, and it was great to be reunited. :)

Lift!

I did my first post-op lifting workout this morning! It felt so good to pick up the weights again. I'm starting light, mostly 7.5 and 10 pounds weights. It makes me smile that I call those my light weights, it wasn't too long ago that I never lifted anything above 8 pounds when using free weights. Ever. But for now those were plenty heavy. I did 12 slow and steady reps of 10 different exercises, a variety of bicep exercises, some triceps, a few different types of squats, and 10 push-ups on my knees. The push-ups will be slow to come back, just those 10 on my knees were hard, and use a lot of core, so I will take it easy on those for a while. I walked briskly on the treadmill first for 30 minutes, so I was nice and warm when I picked up the weights. I loved my hour in my new exercise sanctuary! I wrote out my schedule for the next 4 weeks, 3 days a week of cycling, and 3 days a week of walking/jogging and weights. I'm hoping I can increase intensity and weight each week, but I expect to take it slowly. I'm just glad to have a written plan. I even know what weight exercises I plan to do on each weight day. I do so much better with a plan. I also am hoping to have a friend or my husband join me on occasion on my cycling days, I do much better at sitting on my trainer when there is someone to talk to! Yay for taking the first steps to getting back in the game. I'm feeling really good other than the open sore on my incision. The doctor has me packing it with gauze twice a day to help it heal and dry out, its pretty sore, but it's coming along and not hindering me too much, except I can't sleep on my left side which makes me crazy. :) I'm still wearing my binder 24/7 except to shower, and probably will at least another week or two depending on how the wound heals.

After my workout, 4 weeks 6 days post-op.

Ready, Set, Go!

Recommitted to my health and ready to go! For once I have so much excitement about it! I actually believe I can achieve my goals and be happy about it! Luckily I can do most anything I want right now, but I was planning to start P90x3 in the next 2 weeks and I think I need to wait on that. About an inch of my incision has opened wider, I went to see the doctor today and they say everything is fine, but it will probably take a month to heal up. I have to pack the wound with gauze twice a day and just let it heal on its own. Its pretty sore, but not hindering me too much. I will be going in every week so they can watch it, an will probably have to wear my binder longer than they initially thought. They said I can continue regular activity, but no core work or twisting or swimming until it is completely healed. So, I need to make a game plan! I will definitely keep using my treadmill, and get on my bike on the trainer, and I need to start adding in weight training. I will probably just create my own weight workouts based on things I learned from ChaLEAN Extreme last year. I will start on the light side and increase the weight as I feel I can. I'm thinking 2 days of weight training for now. I think I will sit down today and figure out what I want to do, I'll post whatever schedule I come up with. So excited to get back on the wagon!

More before/after pictures

I like putting before pictures next to current ones. It keeps me so motivated and happy. It keeps me from getting frustrated with swelling or healing or whatever. I am so happy I went through with the surgery. So happy. I remember how I felt the day I took the before pictures. And I'm so happy i'll never feel like that about my body again.