Omega's journey

Friday 18/04/08

In hospital.

General Data:

Morning walk = none
Round the block = none
Extra exercises = none
Weight = unknown
Steps = 0
Distance = 0 miles
No vitamin / supplements
No creaming regime
No ankle exercises

My Food / Drink:

small amount of cauliflower cheese mashed
1 small bowl custard
small bowl of veg soup
1 cup of hot chocolate
2 biscuits (which I wasnt supposed to have but crunched up small)
2 glasses orange juice (brought by Rod)
water - unknown quantity
 
Saturday 19/04/08

Got out of hospital.
I will not post a distance associated with my steps as I have not recalibrated my pedometers so they think that I am going further than I am. My step lengths are a lot shorter these days!

General Data:

Morning walk = none
Round the block = none
Extra exercises = none
Weight = unknown
Steps = 2,111
Remembered to take normal vitamin / supplements
No creaming regime
No ankle exercises

My Food / Drink:

2 weetabix, sugar, semi-skimmed milk
2 biscuits (which I wasnt supposed to have but crunched up small)
1 cup of hot chocolate
lasagne, potato croquettes, boiled carrots
rhubarb crumble and custard
salmon fillet, 3 new potatoes, sweetcorn
1 low fat fruit yoghurt
diet cola
water - unknown quantity
 
Last edited:
Sunday 20/04/08

General Data:

Morning walk = none
Round the block = 1 time +
Extra exercises = none
Weight = 11st 0.6 lbs (i.e. 154.6 pounds)
Steps = 5,734
Remembered to take normal vitamin / supplements
No creaming regime
No ankle exercises

My Food / Drink:

Basic eating plan

1 banana
3 weetabix, sweetener, 350 ml skimmed milk
3 handfuls honey shreddies
2 clementines
1 kiwi fruit
1 pear
1 pear
1 apple
40 grapes
2.5 litres of cold water
some diet cola

Roast chicken, gravy, carrots, parsnips, onion, swede, cauliflower, broccoli
2 plums
1 low fat fruit yoghurt
 
Last edited:
Monday 21/04/08

General Data:

Morning walk = short walk
Round the block = 1 time +
Extra exercises = none
Weight = 11st 0.6 lbs (i.e. 154.6 pounds)
Steps = 9,319
Remembered to take normal vitamin / supplements
No creaming regime
No ankle exercises

My Food / Drink:

Basic eating plan

2 bananas
3 weetabix, sweetener, 350 ml skimmed milk
3 handfuls honey shreddies
2 clementines
1 kiwi fruit
1 apple
50 grapes
1 low fat fruit yoghurt
2.5 litres of cold water
some diet cola

Salmon fillet, 3 new potatoes, sweetcorn
4 plums
 
Last edited:
Tuesday 22/04/08

We got the pork loin steaks over the internet and when they arrived they were half the thickness that I would normally have so I had two.
I took myself off the prescription medication on Tuesday morning because it had high sodium content. I didn’t feel that I needed it for the pain as I have a pretty high pain threshold. I put myself on arnica instead and am pretty pleased with the results so far (- weight Wednesday 10st10.4). Any problems and I will reverse this decision. The pharmacist confirmed that I can have the arnica alongside the other stuff with no problems.

General Data:

Morning walk = about 1.5 miles
Round the block = 1 time +
Extra exercises = none
Weight = 10st 13.0 lbs (i.e. 153.0 pounds)
Steps = 11,088
Remembered to take normal vitamin / supplements
No creaming regime
No ankle exercises

My Food / Drink:

Basic eating plan

1 banana
3 weetabix, sweetener, 350 ml skimmed milk
3.25 handfuls honey shreddies
2 clementines
1 kiwi fruit
1 pear
1 pear
1 apple
2 peaches
2.5 litres of cold water
some diet cola

2 very thin pork loin steaks, tin of baked beans
2 plums
 
Hey, I'm so impressed with how quickly you've gotten back to your walking! I'm sure that quick hospital gain is going to slide off very soon. And I'm so glad you're feeling well and doing okay!

Sophie
 
I find it interesting that you ate practically nothing for several days, which should have amounted to a huge calorie deficit of several thousand calories, yet you've gained. Its probably just water weight and it will come off quickly, I have no doubt, but its interesting how the body seems to shut down and slow down when it is low on calories. Goes to show cals in v. out is not as scientifically accurate as some would have you believe.
 
Thanks for visiting.

Sophie

I must admit that I am very pleased with the way that my recovery is going.

There is nothing like living your life in morbid obesity - then getting a taste of life at a near normal weight - for putting the fear of God into you about what would happen if you didnt keep control of your food and do the regular exercise. There is no way on earth that I want to go back up to the weight that I started at. I am so thankful that I went through that operation at the weight that I have fought to have. I have this constant feeling that things could have gone so much worse if I had not been really fit.
I am very limited by what exercise I am capable of currently. I have strict instructions that bending, stretching and lifting and any energetic exercise (e.g. aerobics) are not allowed in any way until a follow-up appointment which is due in about 6 weeks time. Basically - all I would be left with is walking. It is a good job that my key exercise is walking because I know that I will be fine if I just build it up. They did give me permission to build up my walking immediately and I am in the process of doing that. I discussed my plans with them, and they approved of them as long as I do things gradually. Each day - I have to evaluate how things went the day before - before I decide whether to increase things or take things back a notch. I am quite determined to bring my walking back to a reasonable level to continue my project from where I left off. Nothing makes you feel better in such circumstances than having things go according to plan.

Claudia

I am certain that I have not gained any fat through this whole episode - in fact if anything I should have lost fat.
On a simple calories in vs calories out I should have lost tons of weight. Granted my exercise level was zero but there should have been a heck of a deficit. On the Wednesday I had done a fair amount of walking and ate comparitively little.

I believe that my gain is down to the following:
a/ As soon as I was admitted to hospital on Wednesday they put a saline drip into my arm. I was having sodium dripped into me 24 hours a day until Friday afternoon. That will be a lot of sodium. It is bound to have triggered water retention.
b/ My whole abdomen is swollen following surgery and there is some bruising. This will not just be on the surface but within. It seems reasonable that the swelling will associate with a weight gain.
c/ The hospital put me on diclofenac sodium tablets on Friday. I am actually still supposed to be taking these but have stopped having them. These obviously contain sodium and as such will not have helped the water retention situation.

It is interesting to note that I got a much better reduction in weight between Tuesday and Wednesday when I was taking arnica for the swelling than between Sunday and Tuesday when I was taking the NSAID diclofenac sodium for it.

I am hoping that I will get the loss that I deserve for those days when the swelling and water retention goes away. Things dont always pan out that way - but I am optimistic that I might get something just the same.

It probably wont be quickly enough to save my team in the current challenge though!

Take care
Love
Margaret
 
If your Weds weight was 150.4 as your ticker suggests, I think you will be fine by Friday's weigh in. Even if you're up a little bit, hopefully Bella and I can lose enough to make up for it. So don't worry!!

I'm sure that extra poundage is pure water retention due to all that sodium. Look how much you've lost already just from switching to the arnica.

Your will power of resisting pizza is very impressive. I would've had some with Rod, b/c I have no will power when it comes to pizza. But I would've limited it to one or two slices depending on their size. :D
 
Hey Margaret, Kudos to you for getting in any exercise so soon after surgery!
 
:Angel_anim:Hi Margaret! So glad to see that you are recovering quickly. I am curious as to whether you now see yourself as being a "normal" size. Obviously you are - and even small by many standards - but I find for myself that I simply am not yet satisfied and don't think I will be for quite a few pounds yet.

You continue to inspire me!
Your friend in Canada,
ABBA
 
Omega said:
Kim

I often think of brussel sprouts as being like little cabbages too. I dont think that they count for the challenge - but to be certain you could try asking Kimberly. Failing that - hope that the race takes us from Moscow to Belgium. She would never ask us to eat chocolate or drink beer so there has to be a decent chance that you could eat brussel sprouts - or at least that would be the case if your twin did not hate them!
Click to expand...

Ever since I read this I've been waiting for Week 8 of the challenge so I could laugh at the irony. :rofl: I had already planned the last roadblock to be brussel sprout eating, so when I read this, it took all my will power to refrain from commenting. :D And I had already written the bit about chocolate and beer being too much fun and not conducive to weight loss. :D
 
I was thinking the exact same thing as Claudia. It's good that you have so much knowledge and awarenss now, that you can be confident that actually your fat loss is still working out the way you want, instead of just freaking out and comfort eating (which I can imagine one of my selves doing...:rolleyes:).
 
Thanks for visiting.

Kimberly
The weight is coming down. Thursday weighing (entered on scoresheet) is 10st8.6 i.e. 148.6 pounds. All that I can say is thank goodness for arnica, water and fibre. I am hitting all three at maximum levels to try and bring things down. There is every chance that we will all post a gain just the same - but it would appear from the weigh every day club that Shannon may be looking at a gain. It looks like his scales were acting erratically last week. It is possible that we could survive if things do not go well for him and the MILFs.

As far as will-power goes - you know how focused I can get regarding my weightloss project! It is actually easier for me to resist pizza and the like totally than to have some in moderation. Moderation is a concept that I have quite a lot of difficulty with. Especially if I am watching Rod having as much as he wants. In some ways he is a bad influence on me!

It is funny about the race taking us to Brussels. If only I had mentioned lace making - I could have put shivers up your spine and made you think that I had gypsy powers!

Dont worry - I know that you hate sprouts - I have this roadblock covered. I will be doing it anyway and the sprouts are sitting in the fridge. I will post when it is done.

Sweatpea
Thanks for the kudos. It is actually easier for me to do some gentle exercise and feel that I am working to a plan of getting meaningful exercise back, than to worry that I am certain to go back to where I was.

Janice
I have quite a long way to go before I think of my size as being "normal". It is certainly not where I want it to be. I accept that it is dramatically nearer normal compared to where I started, and I accept that many people would consider that I was in the normal size range (even though my BMI says that I am overweight). I am sure that eventually we will have a shape that we consider to be normal - but we may not be as easily satisfied as people who have not had to work hard to get there. I think that the PCOS thing makes us have to acknowledge and accept that we really do need to stay forever vigilant. Weight gain is so easy for us - weight loss is so difficult.

Felici
Sometimes knowledge is the only thing that can keep us sane and help us to retain perspective. You have to remember that I have over twenty years of experience of abandoning projects for a number of emotional reasons - and I have got to the stage where I try and predict the things that can go wrong. I fortunately remembered that Dawn (Bellaryna) put on a lot of weight for a few days in December when she had surgery so in some ways I was forewarned about the swelling. I was fortunately in the same challenge team and remembered her mentioning a dramatic weight increase mid week which she managed to get rid of a few days later. Also - I try to remain sodium aware and actually mentioned to hospital staff that there would be a lot of sodium in the drip and it would probably take my weight up.

Take care
Love
Margaret
 
Omega said:
Sometimes knowledge is the only thing that can keep us sane and help us to retain perspective. You have to remember that I have over twenty years of experience of abandoning projects for a number of emotional reasons - and I have got to the stage where I try and predict the things that can go wrong.
Click to expand...

Well that is shocking Margaret! LOL I just cant picture you abandoning ANY project.

OMG, I would've scarfed down at least two unplanned and un-rationed pieces of yummy pizza. Rod REALLY needs to hop on the bandwagon. He seemed like he had no trouble getting on here when he had to message us about you :D.

As to the BMI, I'm surprised yours says you are overweight cuz you dont look overweight in your jeans?!
 
That makes sense, Bianca. Actually, looking at that ticker, it will take only a smidge more for you to have a technically normal BMI, Margaret as well as already looking like you're already there. Wow, it seems like a short time to me since you went under 130. Effortful time seems shorter when it's someone else's effort I guess!!
 
As I said in the challenge thread, you and Dawn may duke it out for the coveted brussels sprouts award..:smilielol5: I will not challenge you for it unlesss I absolutely have to. And I don't, so I won't. :D

That's great news about your weight going back down. The nice thing about water retention weight is that once you cut out the sodium, and increase the water, it really goes down quickly in most cases. I have a lot of experience with this...lol. Like our Ann Arbor getaway gain. :eek: I managed to take off 8lbs in 4 days that week. :svengo: Of course, it was obviously not 8 lbs of fat..lol

Yes, when I saw that 10lb loss of Shannon's last week, and the fact that he wasn't weighing in his normal place--maybe using a different scale, I worried about their weigh in for this week. 10lbs in one week for someone his size is rather unusual. If he weighed 100lbs more than he does, it would be a bit different. :(
 
Thanks for visiting.

Claudia
You have no idea how many projects I abandoned over the years. It really was a major shock to me when I suddenly put on tons of weight in my mid 20s. I showed photos from my youth on page 75 of my diary. I never really had any problems with my weight until my body went mad just about the time that I got married. My weight just about doubled in no time flat. By the time I realised what was happening - it had happened.

I tried to lose weight so many times it is silly - and it just didnt work. Calorie counting just doesnt work for me. Mentally - I cannot handle my eventual inevitable failure to stick to the rules. I counted by the day, by the week - you name it. Eventually I would eat more than the magic number and decide that I had let myself down. The floodgates opened!

I was too big to realistically do any exercise and when I did try - I got told that I was wasting my time. In 1996 I joined Weight Watchers and was doing ok after a fashion. I even started walking. I was working at London Bridge at the time and I was walking morning and night between Waterloo Station and London Bridge. Then Weight Watchers told me that walking was no good if you didnt walk fast. When you are big - you cannot do anything fast. I even have Weight Watchers books which say specifically that there is no point in walking if you are not walking quickly. As a formerly VERY big person - I actually feel that it is irresponsible for people to say that there is no value in walking which is not at speed. Such statements should always be qualified.

I have lots of experience of abandoning projects and going back to my start weight if not bigger. More experience than most people!

Things certainly would be easier if Rod was more controlled with his food. We have had our fair share of abandoned diets when we were both following the same diet and then - when one abandons the project - the other does too. At least - this time - my future is not dependant on his whims and moods and vice versa. I know that he would like to lose weight - but he does have a sweet tooth and is not good at self control when tempting food is on offer.

He just looked at the screen - saw his name and wanted to read what I had written. He had to admit that I had described him absolutely accurately.

He did have no trouble getting onto the forum - but in all honesty - when I was in hospital he could deny me nothing.

Thanks for your surprise at me being overweight. A BMI of over 25 is a BMI of over 25 however you look at it. I certainly am chunky - I cannot get into my wedding ring and I will certainly keep thinking of myself as being chunky while that is the case. I thought of myself as being on the chunky side when I met Rod - never mind when we got married.

Felici
I wish that I was under 130. There must be a typo there - but I do know what you are getting at. It was only Christmas when I got my BMI under 30 and became overweight instead of obese. The fact is that in many ways my weightloss has been fairly swift - there is no denying that every 3 months I have been noticeably nearer my goal than 3 months earlier. My worst month of weightloss gave me 3.8 pounds loss. Whilst that is not a great loss - at least it is a loss and I am glad of any loss that I can get. We get irritated at our own loss not being faster and get envious of others who may be getting a very similar rate of loss. Also - we only see the hard work that we know that we are putting into our own projects. It is so very easy to look at others and imagine that they are getting a great rate of weightloss without putting in nearly as much work. Our own efforts seem so much tougher.

Kimberly
Consider the Brussels sprouts as good as done. I will do it on Sunday and post when they are eaten. No-one will suggest that you should eat something that you dont like.

I must admit that I have been encouraged to see the weight come back down towards where it was. I think that stopping the sodium tablets and going onto the arnica to try and hit the swelling was a good move. I am hoping for another loss tomorrow - I have had all my water and fibre and kept up the arnica. My walking is gradually coming back too. I am quite pleased as to the level that I have it up to already. It doesnt need to be fast - if I get the distance in it will burn up calories. Speed is not available to me but distance is.

The adult education centre have promised me my class fee money back for this term so that is good news too. I had almost written off the £93 that I had already paid - it will be nice to get it back. I will spend it on exercise DVDs for when I get the go-ahead to do more exercise again.

Shannon is losing weight - but he was certainly looking at a challenge gain when I saw his most recent weighing. Having said that - those MILFs have posted some excellent losses during this challenge and it is quite possible that as a team they can cover it. I simply mention it because it does highlight the fact that it is certainly possible that we will all have a gain and survive as long as we get all that we achieve posted on our scoresheet. I have filled in my scoresheet already. If we do what we can - we just need to trust to luck. Either way - we have done really well to make it this far.

Take care
Love
Margaret
 
Wednesday 23/04/08


General Data:

Morning walk = about 2.0 miles
Round the block = 2 times +
Extra exercises = none
Weight = 10st 10.4 lbs (i.e. 150.4 pounds)
Steps = 12,268 which are getting to a nearer normal length
Remembered to take normal vitamin / supplements
No creaming regime
No ankle exercises

My Food / Drink:

Basic eating plan

1 banana
3 weetabix, sweetener, 350 ml skimmed milk
2 handfuls honey shreddies
1 pear
1 pear
1 apple
2 peaches
2.5 litres of cold water
some diet cola

Breaded plaice, tin of baked beans
2 plums
 
Thursday 24/04/08

Step length pretty much back to normal - but speed is slower.

General Data:

Morning walk = about 3.1 miles
Round the block = 2 times +
Extra exercises = none
Weight = 10st 8.6 lbs (i.e. 148.6 pounds)
Steps = 14,795
Distance = 5.72 miles
Remembered to take normal vitamin / supplements
No creaming regime – apart from morning / evening moisturising face
No ankle exercises

My Food / Drink:

Basic eating plan

1 banana
3 weetabix, sweetener, 350 ml skimmed milk
3.5 handfuls honey shreddies
2 clementines
1 pear
1 pear
1 apple
40 grapes
2.5 litres of cold water
some diet cola

Salmon fillet, 3 new potatoes, sweetcorn, small amount of olive spread
2 plums
 
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