Progress - One Itty Bitty Baby Step at a Time! Don't Give Up!

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There's something to be said about the small milestones and the rarely celebrated, non-scale victories on the way to our ultimate goal in a weight loss journey. Firstly, if it wasn't for them, we'd see no progress whatsoever for weeks at a time! Secondly, despite how much we'd like to see that scale move (downwards, that is) there simply is no denying the fact that it sometimes just won't budge! No matter how well you're watching your diet, or how hard you hit the gym! Let's just face it, sometimes you just don't lose weight!

Mommy Look! We redecorated!

It's called a "stall" for a reason folks! It basically means that you're stuck for bit, and there is practically nothing you can do now but wait it out. Ugh...waiting...more of that awful stuff. How much longer must I wait to get into that teeny weeny yellow polka dotted...er...high neck, size small T-shirt and a size 2 skinny jean (Hey, modest girls have fun too)! When you're a month and a half out from any diet, it feels like an absolute tragedy to not be losing weight at a super fast rate! I mean, for the majority of us, the first month dieting is the absolute strictest we try and stick to those diets (wls or otherwise)! It's like buying a new house or flat, there's only a small period of time in which you're going to see it absolutely the spickest and the spanest it is ever going to be. Give it a couple months of having been "lived in" and well, it'll be a battle just getting the place to look "acceptable" for company (especially if you've got a pair or two of your own little interior decorators running around to top it all off!).

The fact is, stalls (or plateaus, as they're often referred to) are just a part of the entire weight loss process. Most would argue that they are in fact necessary in order to succeed long-term, in the sense that they are basically a way for you're body to lose inches in place of pounds or kilos for a bit, or better yet, add muscle. In other words, some time for your body to "catch up" with itself! I, for one, am now a firm believer of this philosophy, though I must admit, I wasn't always!

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You see, I'm what they call a slow loser in wls circles. Not helped much by the fact that I was just a tiny bit on the smaller size to begin with (lightweight...ugh, I currently despise that word), having had less weight to lose overall and a smaller overall body mass index. The way that weight loss with WLS usually works, in most cases, is that you lose more weight, quicker, the more that you've actually got to lose, and slower the less the latter amount happens to be. So, say we've got a person who weighed (pre-operation) 230lbs, about 5ft tall and a body mass index of around 45 who's just undergone a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy a month ago. Then, we've got another person who underwent the same exact procedure, on the same exact day. Difference is that this person weighed 175lbs at about 5ft at a body mass index of about 34. Both of their doctors agree that each of them will reach goal at about the two-year mark following their consecutive surgeries. Despite the fact that person 1 weighs a significant amount more than person 2. How does this work? Simple, well simple enough that is. Person 1 will lose more weight each day / week / month compared to what person 2 will lose in the same amount of time. This is all due to the effects of the massive calorie restriction intended by the surgery. The bigger you are, the more calories you need to maintain weight, therefor your calories would have to be less restricted to start to lose weight. So person 2 would generally be eating the same amount of calories as person 1, however ,since they have less weight to lose overall, those calories consumed/burned will affect their weight loss differently. In this case, they will lose less weight, on a slower scale.

In this way, person 1 and person 2 will most likely reach goal around the same time, by that 2-year mark (although, this depends on many other factors might I add, however lets just assume for the sake of this discussion that those factors are not relevant in the situation at hand). For example, at the 1 month mark, say, person 1 who weighed 230lbs, lost 22lbs, knocking their weight down to 208lbs and their BMI down 4.5 points. That is great progress, no doubt! Now, in the same timeframe of a month, person 2 lost about 13lbs and knocked their BMI down 1.5 points. It is so easy to assume that person 1 is doing leaps better than person 2, and that they will achieve goal sooner isn't it? However, that is simply, just not so. You see, as both of their BMI's go down, their weight loss begins to taper down too! Obviously, the calorie restriction that the smaller stomachs are placing on them will not be reverting back for the most part, however, eventually they will be able to increase the amounts they can consume as they progress through the months, but they are highly unlikely to reach where they were at previous to the surgery (if they follow their doctors orders, that is). So the calorie restrictions begin to get less restrictive and their body mass lower (leaving them with less to lose), nearing a healthier point, consequently slowing down weight loss. With this said, it is important to note that yes, person 1 will be losing more weight in pounds each month, however the simple fact of the matter remains that they have far more weight to lose. Yes, person 2 will be losing slower, but they do have less weight to lose, significantly. So it all balances out in the end.

This is where I am right now. I reached my month mark on the 25th this month and had only lost 13.3lbs, 8 of which I had lost in the very first week following surgery and my additional 3-day pre-operation strict liquid diet. So that leaves only 5.3lbs lost in the remaining 3 weeks. I was a bit disappointed to say the least, but have come to terms with the fact that progress is progress! Albeit, I'd rather be leaping to goal any day, rather than just barely crawling, the fact of the matter is I am losing weight.

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Or, am I? Now, for the first month, everything was alright I guess. Sure I hadn't lost 20lbs like I initially thought I would, secretly. But I'd still lost almost half of that, and I'm closer to my half goal for it too, closer than I was without right? But, my super slow mini crawl ever since then is really putting me in a bad mood right about now. I can say with absolute conviction that I am officially at a stall, a stand-still....a ruddy disgusting super icky plateau in my weight loss journey! For the passed 2 weeks I've been in the most ridiculous stall of my life and have only lost 4.4lbs, in spurts of an ounce or two at a time with mad effort...super randomly nonetheless! I've been doing everything in my power to shake this thing off somehow, but nothing seems to be working. My eating is super clean n green, as I call it. Which means I'm eating fully sugar and carbohydrate free (always easily under 18g of carbohydrates, largely from non-starchy vegetable sources, and occasionally from dairy), high protein and moderate fats (saturated and natural only). My calories are always under 600, averaging around 520 and honestly the weight should be falling off with this alone. But nope, I am giving it my all and have even added half an hour of light cardio or weightlifting (switching back and forth every day) to my previously long-term, sedentary lifestyle. Yep, nothing. Nada. Zilch. In fact, I even gained 3 lousy pounds for no reason at all the day of my 1 Month Gastric Sleeve Anniversary! Yes, I knocked those babies outta there like no ones business the very next day by reverting back to a strict liquid diet for the day, but that came as such a shock to me, I couldn't even tell you! How does one gain 3 entire pounds overnight after eating barely 700, clean n green calories the day before! Goodness! Needless to say, I learned my lesson well and have been even more conscious over keeping my calories lower than 600 ever since!

So I am definitely stuck in a super stall right now, but have come to terms with it nonetheless. The way I see it is, at least I have non-scale victories to celebrate!

• I am fitting in my dress-up clothes better than ever before
• I haven't touched a pair of spanx since surgery
• I'm wearing a tight, size large T-Shirt (half a size above a medium, and yes...it's short!) right now as I type out this blog, and man am I workin' it!
• I've had countless people ask me how I got so thin (That's a new one!) since the last time they saw me in photos or otherwise!!!!
• I'm a bra size down baby!
• My face! My face! I discovered my face shape is actually a slim oval...not..."yeah, I guess you could still call it a circle." Or, "including the chins?", or my favorite " Yep! You're definitely a round!
• My husband. I shall leave it at that.

Needless to say guys, my next post will most likely be about my new measurements....and shopping....lots of shopping. Stay tuned!