mizducky's migrations: a weight management blog with attitude

Sorta-weekly weigh-in; plus wardrobe malfunctions!

I'm still weighing myself on the borrowed bathroom scale, so I still have no idea how it's calibrated in relation to the big HMO scale I had been using. Plus, it being an analog scale, I find it damn difficult to read (how its manufacturers expect you to tell which little line way down by your feet the scale is pointing to I have no earthly idea). But, what the hell--here goes anyway:

• Today's weight: 247 lb.
• Change since last weigh-in: -4 lb
• Cumulative weight loss: 87 lbs.

Hmmmm ... a four-pound drop is rather more than I'd prefer to be doing, especially so soon after major surgery, especially given that I'm still taking it easy and doing no exercise more strenuous than very short walks. And it's not like my eating has been super-clean either; I went out for an Indian buffet lunch Monday and a carnitas plate Tuesday.

So I think I'll beef things up, so to speak, a little bit more this coming week--a little more protein (for continued surgery wound repair), and a little more complex carbs and fats (for energy reserves). I think I'm pretty okay in the produce consumption already.

It does seem like my bod has lost enough additional weight that its size and shape has changed once again. Of course at least some of that is more than likely due to the surgery--my belly had really stuck out a lot due to that hernia, and that bulge is now no more. But anyway--yesterday I went to put on one of the pairs of pants I bought to replace my original clothes I'd already shrunk out of; this particular pair had been so snug pre-surgery that they were a little uncomfortable to wear, but now they're so loose they're almost falling off of me! Yikes! And damn!--these were cute pants, and I hardly got to wear them! I'm going to try running them through a wash-and-dry to see if I can shrink them up enough to prevent a wardrobe malfunction, but if that fails I guess they're going in the growing heap of stuff I need to take to a consignment shop or something.

Speaking of which--I have been turned on to a plus-size women's clothing consignment shop out in the Loma Portal neighborhood known as Great Curves. I haven't had a chance to get down there myself yet, but my informants tell me it's a lovely store. So I'm hoping to pay them a visit later this week, and if they're a winner, I'll no doubt be doing both a lot of buying and a lot of selling down there.

Absolutely killer nutritional-data website

Link: NutritionData's Nutrition Facts Calorie Counter.

Somebody on eGullet posted about this website, and it is indeed a thing of beauty--a ton of detailed nutritional data, some incredibly useful tools including a powerful search tool that allows you to search on nutritional content, options to customize the site based on your specific nutritional requirements ... and best of all, the site is completely free. It's run by Conde Nast, the publishers of Epicurious magazine among many other things. I've already gone and used their downloadable plug-in to add this site as one of the available search engines on my Firefox browser--I expect I'll be using this site really heavily starting, oh, about now.

Adipose tissue--much more than just a fat repository

Link: Adipose tissue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Y'know, the way the dieting industry carries on, you would think that there is absolutely no good to be found in any kind of body fat, and its only function is to stand in the way of true health and beauty. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the above-linked Wikipedia article makes clear. Adipose tissue is not just a passive repository of fats, but plays an active role in many metabolic and other bodily processes. Of especial interest to me because I've just given up my ovaries to the surgeon's knife, is the ability of adipose tissue to excrete estradiol, the primary female estrogen hormone. So right now I'm really glad my fat tissue is around to ease my precipitous jump right into full-blown menopause! (Yep, I'm starting to have hot flashes, but I can just imagine how much worse they might be if I were a little skinny twig!)

Brief check-in: yep, still alive and kicking

Hi folks--didja miss me?

My surgery was a complete success, and in the first followup appointment the doc gave me a completely clean bill of health.

Now I'm well into the recovery phase, which is going both much faster, and much slower, than I expected. Somehow I had managed to make it almost to age 50 without ever having undergone surgery for anything, not even tonsils, so this is my first experience with how much of a blow to the system it is to undergo major surgery. Plus as this was surgery to my abdomen (hysterectomy plus a hernia repair), I have a major muscle group that is working way hard to, erm, regroup.

So my energy level is extremely deceptive right about now--holding still, or even puttering around my apartment, I feel pretty good. But I went to church on my own this past Sunday, and while I felt fine the whole time I was out, I was so tired and achey the next day that I spent most of it sleeping. On the other hand, I am apparently up and functioning much sooner, and much better, than anyone would have expected.

I am convinced that this past six months of my little health regimen had a huge amount to do with the speed of my recovery. And, except for a few days in the hospital and immediately after when my stomach was so upset that I basically ate anything that I could keep down and called it acceptable, I have stayed on my food plan throughout. (Far superior to those hospital classics, lime Jello and boiled-to-death chicken!)

While I am now cleared for making short car trips and outings, I've been tending to stay close to the nest, so I haven't been back to my HMO's exercise center to weight myself on the Official Scale since before the operation. But I did break down and borrow a bathroom scale from a friend--no idea how it's calibrated with regard to the Official Scale, but whatever.

Anyway, as of this morning the borrowed scale says I weigh something like 251 pounds, which is a significant drop from my last recorded weight, on 7/31/06, of 269 pounds. Not to get too graphic about it, but I'm sure a lot of that weight loss is due to the amount of, erm, material that was removed from my body--NOT a weight loss strategy that I would recommend! However, it is nice to know where the hell I'm at after all that.

Now, it's just a matter of getting the rest of my strength and stamina back. My doctors recommended walking as the best exercise not only for that, but also for helping my innards re-sort themselves. When I was in the hospital, this took the form of walking around the ward. Now that I'm home, I've mostly been just puttering around the apartment--but this morning I got myself down the stairs from my second-story walk-up to take a turn around the apartment complex's courtyard, and then back up the stairs again. I'm hoping to keep doing that on subsequent days, and gradually build up to longer walks.

And I'm still trying to limit my time spent sitting up at the computer, so it might be another several days before my next post here. Or not--boredom is setting in despite books and TV and crocheting and whatnot. But anyway--yep, I'm still not only alive, but thriving, and hope to be fully back in the saddle soon. Onward and upward!