Latest Measurements & a photo to boot!

Since my last post, I reached my goal weight of 75, and then have stayed the last week back at around the 75.5-76kg mark. I'm not too concerned, I know that I've hit it once and no doubt I will be back there in the coming weeks.

I did my measurements on the weekend, and slowly but steadily there is more improvement. My next goal is to get all of my bust/waist/hips measurements under the magic 100cm mark!

Area - 30/8/12 - 9/2/13 - 18/08/13  -  Total cm lost

Neck  -   43cm  -  38cm  -  34cm         9cm lost
Chest  -  133cm  -  113cm  -  101cm          32cm lost
Waist (bellybutton)  -  135cm  -  116cm  -  102.5cm         32.5cm lost
Hips  -   143cm  -  121cm  -  106.5cm          36.5cm lost
Bicep  -  36cm  -  32cm  -  27.5cm          8.5cm lost
Thigh  -  79cm  -  65cm  -   59cm         20cm lost
Calf  -   46cm  -  39cm  - 36cm         10cm lost

Which equals a grand total of 101cm lost off of my bust/waist/hips, and a grand total of 148.5cm lost from my body. Just astonishing!

Here's a comparison photo...

May 2012 getting ready for the Perth Wildcats Ball

At Trotters and Trifecta's a week ago

Check in and a major milestone reached

Sorry for the radio silence recently. I have been flat out between work and an awesome holiday in the eastern states.

I achieved 50 kilograms lost as of my birthday on July 21st! That was a lovely present and something that I had been waiting and hoping for. Since then, I have lost another kilo, and am currently weighing 75.3kg, only .3 of a kilo away from my dream goal weight that I set at the beginning of this whole process.

I am still doing well, with a lot of restriction most days, but occasionally being able to eat larger amounts, depending on how I'm feeling and what the food is. Certainly nothing in comparison to what I used to eat, that's for sure! My only real complication is my low blood pressure which causes me head spins whenever I stand up, but I can cope with that. I'm due for all my bloods and have an appointment at the Bariatric Clinic in early September for my 12 month check up, so I'm sure they will look into that then.

So time for some photos!

At the MCG watching the Collingwood v Adelaide AFL game

Enjoying Murray's company on holiday

The theatre

I saw snow for the first time! Here I am wearing a giant ski jacket and pants, along with about 4 other layers underneath!

Progress photos, from before surgery, and at approx 2 month intervals since -Front on

Progress photos, from before surgery, and at approx 2 month intervals since - Side on

Heading out for drinks

I've recently started running and I've discovered Lululemon! Completely addicted now!

Update

Just a quick one for today as I am meant to be studying! Things are going great, to be honest there isn't a whole lot to talk about. I think I will leave this blog and only pop by when I have new photos or something big is happening related to my weight loss.

My body measurements are pretty much the same, but as of this morning I weight 77.5kg! Only 2.5kg away from my dream weight! I had another first today as well - I ran at ParkRun and managed to do the 5km run in 39:23, which I was dead impressed with. I was aiming for under 50 minutes, and I managed to the whole run with only about 3-4 minutes of walking when I was exhausted half way through.

And now for the photos - I am wearing all size 16 clothing and really loving the short blonde hair!

After dinner on Friday night

From a photography session with the gorgeous Fee

Under 80

Another milestone reached - I am under 80kg! I hit 79.9kg on Saturday night, but wanted to be a little further under before I made it official, and today I am 79.7kg, so I think that will do it!

My measurements are down again since measuring in April - Chest is 103cm, Waist is 105cm and Hips at 110cm. My neck measurement is now 35cm!

Not much else to add except that I am off to State Youth Games this weekend which is basically three days of non-stop sport, which will certainly burn a few calories and get my body moving!

Heading to my Mum's birthday party on Saturday night 25/05/13

Stable weight

I've been quite slack on the exercise front for the last couple of weeks since the Relay for Life. It just got so cold all of a sudden! Not surprisingly, my weight loss has stalled at the same time. I'm not too concerned about it, but I do need to start getting back into a routine, even if it is just once a week hitting the gym.

The biggest thing I have found recently is how cold I am! I guess when you lose 45kg and you don't have the padding of your body weight, you feel the outside temperature a lot more, but I really didn't expect to feel frozen all day every day. I have invested in lots of scarves, jackets and gloves to get me through the train trip and sitting in my freezing office all day, and have already had the heater on at night at home. I even bought my first electric blanket for my bed to help cope with the temperature change a little better! Not sure what I'm going to do when the cold weather really hits - it's hard to believe it's still only Autumn, Winter hasn't even arrived yet!

I've had a couple of meals that haven't sat right with me over the past few weeks, mainly because I have eaten too fast which continues to be my downfall. I am definitely learning more and more about what capacity I have and being able to gauge how much food is enough. There is a very small margin of error between feeling like I've almost had enough, to -OMG that was too much and I need to vomit.

Current weight as of today is 81.6kg with jeans and a jumper on (I'm not stripping off in this cold for my usual underwear weight!). So that is probably around the 81kg mark, which is slow, steady and reasonable. Love my sleeve!

Progress Photos

Today's weigh in - 82.2kg, so I've stayed pretty steady over the last week or so. Also my body fat percentage is finally under 40%, cracking 39.9% on my scales today! I know it has only been 6 weeks since my comparison photos, and there isn't a whole lot of difference, but I thought I'd be proactive and get them up now at the beginning of the month.

Sep/Dec/Feb/Mar/May

Sep/Dec/Feb/Mar/May

Also some other not very glamorous photos of me from the past week

My style - ASOS tunic, funky Dorothy Perkins leggings, cheapo boots and a Sussans belt to cinch it in

David Lawrence dress and Portmans denim jacket. with opaque tights. The denim jacket was just for the ride home as it was starting to get a bit nippy

This one is a big deal for me to post - new bathers. I can point out all the things I hate about this picture, but I'm being brave and posting it. Bathers are by Seafolly, a steal at $20 including postage new from Seafolly's ebay store. And to make it even sweeter, they are a size 16!

How much do I eat - 7 months after gastric sleeve surgery

A lot of my friends ask me about how much I can eat now that I have had the gastric sleeve surgery. Today marks 7 months since I had the surgery, and I can definitely eat a lot more than I could in first few months. That doesn't mean my stomach has stretched though. In the first 3-6 months, your stomach has a raw wound that needs to heal, which makes it quite difficult to each much food at all. Now that my stomach has healed, this will be more like what I can actually eat on a regular basis, and possibly a tiny bit more as I reach 12 months and beyond.

Before - my special treat of nachos!

After - Unfortunately my special treat didn't sit well with me so I didn't eat more than a couple of bites

Before - Baked potato with beans and salsa

After - I ate this over about 30 minutes and managed to eat just over half of the potato

Before - Small Lime Chicken Salad from Sumo Salad

After - I have picked out all of the chicken as well as some of the salad. I only had about 15 minutes otherwise I would have probably eaten a little more

Besides some very unglamorous food photos, I have stayed around the same weight this week, hovering at high 82, low 83 kilos. The weight continues to come off, but I am not as obsessive with weighing myself as I was at the beginning of this process. I am a data-oriented person so I love seeing the numbers and tracking my progress, but it's also kind of nice to just let it do it's thing now.