2010 Goals & Daily Challenge Request

I'm not going to make any MAJOR goals for this year. I'm simply going to make one general goal that I hope will keep me on track this year. I plan on choosing one thing each day to change or work on that will get me closer to a healthier me. Today, it was calling my bariatric surgeon again. I spoke with my patient advocate there and she has called to get my file out of storage and hopes to get back to me tomorrow or the next day to let me know where we stand. I did learn that while BCBS is still not covering the gastric sleeve, United insurance (my secondary through Erik's employer) is covering it. She said that we may have to file with BCBS first, let them deny it and then move on to United. Part of the reason my surgery stalled last time was because I had to figure out a way to come up with the money for the sleeve vs the RNY which would have been covered by my insurance at the time.

The last time I saw my surgeon, he recommended that I get the sleeve first, lose about 100 lbs with that, then go in and do the RNY laparoscopically. He suggested this for a few reasons. First of all, my size...I'm definitely fatter than most patients they work on. He didn't think that he could do the RNY laparoscopically because of my size and doing it via an open incision was a much riskier procedure. However, he did think that he could do the sleeve laparoscopically if I could lose about 40-60 lbs prior to surgery (to give him some room to work).

Additionally, you typically have a window of time after WLS where you are primed to lose the most weight. Usually it lasts about 18 months. After that, it becomes more difficult to get the weight off. My surgeon explained that he expected me to be able to lose enough to get down to about 250 lbs with ONE surgery. However, if I had the sleeve, lost 100 lbs and then went back and got the RNY (which he could do laparoscopically at this point), he expected that he could get me down to my goal weight of (he said 130, but I think that's ridiculous) 165-170 (My own personal goal weight...Im a big boned gal). Honestly, if I could get down to between 225 and 250, I'd be happy. If you look at my skinniest pictures here, I was around 220-230, but I doubt anyone would have guessed me at over 200. I was very fit at the time, able to do just about anything i wanted...I'd be happy to get back there for sure. Of course, If I can get down to a REAL skinny size for the first time in my life, I'm not stopping at 220 that's for sure.

My personal plan is to have the sleeve procedure done and work my arse off to get as much weight off as I can and get as healthy as I can (physically) and see where I'm at. If I'm losing weight with the sleeve and like how I'm doing, I may not have the RNY done. Personally, I'd rather work my ass off and save another surgical procedure to get all the plastic surgery I'm going to need to get my body looking normal again after all this weight loss.

So, short term goals:

*start increasing my activity level to get my body and heart in as good a shape as I can to prepare for surgery.
*Monitor my food intake using sparkpeople.com to facilitate the 40-60 lb weight loss I'm going to need to have for surgery
*be diligent in following up with my advocate and doctor to get the surgery done.

I plan also on blogging regularly no matter how boring and tedious it might get. I know I experienced the best success when I was blogging and reading your blogs for inspiration so expect to hear more from me this month!

So what's with the picture of the empty jar up at the top of this post you might be wondering? I had kind of a brain storm yesterday that I thought I'd introduce on my blog today. I have been kicking around an idea of having you guys give me a daily challenge. Maybe take daily suggestions that I could choose from (maybe even keep a jar that I pull from daily) which I would then report on in my blog. For instance...say you guys leave me some suggestions today...I will write them down and put them in my jar...tomorrow I'll pull something from the jar and DO whatever is written on that piece of paper. It could be something as simple as "Walk to the mailbox and back," "walk up and down your staircase once just for the exercise," "give Tanner a big ol' embarrassing MOM kiss," "Say something nice about yourself in your blog tomorrow"....you get the idea. It could really be ANYTHING with the goal of keeping me focused on a healthier and happier me (as you can see...yesterday, I was back to feeling sorry for myself). I kind of like the interactive nature of the whole idea and I think it will really help keep me focused on doing something positive for myself each day. Maybe I'll even start to incorporate pictures of me taking your challenge (I warn you though...most days I look like complete crap lol...no makeup, hair blown dry with no special fixin'etc). What do you think? Stupid idea or worth trying? If you think it's stupid....keep that info to yourself..I'm trying to stay positive here. If you think it's worth trying, please leave me a challenge that I can start adding to my challenge jar! If you want to make a challenge jar with me, let me know and I'll come and leave a challenge on your blog too :) Every day, feel free to add more challenges and i'll keep adding them to my jar.

Ok, now i have to get to work. Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow :)

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