I watched Oprah today. I don't normally watch her show anymore but had heard a commercial earlier about her guest today. She had Stacey Halprin on. She had once weighed 550 pounds and has lost 301 pounds. I wanted to know how she did it and what she looks like now.
Turns out she had gastric by-pass surgery. She claims each month her loss is less due to the surgery and more to do with her own efforts but I was lost on that point. I thought once you had the surgery your stomach was very small and unless you ate in huge quantities again it would stay that way. She lost all 301 pounds over the course of one year. Wow!
I really wanted to see what her body size is today and how she handled the skin problem. She looked darn good. She's had ten surgeries, though, with more to come. Oh wow! That got me to thinking about my own skin and what will be left when I get to my goal. I have to say it is the one part of losing weight that scares the hell out of me! How much skin will I have left hanging? What in the world will I do with no job and no insurance to get the skin removed? I could make myself crazy with it all, but I won't.
My daughter is such a dear girl, though. We went to dinner at the family restaurant where she works and I was telling her about it. She gave me a huge hug and said, "Momma, you are losing weight slowly and your skin is going to shrink back some. You are not going to have to deal with as much skin as she did because you're losing the weight slowly." I love that little gal! I know in my heart, she's right but I'm still scared about it all. (By the way I had a nice big bowl of iceberg lettuce topped by a tomato, 3 slices red onion, 1/4 cup shredded cheese, and 4 ounces ground beef seasoned with taco seasoning. Added a dab of sour cream and a little French dressing and it was yummy. Best news is my total calories for the day has ended up being 1700 calories which I can live with.)
I guess I'll focus on getting the weight off and worry about the skin later on. One day at a time and one major issue at a time.
Another issue occurred to me while watching her. She weighs about 250 right now and she looks pretty darn good. It got me to thinking about my goal of 195 and whether or not it's realistic. I picked that number because it's under 200 pounds and I honestly can't remember the last time I weighed less than 200 pounds. When I get to 250 I'll see how I look and feel. I may adjust my goal weight to any number between 195 and 250. I'd love to say I'm going all the way to 195 and that's that. But I really want to be realistic and I don't want to look like the walking dead. Sometimes people take losing weight too far. I don't want to do that. I want to look good, have lots of energy, and feel like a normal human. Another thing I'm going to have to wait and see on, I suppose.
I've also come up against another dilemma that I posted about in my e-mail support group. For the last two days I've been exercising with Richard for about 25 minutes. According to a calorie counter, based upon my weight, I'm burning about 475 calories for that activity. I'm eating about 1700 calories per day. But boy am I hungry! I keep telling myself I'm not and I keep drinking extra water, but the fact of the matter is, I do feel hungry! Anyone who hasn't posted in my e-mail group, if you have ideas, comments, suggestions, please do share them. I'm not typically hungry so I'm thinking the exercise and the hunger have to be tied together somehow. Of course there's always the chance that the hunger is tied to something emotional. What do you think?
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Oprah, Loose Skin, and Hunger
Posted by Karon at 1/03/2006 07:47:00 PM
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5 comments:
I really do think losing the weight slowly does help with the skin shrinking. I know that increasing stimulation helps also. So I am trying an "Old Wives" tale.
A friend of mine told me that her grandmother had lost a large amount of weight. She had taken a rolling pin and "rolled' her abdomen and the back of her arms. So I got my rolling pin out and have been doing some "rolling". I figure what the heck! Can't hurt anything and increasing blood flow to an area does help. :-)
PROTIEN!! Karon after you exersise you need to eat some protien and water not much your snack protien will do fine and eat one hour before you exersise :) sorry I missed you much today power outage in the area are very bad the last few days
Skin issues are definitely reduced when you lose slower. That's not to say there won't be any, but they'll certainly be less than hers of losing 301 in a year! We had friends come in for the funeral that were talking about their daughter and grandaughter losing 70 and 90 lbs after surgery, and my mom actually stuck up for me saying that they did it the easy way. It's much harder to do it this way. You're also learning the habits you need to keep it off. Cross that bridge when you get to it.
I think Rachelle is right, the protein could help you if you're eat it at the right times. If you find you're still just exceedingly hungry, I would try adding one protein serving, and use a more filling one like yogurt instead of soemthing like string cheese.
Paul...You may be right about it being psychological. I've been able to ignore the hungry feeling so far or ward it off with another 32 ounce glass of water.
Janet...I also feel losing the weight slower will allow some shrinkage. I'm not kidding myself that I won't have hanging skin left, though. I heard that about rolling the fat. Right now I massage my left thigh and push the fat/water around on the lymphedema I have. It does seem to help and it is getting a little bit smaller.
Rachelle...I figured you were having power outage problems. That stinks! And yep, I'm finding that protein is the popular answer. Upon researching things I know I am getting too many calories from carbs and fat and not enough from protein. At least I know why I'm not losing at a better rate so it's going to be okay. Just means a little extra math on my part. Someone save me, please! LOL
Valerie...Thanks! I don't know that surgery is the easy way out but I really respect those that do it without surgery. I believe too many feel that surgery is the only answer. It is the answer for those who have life threatening conditions and if they don't lose weight quickly their life could end. But the majority of us don't have life or death situations over our heads. Yes, we know we have health issues but if I don't lose weight today I'm not likely to die tomorrow. You know what I mean?
Someday I'm going to tell my story so others will know it can be done without surgery!
Don't eat yogurt, but will definitely check into getting more protein. Maybe it's time for me to start adding protein powder to some foods.
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