i'm losing weight, post one......

So, I have to lose weight.  The doctor said so.

In May, I went to see Dr. Lovelady because my heart was beating irregular and I was having issues with my breathing.  I just didn't feel like I could get a full breath of air.  I was really afraid that my lungs were affected worse than everyone thought from my lung surgery last year.  But, I was told that I needed to lose about 50 pounds, stop drinking caffeine, eliminate stress and start exercising more.  My first thought was, "You're not asking for a whole lot, are you?" Anyway, he set me up with the nutritionist in his office and told me to come back in a month.

I met with Audrey for the first time on May 24.  I weighed in at 192 pounds.  She put me on a diet plan that consisted of eating about 1,400 calories a day, drinking 64 ounces of water, no regular sodas and we began working on the caffeine issue.  My goal was to be completely off of the caffeine when I saw Dr. Lovelady again at the end of June.  We decided to start with 30 pounds and see how I felt and how I looked and then re-evaulate to see if I wanted to lose more weight, or just maintain.  She said that while the doctor had good intentions, sometimes it's better for the patient to make the decision on how much weight to lose based on how they feel.  I think 30 pounds is a good place to start. 

For the first month, I saw Audrey every week.  When I went for my first follow up on May 31, I weighed in at 188 pounds.  I had worked myself down from drinking regular Dr. Pepper from sun up to sun down to drinking about 3 diet sodas a day and around 56 ounces of water a day.  So, the first week was a success.

When I went in for my second follow up on June 7, I weighed in at 183.4 pounds and was down to one caffeinated soda per day.  I had discovered Diet Sierra Mist by this time and was falling in love with it!  I was up to drinking 5-6 bottles of water per day, which was a HUGE success for me.  I had also discovered Mio flavoring for water and would actually put down a soda in favor of water with Mio. 

I had my follow up appointment with Dr. Lovelady on June 26.  I was happy to report that I was off caffeine and had lost 9 pounds in one month! I was very excited and he was very happy with my results!  The irregular heartbeat had corrected itself with the elimination of caffeine.  The breathing issues were still a concern, so he referred me to a Pulmonologist.  He ordered an echocardiogram of my heart and a breathing test.  I have not gotten the results yet, so I'm still not sure what is going on with my breathing. 

I didn't go back to see Audrey until June 28.  We were headed to the beach the following weekend, and I wanted to wait until closer to beach time to see where I was and to get some tips for controlling myself at the beach.  When I went for this follow up, I weighed in at 180.8 and was completely off caffeine.

While we were at the beach, I gained only one pound!  This surprises me because I had TCBY 3 nights in a row. :) But, I got right back on my diet when we got home and when I went back to see Audrey yesterday (July 19) I weighed in at 179.  So, in total, I have lost 13 pounds since May 25 when I started my diet.  I've been dieting 8 weeks today - that's an average of 1.62 pounds per week.  Not too shabby.

I started a weight loss boot camp last night.  This is a work out program that runs for a month, 3 work outs per week.  Hopefully, this will get me started with the work out portion of my diet.  I'm anxious to see the results of this as well. 

This is a "before" picture.  Not the best, but I generally avoid the camera because of how bad pictures are of me.  If I do have my picture taken, I generally just have them taken of my face.  I'll try to post pictures as I continue this journey of losing weight.