Finish line in sight?? NO!!!

Wow, here I am at a weight of 178, clothing sizes medium-large and 10-14. It is so weird to be here, especially so "soon". Surgery really wasn't that long ago, honestly, just 9 months. In many ways, I'm still a "newbie" compared to many. I have lost a total of 160 pounds from my highest recorded weight,and 125 since surgery. I look in the mirror and sometimes I feel amazing. Sometimes the saggy skin and stretch marks depress me -- I don't have a boyfriend or life partner yet and feel it will be hard to attract anyone with this "baggage" -- but I guess almost always I'm more thrilled with my appearance than anything. The skin could really, really be worse than it is. Yay for shrinkage! LOL!

If I had to pick a goal to aim for, I guess I hope to lose anywhere from 15-35 more pounds. The last two months, I've lost 12 pounds each month, so I guess we'll see where the next 3 months take me. It'd be awesome to be at my one year surgiversary and not trying to lose anymore weight. But I have to admit that since my trip to Vegas for my birthday a week and a half ago, I haven't been as careful in my daily caloric intake as I probably should be. Today, I kind of realized that maybe I'm subconsciously realizing that I can slow down my weight loss and am giving myself permission to maintain my weight more than trying to lose more weight. Probably shouldn't be getting "complacent" just yet...or EVER...I think I need to think about that some more...

This past weekend I had to go to the ER to get fluids and meds to treat a yucky bout of migraine headache and dehydration. Not! Fun!! I posted about this on the Forum, but wanted to record the unfortunate experience here in my journal, too.

I've also recently had my first experience with someone telling me that I should stop losing weight. Wow. I know that's not yet true myself, but it was strange all the same. Sort of along those same lines, at this stage of my journey and with getting closer to my goal, feeling better about myself, I've started becoming more comfortable with telling people that I had gastric bypass. I'm not sure if I wasn't telling before because I'm just ashamed of my decision to do this (though I don't think so) or just that I know most people are so uneducated about the surgery that I'd rather avoid the issue altogether. I'm leaning towards that second one, but it's probably both... Yesterday, I confided in my closest coworker friend, and she was so completely accepting and comfortable that I felt bad for ever NOT telling her. She said that frankly she completely supported anyone getting such a surgery and she would totally do it if she ever needed. (She SO doesn't!! She's 5'9" and weighs a gorgeous 140!) We also talked about plastic surgery and how it can be amazing and helpful sometimes and totally abused in other cases. It was a really interesting, slightly uncomfortable for me, but mostly awesome conversation.


So, is that the finish line I see ahead of me? Eh, not so much. More like, the next stage of the journey of the rest of my life. Whew, I need a break! Where's the Gatorade?!