If Tomorrow's Weight Loss Never Comes

(With apologies to Garth Brooks)

Along with all the other excitement of the last two weeks, I have also noticed a marked slow-down in my weight loss. Where I had been losing 3, 4, even 5 pounds a week since surgery, last week I made it to 225 pounds, and this week to 224. Somewhere in my brain, some pressure has been applied to the weight-loss brakes.

Now, stalls happen. I am not overly concerned about the fact that my weight loss has temporarily slowed down. The facts are pretty simple - If I keep eating around 800 calories a day, and my daily exercise routine burns off another 300 of them, there is just no way that my weight loss is "done". At some point, my fat cells will be forced out of their resistance, and the weight loss will pick back up.

However, just for the sake of argument, what if I was done losing weight? What would it mean for me to begin living the rest of my life at my current weight and size?

Well, let's see:

• I would have to accept a 40-inch waistline. That would be a little disappointing, but not very, since my original "pie-in-the-sky" goal was actually 38 inches. Remember, I started with a 48-inch waist.
• I would have to accept better seizure control and no longer being on blood pressure medications. Yeah, I think I could do that.
• My exercise routine would need to work around being at 224 pounds. Now, that is a little more difficult, since every pound you lose makes exercise that much easier on the rest of your body. But, in February, I could barely manage to walk to the end of the block and back - about 2 tenths of a mile. Today, we are regularly walking 2 miles, a ten-fold increase in daily activity.
• My CPAP would remain a constant companion at night, since I have still not overcome my obstructive sleep apnea. I do sometimes wish that I could get rid of the Darth Vader mask and hoses. But, Lor hints ominously that, if I were to start snoring again after being taken off of it, the mask would be going right back on anyway. The CPAP has meant uninterrupted sleep for both of us for several years now, and I suppose I can accept that.
• I would have to settle for the restoration of a regular sex life again, after not having one for years. Ahem. Yes, please.

I find very little to be unhappy about at this point - even if the process were done today, I would have to call the bariatric surgery a total success. Though I still have occasional hiccups (see what I did there?), what I have gained through surgery far outweighs the loss of beer and all-you-can-eat buffets. The fact is, I have a life outside my house again, and that in and of itself is one of the most valuable gifts I have ever received.

And, the good news is, I am not done yet! Though I am still skeptical of getting all the way down to 185 (my surgical goal weight), I firmly believe that I can make it to 199: I would like my maintenance phase next year to begin at under 200 pounds. And I will do everything in my power to get there. Two days from now will be my 2-month "surgiversary", so I should have at least 4 more months of honeymoon weight loss to go. Even at my current slower weight loss of a pound a week that would put me at 208 by January!

208 pounds. Imagine 95 pounds of total weight loss in just under a year. Who would have thought?

And Now I Have That Darn Song Stuck In My Head,

- Hawkwind