I have said it a bazillion times...."numbers are NOT important" "numbers do NOT define me"
That said, I was playing with numbers last night and was incredibly WOWED by what I figured out.
15 months ago I started my journey at a weight of 327 pounds
My BMI was 52
The doctor says that to be "normal" on the BMI charts I should be 155 pound
That means my EXCESS weight was 172 pounds
That overwhelmed me. Now granted - he did NOT say that I needed to get to that 155 pounds, he was just telling me what my excess weight was according to the charts.
RNY surgery, the one I had, averages 65% of excess weight lost. Now I think that is a 1-2 year average - like when you "level off" and maintain a weight. So that would put me at losing 114 pounds total and having my ending weight be 213.
Well guess what - I have BEAT that. Yes, I am currently at 210 pounds I have lost 117 pounds and I am 8 months out from surgery.
Last night I figured it out - that is 68% of my excess weight.
OMG - I have BEAT the average and I am 8 months out from surgery and not done losing weight. OMG, OMG, OMG.
This made me do a happy dance last night.
More numbers....
Starting Now Next Goal
Weight 327 210 199
BMI 52 33.7 31.6
Shirt Size 3X to 4X L
Pant Size 28W or 30 W 14W
Bra Size 44 DD 38 DDD (yes, larger cup to cram em in)
Underwear Size 13 10
These are simply amazing to me.
I say "next goal" because, as I posted in an earlier entry, I need smaller, attainable goals or I get frustrated and give up. I mean seriously - if the doctor had said, "Lose 117 pounds." I would have given up. That was SO out of reach, so overwhelming, I would have freaked.
But the doctor set my goal as 10 pounds a month. Now THAT is doable. I use my surgery, my TOOL, to help me. And I use my new healthier life style to assist my tool. Better food choices, exercise...a healthier me.
My doctor set my "goal weight" at 200 pounds. But I have two big problems with that.
1) It starts with a 2! I want to start with a 1! Thus my next goal of 199 pounds, NOT 200.
2) That still has me with a BMI of 31.8 which is "obese"
I REALLY want to no longer be classified as obese. I was morbidly obese, or worse, to start. I think like Obese Class 3. I am now Obese Class 1. And at 200, even 199, I am still obese. So 199 is the next goal.
THEN, I will set a new goal. And that goal is to get to "overweight" instead of obese. To do that I have to have a BMI of 29.9 or lower. THAT is 188 pounds.
To after I reach 199 pounds - my next goal will be 11 short pounds away at 188.
Might sound silly to be striving to be overweight! But seriously, I would LOVE to be overweight. I have not been overweight since high school. I know that in college I weighed 200 pounds. (I really do not know why I know that, but I remember being 200 pounds in college.)
Here are my goals for myself - both achieved and future:
Goal #1 - lose 10% of my starting weight before surgery.........accomplished!
Goal #2 - to survive the first weeks after surgery (they are tough)......accomplished!
Goal #3 - to lose 100 pounds........................accomplished 10/26/2013
Goal #4 - to weigh 199.................in progress, 11 pounds to go
Goal #5 - to be "overweight" instead of "obese" - weigh 188 pounds.............future
Goal #6 - To weigh 175 (because I need small goals and that would be 13 pounds)............future
Goal #7 - to weigh 160 pounds.................set this to be accomplished by May 7, 2015 (2 yrs from surgery)
Goal #8 - IF I can get there - to weigh 155 and be "normal"................TBD
If you had told me a year ago that I would have lost 68% of my excess body weight - I would have laughed in your face. That is a BIG number and I would never have believed it was possible. But I have, I am there. It makes all my other goals seem reachable, like something I CAN accomplish with a lot of hard work.
I was reminded today of how some people say surgery is taking the "easy way out" - This journey has been anything but easy. It started as a daily struggle to curb my old habits and to learn new ones...new healthier eating habits. AND to stick to them even though my stomach was still huge and told me I was starving every day. Then the surgery itself - ha, that is most certainly not easy. Just google RNY surgery and look at the pictures of what they do. NOT easy. For the last 8 months now, navigating eating with my new pouch (stomach). Some days it will have nothing to do with any food or it will make me sick. Other days it wants food constantly. NOT easy trying to maintain a steady diet.
Numbers.....numbers.....numbers. They may only be a number, but our lives are ruled by them. I have decided to not let numbers control my feelings about myself, but that does not mean that I do not strive for a different number.
Ultimately - I do not strive for that number BECAUSE of the number. I strive for that number because it means I have made a change in my life that has made me a much healthier person. I strive for that number because it means being the healthiest I can be. Health is the goal....NOT a number. (But those darn numbers are still there and how we measure our progress!)
