RillaVanilla's 125 lb loss thread

Here's some backstory... I was a slim child, so my mom freaked out after I had a massive growth spurt when I turned 13 and hit puberty, and started taking me to WW. I did NOT need to be on a diet. I was 5'4", big chested, and a healthy 130-140 lbs.

My mom died of cancer when I was 22 years old and I ate my emotions and stress, gaining 90 lbs in a year. After that awful year I managed to maintain my weight around 230 lbs by going on diets, losing 10-15 lbs, going off the diet, regaining 10-15 lbs, rinse and repeat. I had a baby when I was 27 years old, but only gained 17 lbs, and was 225 lbs the week after he was born.

At age 30 I wanted to have another baby but couldn't get pregnant, so I started seeing a fertility specialist for PCOS and was put on metformin for a year. I gained 50 lbs and it made me really ill. I went off the metformin and have been maintaining (for the most part) at 280-290 doing my usual diet yo-yo game.

I turned 38 years old last year, and REALLY started feeling the effect of my weight more. An old SI joint injury from my mid 20's would flare up a couple times a year, but after alternating ice/heat and seeing my chiro, I'd be back to normal in a couple days. Last year I had flare up after flare up, and they started lasting longer and longer, basically making me an invalid until the inflammation went down. That freaked me out a LOT as my mobility is something I cherish more than anything.

On November 9th my MD referred me to a bariatric surgeon.

On Jan 22nd I had my first consult with my surgeon (weighed in at 295 lbs) and he has referred me to his team at their bariatric clinic for pre-op tests and a dietician consult. I'm currently waiting for a date for a group orientation. I was told that it takes about a year here (Vancouver Island, BC, Canada) to get a surgery date.

January 23rd I decided I wasn't going to mess around anymore, I'd get serious about eating less and moving more, and see how much I could lose on my own over the next year. My ultimate dream would be to lose so much I won't even need the surgery anymore... I immediately started logging on MFP. For the first few days I logged what I normally eat to get an idea where I was starting. I averaged about 3000 calories/day and zero exercise.

For the first couple weeks I aimed for 2000 calories/day but struggled a lot with hunger and cravings and most days I was well over 2500 cals/day still. I'm in my third week now, I've found my stride, and for the past 9 days I've easily stayed below 1960 calories/day, and exercised daily.

Because of my hip/back issues, I'm easing into exercise VERY slowly as I have a tendency to over do it and not be able to do anything for weeks after while dealing with painful back and hip muscle spasms. I started with 5 min/day yoga... then the second week I did 6 min/day... this week I'm up to 7 min/day, and I've added in a stationary deskcycle bike. I'm able to do 10 min of yoga and I even did one 30 min session on the bike too! I aim for a MINIMUM 7 min/day but if I am feeling good and want to keep going, I do. Each week I'll keep adding a minute till I'm up to an hour of exercise every day.

I'm also planning to reduce my calories by 20 cals/day each week until I'm down to around 1500 calories/day.

I've set my goal at 170 lbs (gets my BMI below 30), so that's 125 lbs to lose. I'm down 4.5 lbs so far as of last Sunday and my mantra is: Motivation comes from ACTION, not the other way around!

I'd love some support from others who have a lot to lose, and if anyone wants to post how they are doing on this thread, I'd love to hear your story and progress reports. I've been blogging, but find it's a lonely place with very little interaction, so thought I'd poke my toe in the water here. Be kind please, I'm a gentle introvert who spooks easy!