Inching Closer
I knew as soon as I complained about not losing any weight, I would finally see some lower numbers on the scale. I'm below 180 - weighing 178.8 this morning. I actually only got on the scale once because I was afraid if I got on again it would read higher. I am now just 8.8 pounds away from my goal, and only 18.8 pounds away from a normal BMI.
I'm still not sure what my final weight will be. The conventional wisdom among my group of experts seems to be that I can get to 170 but 160 might be tough with the excess skin. I know I've talked about plastic surgery but I'm still iffy on it, simply because I don't have that big of a problem with it and I can still tone and tighten some of the excess within the next year. Most PS surgeons will not operate on a WLS patient until they are 1 year post-op and have 1 year at a steady weight. Ideally, I will get to 170 before the end of the year and be able to maintain that weight through 2007 so I can consider PS in 2008. What I really want done are "the girls," but that's also the least bothersome area. I hate my arms and my thighs, but they are not that bad in comparison with some I've seen. Heck, even my stomach isn't horrible. I might actually be able to get away with lipo in some areas.
I just don't know if it's worth the pain and additional scarring for a measly 10 pounds, but I have to be mentally prepared to not stress over those 10 pounds. From what I understand arms and thighs are the two most painful areas to have reconstructive surgery, and the scars are sometimes worse than the loose skin. There is also the Total Body Lift, which is becoming popular, but the expense, time, pain all will factor into my ultimate decision. Of course I worry that I will never be satisfied and always be in such fear of gaining the weight back that I won't enjoy the body I'm in now.
My shoulder/rotator cuff injury seems to be healing up just fine. It doesn't cause me pain all the time, just when I do certain movements. I'm still doing the physical therapy and I've laid off the weights at the gym for the time being. I'm hoping to be cleared to do light arm weights today so I can hit the gym over the weekend. I know I'll go tomorrow and at least do legs and cardio prior to coffee. If the weather holds, Don and I will take the dogs for a nice long hike today. I just need to get some more activity in during the week instead of trying to cram it all in over the weekend.
Don's traveling to Buffalo on Saturday. I don't have any big plans over the weekend other than trying to frame some photos from this summer. I framed one last weekend and then got distracted (probably dog related). I have about a dozen or so to do plus I have a few multi photo frames that need filling. Now that I'm not embarrassed to be in front of the camera, there are suddenly a lot more photos of me. Even Don was talking about getting our photo in front of our maple out front now that it's in full fall colors. Maybe this year our Christmas card will actually include Don and me instead of just the dogs.
Work, for the most part, is going well. One of my new hires started last week and he's doing a great job. I've finally figured out a transition plan for my group that I schedule, so that's a weight of my shoulders. I'm almost afraid that once I get everyone in place with their new groups, I won't have anything to do! My boss assures me that there is plenty of work to go around. The one bad thing that happened is that the admin who I've been having some personality conflicts with (but I'm trying to be mature about), asked me to forward some information to her, which I did but accidentally included some chatter between me and another admin about her. It, rightfully, upset her and I needed to face the music and admit that I had gone to her boss with some feedback. I told her exactly what I said to him and that I wanted her to succeed but she needed to want to as well. I then had to tell my boss and her boss what I did so she couldn't spin it into "Shannin was mean to me again."
The best news, however, is that I finally was able to have a conversation with my boss about money. It's never easy to discuss, and our company has pretty strict rules about when you can get increases and how much. One of the "rules" is that when you move from one level to the next, you only get a 10% raise, no matter what the minimum new salary is. Because I had to take a pay cut when I moved from California to here, I was way below what I should have been for my last two promotions but never wanted to say anything. For the last few months, I've been over $10k less than what the minimum salary is for my current position. Also, some of my own team - the ones I manage - make more than I did. I didn't think my boss was going to be able to do anything because of the "rules," but he totally stepped up and got the approvals he needed to get me right in the range I should be. I thought for sure it would just be a little bump of 10% of my current salary, but it was a lot more. I'm still a little below what I should be making but with a good review and bonus in April, I will be (finally) where I should be.
Off to get the work day started. I'm bugging out a little early for my PT appointment, and I think I can convince Don to take me out to dinner tonight...
I'm still not sure what my final weight will be. The conventional wisdom among my group of experts seems to be that I can get to 170 but 160 might be tough with the excess skin. I know I've talked about plastic surgery but I'm still iffy on it, simply because I don't have that big of a problem with it and I can still tone and tighten some of the excess within the next year. Most PS surgeons will not operate on a WLS patient until they are 1 year post-op and have 1 year at a steady weight. Ideally, I will get to 170 before the end of the year and be able to maintain that weight through 2007 so I can consider PS in 2008. What I really want done are "the girls," but that's also the least bothersome area. I hate my arms and my thighs, but they are not that bad in comparison with some I've seen. Heck, even my stomach isn't horrible. I might actually be able to get away with lipo in some areas.
I just don't know if it's worth the pain and additional scarring for a measly 10 pounds, but I have to be mentally prepared to not stress over those 10 pounds. From what I understand arms and thighs are the two most painful areas to have reconstructive surgery, and the scars are sometimes worse than the loose skin. There is also the Total Body Lift, which is becoming popular, but the expense, time, pain all will factor into my ultimate decision. Of course I worry that I will never be satisfied and always be in such fear of gaining the weight back that I won't enjoy the body I'm in now.
My shoulder/rotator cuff injury seems to be healing up just fine. It doesn't cause me pain all the time, just when I do certain movements. I'm still doing the physical therapy and I've laid off the weights at the gym for the time being. I'm hoping to be cleared to do light arm weights today so I can hit the gym over the weekend. I know I'll go tomorrow and at least do legs and cardio prior to coffee. If the weather holds, Don and I will take the dogs for a nice long hike today. I just need to get some more activity in during the week instead of trying to cram it all in over the weekend.
Don's traveling to Buffalo on Saturday. I don't have any big plans over the weekend other than trying to frame some photos from this summer. I framed one last weekend and then got distracted (probably dog related). I have about a dozen or so to do plus I have a few multi photo frames that need filling. Now that I'm not embarrassed to be in front of the camera, there are suddenly a lot more photos of me. Even Don was talking about getting our photo in front of our maple out front now that it's in full fall colors. Maybe this year our Christmas card will actually include Don and me instead of just the dogs.
Work, for the most part, is going well. One of my new hires started last week and he's doing a great job. I've finally figured out a transition plan for my group that I schedule, so that's a weight of my shoulders. I'm almost afraid that once I get everyone in place with their new groups, I won't have anything to do! My boss assures me that there is plenty of work to go around. The one bad thing that happened is that the admin who I've been having some personality conflicts with (but I'm trying to be mature about), asked me to forward some information to her, which I did but accidentally included some chatter between me and another admin about her. It, rightfully, upset her and I needed to face the music and admit that I had gone to her boss with some feedback. I told her exactly what I said to him and that I wanted her to succeed but she needed to want to as well. I then had to tell my boss and her boss what I did so she couldn't spin it into "Shannin was mean to me again."
The best news, however, is that I finally was able to have a conversation with my boss about money. It's never easy to discuss, and our company has pretty strict rules about when you can get increases and how much. One of the "rules" is that when you move from one level to the next, you only get a 10% raise, no matter what the minimum new salary is. Because I had to take a pay cut when I moved from California to here, I was way below what I should have been for my last two promotions but never wanted to say anything. For the last few months, I've been over $10k less than what the minimum salary is for my current position. Also, some of my own team - the ones I manage - make more than I did. I didn't think my boss was going to be able to do anything because of the "rules," but he totally stepped up and got the approvals he needed to get me right in the range I should be. I thought for sure it would just be a little bump of 10% of my current salary, but it was a lot more. I'm still a little below what I should be making but with a good review and bonus in April, I will be (finally) where I should be.
Off to get the work day started. I'm bugging out a little early for my PT appointment, and I think I can convince Don to take me out to dinner tonight...
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