33 Years Old, Ready to Be Healthy and Happy! Lancaster, PA

Hey everyone, I know it hasn't been long since I last updated but wanted to drop by. Holding steady at 160lbs right now, and today I fit into a size 8 jeans! (I'll post a pic since clearly i have no shame with fitting room selfies). Yes!! Also today I had a consultation with a plastic surgeon. I'm considering a tummy tuck and breast lift. If I do it, I'll have a body that I've never had in my life. I went straight from little kid to plus sized. If I could have the surgery tomorrow, I would. But I need to find a way to come up with the $15,000 and that will take time! Also I need to requit smoking again (boo me) and stay quit for four months. So this wouldn't be happening until probably this fall. But I'm excited and I'm really happy where things are, and where they're heading :)

Hello my peeps! I apologize for being late on my one year update. I was waiting to have my 1-year appointment with my surgeon that I had to reschedule due to work conflicts. But I'm here now! Let's get right to the good stuff. My highest recent weight was about 275lbs (although higher many years ago, I'm just going by the last several years). At my first appointment with my surgeon, I was 244lbs. Today I am 161lbs. BOOM!! I have done a lot of yo-yo-ing with weight in my life, but even at my very skinniest (if you can call it that), I was still almost 20lbs heavier than what I am right now. I started on this journey wearing 2X tops and size 22/24 jeans. I now wear mediums and size 10! I still have a badonkadonk and big boobs...which is quite alright with me. My goal was never to be actually skinny, it was to be NOT obese. I wanted to feel healthy, comfortable in my skin, confident, and beautiful. Thanks to this surgery and lifestyle change, I DO now. My life is so good now. My energy level is awesome. I wake up refreshed and motivated. I have a very busy life with work and kids but I have all the energy I need to handle it now. I don't feel wiped out by late afternoon anymore. My happiness with myself now overflows to other areas of my life. I handle stress easier. I'm more patient with my kids. Now for the confessions: I know I've talked the whole "it's a tool" thing to death like everyone else, but I was still hanging on to bad habits while I was preaching it. My vice (well I have a lot of vices but for the sake of this conversation) is coffee. I love coffee. I drink multiple cups a day. That isn't a problem in itself; the problem is I love very SWEET coffee and very CREAMY coffee. About 2 months ago, I was in the middle of a huge stall. I was at 177lbs for six weeks. First I thought, "oh everyone has stalls, this is normal." Then I thought, "maybe this is the weight my body just wants to be at." The truth? I realized that I was drinking 400 CALORIES A DAY IN COFFEE CREAMER!! What?! Not sure how I missed that. Anyway, I switched to a sugar-free creamer, and started measuring how much I was using so I could keep an eye on it. I also spent a week or 2 doing VERY low-carb eating to jump start the weight loss again. It worked, and I have lost another 16lbs since then. My surgeon was very pleased with me (even gave me a high-five haha). He had told me all along that I was losing slower than he wanted, and had adjusted my 1-year goal to be between 170-180lbs. Well I knocked it out of the park and made it to my original goal of 160 (plus a pound or two, no big deal) with a lot of hard work. Another confession: I don't work out. I live an active lifestyle, such as chasing my toddlers, doing a lot of cleaning (mostly because of toddlers), taking the kids on walks, and jumping on the massive trampoline we got for Christmas. The idea of doing boring work with weights and traditional work-out stuff is unbearable to me. Although I was very proud of myself a few weeks ago: we have a large sports complex close by that my teenage son goes to for training, and I went out on a limb and signed myself up for an evening of indoor rock climbing while I was waiting for him. It's something that I never would have done being heavy, but I did it and I killed it :) So I do get exercise in, I just don't set aside days and times to "work out". Let's talk about skin! Do I have loose skin? Yes, in some places. A little bit under my arms, which actually doesn't bother me too much. A lot on my lower belly. I've had 2 c-sections in the last five years and a lot of weight fluctuation. My lower belly is a mess. Now that I've lost most of the weight, I have scheduled a consultation with a plastic surgeon for next month. I would like them to just remove this lower belly mass so that my clothes fit better and I can be even more confident. As it is, I dress myself to accentuate the good stuff and hide the bad :) Before I end this long post, I want to touch on vitamins. I stopped taking vitamins months ago (please do not do this without permission from your doctor). My goal was to be able to eat so healthily that I did not need additional vitamins. Well 2 weeks ago, I got tons of bloodwork checking my vitamin levels and almost everything was exactly where it should be. I was just the slightest bit low on Vitamin A and zinc, but only by a tiny bit. My doctor was pretty amazed at that as well and gave his support for me to stay off of vitamins. (Please advise - this would NOT be appropriate for bypass patients. Due to the malabsorption component of gastric bypass surgery, it is my understanding that bypass patients MUST be on vitamins for life). All in all, this surgery has saved my life!! It has changed my life drastically! I am SO HAPPY. I've got some fighting daughters right now so I better get off of here. I will try to continue to update every six months or so. But in the meantime, please feel free to email me with questions you might have about my journey or the surgery. sarah_conklin@comcast.net

Thank you all for following along with me. My surgeon will be emailing me the before and after photos they took and I will post them for you to see when I get them :) Happy losing all, xoxo