There are dinosaurs in my house....

Hey everybody!

For anyone who doesn't know, I had bariatric surgery on November 16th, 2012.  I had what they call a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy.  I've included a handy (but not gory) illustration below so you can see what they did.  Basically they removed 90% of my stomach.  I was starting to develop some of my Dad's less desirable health conditions and I've been a "big girl" for most of my life.  So last year, with the support of all my family and friends, I did something about it.  It's been a huge transition and very frequently now I feel like I'm in someone else's body because I find myself doing things I could never do before--or couldn't do without major difficulty.

So now when someone asks me to do something I don't want to do I will just tell them, "Sorry man, I just don't have the stomach for it!"  

The big part on the right they just pulled out and tossed.  OK, that was gory.  Sorry.

This was me at my Last Supper.  Two of my friends, Darcy and Phil Grendzinski  also had bariatric surgery in the last 12 months and each of us got to pick somewhere to have our Last Supper the night before starting the 10-day liquid diet prior to surgery.  I picked Chili's.  This is how most of you know me:

Buffalo chicken ranch sandwich.  My favorite pre-surgery meal.

As of my 3-month clinic visit I have lost 55.6 pounds, 7" off my hips, 10" off my waist and my BMI went from a horrible 39.5 to a "just too high" 30.0.  My pants fell off in Target one day and I decided I should get smaller ones.  This what I looked like 2 Saturdays ago (I'd like to add that Darcy has now lost OVER 100LBS!!  GO DARCY!):

Aren't we freakin' HOT?!?!?

My friend Sandy Doze kindly took some pictures of me in Minneapolis on St. Anthony Main.  This one is my favorite.

In my new coat my sister Cathy bought me!  You can't lose me in a crowd, now!

 Now the introductory portion of this post is done.  You won't need to read that again.  I'll demystify the title of this post for you.

There must be dinosaurs in my house...BIG ones.  Why, you ask?  Do I hear roaring?  Are things being demolished?  Have my annoying neighbors been devoured by pterodactyls??  Nope.  None of the above.  If you know me (and you probably do if you're reading this because who else would want to?) then you know one thing about me.  I DO NOT RUN.  Not for love nor money.  It used to be "not unless a cute guy was chasing me" but now, it's only if I'm in real, imminent danger of being feasted upon by a dinosaur like the tasty morsel I know I am.  Like this one:

I need a t-shirt of this!

So get to the point, Hochhalter.  Stop beating around the bush.

Well, today.......I RAN.  My wonderful friend Gina Lamb introduced me to a podcast, Robert Ullrey's Couch to 5K that will help someone who has never run get conditioned to do do. (You can get it on iTunes if you're interested.) Her fantastic husband Will has been a runner for quite some time and Gina has taken it up herself in the last couple of years. 

My wonderful friends Gina and Will. Runnin' fools. They're far too adorable for their own good!

Today I actually DID IT.  It's a half-hour eipsode with 5 minutes walking and then alternating 60 seconds of running with 90 seconds at a brisk walk to keep from keeling over--he calls it "resting".  Just before the second to last run I said, "That's it.  I'm done."  (Well, I thought it, I was panting pretty hard.)  But I decided I'd keep going (mostly because I mistakenly thought it was the LAST run, heh).  After that one I was definitely going to quit, but when the last run came up I just did it.  I was puffing like an asthmatic with emphysema but I made it through the whole thing.  I honestly can't believe it.  Am I running a 5K any time soon?  Nope.  But it's interval training and I know that's very good and works wonders.

This is a 9-week program where you do each episode of the podcast 3 times in a week.  I may have to do episode 1 for a couple weeks before I can move on, but I am pretty amazed.  And, while I'm not ever planning on running any 5Ks, my friends Sandy and Louise have vowed that they would dress up like dinosaurs and chase me if I ever decided to.  Girls, you'd need to be convincing so get something like this:

I hope there's a flap in there so he can go pee...

I hope you like to sweat! 

Well, that's it for now.  I'll keep you updated on how I'm doing and I'll keep up this running thing while trying not to end up in traction. 

'Til next time!
K