I usually just check in once a month and give an update on progress but I thought I would go ahead and share my numbers from my most recent doctor's appointment.

About a week ago I had my "6 month" checkup with my surgeon's office. Yes, we were all behind. Scheduling conflicts and being busy on both my end and theirs meant I was almost a month and a half late but oh well, no harm done. I was very happy with most of my numbers. In fact, they seemed very impressed by my progress. It felt awesome when I was asked, "What type of exercise are you doing?" instead of "Are you exercising?" My hard work is paying off and I'm glad it's obvious that I'm putting in a lot of effort.

A quick run down of some of my stats:
My BMI started at 43.25 and is now 27.97
Body fat started at 46 and is now 32.7
fat weight started at 110.54 and is now 50.82
I lost a total of 42.25 inches

Broken down that is:
neck: 2.75 inches
chest: 9.75 inches
upper arm: 4.25 inches
wrist: 1 inch
waist: 10.5 inches
hips: 12 inches
thigh: 2 inches
calf: 2.5 inches

It's amazing to look at those numbers and see the HUGE difference. I am very excited to see where they are in another few months.

The only "bad" numbers were my iron levels. I have always had a tendency to run anemic and regardless of the fact that I religiously take my vitamins, I was still pretty anemic. I was prescribed even more iron and have added that to my daily regime. I have another round of blood work scheduled in a month so they can see if that fixed the problem so, well.. hopefully it does.

On a good note, I think my hair is finally started to do a little better. I have noticed that, while I still am having some hair loss it seems A LOT less than before. I am very optimistic that maybe the worst is behind me and maybe it will start repairing itself. I miss having decent hair. I knew when I started this journey that my hair would probably take a beating and yes, it has absolutely been worth it, but I'm ready to have a nice head of hair again.

I do have to say, so far 2015 has been an amazing year for me. I have done so much to change myself for the better. I had the sleeve, have lost a lot of weight, got my blood pressure just about perfect, eat healthy, exercise a lot, take my vitamins... I'm doing really good for myself right now. But also, I had a small surgical procedure to fix some "lady" problems, have had several sessions at the dermatologist to remove moles (melanoma runs in my family), and got braces, which is something I really wanted to do for a long time. I can't explain how wonderful it feels to be fixing all these things I have disliked about myself. Some are about health and some are appearance but all of them are like a weight off my shoulders. I think 2015 will always stand out to me as the year I took control and changed my life.

Of course, 2016-2017 will also probably be very exciting because I have just about decided that when I am about 18 months or so out I am going to go visit a plastic surgeon and look into AT LEAST a tummy tuck and boob job. But oh well, we'll just see how that plays out in the future.

As always, thanks to you all for the support and encouragement.