Weigh in Wednesday

Beginning Weight (12/20/2012)- 330.6

Last Week’s Weight – 275.4

Today’s Weight – 275.2

Total Weight Loss – 55.4

I have to admit...I am S U P E R excited about that .2 loss!

I lost 4.6 pounds the week before and most of that was from my five day long stuck episode where I couldn't eat or drink anything...

I didn't count it as real.

It was all water right?

As you may know I have a motivation board that I hang up in my bathroom. It is one of the first things I see every day and any time I go in there. It is in the back ground when I brush my teeth and the first thing I see when I get out of the shower...

Anyways, I have mini clothes pins that I move for each pound that I want to lose...

I didn't move the 5 pins for last week...I didn't feel I had deserved it

I spent the last week trying to be good but noticed that I was suffering from a massive case of head hunger.

When I stepped on the scale this morning I fully expected it to read 277 or 278 pounds.

I had expected a gain...but it didn't happen!!!

I am going to keep up my new recipe adventure, removing gluten from my life.

I am going to keep up my treadmill workouts and hopefully find a new weight lifting program...

See you soon!

Weekend Baking...

I found this awesome blog...It is all about the Paleo Diet...It has some FANTASTIC recipes in it.

I get so motivated by some of the recipes...I miss SO many things that I am no longer allowed to eat since I can't have gluten any more...

One of those is Cheez-it crackers...my kids eat them and I stare at the wrappers longingly.

Though lots of research I discovered almond flour. It is a gluten free alternative that my body can handle...I can't stand how rice flour makes me feel...When I eat it I feel like someone hit the slo-mo button in my brain....Anyways...that doesn't happen with almond flour...

With that in mind I made shortbread cookies. I decided to just use my go too Food Network version and just replace the wheat flour with almond flour. They turned out awesome. I even dipped them in chocolate. I would have taken a photo of them but they only lasted about 3 hours before my family had devoured them...

My next adventure was "Flour-less Cheese Crackers" they should take the place of cheez-its in my life.

The recipe can be found here

These suckers are AWESOME!

They are salty, and crunchy...and have that wonderful bite that cheez-its have and the kicker is that they don't even have cheese in them. The recipe called for nutritional yeast which I was able to find at Whole Foods....They are fantastic. For an ounce of crackers they have 170 calories, 8 grams of protein, and only 4 grams of carbs.

I need to have baking weekends more often!!!

Shopping...and other things I hate

I am being initiated in to BAP on Thursday.

This requires that I be in "Business Dress"

I own exactly one pair of "dress slacks"...Here is a photo of me in them....

I look like a little kid who is trying to wear her mother's work clothes...it is REALLY hard for me to believe that I EVER fit in those pants!

Here is that elusive side view pull out...lol...I love this photo....

Anyways...needless to say I need dress clothes so I went to Kohls.

Let's start this out by saying that I HATE shopping. I especially HATE clothes shopping. All department stores assume that an overweight women wants to look like she is wearing a paisley printed trash bag. I am not one of these women. I also HATE wearing a shirt I know one of my dearly departed Grandmother's (Both live to be 95) would have LOVED!

So on I went with exactly 60 minutes allotted for my torture. I found a few cute things. I am very excited to learn that I can now wear an XL. Not a 1X plus size shirt, but an XL from the "normal" people section.

Here is a classic dressing room mirror photo with my pink phone in hand. I can wear an XL and it doesn't even look all that tight on me. The pants are a size 22w. I can easily fit into most 20W but the only "curvy fit" pants had that stupid panel in the front that relocates your fatness ABOVE the belt (which I hate) so I opted for one size bigger to avoid that. I have made good progress. When I started this I barely fit into a 26W!

Here is what I found.

An XL hounds tooth tank top and a pair of pants total cost of $36. Finished off with the ONLY jacket that I kept from my previous employed life and you get....

I think it shall work. The jacket only looks a smidgen big on me but I think I can get away with it for a while.

Week 34 Weigh In

Beginning Weight (12/20/2012)- 330.6

Last Week’s Weight – 280.0

Today’s Weight – 275.4

Total Weight Loss – 55.2

Holy cow!

I lost 4.6 pounds this week!

That is pretty cool!

I am prepared for a little gain next week. I had four days this week where my band was WAY TOO tight! I lost about 6 pounds in four days most of it was water! My body is still adjusting back...

I am still excited and I will take it!

I had an NSV the other day:

I ran into my friend who I hadn't seen since before surgery. We had an accounting class together in the Fall of 2012. So it has been 9 months since we have seen eachother....We now have a class together.

She came up behind me the other day in class and smacked me on the shoulder and said "I didn't even recognize you...you are so tiny now...I didn't know it was you until they said your name."

I have to admit that was AWESOME!

I have people that tell me I look good...but they are family and they don't count....this was someone who I knew casually at school...she didn't owe me a compliment or encouragement...It was great!

ON TO NEXT WEEK!

2nd unfill...ever!

Today...I woke up...still unable to eat or drink anything.

I stepped on the scale and I am down 6 pounds in 4 days...

This wasn't good!

I called my Lap-Band clinic and explained to my LPN what was going on...

She had me come in right away...

Apparently all the mucus was actual slime...I was having a "drainage" problem because my band was too tight!!!

Basically I was having one unending stuck episode.

So we took out .5 ccs...

Instantly I felt like I could finally breathe again...

Now, I have eaten a real meal for the first time in 4 days!

OMG Kill me now....

I got an unexpected fill on Thursday.

It was unexpected in the sense that prior to yesterdays appointment, I always had a standing appointment that I made at the appointment before....

It had been two months since I had had a fill and I was just hungry all the time. I also noticed that I was eating more food then I had been. So I called them up and they squeezed me in.

That went well...I was a little amazed that they put in 1cc. They had me do a barium swallow and everything seemed fine. I stuck to my liquid diet and everything went well...Until lunch on Friday...

I ate a salmon pattie...I love these things....but I ate one that I didn't make. I assumed something that I shouldn't have. In result I couldn't keep anything down yesterday.

Apparently, I read the ingredient list AFTER eating it, they were mostly bread crumb and bread crumbs contain gluten....OMG did I just wish I could die.

I ended the day with a bucket next to my bed...I couldn't even keep water down the PBing was so bad.

Today hasn't been quite as bad. I have been able to get 54 ounces of electrolyte liquid in my system...I FINALLY managed to keep down an batch of egg salad. I WAS SO EXCITED!!! It was the first food I had eaten in three days...

Today is the first time that my calories had been over 600 since my fill...

I am thankful that it is passing but from here on out I am going to read every label on every food I even THINK about eating.

Weigh in # 34

Beginning Weight (12/20/2012)- 330.6

Last Week’s Weight – 281.6

Today’s Weight – 280.0

Total Weight Loss – 50.6

YAY!...I lost 1.6. Which technically I gained last week, but at least I got it back off!

Back in my WW days, I would get envious....ok that word doesn't really fit. That implys that I was hostile towards the other women in that group. I always thought that it was unfair. I would be PERFECT on my diet and lost .5 pounds. The women behind me in line would talk about how bad she was all week. Then we she sat down next to me in the meeting would tell me that she still managed to lost 1.5 pounds. That her still averaged almost 2 pounds a week. My average was .4....a sad little .4. I would lose 2 pounds one week, then .6 the next, then I would gain 1.2 pounds. This would make a weekly average of a VERY SMALL amount of weight....

And that is always how I measured my success.

I never looked at at anything...granted I never lost enough weight to ever have anything else...I never went down a dress size, I never noticed a change in the fit of...anything I owned. I would lost 20 pounds and give up. I would gain the weight back and blame anything I could think of.

This journey has been completely different.

Here I am down 50 pounds only seven months after I had surgery. I have never lost that amount of weight nor have I ever noticed the changes in my body that I have in that short time.

When I look in the mirror I no longer see the fat overweight mom who so badly wanted to be smaller but never thought that it would happen....Now I need a women who is getting in shape...changing her shape...and loving how her body is changing...

Here is a great example:

Last year...in October I had my first ever Girl Scout Neighborhood Meeting. We got to the local high school and we sit in a class room. The first time I walked into this room I didn't even think about whether or not I would fit in the desk...I fit in the ones at school...anyways...I sat down and was blown away by how painful it was to sit in this desk. The writing surface was SO tight against me that it HURT! For the remainder of the year I would either sit NEXT to the desk and use the chair as a writing surface or sit to the side of the desk areas with the other mom's who can't fit in the desks.

Monday however, seven months after surgery and almost 12 months since I my first encounter with the desk I decided to give it a try. Not only did it not hurt...I didn't have any over hang on the desk. I barely brushed the front of the writing surface...

It is these things that keep me going...I am excited for the other bloggers that I follow that lose weight faster then me and I no longer compare myself to them....As the saying goes, it doesn't matter who fast you go as long as you don't stop. I lose weight at my pace and I can't compare myself to anyone else!!

YAY FOR NSV!

Weekend Revelations...

Firstly, chest colds SUCK ASS! This cough is making me feel icky...Hope it passes soon.

Ok on to my revelations I had this weekend.

I read an article, "Peoples Choice" about Ideal Body Weight. It said that most people determine their ideal body weight based on the weight they started at. They found that women in particular would chose a higher "ideal weight" if they had more then 100 pounds to lose versus if they had less then 50.

I began pondering this...It spent about a week bouncing around my head...

I realized that I fall perfectly into this description. My husband has always believed that I could get smaller then the 190 pounds I wanted to weigh at the beginning of this journey....

Lately though....I have found no reason to believe that I can't get down to 150 pounds. That is the tippy top range of the weight range for my height. I have a medium large bone structure so I am fairly certain that I can't get down to the 130s without looking emaciated. I am just not built that way...

But there is NO reason I can think of that I can't have the body that I do want. I want to be fit not thin...I want to get as small as I can while still looking the way that I want...

I am gunna I tell you!

TTT

1. I write one of these EVERY Thursday...well I should say that I start writing one of these every Thursday and almost NEVER finish it...

2. 30 Day Shred-  Today was Day 5...Today was the FIRST day since Sunday that I woke up feeling like I had jumped out of the way of the bus. I felt pretty good...I managed to get in my workout today and when it was over I ran downstairs and it wasn't until I got to the top of the stairs that I realize I hadn't descended or ascended the stairs like a crippled old lady....YAY for Progress!!!

3. My eating has been crappy-ish. I have been shooting for 40 grams of carbs per day...Unfortunately I have been more around 80 for the last two days...I just haven't cared...I haven't wanted to make myself care...lol!

4.  My Baby Girl's first day of 1st grade!

5. My baby girls surprise for her first day of school...She LOVES fresh cut flowers!!

6. Zucchini Boat...I am making them for dinner I got the idea off a page I liked on facebook...It is a replacement for pizza...it should be YUMMY!!!

7. Tomorrow is a new day...I am hoping to get my shit back in order...I am going to add my C25K program to my 30 Day Shred program. I think the added activity will help keep me on track!

8.ELYSIUM! I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THIS MOVIE!!! I am hoping to have a date night with the hubby on Saturday!!

9. New work out clothes...I bought some new ones today...the clothes that I bought seven months ago that were T I G H T ! ! ! are now about as good as wearing NOTHING! I need something that will hold all that jiggle in place while Jillian Micheal's makes me do jumping jacks....Today I bought some. the Fila pants ($16 marked down from $65) size X-Large and Danskin compression pants ($12) size 20...I also bought some new sports bras...mine were getting to be nothing more then a modesty layer...I love getting new workout gear!

10. My sleep efficiency...I wear a bodybugg...it gives me LOTS of data on how my body is working...one of the things I love watching is my sleep efficiency...Typically I sleep like crap...we are talking like of all the time I am lying down at night 66% of the time I am a sleep...Since I started the 30 Day Shred I have started averaging 87%...that is CRAZY!

Fun times in the yard...

My kids and I have fun...

We learn stuff outside...

Just like I did when I was a kid...

Today....We harvested walnuts!

 It all started because my Baby Girl found a bunch of them on the ground...

Our walnut tree is the large green mass in the background

Then she enlisted the help of her little brother....

They collected 25 found of raw walnuts...Now it is my job to hull them all...THANK GOD for Google!!!

I have no idea how much this will yield but I shouldn't have to buy walnuts for a LONG while!!!

Someday I will figure this crap out

Beginning Weight (12/20/2012)- 330.6

Last Week’s Weight – 278.8

Today’s Weight – 281.6

Total Weight Loss – 49

I wasn't gunna weigh in this morning...

I knew this was going to happen....

In previous posts I mentioned that I have started the JM 30 Day Shred program...

My body hates me...it rewards me for lethargy and punishes me for attempting to change...

EVERY TIME I start a weigh training program my muscles get sore, they begin to retain fluid...and I gain weight!

I know it wasn't my diet...

I burned an average of 2989 calories a day....Averaged 40 minutes of physical activity...averaged a 1270 calorie deficit...my average protein was 108g a day and my carbs averaged 69. I kept my sugar below 15g EVERYDAY!

The 1.8 pounds that I gained can't be fat...it has GOT to be fluid...

I am not going to let this stop me...I am going to keep up the workout plan and I am going to keep up my good eating...I will conquer this!

30 Day Shred...OMG...

I bought this DVD almost a month ago...

I had had the intention of doing it as my workout when I was visiting my mom...Between the twice daily walks to McDonalds (one mile each time, and I never had more than a soda)...I never got around to it.

Well yesterday I broke the seal and did my first every Jillian Michaels workout...

OH MY GOD!

This program KICKED my ass...I will admit I am not in the greatest of shape...I am in better shape then most people my size but still...I am SO sore!

I took a photo of me yesterday...after the fact...

I am NOT trying to be intense...I was just so tired that I couldn't even think of smiling...I had sweat running down EVERYWHERE! It was gross...and wonderful!

I unintentionally did it again today...I was baking spaghetti squash and thought..."What on earth am I going to do with myself for 40 minutes? I know... Lets let Jillian Michaels KICK my butt!"

I am so sore...the ab workout makes sharp breaths hurt...this is kinda sucky since I am still battling a cold, but it is totally worth it!

I have posted my Day 1 photo and will post an update at Day 15 and finally at Day 30. I know it won't be done at the end of the 30 days so I will most likely keep updating them...

On too tomorrow!!!

Worst stuck episode EVER

OMG...

Today I spent the day at the Saint Louis Zoo with my wonderful kiddos...

Ever since I got home from my mom's house I have been fighting this cold...

Today it reared it ULGY head...

I had the worst stuck episode after a coughing fit...

I hadn't eaten...or drank anything...

I got stuck...on phlem!

It was gross and uncomfortable and resulted in an episode involving a bush and hoping no one would notice...

I hate stuck episodes mostly I HATE the ones where the things get stuck but won't come up regardless of what you do...

Ok I am over it...but thought I would share!...lol