How did I let it happen? How did I wake up one day to find myself at 286 pounds and completely miserable in my own body? It happened, I can't blame anyone but me. And only I can fix it. So I am. On December 23, 2009 I had Lap-Band Surgery with Dr. John Marsden. I'm down 100 pounds so far with about 25 to go.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Moving Around

I hate exercise. I admit it. However, I don't mind moving. I'll go for a walk, or take extra trips up and down the stairs when doing laundry, park further away from the store, take the stairs instead of the elevator, stuff like that. I even like riding my bike and playing games on the Wii. I just don't like organized, planned out "exercise".

We have a rec room at my work, and today I went down there with a friend and we played on the Wii (bowling) and then played some (actual, not virtual) ping pong. It was really fun!! I'm sure I didn't burn a lot of calories, but I had a good time and was up and moving around. My job is very sedentary, so any little bit helps. Yesterday I went out for my afternoon break and walked several laps around our parking garage while listening to my audiobook. I wish I loved exercise, I really do. But you can't make yourself love something if you just don't, no matter how hard you try.

Today it dawned on me that I am only 20 pounds from the high end of my "normal" weight on all the charts. That makes me pretty happy! I also went to Target during lunch and wandered around for a while. While I was there I strolled through the swimsuit section and it was the first time in my life that I remember thinking that nobody was looking at me and judging (in my mind anyway) that I was simply too big and fat to even be browsing in the regular size swimsuits! I didn't find any that grabbed my attention, but I enjoyed looking none the less.

I am pretty hungry this afternoon so I have to keep my head about me when choosing my dinner tonight. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

180

Monday, March 28, 2011

Back from Vacation!

I am back completely refreshed and relaxed. We shall see how long that lasts :)

I had a wonderful Birthday week off and even managed to lose 1 pound during the celebrating! Here are my final totals from the week:

Calories Burned Calories Consumed Calorie Balance
14,258 10,143 4,115

Not too shabby I think, I'm counting it in the win column.

I watched several movies over the week. Some on DVD, some in the theater. I saw Push, The Island, The King's Speech and Sucker Punch. Push reminded me of that movie Jumper. It was alright, the guy was cute in it. The Island was interesting. I don't remember hearing a lot about it when it was in theaters. I don't even really remember putting it on my Netflix list, but there it was and it has Scarlett Johansson in it and I freely admit to having a bit of a girl crush on her so there you have it.

On Thursday, I went with my Mom to see The King's Speech and it was fantastic. I studied Speech Pathology in college (not what I do for a living now though) so the whole thing was utterly fascinating to me. It also reminded me that I made the right decision to not do that as my life's work. I just don't have that kind of patience!  Colin Firth was phenomenal and it was fun to see some Harry Potter alum's in the movie (Dumbledore was King George the V and Wormtail was Winston Churchill).

Then there was Sucker Punch. I am not sorry I saw it. It was truly a beautiful movie. The costumes, the makeup, the colors, the sets. All simply gorgeous. But the story was nothing special. It was sort of like if a comic book and a manga had a baby and it was turned into a movie. Plus we saw it at a movie tavern so that is always nice!

I also went on a couple of bike rides, did some walking, caught up on all my TV (I love Being Human! the British one more so than the American one), saw Duran Duran in concert (AMAAAAAAAAAAAZING as usual!), went out to eat a few times, got my hair done, a pedicure, a facial, started reading a new book (Water for Elephants), and had a bowling birthday party on Friday night. All in all, a fantastically wonderful week off!

And so far ... 40 feels great!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Vacation is awesome!

First things first ... today, my weigh in: 181! That's a loss of 2 pounds last week, and a total loss of 105 pounds! Yay!

I love my BodyBugg! It really makes me want to keep moving. I love seeing the "Calories Burned" number move higher and higher :) Talk about motivation. It has helped so much in my re-kick-start!

As I'm sure you all remember, I went to see Duran Duran at Winstar Casino in Oklahoma with my BFF Debora on Friday night. It. Was. INCREDIBLE! They are so good in concert, the fans are super fun and the venue was actually pretty cool. We had VIP seats so we were pretty close to the front anyway, but then after the concert started, just about everyone in those seats sorta rushed the stage. We finally realized that this is what happens at Winstar so we joined the crowd! I inched my way up until I was so close to the stage I could just about touch it. We danced and sang and screamed and clapped, my voice was just about gone and we had a fantastic time!

Here are a few pictures! I didn't know we were allowed to take actual cameras into the show, so all I had was my phone. These aren't the best quality, but I still love them :)

My Beautiful John
Simon!
Simon and John
Shows how close to the stage I got!
John Saying GoodBye

So far today, my first day of vacation, I slept in (a little bit), played around on the computer, am working on cleaning the kitchen, doing some laundry, then I decided to take a ride on my bike. My local Smoothie King isn't too far away so I hopped on my bike and rode up there to have a smoothie. I've become friends with a couple of the girls who work there, so they didn't mind that I hung out and chatted while I had my smoothie. After I was done, I hopped back on my bike and rode home. I probably rode about 4 miles total, not terribly far, but with the wind today the ride home was pretty strenuous.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and will have a great week. I am off to do more dishes and more laundry!

181

Thursday, March 17, 2011

A Night of Rest

Normally I don't have a bunch of stuff planned to do after work. Maybe 1 thing a week or so. This week it has been crazy! Crazy and fun :)

Monday - Lap Band Support Group
Tuesday - Quilting Guild
Wednesday - Tommy Tune with Beth
Thursday - FREEEEEE NIGHT!
Friday - Duran Duran w/ my BFF!!!!!

Normally, Thursday nights is when I go knit with my group of friends, but I needed a night off to rest! I am taking vacation all next week in celebration of my birthday on Wednesday the 23rd. I am sooo ready for a vacation from work for a few days.

Yesterday my BodyBugg numbers were really good!

Calories Burned: 2408
Calories Consumed: 1245
Deficit: 1163

I am thrilled with those numbers and hope I can do that good every day! I am planning on doing a little housework when I get home tonight so that should bump up my calories burned for the day.

Oh! Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! I can't believe I almost forgot to say that! I am wearing a green shirt, so I should be safe from the pinchers of the world. I won't have any green beer though ... 1st off, too many calories. And 2nd off, I really don't like the taste of beer in the first place, ha!

I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the day ... til next time!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Calories Consumed vs. Calories Burned

Yesterday I started using my new BodyBugg. I got it set up and put on my arm at around 9am or so. I didn't really do anything different than I typically do, I wanted to see how my day panned out.

According to my plan, these are my goals:

Calories Burned: 2250
Calories Consumed: 1250
Target Deficit: 1000

For Tuesday, 3/15 here's how it all came down:

Calories Burned: 1991
Calories Consumed: 1294
Deficit: 697

So, not exactly how much I needed to do but gives me a good place to start. So, I need to move a little more than I usually do, which shouldn't be too hard. I just need to make an effort every day to do a little more moving around :) As for my eating, I was a little higher yesterday than I usually am - but not THAT much. I'm OK with how those numbers fell for the day.

Tonight I'm going to see Tommy Tune with my friend Beth and I'm super excited!!! Then Friday I'm going to see Duran Duran with my BFF Debora!!!!! It will be my 5th time to see them, and my 2nd time to see them with Debora :)

Make it a great day everyone!!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

BodyBugg

Yesterday, I went and got a BodyBugg from 24 Hour Fitness. My friend Beth has one, as well as my BFF and her husband. I've heard great things about it from all of them so I decided to take the plunge! Aside from a small hiccup with setup (have to use the Safari browser on a Mac, not Firefox), things have gone pretty easily so far. Today is my first day using it, I've already logged my breakfast and that was easy as pie!

I've been having success logging my food, but I wanted something that would tell me how many calories I'm burning every day too. Because I really have no clue at all. And of course as anyone who has ever tried to lose weight knows... You must expend more calories than you intake in order to drop the pounds. 3500 calories = 1 pound. So if I want to lose 2 pounds a week, that is 7000 calories that I need to burn more than what I take in. Now, don't try to get me to do any crazy algebraic equations, because that just isn't happening! But this math, I can wrap my head around. :)

So, off I go with the newest part of my adventure!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Progress!

This morning's weigh in ... drum roll .... 183!!!!

For those not good at math (like myself), that is 5 pounds in 2 weeks. AND this is the lowest weight I've been since surgery! Previous low was 184. These good numbers are giving me the motivation I need to keep going. I might just make the 170's by the end of the month!!

This weekend was fun. Saturday, James and I went to see Red Riding Hood at our local Movie Tavern. Movie was alright, not great but not terrible. I have a bit of a girl crush on Amanda Seyfried, so anything she is in I like to see. Plus Billy Burke is hilarious and Gary Oldman is amazing. Then on Sunday, I went with my BFF to the Funky Finds craft show. It was pretty fun and I got a couple of things that are pretty funky! I saw my fellow bandster, Pam, there so that was fun! Then I went home and James and I cleaned out the drawers and cabinets in the bathroom. I know that doesn't sound like fun, but we had a good time laughing and talking while we did it so that makes it all good.

Tonight is my monthly support group meeting and I'm super pumped to go and see my friends! And to share my wonderful news of now having lost 103 pounds total!!!

I sure am using a lot of exclamation points today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Make it a great day!

183

Friday, March 11, 2011

TGIF

Not really too much to report today, but its been a good day. :) I only have 5 more work days until my week off for my birthday! So that is super exciting.

I've been trying to drink more water this week. Me and Beth have been challenging each other. Today when I went to lunch I got a 1 liter bottle of water and have been drinking and drinking and drinking. I'm about 3/4 of the way done and feel like I'm going to drown any second! And I know that's not even THAT much water!!

Its pretty close to time to go home, and its a beautiful day outside!

Have a great weekend and I'll see you all back here on Monday for my official weigh in! Keep your fingers crossed that it is a spectacular one!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Morning Sunshine

How is everyone today? I am doing really good!!! Just happy and peaceful and smiling. The weekend is very soon, the scale is being kind, I am in control of my eating and things are just generally good.

I have added a couple of pages to my blog, you can see them over on the right. One has some before and after pictures of me and the other page is my weight chart. I never really did measure from the beginning, which sorta makes me sad - but oh well. It is what it is.

I just ran to the store during lunch and picked up a few things I needed. I got some lunch while I was out as well. It is the most cool little thing from Super Target. A pre-made lunch with grapes, carrots, wheat crackers and 1/2 cup of their chicken salad. I love it! It is just the right amount and very tasty :)

What was your lunch today?

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Steady as she goes

Hello people! Today is a good day. I've had a couple of semi-difficult evenings. Just hungry after a normal dinner (stomach is rumbling so its not in my head), and things of the like. But I'm powering through them. And sticking to my plan, which if this mornings scale reading is any indication - it is working like a charm.

In other news ... I like to read. And right now I'm listening to one book on audio and reading a different book on my Kindle. That is a little weird because sometimes I get them mixed up in my head - hahaha! But anyway. The audiobook is The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, which is the 5th book in her Outlander series. I am enjoying it, but it is more of a "set up" book than the previous ones. Those were pretty action packed with crazy stuff going on all the time and in this one it is more political-ish discussions and planning for things. They talk about feelings and hopes and dreams, etc. Which is fine, just not very exciting at times.

The other book, the one I'm reading on my Kindle, is A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. My husband wanted me to read that one and I'm rather enjoying it so far. He's read all the books in the series (that are out so far) and then we saw they are doing a TV show about it starting in April on HBO so he asked if I would read at least the first book before the show started so when we watched it, I would have an understanding.

I have about a billion other books waiting for me to read them. I wish I was independently wealthy so I could just read and watch TV/Movies all day long!

Do y'all like to read? What kinds of books do you like (i.e. Genre), and what are you reading now?

Monday, March 7, 2011

Hard work does pay off!

Last Monday: 188
Today Monday: 185.5

All the hard work and will power from last week certainly paid off! That gives me the strength to do it again this week. But this week, I have to drink more water. I know I am not getting enough.

With the good news out of the way, now we come to the confusing news. It's not bad, since we know the outcome of the hard work last week. But this just had me so puzzled all during the week. I weigh every day - I know there are different camps on this, but I am in the every day camp and I'm ok with that. Sometimes it is frustrating but over all it helps to keep me on track. Here comes the confusing part ... my weights for the week.

Monday: 188
Tuesday: 188
Wednesday: 186.5
Thursday: 186.5
Friday: 186.5
Saturday: 186.5
Sunday: 187
Monday: 185.5

I don't get it?! How does that happen?! It is flabbergasting.

In other news ...
I want to say CONGRATULATIONS to my friend Beth on hitting ONEderland and also a promotion at work!!!

On Saturday, I went to the movies with my BFF. We knew the movie we were seeing was in a Movie Tavern-ish type place. But imagine out shock and delight when we arrived to this!


Yep, that's me ... at a movie ... in a RECLINING CHAIR. It was heavenly. So comfortable and spacious. I can't wait to go see something else there soon! All movies are better when watched from a reclined position. At least that's what I'm sticking with!

That's about all for now, have a great day!

185.5

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Still hanging in there

Hello people! Welcome to Thursday :) This week is coming to a close and overall I feel good about my progress. We will see what the scale says come Monday, I hope it agrees.

I use MyFitnessPal.com to log my food and keep track of what I'm doing. I chose that one for a couple of reasons. #1 its free, and #2 there's an app for my phone so it makes it more convenient to log when I'm out and about. I find that this really makes a huge difference to me. I force myself to be honest on MFP, nobody else is looking at it, so I don't have to be embarrassed by what I log in my food journal. And when I am not making progress, I can see why when I write everything down. Now don't get me wrong, its not easy or fun to do that. But when I'm trying to lose, it is a necessity for me. I find that I do ok while trying to maintain and don't need to be so strict about logging. Something to look forward to!

Do any of you log your food, what do you use to do that? Any particular program or website, or just on your own in a notebook.

I am quite proud of myself today. Yesterday at about 4pm I started getting hungry and wanted to eat anything I could get my hands on. But I refrained and powered through til it was time to go home. Then when I got home my husband and I had the whole "what do you want for dinner? I don't know, what do you want?" conversation (that I HATE by the way). We decided we needed to go to the store to get some cat food for our babies, and figured we would pick something up on the way back. Well, we came to our senses while at Albertson's and figured it would be better (i.e. cheaper and better for us) to get something there and eat at home. So that is what we did. I was very band conscious and had some chicken breast - cut up into very small pieces, with teriyaki sauce - for moisture and taste. Then some light garlic & herb spreadable cheese on crackers and for dessert, a 100 calorie YoCrunch cheesecake yogurt with graham cracker bits in it. It was delightful and held me for the rest of the night.

OK, I've done enough babbling for today. I hope y'all all have a wonderful rest of the day! See ya next time ...

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Wonderful Wednesday

A quick HI! to anyone who has landed here on my weird planet from Beth's blog. Thanks for checking me out :)

Yesterday was another really good food day for me and this morning the scale was kind to me. Monday I was 188 and this morning I was 186.5. I'm also doing good today so far. I reallllllllllly want to reach my current goal of 175 in April.

Lately I've been listening to a series of audiobooks on my phone while at work and also in the car when I drive places. There are 7 books (currently) in the series and I just finished book 4. I usually download books from iTunes or Audible.com but the unabridged version of book 5 of this series is only available on CD right now. So my friend, who is also listening to these books, borrowed it from the library and now I have to undertake the crazy job of ripping the discs to my computer so I can put them on my phone and listen. All of this to say that I am currently without an audiobook so I had to resort to listening to music this morning in the car. G.A.S.P. I know. Crazy, right? I still refuse to listen to the radio because of all the talk and commercials, but my trusty iPod was there to fill the gap. This morning I was listening to Maroon 5 and I had forgotten how much I love them! It put me in the best mood to sing along on my way to work. I had a huge smile on my face the whole drive. I love rediscovering awesome things I'd forgotten about.

On a separate note .. today I am wearing some of my hand knit socks! My friend Jenn gave me this yarn for my birthday a couple of years ago. It is hand dyed yarn from a lady in Colorado and she uses awesome stuff for inspiration. This particular one is called Twilight Saga. Yes. I am a vampire freak. I love vampires of all kinds. And I am a huge Twilight fan! Anyway, just wanted to put a little color into your day :) Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Happy March!

Today is a good day so far :)

I did awesomely wonderful with my eating yesterday so I am super proud of myself! I had a total of 1247 calories yesterday and all of it was good food to have. Protein, fruit, whole grains. I am on the same track today, so yay for me!!!

Sometimes I feel like my posts here are a little more on the negative side and I apologize for that. But as a lot of you know, there are days that is how we feel and its better to get it out than to let it fester and make things worse. So, thank you friends. For wading through my emotions with me.

This month is going to be busy!!! I am going to a book release party on Friday (Green-Eyed Demon by Jaye Wells, 3rd in the series and its is awesome! Everyone should read them.), Doctor's appt next Wednesday, Support Group on the 14th, Quilting Guild on the 15th, Tommy Tune with Beth on the 16th, Duran Duran concert with Debora on the 18th, Knitting Get Together on the 20th, Knitting Guild on the 22nd, MY BIRTHDAY! on the 23rd and helping my Mom with a garage sale on April 2nd. At least I have a week of vacation in there for the week of my birthday. Whew!

I'm a little concerned about all the activities, but I think busy is better than not busy. Plus I'm trying to read a couple of books in between all of that, get caught up (and stay caught up) on all my TV, see a few movies that are coming out, get a boat load of work done so I can be off that week, work on a sweater I'm knitting and maybe do some sewing in between all of that. I think maybe I have lost my mind! Ha!!

Hey, mostly I'm just glad that I'm happy today and hope that it continues on uninterrupted for a long while.

Make it a great day everyone!