Week 8

8 weeks out and I'm at 239.6 lbs. At 7 weeks and 6 days, I was 236.5 UGH!!! This fluctuation is so frustrating. I'm going to start upping the Benefiber and see if that works out.
I've been bad with posting, I know, but I've just had so much going on. I swear, all my professors this semester think I'm only taking their class and no other. Annoying.
Saturday, I went to the Penguins (Hockey) game with Ben and his parents. It was at 3:00 and I worked 9-1 that day, so I ate before work and I was pretty hungry by the time we got to the arena. So, I had nachos. With delicious gooey day-glow cheese. YUM. I didn't feel guilty about it at all and I'm okay with that. However, this week has been pretty weird in the hunger area. The past two days, I've not been hungry for breakfast, so I didn't eat.  But, when I have food available for lunch, I haven't been hungry for that either. Does this happen to anyone else? It seemed kind of odd.
OH!! I almost forgot--NSV's of the weekend: I fit back into a few of my old pairs of size 20 pants (sans camel toe! YAY!) and my mom had a get together on Saturday at which my brother told me that my "face looks less fat" which is definitely a compliment from him. We have that kind of relationship, so it's cool. I love my brother. And my niece or nephew is now the size of an apple :)
Other than that, not much new to report.

I hope everyone going to BOOBs has a spectacular (and safe) time and takes lots of pictures! Can't wait to hear all about it. Maybe I'll be able to go one of these years. School's got to be priority though and next fall I'll be student teaching, so, not gonna happen in the very near future. Maybe someday.

Have a great day, all!

xoxo

7 Weeks

Well, I guess it's been seven weeks already. That seems ridiculous. I honestly don't have much to say today, so we'll just get right down to business. In my last post, I said I hit a new weight decade, but apparently, that's a lie. Today's weigh in day and the results were 240.7 which is a 23.7 lb loss since surgery and 2.6 lb  loss since last week. I'm pretty disappointed about this because earlier this week I was at 238.something.  I thought I'd be sitting comfortably in the 230s, but no. I know I shouldn't be upset because it's still a loss. These stupid potty issues are not resolving themselves and I don't know what to do. I know that's the reason for the gain. I'm not doing anything wrong. It's frustrating. I really need to find time to go to the gym, too. I already have the membership, but with my school/work/homework schedule the way it is, it's hard to find time to do anything. Not to mention I need to get studying for my Praxis II exam which is in November. If I don't pass it, I can't student teach. Yeah, no pressure. Sigh. Oh well. It's got to be done.
Hope everyone's having a great week.

xoxo

My First Award and News on My Fill

First, the lovely Melissa nominated me for my very first blog award! I would totally nominate her back if that were acceptable, because I follow her blog religiously since she was banded exactly a week after I was.

 

Liebster means ‘beloved’ or 'favorite' in German and it’s an honor to receive this award. The Liebster Blog Award is designed to bring additional recognition to those bloggers with less than 200 followers. If you receive the award, you should link back to the blogger that nominated you and nominate five more blogs. Also, don’t forget to let them know that you nominated them! And the nominees are..........

CeCe- Even though she literally just was nominated by someone else, she's a great lady. She's always got something kind to say, so she deserves it :)

Brooke- She was just banded a few weeks ago and is doing great so far, even though she had to deal with some crazy kidney stones. Strong lady!

Kebs- She's not banded yet, and recently decided that she could possibly do RNY instead, but she's always got encouraging words and I'm enjoying following her journey so far.

Lucy- She's less than 2 weeks post op and doing great, so far. I'm enjoying getting to know her from her blog.

Kellie- She's 10 months post-op and I've read her blog since the beginning (before I decided to start a blog). I liked following her story from the beginning and she's doing so great. She's definitely an inspiration

So, there you have it ladies!

Now, on to other business...

I went for my first fill on Friday and it was so much easier than I expected. My NP was great and numbed me up real nice. Didn't even feel it. I now have 2 ccs in my 11 cc band and I've got to say, sometimes I feel it, sometimes I don't. Nothing disastrous has happened, it's just that sometimes I get full and sometimes I could eat a freaking cow. Or a whole box of Velveeta Shells and Cheese. Not that I've done that post-op. Pre-op, hells yes I did, and I totally miss it. But oh well. Life goes on...with less delicious, less neon yellow food. So, when I went in, I weighed 243.2 and my body fat is at 52% I'm pretty sure. Not too bad. It's not weigh in day til Thursday,  but, just between us, I've hit a new weight decade since Friday :)  super exciting!

Also, the insurance company called. Thanks everybody for commenting on my last post. I really needed it. You ladies and my dad were right...it's taken care of. Hopefully they submitted it correctly this time, but they said it'd be fixed by this week and I'll be getting a corrected explanation of benefits in the mail. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I'm starting to get pretty frustrated with my clothes, mainly jeans. I'm kind of falling out of my size 22 pants, but I'm not yet fitting into my 20s without the dreaded camel toe. Awful, I know. But, the 22s are SOOOO BIG in the leg area and they're still pretty much fitting my waist. It's obnoxious. I need the leg size of 20s and the waist size of 22s. I really hope my body catches up with itself soon. I am absolutely not above living in sweat pants til I can properly fit a pair of jeans. Guess that's a perk of being a college kid.

And on that note, better go get some homework done.

Hope everyone's doing well :)

xoxo

Procrastination

If it's called PROcrastination, it should be a good thing, right? Sure. Why not. My second of three classes was cancelled today. I commute from 20 miles away (it's all highway, so it only takes about 1/2 hour to get to campus, but, it's a toll road), so I'm not going home. I really ought to be using this down time to start on a paper that's due (rough draft) on Thursday. But, I'm kind of cranky and I kind of don't feel like it. I have some crap going on and I could really use some support and encouraging words from you ladies.

Here's what's going on. I'm 23, and a full time student, so, thankfully, I'm still on my dad's insurance policy. When I decided to have the surgery and we found out that the insurance company covered it, he said he would pay the deductible, a mere $250.00. So, that was all well and good, I had my surgery, the deductible was paid, and everything was taken care of...or so I thought. A couple weeks ago, my dad got an explanation of benefits saying that my surgery wasn't covered (even though I was told that it was) because I've exceeded the limit of bariatric surgeries...which is limited to once per lifetime. Yeah, I've never had any kind of surgery before, aside from having my wisdom teeth removed. So, I call the insurance company, and they have no idea what's going on. They can't explain it. I'm still waiting to hear back from them because the woman I talked to said that she had to contact their claims department to see if they could figure things out. Today, I get a call from my hospital's eligibility department. The conversation started with them questioning whether or not I even have health insurance. When the woman on the phone finally agrees with me that, in fact, I do, she states that my surgery was not covered and that I need to submit some kind of application (I don't really know what that was about. I stopped paying attention because I got flustered and upset). I told her I'd been in touch with my insurance company and they were sorting things out. She gave me a phone number that I could call if I wanted to do this application thing. I know this post is going to make me sound incompetent and possibly like a whiny bitch, but seriously, I don't understand how this could have gotten messed up so badly. How could they think I don't have insurance? How could the insurance company think I've had bariatric surgery before? How could I be told I'm approved and then, after the damn surgery, be told I'm not approved? Do they want the stupid band back? Because this crap is really upsetting me and I'm starting to wonder if it was even worth it. It's a freaking piece of rubber. If they want it, they can have it and I'll do this weight loss nonsense by myself. I don't care. I'll never be as hungry as I was on clear liquids, so that could be my means of controlling what goes into my mouth. I just don't understand why they would do the surgery if there was even a question about whether or not I was approved. My dad seems to think that there's no reason to worry. "We'll get it straightened out, and if we can't then an attorney will." Such the optimist. I've always been the worrier in my family. So much so that I used to make myself sick over stupid little things. But this isn't a stupid little thing. This is a giant amount of money that I just don't have access to. What if I really do have to pay out of pocket for it? I have school loans and a house loan to pay off. I'm not even done with school. I'll still have another 3 grand at least, added on to my debt. So, what if they really do want 30 grand from me? I can't take out another loan. If did, I'd feel guilty about marrying my boyfriend (no, we're not engaged yet, but we will be soon) because I wouldn't want to share that debt with him. I'm sorry for the crazy rant fest. I just feel pretty helpless. It's annoying.

Side note: I'm still having potty problems. Benefiber tablets don't seem to be working quite as well as I had hoped. Maybe I'll try Miralax? I know that's the reason for the stall on the scale. When I go for my fill on Friday, I don't want them to be upset with me for not losing any more weight. Sigh.

Oh, and side side note: finished The Taming of the Shrew, The Old Man and the Sea, and Old School. Have I said that this semester is awful? This is how I'm feeling right about now...

Now on to Romeo and Juliet, Animal Dreams, still working on The Odyssey, random text books, and crazy projects involving making up games for students and tests about Hemingway. Ugh. Hope this decision to become a teacher pays off.

I've successfully wasted my break and now it's time for my last class. Hope everyone has a great day <3

One Month Bandiversary

I really have 50 followers now?! That's awesome! Thanks to everyone who read and comments. I really appreciate it.

In other news, I had my one month bandiversary on the 4th. Sorry for not updating, but it was a very busy weekend. I know today's not my weigh in day, nor is it my bandiversary, but I weighed this morning and was down to 245.2. Of course the first time I got on the scale it said 244.2, so I got back on for confirmation, and it went up. But, I'll totally take it. No complaints here. Having a totally empty band, I'm quite proud of myself thus far. I would put up pictures, but, my water bottle exploded in my purse and messed something up on my camera. I'm not sure if it just killed the battery or if the whole camera is shot, but, I'll take pictures as soon as I can. Also, I'm going to have Ben do my measurements in a little while and I'll post those for comparison. Not expecting much in that area, but lots of people are saying they notice a difference, so, I guess we'll see.

Things are going good with school so far. I've been very well behaved with not going to the student center and getting a smoothie or delicious coffee based beverage. Had my yummy Costco protein shake for breakfast and a (nasty) Atkins protein bar for lunch.

Oh! Hey, totally side note: How does one go about putting a weight loss ticker on their page? I mean, I've gotten as far as actually finishing the ticker, but when it comes to copying/pasting, I'm at a loss. Any help would be appreciated.

That's all for now. Gotta read more of The Taming of the Shrew. Oh, Shakespeare.

Have a great day, all!

4 Weeks Post-op

Well, here I am 4 weeks post op and the weight was at 246.7 this morning. I'm still having potty issues, so I attribute the lack of loss to that. I'm definitely not overeating. I promise. I'm sorry for not updating regularly. I wish  I could say I'll get better with it, but, I just finished week 1 of the fall semester and it's going to be awful. I'm taking 18 credits, and if that wasn't hard enough, 4 of my classes are literature based. The workload is ridiculous. I have to read something like 7 novels, part of the Bible, at least 3 Shakespearean plays (probably more), do at least 2 acting projects, and some field experience. There's more, but I don't remember what goes with what class.

As for the ladies who asked about the protein shake I so fell in love with (from Costco), it's called Premier Nutrition Protein. I would take a picture of it, but my watter bottle exploded in my purse, which is where my camera was. Pretty sure I broke it. Upset about that. But, here's the website for those delicious protein shakes. They're about $5.00 cheaper at Costco though, so if you can, get them there.

I hope everyone's doing well. While I haven't been updating, I have been reading. And now I'm off to read The Taming of the Shrew or The Odyssey or Old School or something. Sigh. Wish me luck with my semester. I'm going to need it in order to stay alive.

xoxo