fat.

I miss you guys. I'm a little sad. I need to get back into Blogland. I haven't read or posted in a very very long time. I've been struggling, quite clearly, as my weight ticker has crept back up to 226 (18 pounds higher than my lowest--yikes!)
I thought I'd exercise more and eat better during student teaching. Not so. I'm not sure why I let myself get so bad again. My cooperating teacher is selling candy and chips and stuff in her classroom to help fundraiser for a trip she's taking the kids on to Boston and Salem (we cover the witch trials in our class) and today for lunch, I had a bag of Ritz bits sandwich crackers and a Butterfinger bar. Forgot my water bottle today so I went to the faculty lounge to get a bottle...they were out. I tried getting the only other non-carbonated beverage in the machine, which was iced tea. Also sold out. I'm sitting here drinking a delicious regular Coke that I tried (to no avail) to flatten. Sigh. Old bad habits. How do you get rid of them once you've found yourself slipping back into them?

Kids are Awesome

Today, a student was telling me about a verbal confrontation he had at last week's football game. It was with an overweight student from the rival school. It ended with my student telling the other kid to go eat a Hoho. I told my student that was rude and not all fat people like Hohos, to which he replied, "Well you're not fat." Awesome NSV for me. I had another one, but can't for the life of me remember what it was. Hoping to have some good old fashioned SVs soon, but I've been having too many carbs and sweets and that just needs to stop. Hope all you lovelies are well.

xoxo

Quick Check In

Hey lovelies! Hope you all had a fabulous time in Chicago! You're all looking spectacular. Maybe one of these years I'll get there.

Super busy with student teaching (which is amazing, by the way!) but just wanted to stop by for a quick update. Weight is going down, food choices are getting better. Met a substitute teacher today who's lost 140 pounds in 2 years with diet and exercise, no wls. Super inspirational. She lives in the next town over. Told her about my band and she offered to be my weekend workout buddy. Not sure when that'll start, but I'm so glad I got to meet her.

Off to finish this week's lesson plans.

xoxo

Lost

Due to a series of events, I've not posted my one year update. This isn't it; I don't have pictures because my camera got messed up. I also don't feel as though I'm in the right mental state to create the literary masterpiece that I wish to be my one year post.

Anyway, the title of this post is "Lost" because that's how I've been feeling. Consumed with schoolwork, I've been having a terrible time with motivating myself to continue to eat right and exercise. I haven't been blogging or keeping up with reading blogs and I hate when I let myself do that. Every so often, I disappear from my blog for a while. I think I might take a scheduled hiatus until I get myself back in order.

I started student teaching on the 27th and so far I'm really enjoying it. I found out that the teacher who had WLS is actually in the classroom right next door to me and she's been extremely kind and helpful, both academically and on the weight loss front. I had a talk with her today about lack of motivation and so I think she's going to be keeping an eye on me for accountability. I might start exercising with my cooperating teacher after school. We'll see. Anyway, the teacher next door had gastric bypass in December of 2009. Her highest was 319 and she's currently at 167. She looks great. I hope I can get myself turned around. I've been struggling for so long now. I know exactly what I need to do, I just need to actually do it. I'm rambling. I'll try catching up on blogs asap. I love and miss you all.

xoxo

My, How Time Flies

It's been almost a year since my surgery. I can't believe it. It's gone so fast. My one year bandiversary is August 4th, so I've decided I'll be doing my official weigh in on that date, rather than doing my weekly weigh in tomorrow. It's going to be a busy weekend (Ben's brother and sister-in-law are coming up for a visit, and we're finding some items to sell at Ben's parents' neighborhood yard sale), but I promise I'll find the time to do an anniversary post. It's too important to miss.

Speaking of the yard sale, I did some hardcore sweating today going through boxes in the shed, sorting items, and carrying heavy boxes from the shed to the house. It wasn't very much fun, but it was effective. Hopefully all that work will pay off and we'll get a few bucks from the yard sale.

Oh, almost forgot to mention...I ate Oreo truffles, ice cream cake, and pizza at my brother's birthday gathering. What is it about family functions that make me lose all control? Sigh. Haven't weighed, but hoping the damage isn't too severe. I guess we'll find out Saturday.

Hope everyone's having a good week.

xoxo

Finally Back in the Right Direction (week 51)

Last week's fill plus logging my food has really helped with the weight loss. I'm down to 213.4, which is the lowest I've seen on the scale since we've been back from vacation...in MAY. 3.1 pounds down from last week and only 5 more pounds to go to reach my all-time low, so I'm pretty excited about that. I really feel like I got a good fresh start with this time and I don't want to screw it up this time.
I think I'm going to go to my first Jazzercise class next week. I was waiting for my sister-in-law to be able to go with me, but she's busy, so maybe I'll just go by myself. Unless Chris would want to go with me.

In other news, I met with my cooperating teacher for student teaching yesterday. It went well. She seems really cool. She wants me to be as independent in the classroom as possible and she's even letting me have a say in the rules and procedures for the semester. I'm starting to get excited. The school is pretty nice. What I really liked about it was that each year, they have their senior art students paint their own murals on the walls. We're talking floor to ceiling student artwork. It was awesome. There was abstract art, unicorns, sports jerseys, the pink panther...anything and everything the students could imagine. It's so great. I told my teacher about my WLS because I want to make sure I'm able to have snacks and water with me in the classroom. She said that would be fine because she brings stuff all the time. She also said that another woman in the English department had WLS. Might have to make friends with her. All in all, it seems like it'll be a really good experience. I'm really starting to feel like I'm ready for this :)

I've got a busy weekend ahead: brother's birthday's the 29th and daddy's is the 31st, so I'll be doing that, plus (hopefully) spending some coupons at Fashion Bug. So sad they're going out of business. Not sure if I'll be working this weekend as the woman I work for was admitted to the hospital. Hope she's ok. She's been having some heart problems. If she's not out for my shift with her tomorrow, I'm going to call my company to see if I'm allowed to visit her. I've been working for her for about a year and a half now and we've gotten pretty close. If this is her time, I'd just like to be able to say goodbye, which I don't think is too much to ask. But, hopefully she's ok and she'll be out of the hospital soon. Anyway, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

xoxo

Week 50

50 weeks to the day since my lap band surgery. Weird. So, I had my appointment with the P.A. this morning. She didn't get on me too bad about not having been there in a long time. She was a lot less upset with me than I expected. I told her about how my low was 208 around Easter and then with finals and vacation, I gained 8 pounds and I've been more or less maintaining that since we got back. Told her that I wanted to lose more weight before I came back to see her and that's why I wasn't in sooner, but then I wasn't losing the weight and so I decided it was probably better to come in and be honest with her rather than be stuck at this stupid weight (216.5 on my scale while naked, 219 on theirs, clothed *side note: does your scale differ from the one at your doctor's office? which do you go by?). She said that was good and if I start to gain again, she's the first person I should talk to. I took my food log to her and she seems to think one of the big reasons for my stall is that I was getting too much fat. Now, I feel really stupid about this because it seems so obvious, but no one ever told me an amount of fat that I was supposed to stay under, nor was I ever told to count it. I've just been doing calories and protein. Since she mentioned it it seems like I should have been doing it the whole time and I feel silly, but I didn't know. Oh well. I'm now to stay under 30 grams of fat per day. I'm also eating too many carbs, she said. Will work on it.

We didn't talk much about exercise. I told her about our 4 mile hike while we were camping and how it killed my feet. She told me to invest in a good pair of shoes. She recommended a pair for $190.00. Yeah. Like hell. And she said they need to be replaced every 6 months or 300 miles. HA. Absolutely no way. It just seems preposterous. Maybe when I get a big girl job, but even then, not likely. I was surprised that she actually gave me a fill today. I got .5ccs bringing me up to a total of 3.2. I'm on liquids for two days, then two days of soft then back to regular. She wants to see me back in 4 weeks with my food journal, so I have an appointment on August 17th, 10 days before I start student teaching.

And speaking of student teaching, my teacher called me last night and we talked for about a half hour. She seems pretty awesome. She's going to meet me at the high school this Wednesday so that she can show me the school and introduce me to the administration so that I don't die of fright the first day. I thought that was really nice of her. And she's going to give me a textbook, too, so I can become familiar with it. She said we'd be doing Arthur Miller's The Crucible, for sure. I'm good with that because I read it in 11th grade and they have it on Netflix and I actually just watched it about a month ago. Plus, I feel like some really cool assignments can come from the Salem Witch Trials. I've always been interested in that part of America's history. So, I guess things are falling into place. Can't believe I'm graduating in December. That's all for now. I hope you're all having a fabulous week!

xoxo

Nerves

I'm feeling really nervous today. I have my appointment tomorrow with the P.A. I haven't seen since February. I'm hoping she's not too terribly upset with me, but I'm so afraid that she'll think I'm not taking this seriously. All I can do is wait. At least the appointment is for 8:00am so I won't be making myself sick with worry all day tomorrow. I'm hoping even for just a tiny fill so that I can comfortably be on liquids for two days and get a jump start on reaching my Onederland goal set for August 27th (my first day of student teaching).

Speaking of student teaching, I got my placement and I'll be doing 11th grade English at a high school that's only about 15 minutes from my house. Pretty pumped about that. Oh and I did some Facebook stalking research on my cooperating teacher that I'll be working with and it turns out she's the head of the English department for the school. It makes me nervous, but it could be a good thing working with her if they have any positions to fill after I graduate. I sent her an email to see if  there's anything I can do to prepare for the coming semester and she asked for my phone number so she can call me. I don't really care for talking on the phone. I'm worried I'll sound like an idiot. I'm so much better in print. Wish me luck?

I'll post about my appointment tomorrow as well as post a weigh in.

xoxo

Here's the Truth

Even after posting all sorts of things about how I've wanted to get back on track and stuff, I still was treating weekends as though they were free days. Well boys and girls, going into surgery I knew that I had to make a lifestyle change and I don't think I fully accepted that. No excuses this time. I'm on day 3 of logging my food and staying under calories. However, dear Auntie Flo just came to town so I was slightly disgruntled at only seeing a .4 pound loss from yesterday. At least it's in the right direction.

I'm kind of really scared because I have an appointment on the 19th with my p.a. whom I haven't seen since February. Pretty bad considering she wanted to see me back after 8 weeks, but things came up, excuses excuses excuses, and now here we are, almost to my one year bandiversary (August 4). At my last appointment, I told the p.a. that my goal for next time was to be under 210 so that (according to their chart) I'd only be obese instead of morbidly obese. Well, my low since then was 208, this morning I was at 216.6. I know I can get down to 210 by appointment day because when I start doing things right again, the weight comes off pretty fast. I'm just nervous that she's going to be mad at me for not being in Onederland or for not coming back soon enough. I don't want her to think that I'm not willing to put in the work. Even though I haven't been doing what I'm supposed to be doing, I'm back on the band wagon now and that's what matters, right? Has anyone else had this issue?

Random Stuff:

~I want to start blogging more. I miss it. I miss you. It felt so good when I finally got caught up on all of your blogs.
~I'm trying a recipe for cauliflower pizza crust tonight. I've never  had cauliflower before. I'll let you know how it goes.
~I want to send many thanks to Trisha, Robyn, Beth, and Jen for their super sweet comments on my last  blog post when I was being a Debbie Downer.
~You should go visit Cece. She could use some love.
~Just tasted the cauliflower pizza-a bit sticky. I'd recommend cooking on parchment, but absolutely edible. I'd even go as far as to call it tasty. Think I like it better than tortilla pizzas. Thanks, Pinterest.

Hope everyone's well!

xoxo

Slowly but Surely

Hello, lovelies! Hope you're all doing well. I had a pretty good week food-wise and I did rather well with exercise, too. I even saw the lowest number on the scale since I've been back from vacation. It was a crappy 215.5 which is still higher than my all time low of 208.something, but at least I'm going in the right direction. I'd love to be in Onederland by the time I begin student teaching on August 27th. Totally doable, I think. I just need to keep myself out of trouble. And one awesome new way I've found of doing that is this:



Combining my love of Harry Potter with something as miserable as working out?! It's worth a shot. I haven't tried it yet, but you can bet your bottom dollar I'm going to. I'm actually excited about it, too. Awesome. And I know there are a few other Harry Potter fans out there, so I'm super pumped that I found this bad boy on Pinterest.

In other news, I've been doing some student teaching shopping recently and I've purchased 2 size 18 skirts. When I started this whole thing I was in a (tight) 22, probably should have been wearing a 24. I'm still only about half way to goal, but it's nice being able to at least buy smaller things and have them look nice.

If I'm perfectly honest, I'm afraid I've let myself slip with the bandster rules for too long that I'm to far removed to reach my goal. I know I shouldn't think like that, but when I look at some of you ladies, I can't help but feel like a bit of a failure. I just need to keep doing what I've been doing this week and not give in to the summer temptations-corn dogs, ice cream, funnel cakes. Sigh. I'm all stocked up on healthy foods though so there's no excuse. This time next week I want to be down at least another pound. Wish me luck!

Hope you all have a great weekend and Happy Summer to everyone!

xoxo

Obligations

I've kind of been ignoring my obligations lately; obligations to myself and to the blogosphere. I haven't been focusing on my weight loss. The eating part has been a lot better, but I'm still having trouble with exercise. However, I think I'm finally getting back on track with that. I've done two days in a row so far and I'm sure tomorrow I'll be getting some walking in. My brother is making us drive to Cleveland to go to a Pirates game. He doesn't like to pay to park in Pittsburgh, surely he's not going to pay for parking in Cleveland. So I'll probably have a sizable walk to and from the stadium. I'm looking forward to it. My brother has always been in better shape than I am so it's nice to finally be able to keep up with him when we go places. It should be a nice day out.

Even with that to look forward to, I'm feeling pretty down right now. I'm not sure why, but I'm just really in a depressed state. I'm really anxious about posting this because I feel like I've removed myself so far from blogging that I don't even have the right to get back into it. I still haven't gotten caught up on all of your blogs. It's a combination of lack of time, anxiety (it's a really daunting task trying to get caught up on sooo many posts), and the internet being ornery. I want to get caught up so much, but every time I try I let it go for a few days and get behind again. It makes me really sad because I do love reading your stories so much. I'm going to try my hardest to get caught up by the end of next week.

As for other blogging obligations, I know I owe you all some pictures from my vacation. Here they are...

Rocky in the car on the way up, sitting on top of the giant pile of everything.

My car had a canoe hat.

our site

Terribly steep hill that was rocky and dirty and scary to walk up and down. Oh, and we had to walk down it to get to our camp site. Fun times.

This is what we opened our tent to every morning.
Salmon Creek.

Salmon Creek, also where we had to bathe. SO COLD!

Ben, Rocky, and me before our 4 mile hike.

During our hike Ben took this picture. Pretty gorgeous for a place called Buzzard Swamp.

Buzzard Swamp

Post hike. I felt ok. Wasn't huffing and puffing or anything. The real pain was from the $5.00 hiking boots I bought from Walmart. Meh. That smile was so fake.

Rocky loved our 15 mile canoe trip on the Allegheny River

Ben liked it too

I would have liked it better if 1. There was more padding on my butt, 2. It didn't take 8 hours instead of the predicted 5, and 3. If I had taken more than a protein shake to eat. Ugh. I'll take a hike over a canoe trip any day.

And so, that was our vacation. Haven't been up to much since I've been back, just working, gardening, and trying to keep the house clean. I promise I'll try to be better with keeping up with your blogs and commenting. For all of you who read my blog I sincerely appreciate it and for those of you who comment, I really appreciate your support. I love you all and I hope you're doing well.

xoxo

Back to the Real World

Hey, bloggers!

I've missed you all terribly. We got back from vacation (camping with no internet access or phone reception), so now I face the scary task of catching up on all of your blogs. I felt so bad for being away for so long, but I'm excited to see what you've all been up to. I'll do a more exciting post later with pictures from vacation and whatnot.

Unfortunately, I've gained more weight. Not sure if it was due to vacation or the weeks leading up to vacation. Either way, it's bad. Up to 216.4, which is about 8 pounds higher than my lowest. I screwed up really bad and for a really long time. I know that and it sucks. However, with school being out, it's going to be so much easier to be active and to plan my meals. I haven't been logging my food and I need to get back into doing that. It's not an option, it's a must.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get caught up on all your blogs by the end of the week. Sorry in advance if I don't comment much while I play catch-up. Going to go do that now. Hope everyone had a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend!

xoxo

I'm Alive

I've been a terrible blogger, a terrible bandster, and a terrible girlfriend lately, but on the plus side, I've been a fabulous student. That counts for something, right? Just finished my last day of classes and now I just have finals week to get through then I'll have time to really focus on blogging and weight loss and spending time with my wonderful fellow and puppy.

 I haven't been posting my weights for the past couple weeks because I'm embarrassed. I'm back up to about 212ish. It's annoying. Sorry for trying to hide it from you all. I've been eating all the wrong things, plus I think I need to get in to get a fill. I haven't been in since early February because of my school schedule. We leave for a week of camping on May 19 and I'm not sure if I should try to go for a fill before that or just wait until I get back. Either way, I intend to lose weight during camping. I'm sure there will be a s'more or two, but there will also be hiking and canoeing (first time for me for both of those). I'll probably wait until we get back just in case anything were to happen while we were up there. That'd suck.

Anyway, sorry for the absence and the random babbling. Just wanted to check in with everyone and mention I'm not dead. Apparently there have been a lot of absentee bloggers lately though, so I suppose I won't feel too bad. At least I've just gotten caught up on all your blogs. I'll get back into blogging and commenting regularly after vacation.

Hope everyone's well.

xoxo

Week 36 and More Easter Pictures

Week 36 brought a gain of .5 lbs, which I'm totally fine with because TOM has been in town since Sunday. The scale said 209.0 this morning, which is ok. I'm still at more than 55 pounds lost and out of the 210s. Good enough for this week. Unfortunately, my birthday is one week from today and I'm sure I'm not going to be in Onederland by then. Perhaps by the end of the semester on May 11th? I'll aim for that. It's totally doable, I just need to actually do it.

I'm happy to say that I did keep my commitment to myself and did not overeat on Easter. My family has been great and there wasn't even any chocolate around for me to be tempted with. Daddy got me one Cadbury egg per my request. It's just not Easter without a Cadbury egg. I was in charge of dessert for our dinner, like I am every year. I typically make a lamb shaped cake but I knew that if I did that I'd end up making that awesome butter cream that I used for Anna's baby shower cake and that was just entirely unhealthy. Since we have both diabetics and non-diabetics, I made a sugar free dessert and a regular one. The sugar free dessert was pretty yummy. I'm not sure the name of it but it's layers of sugar free chocolate cake cubes with SF chocolate pudding, SF toffee candy pieces, and SF Cool Whip, and then all the layers repeated a second time. It went very well.

Dessert from the top. When I was growing up we used to have some kind of egg dye that you put drops of it on top of the water and swirl it around to create a marble-type effect on the eggs. I tried to recreate that idea with this dessert.

view from the side. yummy!

Our non-sugar free dessert was based on cake pops. I didn't want to put them on sticks so I just made cake egg ball thingies.

My dad's house was full-12 people and 3 dogs, so there wasn't much room to move around and take many pictures, but I got a couple-mostly of Michael :)

Brother and Michael

Brother, sis-in-law and Michael

My Grannie

Easter nails inspired by Miss Kayla Shevonne

Even though it was a very busy weekend, it was a good one.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

xoxo

Tea and Easter Pictures

It's been such a busy week and I'm once again using the blog as a means of procrastination. I have a serious case of senioritis right now. After this week is over, I only have three weeks of class left before summer vacation, then student teaching starts in August! Eek! It's crazy. The advisor is going to review my portfolio on Friday, then I'll get my recommendation for student teaching and I'll be good to go. I can't believe it's almost over. Well, anyway, on to the good stuff...

Last week I went shopping and to afternoon tea with my mommy and future mommy-in-law. I ended up buying 4 tank tops at the consignment shop. I forgot to take pictures of them, but I'll get around to it. I did find out that I could get away with a size 14/16 top, which is super awesome. Of course that's only if I wear the proper pants (I have a pair of black stretchy dress pants that I can pull up nearly to my boobs and it shapes me pretty well since I don't have any shape wear yet). After shopping, we went to afternoon tea at a really cute restaurant called the Hyeholde. Even the building itself was absolutely adorable!

mine on left, Ben's on right,  both equally fabulous

I'd been worried about the food they would serve us because for a fat chick, I'm a really picky eater. See, they don't let you choose what you eat, they just bring you whatever they felt like making that day. So, we get there and sit down and we have a list of at least ten different teas to choose from. Ben's mom picked Earl Grey, my mom had pear caramel and I got green tea tropical. They were delicious. We each got our own little pot of tea and it was adorable. Then, they brought us each our own little plate of assorted goodness. Beware food porn:

Seafood and sausage soup, crab cake, ginger and cream cheese sandwich triangle, ham salad sandwich triangles, and couscous. YUM!



We savored each delicious bite and then they brought out desserts.

Almond and apricot scones and banana bread with clotted cream and raspberry blackberry jam

Tiny lemon panna cotta with strawberry rhubarb jelly topping and candied lemon peel garnish.



Bottom to top: Pistachio French macarons with pistachio creme filling, mini pineapple upside down cakes, Bailey's cheese cake (to die for!), nut clusters, and on the very far left were bittersweet chocolate and Grand Marnier truffles.

It was the most fun I've ever had at a restaurant, quite honestly. Obviously it's not something that should be done frequently, but it was a great time with great company. It was the first time any of us had gone to tea and I'd say it was well worth it.

It's just about time for Ben to get home, so I should probably get started on making dinner. I suppose I'll have to wait to post about Easter for another time...But here's a sneak preview...

Love my nephew!



Hope everyone had a great Easter/Passover/Feaster :)

xoxo

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter. Will post pictures later on tonight after family time :)

My commitment to myself is to not look like this by the end of the day:



xoxo

8 Month Bandiversary

Happy Hump Day, bloggers. I don't have any pictures yet because I'm at school, but today is my 8 month bandiversary. In these 8 months, I've lost 55.9 pounds, bringing me to a weight this morning of 208.5. I'm still pushing to get to Onederland by my 24th birthday on April 19. I've mentioned this before, but the last time I remember being under 200 pounds was in seventh grade when the school nurse recorded my height and weight. I'll be ecstatic to see a 1 in the first position on the scale. I'm almost half way to my goal weight. 58.5 pounds left to lose until I hit my goal of 150. I'm getting kind of scared because I'm having such trouble seeing the difference in myself. If I can't see the changes in my body in the mirror at the halfway point, will I be able to see the changes after I've reached goal or will I always see the 278 pound fatty in the mirror? It worries me. I know this is a fairly common theme in the banded blogger world, so if anyone has any advice on how to deal with these changes and how I can help my eyes and mind catch up with my body, that'd be great. I mean, the pictures help, but I don't want to live my life through photographs.

I just got a text from my dad congratulating me for being over half way to my goal and I was confused...but he was going with my highest weight of 278. It took that text message to realize that I've lost 69.5 pounds total. Crazy. And you know what? I really like the metric system in this context. I'm not a big fan of centimeters and such, but it's super awesome to know that I'm well under 100 kilos, weighing in at 94.7. Good times.

And speaking of good times, in non-band related news, I have a really fun girls' day out planned with my mommy and future mommy-in-law. We're going to a plus sized consignment shop followed by afternoon tea. I can't wait. We've never been to tea before, so we're all pretty excited. And I also won a gift basket from my office for Easter. We had one of those guess how many jelly beans are in the jar contests and I won one of five baskets. Now, I've never won anything like that in my life because  I'm  terrible at guessing things-age, weight, height, amount of stuff-I'm just bad at it. That being said, I just wrote down a random number (436) and went on my merry way without even looking to see what kinds of goodies were in the baskets. Hopefully it's not packed full of candy. Keeping my fingers crossed. It should be a really good day today, once I get out of school. Oh and that's the reason for my absence lately, too. I just turned in my GINORMOUS online portfolio to the education department. They'll review it and decide whether or not I get to student teach in the fall based on that stupid thing. I did the best I could, I think, and it's so nice to have that weight off my shoulders, but now I'm just worrying about whether or not they'll like it.

On a brighter note, my wonderful nephew is doing well. He sleeps a lot, but I went over to visit on Saturday and he was wide awake and very animated. It was nice. He's even able to roll over onto his side now, probably as a result from overstaying his welcome in his mother's womb. He'll be three weeks old on Monday. I can't wait to see what my brother and sis-in-law picked out for him to wear for Easter.

That's about all I've got for now. I'm sorry I haven't been commenting like I'd like to, but just know I've been keeping up with your blogs religiously. It's a great means of procrastination and for that, I thank you all :)

Stay tuned for pictures from our girls' day out!

Have a good day, all.

xoxo

Week 33

Very little movement on the scale this week, but at least it's movement in the right direction. 210.6, which is .1 lb down from last week. I'll take it. I was so nervous this morning because this is the first time since surgery that I didn't step on the scale at all between Thursday weigh ins. I don't think it's worth the anxiety not to weigh between weigh ins, at least for me, anyhow. Things are on the band front are kind of weird. I'd been eating badly, especially the day Michael was born, and I PB'd this week. Too fast eating a pork chop. Yuck. But, it's only my second time in nearly 8 months, so I guess that's not so bad.

This might be weird, but my parents still make Easter baskets for my brother and me. Obviously, this year I said no candy. I asked my dad for any combination of Benefiber, vitamins, and my yummy delicious Costco protein shakes. I was out of the shakes already, so he stopped by and brought me 4 cases of protein shakes. I'm a happy girl. That's a pricey Easter basket though.

I have to go finish up some school stuff, so I'll leave you with what I think is the most fabulous picture of my bitty baby nephew.

Have a good day, all!
xoxo

Go Steelers!  We love you, Hines!

It's A BOY!!!

That's right, my sister-in-law finally gave birth to a healthy 8 lb 12 oz baby boy! We welcomed him into the world yesterday afternoon. 10 fingers, 10 toes, and absolutely beautiful (though I might be a bit biased). Both mommy and baby are in the hospital doing great. Anna was induced on Sunday night, and she was in labor for hours before they decided that they had to do a c-section. Justin and Anna looked so happy to finally meet their son. Here's a picture of the happy family...

Introducing Michael John



Anna and Michael will be going home on Thursday. I'm so excited to watch this little guy grow up. He's going to be so loved and so happy.

The only downside to yesterday was spending literally all day (9:30-5:00) at the hospital...with donuts...and other naughty things. But, back on track today. And this is a really weird thing to say, but I kind of feel like donuts don't taste as good as they used to. Now I know for the future.

Hope everyone's having a fabulous day!

xoxo

Week 32

Sorry for the absence. It's spring break and I've been doing spring breaky things--like homework and cleaning the house and the sort. Anyway, yesterday was supposed to be weigh in day, but I accidentally sabotaged myself Wednesday night by eating tons of sodium (I made beef with broccoli for dinner and used regular soy sauce-stupid). So, yesterday's weight was 212.4, which I knew was due to such a high amount of sodium, so I figured I'd wait til today for a more accurate reading because earlier in the week I had seen 211.1. Today, the scale said 210.7, which is a .9 lb loss since last week. And pretty well on track for where I wanted to be at my fill appointment, which I actually ended up not going to. I feel really good at the fill level I'm at and I don't want to mess with a good thing. Hopefully I can still make it to Onederland by my birthday on April 19. I'm a tad nervous, but I've been doing well with food and water, just need to bump up the exercise and I think I'll be golden.

Goodness, I shouldn't wait so long between posts. I've got lots to talk about. Well, Saturday, I went and met the fabulous Chris. The ice broke quickly-we met at Sbux and just as we met up on the sidewalk, a gaggle of girl scouts came by, giant wagon of cookies in tow. We made our way off that sidewalk and into Sbux so fast. Anyhow, Chris is such a sweet woman! It was really great to get to meet her and have the reassurance that the people I talk to are in fact real. And we found out that we live about 10-15 minutes away from each other, so that's super awesome. Like she said, we'll definitely have to make plans to get together again and take some pictures. I felt bad for making her leave her house so soon after surgery, but I was glad she was able to. She let me interview her for my class, which was weird because I felt like I was prying, but she was great about it. I'd love to do it again, sans a notepad, Chris.

After that, I went out with a bunch of friends to celebrate my friend Mary's birthday. The plan was to go to Hard Rock and then to a bar, and I was ok with that because I knew what I was going to order and everything. But, plans change. We had a party of 15 or so and the wait was going to be about 45 minutes, so we headed over to Houlihans where there was a 15 minute wait. I ended up eating 3 very small pieces of BBQ chicken flatbread pizza and a couple french fries.



Birthday girl  is in the middle with the zebra shirt, I'm in the back with my very best friend Sam on my right.



It ended up being a really good time. I've never really been out like that before, like to a club type thing or whatever. I know, I'm terribly lame. Anyhow, after dinner we went over to the previously mentioned club type thing. It was very loud, but very much fun. I definitely had a little too much to drink, as they had kamikaze shots for $1.00. I never ever dance, but that night, I ended  up on the dance floor with my lady friends and it really was fabulous. Loved being out like that. I've decided that maybe it would be good for me to act my age every once in a while. We left there around 1:30 or so and we all ended up at a restaurant. I was having so much fun, I just didn't want to go home yet. Ben did. He was soooo tired, but he was such a good sport for chauffeuring me around like that. Anyway, I got some mozzarella sticks and we sat and talked for a couple hours. Keep in mind it was daylight savings that night, so Ben and I didn't get home until 4:00am. I never do that. The last time that happened was probably 5 years ago when I was 18. It was...refreshing? Sure, refreshing.

Then, Sunday, Ben and I went to the home and garden show and I had millions of free samples. I was super surprised to still be in the 211s on Tuesday (Monday I was up to 216, but I attribute that to TOM and sodium).

Overall, it's been a pretty ok week. I've been a bit emotional for no good reason, but surely I'll get over it.

This niece or nephew of mine is now officially late. My brother's holding out hopes for a St. Patrick's Day baby, which would be super sweet. If she doesn't go into labor by Sunday, she's going in to the hospital on Sunday night/Monday morning at midnight and they'll induce her. I hope it's before then though because I'm on campus for 12 hours on Monday and it would really suck to not be there when my first niece or nephew enters the world.

Well, I guess I'm off to go some more spring breaky stuff. Hope everyone has a great weekend and a happy and safe Saint Patrick's Day.

xoxo

Week 31

Glad to report that the scale is down 1.9 pounds from my last weigh in, for a new low of 211.6! Even more exciting since the last time I weighed in wasn't on my usual Thursday, it was on Sunday (for my 7 month bandiversary) a mere 5 days ago. Super happy about that, but I'm getting nervous about making my goal of 210 by Monday. See, Aunt Flo is in town and in addition to that, I'm going out to Hard Rock Cafe on Saturday night to celebrate my friend Mary's birthday. I've already decided no alcohol and I know I'm going to get their chicken lettuce wraps for dinner. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any full nutritional information for their menu so I have no idea how much protein or sodium is in it, but it's 676 calories for the full appetizer portion. Also on Saturday, I get to meet Chris, which I'm super excited about. She generously offered to let me interview her for my research class, so that's our excuse to finally get together.

It looks like it should be a good weekend. Sunday is the Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show, which Ben and I have been going to every year for the past 3. Always a good time. I just hope I don't go crazy with the free samples of food. I'll for sure have to keep myself in check. But I mean, it's 9 acres of walking around, so that's got to count for something. Plus, I'll be pushing my mom around in a wheel chair for that 9 acres, so that should help, too. No worries, nothing's wrong. She's just arthritic and her legs don't work as well as they used to.

Speaking of mommy, I made reservations to go to afternoon tea at a fancy restaurant with my mom as well as Ben's. I'm pretty excited about it. Who doesn't love tiny sandwiches and little bites of food? Should be awesome.

Baby update: Sis-in-law's blood pressure has been pretty good for the past couple days...luckily both she and my brother are nurses so they can easily monitor it at home. She went to the dr on Tuesday and was told that they won't be inducing and she can probably last another week. She has another appt on Monday, so it looks like this baby will be born during my spring break, so I'm super pleased about that.

My God, this post is so much more cheerful than I'm feeling right now. I wonder how that happens? Like, I'm in the worst mood ever and you wouldn't be able to tell from my writing. I don't know if it's Aunt Flo or the rain or what, but I just feel like curling up and being sad all day. Preferably with a heating pad, some tea, tons of chocolate and about twelve super sized orders of fries. But that would probably be a bad idea. I will say that I'm not going to class today. Wish I could call off of work, but we need the money and I'm not dying, so I should probably go. Plus, I don't want to upset any old people by having my company send a replacement. On that note, I'm going to go mope for 4 hours before I have to head out. Hope everyone's having a good week.

xoxo

7 Month Comparison Pictures

Hey bloggers. Lots going on lately and no time to catch you up on it. I had Ben take my comparison pictures today. It's my 7 month bandiversary and I'm at 213.5, which is 50.9 lbs down from surgery and 65.5 down from my highest ever. Without further ado, here's the photo evidence. I don't know why they won't line up properly. You get the gist of it.



 

8/3/11
264.4 lbs



3/4/12
213.5 lbs

 

 


















I'm honestly amazed at the one from the side. Truth be told, I don't even see this in the mirror yet. Thank God for cameras.

Anyway, in addition to all my school stuff, my niece or nephew will be born any day now, it looks like. Sis-in-law is having blood pressure issues. They may induce today or tomorrow. They're at the hospital right now...just waiting to hear from my brother.

Before I go, I was looking at my profile pic the other day and realized that there's such a crazy difference between this picture...

Summer 2010, my heaviest (~278)

...And this picture...

2-11-12
~213 lbs

Is this even the same person???

xoxo

Celebrating the Big 5-0 (Week 29)

You're right, I'm so not talking about my age! Finally, after 29 weeks banded, I am celebrating the wonderful SV of having lost 50 pounds. The scale this morning read...

213.6, people! That puts me at 50.8 lbs down from the date of surgery, 65.4 from my highest ever and a lovely 4.4 down from last week's weigh in! I'm super excited. I go for my next appointment in a little over two weeks and I definitely feel I can reach my goal of 210 by then. And since we're talking about goals, my birthday is the 19th of April and my goal is to be in Onederland by that date. That's something I haven't seen on the scale in just about twelve years, so I'm really hoping this will be the year that I'll celebrate that victory. 

In other, non-band-related news, Ben and I got to pick up our pottery from our anniversary extravaganza. I love my vase. Here's a picture of it with the flowers that Ben brought home for me on Valentine's Day :)

Love it!

Anyway, sorry I haven't been commenting much. I've been reading, I promise, it's just there's always something going on with school. It's been a rough semester, but so far, so good. Actually I've got to go take an online quiz now, so I'm going to end it here. Hope everyone's having a great week!

xoxo

Week 28 A Little Late

I'm sorry, friends, but I just really haven't felt like blogging. I've been worried to even start a post because I was concerned that it would turn into a big negative ball of yuck. I'm going to try to keep it on the positive side today, but I do have a few negatives that I'll share. 1. I've been feeling pretty sub-par. Something's been wrong with my eyes for about a month now and I've become extremely sensitive to light. It's so bad that sometimes even our living room lamp makes my eyes water. Going to the doctor next Friday to get that checked out. 2. I've gained and it's no wonder because I haven't tracked my food for about two weeks now. 3. School is obnoxious. Actually, speaking of school, would anyone be willing to help me out? I'm taking a research for writers class this semester and I have to choose a topic and interview 3 people about it and pretend like I'm going to write an article about it for publishing. I'm really not going to try to get anything published, we're just supposed to follow the steps that someone would take if they were trying to get published. Anyhow, the topic I chose was lap band surgery, so, if anyone wants to volunteer to be interviewed by me, I'd super appreciate it.

On to the positive now:
My 5 year anniversary/Valentine's celebration day on Saturday was awesome. Ben really outdid himself and while he didn't propose, we had a fabulous time. When I got home from work that day, he gave me 5 cards with various times on them. The first one I got to open immediately and it said that we'd spend the whole day reliving old memories and making new ones. Each card held a choice, so really the whole date was up to me. The first card was called "a day at the museum". He gave me the choice between the Andy Warhol Museum and the Mattress Factory Museum. I chose the latter of the two because we both have always wanted to go there due to its uniqueness and such good reviews. We got there and felt so ridiculously out of place. Here's what I mean...

The first exhibit was a bandster's worst nightmare.
A whole room FULL of bread!

It was crazy, I tell you!

It looks so good, too. But anyway, the rest of the museum was more peculiar than this room, believe it or not.
There was an overly clean room, which gave me terrible anxiety...

And there were these polka dot rooms, which were actually my favorite.

Not optimal for photography, but you get the idea.

Not prime for photos, though, but kind of neat in person.

Moving on, the next envelope was for dinner. I've been crazy for spicy/Mexican food ever since surgery (so weird-never cared for it pre-op), so he made reservations at an upscale Mexican restaurant, but he ended up calling to cancel because I liked the other option better. It was a small family owned restaurant called Carmi's in Pittsburgh's North Side neighborhood. We were there once about a year ago and they had amaaaazing comfort food. Best mac and cheese ever. So, we went there and had a bit of a carb-fest. Their dinners come with two sides and soup or salad, and cornbread. Not bandster friendly, but mighty tasty. We both got the spare rib dinner which came with 2 ribs. I ate those, plus one side of mac and cheese, a cup of chicken and dumplings, and a few bites of cornbread. It was heavenly. Regrettable when I saw a gain of 3 lbs on Monday morning, but way tasty.

After dinner, the next envelope gave me the option to do go see a live show at a cafe in town or to go to the Carnegie Science Center to see a laser show (something we used to do all the time). I chose the latter and we got there way early, so we played around the science center before Laser Lady Gaga started. Once we got up to the planetarium to see the show, we found roughly 20 fourth graders already seated. I don't normally like children in large quantities but it was so funny to watch them dance and hear them sing. It was cute. The only good picture of us together was taken at the laser show...

It's not even all that good because my eyes are weird...Whatever.

Afterwards, we got in the car and he gave me the fourth card. This time, I had no choice. We went and painted pottery! I'd been saying for a few weeks that I wanted to do it, so we went to a little shop and did that. I picked a vase and he picked a cup. We actually get to go pick them up tomorrow because they needed to be glazed, so I'm pretty excited about that. Here's what we ended up with...

During

After

It was a really fun time. Then, for my final card, I had the choice between going to Eat n Park (local chain restaurant where we had our first date) or the Melting Pot. I can't turn down the Melting Pot! So, we ended up having both cheese and chocolate fondue (and I may have had a sangria). We told them we were celebrating our 5 year anniversary and they gave me a carnation and they provided some champagne for us to toast with. I've been very good about not having carbonation since being banded, but I tried a sip of the champagne. It wasn't sweet enough for my liking, so I let Ben have the rest. All in all, it was an amazing time and I really think he's going to have trouble trying to top this date when he proposes.

Also, I got my brother and sister-in-law a dog today. She's obsessed with pugs and for forever she's wanted one-specifically a black male. She wanted to get it before the baby came so she'd have time to train it, but she just couldn't find one in her price range. It just so happened that my friend at school has to move and it came up in casual conversation that she was looking to rehome her black male pug. Crazy, right? So, I went and got him today and he's at their house right now. Justin had to leave for work at 7 and Anna's working til 11:30, so she's just going to walk in and there'll be a surprise puppy. I hope she doesn't get scared when she walks in the house. He'll be a year old next month, so he and the baby can grow up together. I'm super excited about it. He's such a sweet dog, too.

Food-wise, I've been trying to get back on track since our date, but it's been hard. We have Ben's mom's birthday to celebrate this weekend and we're going to Applebee's. I already know I'm going to order the grilled chicken wonton tacos, so I won't go overboard. I'm sure there will be dessert--I'm going to make Ben share with me whether he wants to or not. Hopefully I'll be back down to a good weight next week.

Speaking of weight, Ben did get me the Wii console so I've been playing Wii fit-how come none of you told me how downright rude that thing can be? Jeez. I step on it and it says "ouch". I skip a day and it judges me for being "too busy" for it? My goodness, I just wasn't expecting that. Apparently I've got terrible balance, but my running skills are somewhat decent. I'm actually really enjoying it and I'm glad Ben got it for me for our anniversary. Good investment, I think.

I'm pretty sure I've rambled on loooong enough for tonight, so I'm just going to stop there. Sorry for being MIA for the last week. Hope everyone has a great weekend! Oh, and Happy belated Valentine's day. Love you all!!

xoxo