5 Months Already?

Well, it only took half the day, but eventually I realized that today's my 5 month bandiversary. I don't have pictures to post because Ben's not home to take them. The scale's been bouncing between 221 and 223 all week. I'm getting extremely frustrated by the number (much like Cece with her stupid-ass piece of plastic post from last week. While I'm not happy that the scale has been roughly the same for the past 4 weeks or so, I will say that I'm fitting comfortably into size 1X tops. I've given up wearing jeans for the time being because they're doing nothing but upset me (either they're too big or they're too small--no winning!) so I really can't tell you what pants size I am. But, I can tell you that on New Year's Eve, for the first time in years, I not only fit into, but totally rocked a size XL shirt! No, not a T-shirt either. A spandex blend super cute shirt that Lap Band Gal sent me during one of her awesome give aways. I took a picture with my phone, but I don't have a very good camera on it, so this picture is the best I can do.
****EDIT**** since the picture isn't working for some people, I changed my profile picture to be the picture I'm posting about here.
                               

This, my friends, is my torso. And, if you will notice, there are curves! Beautiful, womanly, not reminiscent of The Blob, real live curves! The kind that are actually supposed to be there :)  Now, even though it pains me that the scale hasn't been going down, this is my first genuine plateau since I plateaued after losing the initial bit of weight right after surgery from liquid diet. So, I suppose I ought to feel pretty good about this, and believe me, I feel amazing about this picture, but, it really is frustrating to be at the same place number wise. I've been scaring myself lately into thinking that I might be one of the ones to fail with the band. I know it's probably not the case, but that's how it feels sometimes. I know I just need to focus on good bandster behavior and exercise and in time, the number will keep going down.

Wow. When I started typing, I thought this entry was going to be short and not-so-sweet, but it turned out to be less negative than I anticipated. That's nice.

Hope everyone's having a great week!

xoxo

Word for 2012

Since everyone's doing it, here's my word for 2012.

Devotion

de·vo·tion

   /dɪˈvoʊʃən/ Show Spelled[dih-voh-shuhn] Show IPA

noun

1.

profound dedication; consecration.

2.

earnest attachment to a cause, person, etc.

3.

an assignment or appropriation to any purpose, cause, etc.: the devotion of one's wealth and time to scientific advancement.

4.

Often, devotions. Ecclesiastical . religious observance or worship; a form of prayer or worship for special use.

---

Origin:
1150–1200; Middle English devocioun  (< Anglo-French ) < Late Latin dēvōtiōn-  (stem of dēvōtiō ), equivalent to Latin dēvōt ( us ) ( see devote) + -iōn- -ion

 

 

 

I chose this word because in order to achieve success in both my weight loss and my academics, I will need to be absolutely devoted to making sure I perform well with each. I must devote myself to logging food, exercise, getting enough water and protein, and doing what's right for me. Also, in my last two semesters of my undergraduate program, I must be devoted to my studies more than ever. Starting in the fall I will be student teaching and in order to get a job afterwards, I need to be devoted to bettering myself as an educator. So, there you have it. 2012 will certainly be a year of change, but I am determined to see success.

 

Happy New Year to all of you. May 2012 bring us all happiness, fulfillment, and smaller jeans!

 

Off to spend the night with my fellow and my pup.

xoxo

Week 21 and New Blogger Alert!

First and foremost, we've got a new blogger alert! Stop on by and say hello to Jennxaz over at Tales from an Arizona LapBander. She's going through her insurance company's requirements for approval right now and could use some BOOBs love :)

Now, on to other things. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I've enjoyed seeing the pictures you've all been posting and I'm sorry I've done the same. I'm just lousy at photo ops, as are the rest of my family members. However, I've got a picture of Ben and me from when we were down at his brother's for graduation. Hopefully it'll hold you over and I'll get some pics for New Year's.



 So, there's that. And, now on to the band front. I went for my appointment with the PA last week and she didn't give me a fill. Said she thinks I'm doing well and wants to see if I can keep up the progress. I feel ok about that. When I got there it was 2pm and that morning on my scale I weighed 223.something. Upon weighing on their scale (mind you they don't allow you to get naked at the office I go to and I had on soaking wet pants because I'm a whopping 5'2" and my pants were dragging through the puddles) my weight had changed to 228 lbs! I was so upset about this even though I knew it was because of my clothes and such. I didn't want them to think I wasn't doing well. the 228 would have only been a loss of 6ish pounds since my last visit in October. But, she was still happy with the loss. She always has me set a goal to achieve by the next visit I have with her and this time it's to be out of the 220's. I've kind of been plateaued for about 3 weeks or so, but this week brings something wonderful.

Remember how I said I was skipping week 20? Well, in writing, I did. But, I still weighed myself. And it was still 223.something. I just didn't want to post it because I was afraid of putting it into writing because it would make me feel more like a failure. But, today's weigh in has broken the plateau, which I'm really surprised and pleased about since it's the first weigh in after Christmas. I'll take it though. Today, the wonderful scale said 221.4 lbs! Oh I was ecstatic. Since I can't remember what my weight was last week, I'll have to go with week 19 for mathematical purposes. It's a 1.8 lb loss from week 19, 43 lbs since date of surgery, and 56.6 lbs from my highest back in summer 2010. I'm so happy about this loss.

I hope everyone's doing well and if anyone had a gain over Christmas, don't let it get you down. For a lot of us, this is our first Christmas with the band. It's easy to get back into our old habits, and I'm saying that from experience. Let me tell you, the day after Christmas, the scale was definitely up from 223.2. But, with the band comes a lifestyle change. Being amongst the younger of the banded bloggers, I only know how hard it is to change habits after 23 years' worth of Christmases. It's not easy; we can't expect things to change over night. It took us years to develop the habits that we have, and it's going to take time to change them. Be patient and persevere and I'll be there with you trying to tell myself to do the same. But, I don't always listen to myself and that's when it really helps to have all of your encouragement and support.

I'd like to congratulate those of you who did behave like good bandsters over the holidays and those who lost weight, too. I may have lost weight, but I attribute that to the exercise I got this week and certainly not to my food choices.

That about wraps it up for this entry, but stay tuned for my pick for my 2012 word of the year!

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

xoxo

Skipping Week 20

I really haven't felt like blogging. I skipped weighing myself yesterday because I just didn't feel like it this week. There have been too many cookies consumed and I know that. TOM is here and in addition to constant salty/sweet cravings, I've been super emotional. So emotional, in fact, that this commercial for a local restaurant that I see every year at Christmastime actually made me cry yesterday. Ridiculous, I know. I just was so touched that the tree was helping the star. I think TOM is really getting me down, not to mention there's just not enough time to do all the things I have to. Still need to go out and get my dad's gift tomorrow. Just finished baking a batch of cookies for him and my brother. Now I'm laying on the couch, watching old episodes of Friends, waiting for laundry to dry. Yeah, all freaking 50 loads of it. Our washer is still broken, so after work today and after 3 hours spent driving about 7 miles to go to 2 stores (ridiculous traffic...3 hours?! Really, people? Did no one work today?) I went to the laundromat and ran out of money to dry the clothes. So, they're all clean, but I have to dry them all here. It's taking forever. I was hoping not to stay up too late as we've got a very busy weekend ahead of us. Tomorrow morning, Ben, Rocky, and I are having our Christmas morning together and opening presents, then off to mom's for our traditional Slovak Christmas Eve dinner. After that, we'll stop by my uncle's for a bit (hoping for some compliments from relatives I've not seen in a few months), then to Ben's parents' house to spend the night. We'll wake up there on Christmas morning, have brunch and exchange gifts, then off to daddy's house in the afternoon. So. Much. To. Do. Ugh.

Anyhow, I don't mean to be all complainy. I really just got on to say thanks to my new followers and to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. So, thanks, new followers and if I'm not already following you, be sure to leave your URL in comment!

For everyone celebrating Christmas, I hope you all have a safe and Merry Christmas.

For those celebrating Hanukkah, I hope you're enjoying the Festival of Lights.

For those celebrating Kwanzaa,  a joyous one to you.

And for everyone else, have a great weekend.

I've been reading a lot of posts lately about being off track and things of that nature, and I'm as guilty of that as anyone. So, my wish for the New Year is that we can all get back on track, do what we're supposed to, and continue to fight our battles and support each other while doing so. Again, happy holidays to everyone!

xoxo

Week 19

I have a final in an hour. I really should be studying for it. It's the last one of the semester and I feel so drained, so I figured I'll just do a quick update instead of studying. I have to guess at a lot of answers on this professor's tests anyhow.

So, weigh in this morning was 223.2, which is annoying because yesterday I was in the 222's. I didn't have a BM this morning, so that's probably why. Either way, it's a loss from last week. While I'm not losing as quickly as I'd like, I have to acknowledge that it's my fault. I've had a few too many cookies this week and I've not been to the gym for absolute lack of time. But, since today is my last final, I'll have some extra time to get some gym time in. I hope that'll help with the weight loss. I almost wrecked my day today, food-wise. I had to get to campus early for an end of semester evaluation from one of my professors. After that, I strolled over to the student union where they have delicious sandwiches and things. I thought to myself, "I have this extra money because my car inspection wasn't as much as I expected. I could spare a few dollars." But, I hopped on the computer before I made any decisions, saw Rachel's post about how she's lost over 50 pounds in less than 5 months, then I saw Lap Band Gal's Facebook picture of her standing with her Christmas tree, looking absolutely skinny and beautiful. These girls saved my day today. I would have eaten something awful if I hadn't had that feeling of wanting to succeed like they are. So, thank you ladies, for making me suck it up and eat my perfectly good string cheese and clementine.

Oh! I almost forgot! I've got 2 NSV's going on right now. I'm wearing a pair of size 20 pants that I haven't been able to wear in practically forever. They're smaller than my other size 20s, so that's exciting. They're a tiny bit squeezy, but they don't look bad. And, I went to my dad's house the other day to get one of my old prom dresses for my production of Romeo and Juliet. When I was there, he pulled out two other dresses, one that I wore for the Homecoming dance in 10th grade. It was a size 22 and it was huge! Like, I had a fist-full of excess fabric gathered up, kind of huge. Now, I know I weighed less than what I do now when I was in 10th grade, but I guess my body really is changing and the weight is being distributed differently. It's interesting. I was quite pleased with that. I also have a dress that I've never worn, which I'm not likely to wear. It's also a size 22, floor length gown, black with some pink sparkly bits all over it. If anyone's interested, I'll post a picture of it and do a give away. It'd be nice for someone to get use out of it. So, let me know if you'd like to see it.

I guess maybe I really should go look over my notes now. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend :)

xoxo

Secret Santa!

Good day, bloggers. I know, after Ronnie and  Dawnya's vlog, I should be posting more, but come one...it's finals week. I just wanted to do a quick post to say thank you so much to my Secret Santa! Her gift was really thoughtful...something for my study desk/ future teacher desk :) I've misplaced my camera when cleaning for my Christmas party, but here's a picture from the internet of what she got me...
How cute is that? Love it. Very thoughtful, Secret Santa. Thank you very much :) I hope you have a spectacular holiday season.

As far as posting more, it's just not gonna happen right now. I've got my finals and things, plus we have to go back down to Ben's brother and s-i-l's house because his brother's graduation is this weekend. Got his master's degree, so we're heading down on Friday to celebrate. That's it for now.

Hope everyone's well

xoxo

Week 18

Well, bloggers, today I report to you my first gain. And truth be told, I'm not really all that sad about it. Last week, my weigh in was 223.8, down from 227 the previous week. I thought that was a terribly large loss, but I took it. I weigh every day and on Friday, I was 225.something and I've been in the 225's all week. Mind you, I didn't even eat bad on Thursday and I got enough water, so I was terribly confused about how I gained 2 lbs on Friday. Anyway, I've decided that the 223 was a fluke. Today, the scale says 224.0, which is a .2 gain from last week, but I'm ok with it. Although, it probably could have been less because last night (at 10:00 pm of all hours) I idiotically devoured three pieces of cheese pizza from my favorite local place. I feel awful about it. I've been dappling in the poor food choices since about Sunday, but last night just pushed it over the edge.

Today, it's back on track. I've got my protein bar for lunch and dinner will probably be tilapia and green beans. Speaking of tilapia, I made the most fabulous lunch yesterday and it was super easy, too. I just defrosted a 3.5 oz piece of fish, added about 1T I Can't Believe it's not Butter, a sprinkle of garlic powder, dill, salt, and pepper, wrapped that bad boy in foil and put him in the toaster oven for about 15 minutes. It was amazing. Probably do the same thing again today.

On another note, for my 4 month post, Lap Band Gal left a lovely comment saying how I'm rocking my band (thank you, ma'am!) and she wanted to know how the exercise is going. Honestly, at the moment, it's not going too great. I've been so busy with school and work, planning my Christmas party, getting the house ready (cleaned and decorated) for that, plus family obligations, that I literally have no extra time. So, my question to you ladies is, how do you do it? When you were starting out with exercise, how did you make sure you got it into your busy day? I was planning to go on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, but it just seems like every time I try to do that, something (usually school related) comes up. Or there was last week when the damn drain died. But anyway, I'd appreciate any tips you have to give me. I know I've definitely been walking a lot more because I'm running all over campus to get crap done before finals week (next week!).

And speaking of school, I passed my Praxis II test!!! I'm so excited! In the state of Pennsylvania, the minimum passing score is 160 and I figured if I were to pass the test, it'd be with like a 162 or something. But, to my extreme surprise, I woke up Tuesday morning to find a score report saying 183. I was perplexed at first, thinking they had given me someone else's score by mistake (it was a really hard test!) but I've accepted the fact that I've passed. One more real semester of school, then a semester of student teaching and I'm done! Til I decide to start grad school that is.

I have no segue for this, but I'm getting pretty excited about Secret Santa that Shannon is organizing. I've gotten my Secret Santa part of her gift, just need to go out this weekend and pick up the other component. Just out of curiosity, are we supposed to reveal ourselves or remain secret forever and ever? Just wondering.

So, anyhow, I'm going to go return that jerk of a book The Odyssey and buy a bottle of water because I definitely left mine in my car at the park and ride. Oopsies.

Have a good day, all.

xoxo