Waterfall Affect

I woke up at 4:00 this morning with my dog/child sitting next to my bed quietly staring at me. How can anyone not like dogs? Blows my mind.

Made it to the Y nice and early! Got a quick workout in. Sat in the steam room for a bit and took my time getting ready in the silent, ever so secret family locker room. Let me tell you that place is VIP in the mornings because no one thinks about using it. Plu, they are freshly cleaned from the night before.

Things are feeling like they are getting back to normal. I think the whole key is the workout. Once I put the time in to work out it waterfalls into every other facet of my life. My eating habits just fall back into place and I'm more organized at work even. I just have to keep going. I'm thinking about setting up an appointment with a therapist. I have never been able to just keep steady with my weight. I'm either losing or gaining. nothing in between. Thank God the band helped me not gain as much as I would have. But I can't keep treating my body like this. So we'll see. I keep saying I'd like to make an appointment and always mean to look into what coverage we have for it and then I never do.

On a different note, I have to say I sure have missed all of the banded bloggers out there. It's so good to see how far everyone has come and it's really inspiring! I'm still catching up on blogs so if you get 7 comments from me in 1 day you'll know why :)

Embarassing Moments and More Vodoo

Let's talk about accountability. In January, MS and I joined Planet Fitness because they had the $99 for a whole year deal and I wasn't so sure I was going to stick with a gym plan at that time. I still wanted to take other classes etc, so I also took advantage of a benefit that is offered by my company. They pay $40 towards a gym membership at the YMCA or Lifetime Fitness every month and the remainder gets taken out of my check. Well Lifetime is super expensive, but with the Y membership costs me $1.80 and it's taken out of every paycheck. Not bad, $43 out of pocket for the entire year. In return, I have to go to the gym at least 10 times in a 3 month rolling period.

I knew I hadn't gone to the gym a whole lot in the past three months, but oops. I really hadn't been going, because yesterday I get an email from one of our HR people that says this:

Hi!

 

Just wanted to send a friendly reminder about the gym subsidy. You are doing a great job! Keep up the good work by going to the gym at least four times in (month). You can definitely do that!!!

June: 1

July: 1

August: 1

 

Goal for Sept: 4+

 

 

OMG. How embarassing is that? I only went to the gym 3 times in 3 months? That can't even be possible. I used to go almost 9 times a week! Well, I've already been 3 times this month and I would like to just knock out the 10 required visits right away so I don't have to worry about it! Plus, if I'm not working out, I'm not losing weight. Plain and simple.

 

Now, onto Vodoo. Last night after the gym, I was craving a fruit smoothie for some reason. So we stopped at the grocery store and I bought everything that i needed for this Green Cleansing Smoothie I found on pinterest.  http://www.fitsugar.com/Kimberly-Snyders-Green-Smoothie-Recipe-Weight-Loss-18356998  I thought it was delicious and I could tell this morning that it cleanses like it says it will! The only problem is that is makes an entire blender full of smoothie, at least 3-4 servings. I put the remaining shake in an airtight container and refridgerated it over night.

This morning I took it to work, shook it up and poured about 1 cup of it in my little blender, added vanilla bean torte protein powder, a splash of almond milk and some coconut oil to make it more of a meal. I think it's just delicious. Try it out if you're into vodoo!

 

It's not really September is it?

Hey Y'all! Please tell me it's not September!? Where in the world has this year gone? First I wanted to say thank you so much to all of the people who left comments about praying for my dad and family. That has been and still is a very stressful situation for the past few months. I don't know if the worst is over, but there's progress so all is good for now. Our lives have been crazy lately. I haven't lost any weight and I sure have been doing everything in my power to sabotage my weight loss efforts lately. So I'm trying with all of my might to get back to the gym and get back to blogging. Hopefully with those two things my eating habits will start to fall into place again! I really want to lose 100 lbs before the end of the year so I really need to kick it into gear.

We went home to Michigan to visit my parents 2 weeks ago. We took our sweet little dog with us on the plane.. trust me... that will never happen. Ever again. Ever. Anyways, we had planned to stay for the week but actually had to cut the trip short because MS' grandpa took a turn for the worst. We were able to back to NC and then drive up to VA in time to go see him and then be there when he passed. It was really sad but also very peaceful. 

I have a not so cool band story to tell you about home though. Holy shit. Have you ever heard of the great Detroit rivalry between American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island? Well being that I'm from around Detroit, I always used to go to Lafayette with my girlfriends after a night out partying. I never even knew about American Coney even though it is right next door. So last year before surgery, MS and I went to Lafayette and American and had one coney at each. We decided hands down that lafayette was the most amazing coney we had ever had in our lives. So on this trip we wanted to go back. We knew we wouldn't be able to eat all of it like we used to, but still wanted to have a little bit.

On our way to the airport we stopped in Detroit and got a couple of coneys. There is a really pretty little city garden next to it that we sat in. I was completely fine, just ate the hot dog and the chili with a fork and skipped the bun. MS only ate about half of his hot dog and had to get up and walk around (he doesn't do well with any type of sausage or meat that has a casing on it) So after walking around a bit he was fine, but he was done eating. So just as I was about to wrap it up and go, I ripped off a piece of the bun and ate it as I started standing up. I must have swallowed it without chewing well because what was about to happen was the worst experience I have ever had with my band to date.

I felt stuck so I got up and walked a bit, and we walked the dog back to the car and got the A/C going so he didn't cook in the car. That's when the pain came.... and then the urge to barf my brains out. I had to walk up and down the busy street over and over. A few times my whole body lurched like i was going to throw up, but just clear watery spit came out. That kept happening over and over. At one point there were two guys walking down the street and I faced MS. I heaved but kept my mouth shut as I was standing right across from him. He jumped so far out of the way. I didn't projectile vomit on him or anything. I was just so self conscience because all of the people around, so I went back in the gardens and hid between the tall sunflowers and willed myself to barf. Nothing. Finally the urgent pain went away and we had to get on the road to the airport. About 2 minutes after being on the road. It came back full force. God Bless my sweet husband who understands the pain i was going through. We luckily had a zip lock bag in the car because every time I would barf clear spit -- or I guess that's called sliming -- he would hold the bag for me to spit in as I was driving (I know how to drive around there and only my name was on the rental car-hence why I was even driving in the first place) We had to pull off the road and I actually had to bend over and take a tiny sip of water and it finally went through. Honestly that was horrifying. All for a little piece of hot dog bun. The area around my band was so sore and tight for the whole night and morning afterwards.

 I've read stories about people getting stuck and "sliming" and all of that jazz. But I had never had any of that happen. I've gotten stuck before and have had some painful moments that have taken my breath away but woah. I don't ever want that to happen again.

So that's really all on the band front. I've been back to the gym for the past few days and I'm so sore! I know that's a good thing, I just have to keep it up!! How has everyone else been! I am going to catch up on blogs this week to see what I've missed!!!

Checking In

Hey Y'all! I just got a chance to catch up on blogs and I hope everyone is doing fab! Not only have I fallen off the wagon, I've jumped in front of and got ran over by a food truck... and I haven't worked out in 2 weeks. Holy shit. I need to get it together.

I'm not super upset about falling off the wagon, but I'm also not losing weight which isn't cool at all!!  60 more pounds to go! Yikes!

The good thing about this whole situation is the fact that I haven't gained weight! That's a huge, huge deal for me. So please say a little prayer for me, I need help getting refocused!!!

But guess what, Next Friday is my birthday!!! Yaaaaaaaaaahhhaayyy!! I can't wait.

Filled Up

WOAH-ZER! My Band is tight! This is the first time I noticed a significant tightness early in the morning.

Also, you know how they always say eat your protein first? Well today is the first time I experienced that scenario. I went out of the office today to pick up my $1000.00 Gift Certificate for Sunglasses that a few friends and I won on Facebook (WOOHOO!) And I decided to grab a kids burrito bowl from qdoba instead of eating my normal tuna fish.

So the lady put rice in the bottom of the bowl before i could tell her to skip that part, then I just opted for the chips with the kids meal instead of turning them down like I should have.

So right before I got back to the office I popped a few chips in my mouth. Not a diet killer, but not the best decision. Well, I got to my desk took two bites of chicken and that was it for me. I was not overly stuffed , but I was full. And I knew if I took another bite bad things would follow. I didn't even get close to that rice that shouldn't be in the bowl! There goes my protein for the day! Dang it! I might need a protein shake for dinner.

Heck maybe this is what I need for a little while. Oh, or maybe I need to dial it back a bit and start eating my protein first AND eat it over a 20 minute time period like I was told!

Welp, I Thought We Had This Fill Thing Under Control

So I had a new experience today. This one was extra special.

Like I mentioned yesterday my band was WIDE open again. I even ate a little bit of steak last night because it was so loose. I will say, that was a great decision on my part. yum.

This morning I wanted a mother of a fill. Everything was great, I drank a slim fast shake, took my chill pill, and drank about 90% of a bottle of water on my way to the doctor's office.

She said she gave me a .5ml fill which is what I've been averaging every 3-4 weeks. Didn't get dizzy and didn't even feel like I was going to pass out.

I left the place without an issue, and I called my mom and dad to see how my dad was feeling. While I was dialing I took a quick sip of water. It went down a little gurgly, but not a big deal.

Got to work, and saw that the car detailers were working in the parking lot today and decided to see how much it would be to get my car cleaned up.The price was pretty fair so I decided to go back out to an atm to get cash for it.

That's when all hell broke loose.

As soon as I pulled out of the parking lot I took the last sip of my water. Not gulp, just the last sip. Instantly stuck. Watery/pukey mouth, sweaty, tears, snot, horrifying pain in my band.

I kept breathing and trying to swallow. I've been stuck 2 times before and I knew it would pass. It just needed to get through. It was just flippin water! The pain kept getting worse. I had to pull over in a gas station because I was getting to a point of not being able to drive.

I got out of the car and started walking, my whole head was leaking... like snot, eyes just streaming water. There was so much pain but it absolutely had to pass. I mean the damn meatball I got stuck on a few weeks ago took half as much time to go through, what the hell was going on??

I called MS, because why would I call the dr first? Called the dr, they said to come right back. Then I called my best friend (SH) and told her to come get me. I couldn't even get words out right. It was like there was a car laying on my chest.

She said my voice sounded so wierd that she knew something was really wrong and she ran out of the office.  She showed up and drove me back to the doctor. It was good to have her there so I could sit there and try to burp.

I slowly got better as we made the 20 minute drive, and have the comic relief of SH there made it easier to deal.

I went in the saw the doctor, she is just wonderful. I told her what happened and was adamant that I didn't want to be unfilled. She told me to drink sip water very slowly for a few minutes and then she'd come back.

Every sip gurgled and hurt going down. Shit.

She came back in and I told her, feeling pretty defeated, how bad it felt. She took out .1 ml and I was 100% better. The brick feeling went away and water went down great. Holy crap .1 ml is all it took.

I'm super tired from the ordeal but man I'm glad I went back in. That would have been a nightmare to deal with all weekend.

Even though random crap like this keeps happening, I still think the band is the best thing I've ever done for myself.

Now let's see that scale move!!

Refocused

Woah the first week of May is over. What in the world?  Today I hit a big one.. the big Seven.Zero. Isn't that equivalent to a whole 7 or 8 year old kid? A husky one, even?

It really makes me feel good but I had an epiphany tonight. A few days before my surgery I saw a user on lapbandtalk.com that had lost 96 lbs in 6 months. I asked her what she had done and she explained that she works out for at least 45 minutes a day. She said she started walking as soon as she could and she kept working out harder and harder each time. That was when it really clicked for me and that's what inspired me to start walking right away. I set that goal to do exactly what she did.

So periodically I check up on her on lapbandtalk.com to see how much more weight she has lost. She has a newer picture and she's totally skinny. She has now lost 125 lbs and she's just a little more than a month away from her 1 year bandiversary.

Coincidentally, I am a little more than 1 month away from my 6 month bandiversary and I'm within reaching distance to the goal I set for myself right before I had surgery. It's going to take some serious discipline and I'm going to have to get back to working my ass off in the gym. But I really owe it to myself to accomplish this goal.

The past few days have been great food wise. I've really been good. I have been working out very hard, I just don't do it as much as I used to. So I'm getting up and going to the gym tomorrow for a hardcore workout.

I want to be somewhere in the -90's by my birthday which is 3 days after my 6 mo bandiversary. This is going to be tough, but it's possible. As friends, if you hear me wavering or getting whiny will you please remind me to focus on this goal? I need to do this!

Is That The Light?!

Holy crap, after weeks (which feels like years) of teeter tottering on the scale, I finally lost more than my lowest number!

I'm not out of the woods yet, but hopefully that's the boost I need to get back on track. The past few days have been sooo hard. No motivation to work out, and very little will power. But last night I just toughed it out. I wanted to eat anything that would fit in my mouth, but I didn't. I wasn't hungry, I just had a great fill....but my head just wanted to EAAAAATT!! I stuck to it and ate just less than 1000 calories yesterday!

Alright I'm going to the gym. I need to burn some calories! Here's some more inspiration from pinterest:

Re Grouping & Joining CeCe for a 30 Day Band a Thon

Good Morning! A couple of weeks ago I hit a plateau. Then promptly after that I started skidding backwards just like i normally do. Eating anything and everything I could put in my mouth, eating when I wasn't hungry, eating unhealthy foods, not weighing out my foods and definitely not tracking them!

I'm struggling right now with the fact that I still need to lose about 60 more lbs. It's daunting and feels impossible. But I know it's not. Isn't that funny? I feel stressed about having to lose 60 lbs so I shove food in my face as a result. Now THAT makes a whole lotta effing sense!

The cool thing is I have this band and when I get out of control, I can wrangle myself back in a lot easier than I could before.  Since CeCe over at http://bandedforboots.blogspot.com/ is doing a 30 Day Band a Thon to get back into good habits, planning, tracking food, working out, etc. I'm going to join her.

 If anyone else is struggling right now join us. I'm on Myfitnesspal, I'll add you as a friend if you use it too and we can encourage each other. I need all the help I can get right now to get back on track.

Today I'm on all liquids to hopefully clear out some of the ick that is hanging out in my system from a week of abuse. Tomorrow I'm going to work on eating proteins and veggies. And I'm going to get my ass to the gym tonight and tomorrow so I can get this show on the road!

Fab 4th Fill

It's seeming like I need a fill every 3 weeks and it seems to be working out great. I've lost 9 lbs since my appointment and my doctor was happy with that success.

So this is how it went down today. I had a larger than usual breakfast at about 8:30 am. I finished off half of a salad left over from Chick fil a and I had some ground turkey with it. Then I popped my chill pill and drove over to the Dr's office.

After all that, I was still 3 lbs lighter on their scale after eating and with clothes on than I was on my own scale! YES!

My sweet Dr decided to tweak the way she does the fill to deal with my passing out issue. While I was standing up, she found the port with the fluro and got the needle in (that part never bothers me)
Then we moved to the edge of the table and I sat down as she adjusted the band very slowly. Everything went as smooth as could be!

I never felt clammy or light headed at all. I wanted to hug her after we were done. She has been so wonderful through this whole thing with me.

Now my only problem is that dang chill pill has really affected me today. I feel like a zombie. I can barely get my work done. I figured I would blog to help get my brain going and working again. Hopefully after I'm done with this I can actually focus on a few things I need to get done today. But, hey. It's the last day of the week for us here so If i have to put something off until Monday so be it!!

Dreaded Hair Loss

I've been meaning to post this for some time now. I emailed my dietitian a week or so ago because if I'm going to continue to lose hair at the rate of which it is coming out I want to do everything in my power to help prevent it.

 I figured I'd share the emails between me and my dietitian for anyone who's going through the same thing.

So Here are the emails, starting with one from me:

In our last visit I was asking about hair loss and you had mentioned that for some reason at 3 months it’s possible to start losing hair. Well, I am at the 3 month mark and my hair is definitely coming out. It’s so bad that I’ve been keeping my hair tied back, not washing it for a few days because when I wash it so much comes out. As far as protein goes I’m really keeping up with it. There have only been a handful of days that I’ve missed my daily goal.

Is there anything else I can do to make this stop? I bought some vitamins with 300 mcg of biotin and started taking them last week. Should I even bother with that or should I bump it up to even more? Are there any other supplements that I could take to help?

I attached a report of my protein intake over the last 90 days from the food tracking site I use. I figured that would help give you a better idea if I need to take in more or what. I can run quite a few reports from it so let me know if I can give you anything else that might help with figuring out what to do with my hair situation.

I completely understand if I need to come in to see you for something like this, just let me know and I’ll make an appointment!

Thanks!

Her Reply:

It is good to hear that you are doing well. Your protein intake looks very good esp if the values represent protein from animal sources. Taking a good quality multi-vitamin is also important. There is not a lot of research to support the use of biotin but it may help you; the upper limit appears to be 2000-3000 mcg per day. Significant and rapid weight loss is a stressor on the body and this is probably the primary factor but it sounds like in your case the hair loss seems very significant. It may also take up to three months to regrow the hair.  If you think that there is too much hair loss, you may want to consider seeing Dr Yoo.  

Hope this helps

Me Again:

Thank you for your response. I’m not to the point of getting bald spots or anything, but if this continues for a month or two I could have a problem! Can I run these few things by you to see if I need to change anything?

 

-6 days a week I get  just under 30 proteins from Syntrax Nectar Protein that I mix with almond milk – so sometimes almost half of my protein for the day is whey protein. On Saturdays I’ll have an egg and possibly a piece of morning star sausage

- I’m still trying to stick around 800 calories, on my highest days I might go up to 1,200 but I normally fall between 800-1000. I feel like if I don’t get a ton of protein from my shake in the morning I can’t eat enough to get above 50 grams of protein or I can’t fit in any veggies or fruit. About once or twice a week, I actually eat some sort of meatless product. I like Gardein and Morning star varieties which I’m guessing are Soy protein. They seem to pack a ton of protein for the calories and they are so light, that I can eat a little more than a serving and still stay within my 4 ounce meal size.

-In addition to the biotin I just started taking, I take 1 Flinstones complete and three Viactiv calcium (500 iu D, 500 mg Calcium, 40 mcg K) every day – Any improvements I can make there?

Thanks again for any advice you can offer!

Her Last Response:

The Syntrax protein that you are taking is a whey protein isolate which typically is the best quality and if you are getting the remainder from your food that sounds fine, so the protein piece is covered.

The vitamins sound good. A lab panel may reveal any potential deficiencies.  From a nutrition standpoint it appears as if you are meeting your requirements.

So that was it from the dietitian, and I also talked to the dr that does my band adjustments today. She said that it is very normal to lose hair for a bit even if you are meeting all of your nutritional requirements. She also said it slows down and stops after a little while, so there is light at the end of the tunnel. She mentioned there is also shampoo that has biotin in it, so take the biotin and try the shampoo. She said that half of the people she talks to about it say that it works, and half of them say it doesn't work.

I'm not as stressed about my hair as much, because everyone has assured me that it will stop. I'm getting a full blood panel done tomorrow morning to see if there are any deficiencies and after I get those results I will have done everything I can to make sure I'm not doing anything wrong.

So hopefully this is just a tiny little bump in the road!

Feeling Much Skinnier Than What I Look Like in This Picture

Sometimes pictures are total bullshit. I'm feeling fab because I've broken through the plateau, I can just feel it.  I'm on the brink of a clothing crisis. Everyone says they don't have anything to wear, but all of a sudden I'm truly running out of clothes! YAY! I resorted to Ross and Marshall's  over the weekend and found this super cute dress. I was so excited to wear it and I wanted to show my mom so I took a picture of myself in the mirror on the elevator. When I looked at it, I was like WHAT THE HELL?! I'm still a fatty! HAHA oh well, I'll just chalk it up to a wierd elevator mirror and a camera phone. It's more about how you feel right?

Dear Plateau - Piss Off

I hit the dreaded plateau! for the past three weeks I've been down, then up, then down, then up. I knew it would happen so I've decided to kick it into overdrive and get over this hump.

First off I've noticed that my belly fat is sticking around for a lot longer than normal. My arms, neck, face  and calves are slimming up nice but everything else is still just hanging out.  Since I've always been a huge believer in low carb dieting, I've decided to go ahead and start that today. Everyone always says that low carb dieting really targets belly fat, so I'm hoping this really helps.

This throws my tracking system for a loop because Myfitnesspal primarily tracks calories and I'll need to really just track net carbs. I'm still going to use it, but my calories will probably need to be adjusted. I've tracked net carbs so much in my life that I can pretty much do that in my head so it shouldn't be an issue. If I find myself getting off track I'll resort back to writing everything down on paper.

I'll report back on how it goes!

P.S. I had to go out and buy 2 pairs of Size 20's yesterday!!!! YES!!! Life is good!

I'm Not Easily Offended...

I like to think I can take a joke, in fact I can take a lot of jokes... but some dude said something to my husband at the Y tonight that made me shiver.

So MS and I started a whole lifting circuit today. It was fun, he got it out of a book he's been reading and we did it together. Arms, legs, then abs.

So while we were finishing up planks on the mats this big dude walked in and stood there. I saw him looking around and kind of shaking his head and talking to himself. Whatever.

So we went to walk away and he stopped MS and said, "I got news for you man, every time I work out with my wife, we get all hot and heavy and we looked good, and then she gets pregnant. Then she gets fat again."

Then he proceeded to repeat it again, but he said "They get fat again"

It took a few minutes for it to sink in. That joker is lucky I didn't have a 10lb dumbell in my hand. I would have smashed the stupid out his mouth.

Couch to 5K

MS and I started couch to 5K today. I have mixed feelings about it. I hate running so much I could spit. Buuutt I also felt that way about elliptical machines a measly 3 months ago.

Today there was a 5K in the DC area sponsored by Chris 4 Life Colon Cancer Foundation and there was a HUGE team running in my friend's honor. I really wish i could have been part of it so I'm promising myself that I'll do it next march. I think it might have been another one of those winks from God that my husband announced he was going to start couch to 5K today on the same day of the race.

So... it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It's a 30 minute work out 5 minute warm up walk, 1 minute of jogging, 1 minute of walking on and off and then there is a 5 minute cool down walk.
So if you break it down it is only 10 minutes of jogging and 20 minutes of walking. Not horrible.

I'll do that 2 more times this week and then it increases a little bit every week for 9 weeks. MS found a 5K that we both want to run in Detroit in August. Ugh, I just can't even imagine running for  3 miles straight. yikes.

Back to Life

Hi!! I just read about 15 blogs!  I've missed catching up with everyone so much.

Wednesday afternoon I made it back from my work conference that was out of control and has kept me away for a little while. I work for a really great technology company and every year we hold a user conference. The cool thing is that the software that we sell helps people become more efficient and have a better handle on things, which means in this economy, business is thriving. This year we had record breaking attendance. It was really great. I overindulged on the Cabernet a few nights, but I was up and raring to go all day every day. I'm still pretty worn out from the whole thing!

On this trip, I was so excited to see that the resort we stayed at had an amazing fitness center with 5 or 6 Octane 4600 elliptical machines. I worked out with one of my roommate's 3 days out of the 5 which was great. If you ever see one of these just try it. You'll swear at it, but then all of a sudden you get addicted. It's my absolute favorite machine to work out on. I've been using it for over 2 months now, and I am still getting a kick ass work out on level 1. There is also a program called X-trainer and it gives you different speeds and techniques for interval training. It is seriously awesome.


Anyways - Even though one of the days I ate an oatmeal pie and a bag of lays for lunch (oops)I still thought I would drop some serious weight on this trip.  I barely ate, I just didn't have a whole lot of choices when I did. Well. I got on the scale the morning after I returned and it said I gained 6 POUNDS!! WWHHAA?!! Not even possible.

I figured it was lots of fluid and it definitely was. I went on a liquid diet and the scale today said I had only gained 2 lbs. I would imagine that will be gone tomorrow so I'm not overly concerned.

I have however, been at the same weight for about 2 weeks now, so I'm going to have to come up with something to kick start my metabolism back up. I'll work on it. I can't wait to blow past 60 lbs. haha I'm sick of that number!

I also have one other little struggle going on now and I'm a little bit upset about it. Just as my dietitian said, it has been 3 months since surgery and my hair is really coming out.

The dietitian said that for some reason, 3 months after a surgery like this, your body says, "woah something big happened" and it releases some hair.  She said I can take biotin but there's not proof that it will help.

I luckily have tons of hair. But it's starting to hurt my soul a little bit every time I comb my hair out after the shower. It's not coming out in chunks, just strands, but the strands come out by the handful after a shower. It's gotten to the point that I comb my hair out while I'm in the shower at the gym and I wrap the hair up in some paper towel and throw it away. It's too embarrassing to comb it out in the open.

I'm going to email my dietitian and see if she'll give me any other guidelines to help. I'm fearing she might just tell me to ride it out and see what happens. I'll just keep praying that it stops. please please please stop!

Another Fun Filled Day

Stupid Vagus Nerve.

I went in for my third fill today and as always, it was a shit show! Apparently my vagus nerve is a little bitch.

Before I get into the gory details, I have to say that I adore all of the staff at Dr. Yoo's office. It is seriously like a family. If they weren't so awesome, I would really have a hard time going in every month considering my little "episodes".

So when the nurse takes me in to weigh me, she always goes over a list of medications and confirms what I'm still taking. We went through the list, Birth Control? Yes! Mulitvitamin?Yes! Atavan? Atavan? OMG I FORGOT TO TAKE MY ATAVAN!

Atavan is a chill pill that MS and I were prescribed after our first adjustments (I passed out/He almost did). We were instructed to take 1 pill 30 minutes before our appointments. As soon as I remembered that I didn't take the pill I knew the rest of the appointment was going to be dramatic.

We got started and as soon as she took the saline out of my band I started clamming up and getting sweaty. It's such a crazy feeling because we both stay really calm even though I always have a huge needle sticking out of a stomach.  We somehow maneuver me, the fluro, and her foot pedals for the fluro all around, all while keeping that needle in the port. It's really ridiculous.

Today I had to sit down and she slowly added back what I came in with. Then I had to move from a chair to the table so we could actually do the fill with the fluro.

It's so crazy I have to keep laughing about it! I swear I will never forget to take that atavan again. I mean, last time I came close to passing out, but not as bad as this time, the pill does help.

The good news is... our doctor said she was so so so proud of us because we are really doing great. That made me feel good and makes me want to do well every month. Also, I think this is the tightest my band has EVER been. I'm on liquids for the next two days so I'm hoping for some SERIOUS weight loss!!

No matter what, this whole sensitive vagus nerve thing is a small price to pay for the weight I've lost.
If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing. This is hands down the best thing I've ever done for myself.

Work Out Buddies

Really loved my second week of beginner's yoga at the Y. I felt especially fat today because this week's teacher was even more hard core than last week's. That's ok I'll get there, though.

I'm losing my work out drive, so I'm doing everything in my power to just keep on keeping on. Thursday was my only full day off this week, and I did take off my Friday morning work out time. This is where a support system (work out buddies from work and my husband) are clutch!!

Up until this point I didn't need buddies; I was just going on sheer determination. But the buddies have been there all along and there is no way I could just quit all together which is a blessing! If I were doing this by myself I think next week (myrtle beach) would be the death of my work out routine.

No worries, I'm not going back to my old habits. But if you find yourself in the situation I'm in right now, find yourself some buddies who won't quit!

Saw this on Pinterest and Love it!

Critical Point

Well I knew this was going to happen, now I just have to figure out how to get past it. 

I opted to have lap band surgery because I've yo-yo dieted my whole life.I would lose 25-40 lbs and then sabotage myself until  I was 10 lbs heavier than when I started. I didn't like that I did it, but I couldn't stop myself from doing it for some reason. I kept doing that until I almost hit 300 lbs.

So I've lost over 50 lbs, more than I've ever lost on any diet. I've had two great fills, and now I find myself trying to eat more and more.

I'm still ok - I'm still under 1500 calories a day, but I can't keep up weight loss if I let my old habits creep back in.

This week my goal is to stay under 1,000 cals at least 5 days with No snacking after 8:00. I need to get my head right!

Confession Time

I may or may not have consumed 600 calories of Ranch Dressing at dinner tonight.

Ready for an excuse? I worked out twice today. Shit. That was one whole work out.

50% of me feels really guilty about, but the other 50% ... well I'm sure you know.