Sunday was not my day of rest

We were super busy yesterday, all good fun stuff but my body is hurting today. We started the day by walking in the Making Strides for Breast Cancer Walk in Baltimore. It is a 4 mile walk that is held by The American Cancer Society. It is our second year walking at work and Rick and Cate participate with me. It was a great day and Rick and I walked as aggressively as we could with the crowds, we did the 4 miles in about an hour and fifteen minutes. It was a really big accomplishment for us because last year we took a "fatty" detour and probably only really walked about 2 and a half miles. We are both about 50 pounds lighter (I don't know if I mentioned it but my awesome hubby has lost about 80 pounds since last summer- by using The Daily Plate religiously everyday)and felt really great at the end of the walk.

Our day of walking continued yesterday evening when we went to Boo at the Zoo at the National Zoo in DC. We've gone every year since Cate was a year old. We had a great time again, in case you couldn't tell she is Tinker Bell. I'm not sure if any of you have ever been to the National Zoo, but it's built on some crazy steep hills and by the end of the night my legs were hurting. I think by the time we got home we figured we'd walked about 6 miles yesterday. Not a lot to some, but a very active day in our world.

My weight has been climbing and I'm a little down. I've stepped up the exercise, but I've also been eating a lot (portion & frequency). I've got to get under control. I've got fill #6 next Thursday and can't wait. I'm going to push for a little more fill than last time. I'd don't want to be to tight, but I'm getting frustrated. My band is getting so full I think she'll make me get a barium swallow soon. She mentioned if I got close to 10 cc's we would do that and I'm at 9.25 right now. Until then I need to watch my portions.

Yoga, My Personal Trainer & The Scale

So I have started using my exercise DVD's after taking as much time off for my sinus infection as possible. I started with my old standby Walk Away the Pounds (because I knew it wouldn't hurt me) and yesterday I decided to go for The Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga (notice how I'm avoiding the Jillian 30 Day Shred). I didn't get up in time to do it yesterday morning so I decided I would do it when I got home, Level 1 is 20 minutes plus 10 minute warm up/cool down. I figured Cate could occupy herself for a half an hour while I did it and dinner cooked. Cate decide she would join me instead – she has done the walking one with before and likes it. I figure if I can break the multi-generational cycle of "exercise is bad" with Cate all the better.

So we start, Cate is pretty good with the warm up routine, she's done that type of stretching at ballet. The work out gets tougher, legs are burning, arms are shaking – Cate has decided she's my "coach" now. She's walking around me patting my butt and tummy that's hanging low when I'm in downward dog. She's repeating things that sweet, supportive Bob is saying. Try to keep a straight face when your five year is saying "take it easy if you need to, I'm not going anywhere".

I have to say I really liked the workout. I am a little sore today but I liked the stretching and balancing aspect of the yoga. I really liked Bob too- he always said the right thing when I was going to quit or put my leg down. Later, I was thinking if I was on the Biggest Loser I'd be one of those people that cried when I got my trainer switched.

The scale has been good this week. I'm down about 2 pounds and as of yesterday I was a ½ a pound away from 40 pounds lost. This morning I was a pound and a ½ away. :( I am officially supporting Amy's exercise/muscle water retention theory. I hope by Friday I can post I'm 40 down.

Congrats to Cara on making it to 199!!!

I Heart Gen!

Today is a miserable day- cold and rainy. We've had this weather for three days and it's getting old. I am fighting a horrible sinus infection, I finally broke down and went to the Dr. yesterday for some proper drugs. So you can see that my mood is not so good. After dragging Cate to Target this morning in the pouring rain, I returned home to find a big box on my front doorstep! The Sisterhood strikes again! Thanks Gen for the awesome clothes - they are beautiful and will help me get through the winter for sure(and brightened my mood). It's great when your clothes start to get loose, but then there's a point when they get really baggy and unflattering and kind of depressing and I'm there.

On that note, today confirmed that I can no longer wear any of the 6 pair of size 20 jeans I have (Gap, Old Navy, Liz Claiborne, Tommy Hilfiger), so if anyone needs jeans please let me know. I was trying to avoid buying 18's and going right to 16's, but the 20's all fall when I walk. I will have to go to Old Navy or Gap tomorrow and start trying on.

Because I've felt so crappy, I've wimped out and pushed my exercise start date to Monday - I'll give you the update then.

Exercise ?!?!?

Ok - I think I've mentioned that while I've done well with weight loss to this point it has been through calorie control alone. I'm not going to say I've never enjoyed exercise, but it's hard to integrate it back in your life when it's been gone for a long time. I was active when I was younger, playing soccer and swimming (and I still swim) but I can't seem to find time or energy to do much else lately.
Well, that excuse has to stop - I read everyone's blogs and how they're running and lifting weights and I want to do the same. I know it's unrealistic for me to say I'm going to get to a gym because I have a long commute in the morning and after work I pick up Cate from daycare so I don't have a lot of free time. We have a great walking trail in the development we live in, but I'm not supposed walk excessively because of plantar fasciitis. So, what's a girl to do?
I've had an Amazon gift certificate I've been saving for something exciting and last night I decided exercise will be exciting. I ordered the two DVD's below in hopes that they will be what I need. I plan to start getting up a half an hour early and doing 30 minutes, 4 days a week. I know it's not bootcamp, but I've got to start somewhere. I've also got one of those Walk away the Pounds DVD's I might do in between these to if it doesn't bother my heel too much.

My six pack will be like Jillian's soon...(ha,ha,ha)

My next goal is to buy these Ecco athletic shoes that are made for Plantar support, but I save my pennies.
The DVD's come tomorrow, so I'll give a report Friday(if I can move my body afterward) .

Looking Back

Thanks to the lovely Cara's birthday wishes I have decided when I wake up tomorrow I will be positive & excited for my 38th birthday. 37 was a blur because I was obviously focused on getting surgery and that dominated a lot of life when I think about it. One thing I decided to do was make a list of things that are better/different since my last birthday.

Here goes:
I am over 40 pounds lighter
I have more self confidence
I no longer take any meds for diabetes
I am happier - not because I'm thinner, but my general mood is better
When I look down in the shower I see my feet
I no longer binge in the car on the way home from work
I run and play with Cate more
I haven't had a bad back in a long time
I have tons of new blogging friends - thanks for all the support
My libido is better

Well I could go on, but that makes me feel better. I'm not going to caught up on the number because there's no point, but I'll keep improving myself and maybe next year I'll have an even longer list. :)

Have a great week everyone!!

Testing the band

Well, today at lunch we had a Chinese buffet brought in and I thought I would try some out. First Chinese since I've had some restriction so I didn't take much and frankly it wasn't good so I didn't eat what I took- except the egg roll. The egg roll was perfect and greasy and went down pretty well. I ate the whole thing and felt good. Somehow in the half an hour after that I decided why not one more? So I ate two freaking eggrolls!!! So now am I not only uncomfortable to the point of puking, I'm just pissed off. I don't even want to know the calories I just ate, but I'm also wondering if I did it on purpose to test my restriction (which apparently is not that great if I can get two of those down).
Mentally I can feel myself going down the road I always do when I lose a good amount of weight. I start to feel good about how I look and let myself get a little free and easy with my diet. This is my line in the sand to stop, to get it together and think of why I did this in the first place. I know I've said from the beginning that I don't view this as a diet and that I'm trying not to have "good" and "bad" foods, but I don't want to play naive with myself. I know what I have to do to be successful and it's not what I've been doing this week.
Also, I think because my birthday is coming up I've stepped onto that slippery slope of well if I'm going to eat badly Monday why not start now? I'm famous for this, I believe I did this non-stop from 2005-2008.
I know we all have bad days, but I don't want to repeat the mistakes I've made so many times. Also, while I know I've some restriction it's obvious I'm not quite there yet.

Monday Morning Musings

 

I'm wondering if all my hoping and praying for greater restriction has been answered (at least this morning). This morning I ate my normal egg breakfast and almost two hours later I still feel like I'm going to pop. I didn't have any real problems getting it down, but man the minute I finished it I thought it may come back up. I really, really, really hope this is the real thing and not a fluke. Maybe it's an early birthday present and if it means I have to admit to turning 38 next week I'll take it.

 

I'll keep you updated on the excitement. Maybe lunch will be the same way (only I'll stop sooner).

 

Thanks for listening ladies! Have a good Monday!

Cool Shopping Site

I've belonged to this invitation only shopping site for awhile and they have awesome boutique sales on tons of stuff. They finally gave me a link to do invites so I'm inviting you all, it doesn't cost anything to sign up. The reason I think it will be great for us (someday) is they always have great jeans on the site (7 For All Mankind, Lucky) and I know we all want to squeeze our small booties into insanely expensive jeans one day.

Here's the link:
http://www.ruelala.com/invite/lharris027

Interesting Numbers

I think I mentioned that I had a fill scheduled yesterday. Things went OK - I got .25 cc's (I'm at 9.25 total) which I don't feel like did too much, but I'll give it a few days. I have to wait a month to go back now. One thing we did talk about is that I need to exercise more since my swimming has stopped now. I'm deciding what I'm going to do. I'm not really supposed to walk for exercise because I have plantar fasciitis, but it's hard to fit anything else in.
One thing I did remember to do was get my measurements from my first consultation in September 2008. I didn't take measurements before surgery, but I am going to start doing it monthly now. I just took my measurements and I have to say I'm shocked. The starting measurements are from when I was 289 ( I was 279 surgery day), so pretty close to surgery weight.
Here are the results:
Waist: 
9/29/08 - 51.5 inchees
Today - 43.5 inches
I have lost 8 inches around my waist!!!
Hips:
9/29/08 - 58.5 inches
Today -50.5 inches
And 8 inches from my hips!!!

I guess they didn't do arms and thighs, but I'm going to start today. What great motivation especially when I feel like the scale isn't moving too much.

Have a great weekend everyone!!