Thank you Lap Band Gal

Thank you LapBandGal for your recent post.  It got me going and helped me correct my lazy butted-ness since I went back to work (according to the rulebook - teachers have to go back to work in August - dang that rule book!!).  

Last night I posted that I would walk tonight and I did.  After I posted I caught up with some of my favorite blogs and one of them was LapBandGal posting about getting over your excuses and remembering what you are fighting for.  No one else is going to fight for me to lose weight and live longer but me.  My husband has fought all he could by supporting me with this surgery.  It's my battle to win or lose.  This cost too much and I am worth too much to not follow through just because things got busy for me.  My time of being a jackass is over.  :)  At least for this particular reason of not exercising due to many excuses....I still reserve the right to be a jackass for other reasons.  

After reading blogs, I put my walking shoes on and hit the street.  I've walked four miles on the weekend before but never in the evening after working my tail off all day.  

Now tonight I wanted to go for another 4, but I had a terrible cramp under my ribs.  I wanted to throw up a few times.  I wasn't able to do another 4 miles.  

I keep telling myself that two months ago, I wasn't walking a mile on a regular basis.  Although it's not what I wanted for tonight...it's still progress.   

Goodnight Bloggers!  Love to all!

Phooey

Well crappers...
I was supposed to go in for a fill today but I forgot!!  Seriously...I waited for these appointments like I waited for water this summer.  Today...I completely FORGOT!  How does this happen?  Welcome to the all-encompassing, fills your life to the brim, leave you utterly exhausted and brain-dead profession of teaching.  Don't get me wrong...there are some parts I absolutely LOVE about teaching.  Without these great parts, I couldn't devote my life to the profession.  These great parts are there, so I carry on.  Seriously though...it sucks the life out of you.

So this blog is about my band and not teaching....  I am less than impressed with my progress this week.  Real life kind of sucks.  I don't have the time or energy to do any of the things I need to do.  I haven't exercised since LAST Monday! Diet is okay.  I haven't eaten much, haven't cooked anything really, and my house is a wreck.  Tonight I had a taco and some chips with family and I was sooooooo uncomfortable!  I had to leave and I felt crappy the entire drive home.  I kept spitting into a container.  It wasn't throw up...just spit and I felt so terrible! That tightness that hurts so much!  The feeling finally went away when I got home.  It was such a relief.  I think the flour tortillas may be off limits to me now too.  This makes me more sad than donuts and bread combined!  :( :( :(

I haven't really lost any weight this week.  Maybe two pounds.  Maybe.  It changes every day.  I am still looking for that balance.  I think I just need to kick my butt into walking no matter how I feel.  In fact...here you go blog world....I will walk tomorrow and I will blog my runtastic progress.  So there.  Hold me accountable tomorrow!  Please...

Thanks for reading, by the way!   I will try to keep it up.

My absence

I have only ten minutes of battery left to make a great and memorable blog post since I was absent from posting for a week and a half!  Thank you to those who reminded me to post (Lori).  I'm glad you miss it when I don't post!

As you can tell from my absence...I have gone back to work.  School starts on Monday! We had inservice this week.  My school has a new principal this year and with a new principal comes lots of changes and with change comes lots of stress.  This week has been a challenge on my brain and my new lifestyle.  I have come home exhausted at 7pm three out of the five nights this week. I had a presentation to give for the district on Wednesday, so Tuesday night was spent finalizing everything with my partner.  That was a ten o'clock night.  Meet the Teacher was on Thursday until 6 then I rushed to my daughter's school to meet her teacher.  I'll be going in tomorrow to work in my room and my lesson plans.  "Yay, back to work"...said no teacher.  EVER.

I went to Zumba on Monday and I have not exercised since then!   I have to find a way to make this work for me.  I have lost about a pound this week so far - maybe two.  I'm not sure if I am in my green zone, but I am close.  My eating has been okay.  Sometimes I know I eat too fast.  Sometimes I am in a hurry!  I do actually forget sometimes that I am banded.

My knee started bothering me this week.  I had shooting pain while going up the stairs.  Not sure what that's about.  I'm scared to find out.

My little man fell down tonight and smacked his head on our hard wood laminate flooring.  I swear it was the worst sound I have ever heard.  I thought we were going to make an ER trip tonight, but my favorite nurse made a house call and told me to keep an eye on him.  So he is sleeping next to me as I type this.  I am hoping we stay out of the hospital this evening.   I don't like head injuries.

I know this post is pitiful, I am just obsessed with school right now.  I will try to get into a rhythm with more posting and of course back to exercise once I get back into a routine.

Summer - I miss you already!

Last Fill May be the Ticket

I had my second fill on Tuesday.  I had lost nine pounds since my last fill (according to their scale) so they were happy with me.  I really wanted a sticker!  I was feeling very proud of myself.  I thought this second fill would feel like the first but this one hurt like a $?!@.  I swear I thought she pulled it through my skin to access the port and then shoved it back through - with her teeth!  I think she even giggled for a second (she had to turn her head quickly)  when I said "holy crap!"  Sadist!

She (Carol) put in .7 and I can't remember where that puts me now- it's somewhere between 6-7 I think.  This last fill didn't seem to make a difference right away, but now I can feel it.  I have to eat really slow and I am not hungry really at all until mealtime which is much smaller now.  I thought I was stuck again today but I went to the bathroom and PB'd for a little bit - no throw up,  just the water I swallowed to try to push it down, which I am not supposed to do.  Der...  It was just like last time when I was out to eat and had an incident.  I was talking, distracted, and not following the rules.  Live and learn I guess...

I have been losing every day.  I weighed this morning after a FUN night with some shots on 6th street in Austin after the Bruno Mars concert (AWESOME!!! I have an old lady crush on that little man).  I was anticipating a problem but I was 247.6 and then later this afternoon I was 246.5.  This would be so exciting if I cruised through the 240's.  

Going to the bar made me wonder what it will feel like to have men "look" at me like that again.  Do men look at ladies like "that" when they are close to or over 40?  I really don't know....  I'm glad my husband saw me for my inside beauty -  unless he secretly has a fatty fetish...uh oh...that might be a problem.  I hate that I wasted so much of my life being so overweight and lethargic.  Oh well...those days are over.  Time for me to go for a walk!  Here is a picture of us out last night.  I guess I should crop my friends since they didn't give me permission for me to put them in my blog.  Details!  I had an absolute ball!

240's here I am!!!

FINALLY! I weighed myself this morning and I was 249.5!!!  I have broken new ground.  Working in my classroom must have helped me yesterday because I don't think the Thai food helped so much!

Yay for new frontiers and for my next fill today!  If anything big happens I will post again today.  I can no longer eat bread.  It feels tight and gross when I do.  I've also become a little relaxed in my bite sizes and my chewing.  I need to get back on it.  It's just hard to eat soooo slow all the time.  Sometimes I want to eat fast and get it over with so I can move on to the next thing.  Yesterday I had a whataburger chicken melt with no bun for lunch.  It was so good.  Grilled chicken breast, poblano peppers, onions, and monterey jack cheese.  They made it with no bun, no problem, and gave me a tray, and a fork and knife to eat it with.  It was delicious!

Hub found some old pictures of me on our old camera.  You can really see how big I was.  If I can find the cord, I will post those too.  Sometimes it's fun to see how big we really were.

I am not ready to go back to work!  I'm worried about establishing new routines, how I'm going to maintain my exercise routine when I am mentally drained EVERY night.  This will be a transition for sure.

BUT...I AM IN THE 240'S!!  La la lalala la la la la la!  Nothing can stop me now.

30 days banded pictures

I had a bunch of people tell me that I look a lot better.  I have to tell you...I can't tell much difference from the pictures below.  :(  I wonder if people are just looking for it and are eager to motivate me.  It's nice to hear...but I don't see it.  I hope to soon.  Fill #2 on Tuesday - more limitations to my eating.  I still haven't tried soda - it's been off my list of acceptable food since pre-op.  Good riddance I say...

Here they are:

My first PB and hopefully my last

Last week was great for me.  I was on target, losing weight every day.  This week I went to San Antonio for a conference and it was more difficult than I anticipated to eat right.  I did all right with my eating, but not fantastic. I mostly had a protein bar for breakfast and something light for lunch - one day it was a tuna kit.  The alcohol may have been my problem but I had straight tequila instead of mixing it to save calories.  I did okay, but still a little off course.  I had fun though.

One night we were out to eat and I had ordered a chicken breast and some sweet potato fries.  It was over cooked, the bite was bigger than it should have been, and I swallowed.  dum dum dummmmmmmmm....I was uncomfortable almost immediately.   I decided to take a drink of water to help it down.  I tried burping, but that didn't work.  I decided to make a run for the bathroom. I did and thankfully it was empty except for the attendant.  It was weird and I think it was a Productive Burp (PB).  I didn't exactly vomit, but water came spewing out of my mouth in two separate occasions.  I expected the slime to come as I waited for the chicken to come back up.  I stayed in the bathroom for a while and the tightness in my chest went away.  I think the chicken went down because it never came up and I felt better.  The rest of my meal was just the fries!  I have no desire to ever be really stuck.  I was pretty uncomfortable.

The last few days I have been hungry again and more often.  I have been exercising a lot...like 800% more than I have ever done before.  I'm sticking with the 3 mile walks.  I even went walking my 3 miles in San Antonio.  That's the Alamo behind me.  I was trying to keep my time, that's why I barely slowed down and my picture is crazy-faced.

I am struggling again close to my second fill.  I am so frustrated about EVERYTHING right now. I am sensitive and emotional.  I am irritable and very very pissy.  PMS?  I would suspect.  Now if I can just keep myself from pissing off my husband too much in the meantime by my extreme emotional nonsense.  I want to eat everything I can find and it REALLY pisses me off that I can't!!!  Agh!!!

I am at my thirty day mark which means I need to take another round of pictures.  I don't feel like I am in my green zone yet.  I am still ahead of the schedule the clinic gave me for where I should be in my weight loss, but it feels like it should be more.  Maybe in a couple of days once my attitude improves.  :)  Aren't I a barrel of laughs!??  Wouldn't you love to be married to me?!  Geesh...

Great walk

I improved my time tonight!

My friend Allison went with me.  Yes, she is really that cute in real life and I dwarf her in every picture every taken, but I do love her!  She is going to be my walking buddy around the hood.  It's not really because she needs it, but because her Labrador does.  

I improved my time!  I don't know how I can go much faster without running.  Maybe more conditioning will surprise me.  I feel like I am nearly running now!  

You know...eating less calories than you burn really works for losing weight.  I've just never been able to do that before the band.  Thank you Lap Band!  I still need a name.  Some peeps have named their bands and I feel like I need to join the "BANDwagon".  Hardy har har.  

Short post tonight since I had a long post this afternoon.  Love to all!  Thank you for all the positive feedback and support.  If you are thinking negative things, thank you for not sharing!  :)

Great meals! New shoes!

THE FILL HAS HELPED SOOOOOO MUCH!!  I am happy to no longer be in bandster hell!

I would tell you that I have lost all of the weight that I gained last week since I got my first fill this week, but I can't tell you that because I said I wasn't going to get on the scale every day!  So I can't say that.  BUT...if I was still getting on the scale every day, I would be able to tell you that I am now back at 251 and I am close to the 240's again, and I would be very excited.  :)

I have been exercising almost every day.  My blisters on my heels have been bleeding.  I got some special bandaids that helped yesterday.  I am starting to feel like the exercise is a routine now.  It's a necessity and not something I can just put off.   I've been walking, swimming, playing racquetball, just trying to be overall more active.  I want to go back to Zumba class but I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about it for some reason.  Walking with my headphones and my dog has made such a difference.  I feel less pain when I have music, and I am more motivated with music.  As soon as I start to slow my pace, a new song comes on and I am energized again.  I've been listening to

on my phone while I am using Runtastic.  The dog helps me actually get out the door.  She is used to the walking now and she follows me around in the evening until we go.  Heaven forbid if I put my walking shoes on...she is ALL up in my business.  Her name is Missy and she is a rescue puppy that had heartworm when we got her at age 3-5yrs.  We had her treated and she has fully recovered.  She is such a doll: 

 I ordered some new shoes from Amazon this week.

They are the ASICS Gel Kayano 19.  I love ASICS and I think these look snazzy.  I had to order online because my feet are gigantic now.  I used to wear a size ten shoe but after my son was born, all my tens were too small.  Now I am an eleven and no one carries a variety of shoes in that size in the stores.  I love the feel of new running shoes and I can't wait to try them out.  They are supposed to be here Monday.  

I am totally loving two new apps I got for my phone that work together:  Runtastic and MyFitnessPal.  

Runtastic tracks your walk/run/hike or whatever and gives you feedback on how far you have walked, what your pace was, how many calories, etc.  It is motivating for sure!  I want to beat my time for each 3 mile trek I make.  It also links to FB if you want it to.  That way friends can encourage you while you are walking.  If they do, you get a break in your music and you hear a funny voice say  "I LIKE IT".   Tell me that's not motivating!  

Runtastic links to MyFitnessPal and it will track with your food diary and tell you how many days in a row you exercised and how many calories you burned.  MyFitnessPal reminds me of Weight Watchers in that if you use the food diary, it is easy to track your food.  It has a bar code scanner and there are a lot of foods in the program.  I used to get frustrated with WW because they didn't have all the foods I eat.  MyFitnessPal has EVERYTHING.  It even has all of my favorite HEB foods in there.  Easy works best for me.  Both of these apps are free.  Tracking my food on the diary allows me to keep my calories under 1000 easily...with the lap band restriction of course!  I can't recommend these apps enough. 

On the food front, when I went to get my fill on Monday, I picked up a Lap Band Friendly Meal Plan from an wall of random papers.  It's a meal plan for a week and recipes!  The recipes have been really good.  I made orange rosemary chicken, roasted salmon with maple glaze, cranberry walnut oatmeal, and I am going to make turkey burgers for lunch and white chicken chili tonight.  Hello Yummness -  nice to meet you!  These recipes have all been doable so far:  easy directions, and reasonable ingredients.  The picture below is the salmon, two TB of mixed veggies, and 1/4 of a sweet potato served on my very small plate with an oyster fork, and my half glass of wine and .  There is me goofing off with a r-ball buddy.