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.