4 Things That Are Awesome About Today

1) It's FRIDAY!!

2) 3 Day Weekend begins today!!

3) I had to fasten my bra on the last notch (LOL)

4) I met my 1st goal today!!!!

I wanted to be 245 by 4th of July. I was 245.4 when I weighed in this morning!! That is 30 lbs GONE and I am elated!! I have dropped more than 10% of my body weight since the start of my journey. Now on for the next 10% which will put me at 220. I am shooting to be at 220 by my son's birthday on September 15th.

We are going to AZ for a family reunion bbq this weekend. I am concerned about all of the food that will be there so yes, I am going to be that person who brings food with me to another state. For the bbq I am bringing my Hebrew National 97% FF hotdogs (which I can eat 2 of with no bun) and I am hoping that my MIL's cousin will grill some yummy zucchini so my lunch will be complete. I have my food scale in my purse so everything will be measured out and I need to make sure I pay attn while eating so I don't do it too fast. I am taking down cupcakes and a cake I made (yes THE cake I posted about a few weeks back) and I am sure I will nibble on the delectable items, but will not overeat. I'm not going to sabotage myself.

For the rest of the weekend, I have my cottage cheese, some yogurt, soup and my supplements. We will be eating out a couple times while there so this will be my first test (or two) eating in a restaurant. I am pretty sure I will just eat off of my husband and son's plates. Restaurant servings are so huge that we will all be satisfied.

Hope you all have a very Happy and Safe 4th of July!!

Diagnosis: Dermatitis

I am SO happy it isn't shingles. I was really scared it was because my husband has never gotten the chicken pox. That would be all I need is to expose him to that at the age of 34. Contact dermatitis was what the doctor said it is since it is on both sides of my torso. 100+ degree heat, gym, exercise, rubbing/irritation from undergarments & sweat=yuck on your skin. He said it didn't matter that I shower after the gym, it happens. That made me feel a little less cootiesc. I am thinking it might be because I am still healing from surgery and my body is still susceptible to various ailments. He did comment on my incisions. Called them nice. I said "I know, I love them" :-)

Got some prescription cream, anti-inflammatories and the dreaded steroids. I am really worried about taking them because of the puffiness they cause. But, I guess I will just need to suck it up and do it so I can get better and back to the gym (since no more working out until this is cleared up). Talk about a double whammy. Ugh.

One good thing that came out of this visit was 1) BP was 124/78 with NO meds and 2) my resting pulse (which for as long as I can remember has always been 90ish) was 77!!! YAY!!!

It's the little things, isn't it? :-)

My Love/Hate Relationship With The Gym

I really do enjoy going to the gym now. I am getting stronger in my workouts and see that I am not tiring as easily...after only 2 weeks! I was also super excited when I came into work today and 2 people made the comment that I looked so much thinner from last week (which means that gym time is working! Woohoo!) I just hate getting up so flipping early to do so! My husband is religious about working out in the mornings, so I go with him...at 5:30 a.m. But last night when I went with a girlfriend and my son it was SO much better. The heat was terrible last night, but I was actually fully awake and felt I did much better than when I go in the mornings.

But now I have this rash thing going on. It is right along where my sports bra rests on my torso so I am hoping that it is just a heat rash, but it started last week and get worse with each workout. I am just praying it isn't anything more serious, like shingles or something. Slapped on some hydrocortizone cream a few hours ago and waiting for it to work it's magic before I call the doctor. What do you think, all you amateur doctors out there in blogger land? (P.S. Please excuse the fat, but it isn't all gone yet) See my tiny incision scars?? I love them :-)

4 Weeks Post Op (With Pictures!!)

I cannot believe 4 weeks ago at this minute I was in recovery with my mom and husband sending out mass texts telling everyone that things went perfectly while I was shushing people who were making too much noise. Time has FLOWN by. I am officially down 27 lbs, but more importantly, have lost a number of inches. I really need to start doing measurements, but the pictures are worth 1000 words. I can't wait to see where I am in 4 more weeks!!

Can you see the difference??
(Of course Josie had to model along side of me this morning)

Father's Day Recap

I know it is late, but it wouldn't be me if it wasn't!

I hope you all had a great Father's Day weekend...I certainly did! I ate. And then I ate some more. Oh yeah, and then a little more! I ate myself sick. Not physically, but pretty close to it. Now remember, I can only eat 4 oz at a time, but boy did I....about 5 times!!! We had such incredible food and, silly me, I made brownies (which I believe I ate about 1 lb of) and even though I put everything away so it wouldn't be calling to me, I grazed like the purple cow on my previous post.

I weighed myself the next morning to see the damage and discovered I lost .7 lbs. Huh?? I know about "shocking your body" and all that, but wow. NOT going to be regular practice!!

Since being able to eat all types of food now I have been experimenting. Can I eat steak? Can I eat chicken? Can I eat 1 lb of brownies? Yup, yup and yup. So far I have no limitations. I chew like crazy, but I can eat it. Having said that, since the scale hasn't moved since Monday, I busted my butt at the gym on Monday and again today because since I am a scale stalker, I need to see results.

Speaking of eating whatever I want, I did have my first stuck episode on Sunday, however. Not to the point where I had a PB (productive burp) but oh.my.gosh did it hurt. You know when you eat something too fast and it is like it gets stuck in your esophagus? That would be the exact feeling. I ate a chunk of chicken waaaaayyyyyy too quickly and thought I was going to die. Plus, you can't drink while eating so I had to sit there with this evil piece of poultry clinging on for dear life for 20 minutes or so while acting like nothing was wrong for our company. Lesson learned.

Mooooooooooo

That is how I feel about myself today. I am the purple one, btw

Remember my post this morning about the cakes and brownies and cookies, etc that would be at work? Well, I think I self-destructed this morning when I left my lunch at home on the island. I literally panicked. So I get to work and decide "Okay, I will get the protein pack from the lunch lady today." Or not. She didn't have any. Really?? Every other day she has no less than 4 but not today. So I settled for a turkey sandwich that I ate as 2 meals sans bread.

Well, then came the treats. The cupcakes were mini cupcakes and I ate 1/4 of one and gave the rest to my PIC (aka the evil b*tch who made said goodies). I just wanted to lick the dark chocolate off of the entire thing though. Yuuummmmmmmm. But where I really relapsed was with the cake. Picture this, german chocolate cake with sweet condenced milk and chocolate poured on top, covered in Cool Whip & Health bar. Are you freaking kidding me?! I had a tiny piece and it was almost orgasmic after not having any amount of sugar in 4 weeks. Now, having said that, I CRASHED about 15 min after eating it. I wanted to crawl under my desk and sleep. Crazy. Never experienced that before. I think my blood was made up of pure glucose before my surgery. I hated the feeling. I don't want to experience it again. I hereby pledge to be sugar-free (but still as sweet) for as long as I can possibly handle it. :-)

3 Weeks Post Op

I can't believe it has been 3 weeks, talk about time flying. I was afraid that my moving on to mushies/real food was going to be a bad thing, but it actually helped my weight loss to increase again. Today I was down 2.8 lbs for a total loss of 24.8...but we will just say 25 ;-) Going to the gym is much easier now and I actually enjoy it because I know it will help me to see more results. I had a very exciting day yesterday when I 1) put on a top that was very obviously loose on me and 2) I had a co-worker tell me she could "REALLY tell that I am losing weight" and even specified where on me she could see it. Yay!

Today we have a co-worker leaving and there will be cake, cookies, brownies, you name it about 10 feet from me all day. Ugh.