Sorry for my radio silence last week. It was a crazy week and I spent most of it exhausted. I was going to post on 9/27 which would have been 30 days since I started my pre-op diet but due to some strange water weight or something I didn't lose any additional weight until this morning. So here are the hard cold facts as of this evening, I am down 22 lbs and almost 2 pants sizes!! That is a total loss of 5 lbs last week!! Woo hoo!! It is so bad that I am going to have to either go shopping for some suspenders (real sexy I know) or some new pants this week.

I have been actively logging everything that passes my lips into my mouth with www.myfitnesspal.com and also logging my workouts. It is really eye opening the calories in some items. I look at things before that I would have eaten without hesitation and now think, wow that is so not worth it. If you are watching your weight, I highly suggest getting the My Fitness Pal app, or you can visit them online. Sunday I trekked across town and made it to My Fit Foods, (www.myfitfoods.com) and picked up my meals for lunch for the entire week. I have to say that it is really nice to have healthy fresh choices. And I don't have to guess if I am eating well or have that anxiety standing in the kitchen in the mornings trying to figure out what I should eat. I know a lot of people eat the Lean Cuisines and such, but foods like that are usually very high in sodium. And as I learned last week, water weight gain is not your friend! This week also started my return to solid foods, I'd be lying to say I wasn't ecstatic.

Had my first experience of food backing up on me, Wednesday at work we had some breakfast tacos brought in. I was attempting to eat one, sitting around the table at work chatting with everyone, when I stopped thinking and started shoving this delicious tasting taco down my throat. It didn't take long for my band to remind me (not so nicely) it was still there and that I was eating entirely tooooo fast. I felt like I was going to throw up at my desk, which I refused to do. If you know me, I HATE throwing up. I got up and walked around outside for a bit seriously contemplating if I threw up in the bushes who could possibly see me. I managed to keep it down and seriously logged that in my brain in the "DO NOT DO THIS AGAIN," file. This weekend I went out on Friday night and had a couple of drinks. I logged them on my tracker so all calories were accounted for. From trial and error I have discovered that drinking beer or carbonated drinks causes that funky gas pain in the middle of my back (which the only remedy is Icy Hot, which is not a great perfume choice). So I have been sticking to wine and mixed drinks. But for once I feel like I am resuming my life, but just a much much much better choice making, health conscious, working out maniac. For the first time in a long time I feel like I have control of myself and my body.

I got a wild hair up my butt this weekend and signed up for a water zumba class at the local rec center. I've always wanted to try zumba at the gym, but quite frankly have been too chicken to do it in front of other people (I really am shy). And I am really not all that coordinated. Being in the water gives you the sense of security if you don't exactly get the move that no one will really notice. Its a 45 minute class and at about minute 20 I thought to myself, what in the hell did I get myself into. But at the end, it was awesome and a great work out. From all the running in the pool my big toes are sore and will probably make walking impossible tomorrow. I've ordered some aqua socks to fix this. I've mapped out when/where I am going to work out on a weekly basis, my goal is 5 times a week to work out. Aqua Zumba is 3 days a week. So I will be going to the gym the other 2. I plan on starting my Couch to 5K training on Wednesday. Lets see if I can make it one week through the workouts without killing myself. I am a terrible runner...swimmer for life. LOL.

Anyways to wrap this ramble up, I had a big non scale victory tonight, I checked my food log and I still have enough calories left to go to McDonald's after work out tonight and get a sundae. I sat in the parking lot of the rec center debating, a creamy chocolate treat would really hit the spot, but ultimately I exited the parking lot and drove home. I sliced up an apple and had some peanut butter with it. And then when I still had an itch to eat something, instead of giving in to my mom's Klondike bars (she needs to eat all of them next visit) in the freezer, I made a protein shake!! By no means does this mean I've won the war but I have definitely won this battle, however, the light at the end of the tunnel is still dim. But I will win...eventually after all, Rome wasn't built over night and in spirit of my new running adventure, life is a marathon not a sprint.

Until tomorrow,

Amanda