First the bad news (to get it out of the way): I did not hit my Labor Day goal of 157 lbs ... today (Labor Day) I weigh 159.6. But here is the good news: I am no longer in the 160's! YAY!!!!

On Saturday my weight was 158.8 and on that day I officially was considered no longer obese ... alas, my weight popped up again over 159 today (not sure why the scale does this to me, but c'est la vie) so I am still considered obese (but just barely ... my BMI is 30.2). But I am still really excited to be in the 150s ... haven't been here in 15 years!! I swore to my journal today that I will do EVERYTHING in my power to NEVER get above the 150s again the rest of my life. And I mean it, too!

I just came off a lovely walk this morning ... we are having incredible weather here in the Pacific NW right now ... it is so gorgeous outside I almost want to weep. In a few weeks the rains will come again, but for now it is heaven on earth and there is nowhere in the whole world I would rather be than here. Between me hitting a big scale victory, the beautiful weather, and a long holiday weekend, I have to say my life is just about perfect!

I am a gardener and have spent a lot of time this weekend in my backyard garden and my community garden plot. I have grown a lot of veggies and flowers and am harvesting them now ... loads of green beans, cherry tomatoes (and my first batch of roma tomatoes), potatoes (which I have mostly been giving away to potato-loving friends and family), and dahlias (they make me so happy!). The farmer's market is overflowing with beautiful produce too. Consequently, I spent much of my day yesterday in the kitchen. I made a fresh batch of refrigerator dilly green beans (so yummy -- forget about pickles, I like these way better, and you can eat mounds of them for almost zero calories). I also made a batch of "Jumbleberry" freezer jam (a mix of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries) -- OMG homemade freezer jam is incredibly yummy -- on the weekends I splurge and have an English muffin w/a little butter and a spoonful of homemade jam and almost swoon over how good it is. And, I also made an amazing snack dip (Barefoot Contessa's Roasted Eggplant & Pepper dip) which I am bringing over to a friend's house today to snack on with some Stacy's pita chips (tasty, healthy snack! Yum!).

Eating all this amazing garden-fresh food makes me feel very in touch with my sleeve, and I am happy that I am giving my body good nutrition with healthy and fresh foods. i was not one of those sleevers who lost their appetite after surgery ... au contraire, I have had a healthy appetite since nearly day one post-op. I still LOVE food and the best thing about the sleeve is that I can still enjoy food, but in reasonable quantities, and it makes me so much more mindful of food than I was before surgery. I did a lot of mindless eating before surgery and I was a really fast eater. I do struggle with myself more than I would care to admit about still eating too fast ... especially when there is a really great meal before me ... I can easily eat 3-5 bites really fast and then say to myself, "Stop! You only have a few bites left now!!!!" and then I have to stop and wait for a while before eating again. This is a big challenge for me.

Also, I definitely have validated what Dr. Aceves told me before surgery, which is that you can defeat your sleeve if you want to -- I can eat a lot more by spacing out the food intake over a few hours, and I have to admit I have done this more than I should. I just know this is something I am going to have to battle with myself to not do on a regular basis. This is a habit I do NOT want to get into!

But overall -- it is the happiest Labor Day weekend I have had in many years. I hope yours is/was fabulous too!