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So I haven't been on here for awhile, life has gotten very very busy!! I see that I have lost almost 60 lbs since my last entry. I am oh so close to my goal. My problem these last few weeks has been the dreaded plateau. But I exercise daily, and I try to eat right. I think my biggest struggles are getting enough food in to meet an adequate calorie count (I know they say calorie counts don't matter but even when I tell them that my daily calorie intake is only 600-1000 calories even they are concerned). I'm just not hungry. And add in exercising 500 calories a day, then you can see that I'm basically stopping my own metabolism with the calories in/out. So I know why I'm not losing any more weight now just to fix it. Greek yogurt still is my go to. The protein intake struggle is still there. I'm lucky to get 60g a day, nevermind the 80-100 I should... But some positive things.. Last Friday I participated in, for the first time in my life, a cardio kickboxing class. I don't know why it was called a kickboxing class, there was def no kicking involved. The biggest thing for me was that I was able to keep up with the other girls, most of which were athletes!! For once I was considered an equal instead of the "fat girl in gym class" that my brain was used to. Downside?? I kinda overdid it with my MS and haven't been able to walk too well over the weekend. But I did it!! Now just to wonder about going back Even better news, December 7, my husband got a kidney transplant. Something that we were told never to expect because of how highly sensitized he was from his first transplant. We never expected that phone call and even more miraculous was the fact that the woman who passed was the equivialent of his twin, there was no better match. We pray for her and her family every day for this gift of life she gave him. I have my husband back! The weight loss has greatly improved my MS symptoms, I can exercise without going into a relapse (ahem as long as I don't go crazyy), I use the elliptical every day for 40 min then tone and do strengthening to try and tighten up some of this skin. I am determined not to have skin removal surgery. What else.... I will upload a new updated pic later on. What a difference when I look at my pictures on facebook!! But I definitely need to pay attention more to my eating.. Till later all!! Take care!

Finally got a mile in at the track today. The temps outside were alot warmer than it had been and I decided to go for it. After walking a mile I came home and weighed in and I had lost another pound. so I was very proud of myself for that. tonights for dinner I decided to focus on protein and so I had Tuna with green beans. I hope it is warm outside tomorrow so I can walk another mile!

Hi everyone, Wanted to get people's thoughts or see if they have gone through any similar expiriences, because I am a bit baffled from what is going on inside my head. My journey is going great, found my green zone and have learned (through better or worse) how to eat slowly and properly. Sometimes it seems that I am eating way to little, but my body is reacting amazingly well and I've personally never felt better. I got surgery Sept. 2012, a bit over 4 months out and my weight loss is 65 lbs. That's amazing right? well thats my issue. Even though I am so happy that my body has dropped all this weight and I'm looking better than ever (haven't been this small since high school), I feel my brain hasn't quite caught up to the new me. I get so much more attention from people (especially men) and I am no longer looked at as a "fat" person. I guess the quick transformation hasn't quite processed inside of me because in many ways I see myself the same. Every day the mirror surprises me, I am amazed. Daily things like figuring out what to wear cause me anxiety especially because I don't want to purchase too much until I reach my goal. I am so grateful but not gonna lie a bit anxious....

Well I think I may have turned the corner on feeling better. I took a long nap this afternoon and woke up feeling more like myself. I also stopped the pain meds today. As far as the surgery went I can't say it was a piece of cake or I was up and going the next day but it definitely wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was afraid of being sick to my stomach and vomiting but had no issues in that regard. I have mostly been tired and had pain with my largest incision. I can't tell if the pain is from just the incision or from inside where the staples are located .Tomorrow I have an appointment with my surgeon and my nutritionist. I am looking forward to seeing how much weight I have lost. I am missing food and eating and will be glad when i can add a few more things to my diet. I think the next stage is called the pureed diet and includes eggs, mashed potato, beans, soft fruits and veggies that are blended. My husband has a job tomorrow so my friend is taking me to the hospital, so glad I don't have to go alone. I will Post my weight loss tomorrow!

I'm curious if anyone has the same issue as I have. There are some days that I just can't seem to eat anything that settles. Doesn't matter what it is. Could be a piece of chicken that is prepared the same way and it goes down fine, but if I were to make the same thing a couple days later, I can only take a few bites and it just feels like I ate a rock! And on those days it just seems like anything I eat doesn't settle right, no matter what. I usually have absolutely no appetite on these days but know I have to eat something to get my protein in. Should I have a protein shake on those days? I usually stick to a Greek Yogurt for breakfast and lunch those days. Anyone have any other tips or things that they do??

Today My weight is the same than last week but I am doing good.No gin and tonics..lol,clean eating! Cauliflour does not agree with me,even when pulverized in the food prosessor,dont know why. ThenI decided to put what I ate in December,lost nearly 17 pounds in 6 weeks,into fitday to see how many of what I was eating.Calories worked out to 1200 plus per day.Fats were 55 plus and carbs were about 70. At first I thought I must have made a mistake.But I did it twice and the results came out the same. This is shocking as all I ate for weeks were the following.I would take chicken breast,cup into atrips or veal cut into strips or pork cut into strips and dust it with flour.17oz of chicken takes about a cup of flour.Then I would put olive oil in the bottom of the wok and fry it.When the oil was gone,I would add more!I didnt measure it but I am sure that it was a lot that I used! Now,maybe I didnt eat as much as I think I did.Maybe I ate less of it after a week or so as usually when I eat protein only I gradually start eating less.I had 5 cups of tea with milk and 2 dolci gusto cappuchinos per day.Very little water,maybe one small bottel during the day and half at night. With only 2 pounds to goal I am going to try that again this week. At 10 and a half months out I do feel that I can eat more and should start weighing my food again.I ate like this because I regularly get a stomach ache when I eat veggies.Any veggies.I also cannot eat fruit as this causes acid even though I am on a PPI. Now to just reach goal already and then to decide if I should drop more weight.Acouple of my friend's husbands no less,have commented that I am now getting to skinny.Thr girls just say they dont recognize me!I just wish I could see what other people say they see.(they might always be lying..lol) I now wear a size 12 pants and top even though I havent lost more weight but it is very clear that my shape is changing,and not all for the good.I have saddlebags on my upper legs that appeared over the past couple of weeks and my boobs are now a size 36 C.One thing I never realized was that as we get older our waistline increases even when there isnt fat anymore.I use to be very curvy when I was young but now I am straight as a plank and my waist seems to have widened...lol.But I need to just get this weight loss phase over and done with now.It still takes up too much of the space in my head and I just dont want this anymore. I had a bit of a realitly check today when I witnessed a motorcyclist die in an accident.Life is short and all this seems so much less important tonight and in the bigger scheme of things.Accepting myself and others and living life the way the Lord has intended fo me to do is what my focus should be on all the time.I am second!But while Im counting and weighing and logging and cooking and posting I do get a bit consumed with myself which is not the way I should live my life! One more week to goal (positive self talk..lol)

Sitting at my desk wishing it was Friday... when I received a call from the hospital where I had my lap band surgery in December 2010 and most recently a sonogram after my tummy tuck to see what was causing the bleeding from my belly button. My first thought was they found some dreaded infection or worse yet…tumors… I braced myself for the bad news wondering why my plastic surgeon wasn’t calling… The woman identified herself as the Director of Patient Relations and she was calling to congratulate me on my successful Lap Band journey and ask me if I would be interested in a starring role in their new advertising campaign. It’s just in the works now and it may be print or television…no details are firm yet. After I picked my mouth off the ground and tried to wrap my head around the fact this wasn’t bad news… I thanked her for the call and asked how much it paid. Well maybe not quite that blunt but in a roundabout sort of way…. LOL. She doesn’t think it pays but it may open the door for other things… Like what…. I have no idea. So anyway…. I thanked her for the call, told her I would consider it and she assured me I would be hearing from their creative department. I hung up the phone and the first thought I had was seeing my body on a billboard on the highway…. I spent all this time to get thin and now they want to blow me up…. Hysterical.

It has been 6 months since surgery and I'm doing really good. I have lost 51 #'s so far although I had a pretty long stall. It lasted about a month or so. I didn't worry about it because I knew it would be over and I would start losing again. I am now working on getting more water in as that is hard for me. I am in no rush with this weight loss as I did not put it on overnight and don't expect to lose it overnight. Of course it's coming off faster than it would have do to my tool so I'm happy with where I am at this point. I have started doing strength training and will focus on that for the time being so that I can tighten and tone up. I also want to lift my butt:) since I lost some of it. I'm so happy with my tool and will continue to work it to my advantage.

So I've had a new realization and "benefit" from this surgery that I never anticipated. I should first explain that I've always been pretty much of a nobody to people, throughout high school, college, work, public, etc (except for friends and family of course). What I mean by that is that people would pay no mind to me anywhere I went, that or I was made fun of for my obesity. I haven't really had a lot of time by myself in public until recently. Because the weight loss seems to be doing wonders for the management of my Multiple Sclerosis, I decided to go back to work again. So I'm doing flu vaccine clinics at the Walmarts in the area and my first day was yesterday. Basically I sit at my table and people watch and smile until someone comes up asking for a shot. In the past this would of terrified me, being in public where so many people would have the opportunity to stare and poke fun, etc. But my new found self esteem squashed out all those thoughts. So here I was, about to get set up, meeting with the store manager and pharmacist when I hear, "Hey how are you!" I ignored it, not thinking it was to me, but my eyes wandered to the source of the voice, and a vaguely familiar guy is standing there with some packages (Fedex uniform). I looked behind me thinking he was saying hi to someone else. And he said "Hey how are you" again and followed "Do you remember me." I frantically searched my mind for a name to match his face and said "Mmmike?" lol idiot sounding me. And it was, this kid that I went to high school with and although my high school class was only 14 people, he was definitely one of the kids I never spoke to and always assumed made fun of me (he was known for his meanness). So I said hi and we had a short convo and he left. And I thought it was SO weird. I've run into other people from my high school class throughout the past few years and they've always politely ignored me and pretending they didn't know who I was. Which was fine for both of us. So this little conversation which was a genuinely nice conversation surprised the hell out of me. As the day went on, I started noticing how many people were nice to me. People my own age, who never used to pay me any attention were stopping to say hi or were friendly to me. I had all ages of people stopping and having conversations, something that never used to happen. It's sad really, that humanity is like this. I never realized that there would of been a difference to how people interacted with eachother all based on looks or weight. Since my surgery, I have now lost close to 150lbs, still am overweight, but not like I used to be, have thrown out the glasses and gotten contacts, and due to my new size I can wear more fashionable clothing. It's awful that this would make a difference to people. But I can't say that I'm not pleased. After spending most of my life as the fat girl, I am going to soak up some of this attention. I am happily married and would never want anything to change that, but my "Inner Goddess" was smiling and jumping up and down everytime a cute guy would slow down while passing my table to say hi, how's it going. (Had to reference 50 Shades ) My husband enjoys my new self confidence and the fact that I don't mind going into public anymore. But this definitely was yet another change that I was not anticipating and one that I'll gladly take! Anyone else notice these changes in themselves?? I have always worked in a nursing home or a rehab in my short career as a nurse and you know how the elderly can be so blatant and forward?? Well, I used to get comments from my patients ALL the time about my weight, so come January when this job is done with for the year and I look for a new job, I wonder how my patients will speak to me then and what changes will be made there? tata for now!