Photography Tips

Put one leg slightly in front if the other, stick your hip out, and use your arm to minimize the size of said hip and smile! Instant 10 lb loss! Or just never clean your mirror and everything will look fuzzy. :)



Happy Friday friends! I am off to a movie and I just might give in to my pretzel m&m craving. Night all!

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I Dream About Them....

Going on three nights now....maybe I should just go get a package and move on.

New blogger alert!

Meet Sarah! She was banded on 3/31/11 and is going through bandster hell. I know she would appreciate our support.

Her blog standbyyourband.blogspot.com. You know what to do!

Happy Easter all!

This is for you Amanda...

Black peep toe wedges with little velvet flowers

The Female Mind

So I was flying high the last few days from all your sweet comments. I felt like a million bucks!

Then....I got up this morning.

And I felt fat. I got dressed and didn't like how I looked. Felt like everything made me look like a heffer.

I feel uncomfortable in my own skin today.

Ah the joys of being a woman...why do we do this to ourselves?

August to April

This is what 100 lbs down looks like...

Actually that is probably from 260 to 211.

Still regretting not having my beginning pictures.

All you newbies need to take pics now!!!!!!

It is a huge motivator to see the changes in your body that you can't always see everyday.

Appreciation Comes in Many Forms

So today is principal appreciation day and typically I get lots of wonderful handmade cards and posters from the kids. Kindergarten always prepares a song to sing and the staff normally buys my assistant principal and me lunch.

I navigated the lunch piece and just ordered quiche instead of a burrito from chipotle like I used to do but I was not prepared for the sweet gift I got from one of my students.





A chocolate bunny bigger than my hand! I soooo wanted to rip the box open and go all Lord of the Flies on that bunny BUT one of my teachers walked in my office mid rip and removed the offending bunny from my presence and all is now right with the world again.

Crisis averted.

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Transferring Addictions

I think I may be transferring my food addiction to a shoe addiction.

Which is not a new addiction by any means, but seems to be getting a little out of control lately.

Up close shot just in case you can't see the fierceness. :)

Rawrrrr!

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Lessons from Year One

As I have been reflecting on the past year I can't be anything but happy and proud. I am so very happy that I made the decision to take control of my life by putting the band in. And although I do not think I really knew what life with the band would be like, (you just really don't know unless you have one) I do believe that I have figured out three key things:

* The band alone is not responsible for my success. I make the decisions daily about what I will eat and if I wanted to eat around the band, I could do so VERY easily.

* Exercise is going to be a key piece in my continued success, just like any healthy maintenance program requires. The band does not replace the need to MOVE!

* The changes that I am making now cannot be temporary. I am shaping what my future behaviors will be by what I do now. The changes are forever.

I have mentioned before that I do believe that I have a food addiction....in fact I wrote this about 6 months ago, at my halfway point.

"I have a band now and it puts a distance between me and my food. It is my "pause button" if you will. I have always joked about being addicted to food but I really am starting to see, from behaviors like Friday, that there is probably some truth to that. I relied on food to make me feel good. I didn't crave the taste, but I craved the feeling, the fullness. Happy, sad, mad, stressed, whatever....food was my drug of choice. I don't think that I will ever truely get rid of it either. I think I can learn to control it, learn to outsmart it, but I am pretty sure that 1 year down the road this will still be something that I struggle with. (Man, I really don't like self reflection)"


I didn't realize it at the time, but I was spot on. I do struggle almost everyday. It gets easier if I have food already prepared but there are times that I do not win. There are times that I have ice cream. There are times that I choose to have cake for dinner. And you know what? That's ok! I will go work out afterwards, I will make better choices the next day, and I will keep everything in moderation. I mean, what is life without cake???


It looks like as of this morning I did meet my 100 lb down goal. Tomorrow morning will be the test to see if it sticks. I now have 40 lbs left to lose to make it to goal. I know that the next few months are going to be slow in regards to weight. I think it is important for all of us to learn how to make that shift in our brains. Losing 100 lbs in 13 months is really fast. Yes there were periods where I lost nothing, but there were months where I lost 14 lbs. I am still a scale junkie. I weigh every single morning and every single night. But these last 7  lbs took me 6 weeks to get off and I need to be ok with that!


It's time to buckle down and keep doing what I am doing. The weight will come off in it's own time. And although frustrating, it is an awesome feeling to be where I am. And all I have to do is look back to one year ago. I was 313lbs and unhappy. It will never happy again. Thank you band and thank you ME!!!!


And some pictures from memory lane...

July/August 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

January 2011

February 2011

March 2011

And the side shot from April 2011

Thank you all so much for the support that comes from this community. I would not have been able to make it through this last year without all of your love and support. What an amazing journey this has been and I can't wait to celebrate with all of you in Chicago!!!!!!

Trying Something New....

I had some Boneless Bufflo Wings, (the frozen vegetarian kind that I normally have for lunch) for breakfast this morning. Let's see if this holds me longer than my greek yogurt or cottage cheese....
For three it was only 120 calories which is less than my greek yogurt so that's a plus!

Also, yesterday was my 1 year surgery anniversary, but the day was so crazy you wouldn't have gotten anything meaningful from me...maybe something like..

1 Year Good.

Scale not moving bad.

I will try to post something more meaningful to mark this awesome occasion over the weekend.

Happy Wednesday!

And for the first time ever....

a side shot! I guess after one year I should be comfortable doing this. Plus holding my stomach in didn't hurt. :)

Birthday Weekend Fun

We went to "the country" for a women's luncheon at my aunt's church this weekend and then had a birthday celebration for my cousin and I because our birthdays are a week apart.

While out there I got to take some fun pics of my cousins twins. Love them so much!

Such sweet boys....unfortunately, no pounds were lost during this photo shoot. Scale is still holding steady. Apparently, I will be working on my patience this week.

Goals

Here's the funny thing about goals...

Even though you work really really hard to meet them, sometimes you don't! And it's what you do at these times that determines whether or not you will reach any other goals you set for yourself.

So with that said, I have to say that I am pretty disappointed that I did not make my birthday goal of 100 lbs lost. I was so depressed that I almost didn't have the energy to get up and get dressed. I even had a new dress and jewelry to wear. Which almost always gets me going....and probably explains my jewelry addiction!

I was really close yesterday but it just wasn't in the cards. So I am adjusting my goal. My 1 year anniversary for my surgery is april 12. My goal is to lose 2 lbs by that date which is a mere 5 days away.

I am going to work hard and hope that I will make. I know that it will happen eventually and I don't always get to control the time table but I sure am going to try!

Here is my birthday dress!




And here is the picture that you get when someone walks in on you taking a picture of yourself in the restroom...



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Shirt size?

Large!



It was a little tight in the hips but after doing the sumo wrestler stretch it fit ok.

Now to start working on those hips! And figure out a better place to put my other hand. :)

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Howdy Stranger!

Hello all!
 I have been super busy with a couple of work related things and blogging has had to take a back seat. So here is a snapshot of what has been going on in my head.

I have really been working through what good restriction is for me. I am at 5.25 ccs. When I had the band slip I was a 7 ccs. I am trying to evaluate if I need another fill or not. I believe that the band is there to play a supportive role but I really have to do most of the work by making good choices in what and how much I eat. When I was at 7 ccs my band dictated what I ate. I avoided certain foods and started relying on sliders and liquids/mushies.

At 5.25, I am more in control of what I can eat. I have more choices which is good and bad. Now, when I eat, I can feel pressure when I get full, but if I want to keep eating, I can. I liked the strictness of when I was at my tightest but was that really letting me do the hard work on changing bad habits? By not having to make the choice to have a second helping (which I can do right now if I eat slowly enough) was I missing out on a key piece of behavior change that I think I really need to address in order to have long term success? I know I couldn't live forever being as tight as I was...

I just don't know. I guess almost one year out (It will be a year on April 12! Holy Cow!) I still don't have this whole thing figured out. Not having restriction for the month of January and part of February was a real eye opener. I was SHOCKED at how fast some of my bad habits returned. Proof that I need the support of the band, but I know now more than ever that it really all comes down to me, and the choices that I make on a daily and sometimes hourly basis.

Well, enough of the heavy....here's some other stuff that's been going on.

A few weeks ago I finally cashed in a Groupon that I bought as my "reward" for meeting my half way goal. I got sclerotherapy on the veins in my legs and had to wear these really sexy support hose for a week. I even wore my grannie shoes so that between the pants and the shoes, you couldn't see the tops of my feet. Hopefully I will see some results as this is something I have wanted to do for a long time!

 Don't be jealous....I know I'm sexy. Sure do wish I was that tan. :)

I started boot camp last week and have been having a GREAT time! It is really hard but I was just really proud that I could do almost all of the exercises. I was not too happy with the gain on the scale that came from starting to strength train, but I had prepared myself for that possibility.



This is me before heading out to a birthday party this weekend. I liked my outfit so I took a picture.



...and these are my new birthday shoes!!!! I can't wait to wear them and just wanted to post a pic.

The deadline for my birthday goal is quickly approaching. I wanted to be 213 by this Thursday and this morning I was at 215.5. Is it possible to make it? Maybe, but I started my (.) today and am afraid that I tend to gain the first couple of days so maybe not. Either way, I will keep plugging along. The scale has been super slow lately which can be really depressing, but I will just live through all of your successes until I have some of my own to post about!



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