New Vacation Deadline

Ok, time to get serious again.  I always do best with a deadline.  So I just booked my vacation.  I will be going on a 4 day cruise to baja Mexico on May 18, 2014.  That gives me 15 weeks to lose 17.6 lbs.  I can do it!  So the countdown starts now.  I am beyond thrilled to finally be able to look good in a bikini (even though my thighs are an embarrassment, but I can wear a skirt wrap)  and if I can make it to my healthy range by then that will be even better!  Time to get on it!

Source

This will be my very first cruise.  I'm excited.  I had also said before and during my tummy tuck recovery that when I recovered the first thing I wanted to do was go on a cruise for the first time. So here I go! 15 weeks! 15 Weeks! 15 Weeks!

Bento Lunch 2-4-14

For lunch today I decided to change things up a bit. I packed a turkey and reduced fat cheddar cheese wrap in a carb balance tortilla with lettuce and mustard.  With that I have unsweetened applesauce, carrots and grapes. This wrap lunch is only 5 points plus. I'll have a Fiber One Brownie for afternoon snack to tide me over till dinner.

For breakfast, I again had one if my cappuccino svelte protein shakes. I love these things. I have tried the cappuccino, chocolate and vanilla flavones. There is still one flavor I haven't tried yet. Spiced chai. Looking forward to finding that one. These babies are super filling and only 5 points plus. Perfect for breakfast. 

Bento Lunch 2-3-14

Today for breakfast I had a Svelte Cappuccino Protein Shake and for lunch I have finally gotten back to my bento lunches.
Today carrots, hummus, crackers, string cheese, grapes, chocolate mini rice crisp and unsweetened applesauce.

I need to get back to doing my lunches bento style for work.  I am much better at sticking to well balanced and point friendly lunches when I do it this way.

My Current Weight Stats.

So I am trying to focus more on where I am at and how far I have come rather than where I started and how I let myself get there in the first place.  So here are my stats...

Highest weight : 220 lbs
Size : 20
WW Starting Weight : 199 lbs
Goal Weight : 135 lbs
Current Weight : 152.6
Size : 6/8
Down : 67.4 lbs (from highest)
Down : 46.4 lbs (From WW Start)
Left to go : 17.6 lbs

I know I've come a long way and I am determined to keep it up.  10.5 months ago I was actually down to 146.6.  So I am not at my lowest right now but I would like to get back there and surpass it soon.

My Super Bowl Munchies 2/2/14

I am a HUGE Football fan and I am a die hard San Francisco 49ers fan.  I am devastated that they didn't make it to the Super Bowl this year and I look forward to next season starting.  Life seems pretty boring and uneventful form February to August.  Well today I am temporarily a Denver Broncos Fan.  I really really want the Broncos to beat the snot out of the Seahawks today.

So for breakfast today I decided I would put in a little bit of effort.

I love the Krusteaz Mixes.  Especially the "Just add water" ones.  They are usually fantastic in flavor and low in fat.  So I made some Krusteaz Blueberry Pancakes this morning.  Yum!  3 Pancakes is only 6 Points Plus.  Add a little I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray and a tsp of sugar free syrup and it makes for a yummy and filling breakfast.

For lunch I was REALLY wanted to indulge in pizza for the big game.  Cause seriously, what is Super Bowl Sunday without Pizza or burgers and lots more junk food.  Well I decided I would still be good and either have a Smart Ones Mini Cheese Burger and some oven baked fries or Smart Ones Mini Pepperoni Pizzas.

Pizza won the contest!  Even though my beloved 49ers Aren't playing today... I am still FAITHFUL!!! 

Lets go Broncos!!!

Before and After Pics

I am absolutely embarrassed and ashamed to show my before picture but I want to post it with some after pictures so I can see my improvement.  I have been having trouble lately actually seeing the new me.  Every time I look in the mirror lately I have been seeing the old me.  It's killing me.  I know it's normal but I wish I could see the results from all my  hard work instead of this fat girl in the mirror everyday.

Before:

My Highest Weight

After: (Before Tummy Tuck)

Christmas 2012.  The first time I saw a picture of myself after my weight loss where I actually saw a different me.

Super Bowl Sunday 2013

After (after Tummy Tuck)

So here you go.  My progress so far.  I still want to lose 20 more lbs so I can be withing the healthy range.  So far so good.

What I ate today - 2/1/14

So I have been having a lot of trouble lately eating all of my points each day.  I went through a rough time for several weeks and wasn't eating at all.  So now I am struggling to teach myself to eat again.  But I keep getting better with it every day.  Today may be the first day in weeks that I made it all the way to my 26 daily points.

Some of my meals today were:

Breakfast - 1 Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Waffle with tbsp of unsweetened pumpkin butter, and 2 scrambled eggs.  I seasoned the eggs with some Hungarian Paprika ( brought home from Hungary) and some Czech Spices (brought home from Prague).  It was a pretty tasty and oh so filling breakfast.

Lunch - 1 package of  Special K Popcorn chips, 1 oz of reduced fat cheddar cheese and this yummy Lean Cuisine treat - Spinach Artichoke Dip.

Dinner - Lean Cuisine Buffalo Chicken Wrap, 3 oz of baked fries and thawed black sweet cherries. The wrap was good but messy. 

I'm Back

I'm back

Well it's been a long long time since I have posted on here. Life got crzy and carried away. There were some good time and some very bad times. Ugh.

But I can say that I am back on program now. As I may have mentioned before I was planning a trip to Europe in September 2012. I set a goal for myself to reach 160 by the trip. well I was .2 lbs away from that goal which was fantastic to me. That was 39.8 lbs lost from end of April to mid September. Not to bad. Of course, while in Europe I refused to track what I ate. I am a big believer in enjoying the local cuisine when you are abroad. Since I knew the vacations was mostly a walking tour I wasn't too concerned about burning off a lot of what I ate each day. Well I didn't do too bad because when I got home I had only gain 3.4 lbs. Phew! I didn't track very well when I got home but I was very conscious of what I was eating. by end of January I had lost a total of 50 lbs on the program. Not bad for all those Food Holidays. :) So to reward my self and to make myself feel better about some of the bad time I was going through, I decided to get a tummy tuck. I scheduled it for Feb 21, 2013.

Well that was horridly painful and no fun at all to recover from. Worst pain ever. Even worse than my breast reduction. I wasn't sure I would ever feel normal again. Well as it turns out once I got past the first couple of weeks I was amazed about how drastically better I felt each day. Now I can honestly say it was the best thing I ever did and I am so very pleased with the results.

Well that doesn't mean I am done at all. I am back on program now and I am determined to lose 20 more pounds. Then I will be ready to maintain. So... Here goes...... Lets do this!

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Visit Shutterfly.com to create your own personalized photobook.

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

Back in Serious Weight Watchers Mode

Ok so I noticed a couple of weeks ago that I was up about 6 lbs from my low mark and my BFF and I are planning a long weekend road trip on June 21st tot he coast of Oregon and I know we will be taking a bunch of pics and stuff so I decided I need to set myself a new goal.  Mainly because the last time I did so well on the program was because I set my self a strict goat to reach before my trip to Europe in September and I was determined to make it.  I actually did pretty well too, I was only 0.4 lbs away from the Goal I had set. Woo Hoo!  So I am doing that again.  I set a goal to lose 10 lbs from 5/8/13 to 6/21/13.  So far I am 4lbs down.  So if I keep it up I should be golden.

My mid morning snack today was 2 oz of Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Turkey and mustard, Low Fat String cheese and 1/2 oz of fat free pringles.

Oh and last night's dinner was something I saw on a blog or the Weight Watchers Recipe app. (Can't exactly remember where from)

Smoked Turkey Quesadilla, flour tortilla, shredded low fat cheese, sliced smoked turkey, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, chipped red onions and a side of BBQ sauce for dipping.  So So Good!

Weight Watchers Smoothie Pancakes

This is close to the same recipe I have used.  a little different.  may give it a try.  You never know.  They may turn out even better.  :)

Timing is Everything!--Confessions of a middle-aged, empty-nest blogger.: Recipe Time-Weight Watchers Pancakes: As I mentioned in my first post, I am (shhhhh) overweight.  I am trying to correct that and have lost 42.2 pounds so far this year.  (A gr...

New Treadmill

Well for about a year now I have been planning on buying a treadmill.  It's pretty much all I have been talking about for quite a long time now.  Ask any of my friends.  I think I was driving them crazy about it.  Problem is I have this issue with actually spending money.  I have all these great plans to buy something and I work hard and save up for it but as soon as I see the money in the bank account I feel this rush of financial comfort and security and I can't bring myself to actually spending it.  So....  I kept putting off the treadmill.  well....  I finally decided to just go for it.  I found a decent one on sale at RC Willey and purchased it online to be delivered next Saturday.  Well...  to be completely honest, I was still having panic attacks about hitting the purchase button so my friend "M" actually had to come over to my desk to hit the purchase button for me.  LOL  I know.  I'm a freak! But now I will actually have one at home and I can do my walks and jogs anytime I want instead of always having to go to the Marina and rearranging my schedule for the weather.  In Reno it gets very very cold in the winter and very very hot in the summer so I'm not always able to go when the time permits me to.  Now it won't matter.  I'm sooooo excited!!!! 

Tummy Tuck - 1 week post-op

Ok so everyone was right.  All of the blogs I read and the recovery stories I read and ALL of the people I talked to about their recovery experiences were right!  The first week of Tummy Tuck recovery is absolutely brutal!!!  The pain in unbelievable and you really do sit and tell your self you made the worst mistake of your life and wonder why you did it.  The swelling doesn't do much to ease your mind either.  I had originally planned on leaving my moms house and going home at day 4 but when day 4 came there was NO way that was gonna happen.  I couldn't even imagine going home. I stayed at my mom's for the entire first week.  My best friend came and picked me up from her house after a week and drove me home then stayed the night with me to take me to my 1 week post op appt the next morning.  then stayed with me the whole day relaxing with me and making sure I didn't do very much.  But that evening was my first night alone.  I was pretty nervous about it.  It really wasn't all that bad because all I did was lay on the couch and watch tv and got up as little as possible except to go tot he bathroom or to get something to eat.I guess it was just the thought of if I needed someone there was nobody close by to help me.  It still takes about 20 mins for me to get from the couch to the bathroom and getting up off the couch is really difficult but I found that the couch is MUCH easier than trying to get in or out of my bed.  I have a very high bed and even with the step stools acting as stairs it is too much.  You really use those ab muscles for EVERYTHING! At my 1 week post op appt I was able to have my drains removed but only because they were blocked and not draining right anyway.  So Dr. Dahan informed me that I was most likely going to be coming in regularly for aspiration of the fluid in my stomach but that since it was numb I wouldn't feel it.  OK!!  I will take the needle over those dang drains ANY DAY!  Those drains sucked, and no matter how much everyone said the removal of the drains didn't hurt and would only be described as weird and uncomfortable, they were WRONG!  that hurt! I didn't enjoy that at all! I was sooo happy to have them out and deal with office visits every few days instead.  Though the first day they were out was strange.  the drain holes were gushing fluid for the first several hours of being back home.  It was strange but I guess it was expected considering how blocked the drains were so there was a lot of fluid in there trying to escape.  so I just grabbed some tissue and put it over the drain hole and applied lots of pressure to my belly till the tissues stopped filing up with fluid.  then I went back to bed on the couch.  Good thing none of that hurt. ;)

Tummy Tuck - One day post-op

Well it's one day post op from my tummy tuck now and I have to say that this is pretty excruciating. I'm not enjoying it at all. I am so glad I have been told my many people that the first 3-4 days are complete pain and torture but that after the 4th day I will be feeling a lot better. I again had trouble with the pain management in recover and at home. When I had my breast reduction 12 years ago the morphine wasn't working on me at all and I was screaming in recovery over how my chest felt like it was on fire. Then none of the oral pain meds they gave me worked at all either. I reminded the doc and let the anesthesiologist know so they would try me on something else this time.. So in the hospital they gave me IV dilaudid which did NOT work at all. They maxed me out in recovery omit just as they had done for my reduction. No help. And because of the 3 full doses they gave me my oxygen kept dropping from 100 to 50 and they kept yelling at me to breath because I kept forgetting to breath. And while not being totally with it I just kept saying it was because it was sooo hard that it hurts less if I don't breath. The nurse guy didn't really let me get away with that. Seemed logical to me at the time though. Lol.

Finally I got my breathing under control after they told me if I didn't I would have to spend the night and that would cost me money. Finally got to go home but I will tell you. My ab muscles were in soooo much pain I couldn't stand it. I was a complete mess. Got home to my moms house and was on and off ok. Still lots of pain and although I felt very alert I can't actually remember much now. I found the recliner to be the most comfortable spot most of the afternoon and early eyeing but then agreed to try the bed out. They have me in these long tight stockings that are just cutting into my skin making me extremely uncomfortable even when I'm laying still my my abs aren't hurting.. I want these things of!! I'm supposed to wear them for 3 days though. I can NOT wait to get these things off. Well last night I woke up the first lime at 1 a because I had to pee pretty bad. I kept calling out for my mom and she slept straight through it. Ugh. So I managed to get my self up off the bed along but wanted to cry and scream from the pain of stressing my ab muscles. Finally get myself back in bed and wake up again at 4am. So I call and yell for her a few more times and nothing. I text her hoping that will wake her and nothing. So I painfully get out of bed on my own again to pee. Ouch!!! And unfortunate by the time I get comfortable again I realize I need pain pills and the were in the kitchen on the other side of the house so I was screwed till mom woke up hours later. The pain pills I have are the pill form of the IV drugs they gave me as we'll. the pharmacist, doctor and anesthesiologist all told me these were the best and strongest drugs around. Haha! My butt they are. Maybe to a normal person whose body can actually acknowledge pain meds. To me they were a joke though. Still taking them though cuz it's better than nothing.

Getting in the jeep for the trip to and from post op appt today was absolutely horrible. I was in tears trying to get in the seat both times. I didn't get to see my tummy yet when the nurse checked it out. My mom said she would prefer I wait a couple of days so I didn't see it at its worse stage. But they did tell me how it was concaved and beautiful. So I am pretty pleased about that.

I am nor back to being camped out in the recliner. Much easier to get in and out of instead of trying to turn my body not the side to get in and out of the bed. I plan on chilling here for the next few days till I'm feeling a touch better and ready to go home and be on my own. I ate a full meal today. Two actually. Yesterday I had one cup of applesauce that took me from 3pm to 4 am to finish. And even that was forced. Today my mom managed to get me to eat regular meals. She bought me some smart ones egg mcmuffins so I had one for breakfast. Then for much I had a bowl of soup and for dinner she made me some really light and healthy chicken fajitas and a quarter chip of rice. I am soooo full that these newly tightened ab muscles are feeling even extra tight right now. Weird thing is. There wasn't very much on my plate. Maybe only half a cup worth of chicken and bell peppers. Guess it doesn't take much for me to get fun now ,so that's a good thing.

I am also being watched over by one of my Mom's cat. Her very very skittish cat who is now all of a sudden very trusting an loving. So cute. Well I'm exhausted and soooo. Tired and I lots pain right now so I'll be signing off for the night. If I can and am feeling p to it I will write more tomorrow. Good night everyone.