I like looking in the mirror now.......

....well, I should say it doesn't bother me quite as much as it used to.  I am making progress and that makes me feel proud of myself!  I woke up early yesterday morning and decided to hop on the scale "just for fun" and was TOTALLY surprised that I am down two more pounds!  I can't tell you how excited I am.  That's 31 pounds total lost since my surgery, August 4th.

See the picture to the left....that's a 31 pound fish!  That's how much extra blubber I'd been carrying around.  I'm not near my goal yet but it's good to SEE what 31 pounds looks like!

 My first mini-goal was when I lost 30 pounds I can get a pedicure. Now I just have to make the time to get it done!  (Too bad it's turned cold here and I won't be wearing sandles to show of my painted piggies....but I will still enjoy the pampering.) 

I guess now I need to figure out what my next mini-goal/reward should be. Any ideas?

Here's a NSV - Saturday night, Rick, the kids & I went to my friend's daughter's Quinceañera, (Quinceañero, in Latin American culture, is a coming of age ceremony held on a girl's fifteenth birthday. The term Quinceaños refers to the birthday of the celebrant, and the term Quinceañera refers to the celebrant herself. Like many other coming-of-age ceremonies, the Quinceaños is associated with the Quinceañera "becoming a lady".) It was a dressy occasion and I was worried about what I would wear.  I pulled out 2 pair of size 16 black dress pants and the BOTH fit me nicely! I paired them with a silky blue and black blouse & when we left the house I felt pretty and confident (which doesn't happen very often).  While at the Quinceañera I saw several people that I hadn't seen in a while.  My friend's mom (who has known me since I was in grade school) said that I looked nice and that she could tell I had lost "quite a bit" of weight!  So maybe people are going to start noticing now?!??  That's good for the ego.

I helped my friend, Bev, serve punch at the celebration and I could feel Rick's eyes on me.....you know how you can just tell!  Anyway, when I would look his way he was watching me.  Later in the night while he and I danced, he told me that when he saw me running around helping Bev that he thought to himself, "Aawww....THERE's my Sweet Pea that I haven't seen in a while".  (When he tells me that he saw his "Sweet Pea" it means that he saw me looking like I did when we dated in high school.....skinny, full of life, happy, carefree).  That almost made me cry!

Rick would only dance slow with me but I was in such a good (confident) mood that I got out on the dance floor with Bekah & Conner and "cut a rug"....LOL.

I ordered a 5# kettle bell from walmart.com and am just waiting for the email telling me that it's ready for pickup!  I'm actually looking forward to getting it and working out! SAY WHAT? ! ? ! Yup, it's true...I said it.....I'm looking forward to working out with my kettle bell! Never would have thought I would say something like that!

I most certainly do have restriction and as some of my fellow bandsters have mentioned, I feel tighter in the morning and afternoon.  Evening is not so bad.  Yesterday at lunch I made lunch meat sandwiches for the family and for mine I used a "Flatout" (which was tasty. Anyway, I was only able to eat two bites and then I was stuck.  You would think by now I would know to TAKE LITTLE BITES and SLOW DOWN!  I'm learning.

I've been somewhat absent from the blog world this past week. I just haven't made the time to read or write so I've been missing ya'll.  From what I've read so far, sounds like all the "sista's" are doing well!  Keep it up!

Have a beautiful Monday,
Sarah

28 pounds gone for good!

28.4 pounds down to be exact!

Come on 30 pounds.....I'm waiting!  I've been slacking in my walking routine since Rick was gone all last week.  No more excuses....he got home from his business trip last night (YEAH!)  So plans are when he gets home that he, Bekah and I will go for a walk.  I also bought a kettlebell with workout DVD at Walmart yesterday ($18 for both).  I watched it all the way through to see how it worked and then did my first workout today.  WOW!  First off let me say that our Walmart only had ONE kettlebell in the store so I bought it.  Then when I got home and started watching the video I realized that there are 5#ers (for newbies like me), 10#ers for the physically fit (NOT me) and 15#ers for people who want/need a physical challenge.....(again, NOT ME!)  Well, the kettlebell  bought is 10 #'s!  Now you might think, oh no big deal. I'm here to tell you "YES, BIG DEAL!"  Pretty sure I need to look for the 5#er and work my way up to the 10#er.  I'm probably gonna hurt tomorrow!  That's ok though, no pain, no gain!

I had my first PBing or sliming incident today.  For those of you reading who don't know what that is, it's when we banders eat too much or too fast or possibly the wrong food and it gets stuck.  Your mouth starts watering, your chest feels like you are having a heart attack and I couldn't catch my breath.  It lasted about 10 minutes.  Fortunately I was home today (Bekah is feeling a little under the weather) and I was able to get to the bathroom to SLIME in private.  I think I'm done trying to see if bread will go down....as of today, it's a no go!  It's my fault, I know.  I took the first bite of cheesey bread and it went down a little hard.  But I thought, one more bite won't hurt. WRONG!  It was totally stuck!  I won't go into the gorey details but I will just say that I was in pain and I don't want to be experiencing that again anytime soon!

I'm looking for some good bandster friendly recipes if anyone has a specialty they would like to post.   Hope everyone is off to a good start this week!

Quick update

Down another pound........28 lost total and I took my measurements last night. Total inches lost................................E L E V E N! WOW.......11 inches gone forever!

I have to put a note on here saying how proud I am of my Bekah Boo (8 YO DD). I went to parent/teacher conferences last night and Bekah is getting all A's and one B+! AWESOME! Way to go Bekah!

IU Football Game and SECOND Fill

I'VE BEEN WORKING ON THIS POST FOR 3 DAYS NOW! I'M BOUND AND DETERMINED TO GET THIS DONE TODAY!

I haven't taken the time to post this week about the IU football game Rick & I went to last weekend in Bloomington. My nephew, Cody, is a Freshman at IU. He tried out for the cheer squad and made it! YEAH Cody! He has been doing gymnastics since he was 5 or 6. I am so proud of him! He's my first born nephew and I find it hard to believe that he is 19 years old now. Anyway, here's a few pics from the game and tailgating.

Rick & Cody

Cody doing his thing!

I got my second fill last Friday (10/9/09). Doc did it again under fluoroscope! AWESOME! I was wearing an IU sweatshirt and doc graduated from Purdue. (DH wore an IU t-shirt the day of surgery, doc had on a PU cap and of course made a funny comment about Rick being an IU fan. He actually came out after surgery and told Rick that he had put in a "Purdue band") Anyway, he teased me Friday about the IU shirt and promised to make me drink more of the "YUCK stuff" than I really needed to!

He put in 2 cc's, I swallowed the YUCK stuff and I could see my new little stomach on the screen. None of the fluid went down. Doc said it gave him a good opportunity to see the outline of the stomach, said it looked good. Anyway, 2 cc's was too much so he took out .5 cc's. This now gives me 3.5 cc's in my band. He said that this really should be close to all I need though he did say that some people need a little more when they lose weight because the band becomes looser. We'll see! Anyway, I definitely have restriction now....hope that it lasts! I weighed before I went to get my fill and I weighed this AM.....I'm down 3 pounds! THREE pounds since Friday! Yeah! 2 of those 3 pounds are ones that I have lost and gained a few times so I certainly hope that they are gone for good. So with the additional NEW 1 pound lost I am down a total of 27 pounds since my August 4th surgery. Strangely enough, I feel lighter this morning for the first time. I've gotta get back on my walking routine. Have missed the last few days.

We had a good weekend. I'm not sure if I have mentioned it on here before, but DD, Bekah (now 8 years old) is adopted. She joined our family when she was 3 days old. We brought her home from the hospital. My little angel baby came directly from God....she was made just for me but that's a story I will have to tell another time. Anyway, we have stayed in contact with her birth mother, Jessica and her family. We see them at least once a year, sometimes twice and we talk on the phone & text frequently. Jessica, her hubby and Jackie (Jessica's younger sister) along with a friend of Jackie came down Saturday and stayed all day. We had a wonderful visit! (Jessica was 14 when she gave birth to Bekah). We had such a nice visit and are planning on trying to go to Jessica's parent's house around the holidays to see the rest of the family.

Yesterday, Rick had to leave at 6:30AM for a business trip. He drove from Indiana to New Jersey......13 hours. He has training classes M-F and then a regional meeting on Saturday morning. Most likely he won't be home until Sunday. We Skyped last night for about an hour but I miss his so much already! I know.......gag.....but you have to remember that we were apart for 20 years and now we are still newlyweds. I've been without him before and I DON'T LIKE IT! I miss my best friend! But I will try to be brave and get through the week the best way I know how. Bekah and I will have some good mama/daughter time!

I guess I've rambled on long enough for now! Hope everyone is having a good Monday!

Blessings!

Sarah

Curious

I'm just curious to know how many of you fellow bandsters are keeping food journals? It's a pain in the butt and to be honest I have not been doing a great job of doing it. I just wondered what all of you successful bandsters have been doing!

Thanks!
Sarah

PIzza Pizza

Last night was our weekly date night. (Bekah goes for a midweek visit to her daddy's on Wednesdays and spends the night). Rick and I took a little road trip and BOUGHT A TRUCK! Yup, we traded my Grand Am in for a Silverado pickup truck! Rick has a company car that we drive most of the time for family things (2009 Chevy Malibu) and we've been looking at getting a truck to haul stuff & for Rick to take hunting. We ended up with a 2006 (4 Wheel Drive) Chevy Silverado Extended Cab 1500. I love it! I like driving a truck.

It was late when we were done dealing with the truck so we stopped on the way home for dinner......at 9PM! We were both starving! All I had had for lunch was a bowl of soup and no afternoon snack. We had LaRosa's Pizza and let me tell you it was SO GOOD! I am certain that I need another fill because I ate 3 pieces of pizza (although they were not huge pieces) and did not even feel that full feeling. Not going to lose much weight doing that....that's for sure!

When I woke up this AM I was really hungry but I was a good girl and so far all I've had is my SF Carnation Instant Breakfast. That helped my tummy to stop rumbling! But I must confess that I have now also had 3 Dove Chocolates. A salesman stopped by to see me at work and left me with the chocolates! YIKES! I've put the other 4 that he left in my desk drawer. Hopefully, out of sight, out of mind! I've really been craving sweets this week and I've got to get a handle on that. Sweets are one of my downfalls!

I almost forgot to post about my latest NSV (non scale victory). Rick was hugging me the other night and told me that I definitely feel smaller when he hugs me!

The sun is shining in Indiana today and it's a crisp, Fall day....which happens to be my favorite time of the year! Beautiful! I hope that everyone enjoys their day!

Sarah