up seven :(

Well..... Christmas did do a bit of damage to me... or should I say, I did it to myself!

I made peanut butter blossom cookies, even though the inner "me" was screaming the entire time that I shouldn't do it!

I'm up 7 pounds this week... I'm aware it's mostly water, and I tend to BLOAT..... so it should come off quickly as well. But.... DAMN!

This too shall pass!

Wedding ring...

As I washed my hair yesterday (which still seems to be shedding quite a bit...... not sure if that's something I need to worry about, or if my body is going through an adjustment? Perhaps it's just that it's longer than it's been in years?? My hair is quite thick, so the shedding isn't obvious.... but I definitely lose 20-30 noticeable hairs off my head each time I'm in the shower!) my wedding ring almost fell off! 

It's been noticeably looser for a few weeks now. (This..... the ring that at one point, was hurting my finger so badly, that it took ice and butter to get it off, and I didn't wear it for a few months, because I was afraid it was going to cut off my circulation!)

So, I put it on a chain, to wear on my neck until I finish this part of my life journey. I think it would be silly to get it resized more than once.... so onto the chain it goes for the unforeseeable future.

I then went to my jewelry stash (which is slim pickins) and saw that I had two rings that I never wore. Not because I didn't like them..... but because they didn't fit my ring finger. One is my paternal great-grandmother's ring. It's an emerald, probably 1/2 carat, in a very delicate setting. I laughed to myself, thinking...... I don't know why I'm trying this on, it's never fit me. And then.... on it slides! OMG! This ring is old.... my grandfather was born in 1899, so the ring clocks in somewhere at about 100 years old. It's gorgeous... but as a cocktail ring. Perhaps the next wedding I go to I'll wear it :)

The next ring I tried on is the ring my parents gave me as a gift for my college graduation. It's white gold, with 3 diamonds, and 4 sapphires... each about 1/4 carat. My parents had the ring made at Braunschweigers Jewelers This ring didn't fit when they gave it to me. I'm pretty sure I didn't weigh as much as 270 when I graduated college, because around that same time, I was working retail, and I can remember buying size 18/20, and although I can wear a few 18/20 items, I'm securely in a 22/24. My body has probably changed however.... and I don't have any swelling in my hands, like I probably did then. So, I'm not going to fool myself into believing that I'm as low as I was in college (for some reason..... 245 rings in my head as a weight in college.... not sure why that number keeps coming up.... but it certainly makes sense)

I say... who cares? This beautiful ring fits, and my husband doesn't care if I wear in in place of my wedding ring, since the likelihood of my losing it is like this woman's!

I still have my high school ring.... which I know I wore when I weighed 140. Wonder if that will ever fit?

95...... how sweet it is!

Where do I go from here?

The lowest I've weighed on a scale in nearly 10 years is 269. I'm a mere pound away from that as of today! The lowest I've weighed since April 2000 is 262.... which is LESS than 10 pounds away. I hit that all time low of 262 about 3 weeks after I gave birth to the triplets.... amazing how pre-eclampsia, once resolved, makes you lose weight rapidly. I never saw that number again since.... but I'm looking forward to the day that I do. Hopefully, it will come in the next month or two! What a joy to hit that number again!

Where do I go from here?

Into uncharted territory, that's where.

I must have been going through an "ostrich" moment from age 20-24, when I just didn't weigh at all. (ostrich = head in the sand) I have no recollection of any weights, except for a day, sometime in 1987-1988, when a friend Vanessa and I went to Living Well Lady, and I weighed in at 216. Before that, I remember 185 as a senior in high school, 160 as an 8th grader, and 140 as a sophomore, my lowest weight ever at age 15. I doubt I'll get there again, and that's fine.

My doctor set my goal at 150..... and that's what I'll have for now, since I haven't been there for so long, I have no idea what will be good. And since it's so far away, it's not necessary to nitpick the future, when I need to keep my goals in front of me.

Next goal: 269....... which should be met this week, since I was 270.2 today.

Oh....... and those brownies I made for my boys that tempted me a few times this week? FU..... I won!

Metabolism

I have not been a good eater.

The food that I eat is fine, but the times that I eat it probably isn't, and I'm going to do an experiment with myself over the next month, to see if this metabolic reboot won't help.

For the last few years, I tend not to eat during the day. I have 2-3 cups of coffee in the morning, and then nothing until about 4-5pm. I'll have a regular dinner, but then I'm an eating machine from 6-10pm. Then directly to bed. I do not, however, wake up to eat in the middle of the night, essentially ruling out Night-Eating Syndrome Eating Disorder  I've also been tracking calories.... and I'm not even clocking in at 1000 calories/day. Which means, I'm in starvation-mode, which explains meager losses lately.

So, I've read a bit, and have decided to do this:

Eat breakfast at around 9:00am (I've done this for 2 days now)

Eat lunch at around noon

Eat a snack at about 3:00pm

Eat dinner at 6:00pm

Eat a snack at about 8:45pm, nothing past 9PM.

So that when I have breakFAST, I actually am breaking a 12 hour fast. This should help get my metabolism back in good shape.

So.... I suppose I'll need to be accountable for a while with foods, and making sure I'm getting enough of everything, so I'll post daily menus for a while, and I'm sure if you people see a problem, you'll let me know?? Thanks in advance!

Tuesday's Food

9:00am Breakfast, 1 serving of Sugar-Free Apple & Cinnamon Oatmeal (Great Value Brand)

1:30pm Lunch, 1 Arnold's Whole Wheat Sandwich thin, with yellow mustard, 1 slice provolone, 3 slices hard salami, and lettuce.

5:45pm Dinner  Baked Chicken breast (about 4 ounces) made with a thin coating of low-fat mayo, and bread crumbs, cheddar mashed potatoes (about 3/4 cup) corn (1/2 cup) cranberries (1/4 cup). 1" slice banana bread with a dollop of whipped cream for dessert.

8:45pm Snack, about 1 cup of cottage cheese, with 3 teaspoons of light ranch dressing

I had about 2 cups of coffee, 1 glass of milk, and 2 glasses of iced tea (decaf) as well

Does that look like I got enough food?

Charity: Water

In the spirit of Christmas..... I was wondering what I could do to help my planet, my people. So.... as I was looking around the internet, I found that 1 in 8 people don't have clean drinking water. Can you think of 8 people you love right off the top of your head? I can. Now picture one of them without clean water.

http://www.charitywater.org/

Charity: Water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. They give 100% of the money raised to direct project costs, funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need. Just $20 can give one person in a developing nation clean water for 20 years.

So..... if you're thinking of giving to a charity this year... why not consider Charity: Water

xo Karen

NSV

I keep meaning to get over here to talk of my newest NSV (no.... this one's not chair related!)

I got my bellybutton pierced about 1-1/2 years ago (August 2008) as a reward for losing weight. I always loved it, except a) it took forever to heal, and was constantly getting infections and b) I bought some cute rings at the mall, only to find they were too tight.

So, I was cursing the ring when I had to put it back in after the LB surgery.... mostly because there was a whole bunch of glue across my whole abdomen (methinks someone spilled the glue) So, when I put it in, it complained, bled, oozed, etc.

I just realized a few weeks ago, that my belly ring hasn't been complaining. At all. So I checked on it, no crusties, no oozing, no redness, no anything. However, the ring looked a bit looser. So I tried one of the rings that I bought at the mall.... and it fit! No problems! I've been wearing this cute pink flower ring for at least 2 weeks... and no problem!

So....... next time I go to the mall, I'm getting some more!!!!!!!!!!

PB / Slime

So..... when I went from 6.5cc to 7.5cc in my band, I found out almost immediately that the band was much tighter. I had a sliming episode with my first meal after the fill (my dr. doesn't ask us to go back on liquids or mushies... regular food after fill is fine)

It wasn't the sliming that was the problem, it was the pain that I felt as my body tried to figure out what to do with the stuck food. Because of my fundoplication, I had already found out (through the stomach flu) that I couldn't vomit.... or PB as it may. Actually, I did have one small PB, but it was all slime, and didn't help any!

So now that I am at 8.5cc, I'm finding that I have sliming incidents anywhere from 5-7x/week.

Does this mean I'm too restricted? How can it be, when I'm still hungry... and OFTEN! I still have issues with wanting to eat naughty foods. However..... I made a cake this week for my kids, and when I had a slice.... it got stuck. I slimed for about 1/2 hour. It sucked. I was so pissed at the cake, I wouldn't even look at it again!

I am slowly realizing that if I eat too quickly, or don't completely liquify my food.... it gets stuck. Gosh.... I never thought I'd have to learn how to CHEW again!

I also seem to have hit a wall with weightloss. I have bounced between 275-280 for about a month. What is up with that? I haven't started exercising yet...... think that has something to do with it? (that's rhetorical.... I know that it's TOTALLY why I haven't lost any more poundage!)

Alright... I seem to be getting crabbier as I write....... I'll go and have that Muffin/Hot Cocoa party for the class that won the Box Tops contest this month (I'm a Box Tops coordinator for my school...... #1 in Michigan last year..... #48 in the nation!! Made $6640.00 last year for my school!!)

NINETY!

what to do, what to do

So.... I'm trying to make a big decision. Do I count my weight loss from my highest weight ever, or my highest weight this year?

I'm leaning towards my highest weight ever, since it's a valid weight, even if it was in 2008, and didn't last for more than a few days.

However... I don't want other bandsters to think that I've lost that much weight with just my band. I say this, because someone mentioned on the LBT forum that I had lost 88 pounds since getting the band, and that isn't all together true. I lost 35 pounds on the pre-op diet, which for me, lasted 3 weeks (because my BMI at the time was over 50)

So..... here's a poll to help me out...... please vote!

What weight do I use as my starting point? 375.5 - My highest weight ever 365 - My weight when deciding to get Lap Band 350 - My official weight when I went to the Lap Band doctor first View Results Make your own poll