Weight loss tracker

Wednesday, 6 June 2012

Giving my pouch a rest

I'll do a 5 day pouch test to give some much needed relief to my agitated stoma. It did help me before to ease swelling and irritation due to an allergic reaction. It might do some good again - no loss in trying.

First two days: liquids only.
I'll keep you updated.

If you are interested in the details check out Kaye Bailey's site.

Dreams and wishes - in retrospective

12 months ago, when I was preparing for my surgery I kept my diary fairly up to date. I noted my thoughts, wishes and hopes about the coming 12 months. Now the year passed and it's fun to look back and take stock.

First off: I did not get to my weight goal. I planned to reach 150lbs by now. That did not happen... I was well on track until end of February, but ever since then - for various reasons I will detail in upcoming posts - I've been "stuck" between 175 and 170. A major part of me is disappointed: I could have done it if I would not let all things ruled by my circumstances and emotions... I suppose no matter how much more weight I'll lose and how long I keep on maintaining, I always going to be in risk for emotional eating. I try to control it better, but still have got a lot to learn.
On the other hand, the last two months I've been maintaining my weight without much effort and - I'm sad to admit - much control over food choices. That must be good news. So there: I've got my silver lining.


Secondly - or second off? - how much do you believe you're creating your future? Like it or not? Gather around for a cautionary tale...
There was one point in my list of 12 month plans, which I kept ignoring: I told myself a year ago that by now (i.e.: 12 months after my list was jotted down) I have to have a new job. I had been having that niggling need for a change of scenery for ever. My job was very nice and cosy and easy, nothing challenging or out of the ordinary, and - first and foremost - it paid fairly well. Just one example: I always had time to do my due blogging every week... It was also a great location: my gym was in my way coming and going every day.
And then 24th February came - I was suddenly out of my cosy job. That of course initiated a massive effort in finding a new job. It did happen eventually: I started in my new position on 1st May. It's much more interesting, challenging, a huge step up on the carrier ladder (I have 5 direct reports now who call me boss... strange sensation) and it's only 30 minutes commute door to door - and I'm taking a train! Yeyy!
And then, I suddenly remembered: I had this planned a year ago! I wanted to have a new and more rewarding job by June 2012! This did not happen by chance - I made this happen. Although I didn't do so consciously. I planted the seed of this change - and now it's reality. Do you dig what I'm getting at?
I create my own future. Full stop. 
And this was not the first time I experienced this mighty great sensation. I have written proof of watching my dance teacher performing at a venue and that I felt this strong emotion that I want to be exactly there and performing too - and I inherited her contract within a year from that. I only noticed that during a re-read of my diary (I like to do that every now and then) much later on. That used to be my favourite example story of how creating our own future works. Now getting my new job is right up with it.

So there: I'm important and busy now, people take me and my decisions very seriously. Between you, me and the fencepost: I sometimes struggle taking myself seriously, so this is quite an experience... 

And the best thing is: I no longer have to hide in the "cupboard" about my surgery! I can tell people. And I do. I'm still very selective about who I let know, but in the last couple of weeks I did tell one or two people. It did not come back to me yet, so I suppose not everyone is a total gossip. Or they just don't mind. I did have to put it on my medical form - and I did not mind it. Just like I did not mind putting 173lbs as my weight... It felt sooooo good!!!

There are, of course, downsides too: I'm no longer a gym member and there is no gym on my commute. I will have to figure a new habit for putting in my exercise. And I definitely do not have the time to do my blogging at work. I have to establish a new habit about that too. And for some reason I cannot seem to eat at work - mind you I'm spending most of my lunch-breaks at my desk.
So there is a lot of new habit to get into, new ways to figure things out. But I know I can do it. It might take some time, but I will get there. 
And then I will really and truly back on track to get to my goal. Mind you... I might need to revise that... but that's for the next entry.

Good night all!

Sunday, 3 June 2012

I've got a lot on my mind - and on my plate

...literally and in non-literal way too.

Some of you might know that I've been made redundant in February. That was a huge reality check.
I thought I fought through that rather valiantly, but now -in retrospective- I was hugely depressed by the experience. I was just never going to admit to the fact. Depression and me - we are not buddies. We don't even live on the same planet. At least that's what I used to believe. Not any more.

So there: I let my guards down, and Depression crept in disguised as my new daily routine. And that involved not giving priority to the things used to keep me going and kept me on track in my banded life. Like exercise or making good food choices.... when you drag yourself out of bed, cannot face the world and survive on a pot of Muller Rice and some Pringles a day, going out for a run and putting something healthy in your mouth is not high on the daily to-do list...

But you know what: IT'S ALL OVER!

Can I remind everyone here for the old cliché of "when one door closes another one opens"? Or my favourite one: "everything happens for a reason"? Well, them - and a reinforced effort in practising the teaching of The Secret (I'm a believer, and I was even before I knew about the concept - that's how I always lived my life) - proved their worth again: the day after I signed the final documents on my redundancy case I have been offered a much better job. And of course I took it. From 1st of May I'm the Facilities Manger of a prestigious and fairly large law firm in our area. Thankyouverymuch!

I cannot discuss the details of my redundancy case, so I'm not gonna, but let me just say this much: sometimes the biggest blessings come to us disguised as major crisis. On every aspect of life: work, personal, financial.
I've been blessed again, and Me right now would love to get into the Tardis (Dr Who's time travelling machine for my State side readers) and get back  to 3 months ago to reassure my scared, depressed, resigned self that all's going to be all right... Oh, but life IS wonderful after all!

So here is the plan: today I caught up with all my reading duties (My gosh! The things have happened in your lives I missed! Mind boggling that Life did not stop when I shut the door behind me in February...!) and putting in my comments along the way. I still have two days for collecting my still-scattered thoughts (thank you, Your Majesty, for the extended bank holiday to your 60th anniversary as Queen) and I will getting back here with them shortly.
I cannot - and will not - suggest that I put all of them in one blog entry: you would be reading that for a day or so... But I will do my best to break them down into cohesive chunks about the various areas they relate to. I will probably write them all up as drafts and can just post them one at time - will keep me going and my blog rolling until Christmas (just kidding... I meant Halloween)

Did I ever tell you that I finally went to Rome? Nooooo???
In the midst of all my depression (but in the very tail end of it, when things started looking up again) Dave and I had a lovely trip to the Eternal City. It was one of my childhood dreams, and it lived up to all my expectations! (nearly... as Dave was there, and wherever he goes... Well, what I mean is the song "Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you" was written about him. And, my darling readers, we are talking about English weather here... So it was chugging down with rain in Rome in end of April for 3 days. Never got so soaked so many times in my life!)
I will do a whole post about that trip, sprinkled with photos! It was wonderful.

Here, just a little taster for all of you, as my parting shot of the day:
O, that wasn't the general mood of the trip, I was just making a point...

Monday, 28 May 2012

Before I well and truly get back on track...

Tomorrow is our third wedding anniversary with Dave. This is for him...

I love you babe! Thank you for the wonderful life we are living!

(make sure you watch it with music on)


Sunday, 8 April 2012

Danger, Danger! - gain, food and zombies

According to my nearest and dearest I should "stop losing" shortly...
Well, I'm still 20lbs over my target weight. (Why do they want to stop me now? I need to figure out their ulterior motives. But I might find some rather unsavoury facts if I keep digging.)
Like the look on my sister's face when I recently suggested I could "inherit" some of her clothes don't fit her any more... Before my surgery that could only ever be a bad joke. Now, it's fact. We are mutually not used to that. I need some major adjustments, she needs some major adjustments. I might be imagining this, but it's possible. (forgive me, sis, if this issue only exists in my head - I will do my best to work on it)
And David, bless his heart. He's so enthusiastic about having a hot wife - but now when my weight comes up in our conversations he always adds tentatively: "but you should slow down now...". Should I really?
At least I understand - I believe - where he's concerns are coming from: in the last two months he saw me in the grips of depression and was forced to witness me surviving on my pot of Muller Rice a day. Also, most of the time I did try to eat something more substantial I ended up with major stucks. All these made him worried. Once or twice he even told me that he's concerned about me turning "anorexic"- it means underweight in his books. I don't think he ever would believe I can have a really unhealthy relationship with food in the real sense of the sad disorder. He just uses to word to refer to the other end of the weight spectrum - but I understand what he means. However, it is highly unlikely I will end up with my ribcage sticking out... I just gained 3 pounds last week...

And that neatly leads me into my second point: my food choices lately.
Sad, sad, sad, sad!!! That's in a nutshell.
Following the bottom of the depression pit where I was physically unable to eat anything worth while, it seems I ended up completely off the track: no protein, no fruit, no veg, no vitamins, no nothing healthy!
Seriously: Pringles, ice cream, occasional chips... that's it. Not a lot of it, but REALLY??? After nearly a year of being so principled and meticulous with my food choices??? I'm ashamed!
Sitting at home, spending my time without much structure, attending to everything as they come up does not help me to stick to the principals of healthy eating. I hardly have breakfast. I never have lunch. I always grab something mid afternoon (usually that's my Pringles time) and then I make an effort on some healthy dinner to share with D, but most of the time I cannot manage to eat more than a spoonful or two, so after that I always allow myself some ice cream to "make up for lost calories" all day. Crazy, really.
So, as last night I finished off the pots of Ben&Jerry's I so wrongly bought last week, I promise myself to really get back on the band-wagon and to my better habits. (right now I'm sipping a protein shake, good start). That 3lbs I put on last week scared the bejesus out of me! I have to get my control back! I was 0.5lb away from being "normal" as far as my BMI goes.... I was so happy! I was going to Rome first time in my life and I will be NORMAL WEIGHT! Well, that's now very unlikely... as we are leaving next Thursday. I will do my best, tough. I promised myself something really nice and expensive in way of clothing as a reward if I can be under 25BMI for the Rome trip... So it is protein shakes and daily exercises again from now on!


And that is neatly leads my into my third point - Zombies!
Ok, I can understand the confusion on your face: how do exercise and zombies can possibly connect?
Let me let you in on my latest -and fledgeling - obsession: Zombies, run!
Anyone heard about it? It's neat little App for you iPhone aimed to make running fun. Fun, as far as you find it funny zombies chasing you down the streets...
All right, I explain: One of the first cuts I had to make during this whole redundancy nightmare is to cancel my gym membership. However, all my running experience so far happened on a treadmill. I am NOT an outside runner. I can run for an hour on the machine, but the two times I tried running on the street I ended up with both injuries and disappointment in my actual capacity in running for real. So cancelling my gym membership was a tall order: I have to find a way to re-train myself for street running. I need to start from scratch, and I need to find something to motivate me. Clue the Zombies, run! app.
It feeds into your music playlist you like to run to. The world is ran over by zombies, people struggling for surviving (The Walking Dead, anyone?). You are a lone runner and you get some random radio broadcasts about getting near Abel Township where you might be allowed into safety if you can give them supplies you pick up during your runs. There are various missions you need to complete, you are rewarded with supplies which - following your run- you can use to improve the town. While you are listening to your music and run/jog/walk the various inhabitants of the township are getting messages to you via radio casts. You can also enable zombie chases (optional) when you are notified that a swarm of zombies are right behind you (you can hear them making awful zombie noises over your music) and you need to run/jog/walk faster for a minute to evade  them. If they catch you, you lose some of the supplies you've collected so far.
I did mission one today. I was allowed into the township. Yey! However, just around the corner from my house I was overrun by zombies and lost half of my supplies... It was sad and rather scary: the zombie noises really make you run for your life! However, I bumped into my neighbour walking her puppy and I had to stop in the middle of a zombie chase... What other option did I have? Shout out  that "I cannot stop! I'm being chased by zombies!", ignore her confused expression and keep running? Hmm... imagine you are my neighbour... How concerned on the scale of 1 to 5 would you be about my mental well-being? So I stopped, dutifully petted the cute puppy while the zombies were munching on me in my ear... How fun!
But seriously: it is fun! Go and check them out on the App Store - it is a fairly pricey app, but this weekend they have a half price sale!
It has a built in GPS tracker, so it knows when you are nearing your starting point and adjust the ongoing mission according to that. When I run up our driveway a group of armed men came to rescue me and escorted me into safety... Honestly, it was a fun run! This was my first run since early March, the first outside run in over 4 months and I completed 3.5km in 30 min and I feel great! I also improved the township somewhat with the supplies I managed to collect. I'm hooked! Zombies, here I come!

Friday, 23 March 2012

I've done it!

What I meant is catching up with all the blog entries in my reader.
There were 117 of them.
I've done it. I caught up.

(And I also ordered JM Dvd box set - so I can fill my breaks while job hunting. :)

Good night all!

A quick message from the gutter (9 months surgiversary)

Today is my nine month surgiversary.

As every month on the 23rd, D. took the customary pictures  this morning.
See and rejoice:
Upper row: just before my op, bottom row: today


And some number crunching:
Starting weight: 234.6 lbs
Current weight: 172 lbs
Target weight: 150 lbs
Lost: 62.6 lbs; to go: 22 lbs
Starting BMI: 34.5 (obese)
Current BMI: 25.2 (overweight)
Starting waist: 38"
Current waist: 30"
Starting hip: 47"
Current hip: 40"

Well, talking about getting some healthy perspective on life... Hmm. Makes me think. Come, think with me:
- Let's say a year ago Fairy Godmother appeared in front of me and told me that in the next 12 months I can sell my flat, clear some of my debts, get laser eye surgery and - MOST importantly - I can have a gastric band. BUT the price I will have to pay is to lose my job. Would I have still chose all the above?

And the answer is a reassuring and loud YES, PLEASE!

I know I'm in a tricky situation with all this losing my job, having to find a new one in the current economy while keeping up with my financial obligations. That is hard and can overshadow everything else in life.
But then I look at these pictures above, I remember how awful I felt being so fat and that I would have given (nearly) everything to lose those cushions around my body. And although I know the two issues (losing weight and losing my job) have nothing to do with each other, I would still take FGM's deal.
This is "gutter thinking" I know, but at least now I can get some emotional respite and soul-warming thinking that "I'm unemployed, but at least I look good". Yeah, I know, I'm being really shallow here. But please cut me some slack: I desperately need to find pick-me-up thoughts, so I'm even prepared to go for the cheap shots. Like this one above. Because, (even deeper gutter thinking) if I try to imagine the same work-problem happening while I was still so big, then I could just throw up from the awfulness of it.

Now, on a different tangent entirely: looking at the pictures today, it's time for Yours Truly to start putting in some serious muscle exercises... Definition is sourly lacking from my bits - stomach and tights in particular. Unfortunately depression is not conducive to exercising... You just want to sit huddled up in the corner of the sofa staring out of the window for endless hours. At least that's what I do these days. I must find a way to change this. I'm thinking of a Jillian Michaels DVD... or two... Will see, I cannot be flimsy with money at the mo.

Anyway, I now go and catch up with all of your lovely blogs... (still over a 100 to read - again, depression can throw a spanner in my machine in a major way...)

'Till next time!
Have a great weekend! x