Well – We had our latest 5K this weekend.  It feels good to continue to challenge myself.  If you told me a year ago that I’d be doing a 5K a month now, I would’ve laughed at you.  In fact, I have laughed at a couple of people who have told me along the way I could do it.  When I began my weight loss process, my sister told me that one day I’d be running 5K’s.  I laughed at her.  I told her “I have never ran in the past and just because I lose weight, I’m not going to want to run in the future!”  Well – Never say never.  I’m not there yet, but I can see it as more of a possibility now.

The first 5K we did was the Glow Run back in June.  One of my best friends, Dawn, has been doing 5K’s for a while now and was looking for people to join her team to get a discount.  I had managed to ignore her posts for a while, but then one of them got to me and I mentioned it to my husband.  I was half way hoping he’d shoot me down.  “Hey, Dawn was looking for some people to join her team for the Glow Run 5K.  Do you want to do it?”  He said “Sure”  THAT was NOT what I was expecting, but I said “OK!” and we joined.  We ended up having  a good time and it felt good to do our first 5K in under an hour.  When we left, we had a flier for another 5K on our car that sounded intriguing to us, because it was held in industrial caves.  Ever since that first one, we have averaged one 5K a month.

I think with each one I have had a better time.  It feels good to be able to better myself and be able to even run some.  The next challenge is going to be Thanksgiving morning.  I have agreed to do a 10K with my sister.  Tommie and I are both doing it.  I REALLY want to do it in under 2 hours.  I’m afraid to run any though, because I’ve never done a race that is this long before, so I’m unsure how tired I will be at the end.  I’m also unsure if I’ll be staying with Tommie or trying to find my own pace yet.

It’s starting to get cold outside now.  It’s going to make me very sad when it gets too cold to walk outside.  I do not like going to the gym to work out, though we have been for our strength training.  I really loving walking outside and having a variety of places to walk.  I’m really curious to see how the winter goes with workouts.  I’m also still trying to find some good XBox Kinect workout programs that I like.  Hopefully that will help.

Well, that’s my update for now.  Thanks for stopping by!

The other day I wanted to wear jeans.  I went to my closet and one by one, tried on all the jeans I owned and one by one they all went in the “to go” pile.  They were all too large.  SO – I went online and ordered some new ones.  Today I got that package.  I immediately went upstairs and tried on the new clothes I had ordered.  They were all too big.  I guess I had gone down more sizes than I had realized.  I debated on returning some of them, because even though they were too big, they weren’t big enough that they’d fall down, but in the end, I figured with the rate I’m losing, if they are as big as they are now, it wouldn’t be long until they WERE fall off big, so I packed every single thing I had ordered back into the bag to send back.  Disappointing.

When Tommie came home today we went to the thrift store.  I ended up finding out that the size I’m now wearing is 18W.  That is two sizes below the size that I ordered from the catalog.

I also learned that I still hate shopping.  After taking an armload of pants to the dressing room to try on, and cutting my finger on a staple, I was SO over shopping and ready to go.  I have never been a big fan of clothes shopping.  I’m more of a order what I want from the catalog and return what I don’t like.  Not the most efficient, but I can avoid going to the stores.  Now that I have a better idea of what size I need, I will give the catalog one more try.

Speaking of sizes.  I did surprise myself by trying on some capri’s we had around here that were size Large and they fit.  I ended up wearing them for one of our walks.  They were a bit tight, but not splitting the seams tight.  Ha ha.  It’s nice to be nearing the “normal size” clothing.  You know they charge twice as much for a piece of clothing that has a “W” behind the size.  It’s just crazy the price difference!  The Larges are a bit tight on me at the moment, but they DO fit.  Soon they will fit comfortably.  This last month, the weight loss has been pretty slow, but I’ve lost about 108 lbs and I have 7 more lbs to lose before I hit my next goal.  Hopefully by this time next month I can hit that.

I have a couple more walks coming up.  The weekend after next we have the Mustache Dash 5k and the Zombie Walk for Hunger (yes, both in the same day).  Thanksgiving Morning we are doing our first 10K.  I’m considering one in December, but haven’t registered for it yet.

Well – my Chromebook keeps crashing on me and I have to end up retyping part of my post, so I’m going to go ahead and end it here.  Hopefully I’ll have more stuff to share at a later date.  Thanks for keeping up with me.

I know I have already shared most of this on Facebook, but thought I’d write up a blog post about it anyway.

So – As expected, even though my 2nd goal is not as far as my first goal was, it is a lot slower moving!  I know as time goes on, weight loss will slow.  I’m happy with how far I’ve come, but I’m also not satisfied with where I am currently.  My weight stalled for about a month.  (Ugh!)  Though, I’m not getting TOO discouraged, because I know that it will start moving again.  In the past week I lost a little more.  It was good to see it move again.

One thing that happened was that Tommie and I did another 5K this weekend.  It was the first one we have done that it was just the two of us.  They didn’t have the race shirts in 2X like most races do, so I had to get mine in XL.  I don’t usually feel comfortable in the T Shirts anyway, so don’t usually wear them.  I was like “What the heck, let me try this XL on!”  It fit!  It was still tight around the tummy, so I wouldn’t feel comfortable wearing it in public, but it really did fit.  That was really exciting.  Later in the week I tried on one of Tommie’s T Shirts.  (most of his are 2x)  Last time I had tried one on, they fit, but they clung in the wrong places and made me feel uncomfortable.  Well, this time they fit with room to spare.  They fit lose enough that I felt comfortable wearing them out in public!  I actually wore one to one of Mia’s games. 🙂

I have been waiting for this day!  I’m a big “let’s get the t shirt” person when we are on vacation.  I have never been able to wear them, but I buy them and let Tommie wear them for me. 🙂  I always pick out the shirts I like.  I always say “One day I’ll be able to wear these!”  Well, the day has arrived.  Tommie has gone down to XL, but is more than happy to share his stash with me. 😀  ((Below is a picture from today – ignore my gross saggy neck skin))  I got this shirt when I went down to see my brother a few years ago.

Next I need to find some new jeans.  I’ve ordered some, but I think I can probably go out to the store now and actually find some. 🙂  I went and tried all the jeans in my closet on and they all had to go into the “Go Pile”, as they were all too big.  Now that Fall/Winter is fast approaching it’ll be time to get rid of my capri’s that are barely fitting now (getting too big) and invest in some pants and jeans.  I had gotten so large that jeans were just NOT comfortable for me anymore, so I’m looking forward to being able to wear them again and be comfortable in them.  I haven’t tried yet, but I’m also looking forward to being able to wear boots that will fit over my calf.  I’d like to eventually get a nice pair.

So – back to the 5K.  Tommie and I decided to walk together instead of going our own pace.  Tommie’s shins hurt really bad when he runs too much, so we didn’t really run a lot on this one, just a little.  I was surprised when we got to the end that we beat all our past times!  According to our GPS we carried with us, they were pretty spot on with measuring the course distance also.  I think we did pretty good overall with it!  Our next 5K will be next month.  We’ll be doing the Mustache Dash out in Leawood.  I’ll get to see an ex-coworker that I haven’t seen in forever that will be walking with us and meet her son.  Later that same day, I’ll also be doing the Zombie Walk down on the Plaza. I also still need to sign up for the 10K on Thanksgiving morning.  Tommie and I will be doing that with my sister in Cincinnati.  That will be quite the accomplishment for us!!

I’m looking forward to going to my sister’s this year for Thanksgiving.  I was lucky to be able to get off work that time of year.  My whole family will be there.  My parents, my sister and her family (of coarse) and my brother and his family.  It’s always nice when we can all get together.  We are all so spread out all over the US and it makes me sad.

Well – that’s all I have for now.  Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my story!  xxoo

Soooooooooo, I met my first weight goal of 100 lbs lost and then…………..nothing!  I have been stuck at the same weight for close to a month.  It’s frustrating, but I TRY not to let it get to me like it did at first.  I know it’s going to happen, and I also know that the scale will start moving again.

What I DON’T get, and this has happened to me more than once…..I’ll be at a plateau and be staying within my calorie limits and exercising daily and then I’ll have a bad day or two.  By bad day I mean I’ll eat stuff I shouldn’t……..sweets and carbs and not work out and just be bad and that will when my weight loss starts up again.  Just like yesterday.  I went over my calories and didn’t work out – step on the scale the next day – I’ve lost 2 lbs.  Really??  So, now I’m just hoping it’s not a fluke and that I’ll continue down a little ways until I hit my next plateau. Time will tell.

A exciting thing happened at the store yesterday though!  We went to KMart to pick up a few things and I was like “You know!  I want my own hoody!”  I’ve never really had my own hoody.  When I was bigger, I didn’t find one’s that fit.  I couldn’t even wear my husband’s 2XL one’s.  So, we walked by a rack that had some on them and I looked for a 2XL one, and they didn’t have one.  SO, just out of curiosity I picked up an XL one and tried it on.  When I first put it on, I wasn’t sure if it’d be big enough, but I reached down and zipped it up and it fit perfectly!  I was like “Tommie!!  Look!”  He was like “Yeah – fits.”  I was like “This is an XL!  AN EXTRA LARGE!  Not a 1X, and XL!”  So anyway, that was exciting for me.  I can’t comfortably fit in ALL XL’s, but it’s not going to be long until I can.

My birthday ended up being a bad day as I worked.  BUT, after work, I ended up going out with Tommie for dinner and it was nice.  I wanted to try something new.  We ended up going to KC Smoke Burger down on 39th St.  Someone had posted a pic there and it made me want to try it.  I had a Gyro Burger.  It was pretty good.  I didn’t eat the bread and ate half the patty.  It tasted just like a Gyro!  It was 50/50 Beef/Lamb.  Then we walked across the street so I could buy myself a cupcake (which I split with Tommie) and then went to the book store and just looked around.  I had sent Tommie a link to a few things I was wanting for my birthday, since he says I’m hard to shop for (which I am, I suppose).  He picked one thing out on his own and ordered two of the things I wanted, so that was nice.   I also got lots of cards, messages on FB and calls from my family.  It was pretty good.  Next year will be my big 40!!  ((Eek!))

Well – Thanks for keeping updated with me!  This weekend we’re doing another 5K.  Will be the first one where it’ll just be the two of us.  I’m looking forward to it.  We are also signed up for one next month.  This one and the next one we’ll get finishers medal’s. Tommie has talked about displaying them, not sure how we’ll do that yet.

Welp, leave a message and say hi.  Until next time!

Well – Ever since my last doctor’s appointment I have been on a stall weight-wise.  I’m trying not to let it get to me too bad.  I have about 75 more lbs to lose before I reach my final weight goal.  It gets harder and harder the further away from surgery I get.  I read a lot on the forumns to take advantage of the “honeymoon stage” right after surgery and lose as much as you can in that time period.  As you get further out you’re able to eat more in quantity and in type of food.  There are people who fall into old habits and gain the weight back.  I’m hoping that I can stick with keeping track of portions and with my activity level.

I still have those moments where I look down and realize how much I’ve lost.  I look down when I sit in a booth at a restaurant and see all the space between me and the table.  I look down in the car and see the space between the steering wheel and my stomach.  I am happy when I can fit into a ride at the amusement park or buckle my seat belt on an airplane without an extension, but then I also have the times when I look at myself and see just how overweight I still am.  I see my double chin hanging down, I see my fat rolls, I see how unflattering pictures are of me.  Already after the rapid weight loss, I see that I am eventually going to need plastic surgery when this is all over to take care of things, and to make myself feel comfortable with myself.

Tomorrow is my 39th birthday.  I can’t believe in one more year I’ll be 40 years old.  When did this happen?  When did I become an old lady??  Middle Aged – not young any more?  It just doesn’t seem possible.  It’s sort of depressing.  My husband doesn’t like to celebrate anything, so over the years, my birthday has became “just another day” for me. (along with Christmas and any other holiday) This year I sent him some things I might like for my birthday, so I’m going to get some presents. 🙂  It’s hard to get presents for each other, because when we want something, we just end up getting it.  Plus, neither of us can hold on to presents, we end up giving them to each other early.  Ha ha.

I have a lot of things coming up in the next few months.  I’ve signed Tommie and I up for a couple of 5K’s.  (One in Sept and one in Oct)  I’m hoping to get time off work approved for Thanksgiving to see my family, but I have to wait until closer to the time to see if they will approve it.  IF I end up going, my sister has invited me to do a 10K with her.  This seems overwhelming to me, but I think if I finish it I will feel really accomplished.  With the 5K’s, I’m able to run some and walk some, but I’m afraid if I do the 10K I’d need to walk it all, since I’m not sure if I’d wear myself out too much, not having done one before.  At least it should be a bit cooler by then. 🙂  I have a 5K in December I plan on signing up for too.  It’ll be inside in the underground cave complex.

This weekend I plan on taking a photography class.  I feel like I take classes over and over to try to learn the same things, but then again, I feel like over the last several years my photography has not gotten better and I haven’t had the passion I used to have about it.  I wish I had someone to work with me on it one on one.  I’d also love to learn Photoshop, but it’s hard for me to concentrate, to learn it via classroom or reading about it.  I just don’t seem to “retain” things.  So frustrating.

Well, I feel like if I write about anything else, I’m going to ramble on worse than I already am, so I’m going to go ahead and end it now.  Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog and for the one’s that leave me comments.

Much love.

I finally had my six month follow up appointment with the surgeon.  I almost didn’t make it!  I wanted to leave a little early because I knew there was construction down town.  I went out to leave and realized that I didn’t have the keys to the truck.  I panicked.  I called my Grandma to see if she could come pick me up RIGHT THEN.  She informed me that my cousin had her car and she was without one.  I paced for several minutes before calling my cousin, April, to see if she could come take me.  Luckily, she was able to.  She just loaded the kids in the car, came and got me and I was able to make it there 5 minutes early.

I had forgotten I was supposed to get my labs done before my appointment.  I had came across the orders a few days before and ended up getting them done on Sunday morning (day before my appt).  I knew they wouldn’t be ready by my appointment, but luckily they were!  According to the scale at home, I hadn’t reached 100 lbs lost yet, but at the Dr’s office, I had.

When the surgeon came in he came over to me, shook my hand and said “Congratulations, you are no longer morbidly obese.”  That surprised me, because I hadn’t realized I had fell into another category on the BMI chart.  I was pleased to find out also that my bloodwork had came back and all my levels were in the perfect range.  That was something I was worried about, that I would be deficient in something.  I had bruises pop up and hair loss, so thought maybe those were signs of being low on something, but was happy to hear that everything was where it was supposed to be.

I had all my measurements taken and I was able to see on paper how many inches I had lost.  I hadn’t written down my before measurements, so I was looking forward to getting those numbers.  I met with the nutritionist and physiologist and got my updated goals and next steps from them.  My next appointment will be in 6 more months for my one year appointment.

So, now that I have reached my first goal of 100 lbs lost, it was time to reward myself.  This weekend Tommie and I went out to the running store and I bought myself a new pair of tennis shoes.  Tommie got a pair also.  Felt good.  It was funny, when I paid I had to show my drivers license, the sales lady was like “Oh My Gawd!  You look so different!  You’re going to need a new picture!”  I laughed and said “It IS a new picture!”  My license was renewed just about a year ago.  I have about 15 more lbs before I reach my next goal.  I want to thank all my friends and family for the support they give.  It really helps.  I’ll close this post with a photo of my new shoes. 😀

This year we decided to head to Vancouver for vacation.  Neither Tommie nor I had ever been to Canada.  We had gotten our passports years ago and had gone to Mexico shortly after, but ended up not getting them stamped.  We were looking forward to getting our first stamps in our passport books!  Well, we went through customs and ended up getting an agent that was asking so many questions and in the end he forgot to stamp our passports!  I didn’t even notice, but Tommie pointed it out to me later, so new we’ve been to two countries and STILL no stamps in the books!!

It was a beautiful city.  The mountains sit right behind the city and make a beautiful backdrop, just 30 mins from the city, if that.  I had a hard time finding a hotel that was a good value.  Most hotels I found with vacancies were close to $200 a night.  Also, it ended up that most places we went, we had to pay for parking.  Even the hotels we stayed at, charged a daily parking fee on top of the bill.  It was $5.00 to $15.00 parking most of the places we went.

We were lucky that it only rained a few days while we were there, because just about everything I had planned was outside.  It ended up lightly raining a few days, but they were days we were at parks and we had poncho’s we could use and also, being in the rain forest up there, the trees blocked a lot of the rain.  It was amazing how many people were packed into everywhere we went.  Even at the state parks, it was just busloads of people unloading.

Tommie looked up and later told me that Vancouver was the 3rd densest city in North America, after New York and L.A.  I had no idea about this before we went.  I’m glad that Tommie was driving the rental car!  There were some crazy drivers there and even crazier traffic.  There was no part of the day or day of the week that had light traffic.  The cars would cut you off without turn signals and weave in and out of traffic.  The lady that drove the car rental bus from the airport to the rental place had told us that if they catch you driving 20 km over the speed limit that they impound your car for a week.  Guess that’s one way to get people to not speed too much!  Downtown is full of high-rises, people living on top of each other.  I saw that there were several high-rises being built in the suburbs also.  I also read that all parking garages were built underground, since land is in such demand in the city.

There was a large Asian population there.  There were two China town’s that we found.  The one downtown we walked through on a walking tour offered through the Police Museum.  They gave a history of the founding of Vancouver, and most of it was centered around the Chinese population and the gold rush.  It was pretty interesting.  The other Chinatown was near the airport where we stayed on the last part of our trip.  We shopped at the Chinese mall there and ate at some authentic restaurants that were pretty good.

There were several things I had planned on or wanted to do while there, but didn’t get to, but I think this was our once and only trip to this city.  I think sometimes I tend to over plan vacations and don’t leave time for doing “nothing”.  I like to go-go-go on vacations and see and do as much as I can in that short amount of time.  Tommie tends to just like to have days that he can nap and do nothing, and gets tired of the “going”.  This vacation I had so much on my mind that I didn’t plan it like I normally do and a lot of it was wide open and we had to sit down midweek and plan the rest of the week.  We had Tommie’s daughter along with us also, and I know Tommie enjoyed seeing her after so long.  We hadn’t seen her in about 5 years.

Despite some annoyances I had with this vacation, I did enjoy myself and there were many points of beauty in the city and in the mountains.  I enjoyed being able to be outside and do a lot of walking and see and explore a new city.  All the water was so clear and it was amazing to see so many people walking and riding bikes.  People were friendly for the most part.  Loved the accent and hearing the “eh” and “Fer Sure” a lot. 😀  Thanks, Canada, for the nice visit.  I’ll be back – just not to this city…..I think I’ll shoot for a little slower paced city next time.

SO – I had written a blog about vacation – but it needs some work – so it remains as a draft for now.  It’s just really long and I don’t want to ramble too much and it’s all out of order, so I’m going to have to go back and work on it some before I post it.

I wanted to give an update on the weight loss though, so thought I’d make this entry really quick.  When in Canada, I had a good start to the week, diet-wise, but towards the end, it sort of went to pot.  I think I still stayed under the daily calorie goal that I have on My Fitness Pal, but I had to guess on a lot of things from that part of the week, since the restaurants we ate at weren’t listed in the program, and had to guess on how much of them I ate.

The second hotel we stayed in had a fitness center that we used a couple of nights and it had a scale in it.  When I weighed myself on it, it showed that I really hadn’t lost….though I hadn’t gained either.  Was sort of discouraging, since we had been getting in SO MUCH walking and not overdoing food.

When I got home though and was able to weigh on my scale it showed I had lost 3 lbs while on vacation.  Was happy with that!  I’ve lost 3 more since being back also which puts me just half a pound from my first goal of 100 lbs lost.  I’m past my six month mark (which was on the 5th of the month), but my appointment had to be rescheduled since my doctor was going to be in surgery.  I will have my six month appointment this coming Monday.  Hoping to show 100 lbs lost on their scale by then!  ((fingers crossed))

One of the side effects that I have had due to this surgery is the thinning of hair.  This is a common side effect of this surgery, due to the vitamin absorption issue after surgery.  I have a double whammy against me.  I don’t have a thyroid AND have had RNY Gastric Bypass.  Both have affected my hair.  Along with the sagging skin and wrinkles and the thinning hair, I feel like it has made me look SO MUCH older.  I’ve always had a “baby face” and looked younger than I am, but I’m not feeling that lately.

When I got back from vacation, I had Tommie bring me by the Wig Shoppe.  I’ve been thinking about doing that for a while now.  With the hair getting so think, I’ve just been pulling it back into a pathetic pony tail for a while now.  It looks horrible, but not as bad as it would if I had it down.  SO – I bit the bullet and bought a couple of wigs.  To ME they look TOTALLY fake, but it’s so much better than what I’d look like without them.  Here is a comparison:

 Tommie helped me pick them out.  I tried on several, but settled on the above two.  Tommie liked the longer one, I liked the shorter one.  Maybe I’ll add to my collection in the future, but for now I’ll try these out. 😀

I have heard on the online forum’s that the hair eventually thickens up and grows back.  I’m just hoping that happens for me.  I know it varies from person to person.  At my six month appointment they will be taking my measurements (so I’ll get to see how many inches I have lost) and will do blood work on me to see where my vitamin levels are.  Hopefully if I’m low on something, I’ll know what I need to work on more.

Again – thanks for reading my drivel and leaving me feedback. 😀

OK – SO – I am nearing my first goal.  I was REALLY hoping to reach it before my 6 month check up, but at the rate I was going, I just had a feeling I wasn’t going to make it.  But the last few weeks has my hopes up again!  NEVER did I think I could lose 100 lbs in 6 months!!  That was my first goal for myself.  100 lbs lost.  Currently I am 7.1 lbs away from that goal.  My 6 month surgery anniversary is August 5th.  That was also the appt. for my 6 month follow up, but the doctor’s office called and my Dr will be in surgery that day, so they had to reschedule.  Now I will be going in after I get back from vacation, so that gives me some extra time to reach it. 🙂

I hadn’t really thought about “rewards” for when I reach my goals, but my sister asked me what I was going to do for myself once i reached my first goal.  Hmmm.  Hadn’t really thought about it.  She suggested I get a nice new pair of running shoes.  I mean, I have been rewarding myself along the way with little things.  I got to go to the amusement park when my brother was here and ride things I haven’t been able to ride in a long time and/or EVER!  There were two things I got to ride that I had never  rode before.  I got to ride the Mamba for the first time.  Yay!  205 ft drop. 🙂  I also got to ride the Detonator.  I had tried to ride that last time I was there.  I got on and they tried their best, but they couldn’t get the strap fastened, so I had to do the walk of shame.  This time, no problem, even had room to spare!  So that was a bit rewarding!

OK – So I have 4 goals I have set for myself, and 4 rewards now.  First goal, as I said, was to lose 100 lbs.  I think once I reach that I will go to the running store and get evaluated and let them tell me what shoes I should buy and get some new shoes.  Even though mine are nice and less than a year old, it’ll be nice to have two pairs.  I’ll also probably get a workout CD for my XBox Kinect  My next goal is to get under 200 lbs.  ((Onerland, as the WLS community calls it))  I think the reward for that will be a little long weekend trip somewhere nice, just the hubby and I.  Next goal after that is 180, which is what I weighed in high school.  My Reward:  I think I will have my hair and make up done and pick a local photographer and have my photos taken.  Try out the other side of the camera.  Hopefully I’ll feel better about myself by then.  My final goal is to reach 140, which is the top weight for my height to be “average”.  If and when I reach that my reward will either be a new car or plastic surgery, we’ll see when I get there!! 😀

Work has been stressing me out lately.  It’s hard to get caught up and stay caught up when taking time off, but on the other hand, I have earned my time off and I plan on taking it!  I think my manger has pressure from the people above him and it gets passed down to me.  It’ll be easier once everything is caught up and current, but until then, it’s stressful and my planned time off couldn’t come at a worse time with all these deadlines, but it’s too late to change it now and I’m not the only person to think of.  Tommie needs some time off too.

Well – Until next time……thanks for listening to me ramble.

So, this past week I had my brother and his family visit.  I took the week off work so I could spend it with them.  I have really enjoyed my visits I have had this year!  First my Dad came to see me, which it had been a LONG time since he had been to Kansas City.  His visit didn’t last long enough, it was just for a weekend, but it was still WONDERFUL to see him.  Then my sister came over Spring Break with her family.  We had a good time, despite a lot of our plans being cancelled due to rain that week and our plans being outdoor plans.  Then this past week my brother and his family.

It had been about two years since I had last seen them,when I went down to Orlando to see my new nephew.  He is now two years old and FULL of personality!  It did not take long to bond.  He warmed right up to his family.  Wasn’t shy at all with us.  They stayed at Grandma’s and her dogs would bark, loud, in his ear, and he was un-phased.  He was a steady flow of questions and comments and hugs.  I feel a little void now that he’s gone.  I wish all my nieces and nephews lived nearby.  We could have outtings and play time.

When my sister was here, there was one night that the nieces spent the night with me.  We stayed up late, watching movies.  That was a lot of fun too.  I even had a successful outting with all three to the toy store!

SO – needless to say, had a lot of eating out this week.  I’ve tried to stay under my calorie goal every day though, and I think I have, even though I have not eaten the best.  Grandma had tons of sweets sitting out at her house, which is my weakness, and we went out to eat at all the BBQ places and the greasy dive, In A Tub, which is so good. 🙂  Depsite my bad eating habits though, I lost weight this week.  About 3.75 lbs, which puts me at 10.3 lbs to go until I reach my 100 lbs lost mark!!

We did a 5K together while my sister and brother were in town.  I know my sister had wanted to do one too while here, but I didn’t know of any at the time.  NOW that I’ve started doing some 5K’s (this was my third one), I get advertisements for all the upcoming one’s at the registration…..so maybe next time she’s in town we can do one together, with the kids.  We did the Colorstorm 5K with my brother, sister in law, nephew, cousin and her husband and best friend and her daughter.  There were 4 stations around the route and we got colored powder thrown at us. 🙂  It was nice to be able to do it with so many family and friends.  It ended up being short of a true 5K, because they claimed at the last minute they were doing construction and had to cut the route a block short.  So I couldn’t really compare my times to my other races, but again, was fun to get out and walk.

Now it’s back to work, trying to catch up before we go out of town in two more weeks to Canada!  We’ll be off work a week and a half and I’m not looking forward to the catch up at work, this week or when we get back from Canada.  This will be my first time up there though, so I’m looking forward to that.  My step daughter will be going with us.  I think the last time I saw her was when our niece, Jasmine, graduated.  That was the last time we were in Alabama.

One of the side effects of the Gastric Bypass surgery is thinning hair.  It doesn’t happen to everyone, but it DOES happen to a lot of people.  Several people say it starts around 3 months out and lasts for 3 months before starting to grow back.  This has been happening to me.  My hair was thin to start with, but now it’s VERY thin.  I have gotten to where I just pull it back every day.  It doesn’t look pretty, but it makes me really self conscious to have patches of skull showing through my hair.  When I pull my hair back, it’s pretty pathetic, the little ponytail I have, because it’s sooooooooo small and pathetic.  This is caused by vitamin deficiency, I think.  Because of the rerouting of the intestine’s, some vitamins just don’t absorb like they have always before.  I won’t get checked for my vitamin levels until my 6 month follow up appointment, which has been moved back two weeks, after we get back from vacation.

So – when I had lost weight before, with Weight Watchers, I had several capri’s that I had kept, and I’ve been able to wear them this summer, which has been great.  This is the smallest size I have in anything.  NOW those are becoming lose, and of coarse, I don’t want to buy any more since summer will be over soon, so on vacation I will be having to just wear lose pants.  I have a few long pants that should fit OK, I’m just in an awkward stage….wearing lose clothes that make me look a bit sloppy.  When I complain about that though Tommie says to me in a whiny voice “Oh Boo Hoo, such a horrible problem to have!”  Ha ha.  Speaking of Tommie though, he’s been losing weight like crazy right along with me!  He’s been a wonderful workout and diet companion to me.

Well – It’s time for me to get back to work and play catch up before being off again!!!  Running a bit late this morning, I still have breakfast to make!!  This week I will have to get my routine back and have my daily walks back and twice weekly visits to the gym for the strength training….hope everyone has a nice week!