Motivation....

I think that is the name of the game!! Now that I set a goal to be below 200 pounds by my anniversary I am back in the game!! I just did 15 minutes on the elliptical and 3 sets of 10 on the weight machine. I am going to do my best and try to make it to 199.5 in the next 16 days!!! Wish me luck :)

I think I'm crazy!!!

I just decided that I want to try to make it to less than 200 pounds by my anniversary. So that would be 7.5 pounds in 16 days! I'm going to try to do it. I'm going to kick my exercising up a notch!! I'll get up at 5am for the next two weeks and get on the Elliptical, I will hijack my husband for walks at night, and I will go to Curves every night I am able to. Here is to my new GOAL!!!

What a week !!!!

I'm really glad that I survived this past week. It was a long one. Monday wasn't too bad, we went to see Larry the Cable Guy and had a blast. My husband wasn't feeling too well, but he toughed it out to go with me :) Tuesday was okay for the most part, but my husband, an asthmatic, had a really rough day. He ended up at urgent care and they gave him some heavy duty meds and nebulized him. I ended up leaving work early to come home and "monitor" him. All I could think of is that he'd fall asleep and stop breathing. Yuck!! All ended up well by the next morning. However, Wednesday brought more trials and tribulations. My mother had surgery that day and all went well with the surgery, however after surgery she had a reaction to the Demerol that they were giving her. She is usually a very nice person for the most party, but became a wacko because of the pain medicine. The doctors and nursing staff had to sedate her and then had to have a 24 hour watch on her until they could get the Demerol out of her system. So due to that Thursday and Friday were not the most relaxing days for me. Saturday dawned much brighter, my mother woke up as a normal human being and actually came home today.

Now, I am dealing with my own demons. I am now down to a size 16.... WOO HOO!!! which is really awesome, however I'm losing my hair. I'm not ripping it out, not that this week hasn't warranted it, and it just keeps on coming out!!! I've started to take Biotin to try to help this situation but it won't be an overnight fix. I knew it was likely after having surgery, but it is still nerve racking to have it happen. I also feel like I've fallen off the band wagon with eating. I'm afraid that I've stretched my pouch and that I am going to get fat. I have been very strict today and I plan on being abnormally strict with my diet for the next few weeks. I'm hoping that the next time that I'll be relatively bad is on my 3rd wedding anniversary that is coming up in
October. Until then I will be eating a lot of protein and vegetables and cutting way down on the carbohydrates. I'm also going to step up my exercise. I will walk at least 30 minutes per day as well as keep working my way up in time on the Elliptical. The last time I was on it I only did 12 minutes. My goal is to do at least 30 minutes per day by this time next month!! I will also continue to work my way up on weight and the number of reps that I can do on the weight bench. I have to remind my husband to help me find the "dumbbells" that we have around the house so that I can work on my wings as they are definitely going to be a problem area.

So in a nutshell this has been my week. I'm hoping that this week will be much better!!!

There's Nothing Like the Feeling.....

of your muscles burning.... I think I am becoming addicted to exercise. I'm looking forward to continuing my momentum with exercising. Today I was on the elliptical for 12 minutes and then I did 2 sets of 1o on the weight machine. I also went for a walk after dinner with my husband for about 2o minutes or so. I'll have to get up early tomorrow morning and at least do the treadmill since we have plans tomorrow night.

My hubby and are going to see "Larry The Cable Guy" and we can't wait :) I'm really looking forward to laughing my butt off.

My husband is a little sneaky though. I mentioned the other day that I got my wedding rings and engagement ring sent out for sizing. Well my husband was going to do it for our upcoming Anniversary in October so I thought he was a little early, however he told me today that I was only getting my plain gold band back before our Anniversary, I'd have to wait for our Anniversary to get my diamonds back :( Oh well, I'll survive, I've not had the diamonds in over 4 months so what is another few weeks!!

I'm going on a mini vacation this weekend and I can't wait. I'm going to visit some of my friends at a camp and all we're going to do is quilt!! I haven't had my machine out in forever and I have something I'd like to make my Aunt for Halloween. Hopefully I'll get it done while I'm there.

I've started to go through some of the clothing that I had before I gained all the weight that I'm now loosing and I am astounded with the amount of clothes that I have that fit right now, I just hope that I can wear them for a little while. They are mostly all casual tops, but anything is welcome at the moment.

Only 8.5 more pounds to go before my CHRISTMAS 2007 Goal of 200 pounds and ONEDERLAND. I think that I'm going to make it with flying colors. I'll keep you posted.

Woo Hoo.... 10 Minutes

Well yesterday morning I got up and got right on the Elliptical. I managed to do 10 minutes before I got in the shower. I was thrilled. I also took a 25 minute walk while I was at work. Today I took off from exercising, which probably wasn't the best thing to do, but I was feeling under the weather all day long. I even ended up taking a nap when I got home tonight, which as been a rare occurrence lately.

Today I did breakdown and get my wedding ring(s) and engagement ring sized. I was wearing a 8.75 or 9 before the surgery and now I am a 7.25 or 7.5 depending on the width of the bands. I was absolutely shocked. I even looked at the size of my knuckles and I don't think that I'll be going down much more on ring size as my knuckles are the biggest part of my finger now, which is a real surprise and first time event!!

I ordered a dress for our work Christmas party today. I ordered a size 12 and I hope that in 3 months time the dress will fit. I'm a little worried about it, but it will eventually fit, so it isn't money wasted. I have 3 months to work my butt off to look fabulous in the dress. Here is the link.... http://www.coldwatercreek.com/W07/products/product.aspx?productid=33639&ensembleid=38693

I'm hoping the link works as it is the first time I've tried to add one.

Another 4 minutes... and a first......

I got up the ambition to do another 4 minutes on the treadmill. I'm up to 7 for the day. I will probably do at least another 3 minutes or so tonight to make it close to 10. My dear husband is in on it now, hopefully he'll outlast me. I'm looking forward to getting up every morning and working on the elliptical first thing. Taking a walk during the day and going to Curves after work.

BTW-I just ordered a Columbia winter jacket from Cabela's. It is the first jacket that I've ever got that was a ladies size jacket. It should be here next week sometime, in plenty of time for the cold weather to hit!!!

Yippee, I have an Elliptical Machine!!

My dear husband was kind enough to take 2.5 hours this morning while I was running errands and put together the new elliptical machine that I bought Thursday. He even ran out and got me batteries for it. Is is such a great guy, he has asthma and this hot, humid weather we've had for the past two days is killing him. He's taking a much deserved nap with the dog right now.

I love it, except I was only able to do 3 minutes on it at the lowest resistance before I thought I was going to die!!! I hope I'm not the only one that had to start out this way with baby steps!!!

I finished cleaning out the 3rd bedroom this morning so that the new elliptical has a home, however the rest of the house looks like a bomb exploded. Oh well, I'll get through the rest of the heap later today and tomorrow.

I am the proud owner of a new Elliptical Machine!!!

My husband and I went and got an Elliptical machine for me and a weight machine for him last night. We're converting the 3rd bedroom we have into a mini-gym. I'm so excited to be exercising, I love it!!! He is going to try to put it together for me tomorrow after I finish moving out the remaining items in the 3rd bedroom. I can't wait to try it out in my own home :)

We've been on the move since 7:15 this morning. We dropped off my car for new tires and ran errands, came home and I started cleaning out the 3rd Bedroom which had become the storage room. I worked on it all day. I finally got Internet access back this afternoon about 4pm, so I am thrilled about that. We then ate dinner and ran up to see my husband's father who is probably an hour and half north of where we live. We visited with him for about an hour and a half and then came down picked up my car and promptly went to Home Depot. We had to get sheet rock for my husband to finish up a few things before we put our house on the market. I have to say I must be getting in shape as I was able to help him lift 2 sheets of 4'x8'x1/2" sheet rock at a time and I wasn't struggling too much :)

As a side note when I mentioned that everyone that has this surgery should make sure they get in their 64+ oz. of water a day I don't think that I put enough emphasis on it. When I wasn't drinking enough water I was tired all the time, tired enough that I felt worse than I did when they found out I was slightly anemic!!! Sip, Sip, Sip You'll feel so much better. I just finished about 90 oz for the day and I feel really good!!!

I'm off to take a shower before the T-storms hit and go to bed. Have a great weekend!!! I'll let everyone know how the elliptical is after my wonderful husband puts it together!!

I'm more than half way to my goal weight :)

I can't believe that I can say that.... I have lost a total of 69.5 pounds since I've started my journey. I have 44.5 left to go to meet Dr. Graber's goal and 68.5 left to go to meet my own personal goal.

So much has happened since my last post. I had just started taking an iron supplement and was still struggling to feel better. As it turns out I don't think I was getting enough water!!! Now that I am drinking 80 oz. plus a day things are much, much better. My blood pressure has dropped significantly. My last two readings were 98/78 and 100/72. I can't complain about that. I also had my cholesterol checked and it went from 226 prior to loosing any weight to 142. Can you believe it?!?!?!?! It is amazing. Now that I am feeling so much better I joined Curves and worked out Friday the 31st and today. They were closed Sat., Sun., and Mon. for Labor Day and I had 3 doctors appointments yesterday so I didn't get a chance to work out. I have to say that I love working out, so much in fact that my husband and I looked at Elliptical machines at Sears today. I told the salesman that I had to think about it, but I have to say that after eating dinner I am gung ho on buying one. I am going to beg my husband to go with me tomorrow after work and get one.

Tonight we dropped off 8 bags of clothes to the Salvation Army. Using their guide of low value dollar amounts I can get a tax write off of $748 already. I'm sure by the time the end of the year comes around I'll have more to donate. I went shopping the other day since I don't have any clothes that fit any more and bought at least 8 shirts. I love them it is so cool to be wearing an 18/20 on top and an 18 on the bottom. I just can't believe it. I also got a pair of size 16 capri's for the remaining hot days that we'll have this year. They were on clearance so I really couldn't go wrong.

I met with a new nutritionist last night and talked to her about what I had going on and how to ensure that I got enough protein in. I really miss the nutritionist that I met with before the surgery, but as she has moved on to bigger and better things I had to try out someone new. I think that she gave me so good information, I just was a little confused about food measurements should they be done by weight or volume. I still am not sure I got a straight answer, however I am definitely taking into consideration her comments and plan to work my butt of for the next 6 weeks until I see her again.

I'm now keeping a food diary that counts everything from calories to sodium to protein. Hopefully this will be a good tool for me to keep updating. I also will be keeping an exercise log on a daily basis to track the levels and time that I am working out. After I get data in them maybe I'll try to post an example for all to see.

I hope this finds everyone well and please, please feel free to comment or ask questions. I want to help anyone that I can :) Have a great night.....