Fabulous February Weigh-In: Week 36 Post-Op VSG

February – love is in the air, and this month is going to be all about loving myself enough to continue making 2014 my year to shine. I’m vowing here and now that I will reach my goal weight in 2014. What an amazing accomplishment it will be! To achieve my goals, I’m going to focus on the basics – eating well, drinking lots of water, taking my vitamins and getting in 5 cardio workouts a week. I’ve started strength training with #ToneItUp and their #LoveYourBody series is helping see just how strong I am as I change my body. Sunday weigh-ins will keep me accountable through the weekend. This month is going to be all about loving all the little things that make life special. My Sunday progress updates will be called Fabulous February Weigh-Ins.

Week 36 was perfect in its normalcy: there were a few long workdays, but I was able to come home and get my workouts in anyway.    Best of all, I didn’t let the cold stop me, and I think working out through it was actually what helped me get better. This week I also made great meals for myself, and even found a bit of time for pampering.

So, what did the scale show?!

When I weighed in this morning, I was 197.4, which is a loss of 0.8 pounds this week, and a loss of 79.6 lbs since surgery! I’ve lost a total of 117.6 pounds from my highest weight!! I have 47.4 pounds to go to my ultimate goal weight 0f 150 pounds. I’m glad to see a loss on the scale this week after last week’s gain.  The scale actually showed an even greater loss at one point this week, but then popped back up a bit.  I think my body is still adjusting to these #ToneItUp workouts, but even with this somewhat meager loss, I’m still really enjoying them.  I like seeing what my body can do, and in fact I’m ready to move up from my 5-lb dumbbells to 8-lb ones. Strength training is proving to be a really good way to challenge myself in a whole new way.

Even though I got in 5 cardio sessions, I took the week off of my run/walk intervals because running was a bit too strenuous for my lungs, but I’m hoping to get back to it a bit later this week.  I’m finding out that taking any time off of running sets me back a bit; the good thing is that once I do start back to the intervals, it doesn’t take too long to feel back on track.  I’ve done a 5K every month since September (two in November!), but I won’t be doing one in February, because I’m just not ready.  I have signed up for two in March, which will be fun.

I’m looking forward to a great week ahead.  I have a few fun things planned, including going to a book signing in San Fran for Jen Lancaster’s newest book. I just got back from the grocery store and I bought a bunch of healthy, delicious ingredients for lunches and dinners that I can’t wait to prepare.  Plus, today is Superbowl Sunday, which is always a good time, even when my team isn’t it in:

Until next Sunday, my friends. I hope the scale treats you well, and that you have a wonderful week!

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New Year, New ME Weigh-In: Week 35 Post-Op VSG

2014 – a new year, a fresh start full of new beginnings. 2014 is going to be MY year to shine. I’m vowing here and now that I will reach my goal weight in 2014. What an amazing accomplishment it will be! To achieve my goals, I’m going to focus on the basics – eating well, drinking lots of water, taking my vitamins and getting in 5 workouts a week. Sunday weigh-ins will keep me accountable through the weekend. My resolution throughout the year is to keep focused while enjoying all the “newness” in my life. My Sunday progress updates will be called New Year, New ME Weigh-Ins.

Week 35 was a weird one.  Work was busy, I got a bad cold, and I started strength training using the workouts from Tone It Up.

So, what did the scale show?!

When I weighed in this morning, I was 198.2, which is a gain of 2.4 pounds this week, and a loss of 78.8 lbs since surgery! I’ve lost a total of 116.8 pounds from my highest weight!! I have 48.2 pounds to go to my ultimate goal weight 0f 150 pounds. This is my first gain in the 8+ months since surgery (and even a few months before that), and while it’s disappointing to see the scale move in this direction, it was completely expected.  My body always reacts this way whenever I start using weights.  Plus, I had a bad cold, and Mother Nature is coming calling any day now.  At one point this week I was up over 5 pounds, so this is actually my body calming down a bit.  I’m so glad that I know all of these things about my body so that I’m not freaking out over a gain like this, especially with as hard as I worked all week. I’m also glad that I’m still in Onederland, let’s be honest.

As I mentioned in my post the other day, I’ve started strength training using the Tone It Up (#TIU) workouts, and I’m really enjoying them.  I know they’re working because I’m sore, but I love that very few of the moves are too difficult for me to complete.  It shows how far I’ve come.  It’s nice to have another measure of fitness successes, beyond my cardio workouts.

Today Tinkerbell and I are doing our first 5K together, and I’m really looking forward to it.  Unfortunately, because of my cold, which is settling in my chest now, we’re going to walk the whole thing instead of doing run/walk intervals, as we’d planned.  I’m really glad that Tinkerbell doesn’t mind us taking it a bit easier.  Plus, this way we can spend the time catching up – last weekend she completed the Tinkerbell Half Marathon at Disneyland, something she’d been training for for over 6 months.  I’m so proud of her, and I can’t wait to hear all the details. (I’ll post more about our 5K later today).

This coming week, I’m looking forward to continuing the #TIU workouts (a new weekly series comes in my inbox today!), picking up my 3/1 run/walk intervals as soon as this cold dies down and my respiration is easier,  and hopefully seeing the scale go down at next Sunday’s weigh in.  The thing is, I’m in this for the long haul, and I’m not worried about one bad weigh in because I know I’m stronger than any reading on the scale.  Seeing a higher number isn’t going to put me in a tailspin now, as it would have in the past.  That’s true growth, that’s something to be proud of.

Until next Sunday, my friends. I hope the scale treats you well, and that you have a wonderful week!

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New Year, New ME Weigh-In: Week 34 Post-Op VSG

2014 – a new year, a fresh start full of new beginnings. 2014 is going to be MY year to shine. I’m vowing here and now that I will reach my goal weight in 2014. What an amazing accomplishment it will be! To achieve my goals, I’m going to focus on the basics – eating well, drinking lots of water, taking my vitamins and getting in 5 workouts a week. Sunday weigh-ins will keep me accountable through the weekend. My resolution throughout the year is to keep focused while enjoying all the “newness” in my life. My Sunday progress updates will be called New Year, New ME Weigh-Ins.

Week 34 was exhausting at work, which left me feeling really blah all week.  Despite all that was going on at school, I am glad to say that I still got my workouts in and that my food was great, too.  I didn’t keep up with my run/walk practice this week, forgoing the gym for  walks with Sofi and hopping on the elliptical at home.

So, what did the scale show?!

When I weighed in this morning, I was 195.8, which is a loss of 0.4 pounds this week, and a loss of 81.2 lbs since surgery! I’ve lost a total of 119.2 pounds from my highest weight!! I have 45.8 pounds to go to my ultimate goal weight 0f 150 pounds. While this loss is not stellar, it is a loss, and continues my streak of losing weight every single week since surgery.  Since I had such a big weight loss last week, I expected a much smaller loss this week.  Plus, my body has been out of whack all week.  One of the things that I’ve been dealing with since surgery is irregularity.  I know it’s because of the high protein, low carb diet, and I really need to get better about taking my fiber supplement on a regular basis.  This is probably why I’ve been feeling sort of blah all week, too.

This morning I met up with my friend Di, and we walked from her house to the LG Creek Trail and then did run/walk intervals and walked back.  She started C25K today, and I was testing out my new running strategy.  After realizing last week that the 5 min run/3 min walk pace wasn’t working for me outdoors, I decided to take it to 3 min run/1 min walk today.  And you know what?  It went well!  Now, as I said, I hadn’t run in exactly a week, and it’s interesting how quickly the body gets out of practice.  The LG Creek Trail isn’t flat, and there were plenty of slight and not-so-slight inclines to deal with, so while wanted to run 3/1, I actually ended up running 2.5/1.5, which was fine. My runs were fast (for me) – about 5.0mph pace, which is the best I’ve ever done.  So I do think there’s something to this 3/1 (or so) pacing.  Di and I decided to keep these Sunday intervals up, and I’m excited, because it means that we’ll get to catch up, work on our fitness, and get outdoor practice on a weekly basis.  All good things!

One of the goals that I set for myself for the past week was to begin strength training, and I didn’t do it at all.  Epic fail.  As I mentioned, this was a busy, tiring week at work, and when I got home, I just couldn’t muster the energy to go to the gym.  (Which is one of the reasons I’m so glad that I have the hybrid machine at home – no excuses not to get cardio in).  This week my schedule at school is completely clear in the afternoons, just the way I like it, so there’s no reason I can’t hit the gym in the early afternoon to get my strength training in.  I have to admit, as much as I know that strength training pays off in the long run because it speeds up the metabolism so that the body burns calories even at rest, there’s a huge part of me that is nervous about weight gain.  My body tends to react quickly to changes, and in the past I’ve seen a gain whenever I started strength training of any kind.  But I also know that if I just ride the wave of initial weight gain, and don’t give up too early, I will eventually see great results. Now that I’m the last part of my weight loss journey, I have to change my mindset from the idea that there’s a ticking clock.  This is about the long haul and the changes that I make that will spur me on for the rest of my life.

Glad I got my workout and this blog post in early, now it’s time to watch some football.  Go Niners!!!

Until next Sunday, my friends. I hope the scale treats you well, and that you have a wonderful week!

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New Year, New ME Weigh-In: Week 33 Post-Op VSG

2014 – a new year, a fresh start full of new beginnings. 2014 is going to be MY year to shine. I’m vowing here and now that I will reach my goal weight in 2014. What an amazing accomplishment it will be! To achieve my goals, I’m going to focus on the basics – eating well, drinking lots of water, taking my vitamins and getting in 5 workouts a week. Sunday weigh-ins will keep me accountable through the weekend. My resolution throughout the year is to keep focused while enjoying all the “newness” in my life. My Sunday progress updates will be called New Year, New ME Weigh-Ins.

(I won’t be able to weigh in tomorrow morning because I’m staying overnight at my cousin’s house in SF so that we can do the Hot Chocolate 5K EARLY in the morning. The race starts at 7:30am, but we have to be down at Golden Gate Park by 6:15am. Ugh! Still, it’s going to be really fun, and I’m looking forward to it).

Week 33 was back to work for me, and boy, was it a crazy one. Meetings, lesson planning, quiz creating, former student visits (which I love!), chaperoning two basketball games, and of course teaching. I get tired just thinking about it. I’m proud to say that through it all, I got in all of my planned workouts, ate great, and even fit in time to read & comment on blogs, read books, and keep up with some of my favorite tv shows.

So, what did the scale show?!

When I weighed in this morning, I was 196.2, which is a loss of 3 pounds this week, and a loss of 80.8 lbs since surgery! I’ve lost a total of 118.8 pounds from my highest weight!! I have 46 pounds to go to my ultimate goal weight 0f 150 pounds.

This week was as busy as a week can be, yet I kept to my workout schedule, which I’m really proud of. Something has definitely changed for me – I used to force myself to get my workouts in, and now I actually look forward to them. One thing that helps me make sure I stay on track with my workouts is that I continue to take Carina’s advice and plan my two rest days on weekdays. It works perfectly because I can fit workouts in much more easily on the weekends. I’ve been enjoying the combination of going to the gym to do my run/walk intervals on the treadmill and using my hybrid at home to do either elliptical or recumbent bike. Now it’s time for me to really incorporate strength training. I’ve begun researching on sites like Blogilates and Tone It Up (have you seen their goofy show on Bravo?) to figure out a plan that will work for me. I’m giving myself the goal of doing 3 days of strength training a week, beginning this upcoming week.

My food was really outstanding this week, and I think that made a huge impact on this week’s weight loss. I stuck to my protein shakes for breakfast, made gorgeous salads for lunch each day (more on that in a minute), and had rice + protein for dinner most nights. Snacks were Dannon Light & Fit Greek yogurt and IPS Chips. If you’d like to see my food diary, ask to be my pal on MyFitnessPal.

I wish I’d taken a picture of my salads, because they really were that nice looking, but just try to imagine, if you can. I started all the salads with a bed of 1.5 cups of baby spinach and then I varied the toppings:

• tuna w/ pickles and light mayo
• chicken salad w/ hard-boiled egg, 1/8 cup chopped nuts, light mayo
• 2 oz chicken breast, hard-boiled egg, corn, & light ranch dressing
• hard-boiled egg, garbanzo beans, beets, and light ranch dressing

Not only were these salads full of protein and low on carbs, but they were also really filling. I’m going to continue the salads this coming week because they worked so well and were so easy for me to put together ahead of time.

For dinner next week, I’m planning on making a batch of my delicious HG 10-Alarm Turkey Crockpot Chili tomorrow because I’ve been craving it. I love that it’s a spicy bowl of comfort food that is really low in calories and high in protein. I won’t eat that every single night, so I’ll vary it with a shrimp stir fry and probably bacon-wrapped scallops.

I’m feeling really great about my progress, and continue to find small moments of pride throughout this journey. They help keep me motivated, focused, and excited to see where I go from here.

Until next Sunday, my friends. I hope the scale treats you well, and that you have a wonderful week!

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New Year, New ME Weigh-In: Week 32 Post-Op VSG

2014 – a new year, a fresh start full of new beginnings. 2014 is going to be MY year to shine.  I’m vowing here and now that I will reach my goal weight in 2014.  What an amazing accomplishment it will be! To achieve my goals, I’m going to focus on the basics – eating well, drinking lots of water, taking my vitamins and getting in 5 workouts a week. Sunday weigh-ins will keep me accountable through the weekend. My resolution throughout the year is to keep focused while enjoying all the “newness” in my life. My Sunday progress updates will be called New Year, New ME Weigh-Ins.

Week 32 was my second one on Winter Break, and again, I enjoyed it to the fullest.  This week was a great combination of relaxing, getting out and about, and hitting some milestones. Oh, and there was also an unfortunate hair incident, but we’ll get to that in a while.

So, what did the scale show?!

When I weighed in this morning, I was 199.2, which is a loss of 1.8 pounds this week, and a loss of 77.8 lbs since surgery! I’ve lost a total of 115.8 pounds from my highest weight!!  I think most of you have read by now that on New Year’s Eve day I hit Onederland!!! It was so fantastic to reach that goal this week.  Then, of course, came NYE evening, and I definitely indulged and was up a bit on the scale for a couple of days, but I’m happy to be back down (and a bit below what I was on Tuesday).  It feels great every time I get on that scale and see the 1 in front of the numbers.  I have about 49 pounds to go to my goal weight, which is something I seriously can’t believe.  (From now on I’m going to start logging how many pounds to go to that goal, too).

I finally caught up on a bunch of blog posts that I wanted to write, which made me feel really good going into this 2nd semester of the school year.  One of the things that I want to make sure to do in this new year is to get out and about so that I have plenty of things to post about on this blog.  My social life has been pretty active lately with friends, and you might’ve read that I have a coffee date later this week with a guy I met on Match. Another “bloggy” thing I need to get much better about is reading my blogging buddies posts.  I just need to commit to the time, because I really enjoy reading everyone’s posts and I love commenting, too.

One not so great thing that happened this week was a very bad haircut. You can read the deets on the post, but I will say that going through that experience really showed me how far I’ve come in terms of my self esteem.  I’ve always thought of myself as a confident person, which I have been. But since losing weight, I feel beautiful about my body, which is something I haven’t felt before.  I like seeing my small waist, and don’t mind my bigger hips & thighs, because the hourglass is finally more proportioned.  The terrible haircut brought me back to the way I felt about myself all the time when I was morbidly obese, and I hated reliving that.  The other getting the bad cut did was forced the change that I think was inevitable.  I loved J’s personality, style, and manner when she did my keratin treatment, and I think subconsciously I knew I would eventually make the change to start seeing her as my main stylist.  So, while I wish I hadn’t had to go through this hair drama, I guess the end result is a great one. J is going to be my new stylist, and I’m so glad.

I hit a bit of a milestone in fitness week.  I started C25K, Week 5, Day 1, which had 5min run/3min walk intervals.  I did it with no problem, and felt good about the pace I was running (4.5mph, which is slow for most, but great for me right now, although I do want to get faster with time). I saw that Week 5, Day 2 jumped to an 8-minute run, and I made the decision that I was done with C25K.  I’ve read quite a bit about the benefits of run/walk intervals, and I have no real desire to run continuously.  My dad has bad knee problems (3 orthroscopic surgeries, and 1 knee replacement), and years of obesity hasn’t helped strengthen my knees.  Right now I feel absolutely no pain or even discomfort with my intervals, and I don’t really want to push it.  So, I think I’ve graduated from C25K.  I still want to do intervals, though, so on the advice of a friend, I bought a Gymboss interval timer.

You can see that I’ve set it for 4 intervals of 5/3 splits.  I did it for the first time today, and it went really well.  I feel strong during the running portions, and although I’m not quite ready to move faster just yet, I can see that coming little by little.  I have the Hot Chocolate 5K in San Francisco next Sunday with FaveCousin and a friend, and I can’t wait to see if I can get a new PR.

Oh, and just in case you missed it today:

Bring on Carolina!!

Until next Sunday, my friends. I hope the scale treats you well, and that you have a wonderful week!

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#Reverb13, Day 31: Bye

Throughout the month of December, I’ll be participating in #reverb13: Reverb is a way to reflect on the past year and project into the next year with a prompt a day for 31 days.  December is the perfect time to reflect on 2013 and start to create intentions for 2014.

Day 31: Farewell

At the finish | What’s next for you?

One of the best things about a new year is the potential it holds.  So many possibilities stretched out before me.  Endless hope.

These are the things I know for sure, in terms of 2014:

• I’m going to enjoy something about each and every day, even if it’s just a song on the radio or a flower I see on my walk with Sofi.
• I will reach my goal weight in 2014.
• I’m excited about dating and what my romantic future might hold.
• I can’t wait to see what else happens!

I saw this on Pinterest and think it’s the ideal sentiment for January 1, 2014:

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New Year, New ME Weigh-In: Week 31 Post-Op VSG

2014 – a new year, a fresh start full of new beginnings. 2014 is going to be MY year to shine.  I’m vowing here and now that I will reach my goal weight in 2014.  What an amazing accomplishment it will be! To achieve my goals, I’m going to focus on the basics – eating well, drinking lots of water, taking my vitamins and getting in 5 workouts a week. Sunday weigh-ins will keep me accountable through the weekend. My resolution throughout the year is to keep focused while enjoying all the “newness” in my life. My Sunday progress updates will be called New Year, New ME Weigh-Ins.

Week 31 was wonderful – I had the week off, celebrated Christmas with family, and spent the rest of the week doing anything I wanted: read a delightful book, completed C25K Week 4, shopped till I dropped. The week couldn’t have been more perfect.

So, what did the scale show?!

When I weighed in this morning, I was 201, which is a loss of 1.2 pounds this week, and a loss of 76 lbs since surgery! I’ve lost a total of 114 pounds from my highest weight!!  I have 2 pounds to go to hit my goal of 199 by December 31st – so close to my Onderland goal, but that’s only 3 days away.  It’s possible, and I’m going to do everything I can to hit it.  Which means: lots of protein, keeping carbs low, plenty of water, and exercise. (And in all seriousness, if I hit Onederland anytime in the next week, I’ll be extremely thrilled.  But still, I have a goal in mind and I want to try to get there if at all possible).

I’ve been terrible about finding time to read this year, so one of the things I wanted to make sure to do was to read Allison Winn Scotch’s newest book, The Theory of Opposites. This is perfect book for the dawn of a new year. I’ve always enjoyed Allison Winn Scotch’s writing, but this is my favorite of her books, by far. Excellent message about fate & free will. Loved it!

This week I completed Week 4 of C25K, which had me running for 5 minutes at a time, and a totaling 16 minutes of running out of 31 minutes.  Tomorrow I’m starting Week 5, which has intervals of 3 minutes of walking and 5 minutes of running, repeated for 31 minutes. I’m excited about this coming week because those are the types of intervals that I can see myself keeping up with in an actual 5K, and maybe even longer.  I know the point of the C25K is to get to the point of running for an entire 5K, but I’ve been reading and hearing so much about intervals and how you can actually go faster with less risk of injury, that I think I may just keep it at this level.  We’ll see.

Yesterday my mom and I went shopping at Macy’s and had the best time! My parents were really generous and had given me a $350 gift card.  I spent $50 on some Mac makeup, bought lots of clothes, and still have some money to spend.  Here’s what I got:

First and foremost, I needed new sports bras because all the ones I have are way too big.  Since I’m still losing weight, I didn’t want to invest in a really expensive sports bra, because within a few months (or sooner) it won’t fit anyway.  So when I found these Bali Active by Champion bras for $38 each, which were on sale buy 2, get 2 free (and then I had a $15 off  coupon!), I had to get them.  I love the sizing: 34-36 D-DD, because I am in-between right now. They fit me really well, and are very comfortable, and I like that they’re underwire, because I need it. When I jogged in place in the fitting room, the bra was really supportive, too. So I got 4 great sports bras for $60, which is the price you could pay for one expensive sports bra.

These next tops are ones that I needed for “after school” and on weekends.  Casual tops that have a little more style than tshirts, but are just as comfortable.

I love the little details on this Style & Co. top, like the metal on the shoulders. It’s a size large! Oh, and the best part? I got it for $5.70 (originally $39).

You can’t tell from the photos, but this is a purple and white mini-striped hoodie. I like that it’s comfy, but also shows my shape. This is Style & Co. Sport, size XL. I got it for $5.61 (originally $44).

I absolutely love this hoodie – the color, the pattern. I was worried that because it’s a bit long, it wouldn’t look good with my hips, but I think it looks great. It’s from Style & Co. and is an XL. This one wasn’t on sale, and wasn’t eligible for any coupons, but it was a great price – $21.98.

This next one is dressier – it would be great for school, on a date (hopefully soon!), or for a party.

This was a showstopper. I saw it and knew I wanted it, and even though it’s a bit snug around my hips, it will look great when I lose a few pounds, so I bought it. It’s from INC, size XL. It was originally $79.50, and I got it for $50.57, which is still really high, but I loved it, so I splurged a bit.

The purchase I’m proudest of is just a pair of jeans. But not just any pair – a pair of size 16s! At my heaviest, I was too big to fit into size 24s of this brand, and now I’m in 16s! These weren’t on sale, and weren’t eligible for the coupon, but they’re a great buy at $29.98. (I’m wearing the jeans in all of the photos above).

I’d say that was a successful shopping trip, wouldn’t you?  And I still have $100 to spend in the future. Woot!

Shopping for new clothes is fun, but this was the first time I’d ever been able to buy tops in the “normal” section of Macy’s, so it was a day I’ll never forget.  I’m not going to buy any more clothes until I go down in sizes; I have some great pieces, which I’m going to enjoy wearing.

Until next Sunday, my friends. I hope the scale treats you well, and that you have a wonderful week!

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