Holding steady

Well, I'm a little disappointed that the second half of the month didn't yield better results, but I ended out the four-week challenge at the same 9 pounds down. Still, losing 9 pounds in December is a lot better than I have been doing. On to January!

9 pounds

9 pounds. In December. I'm only halfway done with this month. Wow.

Progress

Usually I gain weight during the holidays. Not this time. Playing this Game On! diet has been just the thing I've needed to get my mindset right and get my behaviors back in line and where they need to be. I've lost 6 pounds so far in December and plan to lose at least 10 by the month's end. I'm feeling so great.

The basics of this game are to eat 5 meals no closer than 2 and no further than 4 hours apart. They have to be of approved foods and consist of a healthy carb the size of your fist, a healthy protein the size of your palm and a healthy fat the size of your thumb. You also get 100 free calories a day, one meal off per week and one completely free day. I think that is helping me keep my sanity and have a little indulgence without completely feeling like I've blown it.

There are also points for changing a bad habit and developing a good one, drinking enough water, exercising, getting enough sleep and communicating with your teammates and opposing team members.

Something about the set up of this competition is really effective and it seems like nearly everyone is having success.

A good week

I'm hopeful. I had a really good week. I started this Game On! challenge with some family members, mostly step family members. I've been able to follow the rules really well. I weigh in tomorrow to see how I've done for the first week weight loss total, but I think I'll have a good weight loss. I'm feeling stronger and more in control.

A month almost?

Sheesh! Has it already been almost a month since I posted that? Wow.

Like I said before, if I'm not posting, it's not because I'm doing well. At this point it's because I'm still struggling to make any progress. Up and down and up and down and up the scale. It's been rough. I'm back to the same weight I was when I got my last fill. Or at least that's where I was before Thanksgiving. I haven't weighed myself in a few days.

As of December 1st, I'm going to be part of a group health challenge. It's based on the Game on! Diet book. It's similar to the one I did a year and a half ago, but it's more structured and strict. I think this will be just the thing to help me get back into the swing of things. It will be great, too to have it go through this month of holidays and birthdays and anniversaries. It can be a dangerous month indeed!

Scale Tales

I think I'm making myself a little crazy with daily weigh ins. Still, it seems the best way to keep focused on what I'm doing.

I see fluctuations of as much as 7 pounds from one day to the next. I have had really great eating for the last two days. The morning after the first day my weight went up a few pounds. No worries. I know I'm doing the right things for my body, so I just keep going. This morning, my weight was down 7 pounds from that weight, for a total of 6 pounds lost since my fill. Hopefully I can keep things going in a downward trend.

It's working!

Down 4 pounds now, since my fill. Yay!!

The wonderful thing is that I think I can maintain this level of eating. It feels normal with effort made to make good choices.

:)

I did so well today! I'm really happy. I was able to not snack much between lunch and dinner.

I also had a victory of sorts with sweets. My girls are out of school today and wanted a snack. I decided to make them some no-bake cookies. I had two of them and then took a nap. I asked my oldest daughter to have them put away in a container somewhere hidden when I woke up so I wouldn't eat any more. It worked. I was totally in control of what I ate of those.

We also went for a walk as a family today. The weather was absolutely perfect. I've really been enjoying this beautiful fall here.

Doing well!

Things are going well since this last fill. I'm able to make better food choices and get full faster. I love it.

One area I need to work on is afternoon, between lunch and dinner. That's probably where I get the most calories of the day. If I can distract myself during this time, I think I'll be able to get fewer calories in.

I've lost one pound since the fill. Here's hoping for many more of those.

Still here!

You can pretty much count on the fact that if I'm not posting much it's because I am struggling. This last year has been so hard. It was about a year ago that I found out I was pregnant. Because of my choices and circumstances I have lost so much ground on the weight battle. I thought I could get the weight off fairly easily after Aaron was born, but not so. I have struggled and struggled and the weight I lost right after he was born is coming back on, slowly but surely.

I'm not going to say that I can't do this weight loss thing without the help of the Lapband, but the truth is, I haven't. I haven't, in my adult life, been successful at losing weight or let's be honest, even maintaining my weight without the band. So I'm going to stop being stubborn and wishing that I am the same as everyone else and just take advantage of the band and the knowledge I have gained from having it.

I have had two fills over the last few weeks. The band holds 10 ccs of saline. The first fill I got was 2 ccs. I had a little bit of restriction, but not much. This second one I was able to get 3 ccs of fluid in. (She suggested 1cc, but I asked for 3 and she agreed.) I have had one day of regular eating since this fill. I'm able to tell a significant difference.

I am not nearly as restricted as I was pre-pregnancy, but I'm at a good level. I can eat without a lot of trouble, but I do get full quicker and stay satisfied longer. I feel a great relief to some of the struggle.

I need to be careful about my food choices, or this won't make a lick of difference. I think I'm going to write out a food plan for the week. I'm going to plan my meals in advance so that I'm not standing in front of the fridge wondering what I should eat. That tends to lead to poor choices.

I have become lax on a few band guidelines over the last year. I'm going to recommit to following them better:

Not drinking with meals. I was so good at this before. I need to get back to it.

Focusing on protein. My food needs to be protein dense for the most part.

I made a yummy protein packed treat tonight. I blended a cup of 1% milk fat cottage cheese till it was smooth and then added it to 1 package of Sugar Free Pistachio Pudding and 1 cup of 1% milk. I divided it up into four servings. Each serving had nine grams of protein. It was like pudding, but thicker and creamier. I topped it off with a little light spray whipped cream.

My exercise lately has been mostly the basic T-tapp workout. I think I am going to add some walking videos to it. It's getting colder and it's hard to get outside with the kids. I've also had some ankle pain that has kept me from walking much. I hurt it about a month ago and it's still not 100% better.

I anticipate that I will be doing better than I have been, so I'm likely to post more often. Stay tuned!

Moving along

Well, after three different sets of family visiting, having a wonderful time with them and enjoying way too much yummy food, I'm almost back to the weight I was before the visits. It is crazy to me how fast I gain weight. Though, this time, as soon as I got back on track it has come off fast as well.

I'm still hoping to reach my first weight goal by September 1st. I've also exercised 4 days in a row, successfully. I can feel my stamina and my strength returning. Yay!

10 %

I just read a great article that I'm sure I read a while back. It says to break down your weight-loss goals into more manageable chunks. Start with setting a goal to lose 10% of your body weight. Then once you're there, do it again, only this time your 10% will be a smaller number. Keep it up in these small steps until you're at goal.

Here is the article.

I like this approach. I'm needing something to help me feel more successful on this journey.

I seem to have a 2 week cycle. I can do pretty well on my eating for about two weeks and by the end of my second week I'm back to square one. Unfortunately, my weight seems to follow right along with me.

I haven't made any real progress with my weight loss or fitness. I keep coming back to my bad habits. I have come to realize I cannot eat that way and not expect to gain weight. I have to stay vigilant or I will not be successful.

My baby is seven weeks old. It seems like such a short time, but at the same time, I am ready to be back on track and making progress. It is time.

Next step is exercise--Exercise, what's that? It seems so daunting at this point. My sister is coming to visit me next week. I asked her to help me get back on track exercising while she's here. She is amazing. She's running a half-marathon on Sunday. I walk around my house or maybe the grocery store on occasion. I need to move more in her direction. :) I still have the goal to run a 5K on or around Thanksgiving this year. That's run, not walk! I will do it. No excuses.

Pretty good

I'd say things are going pretty good. Not great. Not poorly. Just pretty good. I've been able to stay out of sweets a lot better than I had thought I might. I've got to make some more changes though, because my weight isn't responding as quickly as I thought.

I've been down six pounds so far, but my weight is really bouncy! It fluctuates quite a bit. Right now it's inexplicably back up to higher than I started. It's not because I'm eating poorly, so I'm not really worried about it, but still, it should be going down faster and more consistently. That means I'm probably eating too much of not good-enough food.

I do pretty well at getting my fruits and veggies in. I know I'm still eating too many refined carbs; crackers, bread, pasta, rice, etc. I'm a rock star at getting my water in. I'm consistently getting 80 oz of water a day, often more.

So I'm going to try tracking my calories for a few days to get a feel for how many I am eating and where I need to make changes to get things moving faster.

I've done a handful of exercise sessions. I'm surprised at how out of shape my body is. Walking is still hard for me. T-tapp was hard, but I feel like it's about the level I'm at right now.

My official weigh-in day is Monday, so we'll see how I'm doing by then.

Ready

Well, I'm back. I'm ready to get this weight off and get back to my pre-baby size. So here we go!

As of right now I have no fill in my band. The nearest fill-doctor is over four hours away, so as of right now, I'm going to see what I can do on my own without having it filled. If I get stuck and can't lose any more, then I will look into getting fluid put back in my band.

Honestly, I don't miss the restrictions of the band as far as having to eat slowly and some foods that I can't tolerate. If I can do this without having to get that restriction, I think I will enjoy the eating aspect of my life much more.

So as I posted before, I gained way more weight with this pregnancy than I had ever intended to. It ended up being about 75 lbs. So, right now, in order to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I have 50 pounds left to lose. Yay for already being 25 pounds down from my baby's birth three weeks ago!

I have tried to exercise a couple of times since baby was born, but both times I ended up in pain and really worn out. I think I was jumping the gun just a bit. I went for a walk around the neighborhood. I didn't make it more than about half a mile either time. My abdominal muscles were very weak and sore throughout. I will try again soon and see if I'm ready yet.

My biggest problems that have caused my weight gain are not exercising and eating too many sweets. So this week, I started back on not eating sweets. I will allow myself one occasion of sweet-eating per week. (Like a party, or movie, etc.) I'm on day three of no desserts and down four pounds so far. Not bad results. It really shows me that sweets make a huge difference in my weight.

So I will be posting much more regularly to keep myself accountable and update you on my progress. Stay tuned!

Baby Boy is here!

Our baby was born this last week. Feeling very happy and blessed.

And end in sight

For both the hotel stay and the pregnancy!

We found a house to live in. It's a rental here in town and it's just right for what we need. We will be moving next week if all goes well.

I'm just over 4 weeks away from my due date. In fact, I just realized I'm due one month from today. It's been a long pregnancy. I'll be glad to get on with post-pregnancy life!

Getting some exercise in

So I haven't been very good about exercising since becoming pregnant. I don't have any good reasons, but I just haven't done it as often as I should. Now that I have a big ol' pregnant belly and waddle a bit, it seems odd to be getting back to it, but I have been. I've gone walking three days recently. I started with one mile on the treadmill. I start having contractions if I walk too fast, so it's a fairly slow pace compared to my old pace, but still challenging. The next two times I did 1.5 miles each time. Today I even increased my incline a little to switch things up. I'm careful to back off speed or incline if I feel like it's too much.

After the baby comes, I would love to get back to work with the workouts. I will have to do a Couch to 5K regimen again. I've committed to run 5K on Thanksgiving and gotten my siblings to join in. Not sure where we'll all be for that holiday, but we can all do it wherever we are.

The suite life

Well, sort of. We're in Montana, in the hotel. We have been here about a week. The girls are in school, Brad is working and we are looking for a home. We are eating out most meals. I try to make the best choices I can, but it's not always ideal. At least it's temporary.

I have about 10 weeks left in this pregnancy. I'm excited to meet this little guy. I'm also excited to get back on track with my weight and health. I've gotten my weight down once, I can do it again and I don't have nearly as far to go this time.

Moving again

Yes, we are serial movers!

This time is for real, though. My hubby got a promotion and we are moving to North Eastern Montana. It is very cold, very remote, and a very small town. It has taken some getting used to for me to get excited about going there, but I'm there now. Life is just full of change and growth.

At least this time the company will move us, so it will be a lot less work on our end. It's been a while since we have done a long-distance move. This should be interesting.

Checking in

Wow, it's like pulling teeth to get myself to come over here and post. I've gotten lots of comments online and in real life that people miss hearing from me, so here I am. I do appreciate all the support and love from my friends.

This blog has been about so much exciting change in my life, it's hard to write about when the change is not exciting. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to be pregnant and don't mind some changes to my body for this purpose. But the whole last two years of my life have been this incredible ride of change and discovery and heading down the scale while my self-esteem has gone up. It's hard to be going the other direction. There's no high. There are sighs of frustration when I step on the scale only to see it going up and up and up. (I am not weighing very often, just before I go to the doctor so I can prepare myself.) There are realizations that things are harder now because I'm not only pregnant, but heavier. I am having a hard time with my clothes. I have a few maternity things that fit, but not a lot and there's still some issues with some of the ones that do fit. I just don't feel beautiful or confident in my physical self right now.

I'm also going to quit reporting how much weight I have gained. I reserve the right as a pregnant lady to not broadcast my weight. :) I will just summarize it by saying that I've already gained more than I wanted to my whole pregnancy. I've gained more than I have with my other children. It's frustrating. It has come on so fast. I know that I'm at fault because I haven't stuck to being as healthy as I can be. I know I have to give myself some leeway because I'm pregnant, but not so much that I use it as an excuse to forget everything I have learned.

I did pretty good on my goals for January for the first two weeks, not so well the second two weeks. It's nice to have a new month to start over.

I had a conversation with someone today that totally caught me off guard, but was a huge blessing. We were talking about things going on in my life, nothing too heavy and he asked me if I was doing okay. He said I seemed like I was really run down. That I seemed to be at the end of my rope. To my surprise I started to cry. I hadn't realized it was that obvious, but I am having a really hard time with the weight gain as well as some potential changes coming up for our family that I will mention if they pan out. It was good for me, I guess, to realize how stressed I am right now and to let it out a bit.

This person then went on to tell me that he'd been thinking a lot about me and my story lately because he has decided to get dedicated to becoming physically fit. He is going to start running and has some pretty big goals as far as races to train for. So he, in turn, inspired me after being inspired by me.

So I went to my car, cried a little more, then decided instead of wallowing in my sadness and frustration to go to the gym and get on the treadmill. It felt good to be taking charge of my situation, rather than moaning and whining about poor me, gaining too much weight.

I made some healthier choices today as far as snacks, etc. I'm not eating out of control like I was during the holidays, but I'm not eating carefully either. Having my fluid out of my Lapband and eating full portions of regular food is probably part of the weight gain as well.

I'm very grateful to know that the band is there ready and waiting for me when I'm done with the pregnancy and ready to start losing serious weight again.

So for baby news:

I am a little over halfway through my pregnancy. The ultrasound shows that we're having a boy. I have been feeling him kick for the last couple of weeks. I love feeling the little flutters. I can even watch the surface of my skin sometimes and see my belly move with the little kicks. It will be fun when they are strong enough for the rest of the family to feel them or even see them. I have some cute ultrasound pictures that I will share.

New year and new goals

Hi again.

Time to face the music. This last month has not been kind to me, weight-wise. I've gained pretty close to 20 pounds in the last month. Unbelievable! That's enough to scare me straight. I acknowledge that much of it may be pregnancy caused, but certainly not all of it. I know my poor eating and lack of exercise has caused a lot of it.

My goals for right now can really only involve my actions, not controlling the results on the scale. So, for the month of January, I'm going to exercise every week day, for a total goal of 21 days.

Also, no sweets or desserts until Valentine's Day. I will have some on that occasion, then no more again until Easter. I'm sure much of my weight gain is chocolate-related.

I will also try to make healthier food choices, but I honestly think the above two goals are the crux of my problem right now, so getting that under control will help a lot.

I will try to blog more often to keep myself more accountable. Must not gain crazy amounts of weight any more.