It's been almost 11 days since I made a post! I haven't had a blogging hiatus this long in a while. I blame the weather. It's been really cold and snowy here. Winters in Kansas are so unpredictable, and I've never been a fan of the cold. Give me a hot summer day over a sub zero windchill any day. After one or two snow days, I've hit my cold quota for the year. I did make it to the gym on Tuesday for my personal training session and it was probably the most challenging workout to date. I really had to get in there and use my core muscles which is quite an accomplishment seeing the hardships they endured during the last operation. If you could see my stomach, it really does look like a manatee got run over by a boat.
Besides the weather, I recently got a job for a few hours a week doing social media marketing for Northglen Antiques in Hays, Ks. You should totally check them out on Facebook. The owner specializes in Scottish antiques and a host of other imports from Scotland. I don't know that I've ever specifically mentioned it in a blog, but my mothers maiden name is Wallace and her father, my grandfather, was second generation American. Genealogy has always fascinated me! I actually got one of those DNA tests from Ancestry.com, but my spit was rejected and they sent me a new collection kit free of charge, but that was back before the surgery and it got misplaced. Total bummer. I really hope that I find the silly thing! I'm so curious to see what it says. Watch, it will tell me that I really am part manatee. Speaking of manatees, I'm planning on expanding my Manadee tattoo and I've come up with an idea for a tattoo I might get with a friend (the siren call of the ink is strong with this one). One day, I'm going to run out of discreet places to put all my skin art and then I'll either have to get brazen and put it in a more visible place, or...I actually don't think there is an 'or' - when the ink calls, it calls. Also, I got my totally amazing boots that my amazing readers voted 'yes' for. I'm glad you guys are willing to go out on a limb and dress me in ridiculously awesome fashions and makeup, because sometimes, I just can't make these kinds of difficult decisions on my own. Speaking of which, I have way to much free time on my hands and my husband thinks I need a hobby (he's probably right). Maybe you all can help me out with that. Got any recipes you haven't been brave enough to try? Topics you'd like me to blog about? Songs you'd like me to sing? I've probably just opened myself up to things getting real weird, but hey, it'll probably be more entertaining than cleaning my house, right? Slam dunked another goal over the weekend - got over 8,000 steps in one day. I was going to get myself an awesome new mug to celebrate, but my husband beat me to it! He picked up a humorous little cup while he was out in Denver and it was perfect timing for my newest achievement. This is the most steps I have gotten in one day since the surgery. Now, I've got my sites set on 9,000. I also had to buy new dress pants. My last remaining and smallest pair finally got too big to wear. I finally got to officially downsize to a size 18W. We're making progress. I also got a fancy new hair cut, and lifted a 30 pound bag on dog food all by myself.
Some days, the little things add up to a big ole smile on my face. This is day 36 without soda or cheese, and I didn't go on a bender when I visited Salina this weekend. I had a few indulgences, but nothing too extreme and nothing in massive quantities - I'm saving that splurge for Thanksgiving! I'm still working on gearing up for the Bubble Run 5K this coming July. I'll walk it, but it will be my biggest fitness challenge post operation. I've also decided to add to my Manadee tattoo. I found the most perfect and awesome addition. It's small and simple, but oh so me and just what I need to keep up the motivation! I promise I'll share pictures after I get it (still not sure when I'll fit it in between the Holidays). Thanks to all of my faithful readers who keep me writing, and keep me accountable. Sharing my journey with you has been an awesome privilege, and I look forward to many more blogging adventures! Despite my earlier skepticism, we have arrived at day 29 - only one more left to go. People ask me what's the first thing I'm going to eat on day 31. While it's tempting to go on a bender, I know that wouldn't serve any purpose other than to make me vomit. Like I've said before, we're going to do our best to stick to the Paleo tenants for the next 30 days. We'll indulge a bit, but we're really pushing to keep away from dairy and processed sugar for as long as possible and to use grains as a side rather than the main course. My husband has officially lost 52 pounds and reached his goal weight of 152. I'm still sitting at 34 pounds lost with 40 more to go. I'm trying not to focus on the number and to focus more on my goals.
If you missed my video yesterday, I got myself a little prize for hitting my 6,000 steps in one day goal. I'm leaps and bounds ahead of the 2,000 a day I was struggling to get back in July. I want to start working on my swimming goals, but it's so cold out there, I don't want to go to the gym (the manatee in me misses the water though, so eventually the pull will be to strong to ignore). I think I'm going to add in a treadmill goal too. Our treadmill's programs were written by a squirrel on amphetamines though (I don't think I'll be doing an hour at 6mph on an incline of 10). I just sifted through them till I found something reasonable. So far, I'm really proud of all the progress I'm making both psychically and mentally. I fell like a new hair cut might be in order, AND I'm trying on the impossible pants again on Wednesday. Stay tuned for the next installment! Less than one week left till the finish line. The hardest part now is finishing strong. Sometimes I think, 25 days is close enough to 30 right? But that's not what this is about. I need to finish this to prove that I can and to be healthy. Now that I've reunited with my Fitbit, I've had to accept some hard truths about myself. If you haven't checked it out yet, I've set some goals for myself, and I thought one of them would be pretty easy, ha. Get 6,000 steps in one day. I thought that would be pretty easy to tick off and get the ball rolling, a success under my belt to motivate me for the harder goals. Turns out, I'm really not moving nearly as much as I thought. I got just over 4,000 steps on Tuesday, and just over 3,000 on Wednesday. No wonder I haven't been moving weight as fast as I'd hoped. I'm going to have to kick it in gear. I've set this weeks step goal at 5,000 a day and it's time to make a conscious effort to get up and move.
On the cooking front, I've been continuing with my culinary adventures. Last night we had Greek burgers with lamb, pine nunts, mint, onions, bell peppers and spices topped with aoli and wrapped in lettuce. It was quite delicious. This morning I made a shake, because my tummy is weird about solid food before 9 a.m., and the only sweet thing it had in it was bananas. Strangely, I kept second guessing myself as I drank it. Am I sure this doesn't have any ingredients with sugar or sweeteners - nope and nope. Guess my taste buds are finally detecting the natural sugar in food. I'll be interested to see what actual sugar tastes like when this is all over. I'm gonna guess it will be a bit strong. Well, I'm off to crank out some steps seeing as I'm only at 972. Wish me luck! Oh, Fitbit how I had missed you my friend. I finally got my new charger in the mail, and Fitbit Alta and I are like peas and carrots again. It will be good to establish a step goal again. I'm not really sure where to start as I'm more mobile now than I was before it died. I'll start small and work my way up. The American Heart Association recommends 10,000 steps a day, but I'm going to start with 5,000 and 2 days a week with less to give myself some rest time. Since I'm starting on Tuesday instead of my usual Sunday, I'm going to set this weeks goal for 24,000 by the end of Saturday.
Establishing a regular step goal is not only healthy, but also motivational and may just help me to slide under the weight plateau I've hit. I try to be less about scale numbers and more about achievements like being able to do the assisted pull up machine again, but I do still have a weight goal, and someday I hope to reach it. I've come a long way in 5 months. After the surgery, I dreamed of the day I could take a shower without getting tired. Then, I dreamed of the day that I could walk from the front of the store to the back of the store without my stomach pinching. Now it's up and over and on to the next milestone. My friends and I are walking a 5K in July and I would like to get to the point where that I can do that with relative ease. The Whole30 is over on Tuesday of next week and I'm going to give you another picture of the impossible pants. Can I get a WHO-WA? Only 8 more days left and I'm filled with an excessive amount of emotion. A small part of me wants to just call it good and throw in the towel early, part of me wonder's what comes next, and part of me is melodramatic and thinks that I won't survive another 8 days. Honestly the hardest part about this little adventure is cooking all the time. We had gotten into a routine of calling for delivery when we just didn't feel like making food. This got me thinking about when this all started (the habitual convenience food).
As I've said before, I didn't grow up this way. Mom always made dinner and we sat around the table and ate it. Pizza was for special occasions. I didn't eat out a lot in college either, unless they were running a special like cheap cheeseburger Tuesday. This probably started 8 years ago with my first teaching job. I was at school ALL the time and I quit smoking, plus had a steady income. It was the perfect storm. I replaced smoking with food, ate to relieve stress, and found eating out to be much faster and more convenient than cooking at home. I also ate in front of the TV instead of at the table. At the time, I didn't think about the habits I was forming and just how hard they would be to break later. It always seems to much harder to culture the good habits rather than the bad ones, and now, here I am trying to re-write eight years of bad food habits. In the grand scheme of things, 22 days of healthy eating is just a drop in the bucket. I've got to keep pushing myself to make good decisions for my health. Of course I plan to indulge a little over the Holidays, but for the most part, we are going to try and keep a few things out of our diet on a more permanent basis - dairy, processed sugar, and refined grains. After the 30 days are up, just eating corn salsa and re-fried beans is going to be a treat! This is going to be an uphill battle, but at some point, we will reach the top of the hill. I have never mastered the art of frying something without burning it to a crisp. I coated some pork chops in egg and almond flour and then fried them in a thin layer of olive oil. The insides are pink and the outside is charred. Sigh. I've done this since I was a kid. When mom got these breaded, frozen chicken fingers that had to be fried (they were raw, not precooked), I burnt the hades out of those too. Whatever. Some people just weren't meant to fry things. I just imagine Gordon Ramsey asking me what the *&%$ is going on in my kitchen and then calling me an idiot sandwich. It's all good, the steamed cauliflower and and gravy turned out well.
We've only got 10 days to go, and I'd be lying if I said that I'd conquered my sugar dragon. At least I now enjoy fruits and vegetables again. And, even though you're NOT supposed to weigh yourself, I checked anyway. I've lost 8 pounds and am back down to 221. Some days 180 seems so far away that I can't even imagine it as real. So, I hold on to the things that are tangible. I'm making improvements in personal training and was able to do a modified plank. I can also do the assisted pull up machine again, and am lifting more weight with each session for all the exercises I do. Only one pair of my dress pants still fits, and those are relatively new. All the others have officially gotten too big to wear at all. On a somewhat related note, I tried my wedding dress on last night for kicks. When I got married 4 years ago, I weighed 264 pounds, so I'm about 42 pounds lighter now. It's a little looser through the rib cage, and a lot looser through the stomach. The bust gapes as I've lost there too. This got me to thinking about why I'm keeping it. I understand that some people keep their wedding dresses for nostalgia, or for posterity, but I feel like I've got the memories stored in a place no one can take away, I don't really need to keep a six pound dress that is almost 2 sizes too big. I would feel better if someone else could use it for their special day, if I could give it purpose again. I think I might sell it. We'll see. Right now, I'm just going to succumb to that dreary weather feeling and take a nap. I miss hot chocolate. Only 10 more days, and we shall be together again my friend. |
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June 2023
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