Answers finally!

Saw another ankle surgeon today.

Apparently I have a bone growth in my ankle and it's what's been causing all of the troubles I've been having. It's called Os Trigonum syndrome.  The two previous surgeons I've seen in the past 3 years for this couldn't get past the fact that the ligaments were intact and said that nothing was wrong!  The didn't even see this growth!  They were looking at the same tests this surgeon was looking at!

He told me to get a specific type of running shoe and to continue with the muscle strengthening because it's been working.  He wants me to wear the barefoot running shoes because the lack of heel on them will naturally prevent my ankle from rolling over.  If I'm still having troubles in 6 months, he'll consider surgery.

These are the one's he suggested.  He says the low heel will prevent the bone growth from impinging or pinching and will let the inflammation in the joint go down.
Fricking expensive though!

I'm so happy that someone listened to me and thought to actually look at the MRI's and x rays himself!  I don't think I'll need surgery, my ankle really is a lot better since I've been working out and strengthening those muscles and have lost so much weight.  Hopefully the new shoes will stop my ankle from rolling over and it'll heal all the way.

Thank God for someone who listens!

Belated Weigh in

Sorry I didn't post on Tuesday, but it's been a really busy week here!  We're finishing up construction in our family room and it should be ready to paint tomorrow!  Our kiddies have been sick too so our attention was on them more than anything else and unfortunately, the blog went to the way side.

Tuesday was a great day for me.  I lost 0.8 lbs for a total of 60.2 lbs lost!!!  My weight loss has been slow this summer.  It's not that I'm eating off plan or anything, I'm doing what I normally do!  I think one of my issues is that I eat the same thing everyday for breakfast.  Oatmeal, 12 almonds and a piece of fruit.  So I'm trying to mix it up.  Yesterday I had cheerios and today I've had 2 fried eggs (no oil) a buttered piece of toast and a banana.  Oh well.  It'll start coming off again.  I'm also still tracking everything. 32 days of tracking down!

This week I've started back at the running thing and am loving it!  Well, while I'm running I wouldn't say that, lol!  But it's fun and makes me feel really good!  I'm going out today again :)

Trek or treat! Am I freaking crazy!?!?

My husband and I put the girls in the stroller after dinner yesterday and did c25k day 2!  We have a great stroller for running, so it makes it easy. :)

I was thinking yesterday after catching up on my blogs.  This is the thing with blogs.  I get inspired to do crazy things!  Like running!

My one year anniversary of starting this weight loss journey is coming up in October.  I started this journey right after Canadian thanksgiving.  So I got thinking.  3 months is enough time to train for a 5k, right?  I decided to sign up for the Trek or Treat 5k in Oakville thanksgiving weekend!  Last thanksgiving I couldn't even finish a 30 min walk with my kids and this thanksgiving I'll run a 5k?  Crazy!  What a difference a year makes!

Running. Attempt number 2!

Well the weather is nice today and I woke up at 6:45 and decided to go for a run.  I started running a month or so ago, then the heat and humidity made my asthma so bad it stopped my running attempt in its tracks!  I have pretty bad asthma and really shouldn't run when it's bad, so I didn't do much for the past month.  Then this past week I was more waiting for either my husband or my sister to go with me, but life gets busy, the day passes quickly and I find myself in bed again with no run done.

So when I woke up this morning I just decided to do it!  I set up the couch to 5k to play my gym playlist and I felt on top of the world out there!  I did every run and didn't feel dead at the end of it, so I think I can do this!  My knees were achy, but not bad and I felt my ankle twice which worries me, but it feels ok now.  My doctors have given me the ok to run without the ankle brace as the brace was interfering with my fibularus longus muscle (number 11 on the diagram :P )

Sorry I'm a Nurse and like medical stuff!  The brace went up about halfway on that muscle and stopped it from working properly, so as a result, that muscle is atrophied and doesn't work very well anymore.  So I'm not supposed to use the brace when I'm on flat ground.  Which is fine, but it makes me nervous because I've been so reliant on it for so long.

It really did feel good to get out there on my own though.  It feels good to have it done today too!

Now I get to spend all day with my girls while Daddo works on finishing the family room downstairs.  3 months later we might actually get to use it soon!  And tonight is date night :)  Going to see Batman!

I went to sleep in Canada and woke up in Arizona!

This heat is crazy!  I stayed the same at weigh in last night.  I'm actually pretty happy with that as I'm retaining water like crazy with this heat!

I'm still not doing much in the way of exercising these days and am feeling pretty guilty about it.  This summer has been stupid hot and my asthma has been bad.  My husband won't let me do anything outside right now!  I am trying to walk to work still though.  I want to get more into running, but I'm sitting here wishing the summer away instead!

I know, this time is fleeting and it'll be cold before I know it, then I'll complain about that!

French fries and time with Grandad

Sorry I haven't posted much this week!  We've all been sick and with sick kids (and sick hubby) Mama doesn't get a whole lot of time for herself!  Also, our wireless router bit the dust, slowly over the past couple of weeks.  It would take forever for my laptop to find the router, then it'd find it, I'd switch pages and it would crap out again!  With two little kiddies, I just couldn't take the time to fuss with it!  Now we have a brand spanking new apple router that works like a dream!!!

We medicated everybody up and went for a drive down to Port Dover for friday the 13th.  It's a small town on the north coast of Lake Erie and every friday the 13th, thousands of people drive their motorcycles to Port Dover.    There are bikes everywhere, bands playing, and tons of stuff going on.  We don't have a bike, but we wanted to show the girls all the bikes!

Well, we didn't get all the way to Port Dover, lol!

We were close to Tom's dad's place and decided to give him a call.  The girls had a great time with Grandad.  They went swimming first to cool off, the fed the fish in the pond then played ball for a while!

We went for dinner at a seafood restaurant there and I had crab and shrimp with a salad and french fries, oh shush I tracked it!  And they were so good!  I'm still feeling them like a lump in my stomach though :(  It's funny how I used to eat crap all day and never feel it.  Now I eat crap once and am paying for it for 2 days!


Well now that I'm feeling better, I think I'm going to revisit the running thing tonight.  I need to get some new running shorts though, my old gym clothes are so big now!  I should have looked for some when I was at the thrift store, totally didn't think of it!

This weeks weigh in! 9 months down!!!

So I'm 17 days in in my 100 day tracking challenge and I'm down 2.4 lbs this week!  For a total of 59.4 lbs lost!!!  I only have 49 left to lose until my official goal at Weight Watchers of 145.  WOW!!!  It just seems that much closer now that I have less than 50 lbs left :'')

I'm a Nurse and I am a Diabetic Educator.  So I do health teaching about weight loss every day!  I've been telling people my story and no one can believe I weighed over 250 lbs just 9 months ago.  Almost 60 pounds in 9 months.  Can you believe that???  I love being able to motivate people with my success.  I tell them that I don't deny myself anything.  I make good choices most of the time, but I let myself have the treats.  Just one instead of 6 cookies, one burger instead of two, a serving of potato chips instead of the whole bag.  This has to be for life.  So it has to be sustainable!  I also tell them that I eat.  A lot.  Healthy food all day.  When I don't eat as much I don't lose, just as simple as that!

Well, off to go spread the good news at work!

Bridesmaid dress NSV

I'm in a wedding in November and yesterday we went back to David's bridal to buy our bridesmaid dresses.


The last time we were there was at the end of March and I had on a size 20.  I felt pretty bad about that as I had already lost 30 lbs, but you know dress sizing, they're totally off!  


I was a little nervous going in there.  You know how your mind plays tricks on you.  I had the thought of still wearing a size 20 even after all of the hard work I've put in.  My mind is a little nuts that way.  I'll hold off putting a pair of pants on thinking they're going to be snug, then when I put them on finally, they're too big!  One day my brain won't think I'm fat anymore...


Well yesterday I had on a size 16!!!  It was a little snug over my gigantic boobs, but it zipped up all the way!  I did order the 16 as my bust size probably won't change that much over 4 months and will just have it taken in closer to the wedding.  I felt pretty great coming out of there!

100th post!

100 posts already!  I've come a long way since post #1.  I started posting on Weight Watchers, but didn't like the format and wanted a full blog that I could share pictures and keep track of my weigh-ins and measurements.  I read back to my original posts and one of them talked about looking in skinny store windows and I can shop there now!  I'm a size 14 now, not a 2x!

I have a whole list of accomplishments (NSV's) that have happened since my first blog post and I'm so proud of every one of them!

Yesterday at Weight Watchers, my big sister Becky joined us for the first time!  I'm immensely proud of her for taking this step!  2 sisters down, 1 to go!  No pressure though :P.  I didn't lose a whole lot, but I was down 0.2!  After all the crap I ate this weekend, I was happy with that!  I have 2 more BBQ's to go to this week, one tonight so a great friend who is visiting Ontario can see all of the little ones before having to leave again.  I'm going to get someone to take a picture again because I was at my heaviest last year when Michelle visited last time, I'll post comparison pics!

Long weekend!

It was Canada Day yesterday and I tracked everything!  I ate way more points than I would have, but between daily points, activity points and the rest of my weekly points I'm still under.  I'm not expecting a great loss tomorrow now :P  I think with all of the gardening work I did yesterday combined with the extra salt content, I'm retaining a bunch.  My daily weights are fluctuating quite a bit!

I've tracked 8 days in a row now and feeling pretty good about it.  Now to end the weekend with more garden work followed by Spiderman at the movies with my wonderful hubby :)