6 weeks post op. June 13, 2013

My breast reduction was 6 weeks ago!  Where is the time going???

Things are feeling much more normal, I’m having to massage the scars every night (hubby is very interested in making sure the scars soften, lol! Not a boob man!  Right!).  They’re a bit misshapen still from scaring inside, but I’m told that with time and massage, they’ll “round out”.

Hubby and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary yesterday!  He surprised me by sneaking in and putting a planter with an orchid in my office while I was at the gym at lunch, then picked me up from work for dinner and a movie!  We went to Canyon creek for appies, then to see Star Trek on IMAX, then out for crepes and ice cream at Dimitri’s, so yum!

Coincidentally I was wearing the same shirt I wore on our Valentine’s day date!  So I did a comparison pic!

I have only lost a few pounds since february, but holy cow my face looks smaller!.  That shirt I could not have worn to work before the breast reduction, now it’s totally in my rotation now!

The big picture. June 11, 2013

I’ve not blogged all week. It’s not that I’ve nothing to talk about, it’s probably that I have too much to talk about and have nowhere to start! First off. Weigh in was tonight and I stayed the same. Pretty good considering all of the activity I’ve been doing!

One thing that’s been on my mind lately, is my weight loss goal. Currently I’m just under 10 pounds away from my goal weight and the way things are going, it’s going to take a long time to get there. Especially since it’s summer, I love a glass of wine on the patio watching the kids play, and enjoying food at BBQ’s on the weekends.

I’ve started back at the gym doing weight training too. My weight is increasing instead of decreasing, and I know why, but it still plays with the mind! My goal is ten pounds away, but I probably have 20 to lose to get there!

I really have to take a step back and look at the big picture.

Look where I’ve come! I really shouldn’t complain about where I am now. I was 253.4 pounds 20 months ago!!!

I think my focus over the summer is going to be to maintain. I know that will be hard enough with weight training, the last thing I want to do is to set myself up for a fail aiming to lose 10 pounds by the end of summer. It’s just not going to happen.

I’m going to focus on my measurements and fat percentage. If that changes over the summer I’ll be a happy girl!

Body fat percentage – was 53% – now 40% (healthy is between 21-33% for females my age)

Bust – was 55″ – now 41.5″

Hips – was 55″ – now 44.5″ (yes I was a tube)

Waist – was 54″ – now 37.5″

left arm – was 17″ – now 13.5

right arm – was 17.5″ – now 13.5″

left thigh – was 28″ – now 23″

right thigh – was 27.25 – now 23″

left calf – was 18″ – now 14.25″

right calf – was 17″ – now 14″

Wow! 64 inches lost!

Weigh in and THE PLAN. June 4, 2013

One of my biggest holdout’s to exercising in the morning, is my laziness. I don’t sleep in, I have no trouble getting out of bed, actually, I’m up at 6 o’clock most mornings despite not having to leave for work until 8. My problem is that I like sitting in my chair reading blogs and watching TV. It’s “me” time. I watch programs that my husband isn’t interested in watching and that I can’t watch when the kids are up (can’t concentrate on TV when the kids are yelling, fighting, talking, laughing, squealing, “Mama can I have my milk/juice/snack/breakfast/lunch/supper/bath/nap now” ‘ing).

This morning laziness is ending, at least during the week. I NEED to get my butt out of that damn chair and walk, run (when I’m allowed). There is nothing stopping me, but me.

Today I started with a personal trainer! Her name is Krista and she’s probably my age, and not a super skinny blond chick who has never truly battled with her weight, she gets me! I talked to her briefly about my goals, not much emphasis on the number on the scale, but I want to gain muscle! I’d rather be 160 pounds with rocking awesome biceps than 140 pounds and flabby!

We did legs today… and holy cow has the last month of being off exercise of any kind really done me in! My legs shook the whole time! Even during stretching afterwards! So I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow!

As for points. I’ve never been able to go down to 26 points (the lowest you can go on Weight Watchers). I was at 28 for a while, then bumped it up to 29, then 30. There really isn’t anything wrong with eating 30 points of food in a day, (it’s almost always healthy food, I need to eat more at work as I’m moving a lot) but I want to see if I can get down to 26. If I need more, I need to earn them. The whole point of activity points is to eat back the calories you’ve used in healthy food, ie, protein. So my food plan, is to wean back down to 26 points, use my WW’s pedometer, track my activity, and if I need extra points, take it from what I’ve earned. I’m going to try and not use all of my weekly points this week, see how I do.

I know that with a little better diet management and increased exercise, I can have the last few pounds gone quickly, especially since I’ve been half-assing it for the past few months!

Weigh in was today…

I was down 1.4! Even after a good leg workout! So my total weight loss is 84 pounds, still 4.8 pounds up from surgery, but I’m knocking it off! I still have quite a bit of swelling in my breasts and upper abdomen, I know it will take time for that to come off, so I’m not too concerned.

Mom is home! June 3, 2013

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, it’s been a busy week!  Tom worked 5 out of the last 7 days, I had to get the house ready for mom coming home, gardening and kid wrangling of course!

Mom is doing so well, she’s not even a candidate for any sort of homecare!  Which is great, but then it does fall on me to worry about the little things, like making sure she gets her meds and breakfast, and that she waits until I’m home to bathe.  More for me to do.  But that just seems to be the way it goes!

She’s pretty much (miraculously) back to her old self!  One big change I’ve noticed with mom is a good one!  She’s decided that it was her bad eating habits that caused her to have the strokes!  So she’s eager for cut up veggies in the fridge and my healthy home-cooked meals!  What a change!  She used to get upset when I wouldn’t let her eat ice cream for dinner!  I hope we can keep this trend up!

Tomorrow I start back at the gym and have my first personal trainer session! I’m hoping to get a good workout routine in place. I’d like to eventually run in the mornings before work (when I get the all clear to run) and do strength training on my lunches a few days a week. We’ll see what this trainer has in mind, my previous experience with trainers is more that they want you to keep coming to them and aren’t interested in giving you an independent plan to follow. We shall see. I’ll keep you posted!

3.5 weeks post op. May 28, 2013

I went to the plastic surgeon this morning. All is well. I can now get back to exercising! I’m not allowed to run (too much bounce) but I can get to strength training! So when I got to work this morning I ran right to e gym and took my membership off of hold and booked my first of 6 personal training sessions for next week! I can’t wait to get back to normal!

Weigh in was tonight, stupidly I wore jeans and a heavy t shirt. I still ended up losing 0.4 lbs though! Sweet deal! I’m still up from pre surgery, but I’m eating according to my hunger still. So really I shouldn’t expect much on the scale.

First day back at work, 19 days post op. May 21, 2013

I’m a Nurse, but I work in a doctors office and don’t do any lifting really at all. So just short of 3 weeks off should be fine. Well today was my first day back and it totally knocked the wind out of me! I was so exhausted by about 2:30 I could barely concentrate on anything and the bouncing boobs as I walked up and down the office hallway countless number of times were so uncomfortable and swollen rock hard by the end of the day! I even broke down and took pain meds! Just when I think I’m fine and can do anything, my body tells me I need more recovery time. I’m still going to work tomorrow, but I need to find a way to lighten my load!

Weigh in was tonight. I was down 0.4 pounds. Great! Not the 7+ pounds I was hoping for, but I’ll take it! With the swelling going on I’m surprised I had a loss to be honest!

One of the hardest things I didn’t expect to be struggling with, on top of trying to get on track after 2 weeks of totally off track I’m now finding myself alone in the evenings more and am getting snacky! I never realized how much of an anchor Tom is. I usually snack at night, but a piece of fruit and sometimes a pudding and I’m satisfied. Lately with him not home in the evenings I get so munchy! I’m eating more than I normally do, still trying to make good choices, but even 3 servings of fruit at bedtime can slow weight loss. I’ve been making myself a David’s tea most evenings and it is helping avoid the binge. I think my body is needing the extra calories to heal. I packed a sensible lunch and had it all finished by 1:00 pm. I was ready to faint by the time I got home from WW’s around 7:00! I think I need to be better prepared with food, and not try to make my body diet when it shouldn’t be. I should be listening to my hunger signs and eat when my body wants it.

I’ve been getting more anxious with summer coming and being so much further away from goal than I was a couple of weeks ago. I need to let nature take its course and accept that I will hit goal. I really need to stop putting a time limit on myself! I’ll be at goal when my body is damn well ready to be there!

Ch-ch-ch-changes! May 18, 2013

As you can see, there is much different about my blog!  Blogger was driving me nuts and my future brother-in-law happens to work for WordPress, so it was a pretty easy decision to move!   things aren’t all up and running, and the look WILL change again, but it’s all for the better!  I promise! Im having an ok weekend. Tom is working 11 am to 11 pm. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So I’m a single mom fothat’ll except for Monday!  He did just tell me that he’s taking Father’s Day off!  So that’ll be nice!  the way his schedule works out, he’s working this long weekend and the next long weekend. Plus Father’s day weekend. So something had to give! The girls have been good, I’ve been doing better with food, not great, but still on plan and tracking everything. I went out for brunch with my sisters and had a half serving of French toast, cottage cheese and fruit. Then I took the girls to the mall for dinner, walked there and back, had a salad with grilled chicken on top, then bought a chocolate bar to eat on the way home :).  I did earn 8 activity points for the 2 hours and 20 minutes I was pushing a stroller with 50 pounds of kids in it, and the coffee crisp chocolate bar was worth 7 points, so I didn’t really cheat, but still. I’m having a hard time staying on plan since being totally off plan for two weeks!    Oh well. I’ll get there.