A little more a little less

A little more exercise and a little less weight is what I'm talking about this week. I got off my butt and moved. I danced, walked, and jogged as much as I could tolerate. It still isn't easy and my knees still hurt like crazy but I keep at it. My weight is at 252. This isn't amazing but it is still a loss. I'm hoping this week I can exercise even more. The cold weather is fighting against me but I promise that even if it is below freezing out this week I will be out there all bundled up looking like the Michelen man! Oh and I bought new bras! Maybe I mentioned that last week but with the end of my semester kicking my butt I can't recall. If I mentioned it already it must bear mentioning again. I love the fit of new bras! These fit amazing and they look great too! Now if I could just get my  middle to curl up and hide somewhere I can wear all these cute tops I bought! Speaking of new clothes, I swore I wouldn't buy anything, but I was looking like a homeless person that stumbled upon a few spare tents. Not very attractive at all. Once I started wearing the new clothing I was turning heads and fielding compliments left and right. Now that will make you feel better! Also, back to vegan again. I think it's time to stop pretending that I need to get protein from cottage cheese. Another stupid excuse. Anyhow, back to the grind. Exercising via booty shaking and walking or jogging is on the plate for this week!

Move it!

I've made about a thousand excuses for not exercising enough. I'm done making excuses. The little that I'm doing just isn't cutting it. Yesterday I got up off my duff and dusted off my sneakers and threw them on. My ambitious attempt at a 2 miles walk/jog/run didn't exactly go over so well. I guess the wind advisory wasn't kidding. The sand whipping in my face, my shirt billowing around me and the sun in my eyes. It was a memorable first outside workout. I ran twice for about 90 seconds each time. Not having a proper bra on was definitely a thorn in my side. The girls tried to escape many times through every possible exit my bra would offer. Also, when skin flaps bounce up and down when you run, it effing hurts! Picture someone grabbing on to your skin and yanking it down every time you run. Yeah, ouch. Regardless, I did 1 mile in about 17 minutes. Quite pitiful by anyone's standards, but I went out and did something. Today I'm hoping to accomplish more. First on the agenda is to go out and get a decent bra to exercise in. I'm also going to try and get a slimming cami to help hold my excess in place so it isn't bouncing around with me. Maybe that will give me some more success. Stay tuned to see just how far my fat ass can go this week!

Update Picture Time!

Time to update my picture. It has been almost 3 months and I've lost 26 pounds. I've lost a total of 69 pounds since March 2010. Not bad, but it is getting harder to see the difference in the photos. I think part of the issue is because the tank and pants are too baggy to show what changed. Maybe I'll have to take up a different outfit to see better. You can see the difference in the bagginess on the third pic, much more ripples :)

Quick Update

After a few weeks of eating I've finally lost a few pounds. I hit 256 on Sunday March 13. It was nice to see the scale move after it has been standing still for so long! I'm starting to get better at eating. I also don't have to take that awful antacid junk every 4 hours. I'm getting in my 3 meals and a couple snacks to make up a decent day of intake. I'm still not nearly at what I'm supposed to be, but I'll get there eventually. Here is what today looked like for me.

Breakfast: 1/2c Cottage Cheese
Snack: About 10 pretzles
Lunch: 1/2 PB & J (crusts cut off because I can't eat the whole thing if I leave them on)
Snack: 1/2c Cheerios (My daughter climbed up in my lap and ate most of them though, like I'm gonna turn away a 2 year old that says "EEEE-REEE-OOOOOSSSS!!")
Dinner: Poor Mans Stew (noodle, peas, red beans)

I really wish I was able to eat some fresh veggies. These boring empty carb snacks are getting old. But the crunch is nice to have! When I'm around 6 months out I can eat raw veggies or fruit. But not for now.

Here is the TMI of the week. Constipation. The amount of iron I'm taking and probably the lack of fiber I usually get from other sources is doing a number on the digestive tract. I'm hoping by tossing some ground flax seed into a few things I can remedy the situation. Hopefully I have a good weight loss to report next week!

Oh and something great. All of a sudden in the past week my energy level has shot through the roof! I mean, I can't sit still most of the time. I dance around, go for a walk, run up and down the stairs, or march in place. It feels awesome!

Vegan or Vegetarian?

Lately I've been leaning towards more of a Lacto-Vegetarian. It is a lot easier to get the foods I'm able to eat in me and I can use all the nutrition I can get right now. I've gained 2 pounds and have been sitting at 263 for 2 weeks now. I'm certain that once I'm eating more, the weight will come off. I will be vegan again, but I have to do what is best for my body. Cottage cheese is a great source for protein, it packs 14g in just 1/2 cup. I'm not sure how long I will do this, but for now, I'm the Gastric Vegetarian!

Ulcer

I also wanted to mention a slight complication that I had. This is really the only misstep so far in this whole process for me. Within days after the surgery I began having insane heart burn all day long. I lived on Tums for two days to try and get the fire to calm down. They had me upgrade from the Pepcid to Prilosec 20mg twice a day. After a few days of taking that, I will still waking up around 4am with heart burn. They decided that based on my symptoms I must have developed an ulcer. While this is not the greatest thing to happen while I have a tiny sensitive stomach, they were prepared. I have to take Carafate four times a day. The only hard part is that I take it 3 hours after a meal and 1 hour before a meal. This was also making it hard for me to eat. I'm on quite the strict schedule of eating because I have to not drink 30 minutes before and after a meal. Now I have to make sure I don't eat within 3 hours before or 1 hour after this medicine. I've made up a pretty tight schedule of eating and drinking and taking the medicine four times a day. I'm still not used to it and eat around 1 or 2 times a day, but I'm confident that I will soon get the hang of it and eat normal healthy meals. Well, really tiny normal healthy meals.

No More Watery Goodness

Its been almost a month. Tomorrow marks 4 weeks since I had the surgery. I'm starting on the stage III and IV diet finally. No more purred watery food for me! This morning I weighed in at 262 pounds. That is 19 pounds since my surgery. I'm really excited and hopeful that I'm going to continue to lose weight. Now that I'm able to start eating things again I can actually eat. I haven't been eating much of anything over the past week. When I think about the watery food I would rather not eat. I have felt tired and lethargic lately because I'm just not eating. It isn't the smartest thing I've done, but it happened and I can't go back. At least I'm ready to eat again. Last night for dinner I had a piece of light bread toasted with a little Earth Balance. Not exactly a healthy meal, but it felt great to chew something. I also can't wait to get back to cooking meals for my family. I've really slacked off on that because it is hard to cook something you aren't going to eat. I think for lunch I'll have some hummus on a 1/4 of pita bread. I buy the Joseph's low-carb pita because it is super thing and low and everything. By buying the thinner bread it is less filling and I can get more protein and fillings onto the bread. I can't eat much still so I don't want to fill up on bread.