hoodia

Posts Tagged ‘yoga’

19
Jan

Formerly Fat Chick.

   Posted by: Nessa    in Exercise, Friends, Mental Health

Ugh… this is a very very very hard post to make.  I don’t update this blog as often as I should but then there is a lot of stuff going on in my life that I don’t really want to put out on the web for all to see…. THIS is important.  This is a painful reminder that no matter what we say… life changes… we change… things change in our brains when we change things with our bodies…

So very hard to write this.. not even sure I want to put it out there for all to see… but I have to.   It’s therapeutic in so many ways and yet painful too…

Hard to put into words… I so thought I would not change when I lost weight…  I was so WRONG….   how could I not know I would change… WHY did I think I would be the same…  well partially because I thought I was OK the way I was.  What I’ve come to see is that I tried very hard NOT to step on toes…  I stuffed my feelings down… I stuffed them down so DEEP I didn’t even know I was stuffing them.

I guess in reality I didn’t KNOW the REAL me…  I’m a mean girl.   I go for the jugular… and I don’t mind admitting that it feels good to hurt someone who is not a true friend…  OMG I had no idea how much I would enjoy it…  I never did that before… Not at 300 pounds…  never.  I thought all the thoughts I’d even put them in words but I never had the guts to put them out there for the world to see.  I guess then I didn’t have the need to rid myself of people that were toxic like I do now.

Why don’t SMO women feel the need to nourish themselves emotionally?  Is it because we feed our faces instead of our hearts?

The problem is… I wrote stuff to ONE person but a bunch of folks read it  (which WAS my intent) and I ended up hurting a bunch of folks I CARE about…  and that doesn’t feel so good.

Neither does the fight I had with ONE of my very best friends which is what triggered all of this.   Now the question is why did I fight with her…   Well I felt stepped on.  and I’m tired of feeling stepped on and being told how to do things.  And I was feeling that she was telling me that my behavior was not something she could cope with and she was asking me to change my behavior…  Maybe she was,  maybe she was not…   What matters is that’s what I felt… like I was being told that  because I behave a certain way, she gets stressed… and my belief was,  “well then remove yourself from the stress”…  she would not… and I could not understand that so I did what I thought was best for both of us… I removed the stress from her. I ended a 7 year friendship…. I told her I was done.  I was a bit of a drama queen about it but that’s me…. and that’s part of the stress….  I thought it best for both of us… she won’t be stressed and I won’t be forced to compromise who I am.

Did not work too well for me….  I really hurt my friend by walking away from her… and her spouse… and that was NEVER my intent…  I hurt my husband… they are his friends too… I hurt other friends we share… I hurt myself…   and it brought me to this point… the point where I have to examine why I did it… what’s changed in me… why I no longer will grin and bear it and why before I thought I was strong and that I was happy and that I was able to take care of my needs and here I am having to admit I was not.  I mean I was strong and I was happy but I was not taking care of myself….  meanwhile we work to patch up the group and go back to loving each other… and it’s happening… I think we are all a bit more fragile now…

I love my friends… I do not care what they look like or how much they weigh… I had to think long and hard about this… I really did. I wondered was I now being that skinny bitch that only wanted skinny friends…  After all, it seems all my new friends are very thin… of course most of them are fairly new post op patients so why wouldn’t they be… and I tried very very hard to see if maybe I was becoming that person…. the person I didn’t want to be… the skinny bitch that no longer would associate with fat people… NOPE I’m not her…  But I got SCARED that I was that girl… that woman I didn’t want to be… the one who JUDGED folks based on size.   I don’t.  But I look at strangers differently now…. NOT my friends… my friends are just that my friends… and I love them…warts and all and they love me.  I don’t see them as fat or thin or black or white or gay or straight… I see them AS PEOPLE…  BUT as I alter my friendships with folks, (“re-establishing boundaries” as a friend of mine pointed out this morning) I can’t help but wonder if they see it as “see now she’s skinny so she doesn’t want to hang around fat people”….    and that’s NOT IT at all… but it sure looks like it at least from the outside looking in and at least to me at first glance…  and I worry  do I have to work doubly hard to not look like the skinny bitch who discriminates against fat folks….  HOW  HARD THIS IS….

I never had to think about it when I was fat.   I was nice to everyone.  I’m still nice to everyone… but things for me have changed…. PEOPLE HOLD DOORS FOR ME NOW….men and women… they didn’t do that when i was 300 pounds…  Men smile at me and talk to me… in public.. out of nowhere… again not done when I was 300 pounds…   NOW ME…

I talk to everyone..  I hold doors for everyone… I SMILE at everyone.  I still feel like that fat chick… so I look at the SMO women and I smile that “we are sisters smile”  only it comes out different now… It comes out as the “skinny bitch making fun of me look”…..  and it’s NOT… I want a sign that says  “formerly FAT CHICK” but since I can’t get one I find myself NOT MAKING EYE CONTACT with FAT people…   this makes me SAD.   That’s not what I want but I can’t bear the stares that tell me I’m no longer part of the club….

And to some extent I miss that club… it was safe… it was known… we knew who belonged with a glance…  I feel sometimes that I am floundering adrift in a sea of humanity…

So what’s changed… let’s go from the bottom up…

my feet:  smaller.. narrower… that alone scares me..

my body:  smaller… fitter under all the flab…. the skin has a mind of it’s own… the skin… oy the skin… it still defines me in my brain as fat… and yet sometimes I move it when I shower and I see that tiny TINY girl under the flab… I marvel at my fitness now… I walked for 45 minutes this morning… I only stopped because I had to go take my yoga class.  Yoga class where I can hold planks and down dogs and bridges… and do pigeons…  Yoga where I am strong and powerful… Yoga that I love…

my brain… ah that is the rub… has my brain changed or just how I deal with it… and what’s the difference….   I so wanted to prove that I could stay the same… and here I am having to admit I did not…

I mean I think I did… I think the same way…  I know that.. but how I act on it has changed…  I think now that I’m small… (see I wanted to say smaller… like I’m not SMALL… but I am a size 10 with 2 sizes worth of SKIN on me… so I’m probably a size 6 after plastic surgery… that’s SMALL)….  but i digress… now that I’m SMALL… I’m  even MORE flirtatious than I was at 300 pounds… and I was a hot flirt then… with anyone that would flirt with me.  Of course the realization is now that the only guys that looked at me were big guys…. or guys who had no sense of themselves… or guys that preferred fat girls (for whatever reason)… and I’ve learned that thin men react differently…. but I’ve been told I am different… more outgoing… I make eye contact..  and I realize it’s true… I SILENTLY  DARE men to flirt with me. This is something I never did at 300 pounds…  I look at them and EXPECT them to smile… and say hello… and they DO…  BUT what I’ve discovered is they do it when I’m NOT inviting it as well…..  a man held the door for me today at work and I didn’t even realize it I was too busy texting my hubby!

I’m not invisible now but I was at 300 pounds whether by design or happenstance I don’t know…  Maybe I would have had more attention had I dressed then the way I do now…

Yes I dress differently now… then I dressed for comfort…  occasionally we got dressed up… but I had to settle for what I could find that fit… and that covered.    Shoes, even dress shoes were FLATS..  pants were elastic waist more often than not… with over blouses to hide the tummy…..  there was no waist to show off… daily.. no make up… make up was for dressy events only….

NOW… heels, slacks or skirts… tucked in fitted shirts.. jackets or sweaters…  and MAKE UP daily and CONTACTS not glasses…   so yeah the wrapping is shiny now… so that’s different… and because that’s different I feel different and because I feel different I ACT different… I don’t THINK differently but I am different.  I’m still Nessa.  I’m not the “new and improved Nessa”  I’m still just me… and I still THINK the same…  but how I respond has changed… and I’m not sure how I feel about that….

Would I have had that fight with my friend if I was still 300 pounds… maybe… would my husband have backed me the way he did… I doubt it. He’s changed too… but I would have FELT the same way…  so what does that say…

oh well enough ranting and raving…

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22
Sep

What a Difference A Year Makes…

   Posted by: Nessa    in Exercise, Health, WLS

Wow.   Today is one year to the day I had Roux-En-Y (RNY) surgery.  A year.   How the hell did that happen???   It’s been a wild Ride.

I have to go back and read journal entries to get all the details right.    Let’s talk about the here and now for a second.  Life is good.  I walk, I do yoga regularly, I can lift weights as needed and I have energy and stamina like I did not before. I can climb a flight of steps and not be out of breath.

I weighed 253 on my scale the morning of surgery. This morning I weighed 160.8   not quite to my goal but less than ten pounds away from it! So  I go back and I read stuff to figure this out.. I remember HATING the pre-surgery weight loss requirements.  Gained 6 gained 4 stayed the same lost 4 net gain of six pounds… really sad.  And it made me worry that I’d be a failure at it after WLS.

There are times I still FEEL like a failure… I mean here I am at a year out and NOT AT MY GOAL!   I’m at my doctor’s goal… but not mine.  What does that say to me or about me? I remember waiting waiting waiting… Waiting for the insurance to approve me… scared they would not… of course they did..

On July 7, 2009 I said this :  …oy will I ever be thin?  I have been eating fairly well.  I know i need to exercise but everything hurts.  the tops of my feet hurt, my muscles are cramping, I’m out of breath constantly.  If i don’t lose weight I can’t have WLS so I can lose weight… what a catch 22, if i could lose weight would I need WLS?    What strikes me about this post is not the part about losing weight,  it’s the part about the exercise… EVERYTHING hurts…   now I work out… hard… at least 3 days a week!  And I like it.  A LOT!

So I had surgery and I did fine.  I stayed one night in the hospital and came home.   I had nausea.  I had an allergy to the stuff they paint on you to make steri strips stick… I felt crummy.  I never had regret.  And once all that cleared up I healed pretty quickly. I was 253 on my scale the morning of surgery. And while I’ve kept a spread sheet of monthly weigh in results since surgery I don’t go all the way back to the beginning with the daily ones. Or even the weekly ones.

I didn’t start keeping track till mid December for some reason.

I do have notes like this:

12/7/09 down 33 pounds in 11 weeks

3/24/10 down 63 pounds in 6 months

By December I was working out regularly I’ve been consistently faithful with my supplements and I was pristine with my food for the first six months.

At 5 months out, I wrote a long piece and in it I talked about wanting to weigh 150 or even 146.   I was just under 200 at 197.5 or so. I still have a goal of 151 but I doubt I’ll ever see 146 without plastic surgery.  My skin is horrible. I have a lot of it. And it has a lot of subcutaneous fat.

It’s been an interesting journey and I’m sure it’s not over. I have made some good friends. I have good times. I feel good.  I still weigh 300 pounds in the matrix…  (you know how they say the way you see yourself in your mind is how you look in the matrix it’s residual self image and it’s a perfect way to describe how formerly fat people see themselves)

So yesterday in the shower, I noticed how I can feel my bones when I bathe.  I put my leg up to wash and there are curves, bones, and hollows that weren’t there a year ago.

Shopping is fun now not tiring; of course getting clothes that fit is interesting as you never know what size to try… before it used to be just get something big enough to cover you that was easy to put  on and comfy.  Comfort was the key… easy was the key… cause I would break a sweat just getting dressed in my size 26 pull on pants after a shower.  Now the shimmy involved in getting into the form fitting size 10  jeans is laughable… a nice way to start my day but still…

Would I do it again?   Yep.   Would I change anything? YEP I would have done it YEARS ago…

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22
Jul

Musings on my 10 month surgiversary…….

   Posted by: Nessa    in WLS

Today is ten months that I started my new life.  Ten months ago on September 22, 2009, I was in surgery at this time.  I was having  Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass with Dr. David von Rueden as my surgeon.    The man is very talented.   I’ve had a wonderful ride. Easy recovery.  Fabulous results.  I could not be more pleased.

September 22, 2009 I woke up very early and got to the hospital early.  My darling husband who had his surgery just 5 weeks before me took me. Our friend Norman sat with him.  God bless Norman. He is ALWAYS there for us.  He sat with me the day of Brian’s surgery… Anyway… I’ve written about this before so I’m not going to rehash it.  I was in the hospital overnight and most of Wednesday with my dear friend Angie who had WLS with Dr. Andrew Averbach about 6 months before I had my surgery.    I was home by dinner time on the 23rd.. the first few months are not strong in my memory any more.

What is strong for me now is that I LIVE MY LIFE!  Heck we went to a small county fair last night… Hubby and I split a pit ham sandwich. I ate mostly the meat from my half with a bit of the bread. I scarfed a few fries from girl child. I had about 2/3 of a small vanilla Ice milk cone… threw the cone away.  I ate TWO BITES of girl child’s fried dough…   And I’m LIVING.  Even with a cranky pouch that can eat very little (which I’m actually rather pleased with… I pray this small pouch continues forever and ever amen…) protein or veggies I can manage some serious carbs, nuts or fruit as needed…. But I never feel deprived.  Or that I’m missing anything.  But of course I don’t drink alcohol and don’t miss it. And I never was a soda drinker…

So where do I stand.   At my heaviest weight ever known at home I weighed 286.   That’s 121.4 pounds MORE than I weigh now.  That’s more than some people weigh. I’ve lost a person.   This morning I weighed 164.6; that is a New LOW weight for me since I was about 30 or so.  I actually can’t recall the last time I weighed that.    It means I have to lose about 14 more pounds.  FOURTEEN…. How freaking Normal is that.  I weighed 253 the morning of surgery so I have lost 88.4 pounds.   IN TEN MONTHS.  Never have I done that without surgery.  It took me  2 years with SOUTH BEACH DIET  to go from 286 to 206…. And I struggled.  I even exercised some.   I never loved exercise. I never felt healthy.  I never felt like I could be at goal at 206.  I feel like I could be at goal at 165.  I do. AND I found out I do like to exercise… and walk and lift weights and DO YOGA…

Would I have this surgery again. YOU BET.  Am I worried about regain?  YOU BET.   So would I have had DS?  Naw I don’t think so.  I LIKE the options with RNY.  THE ONLY THING I MISS is my NSAIDS.  I Like that I MIGHT DUMP (and it’s really so damn random with me that I never know if I will or not but I risk it. I had ice milk last night…  I like that I can’t eat and drink at the same time.  It keeps my snacking down to a minimum.  I like my tiny pouch.  Yes, I know it will grow over time.  But at 10 months out its still TEENY TINY and that’s a good thing.

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13
Jul

My first 5k…. and my sadness at my laziness

   Posted by: Nessa    in Diet, Exercise, Health

Sunday July 11, 2010 I was a few months past turning 50 and a few days away from being ten months out from my rebirth of RNY WLS…   The Thursday before I decided to participate in a 5k event.   I didn’t say RUN. I didn’t say RACE.  I said participate in an event… and that’s what I did.

My goal…   verbalized, my goal was to finish in 45 minutes.   Internally my goal was to FINISH AND NOT BE LAST….  I had NO clue how long it would take to complete.  I was not displeased with my finish time of 46:59.  I know that the RUNNING I did at the end… (which left me breathless with a throbbing chest) was the difference with that time.  I jogged a bit of the race… not as much as I could have.  Now I am sorry I did not push harder.

I wonder if I don’t  push myself hard enough.  Everyone seems so impressed with my effort but I rarely sweat at the gym and I rarely hurt or feel sore after a workout.  Maybe I’m lazy?  Maybe I could work harder? Maybe I should? Maybe that’s why I’ve not really lost weight since JUNE 26th!

Is it unrealistic to think that if  I’m eating 1700 or so calories a day and burning 2200 calories a day I should be losing right?  but NO… I’m not.  so what am I doing wrong?    being lazy I guess….

I could work harder

I could eat better.  Yes yes I could. I could eat fewer carbs. but they taste so yummy and go down so easily…

if i didn’t eat the carbs my calories would be way lower and my ability to learn to deal with real life later on much compromised.  If i don’t learn how to eat  7 chips now (pita chips or soy flax chips with protein not plain potato chips for noshing…) later on when I CAN eat the whole bag I just might…   As it is I hate limiting myself to 7 chips…

I am not sure I AM learning the habits the doctors say we need to make this work.  I am scared I am done.  I know if I ate pure protein and veggies and fruits… I’d lose… I would have no choice…  but would I live?

How do I want to live?   right now I can walk into any store and buy clothes.  I look ok in clothes.  I look sorta ok naked too… hubby’s pleased… I can do my yoga, I lift weights, I can walk an HOUR with no problem…. I can run a tiny bit… I WANT to run more…  I want to move more… I want I want I WANT.

what do I need….

my weight this morning 169… OVERWEIGHT NOT OBESE…

my muscles… firm. defined.  but not strong. I still struggle to lift things in daily life… could be my knees who knows…

So do I accept that this is it.. this is my life… or do I shake it up… and if I shake it up… how do I shake it up???

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26
May

It’s HUMP DAY… have I climbed the hill???

   Posted by: Nessa    in Diet, Exercise, Health, WLS

well here I am  8 months and a few days out… weighing in at an interesting 176.4 this morning… WOW.. so close to 175…  never thought I’d see this.

169 puts me at OVERWEIGHT  I am 7 pounds from OVERWEIGHT… OMG that’s less than my babies weighed at birth.   I am working through the pain of a pulled butt cheek… LOL… I’m still in the gym and LOVING it.  I feel pretty good.  I sometimes think i look good… it’s almost like I don’t want to allow myself the luxury of admitting I look good.  Like that’s vain or shallow…   Did I do this for my health or my looks?  WELL…. a little of both I guess…  I like the good numbers on the blood work, I Like feeling fit and healthy. I LOVE YOGA..

I guess it’s hard for me to see that I could stop losing in 10 pounds and be done… I think I want to be 145 for a  while…

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30
Apr

   Posted by: Nessa    in Exercise, Health, Mental Health

So much to talk about… so much on my mind…

I got my GO WEAR Fit yesterday from my friend Katie..  and I charged it and synced it with my laptop at home (and i can look at the reports at work) I put it on last night but it was after dinner and working out…I did sleep with it but I haven’t synced it so I’ll see tonite.   Some folks don’t put their food in. I may or may not on a daily basis but I will for a few days at least…

I’m still figuring out the display and the armband thing with it.  Putting the armband on is no big deal… wearing it is no big deal… in fact you can’t even tell I have it on today… and it doesn’t bother me… I hope it helps.  I did take a one year subscription and it doesn’t seem too bad.. it will be interesting to see what happens.

This morning while I was on the elliptical (finishing up 20 minutes of cardio (and I worked hard at it) the darn display beeped at me to tell me that My moderate goal was met.  I have tried to look it up and I can’t find it.  oh well I’ll ask around over on OH… I then took a kick ass yoga class with tammie.  I held a tree today. I still wobble badly at tree with a kickstand because of the closed eyes.  I can do a beautiful modified half moon and my child’s pose is improving.   I can do half moon on the left much easier than on the right…

The point is yoga class rocked today and I worked up a nice sweat…

I’ve noticed in the last few days especially I’ve hit a new point.   Yesterday I felt THIN… this morning I feel NORMAL… and it seems that  all the women at the gym that used to find me invisible no longer do…. Now this may be a function of the fact that they see me 5 times a week consistently or it may be a function of the fact that I no longer have that FAT chick appearance…   I don’t know.  I’m not sure I want to know.

What I do know is that I am loving the gym.   I love going, I love how I feel when I’m done. I actually liked sweating today.   Who’d have thunk it ya know…

Why is it that when I think about things they sound so profound and then when I go to write them they seem so trivial.

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22
Apr

Musings on being 7 months post op…

   Posted by: Nessa    in Exercise, Recipe, WLS

Today is April 22, 2010, 7 months ago at this time I was in surgery.  I had Gastric Bypass at St. Agnes Hospital with Dr. David Von Rueden on September 22, 2009, just 5 short weeks after my darling husband Brian had it.   At the time it seemed like a good idea.  Now I’m not so sure.

This has been a rough week for Brian.  He is in a LONG LONG STALL and he feels like a WLS failure.  He is not.  He is down nearly 35% of his body weight in 8 months… this is a good thing. He has gone from over 475 pounds to under 315… this is TREMENDOUS… the problem is, he’s still over 300 pounds and I’m not…   While he is VERY compliant about his food and drink, he’s not so compliant about his exercise.  And he knows it.  And we are working on it.   I wish this WAS magic.  It’s not.  It’s HARD work.  Trust me on this….  I work HARD to get as far as I get… and It is slow…  Let’s look at this:

The morning of surgery I weighed 253 on my scale.  (Or was it 256 I can’t remember)… let’s say 253 because I don’t want more credit than I deserve. This morning I weighed 184.4.  How casually I can say that now… but OMG I never thought I’d see the 180s again.

Let’s look at my weight loss monthly since surgery:

Date                              Weight              Monthly Loss      Total Loss      # of months

9/22/2009                 253                        0                                  0                           0

10/22/2009               236.4                     16.6                             16.6                      1

11/22/2009               225                        11.4                             28                         2

12/22/2009               214.2                     10.8                             38.8                      3

01/22/2010               204.8                     9.4                               48.2                      4

2/22/2010                  197.6                    7.2                               55.4                      5

3/22/2010                  191.8                    5.8                               61.2                      6

4/22/2010                  184.4                    7.4                               68.6                     7

The red text indicate months I lost less than average

The orange text indicate months I lost AVERAGE amounts

The  green text the months I lost MORE than average.  Of couse once you get past month six it’s a free for all… so there really is no average… I guess I’m all green now….

So what is AVERAGE?

According to my friend Pam T.

Month 1:                                                       20ish pounds lost

Months 2-6:                                               7-10 pounds per month lost

Month 6 and beyond:                           5-7 pounds or whatever your body feels like doing

So the average at 7 months out is anywhere from 60-77 pounds.  I’m right in there at 68.6 pounds… just under ten pounds per month… but still over 2 pounds per week… ya gotta look at the averages…2 weeks ago I lost NOTHING for the week.  NOTHING… not one ounce.  The week before I lost 3 the week following 3.2  so over a 3 week period I lost over 6 pounds…   Heck I weigh daily and if I did not look at monthly and weekly averages I’d be NUTS.  Because weight loss is not linear, comparable or predictable…

So what is a typical day like?   I think that’s often the question newbies to WLS have…

Weekdays:

Alarm goes off  at 4:55  of course somewhere around 4:30 we all stirred.  I adjusted the tv for the news. the dogs rearranged themselves, hubby went potty… (interestingly enough I do not get enough fluids to make me get up and go potty at night any more…) we then nap till the alarm goes off.  Lazy mornings mean we aren’t bolting out of bed till 5:20…  If it’s MONDAY, WEDNESDAY or FRIDAY, I’m packing work clothes in my gym bag, breakfast, lunch and snacks in my lunch tote grabbing a shower and heading over to the gym.  If it’s THURSDAY I pack gym gear in the gym bag, and head to work because I train with Tammie on Thursday afternoons.

Personally I much prefer Yoga Mornings and wish EVERY morning could be a yoga class morning… Yes I know I could do yoga at home alone… but the dynamic of the class helps.  I plan to record the classes on my itouch along with recording my training sessions with Tammie she can state the name of the machine and the weights and reps for me.. It will be a big help when I’m on my own.  And yes after this set of workout sessions I will be on my own… makes me sad and scared but what else can I do.. it’s very expensive to work with her.  WORTH every penny but still….and I can’t depend on her forever, eventually I have to be on my own and take care of myself…

As usual, I digress…  ah the joys of an ADHD brain.  I think blogs were invented for us…  we ramble along in our own little worlds ya know…  But I do love yoga.  Especially now that I can move… and breathe and it feels better to do it than to not do it.  Yoga has become one of my transfer addictions… seriously.  I love it.  I need it.  For several reasons.

1. it makes me feel better emotionally to have accomplished something

2. it makes me feel better physically and it’s helping to keep me flexible and limber

3. it’s a nice start to my day.

But back to my day….

Every morning I make a protein drink to have in the car on the way to work (I drink some on the way to the gym on gym mornings)

8 oz milk

2 tsp benefiber

1 scoop Click (vanilla or mocha)

1 scoop Designer Whey Vanilla Praline Protein Powder

2 squirts of sf syrup (praline or vanilla usually)

shake this well in my CLICK shaker  and pour into my travel mug that has already been filled with an espresso shot of coffee.

nuke for 45 seconds.

I start EVERY morning with this drink

it’s got about 32 grams of protein and it holds me all morning.   Of course I’m not a big eater yet…  most days.  I do have my moments.

Anyway I have to remind myself to eat and drink… I swear I could go all day with nothing.

I have alarms set to remind me to take my vitamins…

Food that is good for me is not interesting.  I’d rather not eat.

Food that I miss (ice cream, bagels, cakes, cookies etc) scare me and I don’t touch them….

EATING is a chore.   Truly.   it is NOT the pleasure it once was and I am sure will be again…

I don’t think I get enough veggies. I don’t get a lot of fruit…

Protein I’m good with cause of all the protein drinks…

Clothes…

clothes are interesting.  I never thought I’d struggle with body image but I do.  I do not see myself as thin. I have to take a trusted friend with me shopping or else i don’t do well… I buy shirts too big… LOL how funny to me that I am struggling with this….  I was in size 26 at my heaviest.  my 24s were tight the morning of surgery…  now i’m in 14s pretty much… some 16s.  I keep saying I’m in 18s but the 18 jeans were pulled down last night without unbuttoning them… I think 16s are the biggest I can go now…

And shirts… depends on the cut  large or XL  but NOT  3x or even 4x.  And yet I still gravitate towards the big girl sizes…

Bras… were 48DDD now I think 42DD or even 40DD not sure… have to be fitted.. oh joy…

So here I am at 7 months out… losing weight, feeling great loving life,

are there any down sides?

yep… food struggles… emotional upheavals….body image issues,  SKIN… oy I’m starting to try to figure out how much of me is fat and how much is skin….  I’m starting to think there is way more skin than I thought… because although I’m still a solid 184 pounds,  I don’t think I have much more than 30 more pounds to lose… and I have no idea where I am going to tuck all this skin….  I guess I better start saving for plastic surgery….

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21
Apr

Don’t call me skinny…..

   Posted by: Nessa    in Exercise, Health, Marriage

I have several topics today, so which do you want first my knee, yoga, my lovely potty issues or the hubby and his stress over my becoming a ‘skinny bitch’….  (have I mentioned that I Hate that term…. not bitch but SKINNY)  I am NOT a SKINNY bitch.  a BITCH yes but NOT skinny…

Let’s do potty first since it’s a drive by… WHY does my body NOT cooperate and potty at the time of my choosing?  WHY must we do it at the MOST inconvenient times. and why does it take so damn long?  I hate potty at work… PEE is fine… POTTY at work is just adding insult to injury.   Ok enough whining about potty… which BTW requires  DAILY:

enough fluids  (over 64 ounces of clear fluids)

2 colace

4 magnesium oxide

1 serving of beneifiber powder

a half a cup of fiber rich dried fruit from trader joes

exercise

some decent amount of fat… avocado, guacamole, gravy

See while simple it’s still complex…..

Oh well enough of potty…

My knee… my left knee is severely compromised.  oh hell my whole left leg is compromised I”m blind in one eye, i have a bad right flank (the piraformis) and I’m lame in my left leg… If I was a horse they would have shot me years ago…  Yesterday I went to see my favorite orthopedist.. Ian Weiner… Love that man. he’s a trip…

First of all he recognized my voice but NOT me… he had not seen me since before surgery… WOW… cool too…

then we checked the knee… swollen, painful, and it CLICKS…. so we did a four view Xray series and then he said  “let’s inject it with cortisone unless you WANT me to scope you…”    I did have an MRI of the knee in 2008 and we KNOW it has a medial meniscus tear and a misplaced popliteal cyst WITH debris so probably EVENTUALLY I will need surgery… but this buys me at least 6 weeks if not longer..

So I got up this morning and potty was not happening (my body decides when now ugh) and I went to yoga…. yummy YOGA..I can so see improvement in my practice now… my moves, my strength, my flexibility, my breathing… the only real pain i had today was the priaformis on the right side… and a bit of knee pain in the squatting poses…  I think I will cry if i have to give up yoga for any period of time… it’s what keeps me getting out of bed with minimal pain.  NOTE I did not say NO PAIN….just MINIMAL pain…  At fifty I think I”m not going to be pain free… not on my salary…  I would need daily massages  and working with the trainer to work this kink out… even PT is expensive… a 20 dollar copay per visit.. ugh.

FINALLY I want to talk relationships… my husband is a dear man and I love him madly.  He’s lost 34% of his body weight compared to my 27%  (neither is anything to sneeze at) and he’s losing very very slowly now…  OTOH my body is changing rapidly… his is changing I can see it… but the scale is not moving for him… he’s getting frustrated and feels like a failure… he’s so NOT a failure,  he’s doing great.. EXERCISE is not what he wants… it’s what he needs… and it’s not making him happy and I don’t blame him.  we have to find what he likes… for me I clicked with YOGA…  maybe too much…he won’t swim and he can’t do much walking… how frustrating for him…  he’s 14 pounds from TWOTERVILLE and I hurt for him…  I want him to be happy…

oh well… off to work…

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16
Apr

It’s A lovely Spring Friday…

   Posted by: Nessa    in Diet, Exercise, Health

my post from SBF:

Morning Gang,

hope everyone is ready for a great spring weekend.

my report:
workout yesterday was good… 15 minutes cardio before, then worked out with tammie (hard arms light legs cause of my knee) then 35 more minutes of cardio… I really don’t do the workouts to get thinner… or stronger unless you count STRONGER as the ability to get out of bed every morning without grabbing the wall due to pain….. this is my biggest fear about seeing the doc on Tuesday what if he tells me I have to stop working out or doing yoga even for a little while. it’s taken me SIX MONTHS to get as far as I have it will take me less than 6 weeks to LOSE all of it… I don’t want to go back to being a cripple…

after the gym I went shopping…

SOLIDLY in size 16 pants… zippers and buttons and all… I can do size 14 if they are elastic waist… WOW… tops are XL or L WOW… I used to be a 4XL FOUR…. tight four even… WOW…

so what did I buy:

1 pair of kakhi ankle length cotton pants.. (wearing them today)
1 pair of black pull on pants for work (size 14/16 fit perfectly)
1 pair of beige pull on size MEDIUM petite…. a tad snug but wearable with an over blouse
1 pair of white denim capris WHITE… size 16… really really cute… bri liked them..
1 blue jersey cardigan (can be a top or a jacket)
1 crinkle/wrinkle flowered 3/4 sleeve top (looks awesome with the black pants)
1 grey and white striped 3/4 sleeve jersey pullover size large.. a tad snug.. looks cute with the white capris
1 3/4 sleeve print top with a ruffle at the neck… black pants or jeans or even the white capris
1 blue thin 3/4 sleeve deep v-neck top for wearing with the tight beige pants

i think that’s it… 110 dollars… can’t beat it.

I’ll shop with BFF on Sunday too… CLINIQUE bonus time at Macy’s

scale this morning: 186 on the nose… oh well…. 1.2 up from my lightest… that’s a potty session… bfd..

on a conference call now…

this morning I did 25 minutes cardio and broke a decent sweat… i read somewhere once that the more you sweat the more fit you are and the more efficient cooling your body can do… but I might be wrong…
yoga was more restorative… I think Tammie tailored it based on our chat yesterday about my knee…
I worked hard. I need to work on core strength…

I noticed breathing today was deeper and better….
plank is improving…

food today:

commute: click/protein/milk/coffee frap
work: chai latte
lunch: at las vegas… probably split a fajita with angie
snack: protein bar cheddar cheese
dinner: chicken w/gravy and roasted veggies
snack: dried fruit and nuts… 

*******************

my knee is really bothering me.  i’m glad i’m seeing the doctor on Tuesday… I have mixed feelings about it… what if he wants to operate ASAP… or what if he doesn’t?   I just want this nagging pain to go away…

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15
Apr

A new day a New beginning

   Posted by: Nessa    in Dogs, Friends, Mental Health, RandomNESS, Web Site

Hi OH HI….  Hello….  HI THERE!   (do you speak dog?  cause that’s how I talk to the pups…)

It’s THURSDAY…. a bright sun-shiny spring day in Baltimore… which is about as good as I can come up with.

Today is LUNCH WITH THE BFF…  that’s how the invite came…   love that girl. have for nearly 20 years…. long before she loved me I knew we would be buds… she’s saved my life a few times in every sense of the word…   I would travel almost anywhere for her…  oh wait, I have….  the ADD tour of the south 2 summers ago was one of my favorite vacations ever.   TEN days in a VAN with her… driving from city to city to get some furniture to her darling daughter in TEXAS….  this trip involved a pilgrimage to GRACELAND… oh and drunk dialing my darling husband from NOLA  but that’s another story for another time…

So there was a blow up at southbeachfriends yesterday.  My fault.  Truly.  I was snarky.   Yes I was.   BUT I really feel that I was snarky BACK.    The key is at least I ADMIT to being a bitch….  an evil SNARKY bitch while those that I snarked at think they did nothing wrong.  How sad for those that live in imaginary worlds where they are wanted.  NO ONE BELONGS WHERE THEY’RE NOT WANTED  (I’ve got that song on right now… What You Didn’t Say) I love Mary Chapin Carpenter and have for years and years and years.   She was my gateway to Country Music.

Who invented the word SNARKY???  it’s such a good word.   Ok I looked it up. It’s a 1906 british slang term from  1866 SNARK…  meaning irritable who knew?   I thought it was an internet thing…  as now it’s used to mean a cranky response… as in  NESSA was SNARKY to  <insert the name of whomever I was snarky to today> when she said <insert my most passive/aggressive mean spirited comment here>.

Sadly for folks  I’m always snarky when I OWN THE SITE and can do so.     What’s really sad is that I’m not even going to the site today.   Not cause I’m afraid to see what was said   who the hell cares what they think.  I’m not going because I’m waiting to calm down enough to just be able to say “WHATEVER” to them.

The truth is there are several people at  SBF that I don’t want there but since I can’t see a reason to remove them other than I don’t like their motives, I can’t justify it.  At least not in my mind.    Not that they don’t think I will remove them.  AND that is the KEY to why they are the way they are.  THEY HAVE NO CLUE WHO  I AM OR WHAT I’M ABOUT.  How sad for them.

I know there are webmasters that rule with an iron fist and it’s my way or the highway… and they seem to think that I’m censoring them.   ummm  NO!  Censoring them would mean I delete their posts and deactivate their accounts.      Some of them are even attempting to  set up ‘reading accounts’  in the fear that I will deactivate them.   I f that’s what they think they need to do, I can understand why I don’t want them there, because they don’t grasp that although I totally disagree with their thought patterns, their beliefs and their motives, I will allow them their delusions and freedom AT THAT SITE.  Yes I will.   Truth be told,  while I OWN it.  it’s not MINE… THIS IS MINE.   I delete users here daily.   I moderate EVERY SINGLE POST here.  and will continue to do so….  Aaron and I are the ONLY moderators here.  But the SBF site,  well  their belief that I censor is just ludicrous.

I know I’m going to have to go to the site soon.  I know i have to deal with this insanity.   Today I do not. Today is send the Critical Patch letter day at work.  Today is not a good day for me to play with whiners.

Today’s health report:

There was no dinner last night there was noshing… half a protein bar, have a protein tidbit, got home had some imitation crab and some bacon horseradish cheddar then ate  pudding, banana strawberries and chopped pecans with whipped cream… oy such a diet…   but there was serious exercise yesterday…half an hour on the arc trainer,  an hour of yoga that left my knee hurting so badly I have an appointment with  the ortho knee guy on Tuesday… probably to ask about a brace since today the knee is feeling much better… yesterday I thought for sure I was going to need surgery. I know i have a misplaced Baker’s Cyst and a partially torn meniscus which may or may not now be totally torn due to use…  SERIOUS use…  Yoga three times a week is really stressing the knee but I need the YOGA so I can walk the rest of the week…. and to keep my brain sane…  I do have some transfer addiction clearly…

I would do a yoga class every morning if they offered it at the gym…

oh the scale this morning:  185.4.   amazing.  it was 189 when i went to bed.  WHY I got on the scale last night I have no idea.   but i did and i expected 187 or so this morning… Yay me!

today:

commute:  click/designer whey/milk/coffee

breakfast:   none

lunch:  applebees with donna

snack:  cheese or protein bar or both half a banana

dinner:  no clue

snack:  dried fruit I”m sure no potty this morning.

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