5-day pouch test, again.....

... and this time I'm working it HARD. I'm on day 4 right now, and it's going pretty well. http://www.5daypouchtest.com/

I'd like to see some serious progress before my annual Memorial Day campout (and my bandiversary in June), so I think I'm going to spend the time between now and May 25th cycling a SIX day pouch test, plus one day off, every week.

So, that would be:

Monday, Tuesday -- liquid protein

Wednesday, Thursday -- soft protein (Wed: eggs and fish, cottage cheese, Thurs : ground meat, shrimp options too)

Friday, Saturday -- firm protein (all other meats, tofu - which acts like a firm meat for me, pouch-wise)

Sunday -- off, variety of healthy choices

I'm hoping this will yield some forward motion on the scale, and I think I can stick with it given the "off" day, at least for a few weeks. The weekend of April 14-17 will have to be somewhat "off" too, because I'll be at a campout where the food is all prepped as part of the cost of the event. The woman that does the food for it has a RNY bypass, though, so she always prepares some options that are WLS-friendly.

For now, I am going to switch my weigh-in day from Thursday to Sunday. This will let me weigh only once per week, instead of weighing on Thursday and then again for the Challenge on Sunday.

I might change my mind on this whole diet sprint, depending on if my energy levels balance out or not. I had a rough time this morning at the gym. I did get in an hour of cardio, but it wasn't particularly enthusiastic cardio. hehehe ;)

But for now, this is the tenative plan! Rar!!

Yep, Mom's Scale is Off.... And race pics!

I knew it when I got back into town and I weighed in at 184 for the Challenge, so I'm not really bummed out by today's weigh-in.

In fact, this is progress --- a 1.5# loss since Sunday. Let's see if it holds until Sunday's challenge weigh-in. My clothes are fitting differently, too, even if the scale is being extraordinarily stubborn.

I got my time from the race on 3/19. 49 minutes, which is shaving just over 4 minutes off my previous time back in November. Yay!!
And that's even without any outdoor trail running -- only treadmill and street time -- since November. :)

Hopefully not just the luck of mom's scale...

... but it looks like things might be going the right direction again!

-2.9 pound loss from last Thursday, and -4.4 from the Challenge weigh-in on Sunday.

I'm at my mom's place right now, so we'll see if it's just a scale fluke or not when I get back in town.

Saturday the spouse and I are heading to Conroe, Texas (near Houston) for the Warrior Dash. Hopefully I can beat my time from November's race, though it probably won't be by much. I've been gym and street running, but not trail running for training this time, so we'll see if that affects my performance.

I'll touch base on Sunday... wish me luck!

Have a great weekend, and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Lucky kisses and pinches for all y'all! ;)

I guess I'll just hang out here for a while?

183.5

183.5

183.5

I think that's all my scale knows how to say recently. Mind you, it only displays in .5 increments, so I know I'm not getting super-detailed weights, but still.

I've gone back to logging my food for the last week or so, and am getting in around 1200-1400 calories per day. I am definitely getting enough protein, but I think my carbs are still over where they need to be. So, I'll tweak that over the next week and see if I see some progress.

I am also tempted to get another REE/RMR done at my Dr's office, but it's not covered by insurance and over $100, so I probably won't. I'm basing my caloric intake on the one I had done at the beginning, and I know it's changed -- but I don't know which direction, as I'm much more active now, which may counter the fact that I weigh less.

Still loving the unfill. I have had a few stuck episodes, on tofu and stew beef so far, and some near-stuck feelings on a few other occasions. WAY better than getting stuck every time non-liquid protein enters my mouth.

Speaking of protein... I don't know why I didn't try this when I was on liquids/mushies, but protein PUDDING!! My recent sweet tooth obsession has been a serving of skim milk sugar free fat free pudding. I randomly wondered if I could add my protein powder to it, looked it up, and tried it. Two scoops of powder in there blended just fine. It took a little longer to set up, but very tasty when done! And now one serving of pudding gives me 14g of protein with an additional 60 calories. Not bad. :)

Here's hoping the scale moves between now and Sunday, when I weigh-in again for the Challenge. ;)

Spring Challenge and motivation

I joined the spring challenge over at ChasingSkinny's blog to add a new much needed motivator. There's my start pic and start weight. No change from Thursday, and I've been sort of half-heartedly tracking my food again starting last week.

I'm not sure what my personal goals are with this challenge. I *think* I'm going to shoot for 10#, which is just over 1.5# per week. I'd like to try for more, though, as I've really fallen behind where I'd like to be at this point, and it's looking really unlikely that I will make goal by my band anniversary.

My spouse and I signed up for the Warrior Dash again, and this race is on March 19. I've been doing pretty well about getting in my run (or some other sort of workout) 4-5 days per week recently, but I'm really stuck and can't seem to make any headway on the amount of time I can run before having to walk and get my heartrate down. Oh well, at least I'm getting it in. The time between now and race is going to be HARD, though, as my eldest daughter is now on Spring Break until the Monday after the race (she gets two weeks as she goes to a year-round school). So my up-and-at-em early morning workout that I do after I take her to school is going to require me motivating myself independently every morning. Obviously, I'm off to such a great start, as it's 10:00am already and we're still hanging out in our PJs. *sigh*

Oh, the unfill thing is working out nicely. I'm having a bit of a challenge weaning myself off the carbs, but it's made much easier by the fact that I CAN eat the protein. Loving my omelettes, cooking on the grill, and making roasts. I've still had a couple of stuck episodes on tofu, so I'm proceeding with caution on my tofu recipes.

I'm back to trying to track everything to get/keep my portions back under control, and to make sure I'm meeting my protein and overall calorie goals. I know this helps me tremendously when I stick with it, so that's what I've gotta do! ;)