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! ;)

I just had an egg white omelette!

And it was AWESOME!!!

Yesterday, I finally decided that enough was enough, and I went in and had my band deflated to what it was at the time of my first fill.

So, I believe I have only 3.5cc in there right now.

I was so discouraged by being stuck all the time, in pain almost every time I ate, and afraid to eat the foods I know are healthy (and that I actually prefer to eat!).

I had reached a point where I was making myself vomit after at least one meal a day, just to not be in pain. I was never that brand of bulimic before, it sucks that WLS brought me to that point.

I had gotten to the point where I was eating slider foods (not horrible ones MOST of the time, but still) like cereal and such in quantities that were just not good.... and getting VERY tired of beans and legumes.

So, we'll see if I can manage my portions on my own again somewhat. Dr. G didn't have a problem unfilling me this much, as he said that when I was last at this level before I was my most successful post-banding.

I am looking forward to eating regular breakfasts again (EGGGGGS!!@!@!) and not being terrified to eat lean meats and fish and tofu.

Seeing as December, January, and February (thus far) have been a total wash, and I feel physically awful from the high-carb eating, I think that whatever happens now with the looser band is likely to be an improvement.

I think the band will make a great maintenance tool for me, but it's just not doing it for me as a weight loss tool so far. That's OK, I don't suck at taking off the weight .... I just suck at KEEPING it off.

Two months wasted

Yeah, I'm still here.

I just seem to have misplaced my motivation somewhere.

And, I feel sort of lost with my band recently. My stuck episodes have decreased somewhat, but still seem to happen any time I try to eat the foods I'm supposed to be eating (all meats, fish, chicken, tofu, eggs). If I lay down a "layer" of something soft first, then I can sometimes get down those foods, but unfortunately I can also get down as much of ANYTHING as I want to eat.

All this is leading me to make carb-based choices on my foods, and of course eating carbs leads to wanting carbs -- and a lot of 'em. Cereal is my binge food, always has been. I'm not big on sugared cereals, at least. But multiple bowls of Cheerios or Kix? My band says absolutely nothing about me eating that, and the carbs have gotten me into this vicious downward spiral with cereal, cookies (my MIL brought freakin' girl scout cookies when she came to visit!!), birthday cake, bread, rice, etc.

This is my third week in a row to see the scale take a leap upward. I'm back where I was at the beginning of December.

Another fill? What, and guarantee I can't eat any protein except in shake form?

But my quantities of everything else are WAY out of whack. So a fill seems like it would be the right move for that reason.

I've actually still lost more weight BEFORE getting banded than since.

I have no idea what to do, but I can't keep doing what I've been doing, that's for sure. :(

Secret Plot Against Meat

I'm beginning to think that my band is really a secret plot by someone out there to turn me vegetarian.

I don't get stuck with any frequency on anything except MEAT. All meat, unless it's finely minced and chewed into oblivion... and even then sometimes.

Grrrrr. As much as I love legumes, and I love dairy, neither is as satisfying for the duration as meat is.

I did have a fill on the 22nd, and managed to make it through all of last week with only one stuck episode, on an ill-chewed shrimp. As I type this, however, I'm squirming in agony and spitting into a cup..... which I've been doing for the last 30 minutes. I did the same thing last night and for lunch on soft fish.

ARGH.

I just want to be able to eat lean protein in the form of meat (and eggs, which also get stuck all the damn time) without discomfort.
I know I'm not overfilled, as I'm able to eat just about anything else in more than adequate quantities.

:(