Woot!

BREAKING NEWS: my group in IS 520 -finally- earned an A on an assignment! I knew we were capable of A material. We've each done it on our own in other classes and we've worked our collective tushies off on each assignment only to earn B+'s on them. To be fair, our professor has told us that the first two assignments are extremely difficult and that we have plenty of time to make up points. So, I don't feel so badly about B+'s. :-) Still, I'm excited about our A and hope that our MidTerm, Final and the final two exercises also conspire for us to earn an A for the course. It would make me grumpy, but if it were only my grade I'd settle for a B+, but it makes me cranky to think that I've contributed in any way to someone -else- earning a B+ (unless, of course, they are used to earning C's...)

I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog reading.

[insert witty subject line here]

Apologies for the lack of subject line. I'm just really tired and didn't want to come up with anything witty or interesting. :-)

I just mostly wanted to share an update regarding surgery and the mad dash to get it done before the end of the year. As I may've mentioned in a previous post, my insurance carrier is going to be changing in January. I really want to get the surgery done before the end of this year for a couple of reasons. Thing 1: changing carriers would mean jumping through another set of hoops that, while likely similar, still would be a new set of hoops. Wolves hate jumping through hoops just to jump through hoops, so doing that would make me cranky. Thing 2: (this is the big thing) my insurance will be going from an HMO to a PPO, meaning I'd have to come up with the deductible and co-insurance making surgery nearly cost-prohibitive for me. So, it behooves all involved to get this done before the end of the year. Because said end of the year is rapidly approaching, I emailed the insurance "guru" at my surgeon's office to see if this is even a realistic possibility.

I told her that, basically, all I have left is my last "6 month" visit and getting off the 15 pounds. She responded by saying that, once she has all the documentation in hand, she sends my file to my insurance carrier. She then has to give them 30 business days to respond, but that it usually doesn't take that long (people on my message boards have said that the same insurance carrier has responded with an approval in three days, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed). Once we have the approval letter (and I -love- how she's just assuming it will be approved), they'll check my weight and either go ahead and schedule the surgery if I've gotten the 15 pounds off or have me do the liquid diet and then schedule surgery. She said she'll do everything she can on her end to get me scheduled so I can have the surgery before the end of the year. She seemed pretty optimistic, so I'm taking a page from her book and will be optimistic, too. I'll keep doing what I'm doing and hope that my body doesn't hold out on me and have a gain again.

A Support Group that is actually supportive? Is that allowed?

So, I went to my support group meeting last night. I was a bit hesitant because the last one I went to was basically a re-hash of the exercise class I'd already been required to attend. But, as I told the hubby, if I keep having to sit through the lecture, maybe there is something in it that I've not yet integrated. :-) In any case, we went and the chairs were in a big circle. We had to go around the room, introduce ourselves, tell which surgery we had/are having/are thinking of having and how much weight you'd lost to that point if you wanted to. I was AMAZED at how much some of the folks had lost in such short amounts of time. I also got to see how people looked in person after having lost that much weight. I understand I was seeing them all fully dressed, but there didn't seem to be as much hangy skin as I was afraid of so I'm hopeful that I won't have that much, either. I do have about half my body weight to lose, but I'm still not as overweight as some folks who have WLS and not as overweight as some of the folks in the group started out being.

Some other things came up in the discussion that really helped me feel a LOT better about the post-op period, though I'm still nervous as bloody hell. Many suggestions came out about the biggest bang for the protein buck, which was good.

So I found a supportive support group. And that kind of sucks.

Lucy, let me 'splain.

See, during the spring semester next year (from January to May), I'll be working Thursday evenings. Unfortunately, the only day my practice has it's support group meetings is on, yep you guessed it, Thursdays. So I asked the coordinator if she knew of any other meetings that I could attend after surgery. She didn't know, so I'm going to be researching that. The other option is to see about trading nights with someone one week a month. I'll look into that, too. I know that I'll definitely need a support group after surgery and my "contract" says that I'll attend them, so... That's why I frustrated that the support group I've been attending is so supportive. I can't guarantee that I'll find that anywhere else. Thankfully, my SparkTeam on Sparkpeople.com is also really supportive, and I think I'd get a lot out of hanging out at ObesityHelp.com. Neither of those are the same as an in-person group, though.

I've sent an email to the Patient Advocate/Insurance "guru" at my surgeon's office to see what all I need to do to ensure that I'll be able to have the surgery before the end of the year. Getting my butt back in the gym or walking more everyday would certainly not hurt. ;-)

Up the hill, down the hill

Oh, I wish it were walking to which I am referring in my subject line.

I am walking, and I am attempting to stick like glue to my eating plan. Unfortunately, my glue more resembles rubber cement this week. I expect it is the mondo combo of the flu shot plus this evil antibiotic (remind me to ask the doctor if Bactrim is -really- the only choice next time). But carbs have been creeping in this week. :-( I've been journaling about it in my paper journal, and that has helped some. [Note to reader: if you think I lay it all on the line here, you have no idea.]

So, yeah, my weight is back up a bit this week. But since my rings are tight again and my feet hurt from the swelling, I know it's fluid and that it will come back off again quickly. I just need to stick to eating protein first, then veg, then whole grains. Oh, and let's not forget the gallon+ of water. :-)

It really is kind of too bad that fighting a weight problem is like Sisyphus rolling his rock up the hill. Of course, my Daddy used to say that anything worth doing was worth a bit of a struggle. Guess he was right. I don't know why I'm surprised. He usually was.

Post-Flu Shot ickies/Comments from the peanut gallery

As happens when I take a flu shot, I had a day of ickies for about 24 hours after I got jabbed. Thankfully, they are short-lived ickies and I'm feeling tons better today. I stepped on the scale this morning to see another new recent low: 282.6!!!! That means I'm down about 12 pounds this week. A friend expressed her concern regarding how fast I lost 12 pounds and I reminded her that A) it's the first week of my buckling down and I lost a LOT of fluid and B) I'm under a doctor's supervision. She calmed down after that. :-)

But her comments brought up an interesting point that I'm going to have to do some pondering on. After my surgery, I'll be losing a LOT, especially in the first 6 months or so. In fact, other people who've had the VSG have lost 100+ pounds in the first 6 months. That's a LOT. I've been pretty open about my decision to have weight loss surgery. I am not the type of person who is easily swayed by other people's pontificating. I also make ample use of my [delete] key and am certainly not above blocking people, even IRL - just ask my mother. ;-) Regardless of my openness, I expect people will prove to be just as much in denial about the surgery as they are about a lot of things I've used little words to explain to them and they'll constantly be saying "are you sure you should be losing weight so quickly". I figure that responding with the reminder that "I am under medical supervision" will be enough for most people. I hope.

All in all, though, things are going well and I believe I'm still on track to having the surgery before the end of the year. My last 6-month appointment is on 11/03. If I've not heard from my surgeon's office (they are supposed to call me) regarding surgery approval/post-op education (that you have pre-op), &c, but 11/10 or so, I'll give them a call so we can have as much time before the end of the year to get all my ducks into a conga line. I'm hoping for a surgery date of 12/17 because of the way my Christmas break falls. People have looked at me like I'm nuts because I'm actually -wanting- it so that I'll not be able to eat solids at Christmas. If solids are off the table, it'll be very, very hard for me to give in to stress eating. Surviving a holiday being unable to stress eat will help me avoid it in the future. At least that's how I'm thinking about it.

Hoo ya!

That's what I'm talking about! If you sneak a peek over <--- there, you'll see that I'm now down to my lowest weight in about two years. That's what my scale at home said. I weighed at the doctor's office and his scale decided to declare a truce or something because I was down a total of 9# since my last weigh-in on his scale. :-) I attribute this success to the protein mini-meals/low in refined carbs diet that I'm doing that is a sort of hybrid between a diet that my sister sent me and what my psychologist suggested for me as a pre-op behavioral plan. I'm also walking about an hour a day now, which can't hurt.

Now, to keep up the momentum with the temps going back up to near 80... that's the trick.

Just an FYI about me

In case you haven't been reading my blog very long, I thought I'd post a sort of PSA about its content. :-) I will have times where everything is clicking along like clockwork and life is rosy in the Winter Wolf's world. Then something will happen that causes a bump in the road and I'll probably vent about it a bit. In most cases, the venting lasts for all of one post (like the last one) and then I can move on once the negativity boil is lanced and the poison is drained from it. If I'm negative for several posts in a row, please call me on it because it may be indicative of something else besides frustration.

That being said, things are clicking along once again. I've been very good with my diet the last few days and I'm already down nearly 7 pounds. I know that most of that is fluid, but I'll take it. Fat loss will come soon enough. Thankfully there really is a protein powder out there that doesn't taste like something old and diseased crawled on to my tongue to die. ;-) That makes things MUCH easier. I'll be adding some longer walks in this week, so that will really help with wringing the fluid out of my tissues and show a better loss at the doc's office on Wednesday.

Hopefully the detox period won't last much longer. I'm pushing through it, but it'll be awesome to be on the other side of the sluggish-headache-bitepeople'sheadsoff period. :-)

Believe it or not, I actually said no to cake yesterday!!!!!! There may be hope for me yet. :-)

Now that -that's- out of my system...

... I can move on to becoming fit and fabulous! :-)

I've cracked down hard on my diet and, though it's just the first day, I'm doing well. I'm being very strict with myself because that'll get the detoxing over quickly and get me on my way to feeling better through eating better.

Let's just say that the combination of drinking my quota of water and cutting back on the refined carbs has me not so worried about retaining fluid. ;-)

I'm getting a lot of protein and just a few carbs, mostly in the form of veggies. I've had no soda today, but I have had unsweetened iced tea. Cutting back on the caffeine will have have to happen after I've detoxed from the sugar. Perhaps it would be easier on me if I did it all at once, but it would definitely not be easier on those around me, so...

Have a great weekend everyone!

Warning: Whiny, Self-Indulgent Post

I've tried really hard to not be whiny and self-indulgent on this blog. I don't know how many people are reading me beyond the public followers, and I've tried to be upbeat and motivational.

That's so not happening today.

Granted, much of what I'm going to be whiny and self-indulgent about are excuses. Not reasons. Excuses. I'm just tired and achy and sick of a lot of things right now. Just remember that I warned you that there were no promises regarding my sanity and I'm having a bit of a crazy moment.

All that said, I've not been doing the greatest with either my diet or my exercise. I've had to buy lunch in the cafeteria because our fridge is currently not working and I'm limited regarding what I can bring to frozen dinners and canned goods. We're stalking the maintenance guy in hopes that this issue will be resolved SOON because this is really getting old. Exercise, well... I just don't know about this. Trying to work full time and go to school part time AND exercise has been difficult. Not impossible, mind you, just difficult. I'm working on this, too. I've created a paper schedule that has a week at a glance on it with time slots from 8AM to 11PM and I've color-coded school and work things. I now need to color-code exercise things. I just haven't yet. Part of the problem is that I'm aching pretty badly from the change in the weather and that's sapping my motivation. But if I can't get a measly 15 pounds off, I'll never be able to have my surgery and I'll feel like an even bigger failure than I do right now.

I'm retaining fluid again, but I'm not going to let it be a problem for my doctor's visit next Wednesday. I'm drinking LOTS of water and I'm limiting my carbs & sodium. If that doesn't work, then I just don't know what else I can do. Maybe walking more would help. I'll try that. I can't walk for long stretches yet because of the plantar faciitis, but that shouldn't stop me from walking 15 minutes at a time. All I can do is all I can do. Lectures won't help. Cajoling won't help. I just need to find that place within me that will flip the motivational switch. If you can help with -that-, I'm all ears.

I suppose that what it all comes down to is feeling like I have way too much to do in way too little time. I keep telling myself that it's just for 2 years (the school part, anyway). I can do this. Really. I just need to do it and quit bitching. Or, as one of my favorite people in the whole world says, I need to put on my big girl panties and get it done. And if I do that, my big girl panties will come in a smaller size. :-)

Lookit!

<---- Over there! Look at my ticker! I'm down to 285.6 this morning. I took some advice and pretended that the water weight didn't cause my doctor's scale to go up. I stayed the course and managed to lose weight over a holiday weekend, even though I went to a cookout. Of course, I followed my pre-op guidelines at the cookout for the most part. I did have some dessert but I stuck mostly to protein and made sure that I chewed everything thoroughly. I'm sure that will get annoying to people, but they'll get over it. :-)

Since DH gets off work at 2pm today, I asked him if he maybe wanted to go work out with me this evening and he said he will. I really hope he does! Hopefully we can get his venous stasis ulcers healed so that he can get in the pool with me, too. Until then, it's the exercycle and some walking for us both. But Tues/Thurs are my weightroom days, so he'll either do weights with me, or do cardio while I'm doing weights.

DH & I got to talking about how cooking in our household will change post-op and he said that he's actually looking forward to it. He admitted to me that he's watching with great interest to see how I do with my surgery because he's been thinking about it, too. I love being a guinea pig. :-) Seriously, though... I think that, if he starts working out with me or on his own and if he follows my diet (albeit in slightly larger amounts), he'll lose enough weight that he won't need the surgery because he loses well, when he puts his mind to it. I think that part of his problem is that he doesn't eat enough and he certainly doesn't eat the right things. So, we're working on it. I know that my MIL is worried that family gatherings will change completely after I have my surgery because they won't center around food. I've tried to tell her that they don't, now; there just happens to be food. I told her that I would get her a bariatric cookbook so that she and my BIL (who is a chef) can work on learning bariatric surgery-friendly recipes, though I'm not worried about it. If there's a protein source, I'm good to go. :-)

Month 4

Of all the gorram days for my body to decide it is going to go into competition with the Hoover Dam over who can retain the most water, it would have to be today? Why?!? So, even though my scale at home has had me as low as 286# in the past week, I showed a 2# gain at the doctor's office this morning. Grrrrr! But, have I mentioned how much I ♥ my doctor? We talked about what I've been doing and he's happy with that so he told me to not get so frustrated with myself. Just keep doing what I know I'm supposed to be doing and not stress about it. Stressing will just make me hang on to fluid and will pump cortisol through my system. So, I'm going to go with that and not worry about it so much... or at least try to.

He checked my feet and said that what I'm experiencing sounds like plantar faciitis to him, too. He told me that what I was doing was what I am supposed to do for it and he refrained from prescribing steroids, which is good. He told me that there is a strap that running stores sell that holds your foot in a flexed position while you sleep to help keep the ligaments from contracting overnight, resulting in the "OMG, WTF" pain upon rising in the morning. So, I'm going to look into that.

My flare seems to be on the way out, so I'm going to get back to the gym next week. Darn it. :-) I also was very careful today to not get anything overly gluten-y. While very few oats are gluten free in the US, I stayed away from anything with flour/wheat in it today. I know that eating GF (or near enough) is the key to feeling better and feeling better is the key to exercising consitently and exercising consistently is the key to getting and keeping this weight off. So... GF for me! My friend S. says "Don't be a glutton for gluten". :-)I think I need a t-shirt. Hopefully the eating the pre-op diet sans gluten will help me acheive the 15-30-pound weightloss I'm supposed to have prior to surgery.

School is threatening to eat my head, so I've got to get on track and get some stuff done this weekend so that it doesn't have a chance. :-) I've got a 3-day weekend, so I can do homework & housework and still get a little rest. Have a great one, everyone!

Just another manic Monday (with apologies to The Bangles)

Happy Monday morning, all. And by "all" I mean the three people who are actually actively reading my blabbers. ;-)

Anyway. Class on Saturday was interesting. Thankfully, it didn't involve a phone call to Centra tech support like my Wednesday class did. I managed to get through it without caffeine - dunno how. I woke up Sunday with severe pain in my right foot and realized that the plantar faciitis is back. So I got right on my treatment for it. I'm hoping I can manage to ease it off with my home treatments so we don't have to resort to steroids again. That's the -last- thing I need. Because of that, I'm doubly motivated to work out in the pool today rather than walking on the treadmill. I -did- go & do my morning walk break and it was OK, but I don't want to push it. So, weather permitting (i.e. no lightning), I'll water walk/swim when I get home. If it's storming when I get downtown, I'll ponder a trip to the Y rather than risking the weather will hold and keep me from getting my workout.

It's really strange. Since I've started really getting a handle on my emotional eating & my eating out of boredom, I'm simply not all that hungry. I guess that's a good thing. But, as such, I'm eating when I'm hungry and stopping when I'm full. I'm also drinking a LOT of water. I'm hoping that eating moderate amounts of food, massive amounts of water, and exercise will show a significant loss on my doc's scale on 09/03. I have to lose 15-30 pounds before my surgeon will even think about scheduling surgery, so... As of this AM (according to my scale), I'm down 7.3#, so I'm nearly half-way there.

Best laid plans of mice and men

I fully intended to go to the gym on Wednesday and do a lower body workout, but a migraine de-railed that plan. :-( So I went yesterday as planned. I've decided that, for the time being, I'm going to do a full-body workout on the weights on Tuesday and Thursday, and concentrate on cardio on Monday and Friday. I'll play it by ear and see how I'm doing in a couple of months. Until Labor Day, I'm planning on making Mon/Fri pool days at our complex pool then switching to the pool at the YMCA after that. Maybe by then I'll feel a bit more confident in wearing a bathing suit in semi-public. :-)

Both yesterday and Tuesday, I walked from the new transit center to the Y, which takes approximately 15 minutes. As it cools down and I get into better shape, that might change, but I don't think the change will be appreciable. I've already babbled about Tuesday, so I'll babble about yesterday now. ;-)

I'd decided after my nap on Wednesday (trying to get rid of the migraine) that I'd switch to full-body on Thursday. So, I went to the Y, weighed myself (up a smidge because of fluid retention) and went to the weight room. I did two sets of 12 reps on each of the machines I'd done Tuesday, and added 2X12 on the hamstring curl and quad extension machines. I tried the rotary calf, but couldn't make it work for me so I settled on 2X12 of calf raises using my body weight (which is plenty enough weight, thanks). I need to figure out how to work my hip adductors/abductors because I'll need them strong for when I start dancing and/or skating again. I'm sore but not in pain today, but only slightly, so I can probably stand to go up on the weight on some of the machines. I frequently underestimate how strong I still am from years of lifting weights, dancing and skating. I'm gonna be one hot mama when I get the fat burned off. ;-) I just hope that the toning and the fact that I'm not yet 40 will help me not have a crazy amount of loose skin after my weight loss. I'll worry about that when the time comes, but am doing what I can to prevent it as much as possible.

I have my IS 520 class in the AM, which should prove interesting. I'm not sure there's enough coffee to get me awake by 9:30AM on a Saturday, but I'll fake it as best I can. :-)

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Yay me! I did it!

I keep a notebook in my locker at the gym where I record my workouts. I was very saddened to see that my last entry was in May 2009. But I was also heartened by the fact that I made a plan to go to the gym yesterday and I followed through with it. I was a good girl and I only did 1 set of 15 reps on the weights (did upper body yesterday, will do lower today) just to re-introduce my body to the concept of working out again. I'm hoping that the routine I've designed will be enough for the time being. I may add a couple more core exercises in a month or so, when I've built some strength, but I think I'm okay for now. I'm actually more concerned about hitting all of my lower body muscle groups, honestly. Especially when the machine they have at my gym for the hip flexors/hip adductors/hip abductors looks more like a medieval torture device than a piece of exercise equipment. ;-) I'll figure it out. When in doubt, I'll ask one of the staff to show me how to use it.

In addition to doing my weight circuit, I walked for 30 minutes on the treadmill. If I add my commute to/from the bus, from the bus to the Y, the AM walk break, the 30 minutes on the treadmill and my weights, I got almost an hour and a half of movement in yesterday. Yay me!

My fall term starts today, so wish me luck! I'm determined to manage my time a bit more wisely this semester so that I can get all I need to get done for school, work and at home and still be able to work out and attend to my spiritual life.

Ta da!

I have now survived my first semester in graduate school. I have also survived my first semester in graduate school while also preparing for WLS. My sanity is still mostly intact. :-) The group project in the class on whose grade I was waiting was given a score just high enough for me to keep my A. I've filed away my prof's comments and will definitely seek out more information on projects in the future because I think that the reason we did not do much better is because the assignment wasn't clear enough in our heads. Oh, well. Lesson learned. Still, buried in this paragraph is the fact that I've finished my first semester in grad school with a 4.0!!!!

Semester #2 starts tomorrow. I am, again, taking two classes (6 credit hours) and I'm hoping the extra month in the semester will feel a lot looser. I've already downloaded my syllabi and it doesn't look as though they are trying to simply cram more into the term, which is good. This semester I'm taking Organization of Information and Introduction to Information Technology. I think they'll both be pretty kewl classes. I'll keep you all posted, of course. ;-)

On Thursday, I was actually able to attend my first support group meeting for Foothills Weightloss patients. The topic wasn't anything really new, but it still felt good to have gone. The hubby is going to do everything he can to be able to continue going with me. We took a test on Thursday, and we're supposed to get our results back next month, so that'll be good. It's an eating behavior test and it was really kind of neat to see that my behavior and thinking towards food has really changed in the last few months, which will definitely help me be more successful in the long run.

I'm actually going to the gym tonight for the first time in a LONG time. Wish me luck!

All Over but the Shouting

I've turned in all my assignments and am waiting on one more grade (and my class participation) in one class. So far, I've got a 95% in the class so my group and I will have had to completely bomb the group project for me to get less than an A in the class, but I'm not assuming I have an A until I see it on my official grade report. My other professor has reported my grade and I -do- have an A in his class. So, yay!

Now, the "boo". I've developed another UTI. I'm not entirely sure why I've gotten more of them in the last 5 years than I have in the entirety of the rest of my life, but... this makes 3 in the last 5 years. I guess that's not the worst odds, but it's still darn inconvenient. I've just been thanking my lucky stars that my body waited until the semester was ending so I have a week or so to get better before having to get up and at 'em again. I went to the clinic on Tuesday (& spent nearly 3 hours there) and got an antibiotic and the lovely dye stuff that helps with pain & other symptoms. I'm now on day 3 of the antibiotic and I'm feeling a bit better. I still have no appetite, which I guess is a good thing. :-/ Unlike other times when I've not had an appetite, I'm actually losing, so I'll count it as a positive for now. Hopefully when my appetite returns it'll be satisfied with less and less so that I'm prepared for the less and less I'm able to eat post-op.

The way I'm feeling with this does confirm the possibility that it was an infection that was causing all my problems last year. Might not've been a UTI, necessarily, but an infection of some kind, though one never showed up in blood work, &c. Still, I will be glad when I'm able to get some pool time in. Hopefully I'll be up to that tomorrow afternoon - assuming the weather cooperates, of course. :-) I'm in orientation until 6PM, but that still leaves plenty of daylight. I'll just have to see how I'm feeling. I may give myself the rest of the week and just hit it on Monday, like I'd planned to. I'll be nearly done with the antibiotic by then, so... I'll just see how badly orientation wears me out.

Hope all are well!

TGIF!

While I still have an assignment due today and our group project due on Monday, I'm still glad that today is Friday. It's been a long week, mostly because it's been so gorram HOT! But I missed my bus two days this week; once was my fault because I really was running late but yesterday, the bus passed by the stop (I saw it) early. According to the published schedule, it's supposed to hit the timepoint before my stop at 6:55AM. Since that's about 5-6 minutes away, I still try to be at my stop at 6:55-6:56AM (basically, I try to be at my stop when the bus is scheduled to get to the stop before, if that makes sense). Well, yesterday AM, it hit my stop at 6:56 (as I was waiting to cross the street to get to my stop). There is NO way it hit the timepoint, as they are not supposed leave them early, and made it to my stop in ONE minute. I know that the timepoints will be 10 minutes earlier after the transit center opens on 08/16, but they are supposed to be going by the current schedule until then. I abhor getting anyone into trouble, but I asked the transfer point supervisor if they'd already switched to the new timepoints, and she said no, and I explained the situation. This morning, I tried my darndest to be at the stop by 6:50, just in case (was there at 6:52, so that wasn't horrible). Bus got there at 6:56, so I was glad I was there early. I guess I should just prepare to be there on time for the new timepoints. Hopefully not having to be up until all hours of the night will facilitate my getting up a smidge earlier.

Next week I've decided to swim at our pool at home in the evenings, or walk home (basically not go to the gym), and take the week I have between semesters to catch up on some housework that I've let slide this summer. I need to get the fridge cleaned out because I think we're going to have to tell the manager that "it's dead, Jim." I put a bottle of water in the freezer two days ago and it's still water. That's not right. So... Hopefully it won't take them long to get it repaired or get us a new one. The fridge wasn't new when we moved in and that was 15 years ago. I may get them to look at the AC while they're at it.

Starting on Monday, 16 August (when the transit center opens), I'll get the trolley to the gym and start my as-of-yet-undetermined workout routine. I'm really thinking of upper body two days/week and lower body two days/week + stretching everyday and walking home or swimming as my cardio. According to my surgeon's office and my pre-op behavioral guidelines, I'm supposed to concentrate on strength training and flexibility, so that's what I'm going to do. So long as I get a minimum of 60 minutes of movement (exercise + non-exercise)/day, I'm good.

I hope all are well and staying hydrated in this heat!

Woosh! There it is!

So, okay... I got up this AM and got dressed and ready to go to the doctor for my third of 6 visits on this 6 month thing. I figured that, if I weighed myself on my scale fully dressed, including my shoes, that I'd have a good idea of what to brace myself for at his office. My scale read 295.6. That did -not- make me happy, especially considering I walked home 1.5 miles in nearly 75% humidity, lugging my laptop. I've been sweating. I've been eating, if not 'right', then better. I've been drinking water like it's going out of style. And I step on my scale to a GAIN? I don't -think- so. So, I'm bracing myself for the lecture that will come -this- month.

Then I get on my doctor's notoriously evil scale. The one that hates me so much that it usually weighs me 2-3 pounds heavier than the one at home. And I'm at 292#. Not only is that 3.6# lighter than at home, it's 6# lighter than last month's weigh-in. Yeah, I'll take it. :-) Thankfully, my schedule opens up next week, so I can start really working out and swimming every night until the pool closes on Labor Day. After that, I'll need to start going to the pool at the YMCA. I'll figure out my workout plan this week and hit it on Tuesday. My class on Monday is only an hour long, so I might actually be able to fit in a 30-45 minute swim on Monday, too. I'll just have to see how the weather is doing.

Anyway. I'm supposed to lose 15-30 pounds pre-op. If I can get 6#/mo for the next three months, I'm golden.

I can has Fall nao?

Sorry for the LOL speak, but... there you go. I am so gorram tired of this heat. It should -not- be 80 degrees F at 8:00AM. Seriously. Even LA is supposed to be cooler today than it is here, and that's just not right. The heat has me really frustrated because, with my schedule, I've not been able to get into the pool like I'd like to and the heat is making it nearly impossible for me to walk without courting heat stroke. Even if I were to suck down my body weight in water, the humidity makes it very difficult for the body's sweat to do its job: to cool me down. If my sweat can't evaporate, then it just makes me feel even hotter, which overheats me to the point of nausea. Gah! Thankfully, my semester is over as of Monday, which means my schedule switches to my Fall term schedule, which will allow for more evenings/week that I can actually go to the gym. It's not my favorite thing, especially if it means doing cardio at the gym, but at least there is AC. Frankly, I'm planning two days/week of weight training and then swimming the other days as long as weather permits (and our pool is open). I've thought about doing upper body two days/week and lower body two days/week, but I'm not sure if I'm that hard core yet. ;-) I'll ponder that some more.

For the time being, though, I need to ponder getting the rest of my assignments done before the end of the term. Sleep? Who needs it? :-) Oh, yeah, I kinda do...

Love-Hate Relationships

I'm in a love-hate relationship with my scale right now. Actually, it's probably more of a hate-hate relationship ATM because I hate that it's not showing that I've made any progress (unless you count -gaining- as progress) and it hates me right back. I don't know if I'm really retaining fluid or what but I'm not able to get below 290 again. :-( This weekend's weigh-in had me at 290.4. Is it too much to ask that I'm actually down when I go see my doctor on Wednesday? Sheesh.

I didn't find the handout with my pre-op behavioral guidelines, but I -was- brilliant enough to copy them into my journal, so that's something, at least. I am frustrated, though, because Saturday was National Dance Day and I didn't feel up to doing more than "dancing" in my chair while I watched "Footloose". Next year, though. Darn it.

I'm so glad that the summer term is over as of Monday next. That means that, starting Tuesday, I'll be able to work out like I'd like to and get myself into the habit of exercising. Weather permitting, I'll be swimming as much as possible until Labor Day, when our pool closes. I will also be doing some strength training a couple of days/week and flexibility every day. I know that I'll have some loose skin to deal with after surgery, but I'm hoping that staying hydrated, making sure I'm getting my protein and doing weight lifting will help keep it to a minimum. Otherwise, Spanx will become my friend. :-)

I'm tired today, but I did want to make sure I posted -something-. I'll be sure to report on my doctor's visit on Wednesday.