The New Me ...

16 weeks ago today I was getting ready to head to Toronto for surgery.  I am still in awe that I had surgery let alone am fully recovered and living my new-to-me life.  I am down over 60lbs and very very close to being below 300lbs.

I have always wanted to be able to just get up and go each morning without pain.  Previous to surgery I can't even count on one hand how many days I was able to wake up pain free. My hips, legs, feet, even my arms would be killing me each morning.  In the last few months I live a new reality, I wake up each morning pain free, refreshed, and ready to tackle a new day.

Before surgery I was also too large to use the WiiFit I bought almost 5 years ago.  I absolutely love it but I was way over the weight restrictions of the board it uses.  Saturday I was able to use it!!!  I have also been able to do yoga moves I wouldn't even have thought of trying before.  

I believe this is the smallest I have been in at least 7 years, possibly more. Sadly I am paying for all this today.  My legs are BURNING!!

60 POUNDS DOWN

I haven't posted a weight post in a while because we didn't have TOPS meetings over the Holidays.  I knew that without the meetings I would need a little extra kick every day, a reminder, that I could do this without the check in every week.

I will be honest though, I was terrified not having that check in each week. I was afraid I would slip into my old ways and say "oh well I have 18 days till weigh in I can have that square and not count it"

I won't deny that I had a square or two over the Holidays, however, I made sure I counted them in my daily calories. If I knew I was going to have a square or something I don't normally eat then I made sure I  re-organized my meals the rest of the day to accommodate it. These are all brand new things for me. Not because I was never taught them, I had been taught them throughout my entire life, but I never put them into effect like I should have.

Every occasion in our family is celebrated with food. During the Holidays we had 2 turkey dinners, a lobster & steak dinner, and an appetizer buffet. Add to those meals there were trays and trays of sweets for desert. Although my family didn't change how THEY celebrated special occasions, I HAD TO CHANGE how I celebrated and this is going to be a constant battle for me.

I didn't get to 364.4lbs because I didn't enjoy food. I absolutely LOVE food but I have had to change how I choose to love food. In the last few months I have been able to switch it up and I am starting to enjoy making new recipes and baking for others so much. I can't say I don't want to eat the food from time to time but seeing the reactions of people who try my cooking/baking is a reward for me.


I was so excited to step on the scale last evening at TOPS because I knew I didn't over-indulge like I have in the past years during the Holidays. I was so excited to see that I was DOWN! I lost 6.2lbs since my last weigh in on December 18, 2012!

I am now down 61.2lbs!!

I am so happy that I have reached this goal. I wanted to reach 60lbs loss by December 26th, however, we didn't have a TOPS Meeting and I didn't want to ask someone to weigh me in over the Holidays. I did weigh myself on my home scale but I was too nervous to take it as a real weight loss without it being done on the TOPS scale.  Now that it has been validated on the TOPS Scale I will say I reached this goal.

My next goal is to be below 300lbs before my MRI on January 28th, 2013.  The last time I had an MRI scheduled I was unable to get it done because of my weight. I was not too heavy for the machine I was too wide for it. So if I can go there below 300lbs I will feel absolutely AMAZING!

Holiday Season

Well today is New Years Eve and I am looking back on this past year. I have spent the majority of my life celebrating achievements, holidays, and even sorrows with food. In the past year that has changed for me and it was very evident over the last few weeks. Although I have been the baker/cook in our family for years this was the first year that I didn't keep a single thing in the house. As soon as I baked any sweets I brought it straight to my moms to put it in their freezer. I also made sure that when we had any large meal I stayed within my calorie count and ate slowly so as to enjoy what I was eating.

When I got weighed in at TOPS on Dec 18 I was 309.4lbs and when I go back on January 8 I am hoping to not only be down 60lbs total but maybe even be below 300lbs. So far, on my home scale, I have reached the 60lb loss and I am getting very close to the 300lb mark but I won't record either till they can be verified at TOPS!!!

55lbs Down

Last weigh in for 2012 .... Or at least the last official one and I lost 1.4lbs since last week but 2.4lbs on the TOPS books once last weeks weigh in was just for me :-)

I have reached 55lb weight loss and my goal for 2012 is 60lbs total. I am not sure I can do it in the next 12 days but I am going to make my best effort.

 

 Me and Georgie (Our Weight Recorder and Amazing Woman)

No TOPS But Still Weighed In

Due to Christmas concerts and the such we cancelled TOPS this week but I just didn't want to go without getting weighed in so I asked our Weight Recorded to help me out with this.

We met up at 4:15 on Dec 11, 2012 and I weighed in at 310.8lbs ... that's another 1lb lost bringing me down 53.6lbs in total!!!

I am 6.4lbs away from losing 60lbs and 11.2lbs away from getting BELOW 300lbs ... these are two of my HUGEST goals I have for myself and I would LOVE to end 2012 reaching both of these goals!!

Another week down :-)

Well I got weighed on Tuesday at TOPS and I'm now down 52.6lbs after losing 3.4lbs this week. I was pleasantly surprised after the week I had. I have been so use this past week that I haven't been able to get near my treadmill. That doesn't mean I haven't been doing other things like cleaning, baking and decorating. I have had tons of energy so I have also been staying up later every night and as such getting and doing more and more!!

Down to 311.8 now :-)

Christmas Party

Seaside had their Christmas party last evening at Horizon Achievement Center in Sydney. Everyone from both sections of the company was invited and 90% of them showed. The night started with wine, cheese and mingling followed by a turkey dinner. It was difficult for me because I couldn't pick what I wanted and didn't want on my plate. The plate was very large compared to what I'm eating off of on a daily basis and the same with the cutlery. I did make it through though. I had about 3 ounces of white turkey meat, 1/2 cup of carrots and peas and about 1/8 of a cup of mashed potatoes. Desert was laid out on the table before we started and it was a few different kinds of cheese cake, However I only had one bit and handed the rest to Colin.

Next issue for me was finding something I likes to drink besides a cooler because I can't drink those anymore. I had very few options ....

Kaluha with milk
Baja rosa straight up
Baja rosa with milk
Wine

I am sure I could have had rum and water but I was not that brave and I was driving as well so I stuck with the wine. It was good and I am not a wine drinker by any means.

We had a great time none the less once the food issues were overcome. Our new owners had some amazing prizes picked out for us too.

1. Digital camera
2. Two iPad 4's
3. 40" LCD tv
4. A $3000 travel voucher with maritime travel for anywhere in the world

Colin won one of the iPad 4's and that is what I'm typing this blog on today because he loves me so much he gave it to me :-)

I will be getting a picture from the party of Colin and I but not for a week or so. And once I learn to add photos to the iPad I will post my most recent picture taken last night with my new hair cut and everything.

I finally felt comfortable at a large gathering. We had a lot of fun and although I am not brave enough yet to get up and dance I know it will come. Happy for small victories right now I'm not pushing things.