I visited family in Indiana from July 3rd, returning home on July 8th. This was my first visit in 2 years because I saved my vacation time last year for my surgery. It was so good to see my family. I always feel like I recharge my emotional batteries when I see them. I just so much warmth and caring when I am with them. I can only hope that I do the same for them. My Aunt is like a second mother to me and my cousin Claudia and I are quite close, almost like sisters. There are so many parallels in our lives. This relationship is quite funny, since we were NOT this close as kids. My cousin Pam and I have found each other again in the last several years and I value and enjoy the special person that she is. She and I were crib-mates when we were babies. We we born only a few weeks apart.  This was my first trip away since my surgery. I planned by bringing several of my special foods with me. This helped me stay on track. They have a treadmill. So I used that some days, walked the neighborhood (in the country), or was active walking as we shopped, etc. I did not weigh myself at all when I was away and could not wait to get to a scale when I got home. I weighed myself first thing this morning and was pleased to see that I lost 5 more punds during this trip. Yippee!

I had a terrific weekend! It is just normal stuff, but stuff I could not have done before. Friday night I had dinner with friends that I had not seen in over 2 years. Besides being great to spend time with them, they were so complimentary of my weight loss to date. They kept saying that I looked "so healthy". They also said I looked younger. I have not thought so, but I will take it. LOL. Saturday, I took Fran shopping for her birthday. She is a Sephora nut, so we went to the Mall in Columbia. Besides Sephora, we walked the entire Mall. We were shopping for over 3 hours. On Sunday, I was just about to go the gym when a friend called and asked if I wanted to go kayaking to enjoy the beautiful weather and get some more practice in. Since this is only my 2nd time kayaking, I was cautious. So I rented a kayak that youo sit on top. This way if I tipped, I would not get trapped. I did a lot better in this kayak. We paddled around Dundee Creek for about an hour. Even though I felt good, we limited our outing to make sure we did not overdo it. I felt like this trip out really gave my confidence level a boost. Again, this all seems like a nice normal busy. But these are all things that I would not have been able to do and have so much fun doing. Yee-ha!

Yeah! I finally hit a total of 200 lbs. lost today! YEAH! It has felt like it took a long time for me to get to this point. However, if I look back, I am doing great. I have to keep telling myself that. Why is it that people with long time weight issues have a hard time accepting good things about themselves? Anyway, I am going to enjoy today. I plan to go the gym, shopping and then dinner with friends tonight. I am glad I will be spending time with friends today. I am flying so high. I just feel like celebrating. Now, onto the next 10 lbs.!

When I weighed myself this morning (I actually forgot to yesterday), I was surprised to see that I had lost 3 more lbs! It feels like this block of 10lbs. that I have been working on has been painfully slow to disappear. Anyway, just 1 more to go and I will hit a total of 200 lost. 

I tried on some old clothes I had made myself a long time ago. These were things that I never or rarely wore because I did not like the fit at that time. Well now, some of them are actually too big. Now I need to see if they are worth taking in or just giving away. I really like the fabrics. So maybe I will see if I can salvage. it will involve resetting the sleeves as well as taking in the side seams. That is a lot of work.

I went to a dermatologist today about the rashes I have been getting. He  thinks that the one heart medication has made me sensitive to the sun. Since this is the first summer season since I started taking it, that is why I never experienced that before. He does say that it passes with the initial sun exposure for the season. The sunblock I bought happens to be what he would recommend anyway. So that is good. I was surprised to learn that the application of sunblock should be at least an ounce each time. I definitely have been applying it more sparingly than that. So I need to correct that behavior. He does not think this should cause me any concern for my trip in October. Yeah!

This was a crazy week at work. The stress makes it hard to get enuogh sleep and I want to eat in the evenings. This was my classic time for adding in major calories in the old days. I have managed to avoid trying the really bad stuff, but it is a struggle sometimes. Still, I did not do all of this to give up now. And I am enjoying the change too much.

I saw some friends for dinner last night. Although I recognize that I have lost weight, I still feel like I have so much further to go. But people kept saying how good I look and that even in the last couple of months (since they last saw me) it is obvious that I have lost more. I guess I just don't see it sometimes. 

As I was walking in the office today, it suddenly occurred to me that my thighs were not rubbing together as I walked. The hem of my jeans on each leg was flapping the other, but not my thighs! Amazing! Don't get me wrong. My thighs have some major flap, skin sag issues. However, the overall effect with clothes on is better than I thought.

I will take whatever I can get at this point. It is all good!