I don’t know if I mentioned it already but my boss is a health nut.  He buys all these supplements and drinks weird organic shakes and does the Tough Mudder and stuff like that.  Anyway, he wants the office to do a Tough Mudder in October, so he hired a personal trainer to come 3 days a week to train anyone and everyone who is interested (even if you aren’t doing the Tough Mudder race).  Initially I decided I wasn’t going to partake in the Tough Mudder challenge….not really my thing.  But maybe if by October I feel physicially fit enough to do it, I will enter.  So basically my boss is paying me to work out (at least that’s what my hubby keeps saying).  He actually likes working out so much he got a different trainer (different style of training) to work us out of the other 2 days that the first trainer isn’t there.  Right now I decided to stick to the original 3 days of working out.  So far so good.  Tuesday was cardio day.  I RAN 3 min in 1 minute intervals.  Let me repeat….I RAN!!! Who would have thought that possible.  NOT I!!!  Anyway, I’m feeling great (and sore of course) with the trainer workouts and find that exercise helps keep me on track with food.  I don’t want to waste a workout by eating something bad that day or the following day. 

That’s all I really have to share.  Just wanted to say my workouts are going great!!

I had a wonderful 3 day weekend with my husband and little girl.  My husband usually works Saturdays, but he requested the day off to have the weekend for us.  Then I was off on Monday and he requested that too, so we ALL had a 3 day weekend!  It was so great.  We did a little shopping, went to the movies for date night, went to a party (more like kid friendly get together) and then more shopping.  We had such a good time being together.  Whenever I'm feeling down and out or just run down, it's nice to spend time with my family...they have a way of picking me back up. 

On to weight loss...today I weighed in at 185.8. W-O-W!  That's all I can say.  If you had told me that 7.5 mos after WLS I would weigh less than 200 I would have seriously doubted that.  But now, I'm only 35 lbs away from goal!  I've lost a total of 77 lbs and only have 35 lbs left!  Somehow that isn't registering in my head.  I can't even believe it.  I may have lost it more slowly than others, but I'm definitely ok with my weight loss thus far!  To be honest, my first goal was 175.  I believed if I had reached my high school weight of around 175 I'd be golden.  Then my surgeon said I could more than likely hit 150, possibly even 145.  WHAT?!?!? So now my goal is 150.  But still I'm ecstatic!

WOW!  If that's not motivation to keep on track, I don't know what is!

Today is my 3rd day of "de-carbing" or detoxing more likely.  I have not had any mindless grazing or bad snacking going on.  I've limited carbs to:

My usual breakfast of greek yogurt w/PB2 and protein cereal
Lunch yesterday was a protein bar (which btw was YUCK!!....Pure Protein Strawberry Shortcake)
Snack was a cheese stick
Dinner was Shelly's casserole.  Find it here: Mexican Beef & Bean Bake  (we added a smidge of sour cream and fresh pico de gallo...DELISH!!)
Dessert:  Attempted to try a protein jello.  Had about 1/4 of that....another Yuck!

I gotta say that when I stray away from being good and find myself mindlessly eating again I need to go back to the basics.  And the basics for me are PROTEIN, PROTEIN, PROTEIN, WATER, WATER, WATER, AND VERY LITTLE CARBS.  That combination just seems to work for me.  Since Monday (my first day of detox) I've been drinking a crap load of water and I feel amazing once I have alot of water in my system.  Maybe I've lived my life being dehydrated and used to mistake that for hunger??  Who knows?  But what I know now is that my confidence in myself is restored.  I AM strong enough to stick to this.  I DO want to be healthy for me and for my family.  I do want this now just as much as I wanted it before surgery.  I get to thank my sister for always being there and helping me think through things.  She always seems to be the light at the end of the tunnel.  Who would have thought that 15 years ago when we were fighting and pulling each others hair?!?! LOL   Had I known then of how much she would mean to me in my life and how much I appreciate her willingness to help in any situation she can, I would have cut her some slack back then.

Today is day 1 of de-carbing.  I am going to have 3 shakes today as meals.  For breakfast I had a vanilla-strawberry protein shake.  I'll have the same for lunch and have a peanut butter shake for dinner.  I really need to detox from all the carbs that I'm getting used to.  I liked it when I wasn't so used to eating carbs.  I'm going to try this for today and then tomorrow I'll think of something else to do.  This is the second time I've detoxed from carbs and the first time it took me 3 days.  

I had a lovely weekend with my fam.  We went to target and I bought a Jillian Michaels DVD and some 5lb dumbbells and some workout pants.  I'm going to work out in front of my TV with my daughter!! I grabbed the dumbbells and she said are we exercising mama? And that gave me a great idea to include her when working out!  She was so excited about it.

I guess that's it for today, but I'm feeling good about today.  If I can just get through the next 3 days...

It seems I haven't blogged in quite some time.  I miss it.  Since my new job, life has been crazy busy.  I still work part-time at my old job too.  Oh yeah, and I just signed up for a college class on Saturdays starting January 21st.  My weight loss has slowed BIG TIME, although I feel I'm definitely getting a little lax in my 'rules'.  So, since the holidays are over its time to get back to basics.  No more leftovers for weeks and no more no measuring because it's 'holiday food'.  I have got to get as dedicated as I was BEFORE Thanksgiving.  Yesterday was my first full day staying on track again.  I had cottage cheese and a fruit cup for breakfast, a low carb homemade enchilada for lunch, and 1 homemade fish taco for dinner.  I was getting used to having popcorn or some kind of dessert (albeit, not a terrible choice, just not the best...usually flourless cookies).  Last night I had a delicious vanilla peanut butter protein shake.  I had no idea how much I missed those!  It was delish.  It was SO good that I wrote the measurements down.

I had my husband bring in the treadmill yesterday from the garage and into our already crowded house.  Since we cancelled our gym membership (too far) I decided I can still exercise at home!  There's no excuses!!

So for 2012, my goal is to get back to basics.  Making sure I'm getting enough protein and water.  Oh yeah, and make sure I'm getting some form of daily exercise.  That should help me to start losing again!