I haven't written in a while and that's because I've had nothing to say. I had fallen back into old habits and stopped following the rules of the tool and as a result, was at a standstill for the past 3.5 months. I lost about 5 pounds in November and a couple in December, and since then I had been teetering up and down the same 3 pounds from 183 to 180. I did not rearrange my guts to be 180 pounds!  I'm only 5'2". That's still obese for me.  

So in February I started the Couch to 5K program. Exercise was something I hadn't been motivated to do and I thought doing so would kick start me back into weight loss.  But after 6 weeks of running 3 days per week and the scale hadn't moved, I realized it was going to take more than that. I needed to get back on program.

When I started tracking again I realized how much I was doing wrong! I was appalled at myself. I was eating too many carbs - and bad ones! I was eating candy again ("Just a little won't hurt", I convinced myself). Sure I ordered my chicken sandwich grilled, but I was eating it on the white bread roll...and sneaking a few fries with it. I would have a cookie here, a few chips there. I was drinking WITH my meals. And I was always hungry! Some days my pouch felt bottomless!  Ugh!  So I decided to do the 5 Day Pouch Test.

The first two days were so hard for me that I realized just how many carbs I had been eating. Carbs are my enemy. Oh how I love them so.  But the 5DPT really helped me rediscover my tool and now I am back on track and as a bonus - the scale started moving again!  I've lost 4 pounds in the past week. I am currently 176lbs.

So now I am 78 pounds down since surgery and 92 pounds total. Only 8 pounds away from the century club! And in 4 more pounds I will officially be at the lowest weight I have been able to achieve since I got married in 1998. I can't wait!!

Oh - And I am up to running 28 minutes straight now, and that's about 2 1/4 miles at the pace I go. I signed up for a 5K on April 21st, so I have just under a month to get up to running 3.1 miles! I know I can do it! 7 weeks ago I was dying after running for 2 minutes! Woohoo! Life is grand.

So for the past couple of months I have been losing at a rate of 8 pounds per month (ppm), or 2 pounds per week. I guess that's a good healthy way to do it, but like I said last month, I thought it would come off a little faster during the first six months. To each his own rate of loss, I guess.

I'm not doing much better in the "making good choices" thing, as evidenced by the slice of Whole Wheat crust pizza I just ate for lunch. It's a better choice than the 2 slices of regular pizza I used to consume, but I need to wrap my brain around the fact that pizza in general is not a good choice. Period. Sigh. Someday...  Right now I'm still a bit weak. But I'm working on it!

So my progress is 64 pounds lost since surgery and 78 pounds lost total. I have 50 more pounds to go until goal.  At 5 months out, I'm still at a weight loss rate of 12.8ppm (post-op pounds) overall so I am very happy with that. 

This month I am going to focus on getting more exercise to up the 8ppm rate at which I have been losing for the past two months. I had set myself a goal to lose 100 pounds by the end of the year and I am 22 pounds away. That's 11ppm. For those of you who are counting, that means if I continue to lose at the current 8ppm rate, I'll only lose 16 pounds. I need to step it up to work off the additional 6 pounds in the next two months. 

I have my plans. I have my goals. I need to focus my mind on achieving it!  Happy November Everyone! 

56 pounds since surgery and 70 pounds total when including the pre-op diet.  

I get a bit scared sometimes because the weight loss has slowed a bit and that seems so soon to me. I thought the first 6 months were supposed to be the best. I also do not dump or get sick at all, so I keep catching myself sneaking a bit of this and a bit of that. I need to nip that in the bud NOW, but I don't know how to stop myself.  The other night I ate 5 twizzlers!  Now, that doesn't seem horrific in and of itself, but when you consider that I ate them after already having consumed a sugar-free cupcake and a carb smart ice cream bar...that's bad!  And I do it late at night when everyone else in the house is sleeping, which was always my problem. Closet eating. Grr!

I still track everything I eat, good and bad, on My Fitness Pal every day and the highest calorie day I've had is 1350, with the average being 900-1000, so that's not really terrible. But I don't want that 1350 number to become the norm or to keep creeping up, because that 1350 consists of too much carbs and fat. I need to get this under control before I sabotage my honeymoon period. I may need to seek professional counseling because I don't know how to stop myself.

I know the surgery wasn't on my head, but I did not rearrange my guts to let myself slip back into old habits this quickly!

I've been hovering between 198-201 (how annoying) for 2 weeks now and I know this is why. Sneaky bad carbs!  Yesterday I said, 'I am going to get back on plan and stop being lazy about my food'. And I did great all day...until bedtime. Then I ate a big handful of Pringles at 10pm while watching TV. Ugh.

Hoping for October to be a better month, but with Halloween candy in my house, I hope I can be strong.

Let me tell you - It was torture being on vacation all week and not having a scale!  I left for vacation at 202 and with the amount of walking I did at Disney all week, I just KNEW I had to have chiseled that "2" off the beginning of my weight. And I did!

We got back last night and the torturous week with no scale paid off when I stepped on it this morning and it read 199!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sayonara TWOterville! I am going to work hard for the rest of my life to make damn sure I never go back there again!

I felt great all week too! I had lots of energy for all that walking around the parks and I fit comfortable on all the rides with my little ones! It was an absolutely wonderful vacation in every way!

69 down...59 to go...

I did it! I met my goal of losing half my excess weight before vacation! Hooray! 

I am now down 50 pounds since surgery and 64 pounds overall!  I have never been as happy to be 204 as I am now. LOL! 5 pounds to go until glorious ONEderland!

Today is a good day.