2 Years and A LOT of Change

Oct 07, 2013

It's been almost 2 years since I posted here on OH.  However, I have been very busy.  I had complications with my band and had it out over a year ago.  I have steadily lost the fight against regain...... BUT  I won the A Lighter Me drawing for surgery in Mexico!!!

Keep your eyes peeled here. I will be documenting the entry journey in vlogs.  You can follow me through my revision to VSG in Mexico with Dr. Ortiz.  I'm so excited and honored to be able to move my WLS journey forward.  Thank you Dr. Ortiz, Sandy, Janese, and Ronda for all being so GOOD to me!!!  

I'll be in Mexico in November.  Keep your eyes here for more info!!!!

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Whoa! Hey pretty numbers!

Oct 21, 2011

"The scale is moving, the scale is moving!" 

It's like the sky is falling, chicken little.  Finally, after months of fighting with 190, I am now down to 186! Solid! YES!

Only 24 more lbs to go to I start making my wedding dress! 

Only 365 more days until my wedding!!!  Since next year is a leap year, ya know.  

We celebrated our pre-anniversary last night.  2012 is going to be a BIG YEAR for me. 

I'm also getting certified as a Bariatric Counselor, working on my LPC license (finally!) and I hope by the week before the wedding, I will be done with my required hours!  Woot!  Yes, 6 years after I finished my master's degree, but better now than ever.  I finally found the population I am truly passionate about working with and I couldn't be happier! 
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Olfactory sensations and food relations

Oct 19, 2011

 Sometime last week I had to go out to my parent's house for a quick visit.  Okay, the truth is I am scheduled for jury duty but I start a new job tomorrow, so I had to go beg the judge to release me from jury duty.  This took a matter of minutes because he was already aware of the situation as my dad used to be an elected official and he had already spoken with the judge about the matter.  I just had to go into the courthouse and bring my summons to make things official.  As I was leaving the courthouse, a building I practically grew up in, I smelled something familiar.  It was a cross between cedar and lavender that I only smell at that building.  I mentioned this to my mom and she said it was the cleaning product they use.  Whatever the product it is, this matter has heightened my awareness of my sense of smell, memory, and the correlation of both to my weight and my memories.    I have many food memories, as my mother owned a food company.  The smell of gumbo roux flour browning in the ovens of the old factory, the spices in the air when Ms. Janet would mix the products, granted this occurred during the day while I was at school, but those days that I was not in school on a weekday, you'd better believe I was next door at my granny's house playing, watching As the World Turns, baking cookies or waiting for stuffed bell peppers to come out of the oven so I could eat only the stuffing from them.  To this day, I can not stand to eat the actual green bell pepper, nor do I like cooked pineapple, mostly because of the smell it gave the house when granny made her favorite cake: pineapple upside down cake.    Tonight, as I was reading a research article on post-bariatric patient care, or the lack thereof currently in the bariatric community, there were a few bits and pieces that brought back the olfactory sensory issues with regard to food.  Just this morning, I was telling myself, "If they made candles that smelled like Earl Grey Tea, I would burn them all the time."  I pondered this for a long while, realizing that some food smells trigger positive reinforcement of good food behaviors.  Others, not so much.  I know smelling cake baking will trigger a ravenous reaction to want to find sugary goodness, so I don't buy Birthday Cake scented candles.  Fruity Mango scented candles make me want to drink my weight in margaritas, but interestingly enough, lavender, verbena, lemongrass, or cedar candles seem to calm my desires to binge eat.     I doubt there is any clinical research yet on the specifics of our sense of smell to passify our eating behaviors, if so I'm sure it must be limited.  But I know a cup of Earl Grey tea with a light touch of cream will calm my appetite in the morning.  I wonder if an Earl Grey candle would stimulate my brain in a similar way at night when it's the toughest not to ruin a full day of hard work making sure I don't eat the wrong things or ruin an hour at the gym in ten minutes by delving into a bowl of ice cream.    Anyway, this entry is really just about my wondering if I'm the only one out there who finds lighting certain scents stimulates the brain away from food and centers the attention elsewhere.  It is a topic I would like to dig into deeper and I would love to hear what triggers everyone's food memories or what pleasant smells can curb your appetite.... 
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Stablized

Oct 25, 2010

My weight has pretty much stabilized around 165-168.  I know I could do better with eating, but I have my protein shakes for breakfast sometimes and others, I just don't eat.  I need to improve here, so I am challenging myself to health! For 30 days, I will be 100% following diet and exercise guides and recording them online at nanfit and here, probably.  

Life has been crazy.  I am doing everything I can to keep up with changes, but some things just have to come to an end sometimes.  That is the hardest part!  You have to be ready for certain changes.  The biggest change I'm making this year is that I will be finally pursuing my LPC license.  Yay!  I will be supervised by a classmate who received her PhD while I was finishing my Master's degree.  I will be concentrating in obesity and weight loss surgery (pre/post) counseling as a specialty.  

I had hoped to attend the ObesityHelp conference in Houston this year but with my current financial situation, I have to stay put.  It's the first time in 8 years I have not been able to travel much.  However, FUN NEWS! I am now the Spanx Specialist for the LA/MS region.  I get to go out and train associates on the new Spanx products!  It's a great part time gig, and I love that it's not only a product I find incredibly useful post-surgery but one that I can back 100%  The freebies are nice too, and I've finally been able to look into the mirror and say,"Wow, that's what an hourglass shape looks like!"

<3
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Yippeeee!

May 03, 2010

I'm 42 lbs to goal!  BMI 28.4!  I weigh less than my boyfriend! 

187 lbs this morning.  I will make it.  I will get there.  145 here I come! 
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Baby steps closer

Mar 13, 2010

I've only lost about 1.5 pounds in two weeks.  SO frustrating.  But at least the scale is keeping steady or going downward.  Every day for two weeks I got on the scale and it said either 196 or 196.4.  Today, it said 194.  Yippee.

However, I'm going to dinner tonight with my best friend at my favorite restaurant.  I am going to have to order on the A La Carte menu, as I could not do the Table D'Hote as I used to... I will order something light for dinner and if I feel like dessert, I might splurge a bit.  Gotta get to the gym today at some point.  Gotta go to Target.  Gotta get my booty moving now.
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lbs to goal

Feb 12, 2010

After a few months of scratching at the 1-00 on a scale, it's finally a stable, permanent crawl to my first big goal.  That's been 190 for three months, and now I am only 6 pounds away from it.  It's been a long way down.  I eat relatively healthy most of the time and still splurge sometimes.  I have to admit, there have been a few meals in the last month of ice cream, and I'm still losing.  I seriously eat that little.  But that's not to say I don't have foods I eat that don't go down without fuss or fumble.

So, my current pounds to goal is 51.6!  156.2 pounds since my highest weight in March 2004. You do the math... it's not really that important though other than that I finally did it, am doing it and rediscovering life with more energy and vitality that I ever thought imaginable.  Wow. I feel pretty good today.

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Wow-one-derland!

Feb 01, 2010

So, this AM I was about to get in the shower and my SO said to me, "Wow, honey, are you sure you haven't lost more weight?"  My response was, "Well, let's see..."  I took out the scale and low and behold it said 199.8.  I'LL TAKE IT!  HELL YEAH! I've made it!!!!! YIPPEEEEE!!! I thought my belly was looking a little bit flatter last night, but I've been teetering around 201 and 202 for weeks now.  I'm so ELATED.  So glad I was able to buy a London Fog short trench coat last night in a Large.  Not an XL, but a freakin' LARGE!  WOOHOOOOOO!!!!
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Living Simply...

Jan 30, 2010

I have resolved to make an effort to live a more simple, organic (in the metaphysical sense as well as the environmental) and green life.  I joined Melaluca, even though I thought that it was a little like a pyramid, but when I tried their products at Lisa's, I was truly IMPRESSED.  I made my first order yesterday and I am really looking forward to a gradual transition to only using their products so when I go to the farmer's market or grocery, I am only purchasing food stuffs. It's amazing the things we can live without.
I plan to do two major overhauls in February - clear out and clean up.  I have several boxes from Austin of paper records and books I don't need.  I am going to list the books on Amazon and try to sell them, whcih I've done successfully before and made some decent money.  And, I am going to get rid of the furniture I have at the factory that I don't want anymore.  This means I'll need to donate and/or doing a garage sale in March or April. I admit, in the past, I have donated things because I feel better about myself when I've given something I don't use to charity - lately, it's felt really good to give away the clothes that no longer fit.
I'd like to recommit to blogging at nanfit.com too. My original intention was to blog about the lifestyle changes and exercise, but I haven't exercised all that much this year other than walks with Hannah and Jonathan in the evenings.  I did my two mile jog on Wednesday night, and that felt good.  I've got to start following the CCC10k training schedule this week to get ready for the race.  If anyone is interested in joining me, that would be awesome.  This will be my 9th year!  I'm hoping that once the parades start, I'll walk from my office to Jonathan's office between 5-6 some days, maybe even as far as Lisa's, and have him pick me up there.
Once Lent begins, the weather warms up and I feel compelled to give something back to the Lord, I will start leaving work at 5:00pm and walking Audubon Park and City Park once each week until about 7 or 7:30. Ambitious, since I haven't been that committed to exercise in the last year despite the huge weight loss.  Eating less really does do the trick, but I've hit the plateau of doom and it's necessary now.
Enough rambling.  There are errands to run, places to go. People to see.
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205!!!

Dec 08, 2009

 I am 11 pounds away from 100 pounds lost since surgery.  I have already hit the 100 pound total loss, now I am at 148 lbs total loss! OMG. 

Amazing.  At this rate, I will hit 194 by the New Year!  190 by my birthday! 
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About Me
Hahnville, LA
Location
28.1
BMI
VSG
Surgery
11/11/2013
Surgery Date
Jan 19, 2009
Member Since

Friends 43

Latest Blog 39

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