Fantabulous Ruffles With Love Giveaway!

Did you know that having the right workout outfit can occasionally convince me to actually get up off of my butt and go workout?  Yes, it's true. 


Ruffles With Love has the most adorable tops!

Now you know what I look like when I first wake up. 

You're welcome.

There's that adorbs bow!
Pemberley is such an attention whore.

Here are some of the other FAB tops that are over at Ruffles With Love:

How can you get your hands on one of these tops?

There are FOUR (yes, 4!) ways to enter this giveaway:

ENTRY #1- Go visit Ruffles With Love and come back here and leave me a comment telling me which shirt you'd choose. (include a first name and an email address)

ENTRY #2- Become a fan of Lap Band Gal on Facebook and then come back here and LEAVE A COMMENT (include a first name and an email address)

ENTRY#3- Post about the giveaway to your buddies on Facebook or some other social networking or support forum you frequent or pin this. Then come back here and LEAVE A COMMENT (include a first name and an email address)

ENTRY#4- Blog about this giveaway and include the link to the contest (send me the url so I can enjoy your post!)

VERY OFFICIAL RULES:

• PRIZE: A $25 credit to the Ruffles With Love. That way YOU can decide what style of top that YOU want. 
• Contest periods ends: Sunday, March 25th, 11:59PM (Pacific time)
• On Monday, March 26th I'll draw a name using a random number generator and announce the winner here on the blog.
• I will also email the winner at the address posted. 
• Giveaway is open to anyone in the United States (48 contiguous, Alaska & Hawaii.)

Good Luck!

What's In the Box?

Nope, it's not what you think.

I went shopping for my twice a year haul from my local restaurant supply store.  

Sometimes they're called Fart n' Smile "Smart & Final" or "Cash N' Carry."  There are so many wonderful things in these stores.  Of course there's a lot of low quality / high quantity foods meant for restaurants.  But there's some weight loss surgery (WLS) friendly treasures in there if you look close enough.

Aaahhhh...the syrups aisle! 

With the explosion of all those yummy coffee drinks, there are so many different flavors of sugar free syrups now that weren't even available two years ago.  I use these syrups in my coffee, hot cocoa, yogurt and cooking.

By the way, the regular syrups are 90 calories per pump (ounce).  If you've ever seen them make those fancy coffees at Starbucks, you'll see them pump 4-5 pumps into ONE drink.  That's 360-450 calories before they add the cream/whip/etc. Yikes.

I love the Torani brand since it is made with Splend@.  It's my favorite formaldehyde-filled cancer-causing sweetener.  Yum. 

Here's what I took home at $4.19/bottle (no sales tax in Oregon!) This will last me until early fall. 

Some new flavors that I have added into the rotation?  Salted Caramel, Strawberry, and Almond Roca

From L to R: Gingerbread, Pumpkin Pie, Salted Caramel, French Vanilla, Peppermint,
Brown Sugar Cinnamon, Almond Roca, Strawberry, Peanut Butter, and Chocolate.

The Salted Caramel flavor was the first new flavor that I tried.  I mixed it into a chocolate protein shake.  After tasting the shake, I grabbed the syrup bottle to double check that I hadn't accidentally bought the regular sugared kind.  Nope.  IT IS THAT DELICIOUS.  Wow.

My other fave is small containers. I bought this package of 250, 5.5 oz cups.  Perfect portion planning.  Unfortunately, they sell the lids in 100 count packs.  It's a racket I tell ya.  A total of $12.79 for months and months of food prep and portioning.

See how cute and tiny they are?

What's your favorite grocery store or restaurant supply store find?  I wanna know.

PS: Get ready for a fantabulous giveaway that will be announced on Monday!

Weigh-in Day...and a Dentist Visit

Goal Weight: 145 lbs

This Week's Weight: 141.2 lbs

**************

I broke a big chunk off of my crown about two weeks ago and finally got to see my dentist yesterday. 

Oh the exciting life lead.

Luckily, the crown was repairable and I didn't need a new crown. (Phew! That's humungo $$$).

The dentist told me that it looks like I am grinding my teeth at night. 

I looked at her skeptically. 

Question authority, people. 

I know that most people experience day time headaches with night teeth grinding.  

So I asked her if someone had to chew all of their foods to the consistency of applesauce before swallowing would also show the same wear as grinding teeth at night.  And guess what she said:

"Absolutely."

I've sometimes thought about that extra bandster chewing and it effects on our teeth. 

In case you were wondering, she wasn't trying to sell me some expensive mouth guard.  She told me to go down to Target or Wal Mart and buy one.  Which I won't.

She also said that with my extra chewing that any future crowns that I get should be metal (gold) as they will hold up better.  I just smiled at her and thought in my head "Let's not and just say that we will. That Mike Tyson impersonation can wait."

I Have a Secret! Do You Promise Not To Tell Anyone?

Exercise is the secret to my successful long term weight loss and maintenance.

Shocking!

I know.

An impromptu photo shoot at Jazzercise last night.  

And I know what you're thinking...yes, I workout in a log cabin.  

Visiting That Place Where I Can Never Live

There's this place that I go. 

Wait, let me clarify, this place is only for visiting.

Short and very quick visits.

When I go there, I don't need my overnight bag. 

I can leave my Hello Kitty toothbrush and favorite pillow at home. 

Why? Because I can NEVER live there.

I cannot live in that place because I did live there.  For over 20 years. 

It was a very easy place for me to live all those years.  So easy!  It was comfy.  It was familiar.  Fun things happened in that place. But living in that place was not healthy for my body.

Where is this place that I'm talking about? 

It's the place that I like to call the land of  Bad Food Choices (B.F.C. for short).

I almost always know ahead of time if and when I will be visiting the land of B.F.C.  

It can be a meal or a simple snack.  These visits may happen once a week or 5 times in a week or no times a week.  It just depends on what I have going on in my life.

One thing that is super-duper important for me is that the land of B.F.C. is very rarely ever in my house or kitchen. 

The land B.F.C. is at Dairy Queen. 

It's also at Target in the cookies and chips aisle.

It can also be found at the local Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream shop.  That's a crack den in my opinion. Oh, and don't even get me started on Pizza Hut.  It's there too.

Before I even arrive at the land of B.F.C., my inner spreadsheet-making brain is already thinking about how I will leave the land of B.F.C. and find my way back.  Back where?  Back to the land of exercise and healthy food choices.

Luckily, I always seem to find my way back.

In the long 14 months of my losing phase, I almost NEVER visited the land of B.F.C.

I feel that I've settled nicely into this 80/20 balance now.  80% healthy choices and 20% the land of B.F.C.

I am starting to figure out that maybe this is what weight maintenance is all about for me.

Myth Alert!

I was lurking over on the LapBandTalk forums this weekend.  I was surprised to read that some of the recent post-ops had this unfortunately false misconception about the lap band.

Here's a direct quote:

"I thought that I wouldn't be able to eat the bad stuff and I'm learning that I can."

Oh...WOW.

That makes me kinda sad that they didn't know what they were getting into with the band.

I wonder if this bandster went to any support groups before they were banded to hear from other bandsters on what life was like with the band. 

Going to support group for me is a lot like exercising.  I never want to do it, but once I do, I am so glad that I did. 

The most important information that I receive at support groups is usually the smallest piece of information that makes the biggest impact on me.

Example: I remember when I went to my band support group one night about six weeks prior to my surgery (September 2009).  A banded woman there talked about how she had "run out of calories" for the day and that she was focusing on drinking her water for the rest of the evening.  No more food for her that night.

Right then. I knew it. 

I knew that to successfully reach my goal weight, this journey with the band was going to be a lot like Weight Watchers...but with some extra help on hunger control from the band.  I would still have to track my food and make exercise a priority.  Sigh.

So, anyways, just to make it crystal clear for any newbies reading this:

I can eat pretty much EVERYTHING that I ate before I was banded. 

The band does not stop me from making poor food choices.

It's up to me.