Wanna Win a $100 Gift Card?

You know that you do.

Don't deny it.

Here's how:

There's a new online survey* for weight loss bloggers.

It's being conducted by a bunch of fancy schmancy professors at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

I emailed one of the professors to make sure it's a legit survey. And it is.  

Here's an excerpt from the email I received from the professor:

"We are trying to understand what bloggers get out of blogging about their weight loss journey and what readers get out of reading those blogs---including what elements of weight loss blogs do they find most/least helpful to their own weight loss journeys.  I haven’t seen any research on weight loss blogging, but it appears that many people do this (and many people enjoy following these blogs) so I’m curious to study blogging to find out what the benefits are and if there is some way that blogging might be leveraged in formal behavioral weight loss programs. We plan to publish the findings and we think the findings will be of interest to bloggers and non-bloggers who are trying to lose weight." 

Therefore, if you have a weight loss blog, please cruise on over to the survey. Participants are entered to win a $100 gift card to a store of their choosing:

Survey is located HERE.

*I am not affiliated AT ALL or in ANY WAY with this organization or survey. I just think it's awesome-sauce. Participate. Don't participate. Whatevs.

I Want To Be Smart Again.

I'm among friends here, right?

This is my safe space to talk about the cray-cray-crazytown (with a capital "C") going down in my head?

Well, come sit down around the campfire, let's hold hands, and sing "Kumbaya."

Can we also talk about how I know that I am not supposed to care what people think of me?

Or what people say about me?

I was a pretty confident fatty.

I owned it.

I rocked it.

Now that I'm not so much of a fatty anymore, I seem to hear more what people say about me. I guess that I care more?

Where did this insecurity come from?

I think my confidence left town when my fat blanket went away. AKA my "invisibility cloak."  People used to not see me.

I guess they see me now.

There's hardly a person out there that doesn't hear other peoples' words and occasionally wonder...

I'm wondering how in the past:

• I used to be smart.
• I was organized.
• I used to be kind.

When I was a fatty, people would comment on my "inside."

It was great.

The comments were based on something that I did or finished or worked on.

Go me and my accomplishments!

Now?

It's only about the "outside" that seems to matter?

Here's what I occasionally hear now:

• I'm skinny.
• I'm petite.
• I'm pretty.

Don't get me wrong, I love me some compliments as much as the next girl.

But wait.

Are we actually talking about being solely judged on one's appearance?

Gasp!

No.

Say it ain't so.

(note: sarcasm)

I guess after thirty years of only hearing about my inside, these outside comments usually make me feel kinda awkward.

I usually have no response.

Or I change the conversation topic to the reality TV shows or the weather.

I'm a conversationalist.

Maybe I do this, because in my head, the "inside" type of comments have more value to me.

Maybe I do this, because I have never learned to take a compliment gracefully.  There should be a class for compliment taking. I would be SMART in that class. I would get an "A."

Maybe I do this, because the people who saw me go from fatty to non-fatty didn't make these outside type of comments.

It's the NEW people in my life.

Now that I think about it, the outside comments are always from people who never knew me as a fatty. Isn't it fun to be new in town and meet all new peeps? (note: MORE sarcasm)

These past nine months have been interesting.

In my brain, it's not just what someone has going on on their outside, but also the inside that counts.

A complete package of kindness, generosity, and some nerdy smarty-pants thrown in for good measure.

I was raised to be a strong, smart, and confident person. 

Looks were never a priority growing up. My childhood photo albums full of rather unfortunate haircuts and mismatched outfits prove this fact repeatedly.

Now a few questions for you:

How do you handle comments about your appearance from others due to your new appearance and weight loss?

Do you have any helpful tips on taking a compliment gracefully?

Thanks for stopping by the campfire...now let's go wash this smoke smell out of our hair.

Would You Like To Hear Me On the Radio?

Yeah, me neither.

I'll be interviewed on the radio this Sunday June 16 at 7:05 PM Central time on FM Talk 106.5. 

That's tomorrow if you're wondering.

Wait.

A second.

Did ya miss that link? 

Did ya blink?

Here it is again! FM Talk 106.5.

Go set your reminders in your iPhones or write it on the back of your hand or stick a post-it note on your forehead.

You'll forget.

What will we be talking about on Sunday night?

We'll be discussing one of the biggest myths out there on weight loss surgery:

WEIGHT. LOSS. SURGERY. IS. NOT. THE. EASY. WAY. OUT.

Fo'. Sho'.

We shall talk about cake too on Sunday night.

Did you know that cake is my Spirit Animal?


See ya there: tomorrow, Sunday June 16 at 7:05 PM Central time on FM Talk 106.5.  Hosted by: Fit & Flourishing.

Weigh-in Day & Why Did It Take Me So Long To Figure This Out?

Goal weight: 145 lbs

Today's weight: 140.4  lbs

These bad boys went to the office with me yesterday:

That's right.

I actually convinced a few coworkers to do Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD with me in the big conference room at work during our lunch hour.

Jillian is kinda scary when she's about seven feet tall and yelling at me from that big screen up on the wall:

Sweaty Bettys alert! Check out those post-workout glows:

One of the lame ass-hat reasons why I never exercised at work before was that I was worried that I would be hot, red-faced, and sweaty at work all afternoon.  Which is totally gross. Gag me with a spoon.

Well guess what? I was wrong! 

Here I am about an hour after my workout (I had a quick 2 minute shower after the workout): I am not a hot mess. Even with a quick 30 second, the-bare-minimum-make-up-application.  Word.

I love that I when I went home after work, I didn't have a workout waiting for me.

I was already done.  D-O-N-E.

I had checked that exercise box off of my to-do list at lunchtime.

And can you guess what we are doing again today at lunch time in the conference room?

Yep.

Gettin' shredded.

Did Ya See It?

I have a fancy new blog title header.

Yep.

Check it out.

Way up there.

At the top of the page.

Try to contain your excitement.

I figured it was time that I got around to updating those pics.

In my opinion, there are no "after" photos.

There are only "now" photos.  I am never done on this journey.

And those "now" photos on the old header were from 2010-2011: Totally old news.

Welcome to 2013.

Can you guess who made that fantabulousness happen way up there at the top of the blog?

It was Jen over at Just Foolin Blog Designs.

Jen has magical blogtastic design skills.

She also maybe has a Rainbow Brite unicorn named Starlight, too.  But that's our little secret.  Shhhh.

She can hook you up too with some fancy shmancy blog designing too.

Cruise on over and say hello to Jen to see what she can do for your blog.

Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?

Yes.

They do.

Especially this princess.

The Boyfriend and I went hiking on the trails out to the beach this weekend.

Brrr!

It was chilly.

It was breezy.

But we survived.

And had fun...hiking almost 4 miles!

Nice stats!

We made it to the beach!

Chocolate.

That's what was taste-tested at my weight loss support group this past weekend.

Yep.

That's what she said.

Chocolate.

But don't worry.

There was none of that good ol' fashioned, full of sugar, Hershey's chocolate in sight.  

Bummer.

The kind of chocolate that we tasted was the hippy-dippy, 8,427% cacoa, fancy shmancy stuff.

Damn:

The chocolate taste-testing was part of a presentation from a local sous chef, who we shall call Hawaiian Shirt (HS), who also happens to be 6+ years post-op with his gastric bypass surgery.  He's maintained his goal weight for almost five years now. That's HS standing up there at the front of the room. 

We also tasted different types of salt.

HS told us all about how different salt flavors can enhance our food choices and add minerals to our diets.

Ummm. 

Sure.

Whatevs.

We tried Pink Himalayan salt.

We tasted a black salt with a name that I couldn't pronounce.

Ya know: That spendy salt that you don't find at Wal-Mart.

Check out all that
colorful salt!

Onwards to my favorite part of HS's presentation:

We got to make our own rub for grilling meats.

We went around the table and smelled different spices and added them to our cup.

We wrote down each spice that we added so we could recreate the recipe at home one day.

So many spicy choices!

 I ended up with a curry sweet n' spicy rub:

Lastly, I got to catch up with friend and fellow blogger, Stacey.

Stacey has a VSG (Sleeve) and blogs over at: Time to Get Real.  Stacey is looking for encouragement to get back into blogging on a regular basis.  Please stop by her blog and say "hello." She's waiting for your comments.

Me and Stacey.

The Truth About the Lap-Band -- You Have to Watch This Video

This is awesome.

That is all.