Check Out the Latest Facebook FAT Photo

Cruise on over to the Facebook page for a crazy "before" photo. Yikes!

- Posted from my iPhone

Keep Calm & Carry On

Chocolate peanut butter cupcake...for lunch.

Weigh-In Day...and the Results are...

Goal Weight: 145 lbs

Today's Weight: 142.7 lbs

Happy Friday!

Anyone Up For a Comfort Walk?

When I was obese and would be stressed out about something in my life (work, relationships, or just life in general) I would turn to food for comfort.  Who doesn't?  We all do it.

My usual comfort foods from the past:

• An entire box of Kraft Mac n' Cheese
• A row of Oreo cookies
• A pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream
• My favorite deep-dish cheese pizza (the whole thing) with a bucket of Ranch dressing on the side.  YUM.

Sure, I could still turn to these foods today for some stress relief and some comfort, but I don't usually.

Now when I'm stressing out or feel the need to eat some comfort food, I try to redirect my energy to exercise instead. 

Yep, that would be a "comfort" walk or a "comfort" Zumba class.  Don't you roll your eyes at me! :-)

If you had told me I would be talking about exercise this way a year ago, I would have told you that you were on crack.  Exercise? for COMFORT? What glue are you sniffin'?!  It's amazing how much my mind has changed about the concept of exercise.

I always feel so much better after exercising - a feeling that I have never had from eating a trough of Mac n' Cheese.

So the next time you're craving some comfort food, can you instead go for a "comfort" bike ride or perhaps a "comfort" walk?  I know I will.

Face Photos Progression

A faithful follower (wait, that sounds slightly cult-like), so let's rephrase that....an avid reader of my blog asked me to do a photo progression from pre-op to now.  So here goes:

Pre-op 250 lbs+:

220 lbs:

200 lbs:

180 lbs:

165 lbs:

150ish lbs:

Now 140s+ lbs:

The Book Giveaway Winner is...

Are you ready to find out who won the book giveaway?

There were a total of 10 comments/entries and I used a random number generator which chose the number 7.  Therefore, the 7th commenter is the winner!

Our winner is Melissa Wolf. Congratulations!

Melissa, I know you will get a lot of good guidance and information from this book.  Please email me your mailing address; non-residential address preferred (cheaper shipping costs) and I will mail the book to you ASAP.

Keepin' it REAL

During my weekend away, I encountered some misunderstanding that the general non-banded folks have about the band (to be expected). 

I heard comments like "oh, you can only eat a little amount of food, right?" or "I have a friend who has that band and she pukes up her food all the time."

So I thought that I would do a post for those of you who are looking into gastric banding surgery. 

I wish I had read something like this when I was pre-op. 

Even with my 10 cc band filled with 7.4 ccs, I can still eat a lot.  It doesn't mean that I should, but I can.

Here are a few of my poor food choices/examples from this weekend:

• Friday: A Cinnabon (yeah, the big one) with 16oz of chocolate milk (took about 25 minutes to eat)
• Saturday: 3 decent sized pieces of wedding cake...'cuz there were three kinds and damn it I needed to try all three. (took about 45 minutes to eat); 3 glasses of sparkling cider; and way too many Almond Rocas to count.
• The reception was at the hotel's all you can eat buffet.  There were many, many trips to the buffet bar over a 3+ hour period. 

Were these choices good? NO.

Could I eat like this everyday? YES...and I would gain all the weight back 

Do I eat like this every day? NO.

For me, the band is all about "shoulds" and not "cans":

• I should exercise every day.
• I should eat high protein / low calorie foods
• I should only eat when I'm hungry
• I should drink 64+ oz of water a day
• I should take my vitamins daily

Therefore, if you are looking into gastric banding, please know that in my opinion, the band does about 20% of the "work".  The rest of the work (80%) is up to me with good food choices and making exercise a priority.

I have never vomited (PB'd) since surgery. My turn will come one of these days...sigh.  But don't think that you'll miss out as I will be sure to do a full-detail gory post all about it! I'm sure you're waiting patiently for the blessed day.

Book Giveaway Ending Tonight

I will be closing the book giveaway tonight at 1200AM PST 5/24.  The details are on THIS POST.  Good luck!

Back From a Lake Tahoe Weekend Wedding! Comparison Photos Too!

I escaped to South Lake Tahoe this weekend for my college roommate J's wedding.  We hadn't seen each other since 2007, so we had lots of catching up to do.

Of course, my escape to Tahoe included a stop at In-n-Out Burger in Reno! YUM! I ate about 2/3 of the burger and 1/4 of the fries.

Lots of my college friends were at the wedding and it was really weird to have to reintroduce myself to people who didn't recognize me.  The moment I said my name, they would have amazing look of disbelief and give me big hugs of congratulations. Still really weird though...

Onwards to the comparison pics.  Here are J and I this weekend (NOW):

Here we are in 2007 (THEN):

PS: checkout my Facebook page for some new outfits and dressing room pics!

Weigh-in Day...and the results are...

Goal Weight: 145 lbs

Today's Weight: 143.1 lbs

Happy Friday!