Happy Halloween!

How was your Halloween weekend? 

Mine was great!

I went to potluck Halloween costume party on Saturday night.  I made a delicious low calorie pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting and caramel drizzle...from scratch.  No cake mix involved.  Totally low fat rich and decadent...Yum!

Did you see the sneak peek of my Halloween costume on the Facebook page that I posted on Saturday night?  Well, in case you missed it, I was a skanky pirate.

Wearing this costume was a HUGE non-scale victory for me!

Hope you have a safe and fun Halloween!

Back To Basics - Do You Love Flan?

I do.

Actually, I don't think that I've ever met a dessert that I didn't like.  I guess that explains why I once weighed 256 lbs.

I've been thinking a lot lately about getting back to basics with my food choices.

I used to be such a good little bandster.  Now?  Not so much.

Therefore, here's one of my very favorite band-friendly recipes...ever.

Vanilla Egg Custard.

It's cinnamon-ny.  It's nutmegy.  It's sweet.  It's deeeee-lish.

It's the skinny cousin of high calorie/fat flan.  High protein, low calorie.

I posted the recipe two years ago when I was 5 days post-op.  Check it out HERE.

I made the recipe again this week.  It was just as yummy as I remember it....

PS: This recipe qualifies as a "full liquid" according to my surgeon.

Weigh-in Day...and a Fun With Fat Photo

Goal Weight: 145 lbs

Today's Weight: 139.0 lbs

Are you ready for Halloween? 

I'll be sure to post a photo of me in my costume....hint: I'll be wearing fishnets...

Anyways, here's the promised fun with fat photo (Halloween 2002):

What are you going to be for Halloween this year?

A Reminder For Me...

I am putting this video up as a reminder to myself that patient compliance is SO important with a gastric band.

The next time I want to stuff myself silly with cookies, cake, or whatever food is available at the moment, I need to think of this video. (warning: it's kind of graphic)

PS: This is a REALIZE band, not a Lap Band shown in this video.

Uh Oh...

With some hopeful travel plans in my future, I took a look at my passport to see when it expires.

The good news? It doesn't expire until December 2018.

The bad news? I think I may need to renew it because the photo doesn't really look like me anymore.

What do you think?

Is a  new passport needed? 

Two Lessons Learned From This Weekend...

#1  It is possible to do "Jazz Hands" while wearing a pink fanny pack:

#2   That I can out run a small yippy dog in the vineyards:

Whew! 5.5 mile walk/hike....done!

Don't Look Down. It's a Long, Long Way to Fall

Sometimes I feel like I am teetering on a tightrope with this weight loss that I've achieved. 

Like if I lose my focus for just one teeny tiny moment, that I will free fall down, down, down...actually now that I think about, the correct word would be FAIL (not fall).

Like I'll immediately gain back the 115+ lbs...instantly.

I know, totally unrealistic and insane, right?  But that's me.  I welcome you to Crazytown, population: 1.

There are so few of us that blog or talk about what being in maintenance is like after losing a significant amount of weight.  Yep, that view from my tightrope isn't always clear. Sure, there are tons of TV shows, websites, and blogs out there that tell us how to lose weight.  But what about those of us trying to maintain our weight loss?

Therefore, I usually have to guess what's out there waiting for me a few steps ahead on my tightrope.

Will strong winds start up and make that rope wibble-wobble back and forth a little?

What if that rope starts to fray a little?

I guess that's why I try to never ever work without a safety net.

We each have a safety net.  Each of our nets are different, but I think that it's also important to specify the type of net.

My main safety net is the scale that I step on each and every morning.  My body is very quick to tell me how fabulous (or not so fabulous) my food choices the day before were and whether I exercised.  Like it or not, it shows up on that scale. If I see my weight start to creep up, I know that it's time to refocus on good food choices and making exercise a priority.

I do have another safety net, but I don't depend on it as much as the scale.  I need to focus more on how my clothes fit.  I've noticed that my jeans lately have been getting a little bit big and roomy on me, yet the scale has remained about the same.

So I want to know, what are your safety nets?

Weigh-in Day & a Fancy Graph

Goal Weight: 145 lbs

Today's Weight:  139.8 lbs

Here is my sad attempt to make maintenance interesting. 

This graph shows every Friday weigh-in since I hit my goal weight on 12/17/10 through 10/14/11:

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Banded For Two Years - My Letter To the Fatty That I Used To Be

Exactly two years ago today on October 20, 2009, I had Lap Band surgery.

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

Dear Fatty,

You don't know it yet, but in the next few months you are going to finally make the decision to take control of your health.

You will no longer be okay with increasing number of pills and drugs the doctors keep prescribing for the side effects of your morbid obesity.

You will refuse to be out of breath all of the time.

You'll eventually get sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Get ready to embark on the most amazing ride of self-discovery that you've ever experienced.  You will learn so many new things by getting your body healthy.  It'll happen.  I promise.

You'll find out that the surgery itself will be the most painful thing you've experienced so far in your 30 years of life.  Here's what you'll look like when you emerge from operating room.  A hot mess...right?  But, guess what?  I can promise you that the pain and recovery time after surgery is TOTALLY worth it.

After you recover from surgery, you'll start to realize that it's not the end of the world and that it's okay to sweat, have muscles, and exercise.  I know that you only get sweaty and out of breath now when it gets above 65 F or when you climb up a few stairs.  But that will change. 

You will one day look forward to exercise.  You will crave it.  You'll hike up mountains. You will become outdoorsy.  Really.  The chub rub will go away.  You'll see, it'll happen. I promise.  Here's what you'll look like when you exercise.  See that smile on your face?

You'll also learn a whole new way of eating.  Right now, you are already thinking of what you'll have for lunch and dinner while you're still eating breakfast.

I know that you're fantasizing about what "fun" food you'll go eat that night or that weekend.

Currently, food is an event to celebrate for you.  But eventually, you'll look forward to the company of the people you eat with, not the food that you eat.  The food will become an afterthought.  Food will also no longer be the focus of every minute of every day.  You'll occasionally forget to eat.  Seriously.  Would you even guess that your meals will one day look like this?  Tiny, right?  You'll see...I promise.

Oh, and by the way...even though you think that you already know this, you really have NO IDEA.  As you get healthier, your appearance will change....A LOT.  You'll have to reintroduce yourself to friends that you haven't seen in awhile.  They won't recognize you.  It'll be awkward. 

People will treat you very differently when your appearance changes. Family, friends, loved ones, coworkers...EVERYONE.  You are invisible as a fatty.  People don't see YOU, they look past you.  They only see the fat.  Gradually, people will become nicer to you as you lose the weight.  At first, you will be very uncomfortable with this.  But you'll soon learn that you enjoy the extra attention.  It'll happen. I can promise you that.

Lastly, I would like to ask you for a promise, Fatty. 

It's a very important promise to your future skinny girl self:

Please always remember how you are feeling right now.

I know that you're tired all...the..damn...time.  You're sleeping your life away.

Then there's that back pain when you wake up in the morning.

Oh, and those painful and swollen ankles at the end of the day and the headaches from the high blood pressure.  Never forget how that pain feels. 

Can you make me that promise to never forget how it feels to be fat?  Pretty please with Splenda on top?

Thanks.

I'm counting on it.

Can You Handle the Truth?

Do you know Brenda over at Bandster Momma? 

She's been banded for about 6+ months and she's lost 110 lbs.  WOW.

Her post yesterday had me jumping up and down and shouting "AMEN SISTA!" in front of my laptop. 

Brenda understands that to be successful with this band, you have to do a lot of work.  I love her no-nonsense approach and she calls it like it is.

Go read her recent post about how the truth stinks.  Now.  Not later.  Now.  Seriously. Go.