02/14/11: Pictures and stuff

I've been saying I need to take these pictures for awhile now.  Then I finally took the pictures and started saying I needed to crop, which I said for awhile, too.  Finally, I cropped them.  So here they are, my 60 pounds lost photos. 

Before anyone says I need to take these photos with clothes that fit, well, don't say that or think that.  The point of these photos is to show how the clothes are hanging on me.  The clothes I am wearing in them actually fit now.  While they look loose, they never should have been on me at my heaviest - which is why I chose them, then.  Yes, these clothes will be too big on me before this over and that is the point.  I am also taking photos of me wearing nothing but a sports bra and gym shorts - shorts that are just barely starting to fit "right".  Those clothes, or lack of, show everything.  And I have no intention of showing those photos for now.  I might consider it when I get to goal.  But I won't consider it now.  So, please just keep in mind that these photos aren't about clothes that fit.  They are about how the clothes hang - and how gravity seems to reverse itself, in some regards, too.

Another interesting point is my measurements.

Click on it to see it bigger, if you want.

I find the measurements interesting this go 'round.  Normally, with all my other during photos and measurements, I was weightlifting and my pictures and my measurements made sense in regards to what was happening.  This time around, one of them is lieing.  I'm pretty sure I'm bigger than I was 10 pounds ago and the photos reinforce that.  But the measurements do not.  The measurements show that I lost 5 inches in the last ten pounds.  That's just wrong.  My mind's eye agrees with the photos.

You see, my mind's eye isn't really all that berserk, either.  In the last ten pounds lost I did absolutely no exercise - not for the sake of exercise.  Yes, still active, but no weightlifting, no walking with the intent to get my heartrate up and keep it up, no floor exercises, nothing.  I did nothing.  So, to me, the ten pounds lost is more than likely mostly muscle lost.  The photos reinforce that.  In my photos where I'm wearing little clothing I can see bulges grew.  I can see that I am not smaller than I was ten pounds ago.  I am pretty sure that a lot of shifting happened - and that's the only thing that explains the meaasurements.  I am taking my measurements in the same places from week to week, of course, so while my stomach did grow, it actually shrank in the places where I took measurements.  Odd stuff, I tell you.  Nonetheless, I believe the photos more than I believe the tape measure right now and the photos tell me what I think is happening happened.  Altogether, I can probably say I've lost but what amount is fat and what amount is muscle, I'll probably never know. What I do know is weightlifting has started again - so the next ten pounds, that will be real!

Speaking of ten pounds, hubby and I decided together, if ever there was a reason to do the crazy pre-op diet to get things jump-started, now is the time, with $10/pound hanging over our heads.  This will jumpstart things for us in multiple ways, but, unlike my teasing on Friday of doing a liquid diet for the next week and a half, this logic actually has merit.  The pre-op diet, while not sustainable longterm, is ok for short durations and has it's merits for multiple reasons.  Anywho, we are now doing the pre-op diet.  We both saw it get things going for us (my hubby did it with me before my surgery) and that carried over into multiple things post-op.

I will say, courtesy of Band-Groupie, I think a whole system cleanout the day before my final weigh-in is a great idea!  (hehehe)  Maybe I should schedule my colonscopy for that day, too....

In other news, well, not much going on.  Our big event Saturday was taking all our fur-babies to the vet.  Our dogs were called "geriatric" and that's just funny 'cause they sure don't think they are old.  And our cats are still cats.  So life is great!  We did a little running around and enjoyed the beautiful day that Saturday became.  And then Sunday, I did our taxes while sweet hubby fixed our toilet.  Exciting stuff, I tell ya - we sure know how to go crazy!

And last but most certainly not least,

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!

I hope you have a good week, too!