A new blogger

Hey y'all.  I met Terri last night and she's just starting out.  She's posted her very first blog in the last 12 hours and has all of three followers as I type this.  Check her out and let's give her a big ol' welcome hug!

Her blog is In the beginning

And another call  out to any and all followers - if you don't think I'm following you, let me know who you are and give me a link to your blog, please.  I will do this periodically, but I really want to get to know anyone who is getting to know me.  :)

04/27/10: Calling all followers

If you follow me but don't think that I follow you, will you let me know who you are and give me a link to your blog? 

I want to make sure I'm following everyone that is following me.  And this seems like the easiest way of finding out, especially if you've never commented for me.  Don't worry - I'm not asking you to become a commenter.  :)

03/31/10: I don't know what I'd do without this blog

And it's not even the blog, really.  It's all y'all that read it and it's all y'all that take the time to comment.  You guys are a God send!!!

I was thinking, as I went for my morning cup of joe a few minutes ago, that if I didn't have this blog and my peeps to keep me sane and to root me on, I really think I would have given up long ago.  I've made it this far because of all y'all that are reading this right this very second.

My wonderful husband is sooo very in my corner and that is beyond helpful.

I thought I'd have some friends that were so very in my corner, too, and turns out they are less than interested and/or incredibly judgemental about the whole thing.  Oopsie...guess I shouldn't have told them.

But this blog.  This blog is my little corner that I can turn to to know that I'm not alone, that I'm not the first (and I won't be the last) to feel what I'm feeling and to think what I'm thinking.  I can get support here and I can get a refreshing slap in the face here and for all of that I am so incredibly thankful.

It's interesting how I got turned on to the blogs.  It was Catherine55, actually.  I had started a thread on LBT about being a newby and she told me to go check out the blogs.  How wise that was!  Those threads on LBT are trainwrecks, by and large, and I could have easily been derailed if I'd stayed there.  So I went to the blogs.  And I clicked on the first one I could find - and it was Band_Groupie's blog.  I proceeded to read her blog from start to finish and learned soooo much and laughed even harder.  When BG came over here, and I followed and started to explore, it was a no-brainer for me to make the move, too.  Such support and camaraderie here.  It is what I think LBT wants to be.  Positivity is generally prolific here!

I have no idea what is going to happen with me and this band.  I know that if surgery can't happen by April 9th, it's not going to happen in April or May.  And that is depressing to me.  And not having carbs to release serotonin, depressing is depressing right now.  Everything is depressing right now. 

I know, now, that if I don't get an answer this week, I won't be able to get on the schedule next week.  So, Friday is my cutoff for getting an answer from Cigna and being able to get on next week's schedule.  If I don't have an answer on Friday, I am going back to normal, healthy, balanced eating.

I am so on the verge of tears.  To have come all this way and be staring so closely at a possible derailment is just depressing.  And like I said, depressing is depressing.

I miss serotonin.

I hope y'all have a good day.

And this one is for the insurance Gods.  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me get an answer this week.  PLEASE!!!!

And the last thought I'll leave you with...after being good for so long with this "diet", I have stopped losing weight.  I was exactly the same today as I was yesterday morning.

02/11/10: 3 weeks

And the countdown is on!  Only three weeks left on this gosh-darned-unweightloss program!

I like three weeks!  So much better than four weeks.  And OOOHHHH so much better than six months!

When I went in last week they had me talk to the nutritionist again.  For starters...I don't know why and add to that, it just flat out irked me.  It was supposed to be a 30 minute appt and it turned into an hour and 20 minutes.  I only needed to meet with the nutritionist once, and this was the third time.  But they don't seem to be charging me for it...so other than lost time, no harm, no foul...I suppose.

What was weird is in meeting with this girl the three times, we have really harped on my smoothie.

My smoothie recipe before ever meeting her was:

1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
8-10 oz frozen fruit (mango, pineapple, strawberries)
1 or 2 fresh bananas (usually 1 but if we had some over-ripe bananas we'd "get rid of em")
3/4 cup pineapple-orange-banana juice

In the first meeting it was determined that I should stop using nonfat yogurt and I should consider adding flaxseed oil.

We switched the recipe to this:

1/2 cup plain yogurt.  We were really looking for and wanting Greek yogurt but neither of our grocery stores had it, which was odd.
8-10 oz frozen fruit
1 or 2 fresh bananas (depended on the feelings of the day and how ripe the bananas were)
3/4 cup pineapple-orange-banana juice
1 tbsp flaxseed oil

Somewhere around Christmas we found Greek yogurt and made the switch.  We started with Fage but have now switched to Brown Cow.  Price and taste are much better with Brown Cow - and the protein is higher.

So when I saw her again...she said..."Good job"

Somewhere along the line I started tracking all this in Fitday and noticed that it's a lot of carbs.  So I started stewing around on how to get the carbs down - while still getting my fruit servings for the day - and also wouldn't mind getting the protein up.

We switched the recipe to this:

1 cup Greek yogurt
5 oz frozen mango, pineapple, strawberries
5 oz frozen strawberries, bananas
1 banana
8 oz milk
1 tbsp flaxseed oil

So I see her last week.  And she says...milk is just soooo bad for you. 

Wha?

Ok...yeah, it's got carbs.  But it's also got protein.  The juice didn't have that.

Yeah...milk (and dairy) makes our bodies produce mucus.  So stop using it.

Hmmmm...never noticed a problem with it.  And I like milk - which is a relatively new thing for me.

She says switch to almond milk, soy milk or rice milk.

So over the weekend we looked at our options.  Still just as many carbs and generally less protein - all for more money. 

Hmmmm....

I don't really have a problem with good ol' regular milk.  I just don't.  Maybe I have all these side effects but I've been eating dairy all my life, so if I do, I've built up a tolerance and I'm actually ok with that.

Well.  This past weekend we did some shopping and we got ourselves protein powder.  An unflavored jug and a vanilla jug.

So I think to myself...what if...we...add water...to the protein powder...and use that to dilute the blended fruit and yogurt.  Cause really, we just need a liquid to get a drinkable consistency.

Yesterday we were out of yogurt and used regular ol' yogurt.  It was vanilla flavored and the smoothie was just odd.  It was drinkable...but it was odd.

Yesterday's recipe:

1 cup vanilla yogurt
5 oz frozen mango, pineapple, strawberries
5 oz frozen strawberries, bananas
1 banana
8 oz water
1 scoop isopure zero carb whey protein (26 g protein in one scoop)
1 tbsp flaxseed oil

But today's recipe.  YUMMY!  It was not odd.  It was good.  And I think we've got a keeper.

1 cup Greek yogurt
5 oz frozen mango, pineapple, strawberries
5 oz frozen strawberries, bananas
1 banana
8 oz water
1 scoop isopure zero carb whey protein (26 g protein in one scoop)
1 tbsp flaxseed oil
2 tbsp of completely dissolvable fiber powder (just trying it for now...not sure it will stay in the recipe)

Nutritional information is shown here if you want to know...

I think 37 g of protein is pretty good for a fruit smoothie...and only 38 g of carbs (from that same danged fruit).  We could do lower carb fruit...but we like the combination we have...and I don't know that I'm going to stress about 38 measely carbs...especially if I stay away from carbs the rest of the day.  (Which I don't...but it's a nice notion and is more likely to happen than me saying I'll change the smoothie....again...)

Now if we can just leave it alone!  I don't want to meet with her again before I get banded and I especially don't want to spend the whole time talking about only the smoothie.  The smoothie we drink was never bad to begin with...it's always been natural and real.  Maybe too many natural sugars...but it has always helped keep things regular and to me, is a great start to the day.

In other news...ever since about two weeks ago, I'd get on the scale and be down two pounds.  Those two pounds would mean I was seeing a number not seen before since this all started.  I'd get on the next day...and it'd be back.  It would stay back on for three or four days and then go away again....for one.  Be back for three or four and so on and so forth.  When it got to last week...on the weigh-in day...I was down a few ounces.

Yesterday I was down those two again.  Ok...here we go.  Today....I was still down those two.  Actually down two-tenths more today.  But that's ok, I'm not going to split hairs on that one.  If these two will just stay gone..  If these two really ARE gone, then my BMI is officially at 40.5 - which means I cannot lose any more weight over the next three weeks.  So we shall see what the scale does tomorrow...

And that's what I know!  Have a great day y'all!

And thanks to the two new followers who have joined since my shoutout two days ago!

02/09/10: A shout out and a good day

I was thinking on my way home, sitting in traffic, that as soon as I get to 15 followers I want to give a shout out to all.  And then I get home...and I gained TWO followes!  So I'm at 16!  So thank y'all!  I'm getting excited.  I can definitely tell that the community of people who are paying attention to each of the people I'm following helps that person immensely.  I really want to build my network while I'm still getting started - you know, I still have bandster hell ahead of me...and I'll need veterans and sympathetic peeps alike!

So thank you, to my Sweet 16!

In other news...today marks the third anniversary of me meeting my husband.  Let me tell you about this day...

I met my husband in 2007.  I met him 2 weeks and 6 days after my father died.  I went to a birthday dinner for a colleague/friend and he was a friend of hers from their alumni association.  I remember walking into the restaurant and seeing the group of friends waiting at the bar and heading over to them.  And I remember this good looking guy taking the time to introduce himself to me.

I took 2 weeks off of work when my dad died and flew back to California to take care of what I could and help my step-mom as well.  (She wasn't technically my step-mom so I was the only family member left standing...being an only child and all.  She had no "rights" to take care of his estate and so I needed to see a few things through before getting back to Texas.)  I got back to work on a Monday and this birthday dinner was the following Friday.  By the end of that week, I really did not want to go.  I was tired and I was sad and I was grieving.  But two friends, the birthday girl herself and my closest friend from college insisted that I at least go to dinner.  I could head home when they left the restaurant for the bars.  Given that I wasn't "going to go out", I was wearing jeans, an oversized comfy flannel shirt and tennis shoes.

So here is this guy introducing himself to me.  Hair's not done (it was a casual friday in the office and this was a very casual office any other day of the week), makeup not on (although I never wear makeup)...I looked less than desirable.  I introduced myself right back and as we were standing there shaking hands, I thought to myself: "please don't like me".

I was tired.  I was sad.  I was grieving.

The birthday girl showed up and we got our table.  There were about 20 people at this dinner and we had two very large round tables pushed together.  I ended up sitting opposite the birthday girl at one table and this guy sat right beside her.  Shortly after we were seated, he got a call and went outside to take it.  While he was outside, his closest friend from college, also a friend of the birthday girl, came in and took the seat of the man that would become my husband.  When my husband came back inside, there was one seat left at the table - a seat two seats to my right.

We were sitting at the table looking over the menus and deciding on drinks.  As people made their decisions and menus were put down, the conversations started.  The guy directly to my right was also a member of the alumni association but my husband and his buddy that were there had never met this guy.  (The birthday girl was president of the Houston chapter of the alumni association so she basically knew everyone.)  So the two guys start talking and immediately discover something in common to start talking about.  To my left were two people from my office who I could talk to or not talk to, didn't really care.  I no longer work for the same company and these two were not people I kept in touch with.

So I joined these two guys from the alumni association in conversation.  And it went from there.  The guy directly to my right eventually pushed back away from the table so that the man I married and I could talk.  And talk and talk we did.

As dinner was winding down he practically begged me to join them at the bars.  I said no and explained why.  And he wouldn't have it.  I was going, I needed to get out.  After half an hour of that sort of "pestering" I gave in and decided to see where this might go.

And the rest was history.  We spent that entire weekend together.  By Monday this was pretty much a no-brainer that we were going to be something and it was going to be quite real.  So we decided to try and take the day off "to make sure it was ok".  We did not get together that Monday but instead talked on the phone until well after 4am.  After that, we said forget it - and we got together every day we could.  By May we had our church and reception facility booked - and then we finally got engaged in June.

Yes.  We did that backwards.  We booked the church and we booked our reception facility before we got engaged.

And so here we are.  Thinking that it can't possibly have only been three years - but that's exactly what it's been - and it's been the three most amazingly fantastic years of my life.  Lucky for me, my sweet hubby says the same!

Have a good evening y'all!