05/17/10: A Blog for the sake of blogging!

Happy Monday y'all!  Are there such things as happy mondays?  I'm eternally optimistic that they can happen.  But to date, I can't recall a Monday I've been excited about...

Ok, that's probably a stretch...but generally, I much prefer Fridays (especially at 4:30) to Mondays (especially at 6:30).

Not much going on in my world.  We had a wonderful weekend.  Houston was socked in with rain on Friday night which made getting home fun.  Irony is it didn't rain much at our casa.  But we got hit pretty good on Saturday.  I'm worried about my veggies now, they are drowning because the water couldn't/wouldn't drain off - there was that much.  I will be eager to see the garden tonight and see if it's improving.  Sprinklers are off for awhile now - pretty crazy to go from needing to water 5 days a week, already, in May, to nothing...that much rain.  Not a true flooding event like various locales throughout the US have experienced this year.  Just a sub-par drainage system....

Because of the rain on Saturday, it forced us to just chill through the day.  There was brief talk about organizing the closet but we decided to organize the DVR instead.  We got a number of things off that DVR finally!

Saturday night we went to the wedding I mentioned on Friday.  It was a fun time!  I realized as we were heading "up" to the wedding that it was actually our second wedding to attend together.  That first was pretty memorable, eh?  The first was one of my hubby's best friend's brother.  Not only did we attend that very nice wedding, we were with the two best buds from high school (for my hubby) and we even attended the rehearsal dinner.  Odd to forget such things.

Sunday we finished moving/helping our neighbor's daughter.  She had a few odds and ends of things to get from her mom's house, our neighbor.  So that was easy.  :)  We helped her get her tv mounted and then moved onto our own house.

We got our gym back in order - with the insurance crap saying I had to "fail" my supervised weightloss program, I gave up weightlifting as I was not going to fail if I did pursue my favorite form of exercise, outside of swimming, anyway.  So the gym kind of became a storage room...it is no longer a storage room.  Being cleared for weightlifting now, I am starting my routine/regime tonight.  Moving/helping our friend yesterday I was using some muscles in the shoulder area that haven't been used for awhile and they are telling me today that they are appreciative of the indulgence.  I love the soreness that comes from muscles being awoken!  So since the muscles are already waking, I'll start tonight with legs and lower abs/back.

With the routine finally being able to be in full force here is how my weekend evenings will play out.

Mon = weightlift for ~an hour.  Focus on legs/lower abs/back
Tues = swim and/or walk for an hour.  This will be weather dependent - if t-storms are passing through I won't have much of a choice.
Weds = weightlift for ~an hour.  Focus on shoulders/chest/arms/upper abs
Thurs = swim and/or walk for an hour.
Some combo of Fri/Sat/Sun = a second hit of each weightlifting routine.  For example, Fri and Sun - Fri would repeat Mon and Sun would repeat Weds.

This is my five week routine in which I will start tonight with low low weight (almost too easy type "low") and I will do many many many reps.  I will do this all week.  Next week I will increase the weight and decrease the reps.  Third week - increase weight again to crazy high (max that I can safely do) and do "as many reps as I can" - which may only be 3.  Fourth week, repeat second.  Fifth week, repeat first.

When following this routine, there is an option for a sixth week off.  I have found in the past that taking that week off throws my routine off and ends up sidetracking me.  So in efforts to keep this going, I will most likely be skipping that week off.  However, if weightloss is stagnant or plateauing, that sixth week will actually be necessary.  So while it isn't likely that I'll take it, I won't say "I won't".

With the weightlifting starting tonight - I feel like I can finally say - "Let the Journey Begin!"  All the weightloss here to now has been easy.  There I said it.  I've done nothing to get here.  I will do everything going forward.

In case I need to explain that - here's how it breaks down.

1) The "unweightloss" program.  I threw out junk food and sodas and went back to eating like I was raised with - healthy, balanced, lean, light.  I lost 12 pounds over 5 months.
2) The "pre-op" diet.  I threw out healthy, balanced eating for a predominantly liquid diet.  I really didn't have much of a choice here, was making my surgeon happy.  I lost 12 pounds over a month.
3) The "post-op" diet.  Healthy and balanced eating made a return but exercise was limited due to recovery and healing.  While I pushed the limits, I also learned a lot about how the band is working with me - and vice versa.  I've lost 11 pounds predominantly without exercising - some walking here and there but nothing consistent - this phase has also been a little over a month.

So here I go...onto the next stage!...with no goals...and no timeframes in mind, either...so so very odd....

Happy Monday, y'all!

04/30/10: On with it

I feel like a new page is turned.  The healing seems to be...umm..well..I'm gonna say I'm happy with it cause it just plain feels done.  Pain has been non-existent for over a week now, swelling is gone, bruising is gone.  It's been surprising.  I mean, not even a twang, really, in the belly area, at all.  Nothing to tell me something just happened other than a slight redness at each incision site.  Not an infection type of redness.  That redness you get - maybe pinkness - when two pieces of skin were split apart from each other and are figuring out how to rejoin.  It's all closed up and looks good.  But they still look like "new" scars. 

Anywho.  I am ramping up the walking this week.  I'll continue with the walking next week.  And hopefully the folllowing week I'll be cleared for my weightlifting.  I WANT MY WEIGHTS!

I set in my mind, just yesterday, in fact, that I wanted to walk 8 miles this week.  I did 1 on Weds and 3 last night.  1 on Weds at about 15 mins.  Last night, 3 miles in 40 mins, which works out to about a 13.3 min-mile.  A pretty good pace.  I had more speed to tap into, too.  But I was happy with where I was.  Best yet...I barely broke a sweat. 

'Member that gorgeous weather I was loving on yesterday?  Well.  It's gone.  Instead we have a southerly breeze blowing in moisture from the gulf.  It's supposed to rain today and all weekend - and this all moved in yesterday afternoon.  It was 86% humidity last night as I was walking my 3 miles.  And I think that humidity is what made me break a sweat.  But it wasn't sweating like I've nearly always done as a large gal.  It was a light glistening.

hehehe...will I ever be just a "glistener?"  I truly was just glistening last night...but I've always been a sweater.  Not a cardigan or a pullover.  I drop drop dropping sweater.

So today I'm gonna make my In-Laws get out and walk with me and I'm assuming I'll get in 1.  Well.  I'll demand we do 1.  :)  I may be able to get more.  But I am counting today for 1 and then 3 again on Sunday after the In-Laws leave.

Next week (my weeks are Mon-Sun.) I'm shooting for 14 miles.  I could average 2/day but I don't think that will happen.  Instead I think I'll do nothing, 1 or 3 across the week, maybe even 4.  :)  I hope the weather behaves next week...but the In-Laws are coming to take away our old mattresses (we are giving the set to them) and so with that, I'll get my treadmill back.  Our treadmill is just a little buried right now...

In final news, it's decided, I am going with a GoWear Fit.  It is now purchased and on it's way.  We found the best price through drugstore.com and there was even a coupon with it.  I am not getting the display at the moment.  I'm on the fence about wanting it/needing it.  I know me, I'll go crazy as I sit here at work wondering what it's telling me.  But then again, if I have it, I might go crazy looking at it all the time, too.  So I figure, since the display costs what it costs and there wasn't a cost-savings benefit in buying it with the actual GoWear Fit, that I'll see how it goes and if I need/want to add it later, I can.

Now for the not-band news but still so very wonderful to me news.  My MIL and her hubby are coming to visit this weekend.  It will be great to have some time with them!  She hasn't seen me since I've dropped the last 20 pounds so I'm curious to see what she says/does.  I know that a lot of people see nothing for the first 30-40 pounds, so no worries, I won't be surprised or sad if she doesn't see any difference.  But my clothes are falling off me, too...so it's hard not to notice a little something, I think. 

Yeah.  My pants are falling off me.  It's kinda nice.

We are talking about going to see Keels and Wheels this weekend.  It's an antique car and boat show at a local yacht club.  I haven't been for years and it's pretty awesome - gorgeous boats and amazing cars.  But I love cars and boats...so...  We are hoping that they will want to go.  On the other hand, it's shaping up to be crappy weather this weekend and this is an outdoor thing.  So we'll see.  We'll talk about it tonight.

I ended up not going to use the gift card(s) last night.  I decided I needed my husband's eye.  I just am not one of those people that likes to shop by myself.  So I declared to him last night, via text message, as he watched his baseball game, that he will go with me on Sunday afternoon.  And in his true fashion, he just said "ok".  He's such a wonderful man!  I'm so lucky to have him in my life!

And that's all I've got.  I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend.  I'll be quiet for a few days...don't see reading or writing this weekend.  I'll catch up on Monday.