Yard work and other ramblings...

OMG I hate yard work!!

We spent the whole weekend rotary hoeing our front yard (which used to be a jungle-like garden) to a relatively flat dirt patch. We shovelled and wheel-barrowed out about a trucks worth of dirt!! It is now relatively flat and ready for lawn seed!!

I am so excited. I can't wait to have something that resembles lawn in the front of our house. It will look amazing. My body is protesting in agony everytime I move!! On the up side it is a bloody good workout.

Well tomorrow is a new month and goodbye to our Australian summer :( but I am looking forward to autumn and winter in a strange way. Don't get me wrong I love the sun and warmth but I find summer to be so busy! When the weather cools so does the family social schedules!! I also love the way the leaves fall from the trees! It just looks so pretty :)

I have been a bit naughty on the eating front this week/fortnight. I have endulged in too many desserts. I will try to reduce the times I have dessert this week in an effort to get the scale moving downward again. Last week I had a gain of 0.4kgs which although it is only small, it is still a gain. I am happy with my result from February - 2.9kgs down. Definately improved on January's result of a 1kg gain.

I am not scheduled for another fill until 19 March - I definately think I will get a fill though. I am eating a lot less than pre-band Kellie but not as little as I should be eating as post-band Kellie! I think I will ask for 1ml but am a little scared that might be too much and I don't want to have to get an unfill. I will ask the surgeon and see what he thinks.

I am hoping that March will bring another loss on the scale. Perhaps 3-3.5kgs - if I work hard to cut down on the treats I should definately get there. I am looking forward to reaching my next goal of 15kgs down. I will have to start thinking of a little reward for myself (non-food!!).

Hope you all have a lovely week :)

Weigh In Results & Ticker Fraud!

As I am making an effort to be more accountable for my weightloss I have decided to post my weekly weigh in results ... So without further ado the results are:

Start Weight: 131.7 kgs (289.74 pds)
Last Week: 118.8 (261.36 pds)
This Week: 119.2 (262.24 pds)

Gain of: 0.4 kgs (0.88 pds)

0.4 kgs (0.88 pds) is nothing so I'm not stressing over it. Today was also my last weigh in for February. For the month of February I have LOST a total of 2.9 kgs (6.38 pds) which is good. This brings me to a TOTAL weight loss of 12.5 kgs (27.5 pds). I am happy with that. It's slow but it's a good loss.

I have just realised that I have given myself an extra kilo on my ticker!! What a fraud!! I must fix it immediately ..... hopefully I will get to update it to 13.5 kgs (29.7 pds) lost next Sunday!! Here's hoping!!

Progress

I am a fan of stats - yes I know its a little sad - and I especially love a good spreadsheet :) with graphs of course!

So I have been tracking my progress and here is what it looks like:

(click to make it larger!)

I am well below the weight I was for the past 18 months!!

YAY!!


That is all!

ABC ... it's easy as 123!

(A) Age: 28
(B) Bed Size: Queen
(C) Chore You Hate: Taking out the garbage
(D) Dogs? 10 year old dalmation Daisy and 12 year old chihuahua Zena
(E) Essential Start Your Day Item: Coffee
(F) Favorite Color: Purple
(G) Gold or Silver? Silver
(H) Height: 5'8"
(I) Instruments You Play: Lots but none well!
(J) Job Title: Administrative Assistant
(K) Kids: 1 boy (4) 1 girl (2)
(L) Live: Australia
(M) Mom's Name: Michele
(N) Nicknames: Floss
(O) Overnight Hospital Stays? Appendix, Lapband and and then with each of my babies.
(P) Pet Peeve: Bullying
(Q) Quote from a Movie: Go ahead... make my day! I also have a soft spot for You Complete Me! in a totally sarcastic way ;)
(R) Right or Left Handed? Right but sometimes left.
(S) Siblings: None
(T) Time You Wake Up? 7am
(U) Underwear: Full briefs ... for now!
(V) Vegetable You Dislike: Cooked cabbage
(W) What Makes You Run Late: My kids
(X) X-Rays You've Had Done: Hands, belly
(Y) Yummy Food You Make: Savoury toast
(Z) Zoo, Favorite Animal: Elephant and Garaffe

it is just a number after all...

I have come to the conclusion (my light-bulb moment) that my weight does not define me as a person. I am who I am, despite my weight. It may change my perspective of my body, or the way people perceve me on the outside but to my core I will always be me, in spite of the number on the scale.

I am no longer going to hide in the closet about my weight. I am going to track it on my blog on my measurements page - I think I need to - to remind myself of the work I have done so far.

So here I am announcing to you all my weight - define me - if you dare!!! ;)

New Blogger Shout Out :)

There is another new blogger out there - Kiwigirl could really use our support.

She was banded only last Friday! Let's all welcome her to blogland :)

No longer severly obese!!!

I was updating my ticker this morning after my sunday morning weigh in and low and behold I look at my BMI - then I look again - just to be sure - it's 39.5!!


Whoo hoo!!!!

I am no longer in the severly obese category - I'm just obese!!! Who'd think I'd ever be happy about that - but I am!!!

No more flavoured milk iced coffees seem to be doing the trick for me.

Here's to continued weightloss and becoming merely overweight...

Surviving ... just!

OK so I am now almost 3 days into my Stop Drinking Farmers Union Iced Coffee Campaign :( Withdrawals are a b*tch! I have been headachey most of today and am experiencing trouble sleeping at night. Isn't it amazing the impact mere coffee, milk and sugar can have on your body.

I am surviving though so that's a bonus. I have had a couple of regular coffees to ease the headaches but no milky ones! A girl can't give up everything ;)

I have noticed that this week Portia is loosening up. That is not a bad thing but the food choices I have been making need to improve. The scale is still bouncing... it's kind of doing my head in still, so I am choosing not to dwell on it it too much.

I have officially gone down a size in clothing!! YAY! I have come to the realisation that my clothes were so tight and uncomfortable on me before surgery that I was squeezing myself into my clothes and that realistically I have actually lost 2 sizes!! I didn't take measurement until 2 weeks ago so I don't have any statistical data but I know it's true so that helps me along when the scale isn't my friend.

I am very interested to see what the scale says after a week without Iced Coffee. I am expecting a decent result but am scared to actually see the result - just incase it doesn't meet my expectations.

Life in general - I am feeling very overwhelmed at the moment. Not one thing in particular, but just a mish-mash of everything combined. I just think I need to take a step back and look at the big picture and not sweat the small stuff.

Apart from everything going on in my life - I am still reading (if not commenting) on all of your inspirational blogs and am taking mental notes of all your wonderful words of wisdom and experience!

TGIF!

Kicking the Habit

It was good while it lasted - but you're no good for me!

I am so sad :( but it needs to be done. I have been addicted to this drink for the past 4 years! Funnily enough it's also been the past 4 years that my weight has gotten out of control, coincidence - I think not!

I have never really even looked at the nutritional value on the back because I wanted to stay in denial about how many calories I was consuming. Here is where I am going to be truly honest - some days I could easily drink 2 litres of the stuff! That's a whopping 680 calories approximately. That is a huge amount of wasted calories.

So to combat my 'withdrawal' I have started taking a multivitamin of a morning. Hopefully the B12 will work wonders for me and replace this constant 'need' for Iced Coffee. I also have splurged and bought some nice low calorie flavoured coffee powders and finally I am going to make sure I drink MORE water. I find that if I drink coffee it reduces my want to drink water.

Why now? I hear you ask:
My scale is not budging. I have had a 3 week period of up one kilo down one kilo and to tell you the truth it's frustrating the hell out of me. I know it's me and my addiction to this Iced Coffee that is causing this slow progress and I am the only one who can do something about it. Portia (my band) has been great, I have decent restriction so she's doing her job but I need to step up and do what is necessary to make this worthwhile.

I have mentioned before that I am a self sabotager. Its what I have always done. I think this is just another way that I am sabotaging my weightloss. I have decided to go cold turkey. No cut down periods or once a week allocation. No. That will just tempt me to have more. My brain will start to come up with reasons why I should have even more and then the cycle will continue.

I am going to combat this like I did when I gave up smoking (without the over eating!) Iced Coffee is potentially a death sentence for me - obesity kills - I have a genetic disposition to heart conditions and diabetes - and these high calorie laden drinks are obesities cigarettes.

Wish me luck - I will need it.

Also I would like to say a big thankyou for all your lovely comments regarding my 3 month post op pics! I have found taking these pics to be an amazing part of my journey and find myself looking forward to the next time I get to take them. I love seeing others' comparison pics as well so this is something I definately wanted to share as part of my blog too. Like they say: A picture can tell a thousand words!

Comparison Pics - 3 months post op

OK so it's not quite 3 months (my op was the 15th Nov) but it's close enough and I will be too busy Tuesday so I have taken the pics a couple of days early. I can't believe it's been three months already. Honestly I am not really where I thought I would be after 3 months but my weight has been a long time coming so I have always known it was going to be alot of work to get it off. Here are the Pre-op vs current progress pictures:

I can honestly say that I really feel the difference. It is still subtle but it is definately there. These jeans will need to be replaced with as smaller size in next months shots - they fall of me as I am walking now which is fantastic positive re-inforcement that this was a good thing - despite the ups and downs I am experiencing emotionally. Not being physically able to eat has proven a greater challenge than I had ever anticipated but I will get there. Day by day.

Also I have noticed that I now have 80 followers! Thank you for all your support. I will do my best to not bore you all too much!! lol ;)

It's late Sunday night here and I must get to bed or I will sleep in tomorrow morning - not a good start! Nighty nite!

Oh and one more thing - HAPPY VALENTINE"S DAY TO YOU ALL!

What is netball?

I have had a couple ladies asking me: What is netball? At first I was like, are you serious? lol ... then I realized that there are a lot of different sports out there and just because some are popular in Australia, doesn't mean they are popular everywhere!!

Well Netball is BIG here in the land down under. We even have rivalry matches against our sister country New Zealand. Australia's netball team is called the Diamonds and New Zealand are the Silver Ferns.

Anyway I am rambling. Here is a link for those of you who are interested! Oh and I ususally play shooter - the picture isn't me - that might be a little obvious - it's of Sherelle McMahon - she plays shooter for Australia ;)

It's just like riding a bike ...

Tonight was the first week back at Ladie's Netball. New Team, New Year, New Me!! It was just like riding a bike - after 3 months off I felt like I would forget what I was doing!! lol It was great!

A New Decade!!! and some scale revelations :)

So I get on the scale this morning (as I do EVERY morning, afternoon, night-time......) well you get the idea!! and for the second morning in a row a new decade number has appeared! YAY!

Its very exciting breaking new territory like that. I always make sure its not a fluke by following up the next morning too. I am a little OCD - no really - just a smidge!

I must admit I have been feeling a bit 'off; over the past month about my progress and how my weightloss had halted to a stop etc and I really do need to just keep reminding myself that 12.5kg (27 pounds) in 11 weeks is a great result. Why do I put these added pressures on myself to achieve more than what's considered normal? Is it something that everyone else does too?

I started this journey convinced that I was going to be happy with slow and long-lasting weight loss. I 'thought' I was achieving this until my 6 week scale stand-still. I really don't want to be pulled into that 'ruled-by-the-scale' mentality but I just can't stop myself!! I like to make sure I am 'on-track' and daily weighing helps me with this. Is there a way to weigh daily and not let it affect the way I am feeling?

I am afraid that there is something a whole lot deeper going on in my subconcious which is impacting on my mindset and to tell the truth I am a little scared about when and if it will surface and I will have to face it head on. With. Out. Food. OMG I think I better stop writing, the more I write the more clues I see!!

Yes I procrastinate. I put things off. I wait til later....

More Award Nominations!

I would like to say a big thankyou to Tina @ http://tinasweight-lossjourney.blogspot.com/ and Mandy @ http://mandyblapbandjourney.blogspot.com/for nominating me for the Stylish Blogger Award! Thank you ladies your support is most appreciated :)

I have already posted about the 7 things about me so click here to be directed to that post!

Measurements ... now where did I put them?

So upon the advice of all my fellow bloggers I measured myself. I went to measure again today and low and behold I lost the first ones!!

I am definately having a shocker of a day ;) I will now be creating a new tab so that I can keep a record and be sure not to lose it!!!



Bring on tomorrow I say!!! I hope you all are having a better day than me :)

h20 update

I am having the crappiest of all days ever! Yes that is possibly a little melodramatic but ..... meh!

H20 update: It is 3.11pm and I have finished my required water amount for today! YAY me!

OK so it's not ALL bad ;)

A new challenge and a new scale!

Thank you Ms M! I really like these sort of challenges. It keeps my mind occupied (i.e. not thinking about eating etc). Bonus!




Looking forward to rocking this sip and gulp water challenge - 8 cups a day - I CAN do this!



In other news, I just bought a whizz-bang scale. I lOVE IT! Besides from the fact that it has 'said' my lowest weight to date, it also has body fat calculators etc (I still don't know how to operate that part of it but I will get there!) Another great bonus is that it has a funky little switch underneath that says KGS or PDS. No more having to use the online calculators to convert my weights!!! AWESOME!

I've only stepped on and off about 10 times already ... today :S