relief57

39lbs down and 18lbs away from twonderland

the first time in two years I've dropped below 220. I'm thrilled

Has anyone tried the Jawbone Up 24 bracelet and app. I just got it last week. It's awesome. It tracks your movements and lets you know if you've reached your daily goal. It tracks your sleep pattern and lets you know how much actual sleep you're getting (not enought). The app (downloadable on both android and smart phones) has a scanner that will scan barcodes and add calories, protein, carbs as well as other nutrients and give you a breakdown. It also has a social media piece attached to it so if anybody has the app let me know and we can connect to provide some additional encouragement.

Down 36 pounds now since one week preop 4/4/14. Was hoping for more but being realistic the 36lbs down is pretty good. I would love to be out of the 300s by the end of June. I'm optimistic but, can it be done?

had my first fill on Friday. Don't think it went too well. Dr. wanted me to drink water to make sure it went down while he made adjustments. I had really hard burps forming which distracted from my ability to sense if the water was going down. Or maybe I was just nervous about the process. not sure how many cc I got. Dr. says if there is not weight loss by the end of the week we'll try again.

Dining Out and Small Victories: Yes, there are small victories that overshadow the number on the scale. Today was my first day eating out. My siblings and I took mom out to dinner for Mother's Day (and no I did not monitor her bite sizes....just mine). The restaurant we went to, make the best onion ring appetizers in town...or so we think. My family would have opted out of getting them for my sake but, I gotta learn how to do this eventually so, what better time than the present. I encouraged them to go for it. Of course when they brought them out the waiter sat the dish directly in front of me to savor its delicious aroma...and I did. Surprisingly, that was enough. The family enjoyed the onion rings and I enjoyed them enjoying the onion rings. And then for another first I ordered something totally different from my usual fare, which we won't ruminate on right now. So, my meal (lunch size) consisted of grilled salmon on a bed of rice (my rice was quickly shuffled off to my sister's plate), steamed broccoli, and black beans. Although the salmon was delicious I only finished a third of it and had room left for three broccoli florets and a spoon of black beans....no water yet...that was hard. Still trying to adjust to the water regimen. The remainder of the meal was packed away in the appropriate container and brought home to enjoy for at least two more meals. All in all I'd say it was a very successful dining out experience.

Old habits tend to want to die hard. While eating chicken stir fry I forgot to chew, chew, chew...I was distracted talking to my sister. As soon as I took the first swallow came the thought Oh No I didn't chew which was shortly followed by the uncomfortable revelation. So now I'm kinda stuck, Again.....Reflection: Never really took time to notice much about the food I was eating other than the taste. Didn't really savor the taste because it went down too fast. Never really recognized the moment of being satiated while zooming head on into feeling stuffed. In actuality, now the more I chew the less I like what I'm chewing. I now imagine that since eating is a life sustaining activity it deserves as much cognition as any other life sustaining/promoting activity. I can appreciate the immediate consequences of my actions or in this case lack of concentration, it helps keep me on track. Now to remember to apply this lesson on a regular basis.

Close Call. Went to work tonight and found someone had brought in some delicious looking brownies. The first thought from the old thinking pattern was just cut a corner off and enjoy. But, from old experience I know the corner would have just been the start of the relationship with the brownie. Fortunately the new thought patterns kicked in and reminded me of the subtle seduction of a nut filled brownie. Then I remembered I had a protein bar, mint chocolate with 19 grams of protein. Now that was a great trade off.