Krestel

Found a wonderful cafe in downtown Stockholm that served wonderful smoothie "bowls". Got a greek yoghurt bowl with granola, all sorts of berries, and some honey. Was sooo delish. I hate sitting in cafes that only have sweet options cuz I really feel bad after eating a cinnamon bun.

If anyone is thinking about coming to Stockholm, I definitely have some bariatric tips.

One-derville has been passed today. Sort of a mental milestone, but I still have more to do/lose. Although it's nice to get over that hurdle for once (and all?).

I baked a gross of (144) chocolate chip cookies for the coffee break (fika) at work. The cool part was that I managed to not eat a single one of them. Not only that but I finished with my baking by 11pm and got up at 5am for my doggie walk before work. This time it was MUCH easier to skip the cookies since I was thinking about dumping in the back of my mind. That and the damn gremlins (oops I mean  grehlins) are on vacation at the moment.

How can a bowel movement make me lose almost 4 pounds? How much poo am I full of?

Ok, now im getting old...my body gets me up at my normal 5am dog walk even when it's the weekend, vacation, and most importantly when I'm sick. So now that I have more energy, my body wants to make sure I suffer even longer during the day when I have a cold! Damn being healthy again! (:D)

First head cold since the surgery....at least I know that my body is back to "normal". /sigh

Me: Hey Siri, Is it raining outside? (for my morning walks with the dogs)

Siri: I don't think it's raining at the moment.

Wet Dogs: Then why are we wet? This damn Siri person is more stupid than we are.

It's easier to create new babits than to break old ones.

I really like my 5am walks with the dogs. I can't even believe that I would ever say that, but I truly look forward to them in the mornings. Nothing beats happy dogs when you're grumpy! I even got a new (much smaller) high-visibility jacket in order to keep warm this winter and be seen even if it's dark. Since we have wooded trails close by that no-one uses (especially in the dark and during bad weather), I can let them off their leashes and run around and get in touch with their  wild gogginess. I can't wait for it to get reeeally cold (and snowy) so that I have to buy new snow pants as well.

Goal setting should be something you have total control over. I was thinking about this the other day. Weight loss is not something we have total control over, but eating a certain number of calories or exercising a number of times per week is.

I realized this when I was thinking about how my students set goals for getting better grades. Getting the grade they want is only partially within their power. So if they don't get the better grade they worked towards, then the positive behaviour they have formed will be seen as useless even if it's going to eventually get them to their goal.

We've all played these games, but I think many times our goal setting misses the point. Choose something we have control over and measure ourselves that way rather than using something that can at times seem arbitrary. 

Today was a really tough day and I turned to food (and a watered down glass of wine). The interesting part was that I felt REALLY full after eating half my go to cheat snack, tortilla chips with cheese. So the GBP is doing its job!

The only way I can tell that I'm losing weight is from the scale and my clothes "getting bigger".

I can now buy clothes in normal stores again. Admittedly the first time when I started trying on clothes, I really had to keep myself calm. Normally trying on clothes causes me to become SOOO depressed that it take weeks just to get over it. Now, I have to keep myself from not wanting to buy everything!

Yesterday I discovered stretchy pants. It was the first time that I walked into a normal store and dared to try on clothes in over many many years. Scary, but I found some guy chinos that I liked. I was even able to wear women's sizes even though the legs were wayyyyy too short.

Im now wearing my smallest pants...now what? 

I felt that I ate like a horse this week and still lost weight. WTF?!? 

Today I could tie my shoes without havung to sit down. I could still easily breathe. Gosh that was nice.

I just realized that I miss breads and buns much more than chocolate amd candy. How wierd!

Losing 1.2kg/2.6lbs in a week seems to be a bit disappointing when in reality it is quite reasonable at about 5kg/11lbs per month. I think that I cant quite remember the last 30kg/65lbs. Oh the mind games we play!

Started going through my clothes and packing away things that are way too big. I now relalize that I neee to learn how to take in pants and t-shirts. Thankfully the new school where i'll be working has a sewing room.

My first stall..

So I think Ive hit my first plateau. Yeah, I knew it was coming at one point, but even so, It's frustrating.

OMG! I dreamt of cake!!

As of late, my dreams have been food obsessed. Last night I dreamed of gorging on good old American sheet cake with chocolate frosting. There was white frosting as well. Good thing we can't get that in Sweden! I just hope that I haven't become too engrossed in food. BUT they are only dreams after all.

I just looked through all my old pants after my pre-op pants started getting to big. Keep in mind that I wear men's pants (usually cargos) because I am so tall 5'10"/5'11" ish. I also find that men's baggies tend to fit me better.

I started out at a 44 in waist pant and quickly found that I was back down to my 42's. So even when thise got to be too big, I had to start pulling old clothes out of storage. After finding my 38's, I thought that these would not yet fit, but when I tried them on, they fit perfectly. I also found some older pants that now fit better than I remembered. What a relief! It's not like I can pop down to the store like I could do in the US and the styles here in Sweden are all skinnt jeans which I cant stand. I also found some 36's, but I'm not mentally ready to try those on yet. The biggest challenge will be buying women's clothing again. 

Still sticking to my VLCD diet (with small chicken and veg dinners) that I started the 1st of May. Soon I'll have to go over to the 2-week strict VLCD-diet. Not really looking forward to that.