TTT baby!

1.     I have a zit just inside my nose and I think I should be excused from work until it heals.  Who in the world would be able to concentrate on creating a new look for marketing when distracted by a nose zit??

2.     I have not worked out with Mr. Muscle for two weeks, because of my mini-vacation and working out of town.  I think he was missing me and showed that by kicking my ASS last night.  My lats (?) are killing me, I can't even take a deep breath without wincing.  And it felt gooooood!!

3.     The new Lego game came out on Tuesday.  I don't really play video games but I love, love, love the Lego games.  So Peaches and I have been using every extra moment we get to play Batman 2 : DC Superheros.  Last night I think we found a glitch, there is a spot where you need to push a button but you can't get there.  We tried everyway possible, restarted the PS3 and tried playing again, still nothing.  We are going to have to restart from the beginning tonight, Peaches is kind of mad but I am secretly happy that I will get to play my game longer!!

4.     We took our dog with the ouchie knee to an orthopedic specialist and got his joint scoped.  They can't really see anything wrong so we are just going to keep him as immobile as possible until August and see what happens.  He is not a happy camper, we have him tied to either the coffee table or the dresser in our room unless we are outside, then he is tied to a tree.  He barks ALL THE TIME!!!!

5.     I am already struggling for things to say, really my life is pretty boring.

6.     Next weekend we are off to the lake house again, this time we will be joined by Peaches's WHOLE family.  There will be 16-20 of us.  Several members of the family like drama and where there is none they will start it.  I usually end up calling someone out on their bullshit and then it calms down, but I just hate the stress of it.  I am NOT looking forward to it, at all.

7.     I am up to running 5.4 mi in an hour.

8.     My weight has not really done all that much lately, I have lost a little bit but my body just seems to want to hang out between 230 and 238.  I read once (somewhere) that your body has a memory of weights it has been at and if you spent a lot of time around a certain place it may just want to stay there.  WTF!!  I am doing everything I need to be doing and still my dumb body feels comfortable here?  Has anyone else heard about this?  If so, how much convincing will my body need to get on with getting rid of this weight!!!

9.     Today was a day where I woke up irritated and Peaches's morning routine just got under my skin.  Finally I just told him not to talk to me for a bit because I didn't want to yell at him.  He has known me long enough to not be offended when I ask this, I think he is actually a little grateful that I steer him around my pits of Blanche DuBois.

10.   Hahahaha!!  I has something else here but I just logged on (Friday morning) to realize that I never published this yesterday!  OOPS!

Let's talk about traveling with Hot Duchess

When I used to fly I would do EVERYTHING in my power to get my seat belt fastened without a extender.  I can remember at least twice that I had Peaches put his big arm muscles to good use squeezing me into it.  Do you remember the scene in Gone With The Wind where Scarlett was getting her corset tied?  The process of getting my seat belt connected had some similar qualities.  Only once did I have to use an extender, it was on a flight from Prague to Amsterdam with a European airline on a teeny tiny plane.  I was already humiliated enough asking for it, but having to do it in my horrible version of Czech was really precious, the flight attendants may still be laughing about it!

So this past week I flew out to NY for some work stuff and per my usual routine I slide the buckle alllllllllllll the way out to the end of the belt and I sucked Hot Duchess in as far as humanly possible.  Then I went for it, I used a brisk jerking motion and aimed up the two ends of the buckle and got it on the first time!!  After I was done congratulating myself on hitting the mark, I realized that something was wrong.  There was a lot of room in between me and the belt, it felt a little loose.  There was some slack!!  I grabbed the end of the belt and pulled and got about 5 in of extra belt, HOT DIGGITY DOG! 

A couple other places I noticed a difference on my trip, sitting in the middle seat of the train going from Long Island to Penn Station, I didn't feel the need to curl up and hold my breath with fear I was spilling onto the person next to me.  Going through the turnstiles to get on the subway, I was able to do so at a bit of a run (we took a little too long over dinner and had to run to make our show) and not creeping through the turnstile sideways on tiptoe, so Hot Duchess could glide over the top rather than try to fit between the two sides.

 The last place I thanked all the powers that be I had made this choice to change me life was on the flight home.  My flight out was at 6:45am, I boarded the plane and was snoozing waiting for take off.  At 7:23am the captain came on the intercom to tell us that the Altimeter was broken and we were going to need to deboard (a real word??) and go down two gates to a plane scheduled to take off at 7:50am.  We all moved over the next plane and all fit, but this took some time.  We didn't actually take off until 8:17am.  We landed an hour and a half in Chicago at gate C2, my connecting flight to Billings was at gate K19 and leaving in 16min.  So I ran!!  I was yelling "EXCUSE ME!!!' to all the people with 4 hour layovers just strolling around in the terminal as I was running, Forrest Gump style!  I made it with 2 min to spare and they let me on, THANK YOU UNITED AIRLINES!  Or I would have been waiting until 8:30pm for the next flight to Billings.

Here is a little map of my run.  I landed at the yellow arrow and took off at the red circle.

I never would have been able to do that before the Lap Band and Mr. Muscle!

Now that I am home I actually have a chance to do stuff, like read and write blogs!  My comments will be a little late but I am getting caught up on them! 

Ten Things Thursday

Thank you to Laura for giving me a great way to do a little rambling!  I want to just tell everyone that sent good ju-ju my way on the safe return of my kitty, THANK YOU!  Mr. SmugCat strolled in yesterday after I got home from the gym, just as cool as anything.  No thought to how he worried his mother to death, no cares about staying out all night.  I think the overwhelming snuggle and hugs I subjected him to may discourage this inconsiderate behavior in the future. 

1.     The stupid animal shelter in Billings is closed on Wednesdays, that means they don't even return frantic, crazy voicemails.  I went down at noon but could not get in to search for my big boy!  I even pounded on the door a little...I am a scootch ashamed now but was desperate then. 

2.     I worked my hiney off with Mr. Muscle last night, it amazes me how many horrible ways to torture me he can come up with.  Just when I think I have seen the worst of him he adds in something  else to my circuit.  Last night his method of torture was Burpees, 30 FREAKING SECONDS OF THEM!!!!!  30 seconds is nothing, like four blinks of an eye, a little commercial, it really is a short amount of time.  Unless you are hauling your 230lb ass up and down off the floor with a push-up thrown in 'for fun'.  I wanted to die, but he said if i stopped more than once then I would be doing an extra 15 seconds.  I kept going but by the third time through my circuit my legs burned sooooo bad, I almost couldn't stand up.

3.     When I was done with my 30 minute strength circuit, Mr. Muscle set me up for my cardio.  He choose a spin bike for me yesterday, I did 3 min with no resistance hard and fast, then one minute with lots and lots of resistance standing up and as fast I could.  You would think that the I would be dreading the one hard thigh-burning minute, but with that itty bitty little seat stuck up my butt crack I was welcoming the chance to stand up!

4.     This morning in the shower I could not figure out why my coochie was hurting, it felt a little bruised.  Then I remembered having an itty bitty bike seat stuck in my butt crack for 45 min yesterday and it all made sense.

5.     Peaches' family owns a cabin on Georgetown Lake it is only a four hour drive so we try to get up there as much as possible during the summer.  They have a boat so we water ski (well I try really really hard), go tubing, wake boarding, along with just swimming and diving.  We are making our first trip of the summer tomorrow afternoon and I am sooo excited.  Here is the view off the deck.

6.     I just checked the weather report, it will be snowing at the lake on Sat and Sun.  There will be no water skiing or swimming but we will still hang out with the family, play some card games and eat (a resonable amount) of yummy food.  I know for some people with a band it can be nerve racking to go away and not know what kind of foods will be there, I solve this by offering to do the menu and shopping for the whole family!  Pretty smart girl here!

7.      I am getting super duper excited for my trip to NY.  We are at the lake until Monday evening, just enough time for me to come home and do laundry, pack, sleep a little and be up at 3:45a for my 5:30am flight on Tues to NY.

8.     I will be traveling with one other person to NY.  He works in the same department as I do and he really kind of drives me nuts.  I am dreading driving on the Long Island Expressway with his comments and big mouth.

9.     My brother came into town last night for some business stuff.  I love my brother and don't see enough of him!  We stayed up super late chatting and talking about animals and plants.  I wish he and my sis-in-law lived closer.  I wish I had a pic, but they are funny couple.  Josh is a 7' meat and potatoes guy, Gina is a 5'3" vegan.  I don't know how they do it, but they make it work.

10.     I will not have any internet up at the lake so I will not be posting until Monday, so have a great weekend everyone!  Again thank you for sending good thoughts my kitty's way, I truly believe in karma and ju-ju and I feel you all helped get him home! 

Poopy Wednesday

One of my kitties is missing and all I want to do is cry.  We have a doggy door and my cats can get outside, two of them never leave the yard but my big siamese will wander around a bit.  He ALWAYS comes home at night and he didn't last night.  With my crazy neighbors I just can't help but start what-iffing. 

I checked the animal shelter website and they have a list of strays they picked up and there is a chocolate point siamese listed but it is listed as a female and I have a male.  I have my fingers crossed that they messed up and it really is my boy.  They open at noon and I am watching the clock soooooo slowwwwwwly creep to noon when I will run down there and check for him.  Uggggg, it's a yucky yucky Wed. 

Last night I went to work out, normally on my non-stregnth training days I run on the treadmill but thanks to the HUGE blister on my right foot (from some uber cute wedges I wore dancing on Sat night) running was hurting me.  I did the recline bike for 45 min on a hill program on level 9.  I made it 10.6 miles and my average RPM was 90...I was a SWEATING FOOL!!!!  I still get so much satisfaction from sweating, maybe today after my work out with Mr. Muscle I will have him take a sweaty pic of me, so you all can love my sweat too!! 

I have not stepped on the scale for four straight days, it was not moving and it just made me mad.  I can tell from my body shape, clothes fit and comments from people that I am moving in the right direction so I say 'EFF YOU SCALE'!!!  Everybody say it with me 'EFF THE EFFING SCALE!!!!'

Lots to tell!!

I had a crazy busy week last week and it just keeps on coming!!  I have a lot to tell so I am going to do some bullets....

• I got my fill on Wed afternoon, I waited 2.5 hours in my surgeon's office but I was NOT going to leave without some more saline in my belly.  I was at 4.5cc in a 14cc band, she said she gave me a whopping 1 cc, but I kind of feel like she is lying.  I don't feel anything, I eat my 1/2-3/4c and I am STARVING two hours later.  
• I spent the rest of Wed and all of Thur on liquids, but when I had some grilled salmon and brussel sprouts for breakfast on Fri, I got a wicked nasty pain in my tum-tum.  As soon as I would swallow I would get a stabbing pain that lasted for 10-20 sec, then go away.  Another bite and another stabbing pain.  I called Dr. H and she told me that I could either come in for a slight unfill or go back on liquids for a couple days and wait it out.  I went back on liquids until Sat dinner time, I got a little bit of a pain with the first two bites (nothing like the day before) and then I was fine and no more problems!  Weird!!  
• Friday I cut 8in off my hair and colored it.  DARK auburn!!  I love love love it and Peaches thinks I am a hottie, even more so than before.  We celebrated my new hair-do this weekend....several times!
• Sat night I went dancing with the ladies, sporting my new hair and my new SIZE 18 JEANS!!!!! (I started my pre-op on diet on 03/18 at size 24).  While we were out I ran into a friend of Peaches' and he told me like 20 times how good I was looking.  He also texted Peaches and told him how good I looked.   

• Sunday morning I got up and made breakfast and then played in my yard!  I made a tower of pots that I just love! 

• Sunday I went to see Snow White and the Huntsman, I have a serious girl crush on Charlize Theron and I was a little saddened to see her in the old lady scenes, but the movie was great!!  Not for kids but a good movie.  Even Kristen Stewart's mouth-breather face couldn't ruin it.
• Lastly I returned to work Monday to a little present from one of my best friends!  She said she saw this magnet and thought of me. 

•  I took my two month bandiversary pictures and will be posting them soon!  I just need sometime to breath. 

I need a fill....bad!!!

I am hurtin for a fill, Wednesday can't come soon enough.  I spent this whole weekend just snacking away, some 'good' snacks and lots of 'bad' snacks.  I just can't seem to keep on track on the weekends, this is something I need to really wrap my head around and figure out.  All week long I eat my meals, have a protein drink when I am hungry, track all my food, ensure I am getting my liquids, but I think on the weekends when I do not have a schedule I lose track of what/when the plan is.  Uggggg!! 

Then I get mad at myself for eating a handful of chips that I don't really even want ans I find myself torturing myself by hopping my chubby butt up on the scale.  I can't seem to keep myself off or it so I sat myself (Blanche) down and gave her/me a good talking to.  I know I am working my ass off in the gym, I am eating great at least 90% of the time and holding myself accountable for everything.  Eff the scale, stupid effing thing.  I continue to weigh myself but I REFUSE to let it rule my mood and my life.  I know I am lifting heavier weights, completing my circuits faster and running harder/longer than I have in 8+ years, these are the yardsticks I will measure myself by, not a silly little number given to my by a demon filled piece of poop!! 

Soooooo......a couple things that could possibly fall in the TMI catagory, you have been warned.  I have never ever farted so much in my life as I do since I got banded.  I knew that being 'a little gassy' was a possibility, but I am a farting machine!  When I was planking (see pic below) the other day at the gym, I was going for a new personal record of a full minute and I felt 'it' coming on.

 'It' was there and 'it' was going to be BIG.  I don't know if planking is the same for everyone but when I do 'it' I shake ALL over, this quivering of my entire body was shaking something loose.  At around 30 sec into it I knew 'it' was coming and there was nothing I could do to stop 'it'.  Luckily Mr. Muscle and I were the only ones in the training room at the time, so I just let him know that I was going to make it to the minute but I was also going to have a delivery and he might want to back up.  He started laughing, that made me laugh and that made the shaking even harder.  When 'it' finally arrived it was a frickin foghorn!!! I am not easily embarrassed, but even this honker echoing through the room got me blushing....BTW I did hold my plank through all of this for the full minute!

The other thing is my monthly cycle, I don't actually have the equipment to have one but all of the sudden it seems like I have a PMS week.  Craving chocolate sooo badly I could cry, crying over anything and everything, retaining water and even kind of crampy.  This is really really weird, so much so that I made an appt with my gyno to get checked out.  She said everything looks fine in the crotchal region but did take blood tests to check hormones.  Strange and kind of scary. 

One last thing before I go...I love the smell of my sweat.  Not like the sitting in a car with no air conditioning in August in Texas sweaty stink, but my lifting, running, pulling, pushing, planking, stepping, jumping sweat.  I love the feeling of it dripping down my face and body.  I like to see the puddle forming under me when I am doing push-ups.  And I LOVE to give my pits a little sniffy sniff.  That wonderful aroma is 'exhaust' from my engine (hahahaha, maybe my farts are the exhaust too!) burning through my fat ass and jiggly gut.  Whenever I get home from the gym I try to get Peaches as excited as I am about my bouquet, but he is just not nearly as excited as I would like him to be!!  He did however let me know my butt is getting 'butt shapier', apparently my butt and thigh are no longer just one big slab of meat.  There is an actual butt shelf, a little sumpin sumpin to cup!  Yah for my butt shapier, butt.  I will be doing some pics on Friday, my two month bandiversary.

TTT a little late...

I missed TTT so I am just going to hit it a little late!  

1.     Tues was the 5th anniversary of my mother's death.  It's always a hard day, but I try to do something to honor her memory and this year I volunteered to be a chaperone on a field trip for a class at the local 'juvenile' detention center.   My mom devoted her life to helping kids in crappy situations, she would have appreciated this.

2.     My 'Jillian' trainer had another client at the time I was requesting so I agreed to work with someone else, he is a hunky young pup (Mr. Muscle) and I HATE him!  Well...I love and hate him at the same time.  If we are doing step-ups and he wants to add resistance and I whine a little bit about it, he just says 'Great!  You just bought yourself two extras, want to keep going?'  When I told  him I hated him, he just asked 'Isn't that why you come here, to hate me?'  He is pretty awesome! 

3.     In February one of my puppies blew out his knee and had surgery to rebuild his cruciate ligament, all was going well with his therapy and recovery until Thurs.  I came home from work and he was not putting any weight on his leg, his knee was swollen and hot.  We are going to the vet in 30 min to get it checked out.  I am sure he blew it out again, now I am faced with a shitty decision...do we do another surgery or just do what we can to keep him comfortable.  Affording the surgery would be a little hard, I would either need to dip into our 'NEVER EVER' use savings or take out a loan from my 401k.  Also he is almost 10 years old (and a big dog) and this will be his 3rd surgery in 6 months and that can be hard on an old dog.  It breaks my heart to think of him in pain and I have been crying on and off all morning.  

4.     My portions have slowly been creeping up in the last week, my weight loss has stalled and I have some major urges to snack.  I scheduled an appt for a fill next Wed.  I can't wait!!  Peaches is going to go with me and is excited to see the huge horse needle they use. 

5.     I went in on Monday to see my weight loss doc and M, the facilitator, for my 6 week check up.  Everything is looking good!  My lean mass has not changed at all, this means I am not losing muscle mass, and my body fat percentage is down by 10% since I started my pre-op liquid diet!!  I had a perma-grin during my visit.  While I was there M asked me if I would be alright with their marketing department contacting me for participation in their ad campaign.  I agreed right away, they want to do a 'story line' on me, basically they will follow me on my journey.  Also there was talk of a billboard or TV commercials.

6.     My manager told me that I will be going out to NY in June for some training on a new software program that is being introduced to our department.  I will be in Bethpage (on Long Island) for a week and I am super excited.  A friend of mine, who lives out there, already got tickets for us to go see Wicked and we are planning on a trip to the Comedy Cellar while I am there as well.  

7.     We got a new addition to our family this week, his name is Gideon (I re-named him, in honor of one of my favorite novel characters).  A friend of a friend had him for several years and due to some medical issues needed to get rid of him.  Say hello to Gideon!   

8.     I love living in Montana!!  I have lived in Colorado, Wyoming and Texas and none of these can hold a candle to Montana....however I hate surprises like the one I woke up to this morning.  

The snow was super heavy and I lost some branches off my baby Red Maple because of it, boooo.  

9.     I think one of my nieces spilled something on my laptop, my 'V' and 'B' buttons are really really hard to push and feel kind of sticky.

10.     As soon as I post this I will be heading to the gym to do a little treadmill work.  I made a commitment to a friend of mine (she is also a bandster turned crazy marathon runner, much like Terry) to run a half marathon in July 2013 with her Missoula, MT.  I told my trainer about this goal and he has put together a training plan for me to use.