WEEK #7 WEIGH IN

   Let's just get down to business this week!

Starting Weight: 303 lbs.
WEEK #7 Weight: 271 lbs. 6 oz.
Total Weight Lost: 31 lbs. 10 oz.

   PEAKS

• I actually went back to the gym this week! It was refreshing to work out and I definitely did a much better job hydrating because I did some cardio. I even did some strength training for my arms and felt the burn for 2 days after. Yay???? 
• I successfully navigated my way through 2 experiences dining out. On Friday we went to Buca di Beppo, a family style Italian eatery, and I was able to have some chicken, the top of some garlic bread and a couple bites of pizza. Just the other day I also went to Brendan's Irish Pub to attend my work's Christmas Party. I had the filling from a potato skin, 1/3 a cup of french onion soup and water after my meal. I definitely had to look at the  menus a few days in advance to come up with my game plan. 
• Christmas Shopping and Wrapping is all done!!! 
• I went to the Goodwill Store and found 6 great tops for $13! I love thrift shops!!! This was a week of shopping for me. I'm usually not one to drool over shoes, but I bought 3 pairs of shoes this week. 2 of them actually had a pretty significant heel and I rocked them for a good 6 hours...unheard of for me! To be honest, I think it has something to do with the fact that I have lost weight and it is no longer impossible for my feet to carry my weight. 

PITS

• I haven't been very good about taking my vitamin supplements this week or documenting my food intake in my food journal. 
• I have been crazy busy and haven't been getting my protein intake even close to what I should be. 
• I have yet to come up with my Christmas game plan for how I'm going to handle eating during the holiday with both families. 
• There are yummy Lindt chocolates (at work) that I want to eat all day long!

WEEK #6 WEIGH IN

   So my week has been incredibly busy and I haven't had the time to even weigh myself for the past 5 days. It's amazing that I even remembered to do a blog entry this week! Not only is it FINALS WEEK at school, but Tuesday it was also hubby's birthday and we had to get ready to host his family for dinner. I had this great plan to make enchilada casserole (shredded chicken, enchilada sauce, cheese and corn tortillas) which is bariatric friendly at the stage that I'm in right now. However, this dinner was taking place the night before my last final so I had to settle for ordering Chinese food and sushi. The sushi was a huge hit! I also had to go into work for a few extra hours this week too, so that ate into my chaotic schedule a bit. But even with all of that chaos I still managed to have an amazing week! 

Starting Weight:  303 lbs. 0 oz.
Week #6 Weight: 273 lbs. 2 oz.
Total Weight Lost: 29 lbs. 14 oz.

   I AM 2 FREAKIN' OUNCES AWAY FROM HITTING THE 30 POUND MARK!!! That also means that I am 2 pounds away from being down to the same weight I was when I graduated from high school.

PEAKS

• celebrating my birthday and my hubby's birthdays without making unhealthy choices
• being done with the semester!
• getting the rest of my Christmas decorations put up
• It's officially been 2 months since my last drink of soda
• organizing my closet
• trying on all these old clothes that are now swimming on me and already being able to fit into my post-surgery clothes
• I haven't left my house for 7 days in pajamas for stretchy pants. I have actually been putting together outfits and making sure I look like I give a crap. 
• My favorite red blazer is swimming on me! So is my black one. If I button them it looks like I'm wearing a sack. Yuck! I need to get a new black one for work
• I'm on the last hole of my red belt. Even on the last loop it is still waaaaaaaay to loose. I keep pinching myself on it. 

PITS

• again, no gym.... I just need to look at my schedule now that finals are over and schedule going to the gym into my calendar. I really need to do some toning for my arms and thighs 
• I haven't tracked my food or calories for the last 3 days because of my schedule but I vow to do it for 7 days straight! 
• Nothing else.....I've had a pretty amazing week, even with all the added stress. I would much rather be stressed and busy than bored with nothing to do!

Good-Bye Stretchy Pants!

   This week I hit the 25 lbs lost mark! So out of curiosity I decided to take the advice of people in my support group and I started trying on some of my favorite clothes. I wasn't really expecting to see a huge difference because 25 pounds just seemed like chump change in the big picture of things. On someone smaller than me I know it would visually look like a lot but I figured on someone my size it wouldn't make THAT much of a difference. I WAS SOOOOOOO WRONG!!!

   For the last month I have been wearing my stretchy pants every single day. The only time I wear anything different is when I wear my size 26 jeans that now fit me loose. When I started going through my closet I noticed that all of my other pants are a size 22 and I decided to try them all on to see how far off I was from being able in them....surprise! They all fit!!! As I kept going through the closet I began realizing that some of my favorite piece were fitting me a lot better and that a lot of my tailored pieces were now HUGE on me.

   Then it occurred to me that I should start taking pictures of some of my favorite pieces to post on my blog. That way you guys will be able to see my progression and the changes in my body and not just the pounds lost.

    Before surgery this top didn't close all the way. I had to leave the top 2 buttons undone to make room for my chest. My cup size hasn't changed at all (yet), but I have lost a lot of excess fat from my back and side boob area. My bras all fit me better now! As this top gets loose it'll be a great flowing piece and also will work great when I buy a new red belt.

    I wore this shirt for Christmas 4 years ago and haven't fit into it since....maybe I'll wear it for Christmas Eve this year????

 This top is still pretty snug, but I can't wait to wear it when it fits better. I'm thinking it'd go great tucked into a pencil skirt.

 Again...doesn't fit yet but we'll keep tabs on this one because I have several ideas for it already!

 I absolutely love the top of this dress and cannot wait to lose my gut so I can rock this at work.

 I bought this top when I worked at Torrid and haven't worn this one in about 5 years. I'd imagine it would have looked even better had I worn Spanx with it.

 I always loved wearing this shirt with cargo pants back in high school, but I'll have to come up with something else that looks like I care.

    This is actually my first time ever wearing this dress! I fell in love with it when  I saw it at Ross and bought it to wear on my honeymoon 2 years ago. HOWEVER...my hubby felt like being helpful and washed it to get rid of the germs from other people possibly trying it on...THEN SHRUNK IT IN THE DRYER. I got shorter and the boob area shrunk quite a bit. I was obviously furious because I never got to put it on again. In a month or so I'm sure you'll be seeing me in it again!

                            My goal is to fit into this top by Christmas Day. WISH ME LUCK!!!!!!

   Leopard maxi dress... again, I can't wait for the gut to not be there anymore. By summer this will be a great option.

Thanksgiving!

   I know that I probably sound like a broken record, but I can't sing the praises of Dr. Billy and his amazing staff enough! They are really there for you and want you to succeed. 2 days before Thanksgiving I got a call from Patricia to check in with me because the following day I was going to be introducing a new range of foods to my diet. She wanted to make sure all of my questions were answered and that everything was clear. Patricia also wanted to see if I had a plan in place for tackling Thanksgiving. I actually did and she was able to help me tweak it a little bit because I had some unrealistic expectations. For example, I wanted to have a small piece of toasted garlic bread but she reminded me that if it doesn't go down well it's going to ruin my day. I should save experimentation for days when I am not going to be trapped at other people's houses. 

   I felt great going into Thanksgiving and everything did in fact go smoothly. I took a picture of my plate at my parents' house because that's where I did a bulk of my eating!

    What's funny about this plate and this picture is that this looks like a massive amount of food....I promise it's not. My mom was very kind and got out a small salad plate for me instead of the massive plates we usually eat off of for special occasions. She didn't want me to feel out of place or deprived because I had so much empty space on my plate. Now let me tell you what's there:

1. Turkey- I had been experimenting with turkey breast and chicken breast and am able to digest them without trouble, so I had no fear having it with 1/4 tablespoon cranberry sauce. 
2. Potatoes with melted cheese...Costco! 
3. 1/8 cup stuffing! Because I can't have soft bread yet I made sure to get the really crunchy top part and picked out the little pieces of carrots. It was a hassle but it did slow down the eating process for me. 
4. salmon- I am NOT a fish person, but this salmon was amazing and I would eat it again! It's also another good source of protein. 
5. Creamed corn and spinach- I took 1 tablespoon of each but didn't eat them. I just wanted to fill out my plate and wanted to give myself the illusion that I had fully participated. 

   Later that night we went to my in-laws and I kept it super simple there. I worked on getting my liquids down immediately and then eventually ate some turkey with gravy. At their house no one sits down formally at a table for dinner. Everyone just sits wherever they can find a spot and that made it less awkward and I didn't have to worry about people watching me eat.

   The best part was that when I weighed myself the next morning I didn't gain a single ounce,..I actually lost 2 ounces! Yay!!!! 

1 Month Post-Op!!!

   Sorry for the delay in updating! I have been incredibly busy with Thanksgiving, Dr. Appointments, decorating for Christmas, my birthday and going back to work. As many of you know, November 30th marked my 1 month anniversary of my Sleeve Gastrectomy. It was a very nerve-wrecking day for me because it was also my first day back at work. I was very nervous about being too "rusty" and wondering if I was going to be able to get all my liquids and protein in my body. Luckily everything went fine and I did better getting liquids in at work than I was when I was at home all day. I guess it's all that talking that dried out my mouth and made me thirty! 

   Without further delay, here's my OFFICIAL 1 month weight in (taken November 30th):

Starting Weight: 303 lb. 0 oz.
1 Month Weight: 279 lb. 2 oz.
Total Weight Lost: 23 lb. 14 oz. 

   So essentially I was 2 oz. away from 24 pounds. What was really exciting about that was that I officially beat my wedding weight! 2 years ago, when I got married, I weighed exactly 280 pounds and then I gained 8 pounds on our honeymoon immediately after. Then of course all the weight I had lost before the wedding came right back as soon as I stopped starving myself and injecting myself with HCG. To have surpassed my wedding weight is such a huge accomplishment, even if it's only by 1 pound! My next goal is to get down to my high school graduation weight...271 lbs. 

PEAKS

• Not losing my mind during the Thanksgiving festivities! I was having some anxiety about whether people would notice my weight loss and if I would feel like an outsider with my restricted diet. Luckily everything went smooth and I will be writing a separate blog entry about my first Thanksgiving with my sleeve. 
• Redefining "Ashley Time"! I used to categorize Ashley Time as time shopping, crafting or baking...but a few weeks ago I started realizing that Ashley Time is really about being selfish and doing something for myself. The first new activity I established was watching THE BIGGEST LOSER at the gym. I love love love that show and thought to myself, "I'm watching all these people changing their lives as I sit on my ass at home. I need to get to the gym, got on a cardio machine and watch the show while changing my own life." That's the biggest gift I can give myself! 
• My birthday! I'm 26 now and my birthday always marks my annual visit to my LADY DOCTOR! As soon as he saw me he knew I was losing weight and asked me how I did it. He even remembered that last year I was thinking about getting weight loss surgery and when I told him that's how I did, he was very happy for me. He knows about my family history of breast cancer and diabetes and was so proud of me for being "bold enough to select the option that is a permanent change". He said that people who say weight loss surgery is the easy way out don't understand what is happening to your body. It's the hardest decision to make because with something like the sleeve or bypass, you can't reverse it. You don't have the option to have a "splurge" day like with weight watchers...you do that and you risk rupturing your stomach or have excessive vomiting. 
• I ate a chicken taco with meat and cheese!!!!! I'm complete again. 

PITS

• I really wasn't good about going to the gym this week. I was really busy and had a lot going on, but that's not a valid excuse anymore. Looking back I could have easily fit in at least 2 more 35 minute cardio sessions. I did get in 2 sessions this week, but my goal is at least 4 a week. 
• I went out to eat for my birthday  and it was terrible! We went to Lure, a local fish restaurant, for happy hour and got appetizers so I could have a sample of a few things. The problem was that I wasn't preparing my food and had no control over what types of preparations they implemented or how much oil they used. I didn't even think about asking...you best believe I won't be making that mistake again! As soon as we left the restaurant my body freaked out and we had to haul ass home. Needless to say I spent the remainder of my evening at home in the bathroom...not very fun!