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Monday, 07 July 2008

It's interesting to read what I wrote nearly 3 months ago. The idea of seeing the surgeon by Thanksgiving is laughable -- now. I'm hoping for March next year to see the surgeon and surgery in April or May 2009!

The weight loss has slowed down dramatically. To be honest, I'm slipping in my eating habits -- reintroducing carbs that I should not; not eating as much protein as I need, etc. So I'm back to protein first, no snacking, etc. and we'll see if the weight loss increases again.

I weigh 227 -- which is 140 lbs off my highest weight less than 15 months ago. I still have 95 lbs to lose to attain "normal" BMI, which may be a pipe dream. If I were to lose just 60 more pounds, I'd count myself successful in weight loss. That would still put me "overweight" but under 30 BMI.

Thursday, 03 April 2008

AggieCon 39 is history

Well, it was history earlier this week but I haven't gotten around to posting yet.

It was great to see David. Sorry John couldn't make it -- again!! Next year when AggieCon turns 40 I want to see both you boys there!!

David took a couple of pictures of me that I love because it shows how far I have come as well as how much further I have to go to my goal.

Last year at AggieCon I was pretty much wheelchair bound weighing 360 lbs. This year I was running around the con doing stairs and visiting with folks weighing only 248 lbs. Yes, that's 112 lbs gone since last year's convention. My intention is to get down to about 160 lbs and then see the surgeon for hernia repair and excess skin removal. I hope to see the surgeon by Thanksgiving 2008 so that I can have surgery in January 2009 and be healed by March 26-29, 2009 when AggieCon 40 takes place.

This morning I weighed in at 246.3 and Weight Watchers is berating me for losing more than 3 lbs per week (average) for more than 3 weeks. Yes, I've lost 10 lbs in the last 3 weeks, so they figure I'm not eating enough. Little do they know...

Back to the grind. SCA meeting tonight so I guess I had better put my shoes & socks back on and head'em out.

Wednesday, 26 December 2007

So ready to head home!

I love my in-laws, I really do. HOWEVER, I could just as easily live without having to listen to seven kids yammer at each other all day long.

My husband's younger brother has four children: three girls and the lone boy. They are (right now) 14, 13, 11, and 10 years old. When you combine them with my three children: one girl and two boys who are 12, 10 (almost 11), and 8, you have a house with seven kids who are 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 10, and 8 years old with the oldest four being girls and the youngest 3 being boys -- and VERY different parenting styles and permissiveness.

It's going to be so nice to go home tomorrow. I can sleep in my own bed, be able to send my kids outside to play without having to double check with the BIL to make sure HIS kids can also go out to play because my three want the other four out there also.

I'm not so happy that I need to go in to the office to get some work done, but it will give me a chance to "escape" to some peace and quiet. I have 16 to 20 boxes of documents which need to be gone through, check that I have them in my electronic catalog of the reprints, stamp for filing, and create file folders. Then file in the drawers in the storage room next door to my office. This is part of my official job description, but my health had deteriorated to the point that I could NOT do it. I couldn't lift the boxes, move the boxes from next door into my office, nor stand for the length of time it would take to put them into the drawers properly. As I've lost weight, I have a lot more mobility and feel MUCH better about even contemplating doing this job. However, the boss dislikes when I'm not in my office to answer the telephones, so I'm going to get some of these accomplished over the holidays when folks aren't likely to be calling me anyway.

Then I'm just going to have to schedule a time each day (or a few days each week) to be for "filing" so that I can get the backlog cleared out and that room much neater and cleaner looking. It's gotten so cluttered that I honestly don't know what supplies I need to order other than white letter notepads, color toner cartridges for the color laserprinter, and some envelopes. However, I don't know what size(s) envelopes I need to order.

I've been enjoying the time with our new kitty, Merlin. Today he was so laid back I just had to snap a picture of him.

Tuesday, 25 December 2007

Happy Christmas

Well, so it is Christmas again. Some goals for this year have been met; others haven't.

John doesn't have a job. :( However, I did reach my personal goal of being below 275 lbs on or before Christmas 2007. I weighed 274.2 on December 24th. I've also been exercising 45 minutes a day five days a week (at 6:00 am!) in the pool since October 24th. So that is a major change in lifestyle for me. The Rec Center is closed or I would have been in the pool yesterday morning too. I think Friday is going to be the first day this week I'll be able to make it to the pool. :(

We have rescued a kitten and named him Merlin. He's about 5 to 6 weeks old and looks to be a Himalayan chocolate point cream kitten with beautiful blue eyes. His eyes were all gunky at first, but they're clearing up nicely now.

The older two no longer believe in Santa, but the youngest still does at 8 years old. I was surprised at how late Rowan (the nearly 11 year old) slept. He's normally up around 4 am on Christmas Day, but he slept until nearly 7 am today!

Kaitlyn got flip flops, a beautiful blue anklet, some chocolate coins, and some real coins from other countries (courtesy of Grandpa Santa). Rowan got a deck of cards related to Boy Scouts (stuff to help him learn and review stuff), a remote control car in Silver (license plate: Mayhem), chocolate coins, and real coins from other countries. Aidan got a remote control car in black (license plate: Phoenix), chocolate coins, and real coins from other countries. A sparse Christmas, but with only one income there isn't usually enough to spare after basic needs are mostly met each month. Rowan also got the scarf I finally finished knitting for him (Kaitlyn & Aidan got scarves last year).

We'll see what next year brings. My wish for 2008 is that John is able to get a job and work at least 30 hours a week every week so that his income can be used to 1) replace the tires on his car ($200 or so estimated cost), 2) get the car serviced (check engine light has been on for nearly a year now), 3) pay down (off) the credit cards, and 4) get savings set up for summer band camp for Kaitlyn, boy scout camp for Rowan, and swim lessons for Aidan, plus a better Christmas in terms of affordability for presents for the kids. I also want to be near my goal weight of 130 by Christmas next year. I'd love to be able to buy an iMac for the kids next Christmas and a MacBook for me.

I'd get a second job, except that as a University employee I have to get approval from my supervisor and Department/College head to work a second job. Sucks, but that's University rules. I honestly don't know if I have *time* to work a second job. I get up at 5:30 am, go to the pool, work out for 45 minutes, shower, dress for work, get to work around 7:30 - 7:45 am. Work 8 - 5. Monday nights I am Webelos II Den Leader from 6:00 - 7:00 with our three boys who are getting ready to bridge into Boy Scouts on February 16th. Tuesday nights I am "free" except for Cepheid Variable meetings at 8:30 pm. Wednesday nights Kaitlyn has Girl Scouts from 6:30 - 7:45. Thursday afternoon John takes Aidan to his Bear Cub den meetings from 3:30 - 5:00. I take off work from 3 - 5 so that I can pick up Rowan from school at 4:00 and Kaitlyn around 4:30 because she stays after on Thursdays to do extra practice on the clarinet. Friday is another free day. Then there is the weekend when I'm usually doing stuff with the kids and getting ready for the next week. We also have community service projects which are often done on the weekends for either Cub Scouts or Girl Scouts. We also have Cookie sales about to start -- January 19, 2008 at 9:00 am.

Happy Christmas to all!

Sunday, 30 September 2007

That dreaded first STALL!

So today is September 30th. I've been at the same basic weight (+/- 3 lbs) for about a week now! I KNOW I'm not snacking, I'm following the rules, I'm taking in less than 600 calories, and I'm exercising at least 30 minutes a day -- some days as much as 90 minutes -- but at least 30 minutes.

This is getting very frustrating since I know I'm doing everything "right" but my body refuses to cooperate! I just hope that by my appointment on October 10th I have broken this stall!! I really want to reach the goal set by the doctor's office of being down to 304 on their scale -- which is going to be 298 on my scale. Ten lousy pounds to go!

On a separate note, WHY can't Scouting and schools coordinate their fundraisers??? Right now I have FOUR fundraisers on-going -- Cub Scout Popcorn sale (for both boys), Girl Scout Fall Nut sales (begins October 1st), AVID Cookie Dough sales (for fundraising for AVID for my daughter), and Band fundraiser (for the Splashtown trip in the Spring for my daughter). I basically told the AVID teacher that we probably were NOT going to be selling much in the way of cookie dough because of health reasons. I've just had gastric bypass for super morbid obesity, my husband is morbidly obese, my parents have diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, my husband's family has obesity and diabetes, and my uncle has cancer. NONE of us NEED to have this in our houses. If they were selling something like meat that would feed the family healthfully, I'd gladly sell it. I sell Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts stuff to support our troop/pack, but I tend to give away the product rather than eat it. I MIGHT buy some cookie dough to make up as cookies to give to teachers, especially since Rowan is taking 10 classes -- some teachers are the same (i.e., computer and robotics are the same teacher) -- but some are very likely Muslim, so cookies would NOT be a good gift at Winter Break because of their dietary laws.

Oh well... just another way the schools are bleeding the parents dry since the legislature isn't providing adequate funding for our schools -- even with the lottery. Don't get me started on that line because it just makes my blood boil.

Time to go buy crutches for Kaitlyn. She may have broken her ankle yesterday at the Zone when she choose to go down the big inflatable slide on her feet instead of her a$$. Her ankle twisted badly and the x-ray has a shadow that they aren't sure about. Unfortunately it's in the growth plate area so they want her to keep all weight off her left foot until the radiologist can look at the x-rays on Monday. The good news (out of all of this) is that her growth plates are still open which means she can still grow taller. She's 5'2" already so she, at 12, is taller than me. I just hope she'll get to at least 5'4", though 5'6" would be very nice.