Double Edition

My niece's birthday is over. I made her two more doll outfits that were so much more adorable than all the ones previous, but I finished them up at 7:00 in the morning the day of the party and wrapped them without taking any photos.

I also made a little blanket for my yet to be born niece out of some more Chirp! fabric and took no photos of that either. I'm awesome. But I do have a photo of my niece opening her doll and just loving it. I have a picture of her in bed with it and the memory of being asked to help change her clothes and her diaper about three dozen times in the course of the afternoon. It's nice to know my hard work is well loved.

And despite drinking the soda I have mostly quit at her party and eating three delicious cupcakes, I have managed to re-lose the 0.4 pounds I gained last week. It was a great weekend with great results!

Wednesday Weigh In

Well, I'm up almost half a pound this week at +0.4. Damn.

We did a lot of travel a few days of eating what is readily available and not having much of a workout doesn't help with weight loss. I ended up with a terrible toothache that convinced me it was time to quit soda and juice again. I had gotten hooked back on them after my surgeries when trying to swallow all of my medications with water made me gag. So I'm on day 2 now of nothing but water and milk. I have a raging headache from the lack of caffeine, but I'm still pretty motivated and hoping to see some much better numbers next time.

Wednesday Weigh In

Down a pound this week and I am totally celebrating it!

Why? Because after last week where I reported such a large gain, I was really hoping to have not gained more this week. And because this week has been stressful with a capital S. At one point I looked at my husband, gave a huge sigh and asked, "Why don't we have any chocolate in this house?"

God bless him, he said, "I've been wondering the same thing." We went to the store and bought a bunch. It wasn't any good for my diet, but it was so good for my mental health.

Wednesday Weigh In

Ugh...I didn't post last week because I was kidding myself. The number on the scale climbed and I chalked it up to, "Oh, I'm weighing myself far from my normal time of day" and blah, blah. I wanted to be accurate. Obviously it was, because today the scale says I have gained 4.8 lbs in the last two weeks. Yuck! A week of travel and eating amusement park food...I guess I was expecting a bigger number this time, just maybe not that big.

I will celebrate because this means I'm healthy, for once! And because I am still almost 15 lbs down from my starting weight, but I really need to pick up the pace and get back to business.

Wednesday Weigh In

Down another 0.6 lbs this week for a total of 19.4 lost. Next week is going to be a tough week. I'm not throwing up anymore because of my new nausea meds, but the ones I'm on now make me prone to heat stroke. I have managed a 15 minute aerobic workout on them, but I'm sort of afraid to push it further.

Wednesday Weigh In

I did actually do my weigh in yesterday, just forgot to post it here. So for anyone keeping track I am down 1.2 lbs over the last two weeks for a total of 18.8 lost.

Wednesday Weigh In

I'm only down 0.6 lbs this week! I'm celebrating that. Though I feel like I have thrown up this week more than I have in a long time. Cannot wait for all of this to be taken care of. I'm currently having a debate about my anti-nausea meds. See, the one they have me on works, and works pretty well but it costs an arm and a leg. About as much as a car payment...only weekly. There are other nausea medicines out there, but according to my doctor it will knock me out. Every time I take a dose I'll need a nap. So I'm at the point where I can take no medicine for the nausea, or I can take some, but only when someone else can be here to watch my kids. Ugh...I'm trying going without for awhile to see how I do. So far everything I've eaten has come back up, but I've only eaten once.

I decided to spend my weekend actually out of the house. To take some chances and do at least a little something with my summer. We went to the beach for the 4th, then parade and fireworks later in the week. At one point it was too much activity and I barely held off on the puking until I got home, but I did. And I didn't miss out on at least one Monday moment with my kid, even if I didn't write about it here.

Wednesday Weigh In

I had my test to see where my gall stones are yesterday. Unfortunately, my follow up appointment with an actual doctor who can go in with a scope and take care of this particular problem isn't until the end of July. Meaning my surgery won't be able to be scheduled until August. I was hoping for at least part of the summer I would get to live, but no. My life is on hold indefinitely. No trips to the beach because what if I have to throw up? No driving myself anywhere because what if I get nauseous on the freeway where I really need to be paying attention? Before all of this happened, my mother-in-law bought my husband and I two day passes to an amusement park. I have to go, someone already spent a sizeable chunk of money on it...but at the same time how can I go? Sometimes walking around makes me want to puke, how can I get on a roller coaster? Or go down a water slide?

The anti-nausea meds are helping. Now that I have been taking them awhile and know the best time of day I am hardly throwing up at all. Even so, I have still lost 2.6 lbs this week (for a total of 17). I'm obviously not feeling myself or able to eat everything in the fridge anymore...and the thought of limiting my diet to what I can get at a stand in an amusement park is scary stuff. We're really trying to figure out how we want to do this. I can't spend the whole summer vacation keeping the family tied to the house because I just might get sick, but the thought of going out somewhere that I don't have a bucket and a change of clothes immediately handy is frightening.

Another Double Edition

I'm sick again. My gall bladder really did a number on me. I thought I just wasn't taking it easy enough last week, but the days wore on and I wasn't feeling any better. I called the doctor and got on some heavy duty anti-nausea medicine, and got an appointment to see him yesterday.

Seems that the only explanation for all of my symptoms is that somehow, even without my gall bladder, I still have gall stones roaming around my body. Making me sick and jaundiced. So I'm down another 3.8 lbs this week for a total of 14.4 lbs lost. I hate how my weigh ins have become less of a way to hold me accountable to my diet and exercise and more of a way to chronicle my illness, but hopefully soon these numbers will stop being so dramatic. My test to see where the gall stones are is in a week, and hopefully my surgery will follow very shortly after that. Looking forward to finally, finally feeling better...for good this time.

Wednesday Weigh In

Not much fanfare today...I really fooled myself into thinking I was completely recovered and overdid it yesterday. Yuck. I am miserably paying the price today.

Down 2.8 lbs for a total of 10.6 lost.

Wednesday Weigh In

I hate posting this right now. Not that I haven't lost weight this week, because I have. A lot of weight. Way more than what is healthy or what I have worked for or would recommend anyone else try to lose in a week. I just want to make sure that I am posting here that losing this weight was a terrible, miserable experience. I just want to make sure no one thinks of this as me bragging.

Down 4.6 lbs.

I am hoping to have more of a challenge in the coming weeks. I can't wait to get back to my aerobics and the mood altering effects they have on me, but I will have to. Physically, I just can't.

Another physical can't...eating fatty foods. Your gall bladder processes those and I no longer have one. The other night we were out late buying my manicure kit and some medicines I needed. It was too late to go home and cook dinner, but what on earth could I eat? I ended up getting something off of the Weight Watchers menu at Applebee's. My husband looked at me funny when banging my head trying to decide between all four entrees they offer. "If that doesn't sound good, why not just go off of the 550 calorie menu?" Well, hubby, there is no saying that 550 calories can't be fattening as all hell, Weight Watchers won't be.

For the record I had the steak and portabellos. The meal is mostly broccoli and steamed potatoes. The portabellos were way meaty, I barely ate them and I'm a mushroom person. Still though, I am thankful that restaurants are trying these days. And I'm sure going to Applebee's and ordering off of the 550 calorie menu is WAY better for you than your average entree, I just can't take the risk right now.

Special double edition!

I swear this seems like laziness, but I have a really, really good excuse this time. See, last Wednesday when I posted my first ever "weigh in" and said that I hadn't actually worked out that day because I was sick? Well, I was really, really sick. I just didn't know about it yet.

Thursday I felt fine. I did two half hour sets of aerobics with a ten minute break in between where I did some nice, relaxing yoga. I felt awesome and I even convinced my husband to take me out and get me a tuna sandwich from my favorite sub place. The next day when he got home from work I threw it up, almost completely undigested. My husband ran to the pharmacy and talked to someone about my issue. We got instructions to stop all of my antacids I was taking (for what my personal doctor diagnosed as a severe stomach issue) and start taking Mylanta.

Saturday I got sick again, Sunday the whole family went to the beach. I felt okay, I drank mostly water and only ate things I had successfully kept down the night before (leftovers). As the day wore on I felt more and more pain, taking pictures of the kids only from exactly where I was sitting, not following them around the beach as I normally would.

On the way home I asked my husband to pull over the car. I managed to barely hold it together until we got to the house and then up came my breakfast. I drank an Ensure, desperate to get something in me, and confident I could keep it down after drinking two other bottles earlier in the week. Just two short hours later I threw that up too. I sat on the couch, looked at my husband and said, "At what point am I going to the hospital?" We packed up the kids and headed to the ER.

I explained to the doctors that I had barely kept anything down since Wednesday. I was kind of scoffed at and told that they would be checking my blood and urine and expecting to see some really off numbers if I were telling the truth. I didn't see another doctor for two more hours and when I finally did I was told my liver and my pancreas were both messed up, most likely because of my gall bladder. I ended up admitted for four days and having two emergency surgeries.

I definitely don't recommend it as a way to lose weight. But I am down 2.2 pounds this week for a total of 3.2.

And did I mention that my son fell off of the couch on Thursday, giving himself one hell of a black eye? That was nice. Every doctor and nurse at the hospital had to hear the story of why my kid was very obviously bruised up while they were examining me. Yikes...what a weekend.

Down a pound!

I started this blog because I had a dozen or so people after me for a place they could see everything I make. How shocked am I a year and a half (or so) later that my posts that get the most views are about my life and my family.

I'm taking that as a little bit of a hint, though the main focus of this blog will still be what I make, I've decided to let you all in on a little more of my personal journey. Starting today I'm going to be posting a weigh in every Wednesday. I won't post my actual weight (yikes! Big, big kudos to those of you who can man up to that!), but I plan to post plus or minus pounds.

I started an exercise plan a little over a week ago. I figured first things first. I am not currently dieting, but I have read many places about how much you want to watch what you eat once you realize how hard you have to work to take it off. So far, that is slightly true. I am definitely more aware and second guessing myself when I eat something unhealthy.

I have already seen vast improvements in what I am capable of, and shockingly enough I have more energy when I spend 30+ minutes sweating my buns off. I figured that out when fairly early into my plan I decided to skip a day and nurse my sore muscles. I was amazed at how terrible I felt all day. Worse than I had any day that I worked out.

Ironically I skipped today too, but only because I got sick. Nausea and bending and lifting and jumping around do not go well together. But I plan on getting right back on the horse tomorrow, and I have 72 people here to hold me to it. One pound down, 55 more to go!