Vacation Wrap Up and Weekly Accountability

Things have been crazy busy, so buckle up!!

Let's start with Weekly Accountability:

Loss this week - 2.2 pounds
Total Loss since revision - 33.8 pounds
Total Loss from highest - 79.8 pounds

This is actually for two weeks. I lost 2.4 pounds last week and then was up .2 this week after my vacation. I'm okay with that.

So right before the holiday weekend, I got my hair cut. The plan was to be able to make it funky on the weekends but wear it more conservatively during the weekend. However, I like it WAY more funky-like so I have just been wearing it that way. My only issue is that if I'm not wearing makeup, I feel a little masculine.

 The stylist did it on the left and I wish I could recreate it better. I'm sure it will take practice. The right side is with it flat. It is okay, but a little short for my taste to wear it that way.

I spent Memorial weekend with my brother's family in Louisville. My parents went as well and we stayed in a hotel not too far away. My oldest nephew graduated and was a speaker at the ceremony. It was just fantastic! I love him so much, I just can't even say.

You can see in this picture I did my own hair. It is a little less sculpted than when the stylist did it. I'm sure I will get better at it!

My younger nephew left for camp and to say he was excited is a massive understatement. This kid LOVES camp. I think he would live outside if he could. He is going to be my world traveler someday and I love it!

 Then there is my niece.

She finally took a normal picture with me right before I left. The rest have faces or we are snapchat filter dogs. You know how it goes. She is 12 going on 25 and she rounds out my love trifecta.

I even took a picture with my brother. I can't tell you the last time we took a picture together just the two of us. He smoked pork and salmon while we were there and it was amazeballs. The guy will be ready for a grilling competition soon!

We went to Churchill Downs for the races on Saturday. It was a lot of fun!

I managed to get a workout while I was in KY too. See the difference without makeup? I'm not a fan. I just feel like I look manly. I'm sure I will get used to it.

While I was in Louisville, BFF was busy with Olympic prep. I can't believe we are leaving for Rio in 70 days!!!

And finally, I started back to CrossFit this morning after an 8 month hiatus. Today was a little lighter than normal because worldwide, Memorial day is a really tough workout. It was a good day for me to dip my toes back into the water. We did a lot of mobility work and stretching. We also worked on our front squats which was good for me. I went light, 45# which is the bar with baby weights, but I feel like my form was good.

The workout was:

21-15-9
Deadlifts (85# which was probably just right for me today.)
Box Jumps (I did step ups instead of jumps, but I did that before too. The boxes are big at this gym.)

So...I'm ready to go back tomorrow!

Hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend.

Hugs!

Key West & Weekly Accountability

Key West is beautiful!!! Before I tell you about my vacation, I want to check in for my weekly accountability:

Loss this week - .2 pounds GAIN
Total Loss since revision - 31.6 pounds
Total Loss from highest - 77.6 pounds

Since I went on a 4 day vacation, I'm not even upset about a little teenie tiny gain. I do hope I make up for it this week though!

Thursday, BFF & I headed to the airport bound for Key West. We had a connection through Miami and got in about 4pm. We met up with our friends Lili and Coco and headed to Duval Street for dinner. We went to Keyviche for dinner and had a lovely time catching up. 

Friday morning, we had breakfast and headed to the marina. It was our friends' wedding day!! We cruised around in the boat for a couple of hours. The conditions were perfect and it was just beautiful. We stopped at a beach for a while and collected shells. Then we headed to a deserted sandbar. We got off the boat and had the wedding ceremony. BFF was the witness and I was the officiant. I worked hard on the wedding script and I think my friends were both pleased. It was the perfect wedding for those two!! Not another person or boat in site. After the wedding, we played around the sandbar and then got back on the boat. Just as we were all starting to drag, we saw a big pod of dolphins. It is mating season, so they were all playing around like crazy. There were probably 10 or 12 of them and we sat and watched them for a while. It was the coolest thing!!

That night we had dinner on the beach. It was so lovely. I know that not everyone agrees with same sex marriage, but when I look at my friends Lili and Coco who have been committed to each other for almost 20 years, in my heart I only feel love. I couldn't be happier for them.

Saturday the girls went fishing, so BFF & I took a seaplane to Dry Tortugas. The plane ride was awesome (after my initial panic went away...I don't like flying.)

View of Dry Tortugas from the seaplane

 Once we got to the island, we took a quick walk around and then went snorkeling. It was the best snorkeling I have ever done!! The coral and fish were beautiful and I even swam next to a shark! It was only about 18-24 inches long, but still...A SHARK!! After about an hour, we dried off and took a walk around the old fort there.

View from a window of the fort.

Beach Hair, Don't Care!

The trip was a bit pricey, but it was worth every penny. We head back to Key West, had lunch (mmmm...shrimp & fish cakes!) and then showered. You get really dirty near the beach!

Lunch on the beach.

Then it was time for the scooter. Driving a scooter for the first time is not easy. I took it for a test drive around the block a few times and managed not to crash. Once I stopped trying to break all the time and stopped using the handlebars so much, things got a lot better.

It was bad enough with just me, but I agreed to drive BFF around and I was petrified I would crash and kill her. But it got a little better. We went to Duval Street and did some fun shopping. We had planned to take the scooter around that night, but decided that it would be too stressful so we took it back.

This totally cracked me up!

We went to Mallory Square for sunset which is apparently a thing. Hundreds of people were there along with a lot of entertainers and food vendors. After, we met up with our friends for drinks. Coco caught an 8 foot shark that day! She is a big of a badass and it was a great story. They had the pictures to prove it. The bar was out at the beach, so it was the perfect way to end the day.

Mallory Square Sunset

 Sunday morning, we met up for an outdoor breakfast and walked around a bit before the girls took us to the airport. The vacation exceeded expectations in every way and I'm sure we will go back someday.

Now it is back to work. Happily, the scale was back down today, so now I can start working on losing some more. I went to Jazzercise last night and plan to walk at lunch the next couple of days. I'm 2.8 pounds from my next mini-goal. It would be super cool if I could reach it before I head to Louisville Memorial weekend.

Hugs!

Weekend Wrap Up and Check In

Good morning!

I had a lovely weekend and I hope you all did too. I will say that I was frustrated on Friday because I was nursing a 2.5 week stall and I was getting tired of it. So I changed how I was going about things.

I know this is hard to believe, but I am a planner. (Sarcasm font, anyone?) It is how I establish control in my life. In order to keep my nutrition in line with what I should be doing, I make a plan ever Sunday and meal prep. I write down everything I eat BEFORE I eat it and check things off as I go. It helped me with hunger because I spread my calories over the day and could eat something before I got so hungry that I would make bad choices.

I think post-WLS, it is not as beneficial of a plan as it was before. I think it is possible I am eating unnecessarily sometimes. Again, this is all trial and error, I don't know. I decided to try only eating when I'm hungry. I know to normal people, that sound obvious. But for someone like me, that is just scary. I don't make good choices when I'm hungry. I overeat when I'm hungry. Blah blah blah.

Starting on Friday, I took the leap. First of all, I can't really overeat right now, so my challenge is simply to make good choices. With the exception of a drink (1!!) each weekend night, I did just that. Because I have been limiting carbs, I really am not craving them right now. I really want protein and that's mostly what I'm eating (with healthy fats.) And this morning, I'm down again. Coincidence? Time will tell.

Speaking of Friday, it was Derby weekend and my family lives in Louisville. My nephews went to the Oaks dressed in their Derby attire. How adorable are they?

I love those kids (they aren't even really kids anymore!) I'm headed up to the oldest's graduation in a few weeks. I feel old, but oh so very proud.

Friday night, BFF & I ran some errands, got pedis and had some Chinese food. Saturday we got up and went to Jazzercise. BFF taught some new type of strength class and it was awesome. I'm still sore today! Apparently she is teaching the same set tonight. Hopefully I will still be able to walk tomorrow!!

In the afternoon, we went to a Beatles tribute concert. It was hot and sunny outside, but we had a lot of fun. After church, we went for Mexican food on the patio.

I can't believe I actually like a picture that includes my bare arm. I'm definitely feeling good!

Yesterday we went to the annual fund raiser show for the theater where we have season tickets. They always do such a good job and we had a great time!

My weekly accountability:
Loss this week - 2.6 pounds
Total Loss since revision - 31.8 pounds
Total Loss from highest - 77.8 pounds

The loss was a full pound more than last week's gain so I'm back in new territory. Also, I realized that I forgot to take my monthly progress photo last week, so here it is.

Bottom line, things are going well. I just have to be patient and trust it.

Hugs!

Weekly & Monthly Check-in

BFF & I went to WinStar this weekend. We had a couple of comp nights and we saw Harry Connick Jr. while we were there. I was super unlucky day one and lost my limit quickly. But things got better on day #2. It is a nice little getaway. We got back yesterday afternoon in time for me to get my chores done.

Things were not pretty when I weighed in this morning.

My weekly accountability:
Loss this week - (1.6) pounds GAIN
Total Loss since revision - 29.2 pounds
Total Loss from highest - 75.2 pounds

Yeah, so that sucks. Fingers crossed that it is mostly water retention and will be gone tomorrow. It still was painful to see. My punishment is logging my food for the week. I hate doing that, but it will help me stay in line in case I was wavering.

Luckily, my monthly check-in happened at the same time and I have seen a drop for the month.

My monthly tracking:

Loss this month - 5.4 pounds

That isn't a ton, but what is even better is that I have lost almost 12 inches this month. Most notably in my belly (3"), hips (2") and a staggering 1.5" in my right thigh. So, good things are happening even if it isn't all showing on the scale.

I prepped all my food yesterday for a reset. I hit a snag this morning because when I got to work, someone had thrown away my egg beaters out of the fridge. Rude! So I had to be flexible. Not going to lie, my "plan B" did not turn out well. But I ate it, so whatever.

Breakfast - the plan was for a Sriracha Beef Egg Mug. Egg beaters with ground beef, frozen veggies, swiss laughing cow and some sriracha. Instead, I had ground beef, veggies and cottage cheese. Again, it was not great, but it was nutritious. I will stop and get some egg beaters after work for tomorrow.

Lunch - I made paprika chicken last night. I mixed 2T of paprika with 1t of minced dried onion and 1t of kosher salt. I used it as a dry rub for some chicken thighs. Once they cooked, I used the drippings and mixed with some sour cream for a little gravy. It was pretty tasty. Today I'm having one leftover thigh with a 1/2 individual can of peas and 1T gravy.

Snack - Greek yogurt or lunch meat rollup depending on my mood.

Dinner - Tonight I'm having a pseudo-shepherd's pie. I browned some ground beef with onions. I'm going to mix that with some peas and a little bit of mashed potatoes.

I'm planning to Jazzercise tonight. That should get my body back on track and I think I will feel much better tomorrow!

Hugs!