TTT

1.  Listen to your Body.  I knew something was up, but I questioned myself.  Today, I just bit the bullet and told the doctor I wanted to come in.  It was worth it to me to pay the fee even if I ended up doing nothing.  The good news is that there is no damage or anything.  The bad news is that I was WAY too tight.  When I swallowed the barium, it just sat there.  She wasn't sure how anything was getting through and I think she didn't really believe that I had eaten anything.  I had and I'm sure it would go through eventually, but it was obviously so tight that no one should be living like that.

She took out .3 cc's which for me is a ton.  I'm sure I will be back in a couple of months to get more put in to help with the awful hunger pangs I will inevitably have, but that's okay.  Right now I just feel better.

2.  I have got to start drinking more water.  During this tight time, I stopped drinking much and I have got to do better.

3.  I'm less sore today!!  I mean I'm still sore, but I don't feel like I'm going to fall apart.  Tonight I will go to Jazzercise and hopefully that will work out even more of the soreness.  The kicker will be getting myself up to go to CF tomorrow, but I NEED to do it.  If I'm going to get to my goal, I MUST do things that I don't really want to do.  Call me on it tomorrow if it doesn't happen.  :-)

4.  Shout out to Laura Belle (originator of the TTT) and her beautiful new baby girl!!

5.  My baseball boyfriend got a home run last night.  <3 

There is no Rangers game tonight, so I'm not sure exactly how I will spend the hour and half I have between getting home from Jazzercise and having to go to bed in time to get enough sleep for CrossFit.  Maybe an episode of True Blood...I'm like 6 weeks behind!!

6.  I'm going to see Book of Mormon next week and I'm SO excited!!!

7.  My FitBit tells me that I'm sleeping a little better.  Instead of waking up 6-9 times for a total of 90 minutes, I'm only waking up 2-4 times for a total of 30-45 minutes.  Progress!

8.  My new Zulily dresses are supposed to be delivered today!  I really hope they fit.  They weren't super expensive, but I will be so super sad if they don't. 

9.  I started watching Orange is the New Black.  I like it.  It is an interesting show.  I'm only about 2 or 3 episodes in but I definitely want to continue watching.

10.  I'm reading Zealot.  It is amazing how controversial it is.  People get very riled up.  I have found it to be a very good and interesting read.

Happy almost Friday!!

Hugs!

It's a different day.

Let's start where I left of yesterday.  I was frustrated.  I felt disgusting and was just unhappy.  I started feeling sorry for myself (which is not something I like to let happen).  I skipped my afternoon workout and went home to wallow in my patheticness.  Lovely, eh?

When I got home, I decided to try on some old jeans to figure out how much work I had ahead of myself in order to get in them.  Not my "skinny" jeans I wore when I was at my lowest, but my "regular" jeans.  GAP 14s, and bigger size 12s like Cato, Bandolino & Gloria Vanderbilt.  I was shocked.  SHOCKED, I say.  All of the 12s fit great!  The GAP 14s were snug, but doable. 

Because of my blog and my weight tracking log, I know that on November 4, 2010 I weighed 3 pounds less than I do now.  My blog was all about how I was just able to fit into Cato size 14s.  Now...my Cato 14s are my fat pants and I have been wearing them even as I have lost the last 10 pounds or so.  What that tells me is that my body at this weight with CrossFit is a little different from my body at this weight before I started muscle training.  It was a nice reminder that the scale isn't the end all be all.  I know that, but I don't always remember. 

Since I didn't work out last night, it was important for me to get up for CrossFit this morning and I'm glad I did.  I have really enjoyed the workouts this week!  Here is today:

Warm up - easy today.  400m run, 25 jumping jacks, some windmills and other similar stretches, lunges, 5 inch worms. 

A.  10:00 OTM (on the minute) 1 Clean - 1 Front Squat - 1 Jerk.  A clean is a lift of the barbell from the floor to shoulders while squatting.  Then once you are standing, you do another squat.  Then reset and push the barbell over your head with a little pop.  I used 85#.

B.  We did 5 sets of 8 of these rows that I can't remember what they are called.  You bend over so your knees are bent and your chest is parallel with the floor.  You lift the barbell from the floor to your chest and back down.  I used 65#.

C.  20-15-10 Deadlifts (85#) & Wall Balls (14#).  This is where things got super awesome for me.  I paired up with a really nice girl that I have seen before, but didn't know well.  She went first and finished in 4:58.  I went next and for something that sounded kind of easy (and started out easy), by the 15th wall ball, I realized that it was not going to end easy.  As I started the last round, I heard her yell "you are even going to beat me!"  Now, know that she wasn't being mean at all.  She was being supportive and was just kind of shocked.  I was too!  I finished in 4:38!!!  It made my day!

I am beyond sore.  I can't imagine how I will feel tomorrow.  I'm planning to go to Jazzercise tonight and I'm hoping that will help work out the kinks.  I plan to go to Jazzercise tomorrow night and then CrossFit on Friday morning.  With Jazzercise, that puts me at 8 workouts for the week.  Perfect!

Hugs!

Blah, blah, blah...dead horse.

Weekly Weigh In
Loss for the week:  1.8 gain
Total Challenge Loss:  8.8
Total Left to Lose:  31.2

I think I skipped posting yesterday because I didn't want to post that.  Last week, I only worked out 4 times.  In addition, I was not feeling well and so I didn't eat well.  I know that in order to lose weight I have to diligently watch what I eat (at LEAST M-F) and work out 6+ times per week.  So, it is no big shock that I had a gain, but it sure is frustrating.

I was talking to a friend at CF and we were sharing out frustration with how difficult it is for us to lose weight.  There we are, consistently at CF and maintaining a super focus on what we eat, and yet we just tread water when it comes to weight.  Blah, blah, blah...dead horse.  It's frustrating, but I have to deal with it or be fat. 

I have been having trouble with my stomach for about a week.  I got really sick after dinner last Tuesday and it seemed to do something with my band.  I spoke with my doctor's office and they told me to go on acid reflux medication and use strict band rules when eating and see what happens.  The hope being that it fixes itself and I wouldn't need an unfill.  So yesterday, I was the perfect little bandster and no acid reflux.

I only had some cheese and coffee for breakfast.  Small bites, chew, chew, chew.  Lunch, I had 1/2 of a large cup of tortilla soup.  Small bite, chew, chew, chew, swallow, spoon down, wait 30 seconds (ish), repeat.  I only got through 1/2 the cup but I was satisfied and my band wasn't yelling at me.  I did the same thing with the rest of the cup in the afternoon.  I had some soup and some mac and cheese (that I was annoyed with myself for eating, but whatever) and the day ended with me in a perfect calorie zone. 

It's obvious that I had 100% forgot how to eat like a person with a functioning lap band.  My hope is that I will continue this and be able to drop the medication (once the swelling subsides) and use this to aid my weightloss.  I will still have to work out like a crazy person because that's how things go.  But if I can actually get this done, I know it would make me very happy.  I have 3 weeks left in this month of my Challenge and while I'm currently up one pound, there is no reason why I can't turn that around for a successful loss.

I went to CrossFit yesterday for the first time in almost 2 weeks.  It went REALLY well, but I was so sore this morning.  I made myself go again today even though I had an eye doctor appointment and could have slept in.  YAY me!  It was another really good day.  I'm proving to myself that I am a highly muscled person under all this pesky fat.  :-)

Hugs!

Ten Things Thursday

1.  I'm feeling SO much better today!  I really have no idea if I had a little food poisoning or if it was the mother of all stuck episodes, but whatever it is...it is over.  Thank goodness!! 

2.  Zulily is from the devil.  I don't look at the daily emails, but if I visit the site, inevitably I will buy something.  Must stop that. 

3.  I can tell I'm starting to feel better about my body because that's when I want to buy new clothes.  That's a good thing, but I need to knock it off.  Not the feeling good...the buying.

4.  Plane tickets are so ridiculously expensive right now.  It should NOT cost $550 to fly to visit my parents in Florida.  That is crazy.  I will probably have to fly a discount airline which is fine, but then it doesn't help me gather miles for my Olympic trip. 

5.  My Rangers won again last night.  They are doing well!  I hope they aren't peaking too early.

6.  Today is a holy day of obligation for the Catholic church.  I made a promise to myself that I would attend mass on the holy days this year, so I'm going at lunch.  I don't talk about it much, but I love going to church and I always feel better after I go. Mostly I only go on Sundays, but I do like these random weekdays sometimes.  It is some peace in the middle of chaos.

7.  That made me think about the actual holy day.  It is the Assumption of Mary.  We celebrate Mary's ascension into heaven upon her death.  Several years ago, I went to Ephesus and visited the house that is said to have been where Mary lived her last years.  I have a picture on my office wall that I took of a beautiful tree with pink flowers growing on it.  It was taken at that house and it brings back great memories of that trip.  I hope I get to return to Turkey someday.  It was one of my favorite places that I have visited.

8.  Now I'm thinking about travel.  Heh.  Why don't I have a billion dollars?

9.  I don't have a lot of plans this weekend, so that is nice.  I am planning to go see my friend Debi for lunch on Saturday which will be super fun! 

10.  I haven't been sleeping well for a while.  I'm afraid my sleep apnea is back.  That makes me just want to work that much harder.  I would really like to get back to peaceful sleeping.  It will happen.

Hugs!

What day is it??

I love Wednesday simply because I love the camel commercial.  :-)

Last night was our August Interesting Dinner.  As many of you know, I get together with the girls once a month and we go somewhere for dinner.  It started in late 2004 (YES...almost 9 years ago) with a group of four.  People have come and gone, but the group still gets together and it is so much fun.  This month was ShareBear's time to pick.  It is restaurant week in Dallas, which is a charity event where restaurants offer up a special 3 course menu for $35 and a portion goes to charity.  We went to Y.O. Ranch Steakhouse.

The food was delicious and the company was stellar.  I will say that I must have gotten something bad or had an allergic reaction to something because I got quite sick on the way home.  I'm still feeling slightly puny, so I'm not sure what's up with that.  I'm feeling a little better though.

Today is my only workout twofer for the week.  I was going to get up early and come workout before work tomorrow, but I think I'm going to catch up on my sleep.  Vacation really wore me out!!  I will get back to the craziness next week.  I still plan to Jazzercise tomorrow and Saturday and workout in some capacity TBD on Friday.  Even with vacation, I ended up losing 1.6 pounds last week, so this week might just be all about maintaining. 

Hugs!