The difference in 10 months...

Anytime I get frustrated with my slowing weight loss (which is on a daily basis nowadays), I try to think of the changes in my life in the past 10 months since my RNY surgery.

• No more high blood pressure
• No more sleep apnea
• Normal cholesterol
• Went from Super Morbidly Obese to Morbidly Obese to Obese - just 6 lbs from being "overweight"
• Went from size 28 or 30 jeans to size 14.. and if all my weight weren't in my ass and thighs, I'd be a 12.
• Went from a 4x top to size L
• I can ride comfortably in an airplane seat
• I can ride any rollercoaster I want
• Chairs with arms don't stay attached to my ass when I stand up anymore
• All booths are comfy
• I can cross my legs
• I get attention from the opposite sex
• People see me as an inspiration (yeah, I don't get it either!)
• I'm not the biggest girl everywhere I go anymore
• I'm more assertive... I don't hide behind my weight anymore
• I am comfortable doing any number of activities that my size would have hindered before.
• I have energy now
• I am learning more about nutrition and health than I ever thought I could know

Yes, I have a ways to go to reach my "ideal" weight. But, my journey is far from over. This is just the beginning!

Xoxo to all!

Obesity Help Convention

OOooh, I just found out today that there will be an OH Convention right here in Houston. It is November 15-16 at a hotel in SW Houston. I absolutely cannot wait to attend! At this point I will be 13 months out and struggling even more to lose weight, so this could not come at a better time for me personally. :)
I hope to see you all there! The tickets are $60, but I think that is very reasonable for a 2 day convention. The support is priceless in my opinion, and seeing SOOOO many people who have gone through the same things will be wonderful!

Monday!

Well, here we go with another lovely Monday. I wish weekends were at least 3 days long.. I would love that so much! I don't think that's too much to ask, do you?
I had a really nice weekend. Friday was my Girls Night.. We had a great time at Oklahoma! That little theater was so cute, and the cast did a great job. I look forward to going there again soon! We went to Skeeters for dinner before the play, and wowsas, their shish kabobs are soo tasty!
Saturday, I had to go to my labwork for Dr. W. I was a little late on that, but I doubt it's a big deal. TEN vials of blood... and they took it in the dark... they've never done that before! ODD! I also had to switch out my cable modem with Comcast, as mine was completely dead at home! Later in the day, my boyfriend picked me up and we drove down to Galveston. We walked along the seawall a little bit, then stopped for dinner at Luigi's on the Strand. That place is sooo good! I had lobster ravioli. Mmmm tasty! After that, we drove up to Kemah. I had never been to Kemah, and it is sooo cute! We walked around a lot and explored the place. We didn't ride the wooden roller coaster because it was closed already. I was a little bummed, but there's a reason to go again! :) I think I was still too full to ride it anyways.. may not have been pretty!
Sunday, I picked Jil up and we rode to church together. It was a great message yesterday! Then, we went to a BBQ place for lunch, and I had a sliced beef sandwich without the bread. It was quite tasty! :)
I FINALLY broke out the Wii Fit this weekend.. and let me tell you.. I am OLD! I am 50 years old.. well, 48 now after my second test. I have no sense of balance whatsoever, and it shows in my "age"! The games are fun though, and I look forward to seeing my age drop, and more importantly, seeing my balance improved. I've always known I'm a little unbalanced, but geez!
Hope everyone had a lovely weekend! :)
xoxo

Girl's Night Out!

Recently, a new tradition has been formed. Three of my closest dearest friends and I go out on a girl's night out.. the goal is at least once a month, but we try for more often. It's great company, therapeutic, and very important to me. Another great thing about it is that we are all post op, so we don't have to worry about food pushers, disagreeing with everyone on where to go eat because of the lack of healthy choices, and just general issues that we have to think about that no one else needs to give a second thought to.

Our first one was to go see the movie Sex and the City. That was tons of fun.. great movie, and great friends. We all pretty much agree that we'd be either Carrie or Charlotte.. I took the quiz online once, and I was Carrie.. lol

Next, a few weeks later, we went to The Mad Potter. It's a great place where you pick out a piece of pottery and paint it. Then, you just leave it there, and they fire it and glaze it.. and VOILA! In my case, I got a glossy little piggy bank that a 4 year old could have done better at! LOL

Tonight - we're going to see the play Oklahoma! at a little theater in west Houston. I'm looking forward to it! My visit to New York got me very interested in the theater. I already have season tickets to Broadway Across America in Austin for next year.

I love my time with my girls! :)

What happened on your birthday?

I saw this fun little game on another blog. Just look up your birthday on Wikipedia, and list 4 facts, 3 famous birthays and 3 deaths that happened on your birthday. (Don't look up the year, just the birth day).
Here's mine:
February 28
1784 - John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.
1861 - Colorado is organized as a United States territory.
1983 - The final episode of M*A*S*H is broadcast in the USA, becoming the most watched television episode in history, with 106–125 million viewers in the U.S. (estimate varies by source).
1991 - The first Gulf War ends.

Birthdays:
1970 - Daniel Handler, American writer, better known as Lemony Snicket
1976 - Ali Larter, American actress and model (Same Year as me too!)
1985 - Fefe Dobson, Canadian singer (really like a few of her songs!)

Deaths:
1525 - Cuauhtémoc, Aztec ruler
1916 - Henry James, American writer (b. 1843)
1985 - David Byron, English singer (Uriah Heep) (b. 1947)

Quite interesting, eh?

Hello, Dolly!

While it sucks that a hurricane has hit the coast of southern Texas, it sure is nice to get some rain. I'm on the 10th floor of the building where I work and have a nice view of the storms blowing through. I love when it rains sideways as long as I'm not standing or driving in it! People seem to forget how to drive when it rains.. it's ridiculous! This weather makes me want to curl up in bed, cuddle with my little Roxcee and read a good book or take a nice little nap...
But no, I'm at work! *sigh*
I have a whole lot of nothing to say.. but figured I would just say that I'm enjoying the weather and glad the grass will survive another week or two :)
Hope all is well with everyone!
xoxo

RSS Hugger

Through one of my fellow bloggers, http://greentshirt.blogspot.com/, I stumbled across a great site called RSS Hugger. It's basically a service to help you promote your blog and get more exposure. I figured it would be a great way for me to spread my wings throughout the world and share my story. Check out the site when you have a moment! http://www.rsshugger.com/. Hopefully it will be a great way to get trafffic and spread the word about weight loss surgery!

Love to you all! :)

In a Funk and Other Stuff

I've noticed that since I have had WLS, I've gone through a rainbow of emotions. Most days I am in a great mood, with a completely sunshiney positive outlook on the world that may make other people nauseated. (Hi Jil!) Other days, I feel like an insensitive jerk. Other days, I'm very moody and bitchy. It's annoying! I don't know if it's hormones, since my body is freaking out and doesn't know what to do with itself anymore.. Or maybe my fat covered up that I was always sometimes an insensitive jerky bitchy girl sometimes.. Who knows? As they say, this too, shall pass!

My mom is doing well. She has her first follow up appointment today with her surgeon. I did go fill her pain medication prescription yesterday. She was feeling bloated and it was making her feel like her incisions were going to pop. The pain medicine they sent her home with helped, so she had me fill it up. I'm glad she's doing so well. She's off all of her medications already, and her sugar and bp levels are doing great. Her bp is better than mine even! :)

I've been feeling like crap for the past few days as well. I think I was so focused on making sure my mom was ok, that I wasn't eating well (not enough) and I know I wasn't drinking enough. So, leave it to me to get dehydrated and just feel horrible overall. Also, I forgot to take my birth control pills 3 days in a row, so I started again... That always makes me get a headache! So... here we are Day 4 with a headache.

My goal rewards I set for myself were massages. I was due for another one when I got under 200 lbs that I haven't redeemed yet. Maybe it's time for that! Unfortunately, my wallet doesn't allow for that right now. Hopefully within a week or two.. I have had incredible amounts of tension lately!

Ok, this bitch session is over for now.. hehe

Love and hugs to you all!
xoxo

Update on My Mom!

My mom had her surgery today. It went without a hitch... the surgeon said she did great and to keep up the good work. She was walking around this evening like she owned the hallways... better than I did, that's for sure! When they brought her into the room out of recovery, she was smiling and joking around. HUH!? LOL She claims it's because she's old and just had a good nap. :o)
See, I come by my craziness honestly!
Anyways, she's doing well. Thirsty, but feeling great otherwise. Tomorrow she has her swallow test and then she can start the sip sip sip process that we all know and love.
Just wanted to post a quick update! :)
xoxo to you all!

Laurie

The Move Is Complete...

Well, I've been trying to play with my blog on wordpress, and I am starting to believe that wordpress is not for novices. Everything seems so much harder! So, instead of spending the time to learn how to do things, I figured I'd move my blog to a place that I understand and can easily make look how I want! :) So here I am at blogger.
I'm keeping the old one but not adding more to it... I hope this one is easier for all to navigate! It is certainly easier for me to use!
xoxo

Sparkpeople

Does anyone else out there use Sparkpeople? It’s a free site that has recipes, exercises, motivational articles, food and exercise logs, and more! If you haven’t used it before and are interested, I will forewarn you that you get lots of email. I switched off of my main email address and added a different one, just to avoid the whole influx on my main account. I do actually read the emails and find them inspiring and helpful! If you are a member, please add me as a friend! My user ID is LAURIE9797. If you haven’t looked, please use me as a referral!
Let me know what you think. Is it lacking in any areas compared to other sites? The message boards aren’t great in my opinion, but I go to Obesity Help for the message boards.
I’ve been trying to update my site and make it prettier, but I will have to do it from home. So many little things are blocked through work, so anything can add to my frustration levels!
I’m bitchy today! I got to sleep around 12:30 or so, and the quality of sleep sucked! My friend rides with me in the morning and I finally got OUT of bed, when she was on her way to my house! I took my dog out, and noticed someone had written on my windows of my car with some shaving cream or something.. WTF? I’m 32 years old, I know none of my friends do that kind of thing anymore.. Stupid Kids! LOL I washed that off, and got ready faster than ever have before! :) I am ready for a nice long nap though!
Wow, 2 blogs in 2 days.. Maybe I’ll get back into the swing of this!
xoxo to all!

Bad Blogger!

I’ve been a terrible blogger lately. I have so much running through my head ALL the time, but just haven’t put it into words for the world to see. Honestly, it’s probably a good thing. You’d be bored to tears I’m sure!Hmm, what is new with me? My mom is having her RNY this Thursday. I am so thankful that she was approved, and so hopeful that it will help make her healthier. She has had Type II Diabetes for quite some time, so long, we’re not sure how long. We found out she had it through a foot infection which turned into a partial amputation. So, being able to overcome diabetes is the primary reason she is having the surgery. That along with sleep apnea, hypertension, heart disease, you name it! I know she is in good hands both spiritually and through her surgeon! Please though, if you are a spiritual person, pray for my mom this week! I’d greatly appreciate it!
As far as my weight goes, I’m stuck again. This time, at 188.2 I believe. I weigh less than I did when I met my ex husband, which was my first personal goal. Back then I think my highest ever weight was 230 and I was on Meridia and made it down to 201.. then met him and started going out to eat, doing the whole dating thing, and ballooned up to 270 by the time we got married. Well, I got rid of the excess weight in both senses.. him, and the weight on my body, and I don’t miss either! hehe
As far as personal life goes - I’m dating a great guy, spending lots of time with my awesome friends, and just loving life in general! I put a deposit down on my mini season with the Houston Aeros, and next year I have a season ticket to Broadway Across America for Austin.. hey, the shows are better! I’ll get to see Rent, Legally Blonde, Avenue Q, Spamalot, and Wicked! Great lineup! :) The one I’m really interested in for Houston is Spring Awakening! My visit to New York made me fall in love with the theater and going to see all of these great shows! If I had more time and money in New York, I would have gone to see a show every night!
I am also going to a great church now, that I found through my boyfriend. It is a very spirit led church, and I feel at home there. So, I think my search is over for a new church!
Well, it’s almost time to leave work, so I guess I should get back to it for awhile!
Hope all is well with you!Hugs to all!Laurie