Friday Weigh In - 7 month update and a HUGE milestone

Happy holiday Friday everyone! I knew that going out to a meeting at 11am on a holiday Friday was a bad idea! There was a car fire that shut down the interstate (of course) and it meant making it no where near my noon class with my trainer.  I was SO stressed out about it but once I decided not drive Dukes of Hazzard style to try to get there on time, I calmed down a little bit. Luckily I already planned on yoga this evening and that will be enough. Whew. What a day already!

Now for the good news. I have lost ONE HUNDRED POUNDS!!!!! I can hardly believe it happened so fast. I feel ridiculously awesome.

Jan 14 - Start of liquid diet - 250
Jan 29 - Surgery weight - 237 -13
Feb 8 - 231 -6
Feb 15 - 222 -9
Feb 22 - 220  -2
Mar 1 - 218  -2
Mar 8 - 216  -2
Mar 15 - 213 -3
Mar 22 - 209 -4
Mar 28 - 208 -1
Apr 5 - 206 -2
Apr 12 - 199 -7
Apr 26 - 196 -3
May 3 - 193 -3 
May 10 - 190 -3
May 17 - 187 -3
May 24 - 186 -1
May 31 - 184 -2
June 7 - 177 -7  
June 14 - 177 -0   
June 21 - 175 -2
June 28 - 171 -4
July 5 - 167 -4
July 12 - 167 -0
July 22 - 165 -2
July 26 - 159 -6
Aug 2 - 158 -1
Aug 9  - 157 -1
Aug 23 - 154 -3
Aug 30 - 150 -4
100 pounds total!

Inches for August
Waist: - 2"
Chest: - .5"
Hips: - 1.75"
Thigh:  R - 0"
Arm: R - 0"
Calf: R - 0"
4.25" for this month

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

 Last time I lost 100 pounds, it stopped there. I just gained it all back starting the day of my 100 pound party. That's not going to happen this time. I know what I need to do and I'm just going to keep doing it. I'm lucky to have had my surgery as a tool - I still fill up on 3 ounces of food and I couldn't be happier about it!

People have started asking me how much more I want to lose. My goal on paper with the surgeons office is 125. My surgeon said not to be surprised if I get lower than that. My frame is so much smaller than any of us could have imagined so it will be interesting to see what my body decides to do!

I'm looking forward to running over the weekend - I have a long run planned for Saturday then Monday I have a 10k! I love races on holidays - you get it done early in the morning then you feel righteous all day and can enjoy a few treats. This is a qualifying race for the Peachtree next year so I'm hoping to get a great time to submit which equals an earlier start time for 4th of July. I'm even more excited to be so excited about my running plans!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Monday mix tape

 

Another great weekend gone by quickly! Now that I love my job, it's not so bad when Monday comes around anymore!

Saturday started with a little trepidation - I had made up my mind I was going to do 8 miles and I was going to stick to that regardless of the red wine I drank the night before. I was a little nervous about it because I was leaving the comfort of my neighborhood to run the new Atlanta Beltline which will eventually circle the city. Right now they have a 2 mile part of it paved that's absolutely gorgeous! I just couldn't face 8 miles running in circles in my neighborhood. Time to break out of my comfort zone! 

I got there about 8:15am just as it was starting to get a bit crowded but I enjoyed it so much, I just stayed on it instead of running the park like I had planned. One hour and forty minutes later:

 

I earned 4 badges on my Nike + running app. I love breaking my own records! The fact that I can do this is still unbelievable to me. I wonder if that's ever going to go away? I do feel like my running anxiety has calmed down a lot - it was mostly panicky feelings of "I can't do this" and now that I really know I can, I can talk myself out of that pretty quick.

If running 8 miles doesn't make me a badass, a few hours later I put together an Ikea dresser by myself in under 2 hours. Oh, and then we went to see our local soccer team play. Quite the full day!

Sunday was a GORGEOUS day and I treated myself to my absolute favorite brunch spot with my girls. That's a Manmosa I'm drinking. OJ, champagne and mandarin vodka. In case you are wondering, I log that drink at 300 calories which makes it an occasional treat.

shout out to Anna!

The afternoon was spent beginning the next and hugely important chapter of my life. 

My first renovation. 

What started as a simple siding project has turned into structural issues and has now evolved into an 8' x 18' addition to my kitchen and dining room. It's a huge job but I trust my brother-in-law contractor and he is kind enough to do it in stages so we don't have to pay for it all at once. It's going to be long and it's going to be expensive and I've just made up my my mind that I'm going to suck it up and make the most of the mess while I work my butt off to pay for it. It will be worth it in the end. I'm hoping it's not more than a year.

Today I woke up tired after not sleeping much - too much thinking about the tens of thousands of dollars I need to make while the back of my house is being ripped off! The weather was absolutely gorgeous - crisp and cool and almost like fall! I knew it was going to be a great morning for a run. I set out to do a 5k and because my body and weather were all cooperating, I kept going and did 5 miles. My quads and calves are pretty tight but I think I can build up to that being my "regular run" distance. I burn about 500 calories doing that distance (for now anyway!) which is my daily goal. I didn't realize how much harder it would be to burn calories now that I'm in better shape!

Time to get back to work and pay for all this craziness. I'll be back on Friday for the weigh in -  7 MONTH UPDATE with pictures!

Have a happy, healthy week everyone!

Friday weigh in!

Happy Friday!! Well I'm (mostly) back to my normal routine - jet lag made me a little nutty early in the week and my eating schedule was WAY off. I felt hungry all week but today that seems to have gone away! I ate a lot of fish this week and protein really helps me stay satisfied.

I've already run 11 miles this week and planning my first 8 miler tomorrow. I've got 14 weeks until the half marathon and that puts me well ahead of the training program. My plan is to do enough training to really be able to enjoy the race and not suffer through it :)

I worked hard for my loss this week. My arms were were so sore from training with Karen that I had a hard time running when I first set out this morning! I even took a day off yesterday which is rare for me! So let's get to the numbers

Jan 14 - Start of liquid diet - 250
Jan 29 - Surgery weight - 237 -13
Feb 8 - 231 -6
Feb 15 - 222 -9
Feb 22 - 220  -2
Mar 1 - 218  -2
Mar 8 - 216  -2
Mar 15 - 213 -3
Mar 22 - 209 -4
Mar 28 - 208 -1
Apr 5 - 206 -2
Apr 12 - 199 -7
Apr 26 - 196 -3
May 3 - 193 -3 
May 10 - 190 -3
May 17 - 187 -3
May 24 - 186 -1
May 31 - 184 -2
June 7 - 177 -7  
June 14 - 177 -0   
June 21 - 175 -2
June 28 - 171 -4
July 5 - 167 -4
July 12 - 167 -0
July 22 - 165 -2
July 26 - 159 -6
Aug 2 - 158 -1
Aug 9  - 157 -1
Aug 23 - 154 -3
96 pounds total!

4 more pounds until 100! I'm secretly hoping that happens by next weigh in but I'm not going to go crazy. As some of you know, I lost 100 pounds once before and this time I know for certain I will never gain it back. More on that when we get to it :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Monday mix tape - Edinburgh edition!

 

Hey y'all I'm back in America after a fantastic trip! I took a ton of pictures so I'm just going to share those instead of blah blah blah-ing about it!

The Edinburgh festival and the Fringe were in full swing. The worlds largest arts festival lived up to its name for sure! We got to see a few shows and lots of interesting street performances!

In the middle of it all

show flyers everywhere

I drank A LOT of beer. 

Husband whole pint and my half pint

And I ate A LOT of food

Curry!!!!!

Fish and Chips!!!

Prawns in North Berwick that were swimming just hours before eating

Sticky Toffee Pudding. I have never had this before and I have no idea why. Absolutely divine!

I ran almost every day along the beautiful sea front. These were the best runs I've ever had. Nothing like the North Sea air in your lungs!

My daily route with complete with lots of dogs!

Time for a new shirt. I look like I'm wearing my dads!

More daily running views

I made a new best friend who is the biggest cat I've ever met!

 Saw some Football

 

Big rivalry game and it was not a good result!

We thoroughly enjoyed the unusually GORGEOUS weather

Gorgeous views always

The bridge in Musselburgh

Princes Street Gardens

Happy Tait's on the bus!

So that's about it! I'm tired and happy to be home but sad to leave at the same time. I've never enjoyed that city as much as I did this trip. People joke about it being designed by M.C. Escher - up hill no matter which way you go - and it's true. Some of the stairs are so tall that they don't even look real. Last time we were there I almost had a heart attack (seriously). This time, I ran every stair in that city, flew up the hills without ever being out of breath and most of all, felt freedom to do ANYTHING.

As I was curled up in my plane seat on the way home I couldn't believe there was ever a time I was on the verge of not fitting in it. There was no panic when the food came and I had to put my tray table down or when it was time to go get up and go to the bathroom. People who have never been fat have NO IDEA how hard it is on a plane. I will never ever have to worry about it again and that makes me so happy I could cry.
 
I did lose a pound while I was away but brought back some sugar cravings. A few days away from drinking and replacing fish and chips with healthy food will help!  I will weigh in again on Friday - we're coming up on the 100 pounds lost mark which I hope to hit in the next couple of weeks. I ran an hour this morning which turned out to be 4.56 miles - I think that's a great start considering I can barely keep my eyes open! :)

Have a happy, healthy week everyone!

Friday weigh in

Happy Friday! I'm so happy this day is finally here because we're off to Scotland for a week! (disclaimer: if you plan to rob my house you'll have to get past about 150 pounds of ghetto street dog and my ninja street fighter dog sitter so just don't do it! Not worth it.)

My husband goes to visit his family once a year or so but I haven't been in 5 years and I'm really looking forward to being almost 100 pounds thinner than I was last time. My clothes take up so much less room in my suitcase and gone is the anxiety about cramming myself on the plane. THAT is freedom people.

Depending on our WiFi situation, I may be able to squeeze in a blog post but don't be disappointed if you don't hear from me :) I won't be able to do my weigh in either but will catch up when I'm back. For now, here is this weeks weigh in!

Jan 14 - Start of liquid diet - 250
Jan 29 - Surgery weight - 237 -13
Feb 8 - 231 -6
Feb 15 - 222 -9
Feb 22 - 220  -2
Mar 1 - 218  -2
Mar 8 - 216  -2
Mar 15 - 213 -3
Mar 22 - 209 -4
Mar 28 - 208 -1
Apr 5 - 206 -2
Apr 12 - 199 -7
Apr 26 - 196 -3
May 3 - 193 -3 
May 10 - 190 -3
May 17 - 187 -3
May 24 - 186 -1
May 31 - 184 -2
June 7 - 177 -7  
June 14 - 177 -0   
June 21 - 175 -2
June 28 - 171 -4
July 5 - 167 -4
July 12 - 167 -0
July 22 - 165 -2
July 26 - 159 -6
Aug 2 - 158 -1
Aug 9  - 157 -1
93 pounds total!


Crawling along again in the weight loss department but it truly doesn't affect me anymore. I've stopped obsessing which I never thought was possible. Again, freedom! I will be looking forward to hitting my hundred pound mark - AFTER the trip :)

Have a great weekend everyone. I look forward to catching up when I get back!

Monday mix tape

 

Another weekend gone by in a blur! 

Friday I had a friend in town and cooked a big dinner for my peeps (seafood paella!) I love cooking for people and it's so much easier to pay attention to what I'm eating when I control what's in it. 

making guacamole!

I also became an official Atlanta Track Club member!  I never thought I would be a member of such a thing but by now I finally feel like a "real runner"!

Imagine my surprise when I checked Facebook and saw this! Y'all know how much I love lululemon and now I feel even better about spending all my money there. I just had to go buy size 8s. I guess it's a good problem to have but shrinking out of expensive pants hurts :)

Saturday, even though I partied a bit late on Friday, I got up and did this!

Never in a million bazillion years would I have thought I could do this without feeling like I was going to die but I enjoyed every minute of it! I only stopped once to cross at a crosswalk and once to fill my bottle at a water fountain. I was unstoppable. I'm going to gradually increase my Saturday long runs and weekday runs (mostly) following the official training schedule I have for the half. Right now I'm really feeling like I can do 13 miles and possibly even enjoy it! :)

Sunday my quads were super sore despite all the stretching so I took the day off even though I really wanted to go to yoga. I just couldn't face 90 minutes of shaking legs. Sometimes you just have to stop for a day to recover. It's hard for me not to put any exercise in My Fitness Pal!! (I'm ridiculously accountable to that thing!)

So that's it! Have a happy, healthy week everyone!!

Friday weigh in - six month update!

It's taken all day to be able to sit for a second and write this post so it's going to be brief.

Here are the stats for July:
Jan 14 - Start of liquid diet - 250
Jan 29 - Surgery weight - 237 -13
Feb 8 - 231 -6
Feb 15 - 222 -9
Feb 22 - 220  -2
Mar 1 - 218  -2
Mar 8 - 216  -2
Mar 15 - 213 -3
Mar 22 - 209 -4
Mar 28 - 208 -1
Apr 5 - 206 -2
Apr 12 - 199 -7
Apr 26 - 196 -3
May 3 - 193 -3 
May 10 - 190 -3
May 17 - 187 -3
May 24 - 186 -1
May 31 - 184 -2
June 7 - 177 -7  
June 14 - 177 -0   
June 21 - 175 -2
June 28 - 171 -4
July 5 - 167 -4
July 12 - 167 -0
July 22 - 165 -2
July 26 - 159 -6
Aug 2 - 158 -1
92 pounds total!


Starting BMI = 48
One month post surgery BMI = 42.6!! - 5.4
Two month post surgery BMI= 40.6 -2.0
Three month post surgery BMI= 38.3 -2.3
Four month post surgery BMI= 35.9 -2.4
Five month post surgery BMI= 33.2 -2.7 
Six month post surgery BMI= 30.9 -2.3

Inches for July
Waist: - .5"
Chest: - 2.25"
Hips: - .1.5"
Thigh:  R - 1"
Arm: R - .5"
Calf: R - 3.25"
9" for this month
52 total inches!

So all in all a super successful month! I'm amazed at the difference almost every day. I have shoulders and knees and hip bones and all kinds of good things. I can cross my legs. I can do every yoga pose. A 5k is an easy run. I'm not thrilled with how my skin is looking on my arms and my stomach but I knew that was going to be an issues and I will wait and see and hope it catches up a bit.

I have a lot more to say but I'm pressed for time tonight so I will save it for the Monday mix tape.