Happy Happy Joy Joy

Good news folks if you have checked out "The Final Countdown" gadget on the right hand side column you are noticing the trend of the pounds is down down down! Yesssssss! Sweet success, sweet victory! I stepped up the pushing back from the table, taking smaller portions and voila success! Even though my back and my schedule has kept me out of the gym I am still losing weight! Thank the dear Lord! It is so exciting to see a different (and not higher) number on the scale pop up.
I am hoping that today I will be able to make it to the gym, I have already had a gzzzrrrrt (see previous post) today while picking up orange juice container off the counter. Freakin' orange juice people! I had to shout "Get behind me devil! I will not let you stop me!" I swear good ol' pointy head is trying his level best to get me to retire to bed and wallow in self pity. I will not go quietly into the night, I will continue to fight the good fight here folks!
I am still reeling from realizing that I am down 58 freakin' pounds! It is just blowing my mind. This on the heels of a fantabulous SuperPucky announcement.
I......


am...


going....


back....


to...


DISNEY!
:::doin' the SuperPucky Shuffle!:::::
Yes, yes ladies and germs I am going back during the holidays too! I will get to see Disney World in all it's Christmas finery! I am sooo super excited. While I will miss the SuperWeezie it will be very Romanticle to be just the SuperFuzband and I! One of the other cool things is that Space Mountain will be reopening shortly before we go! Each time I have gone to Disney it has been closed or I didn't get to go on it for one reason or another, this time I am sooo on it doggone it!
The Hall of Presidents has been revamped and will be open too which will be tres cool! I have to admit it is one of my favorite exhibits, it makes you proud to be an American.
I got a "bounce back" deal which is a super spectacular offer for folks who have recently gone. I am going for five days four nights to a "value" resort (a lower priced Disney resort which is still nicer than the flea bag express). The package included four nights at a Disney Resort, five days of park tickets, and FREE FOOD! They are running a special right now for certain times of the year you get the disney dining plan FOR FREE! What was the cost of all this spectacular fun you ask? How bout right around 850.00. The only thing I have to come up with is gas money and souveniers. We have food, lodging, and fun already covered in the one price. When they quoted the amount over the phone I almost fell over.
Oh I am so excited that I will be going back at the very least 15 to 20 pounds lighter, and if I have anything to do with it that number will be even higher. I have to step up my treadmill action so I can handle hours on end of walking. That reminds me, I need a new pedometer, my other one took a dip in the ocean. (yes I am looking at you SuperFuzband) I got to get up over 10,000 steps a day again because we averaged around 12,000 to 13,000, 15,000 being our highest.
Ah, I can almost hear "Wishes" now.

Boing Boing Boing Boing

I feel like one of those balls you could buy from the red machines at the exit of Kmart. Remember when bliss could be purchased for a mere quarter? Yes the bouncy balls that if you dropped them on the floor at Kmart your poor parents would spend the next five minutes chasing down like an epileptic monkey for fear you would begin wailing like a police siren in front of God and all the check outs.
I am soooooo close to 299 I can smell it, or taste it or...what ever! Anyways I am all giddy because I ordered some smaller new clothing from the Avenue, thanks to retailmenot.com I got 25% off of the already on sale prices and got 300.00 worth of clothing for around 155.00, HA! :::triumphantly holding confirmation sheet over head and prancing like pretty pretty pony:::
I am going to take a walk at our beautiful Riverfront park with the fuzzband today. Who would think that I would actually choose a place to exercise as a destination on a Saturday. Will wonders never cease?
Oh word to the wise shoppers out there, I have re-discovered Cheerios, the Banana Nut and Apple Spice Cheerio's rrrrOCK! Let's see, they are om nom nom nomable, low in sugar, high in fiber/grains, made with real oats (lowers the cholesterol), low calorie, and could be eaten right out of the box as a snack. Add banana to bowl of Cheerio's and small glass of oj and you have completed a balanced breakfast (just like the cheesy commercial says).
Also new dessert that won't make you feel or look like a blimp afterward. Wal-Mart brand fat free pineapple sherbet (with tid bits of pineapple-squeee!), a splash of pineapple juice in a glass with spoon and straw. I totally ripped this off of the Dole Whip at Disney World, and it tastes just like it! Oh don't forget obligatory fat free whipped cream on top to make you feel all decadent and what not. My husband and I hoovered them down with brain freeze glee. I can't wait to try this with the Orange Sherbet and Peach Sherbet with peach nectar....(drool).
Ok time to get dressed and go bounce around the park and try to drop those last few stubborn pounds so I can run down the street screaming 299, 299, 299, oh yeah and get my spa pedicure.

Ramblings from 2:24 AM from an Insomniac

Ah, me, you, laptop, and Tylenol PM. The life of an insomniac with an achy leg who has too many thoughts floating around in her head.
As I laid in bed next to my Fuzband (who was doing his level best to imitate an accordion being run over by a steam roller remixed into a 3 hour long disco song) tossing and turning I began to play snippets of my life in my brain. I have one of those brains that likes to go on 100 mph ADD tantrums when I should be sleeping.
My brain produces a mental TV show where it just shows flash backs of the previous seasons. I was zooming around my life to lame loser boyfriends, to girls you knew would be knocked up before graduation, to Amanda's most embarrassing moments, to what it was like to be smaller than I am now. After watching an hour and a half of flash backs I rolled out of bed and went in search of Tylenol PM.
One of the things I was thinking about was a sign I saw at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Appropriately placed in a toilet stall, it read "The Scoop on Poop: elephants can poop up to 300 lbs per day". I thought to myself while reading this sign, I weigh as much as elephant can poo in a day! Great.. now I am equal to a steaming pile of pachyderm excrement!!
Which reminds me of when I was smaller and I heard on TV that a heavyweight boxer weighs around 200 lbs. At the time I was 210 lbs and was horrified that I was fatter than Mike Tyson was in his glory days. I would give anything to weigh 200 right now. A whole 150 lbs less than when I started this journey. That would mean I lost a whole person off of me.
I am happy to report that I am back to my pre-vacation weight of 307 as of Saturday AM. I am happy that I did not screw up my diet too terribly and that I didn't gain. The extra weight I had acquired was water weight as I expected because TOM showed up about three days after the 308 weigh in.
In other somewhat related news I have taken myself off of Phentermine. I am tired of the constipation, worsened insomnia, anxiety, crabbiness and feeling like I was butter scraped over too much toast. Much to my delight I have not wanted to eat everything in sight and I have not returned to my bad habits. After rehabbing my back last week I am back on the Wii Fit and walking with my husband and dogs.
It is funny I was averaging around 6 to 7 miles per day at Disney and toward the end of the trip it was becoming easier. If only I could mentally visit Disney world every day and walk 7 miles I would be as big as a toothpick in no time. I thought to myself last Saturday night that if I could do 7 miles in the sun at Disney than I could handle thirty minutes in the evening at 86 degrees in SC. Sure enough after walking about 4,000 or 5,000 steps around the neighborhood felt like nothing. This was very encouraging that if properly motivated I could handle anything exercise wise that I wanted to. After dinner last night I felt a little guilty after having one big slice and one mini slice of my fathers birthday cake. So to try to alleviate some of the guilt I started up the ol' Wii and proceeded to sweat for the next thirty minutes.
Things are on the upswing which is great, if I could only fall asleep life would be even better.

Slacker Girl strikes again

Sorry for the intermission all five million readers out there.

Heh.

I have great news to share, I am now down a few more pounds to 311! Thirty nine pounds lost since October 2008. I am also a total of three dress sizes down.

Exercising and moving more everyday has been helping with strength, stamina and mobility. I have noticed very small changes that make me feel great. I can squat and bend better. I am more comfortable riding in a car. Booths at restaurants are not a source of anxiety anymore. (Those of you with big tummies and abdomens know exactly what I mean)

I have had sort of a revelation when it comes to food. I always thought you under eat then over exercise and boom you lose weight. Nope. Not so simple. I found that the days I ate the least the scale did not move. The scale would not move for days on end. Then I threw my hands up and said I have to do something. I started looking into eating more nutritious food not just less of it. I found a great website nutritiondata.com. My diet was not very well balanced. My daily requirements of nutrition were not being met. When I am eating a good balance of carbs, fruits, veggies, protein, fats (the good kind), I lose weight. I was hitting plateaus be cause I was either lacking a food group or some sort of nutrition OR I was not eating enough to sustain me.

Your body actually needs a certain amount of calories just to survive. The trick is to eat that amount of calories you need to survive. Then you burn off enough to trick your body into using it's fat cells. The side effects of not eating enough were irritability, feeling queasy, dizzy and faint.


During my plateau surfing I noticed something disturbing, (WARNING possible T.M.I .alert here) I became very irregular. From 1x a day to once every 2 days, to once every three days, then every four days. This worried me. I contacted my pharmacist and the Phentermine I am on can mess with my digestive function. She suggested milk of magnesia, bad bad idea. I have had issues with gastric reflux disease and occasionally have flare ups. Apparently milk of magnesia plus phentermine plus gastric reflux=human water wiggle. For 24 hours I became way too intimate with my bathroom decor. I saw my Dr. a few days later I saw my Dr. and I he suggested adding a fiber supplement and gave me a Rx in case that didn't work. All I can say is thank God for Benefiber. It doesn't taste or smell or turn me into a human whoopee cushion that has to stay at least 10 feet within a bathroom at all times.

So since the nutrition revelation and the correction of "movement" problems I have gone down a few more pounds. Hooray for success!

It's Monday, where did that motivation get to?

Mondays, the beginning of the week, the beginning of the diet. The beginning of many resolutions. Stop smoking, start recycling, start walking dogs more often, start diet, stop whining, stop cursing, start getting up on time...and on and on and on.

Why is it when Mondays get here the motivation is sometimes there with a vengeance or all the air is out of your balloon?

As I look around at the laundry list of things I need to do (which includes laundry), vacuum, dust, clean up, etc. and I just feel tired.

I know I am not alone on this one. There wouldn't be so many self help books or diet info-mercials if I weren't. When it comes right down to it you don't need any of that crap. It is just you and the power of inertia.

What is it that gets some people up and off the couch? Perhaps it is God, a pushy sibling, a prayer, a mantra, or looking at the grandma arms you have? Maybe it is love, the love you have for yourself, your family, your friends, who all want to see you succeed.

Sometimes I feel as if I have the little devil and the little angel on my shoulder's just like on the cartoons.

Devil-"Hey make some nachos and watch Hulu on line. You can clean and exercise later. Besides you had a rough weekend you deserve it right?"

Angel- "If you start now you can have all the laundry put away, the clutter picked up, and fit in a work out before dinner. Perhaps later you can take the dogs for a walk. Won't you feel so good, won't you have a sense of accomplishment?"

Devil- "You could twist your ankle, pull a muscle in your back and then you would be out for a week or two! Sit back relax, make a glass of tea you have lost a bunch of weight. Today doesn't matter. Besides you slept in so you wasted most of the day anyways."

I think I just had one of those moments on sit-coms where the screen goes all wavy. Where the character has this fantasy for five minutes and then pops right back into the script as if nothing has happened.

I do believe that my obsession with overeating and bad habits is a bit of a demon, sort of like addiction or alcoholism. Addiction will tell you anything and everything to keep you depending on it and to stay in charge.

The overeating and laziness are like one of those old couches that once you settle into it you practically need a forklift to get up. You feel like a bug on its back with all four appendages flailing helplessly.

I am thankful for this blog because it does help bring into focus the problems I have. This addiction of sorts and how warped it can cause my thinking to be.

I think I just have to yell louder than my devil and drop kick her fat ass off my shoulder.

I am going to run now, I have dogs to walk and laundry to fold.