Finally!

So as I said in the previous two posts..It has been a crazy week. The Winter term ended and I had a load of grading to do plus take a final in the statistics class David and I were taking together. On top of that I went to an orientation for my new job and was offered another course to teach. I am planning to talk to my current boss and cut back to part time with her (with specific job description) and spend more time building up a job that does not involve the commute I have been putting in.

On the band front and also this week,I had another foiled fill appointment but this time with my surgeon. Over the weekend i tightened up again (pre-fill jitters or something else I do not know). When I went in on Tuesday I was too tight for a fill. I told him that I hated to cancel appointments because it was too hard to get those appointments. He said he was sorry but we talked about a lot of stuff that made the appointment totally worth it.

I asked him what I should think about for a goal weight. and he said..you are done then. He said that with the amount of weight I have already lost I have reached 99% of the health benefits I could achieve by my weight loss. Any more weight that I lose is providing me with minimal health improvement. He really said..I was done...

It is kind of a gift really. I can keep this idea that I need to be skinny or that I need to get to what I weighed in high school or smaller than high school or size 10 or 12 sized clothes (not since elementary school). I watch friends and other people who beat their heads against a brick wall trying to reach a 'goal' that is never quite realized...missing 5 or 10 pounds and spending inordinate amounts of time 'trying' to get there and not enjoying the path already covered.

As a result I have done some brain revising of my goals. I started this weight loss journey thing so I could be healthier, be more active and have more energy. I have achieved those. So..I am done. I have reached the goals that I set for myself and I am now working to shift my brain from weight loss mode to a new one-Fitness. I am not going to start eating crap again. I am not going to 'go off' this diet but what I am going to do is now shift my main focus to getting ready for the half-century bike ride I am going to ride in August.

Toward that end last weekend we bought two bikes-one for David and one for Grace. I did a bunch of riding and we all did one ride with Grace on her old bike (the new one needs some components to make it safe for her to ride). I have been shopping for a better road bike so that I can start putting miles on the bike that I will ultimately use for the long ride. I am also busily investigating how I can either get my bike with me in June to the UK or rent one while I am there. If anyone knows anyone with a bike shop or bike rentals drop me a message. We will be staying near Cardiff, Wales and I have emailed a shop there but so far they have not replied. By June I will need to be putting some serious miles on the bike each week in order to be ready.

Now here is the really crazy good part of all of this. The biking, the blip of tightness, my TOM, and my brain shift has created a perfect storm of weight loss and I am now moving down the scale again. I have dropped a steady .2 pounds every day for the past 5 days. I clicked to a whole pound two days ago and today I am at 196.2 and perhaps click down to 195 tomorrow. Cool...I have room for more weight loss so I will take what comes gratefully.

Since I did not include my food on Thursday I will give you today:

Breakfast-one tall skim peppermint mocha (starbucks)
Lunch-1 home made salmon patty (we used one garlic clove instead of the powder and 1/2 cup crushed crackers plus 1/3 cup panko crumbs) served with 1 teaspoon tarter sauce
Snack-1 small slice of light apple cake (my neighbor brought it over and said it was 246 cal. per slice)
Dinner-2 oz (1 each of dill havarti, cheddar) 1 teaspoon apricot jam and 4 whole wheat crackers.
Night time hungrys...
2 short bread cookies
2 cups of 96% fat free popcorn (when i have serious munchies I eat this..It makes me feel like the old days when I could eat a lot).
vodka and Orange later tonight.

Now the the seasonal photos-I am going to move them onto the right side of the blog so I can keep adding as they come in and give them the sunshine award they deserve. Leave me a message or email me and let me know if you have one for me to come pick up. I have them from 4 people so far I think....Look to the left to see them!!

Finally and update on my new years resolutions as I have totally lapsed on the page I made for that purpose-

Family fitness: Well we are still progressing. We hardly ever eat out. We cook. we choose healthier foods but I am still the only one losing weight. This latest move to bikes will help hope.

Budget: Still going strong on that one. Bills are getting paid off, we pull out a minimal amount of cash every two weeks and live off of it. Working well and best of all everyone is on board with the plan. The bikes are the result of the savings and a work bonus.

Craft: I have the body of my sweater knitted. I am working on the first sleeve. There is half a sleeve, a second one and trim around the neckline to complete. For my birthday David and Grace bought me an emergency knitting bag. It is quite cute really just like a first aide kit but you put in a small knitting project. He also gave me a gift certificate that I used to buy a pattern, yarn and needles to make a pair of socks. I started them.

Time: Probably the least successful goal but even then still making progress. I turned off my computer while I worked on my stats final yesterday and really noticed how much easier it was to concentrate without distractions. I am again renewing my goal to play when I am playing and work when it is time to work. To that end I was working last week and stayed away from facebook and the blogs until I was done with the days work (the problem is I had more than one days work everyday). I have been spending family time too-biking and such. I am hoping the new job fronts will help not hurt on this goal.