Holy Mackerel I Can Actually Skip the Coffee Frapp!

I am one week into my little anti-coffee stop campaign and two weeks into the walking one.   To be quite frank I am doing better on the coffee campaign then the walking one.

Two weeks walking-two four mile walks and 4 one-ish mile walks.  This probably only compensates for the lack of short walks to Starbucks twice a day.  Instead I have only had three Starbucks sponsored Peppermint Mocha Frapp in the last week and each was just one..two I can blame on my enabler husband this weekend who delivered them to me :).

I really like my newly self-made Chai latte frapp.  that I make at home.  The benefit to this is drastically reduced sugar (none), higher protein, more calcium and yumminess.  The recipe:

3//4 cup milk
1/2 cup cold chai tea (the unsweetened kind made from Oregon Chai Tea bags.  I put two-three in my mug in the morning with 1 cup boiling water.  I pour half into another cup and cool it with ice and then leave the tea bags in the mug and put it in the fridge for later.
1 1/2 cups crushed ice
1-2 Tablespoons of Vanilla whey protein powder ( I like muscle milk brand from costco).
I put this all into my Magic Bullet and whir it up.

I get a big old mug full (the big one from the Magic Bullet..it is almost as yummy as the one from my new favorite coffee shop.

The scale-Stuck hard between 179 and 180.  sigh...

xxxooo

One Day Without Starbucks.

I found A yummy coffee shop near Graces new School. (I know gets your chins off the floor)..Close your mouth..Yes Indeed Changes.  At this coffee shop they have a wondrous Blended Chai Latte.  I know Starbucks has them but I figured this would be a good time to disentangle myself from the naughtiness that is Starbucks.  I figure as long as I never get that drink at Starbucks I will be able to make them at home and drink one at this special but too far away for a daily habit coffee shop.

So this morning I got up and went to the grocery store to get supplies.  Milk, chai tea bags (these just have the tea and spices with no extra junk).  While there I picked up a loaf of bread and some lunch meat.  I then came home and steeped two bags of my new tea in 1 c up boiling water.  Then using my Magic Bullet I whipped up my own blended chai latte.

1 c crushed ice
1 c milk
1/2 c chai cooled down with some ice tossed on after it was dark enough.
1/2 scoop of vanilla whey protein powder (this is the sweetener part).

It was VERY good.  It has more milk than the Starbucks peppermint mochas I normally drink and therefore more protein, calcium, vitamin D etc.  The protein powder is sweet but sugar free so I cut WAY down on my sugar intake.  The protein powder means I had a much higher protein breakfast. and finally the calories went way down.

Oh..and did I mention saving money?  I am hoping for a vacation round about Christmas time and the money saving would help that.

wahhoooo ;)

Who Knew!

So guess freaking what...(picture me hitting my forehead with my hand right now).  Changing just one thing is the BEST strategy on the Flipping planet..and it was equally good when I came up with it..oh 4 freaking years ago.  Now what the heck happened between last year and this year when I totally forgot the plot is unknown.  Apparently I have been suffering from some sort of idiocy induced amnesia!!!

Guess what?  When you do ONE thing to change what you have been doing it is DOABLE.  picture me knocking my head against some door jam somewhere (now perhaps this is why I forgot my mantra last year but hey..maybe if I knock my head against door jams enough times I will lodge the stupid idea into my brain permanently .  Today I rolled my sorry arse out of bed at 8am.  I purchases a small coffee (yes still have that habit and didn't change it -except for the smaller size).  I then rolled past the house at 9am with Cinda (Daughter number 3).  We walked the 4 mile loop around my new FLAT neighborhood.  I arrived back just in time to change my clothes and open the door of the store.

and Lo and behold...I had good circulation in my feet (no swelling).  I wasn't really hungry today AT ALL!  just ate a little lunch and didnt go rooting around for snacks.  and I feel good.  Of course I am tired but heck it is after 11pm.  I cannot wait to get on it again tomorrow (tomorrow is school day so we will talk the max and walk to Graces school).  wahhooooooooo

I cannot wait to see if the scale agrees with me in the morning :)

xxxooo

Four Years, Twelve Years, and Tomorrow.

Four Years:  It has been four full years (well and 1 month but who is counting) since I had my lapband installed.  One year and 6 months ago I hit goal weight. This year has seen a renewal in my battle as after I quit my job and attended BOOBS 2011 my weight began to creep up.  I am now sitting at 15 pounds over goal and 20 pounds over my lowest weight ever as an adult.  So what sage advice to I have this far out?

• It is always work.  Sure there are days when it feels easy and there are days when you feel like you are on top of the world but the weight loss battle is never easy with or without the lapband.  For me the lapband made it possible but not easy.  
• We are very complicated creatures and losing weight is equally complicated.  When I changed something I had to give it a good two weeks sometimes before I saw any results.  I also found (and completely let slip out of my sight during the last six months) that changing just one thing at a time for a period of time yielded results.  1.  It was doable, 2.  it made a difference and often created changes in other areas as a consequence not work and 3.  gave me someTHING to focus on instead of creating a distraction of things (like when I decided that limiting a bucket load of everything was the way to go) waiting to trip me up.
• We are very good and figuring out how to eat around a band.  After four years it is really easy to slip into habits that sabotage myself.  I honestly do not think this is a conscious thing but one deeply embedded in our brains.  The brain that still thinks we are fat.  The brain that is still a little broken because that band is a physical barrier around our stomach not something that fixed whatever chemically or physically was out of sync in the first place to make us obese.

I am definitely in a phase of rethinking how and what this band will hold for the next few years.  It is working fine.  I have, however, developed some unsavory habits that need to change.  I slip things past it.  I drink things past it.  I sit with food and feed it in over a period of time to get it down.  I use sauces or what some bandsters fondly call 'food lube'.  All of these things are only hurting myself.  I have attempted some pretty stupid (stupid because I should know better by now) dramatic interventions to re-lose the weight but..I should have known myself better by now.  I am now ruminating on the ONE thing I am going to change for the next two weeks to try and get a handle on this problem.  At this point in the thinking it is going to be daily exercise as that is the glaring change that happened when I opened the shop a few months ago and quit my job several months before that.  So...one thing for the next two weeks.  

Twelve years:

David and I failed..well sort of..to celebrate our anniversary this year.  We have been full on since Winter with moving, jobs, and Grace shifting to home-school.  a few weeks ago we finally went to the beach with Grace as we didn't plan or take really any vacation this summer.  While walking along the beach it suddenly occurred to us that it was our anniversary.  We both..forgot.  It was OK and at least we were having a bit of a day off at the time.  Is this a sign of aging?  things going stale?  or exhaustion? :)

 Shortly Before Surgery August 2008

 Down 75 pounds August 2009

2010 was a very active year and I was down 

134 pounds in this photo.  This is less than I weigh in at now.

Down 146 pounds- Below Goal 2011

Down 126 pounds (15 pound above goal weight)

Tomorrow:  Day off :)  Grace needs a new passport.  I am visiting the doctor for a check-up of sorts and to moan about all of my aches and pains.  Tomorrow..A walk for 4 miles (as we have a great loop in our neighborhood and David is on board too).

Wish me lots of rain (people knit when the weather is crap :))..Happy september to you all!!

xxxooo

Gah!!

I am here,

I have way too much to do as usual (are you sick of hearing about that yet?).  I must be just approaching the point where I stop writing in my journal .  I have always ended up with a string of Dear Diary-nothing much happened today or Dear diary-What the hell am I doing spending time thinking up what to write when I should be getting x,y,z and all the rest of those things done.  Eventually I always quit writing all together.  This blog..for some reason has outlived every single attempt I have ever made to chronicle anything in writing.  This blog has in words chronicled the single only time I have ever succeeded at losing weight.  and this blog has been a very positive thing.

so...of course I need to keep on doing it.  The problem is I cannot always think of anything new to say. Sure I can write down what I eat, fail to eat, or fail at eating.  I can write down lists of all of the crap I should get done or did get done.  I can write down what we do and where we go but...sometimes that seems sooooo boring.

Up to this point I have not worried about who follows me.  There are course many of you who I consider my peeps..my friends and greatest source of bandy support.  I am so grateful that I got to meet you in person and virtually and I would have it no other way.  On the other hand...do I really need this blog if I do not concern myself with who is reading it-hmmmm.

1.  My food has gone to hell in a hand basket.  I am back to my old litany whenever you cut something out all you want to do is eat it/have it..roll in it...swim in it.  Yeah well um I have done a bit of all of the above.  Screw the research.  I need to moderate and keep it slow and I will...I hope.

2.  I have decided I need a fill.  I tightened up this week--OMG  I have been looser than I think.  Why is it that I always seem to get myself in this place?

3.  Menopause--it is happening and FINALLY...the period stuff is on quick stop :) wahhhhhoooooooo.

4.  I have a crap-load of stuff to get done at the store...some of which is web-design stuff, stocking shelves, deciding what I need to make sure I have available for the Winter season, what kinds of kits to put together, making sure those kits are ready to go, get class samples ready, balance the books.

5.  I have stuff for my other tutoring/researchy jobs-reading two papers, writing up a course description i promised, reviewing an article for a journal.

6.  I have house-ee stuff-clean more than one floor of the house at a time, hang up pictures and get Grace's room in any kind of order (yes she is supposed to help but not very good at organizing herself). We want to have a party but every time I get one area picked up the filth busts out of a new one (you know like those closets that fall on your head every time someone opens the door).  My whole house is like one of those closets.

Holy crap--i just came in to check on this post and remembered I have another day off tomorrow :) yippeee..good food day..check.  no doctors appointment yet..but tomorrow perhaps.  Menopause..still a good check...work shmirk..tomorrow is my day off.  Ok..I will work on the tutoring researchy stuff...and maybe some of the cleaning. :)

nighty night.

Detox Update aka-I am not good at denial.

I am clinging on..sort of.  The highlights:

• I am down 3 pounds in just a few days.
• Dairy is back in-I caved on the coffee thing.
• wheat and legumes are still out.
• I have drastically reduced portion sizes on anything diary related.
• no alcohol even though our brand new bar was finished this week!

Interesting:

• Two days into the thing I passed out asleep at 10pm..this is unheard of for me.  
• I am back to night time wakefulness.  Probably the result of caffeine back on board.
• Dairy included is much more livable.  I supposed I might dump the dairy again later...when I can add something else back in or if I find a vein of inner strength.

Shop News:

• This place is jumping.  I had a solid string of customers today.  some bought stuff, some did not.  I am not sure if this is because of the yarn bombing i put up on the front or word of mouth is getting around.  Either way I am thrilled.
• I started knitting a shawl..fun fun, easy easy and in cool silk yarn

Detox Hell

The venting bit:
I started the 'It Starts With Food" 30 day detox diet.  I am in 24 hours and it SUCKS!!  The headache appeared last night right around bedtime.  I still have it this morning.  David (nice guy that he is) brought me in a cup of home-brew, supposedly the good stuff, plain with no milk or sugar tea this morning.  It tasted like acid bath.

After drinking about 1/4 of a cup of the vile stuff I brought the rest downstairs and dumped it.  We are going to have to find someplace that sells our good tea again.  Safeway used to have some called Revolution black tea.  It was the only place we had found it.  Now they have every funk-i-doodle kind except black.

Breakfast.  David was going to make some home-made mayo but clearly forgot.  I cracked open two boiled eggs..damn cannot put butter on them (no dairy) so extra virgin olive oil it is- with salt and pepper.  I did this and discovered that extra virgin olive oil is not very good on boiled eggs :(.  I have left half of it.

Now that I have that off my chest:

1.  I amazed that one can feel so crappy so quickly on this detox gig.  For goodness sake you would think I am giving up something vital (Ok..perhaps I once considered a frapp vital but come on..meat, fruit and veg?  It shouldn't be this hard.

2.  Yesterday's food:  Breakfast:  Tea (my last tea bag of the good stuff), 6 macadamia nuts and a handful of blueberries.  Lunch:  sliced pan fried apples with unsweetened applesauce in an omelet. Snack: 6 macadamia nuts, 6 olives, fruit and coconut milk smoothie (1/4 cup coconut milk, handful of blueberries, 1/2 a banana and plenty of ice).  Dinner: oven slow roasted chicken with mushrooms, carrots and orange peppers.  Snack: handful of blueberries and macadamia nuts.   I tried to drink more water but it didn't go down easy (I am a baby without artificial sweetener or sugar obviously).

3.  The scale:  down 2.5 pounds this morning.  Maybe it will be enough to keep my head in this game?

4.  Small Tina victory:  I actually walked into Starbucks and ordered an acceptable drink:  unsweetened Tazo Passion tea (a big one).  I don't know if it has caffeine and it is not the mouth bursting flavor loving chocolate and mint thingy I am used to but...I am drinking it.