I may, in fact, be crazy.

Why is that, you ask? Well at 5am tomorrow morning I will be hauling my sorry ass out of bed and going to a boot camp. Not only that, but I will be doing this three times a week for the next SIX WEEKS! Am I nuts? Bonkers? Stark raving mad? I will tell you tomorrow!

In other news, I weighed in this morning at 74.9kg (165 lbs). I'm pretty pleased with that! I have been averaging under my calorie limit (some days a little up, some a little down). I'm hoping that the 6 weeks of boot camp will help me move downwards a bit faster. Conveniently, it includes the 5 weeks leading up to my sisters wedding, where I am going to be a bridesmaid. Eek! The dress is lovely, floor length and purple. I would post a pic, but she reads this and will kill me ;) The dress is also now several sizes too big, as it was ordered just after my surgery. I knew I would be losing weight, but the dress is still too big. I've booked in to my favourite alterations lady (who did my wedding dress) to have it taken in (and up - as usual it is about 3 feet too long). I'm thinking of having a purse made from the extra material to match.

Oh, I also had a small fill from my surgeon last week (or was it the week before?). I did have 7ml in a 10ml band, now I have 7.5ml. I can certainly feel the difference, mostly in the first few bites. I have to remember to CHEW before I swallow things. Luckily no more PB's but a few uncomfortable moments here and there.

I'm slowly creeping towards my Lowest Adult Weight. I think once I make it there, I will feel like I am actually making progress. At the moment, I just feel like I am losing the same weight I have lost before, undoing all the weight I have regained. Does that make sense? I am really looking forward to some numbers I've NEVER seen before. Once I get to 72.5, you will be able to hear me shouting from the rooftops. Get ready for that! Never mind how excited I will be once I'm no longer obese, and just boringly overweight. That number, for interest's sake, is 71kg.

Bring. It. On.

20 Down, 20 to Go.

So, dear readers, as of this morning, I am officially down 20 kilograms (44 pounds) from my highest (measured) weight. I stepped on the scales twice, just to check!

In honour of this occasion, I bring you a photo from our wedding. I now weigh less than I did on my wedding day, but not quite as little as when I met my hubby. Hopefully that will come soon!

And in other news... I now have 80 followers. 80!! When did that happen?? Welcome!! If I'm not following you, please leave me a comment so I can drop in and visit you too.

That's all for now, battery running out on the laptop!!

Blink and you missed it

The last MONTH that is! How on earth did it get to be so long between posts?

Oh that's right. It was December. Which meant Christmas, and end of year stress at work, and taking over my new role at work, and a visit from my parents (who don't know about the band), and New Year, and working overtime, and then a road trip to visit a friend (who also doesn't know), and then back home, put hubby on a plane, and now it is already Tuesday the 10th! Of January!!!

SO how is everyone? I'm madly trying to catch up on some blogs tonight, although I really need to write something for uni that needs to be done by tomorrow. It is one of those unfortunate times where staring at the computer screen is not making words appear, and the stress of no words is making the job even harder. I'm trying not to let the stress snowball, as that will result in nothing getting done at all. At least blogging now will take away the guilt of not blogging for so long, and give me one less thing to stress about.

I think this is the first year it what seems like forever that I DIDN'T put on any weight over Christmas. I successfully maintained at 77.1kg (170 lb), and since then I am actually down to 76.2kg (168 lb). I'm pretty happy with that! I kept tracking as best I could on MFP, even though I know I probably underestimated my calories everyday, it still kept me mostly honest. This was especially hard with my folks here, and having to not draw attention to what I was eating.

Only 0.7kg to go, then I am down 20kg from my highest recorded weight, and 4kg to my lowest adult weight! I have an appointment next Monday with my surgeon and I would love to be at 75kg even by then, so I'm aiming to stay under my calorie targets every day and to get some exercise in too. Hubby is away until Thursday night, so I might be able to zumba it up in the lounge room tomorrow night :)

Hope all is well out there in blog land, and a belated Happy New Year to all!

Lazy Sunday

Hello all! Things are chugging along merrily here, have been super busy and also away for work. I will update with a real post soon, until then here are some pictures to tide you over until I return. I bought a couple of new dresses while I was away, from a proper department store! And they are a designer brand! And a size 14!!!!!
Edited to add; please ignore the batwings! Note to self, arms DOWN when taking self portraits!

An Unwelcome First.

I have felt the pain of the monster called PB, and I am not impressed.

Warning for possible TMI ahead!

Tuesday morning I went to visit my surgeon for an assessment, and he decided to up my fill level as the last top up had not really done much. He added 1.25ml, which took me to a nice round 7ml all up (in a 10ml band). I had a glass of water, went down fine, everything was hunky-dory. He mentioned that a was "a small person" so it could take as much as 9ml before I was at my sweet spot.

I played it safe with quiche for lunch, chewed the bejeebus out of it, and had no troubles at all. Fast forward to dinner however- we have a friend staying will us for the next 2 weeks before she goes on a big holiday, and she does not know about my surgery. Hubby picked up yummy Indian food for dinner, and I served myself half a bowl just of the meat (chicken) and sauce (no rice). I ate what I thought was slowly and with (apparently) small bites. Everything seemed to be going so well! After a while, I got a strange feeling at the back of my throat, and in my chest. I excused myself to the bathroom and proceeded to feel the most uncomfortable I have ever been. I knew something must be stuck, but couldn't lodge it. Long story short (too late!), after a good 15-20 minutes of sliming and walking around the bathroom trying to get comfortable, my dinner came up. Twice.

I tell you what, that is not something I want to repeat in a hurry! I had some leftovers tonight, and I was so careful! I took the teeniest tiny bites and chewed like my life depended on it! It took quite a long time to eat, but at least it stayed down!

So there you have it, my first - and hopefully last - PB experience!

Living in the 70s

Ahhh, skyhooks. For those who don't know them, they were an awesome Aussie band back in the day. Well, my parents day! I'm sure there would be some YouTube lying around. Anywhoozle, one of their songs was "living in the 70's".

I can cautiously and optimistically say that this is now me! Woohoo! Two days in a row at 79.0kg (174.1 lb ), I'll take it thank you very much! I was very excited when my scales did that biggest loser jump around this morning and briefly showed. 78.5, maybe this will follow soon.

Nothing else to report today, sorry peeps, but it is 1am and I'm blogging on my phone while laying in bed, so epic posts are a little difficult!

Hope you are having a lovely day, wherever you are!

Forgive me blogland...

For it has been three weeks since my last post! I have no idea where the time has gone, but I couldn't believe it. I have been reading everyone elses blogs, but barely commenting. I have been a bandster in hiding. My sincere apologies. To catch up, I think this will be a bullet point post.

• I have been Biz-zee! Yes, with a capital B. Trading all my shifts around so that I can be in my new department for training, going in on my days off to train, and trying to keep on top of friendships/home/life is exhausting. I will be so glad to finally be off the shift rotation for good, and officially a day-shifter. When this will actually happen, I have no idea. 

• Yesterday I downloaded myfitnesspal on my phone and I am loving it already. Did you know you can scan in the barcode for items and it will look them up? Awesome! I think instant tracking like that is going to really help me keep accountable for my choices. Then I don't have to remember it and log it later, conveniently forgetting things I have eaten during the day. Is there anyone else using it? I have vague memories of some blogland people talking about it, but can't find any of the relevant posts! If you want to add me as a friend, my username is redridinghoodbandland (original, I know!). 

• Things have been ok, weight wise, however not great. I'm still sitting around 80.0kg - 176.4 lb (some days up a bit, some days down a bit). The first few days after my last fill I could feel a small difference, however after a week or so I couldn't tell at all. I had an appointment with my dietitian about 2 weeks after the fill, and we had a really interesting discussing about weight loss surgery and eating disorders. She said it is very common for people to have an unknown eating disorder before surgery, and for it to show its ugly head when they are trying to lose weight. This is another way to look at head hunger. She says that we need to not let the disorder win, and if we feel like we are getting out of control, to hotfoot it back to the dietitian or counsellor and get it sorted quick smart. I told her about some posts I had read on a forum where one lady said she had thrown up EVERY DAY since her surgery 2 years ago. TWO YEARS! We discussed how this is essentially bulimia, except you can blame it on the band. Please, people, if you are throwing up every single day, please go and see someone. It is not necessary, and certainly not good for you. (PS this is not meant to sound judgemental, I am just really bad at getting across information I have received elsewhere!). 

• I went for another fill on Tuesday morning. My surgeon put in 2mls, so I now have 5.75ml in my 10ml band. I stuck to mushy food for the first few days, and didn't really think that there was much difference. However, last night I was eating the lemon out of my drink (I know, I'm odd), and when I swallowed the pulpy bit, it seemed to get stuck. It was the strangest feeling! I went into the bathroom incase it decided to return to sender, but then I felt it pass. I actually think I felt it go through the band! It was weird! Hopefully I won't have that too much, as it freaked me out. I have been really concentrating on chewing a lot today, and I'm hoping this latest fill will help curb some of the hunger I have been getting and help move my weight down some more. As the nurse at my surgeons office said, we don't really want to waste any time before Christmas. Indeed.

Goodness, I think that might be enough for now. I will try to blog more often, as I usually have a bank of things I want to say, and then promptly forget them when I sit down to write. Hope everyone has a lovely day!

Red xo