4/30/16: Week 2 Results

Weight: 160.4

Here are my Week 2 Results photos.  I am happy with the fact that I have lost three pounds but disappointed in the fact that I have not been able to exercise.  We won't start to see any real body transformation until I begin strength training again, which should be by next weekend.  Until then, I have to be content with what I can do with diet, alone.

I have made a slight wardrobe change.  Instead of scrunching my shorts down to show my tummy a little bit, I am rolling the waistband down, twice.  This way it will be more uniform from week to week.  So, they are the same shorts, but with the waistband rolled down in the 4/30 photos vs. scrunched down in the 4/16 photos.

Everything is fine in Kansas City.  The day started out rainy but the blue sky is beginning to peak out.  Maybe we'll get out in the garden today, it depends on the weather.  We have a typical looking spring lawn.  It's a jungle out there!!  Lots of rain means not very much mowing.  It'll probably be mid-week before it dries out enough for Jack to mow the lawn.  The lilacs and tulips are done, but the daisies are growing and the annuals I planted last weekend are looking great.  The trees are almost fully leafed out and everything is as green as it can be.  I love spring!  It cheers me up!

I felt a little harassed at work this week.  I thought I was going to get to focus on a couple of big projects and instead I had a lot of little things hit my desk that demanded my attention.  It's all OK, but it caused me to feel less than effective all week.  I was glad when the work week was over.  Next week I am taking Wednesday off.  I have my doctor's appointment in the morning to get my stitches removed (finally) and we have a ballgame in the afternoon.  Taking Wednesday off will make the week go faster.  And, of course, Tuesday is my birthday!  I'll be 54.

Week three begins today.  With any luck, I'll be exercising again before this week is over.

Have a wonderful weekend!

4/29/2016: PS - "Being Good"

This bothered me all the way to work.  I used the words "being good" in my earlier blog post.

There is nothing about this that has anything to do with "being good" or "being bad," which is why I put those words in quotation marks.  Yet, sometimes, when I am not on program and I wish I was I do say to myself, "I will be good today."  Ugh.  That implies so much.  That implies that I am a better person when I am on program, which implies that I am a worse person when I am off program.  It does not make me a better person to eat organic kale and pasture raised chicken rather than cookies and ice cream.  It makes me a healthier person, but not a better person.

I don't know why I felt like I needed to clarify this point, but I did feel that need; hence this post script.  Maybe I'll stew about this today and write more about it tomorrow.  Then again, maybe I won't.  It's always difficult to predict what will be on my mind tomorrow morning.  All I know is now that I have this off my chest I need to balance the checkbooks and update my cash forecast.

Have a great day!

4/29/16: It's Friday!! Yeah!!

Weight:  160.4

It's been a long week.  I can't put a finger on exactly why this week has seemed to take forever to get through, but it's been a slog.  I'm glad the weekend is almost here, though we don't have any exciting plans.  My surgical touch-up came at a bad time.  I'd like to spend Saturday working in my garden, but I am sidelined until next weekend.  Jack is going to have to do my manual labor for me.  We have our kickball tournament on Sunday and I can't play.  Darn!  It'll be fun to be there for the team, but it's more fun to play.  I'll be up and running again just in time for the season to be over!!  The new season starts in June.  We are encouraging people to sign up for the team.  Do you want to play kickball with us?

During my conversation with Carla yesterday we hit pretty solidly on the defining factor when it comes to my success or lack of success with weight loss and fitness.  It boils down to whether or not I "want to lose weight," or have "decided to lose weight."  I know it seems too simple, but sometimes the most powerful tools are the most simple.  I've said it every morning of my adult life, "I want to start losing weight.  Today I'll try to 'be good.'"  Yeah, right.  As if.  On a day like that I am usually "pretty good" until someone puts a box of donuts in the break room or I get cravings in the middle of the afternoon.

I am only successful on my program when I have decided to lose weight and get fit.

Sidebar:  I feel like it is necessary to lump "lose weight and get fit" together because this is not about being a smaller person.  This is about being a healthy and strong person.  I believe that it is unhealthy for me to carry excess weight and I've chosen 150 pounds as my target healthy weight.  I also believe that it is unhealthy to be sedentary and to allow my muscles to atrophy as I age.  This captioned photo (Thanks Rebecca!  I love this photo!!) perfectly says what I've been trying to express for years:

 Lifting weights, running, playing sports, and otherwise being physically active are key components to being healthy and staying young well into my old age.  So as long as I weigh more than 150 pounds, I will be working on losing weight and getting fit.  Once I am at 150, I'll be focusing on maintaining my weight and being as strong and physically fit as I can be.  So please understand, when I say "lose weight," I really mean get to my healthy weight of 150 and get fit by exercising regularly.

I've described making this decision to lose weight as a switch flipping in my head.  It's like going from dark to light.  One moment it seems impossible to keep my promises to myself and the next minute I am wondering why I thought it was so damn hard to say no to a donut.

It's all about making the decision that being fit and keeping my body young is more important to me than any pleasure junk food can fleetingly provide.  Once I decide that I am on program, I'm on program.  I can't just want to be on program.  I can't just hope I make it through the day without raiding Kate's candy dish.  I can't just think that I shouldn't mix myself a drink at Sunday's kickball game.  I have to know that I am not going to do any of those things because I know that those activities will be prevent me from reaching my goal.  I'm not saying I never slip.  Of course I do.  Otherwise I would have been at 150 pounds for the last 4 years.  I am saying that my self talk is drastically different when I am on program vs when I am not quite on program but wished I was.  That self talk is critical to my success.

There is one other little thing I want to mention; there is another side benefit to eating dinner before I leave work.  I pack my dinner in the morning shortly after I eat breakfast, therefore I am choosing my dinner portions when I am not hungry.  When it's time to eat dinner, I take out a pre-portioned meal, heat it up and eat it, causing me to eat less than I would if I ate at home.  I've noticed that when I eat at home I almost always put a little more food on my plate than I know I need for dinner.  I'm hungry, tired, and a little cranky from being at work all day, so putting a little more food on my plate feels like a treat or reward for a hard fought day.  It doesn't do me any good, not really, but I tend to do it anyway.  I can't do that if I've packed my dinner in the morning and eat it at work.  This one minor change to my routine has made a big difference.

OK, it's time to run.  Have a good one out there!!!

4/28/2016: The Stitches Did Not Come Out

Weight:  160.8

This is unfortunate, I have a lot on my mind that I want to talk about and I ended up spending a good chunk of my morning texting back and forth with Carla about our respective programs.  Now I am in a hurry so that I won't be late for work.  This will have to be a brief blog post.

I went to the doctor's office yesterday to get my stitches out and was disappointed that that did not happen.  He only put non-dissolvable stitches on the right side, those are the stitches that need to be removed.  The left side and the center had dissolvable stitches.  The left side incision isn't healed yet.  It separated just a little and is oozing a tiny bit.  The doctor said that it will heal just fine so we treated it with antibiotic ointment and reapplied fresh steri-strips.  The center incision looks terrific!!!!  What a difference that made.  Dr. Hodge is so proud of himself.  He smiled and said, "That looks really good, doesn't it?  You didn't even complain about that, but I wanted to fix it for you!  Aren't you glad I did?"  The answer to that question is, yes, I am glad.  He really is a wonderful surgeon who cares about his patients satisfaction with his work.  His motivation comes from doing excellent work and making his patients happy.  I like that in a surgeon!!!  He decided not to take out the stitches in the right side incision (which looks pretty damn good, too) because the left side incision isn't quite healed.  I have to go back next week to get the stitches out.  Another week with no physical activity.  Oh well.  I knew I wouldn't be lifting weights this weekend, but was hoping I could play kickball and start a light exercise routine.  None of that for me.  I guess Jack will have to clean that bathrooms, after all.  They really can't go another week.

One of the consequences of blogging is that every now and then someone tells me that my blog motivates them to start their own program.  If I'm lucky, they'll ask me if I will touch base with them daily so that we can motivate each other.  It helps me stay on program and it makes me feel really good to help inspire others on their own journeys.

OK, it really is getting late.  It's time for work.  I'll try to write more tomorrow.

Have a great day!!!!

4/27/16: Stitches Come Out Today

Weight:  161.2

It's been a week since my touch-up surgery and my stitches come out this afternoon.  I'll have a better idea of when I can resume my exercise routine after that appointment.  I hope to hear that light activity can resume immediately and that full activity can be resumed after one more week.  I'll fill you in on the details, tomorrow.

The weather that came through Kansas City late last night was exciting but not too terribly fierce in our neighborhood.  I haven't heard about any significant damage in the metropolitan area, it seems like the worst of the storm hit other areas of the Midwest.  I'm glad we dodged a bullet on that one.  I always get a little anxious when I go to bed with a storm on track to hit us in the middle of the night.  I make a check list in my head as I try to fall asleep:  are my shoes close to the bed, what about my eyeglasses?  I plan on what I am going to grab on my way to the basement.  We've only had to shelter in the basement once or twice since we moved into this house 6 years ago, but every time tornadoes get close, I start to get anxious.  I'm glad this storm is past.  It'll be a fun filled spring, they are already forecasting more severe weather.  

Work is going OK.  I'm wrapping up my big projects and it looks like we are going to get the final piece of our cost savings puzzle put in place sooner that I expected.  We had a productive talk with our landlord yesterday and I think there is a reasonable solution for reducing our footprint in the building and reducing our occupancy expenses, significantly.  That is a huge relief.  I need our rent (including landlord provided common area maintenance expenses referred to as CAM) expense to be more in line with our revenues and other overhead expenses.  I think we will actually get this done.  We are starting to turn the corner and it's beginning to look like we are becoming a healthy little company.  That is very exciting!!  It's been a crazy four years.  Can you believe it?  It'll be four years in August.  How time flies when you're too damn busy to look at a calendar.

My diet is fine and I am not having any real struggles with food.  It has made a huge difference to eat lunch and dinner earlier in the day.  I don't get too hungry during the day, so I don't start getting cravings in the afternoon.  When I get home from work I am sated from my dinner, so I don't start opening cupboards looking for snacks.  My last meal is at least 4 hours before I go to bed, so I'm not going to bed right after I eat.  All in all, the plan is working.  It makes it inconvenient to eat with other people, though.  If I have a lunch meeting scheduled or a dinner out planned I'll have to figure out a way to accommodate my schedule, but that doesn't happen too often.  All is good on the food front.

Jack went back on program this week, with both food and exercise.  He had his first physical in six years (or something like that) last week and got an almost perfectly clean bill of health.  His cholesterol and his blood pressure are "border line," but aside from that he is the picture of perfect health.  The really, really good news is that his cholesterol and blood pressure are basically what they have always been, they are not getting worse as he ages.  The doctor told him that it would help to lose 10 pounds.  His wife thinks he should shoot for 15 to 20 pounds in order to get really healthy, but, for now, 10 is the goal.  Neither of us take any maintenance drugs and our plan is to keep it that way.  Jack finds the prospect of losing 10 (to 20) pounds, and keeping it off, rather daunting.  When I ask him why he says, "Because it's hard," or, "Because food tastes so good."  We've had a few serious conversations about life with very limited treats vs. life on blood pressure medication (which he took for a brief period of time several years ago when he was heavier and his blood pressure was higher).  He acknowledges that he does not like the side effects of the blood pressure medication and if he can keep his blood pressure under control by losing weight and exercising, then that is the best option.  I hate being a pest, but I'd rather be a pest and have a healthy husband by my side for 40 more years than not push him a little bit to make choices that will keep him healthy and full of vitality.  It's a bit of a tightrope walk.  I know this is his choice to make, not mine.  I also know he respects the progress I've made with my health and that he does really understand that diet and exercise have a long-term positive impact on his health.  He probably won't like that I'm blogging about this, but I guess that is one of the risks you accept when your wife keeps a blog.  Every now and then she is going to talk about her husband!  To sum up this paragraph, it makes me happy when Jack goes to the gym in the evenings and is disciplined with his food because I know he will be healthier, happier, and live longer because of it.  It doesn't mean we will never digress from our disciplined program, but it does mean our day-to-day lifestyle is a healthy and active one.

I guess that's about it for today.  The sky is lightening and the clock keeps ticking.  I best be getting to work.  I hope you all have a lovely spring day.  It looks like it will be a nice one here in Kansas City.

4/26/16: Sometimes Blogging is Tedious

Weight:  161.8

It's Tuesday, nothing remarkable happened yesterday, I doubt that anything remarkable will happen today, and tomorrow the highlight of my day will be getting my stitches removed.  I am not complaining, not even a little bit.  I need these short stretches of unremarkable days in order to rest and regenerate, so I don't mind having a few days in a row where the answer to the question, "How are you, today?" is, "Oh, about the same as yesterday."  Kind of like the weather in New Delhi in April.  The problem is, what the hell am I going to write in my blog?  I have no desire to bore anybody that may actually be reading this to tears.  Yet, this is my twelve week challenge and blogging does help me stay the course, so I am putting up a post even though I don't have anything very interesting to say.

I miss exercise.  I am hoping that when I go in tomorrow to have the stitches removed that I will be told that it is OK to play kickball on Sunday and resume full exercise next Wednesday.  I hope to have Lauren back for our next personal training session on  Saturday, May 7th.  I am a little afraid that I am going to hear that I need to ease back into things and that it will be a while before I can run, lift weights, etc.  I will do what the doctor advises, but my hope is that the surgery was minor enough that I will be released to full activity a week from tomorrow.  I am a little anxious about this.

My diet is fine.  I stopped at the market on the way home and got the avocado oil so I could make mayo for the chicken salad, which I made last night.  It turned out really good.  Unfortunately, I shouldn't really know that.  The fact that I know it turned out really good is proof that I ate a little of it after I made it.  My goal is to eat nothing after I get home from work, since I am eating dinner before I leave work.  I didn't eat a lot of it, just a few bites, but more than I needed to eat to make sure it had enough salt & pepper.  It was hard to resist bites 2 and 3.  Oh, and the mayo was really good.  Yes, I licked the rubber spatula.  Yeah, I didn't need to do that.  Cooking in the evening, after work and after my final meal for the day, is probably not a great plan.  It's hard not to nibble when I'm in the kitchen playing with food.  I need to do a better job on my shopping list so I can avoid this scenario in the future.  It works so much better to get all of my cooking done on Sunday mornings.  It lowers my exposure to unplanned snacking opportunities.

My recent digestive issues have left me with no doubt that I am lactose intolerant.  The gut pain from Sunday is not yet a distant memory and today, after about 2 weeks of no dairy, all systems are finally normal.  I know I won't be on program every day for the rest of my life, but I need to seriously consider not ever having dairy again, or at least limiting my exposure to it to very small quantities.  When we were in NH with Carla, we had a fun filled evening of games, wine and cheese.  That, my friends, was a bad idea.  I need to remember what that felt like.

We may be in for some severe storms this evening.  I need to check the weather channel and then head to work.  Stay safe out there!!

4/25/16: Monday Morning, Running Late

Weight:  161.8

It's Monday morning and I am running late because I stayed up a little late last night talking on the phone with Steve.  In order to get my 7 hours of sleep, I set the alarm for 5:00 since I can't exercise, anyway.  It was a little difficult to pull myself out of bed this morning.

Yesterday was another beautiful day spent outdoors.  We had two kickball games in the middle of the day.  I couldn't play but it was fun to go cheer and watch, even though we lost both games.  That part was a little frustrating.  We couldn't seem to deal with the wind.  Playoffs are next weekend, I hope we play better D, then.

I got most of my cooking done yesterday with the exception of putting together my chicken salad.  I got the chicken cooked, but I forgot to put avocado oil (to make the mayo) on the shopping list, so I will need to finish making the chicken salad tonight.

I'm feeling good, getting a little stronger every day.  Jack asked me when I would be able to exercise again and I reminded him that the doctor said two weeks and it has only been 4 days.  He said, "Oh, it seems a lot longer than that."  Yes it does.

Off to the races.  Have a good one out there!

4/24/2016: Herbs, Ball Game, Tummy Cramps, Week 1 Results

Weight: 161.4 Pounds

It is spring in Kansas City!  Yesterday was a gloriously beautiful day and we spent most of it outdoors.  We went to the Farmers' Market in the morning and bought a bunch of starts, including herbs, peppers, a couple of tomatoes, and some greens.  We also stopped by Soil Service, a local greenhouse, and bought a flat of marigolds and some seeds.  I spent the rest of the morning puttering, slowly and carefully, in my herb garden.  I didn't need to do any heavy work to prepare that garden for planting herbs, so while Jack was grocery shopping I felt comfortable getting at least that much of our garden planted.  We still need to plant the vegetable starts, but I will need Jack's help to do that this afternoon, since I'm on limited duty after my minor surgery this week.  It made me quite happy to start the garden, yesterday!  It's fun to look out the window and see marigolds and herbs growing.  I love marigolds!  They are so joyful and so easy to grow.  They bloom all summer long, too.  I also really like having an extensive herb garden.  It's so much more fun to go out in the garden and clip off the herbs that I need for a recipe than it is get them out of a jar.  Now, to get the rest of the garden planted...

Yesterday afternoon we went to the ballgame.  It was a gorgeous afternoon and evening to be outdoors and watch the Royals.  We got there quite early so that we could get our World Series replica trophies (Jack's call on that one!).  In spite of the silliness of it all, it was actually quite fun to get there early.  We stood in line for over an hour, but the weather was perfect, everyone was in a great mood and we met some interesting people.  Kansas Citians love their Royals, there is no denying that.  Unfortunately we lost, but hey, you can't have it all.  It's baseball, don't you know, and there is always tomorrow.

I was a lot more uncomfortable during the game than I thought I would be.  It was fairly difficult to sit in the stadium seat for 3 hours so I got up for a while and walked around.  I was quite slow going up steps and took it easy with my walking pace, in general.  I don't feel bad, but I am not 100%.  I have to keep that in mind as I go through the next week or two.

Yesterday started with a nice breakfast that was different from our normal breakfast fare:

"Joe's Scramble" and potatoes with veggies

  This isn't the greatest photo in the world but it was a delicious breakfast.  The eggs are scrambled with onions, mushrooms, spinach and my homemade sausage.  The veggies are fried potato cubes sauteed with peppers and onions.  It's a nice change of pace.  Often, as we did yesterday, we eat breakfast later in the morning, so it is more of a brunch than a breakfast.  Then we eat a mid-afternoon dinner and that is it for the day.  I packed a dinner to take with me to the ball park and ate it around 3:00.  My after dinner "snack" was some french fries, which I don't eat often, but are not a forbidden food on my program.  All in all, it was a decent food day considering the fact that we were at the ball park for about 7 hours.

About 15 minutes after waking up this morning, I experienced the worst stomach cramps that I can ever remember having.  Forty five minutes later, all of which were spent feeling pretty "crappy" (ha ha) in the bathroom, I felt much better.  I now know why I haven't been losing any weight.  I guess I have not been paying particular attention to the fact that I have not been "regular."  In retrospect, there are a couple of things that could have caused this problem.  Before going back on program I was eating some dairy, which I have come to realize, rather late in life, I have an intolerance to.  Dairy does mess with my digestive system.  I have been dairy free for over a week, now, so with any luck this episode will not recur.  There other thing that could have caused this is the local anesthetic that I was injected with on Wednesday.  The doctor maxed me out on the local and it would not surprise me if it has a constipating effect on the body.  Again, that should be a one-time deal and this should not recur.  Anyway, I feel much better now.  My early morning was not much fun.

As promised, Jack took my one week progress photos.  There is very little difference from the start photos, but it is interesting to take photos every week.  It'll take a few weeks, but soon I'll be able to start seeing a difference.  Here are the Week 1 Progress Photos:

My plan is to wear exactly the same thing each week in the photos, so we can see the difference from beginning to end, without taking the clothes into consideration.  I guess I didn't realize that I didn't have my bra adjusted properly in the start photo.  I think I was still half asleep.  Oh well.  It's not exactly a scientific process, is it?  I can still get the idea.

Today should be another busy day.  I have cooking to do, kickball games to go to (I am not playing), and a garden to plant (I am not doing the digging).  I best me getting on my way.

Happy Spring, Everyone!!  I hope your weather is as lovely as ours!

4/23/16: 12 Week Challenge, End of Week 1

Weight:  162.4
Weight loss since beginning of challenge:  1 pound

I hit a hurdle this week with my challenge when I found out that I cannot exercise for 2 weeks.  Part of my challenge is to lose some weight, but a more significant part of my challenge is to improve muscle tone and increase lean body mass.  Without exercise, improving my strength is a difficult thing to do.  This will not deter me!!!!  I will focus on my diet for the remainder of this two weeks and start exercising again as soon as the doctor clears me.

I'm happy with the touch-up work, so far.  The little bulge above the center of my belly scar is completely gone and it makes my whole tummy appear to be much flatter.  I'm surprised how much difference that made.  I can't tell how the ends of the scars look yet, because of the steri-strips, but I'm sure they will be fine.  The keloids that developed in the scar under my right breast/arm are already smaller and less painful.  The steroid injections had an almost immediate effect on those.  All in all, it was an hour well spent and two weeks without exercise is a small price to pay for the improvements that it will bring.

I've lost one pound during the first week of my challenge.  Not much, I know, but it's something.  Considering my mid-week gain, I'm happy with it.  I think I figured the puzzle out when I changed my meal schedule.  I'm hoping the weight loss is a little more predictable for the remaining 11 weeks.  I don't have pictures to post yet because I am the only person in the house that is awake.  After my photographer wakes up I will take progress pictures and post them tomorrow.

Jack and I have a busy weekend ahead of us, especially considering the fact that I can't do any heavy work.  The house needs a thorough cleaning, but I am going to have to put off my chores until at least next weekend, if not the weekend after that.  I get my stitches removed on Wednesday, I may get cleared for some increased activity at that time.  We'll see.  I don't want to do too much because putting stress on the scars is one of the things that causes the keloids.  Now that I know what those look and feel like, I know that it is something I want to avoid!!  We are going to go to the farmers market this morning to pick up some starts for the garden.  Jack will have to prepare my dirt for me, but I think I can plant the starts and the seeds.  It'll be good to get some vegetables growing in the back yard, again.  We are going to the baseball game, today.  It looks like it will be a sold out crowd.  The Royals have been popular this season.  I can't imagine why!!  Tomorrow we have our last regular season kickball games.  I can't play, but I can go out there and make a lot of noise.

Steve called last night and they are bracing for Tropical Cyclone Amos in Samoa.  At 1:00PM Sunday, local time (7:00PM Saturday, CST), they are expecting a direct hit in the capital of a category 4 cyclone.  The Peace Corps has corralled all of their volunteers into the best hotel in the capital and put them on room lock-down until the storm passes.  I talked to Steve last night, he said that they are bracing for a very severe storm by boarding windows, tying down the roofs of buildings (including his hotel), and laying in supplies.  He is not worried for his own safety as much as he is worried for his host family and the other residents of his village.  It is very likely that the village, which is located right on the beach, will get destroyed and he will get relocated to another community after the storm passes.  Prayers to Steve, his host family, and everyone else living in Samoa.

My work life is starting to get a little more manageable after about 8 months of hell.  The audit is 100% complete as I received published audit reports on Friday.  There were no (as in zero, nada, nil!) audit adjustments.  Hooray!  That is always a goal of mine.  I can't stand audit adjustments, though they've been difficult to avoid as I took over an incredibly sloppy set of books.  It takes time to fix everything.  I am very close to having my overhead and labor allocation project done, which is very exciting.  I am developing a tool that will take the work that I did for the audit (allocating labor and overhead to finished goods inventory at year-end) and allow us to translate that to a forecast for allocating expenses to inventory that is sold in 2016, based on 2016 capacity and expected revenue.  I started this project almost two years ago, when I created a huge workbook.  I considered every number and calculation that I could think of.  After working with the model for over a year, I was able to start narrowing down the data that I really needed to make the model work properly.  Part of the challenge is to make the model easy enough to update that it becomes a useful tool, not just a chore to complete at year-end for the auditors.  I am very, very close to having something that is manageable and easy to update.  I think I will have it complete by the end of next week.  We will be meeting as a group early in the week to review the work I have done to date and get everyone's input for the final touches.  I am pretty excited about getting this done.

Once this project is done, I will update the quote sheets.  After that, I think I will have time to start training Mike, my accounting manager, on how to do some of the work that I do and, conversely, start training myself on how to do some of the work that he does.  It's only been 4 years.  It's time, don't you think?

That's it for now.  The sun is coming up and Saturday is upon us.  Here's to another glorious spring day!!

4/22/2016 - Slight Change, Promising Results

Weight:  162.4

As you know, I get up early, much earlier than most people with 9 to 5 type jobs.  About 6 months ago I changed my schedule at work to arrive around 7 and leave around 4 or 4:30.  Of course, that doesn't always work out and I seldom get out of the office by 4:30, but often enough I am leaving before 5.  In addition to getting to work early, I like to exercise before I go to work.  In order to get a solid workout in and have time to eat breakfast and relax a little bit before my day starts, I need to be out of bed by 3:50 or 4:00.  The flip side of that is I go to bed before 9:00 every evening.  I like this schedule.  I like getting up early and don't have any trouble getting out of bed by 4:00 and being fully awake.  I don't mind going to bed early.  I've always been a morning person, so this schedule feels natural to me.

While my sleep schedule is fine, I have had a problem adjusting my meal schedule.  I have discovered that it works better for me to eat my breakfast before I work out.  I started doing this a few weeks ago so that I could work out with Lauren from 5:30 - 6:30, take a quick shower and be at work by 7:15.  To make this happen, everything else, including eating breakfast, has to be done before she gets here in the morning.  Before I started working out with Lauren, I would exercise first and then eat breakfast.  It turns out that it is much more pleasant to go from bed to my cozy nightgown and breakfast than it is to go from my bed to workout clothes and a run.  I enjoy my mornings a lot more when I eat breakfast first.  So what's the problem?  I am eating breakfast at about 4:20 in the morning.  Because I am eating breakfast so early, I start getting hungry by about 9:30 in the morning.  To compensate for this I started packing a morning snack.  I'd eat my snack around 10:00, then I wouldn't be hungry for lunch until about 12:30, and I'd eat dinner when I got home around 6:00.  What's the problem with that?  I wouldn't be done eating dinner until about 6:30 which is way too close to bedtime.  I think this had a lot to do with why my weight was creeping up, even though I felt like I was doing everything "right."

Then, a couple of days ago, I had an epiphany.  Why don't I just eat lunch around 10:00 in the morning and dinner at about 3:00 or 4:00?  This would put me on basically the same schedule as someone who eats breakfast at 6, lunch at noon, and dinner at 5 or 6.  This schedule eliminates the need for a morning snack.  Also, when I get home from work I am not hungry, so I don't immediately turn to the nuts for a quick snack.  The other thing that was a problem with my old schedule, was I was eating a relatively large dinner, because I was pretty hungry by the time I got home. A big meal an hour or two before bed is not a great idea if you are trying to lose weight.

For the last two days I have tried this new schedule and it is working out great.  I don't know why, but it seems a little odd to eat lunch at 10:00 in the morning.  I can get used to it though.  When I start heating my dinner up in the afternoon, people say, "Oh, you're eating lunch late."  And I say, "No, I am eating dinner early."  I don't know why this took me so long to figure out, I guess habits are called habits for a reason.  You do them because you do them, not because they make sense.  I will keep this new food schedule for the next few weeks and see if it continues to work for me, but so far, so good.

One of the reasons this works well for me is because I prepare all of our meals for the week on Sunday.  Therefore, it is easy to pack my lunch and my dinner to take to work with me.  Here is a photo of my meals, all ready to go into my lunch bag:

Chicken and cauliflower chili with avocado chutney for lunch, Roasted chicken & root veggies and green beans for dinner.  Apples for dessert

That's it.  After breakfast, this is what I ate for the rest of the day yesterday.  By cooking my food on Sunday and packing my meals in the morning, I am making it easy to control what I eat for the rest of the day.  All of my food decisions are made before I walk out the front door.  By eating dinner before 4:00, I am giving myself plenty of time between dinner and bedtime and I am not coming home from work hungry.  I like this plan!!

And now it is time for me to get dressed, pack today's meals, and head to work.  Have a grand and glorious day!!!

4/21/16: Touch up done - No Exercise for Two Weeks! Ugh!

Weight:  163.4

I guess I didn't think this one through and didn't ask enough questions.  The doc says, "We'll just do a little touch up in the office.  Fix the ends of the scar and that little droop in the middle. I want this to look as good as it can look."  Well, so do I.  I agree that it needs to be done, so I schedule the appointment.  The nurse says, "This is a minor procedure, eat and drink normally, you'll be able to go back to work and drive yourself home."  So I didn't think too much about it.  When can I fit an hour long appointment into my schedule?  Book it, get it done.

So he's cutting on me and burning excess tissue (man, that stinks!) and I ask, "What is the care routine, afterwards."  He says, "It's no big deal.  Take the pads off tomorrow, shower like normal, no exercise for two weeks."  As if that is nothing!  Ack!!  I just got back into the routine of exercising normally and am loving how much better I feel.  There is more bounce in my step and more sparkle in my eye.  What about my 12 week challenge?!?!  Ugh.  I guess I should have thought this through. I should have figured this out on my own.  But, really, even if I had known all of the details, I would have made the same decision.  The "dog ears" at the ends of the scar needed to be fixed.  There was a little pocket of skin on either end, just like when you put a dart in fabric.  They needed to be fixed.  And at the center of the scar, there was one side that drooped down, and I wanted that fixed, too.  In spite of the 2 week hiatus, I am glad I started my challenge.  It felt good to feel good and remembering how good I felt after just a few weeks of being back into the routine will be great incentive to start right back up again as soon as I am cleared for exercise.  I texted Lauren last night and let her know.  Luckily, we worked out this week on Tuesday, since she had a body building competition she is going to this weekend.  So we will only miss one weekend.  I told her we could double up on workouts for a week or two to get caught up, since I know she quit her second job after we started working out together.  It'll be fine.  For this two weeks I am going to be hyper vigilant about my diet.  The challenge is still on.  No delays, no postponing.  I am going for it!!  I am 100% in!!

And what fun is blogs that talk about surgery if you don't get to see the gruesome looking pictures?  So here you go.  This is what the doctor did to me yesterday.

 
There is a similar spot on my other hip.  The procedure was actually a little more extensive than I thought it would be.  I thought it would be just skin, but he cut fairly deep, removed some tissue that was causing the bulging, and sewed up a few layers.  In addition to the repair of the scar, I got steroid injections into the small scar keloid that had developed under my right arm.  The surgeon was confident that the steroids, along with massage and continued use of the Scar Away strips, would heal the keloid and the scar would be fine.  He said the keloid was small and would be easy to treat.

Oh yeah, one more thing.  He had trouble getting me completely numb.  So yep, in two places I could feel the cutting and stitching.  He maxed me out on local anesthetic, so there wasn't much we could do about it.  He felt terrible, but I kept telling him to stop worrying about it, that I had been in much  more pain than that in my life.  The problem was that it is not easy not to flinch, so he could tell when it hurt.  Oh well.  We got through it.  The steroid shots into the scar were a little painful, but only one out of the several (maybe there were 6 small shots in total) really hurt.

I'm glad I had this touch-up work done.  In the long run it will be worth it.  For now, I am a little tender and I am back on the disabled list.  I already notified my kickball coaches that I will be relegated to the sidelines this Sunday.  That's OK, I still get to cheer and that's what I do best!

And that's all I have to say about that.  Have a great one, today!!

4/20/16: No new news, just plugging away

Weight:  164

Still a little perplexed by the difference between what I expect the scale to do and what it is doing.  I can usually tell if I've gained even a little bit of weight.  My clothes feel tighter, I'm puffier, etc.  But I feel terrific!  The weight lifting and running is paying off in big ways.  I have more bounce in my step, I'm more energetic, I feel stronger, and I'm happier, to name a few.  I have been on program with my food for a week now.  I had intense cravings last night, but did not succumb to them.  I don't know why the cravings popped up last night, but they did.

I need to pay attention to how much I'm eating, when I am eating, and how much water I am drinking.  I am comfortable with what I am eating and my exercise routine.  It's coming together.

I am up super early so that I can get to work by 5:30.  I have my doctor's appointment at 2:30 today to fix the scars that need a little touch up work.  I spent the last couple of days analyzing some unexpected results at work (our gross profit margins came down a little bit - after a long period of seeing improvements) and I didn't get a chance to finish a project that I need done by tomorrow.  Oops.  I think I can get it done today, I just need to get in early to make up for the fact that I need to leave the office at 2:00 today.

I'll let you know how the doctor's appointment goes in tomorrow's blog post.

Have a good one.

4/19/2016: A Little Bewildered, but Soldiering On

Weight:  164

I have no idea why I gained weight yesterday.  Usually, when I do everything "right," I either stay the same or lose a little.  I know, I know, they say don't weigh every day because weight fluctuates, and I know that is true, but I also know that when I follow the rules, I can pretty much predict what the scale will say the next day.  The most significant unknown right now is the weight lifting.  I am seriously lifting weights three days a week and it is true that muscle gain happens faster than weight loss.  Perhaps that is it.  I ran last night (Yes!! I got my evening run in).  Maybe running at night causes water weight gain?  I don't know.  I ate a late-ish dinner.  I cooked the salmon last night and it was not ready to eat until after 6:00.  Considering the fact that I go to bed before 9:00, I really don't like to eat that late.  Everything else was situation normal.  I ate three meals.  I had a mid-morning snack of a few nuts and an apple.  Everything I ate was on program.  I feel great!  I am solidly on program, the exercise is making me feel much better, and my pants stopped getting tighter.  It's all good.

Breakfast today was my standard fare.  Yes, breakfast around here is boring.  I eat pretty much the same thing every morning.  Every few days I saute a big pan of veggies:

Onion, Broccoli, bell peppers, summer squash and zucchini

I eat about a half plateful of these veggies with three eggs scrambled in clarified butter and a bowl of fresh fruit.  Here is my typical weekday morning breakfast:

Add a tall glass of ice water and some black coffee, and we're off to the races!!

I mix it up a little on weekend mornings, but I'm content to cover the basics and keep it easy on work days.

I worked out with Lauren this morning.  It was a tough one!

I'm getting stronger, quickly, everywhere but my core.  It is obvious that my surgery was on my abdominal muscles because core exercises used to be the easiest part of my workout and it is now the toughest.  It'll come back, and according to my surgeon, I'll have a stronger core than ever.

I'm running late, the clock strikes 7:00.

Have a great day!!

4/18/16: New Week, Renewed Commitment to my Health

12 Week Challenge, Week 1, Day 3:  Weight 163 pounds

It's Monday morning.  In half an hour or so I will head to work to put the final touches on March financial statements, send them to the auditors as the final piece of information they are looking for to finish our year-end financial statements audit, and work on a huge project that we are going to use for the basis of pricing our products for the next year.  All in a day's work.  But more importantly, I will not lose focus on my commitment to my health and my 12 Week Challenge.  I won't eat any candy from the candy dishes which seem to be all over the office, I'll say no to the donuts that pop up in the break room, and I will drink a lot of water.   The only food I will eat is food that I have cooked myself.

I weigh just slightly more than I did yesterday morning.  Not a big deal.  I ate a later dinner because of kickball.  I weighed earlier because it is a weekday morning.  I was a little surprised but I am neither disappointed nor worried.  I feel great and I am content with the fact that I am solidly on program.

I spend a few hours every weekend preparing all of our food for the week.  I save a ton of time by cooking all of our meals at once.  I started cooking yesterday at 9:15 in the morning and by noon I was finished.  We now have, in our refrigerator, all of my lunches and all of our dinners for the rest of the week.  Not only does this save time, it also makes it so much easier to stay on program.  I don't have to cook dinner when I come home from work hungry, tired, and cranky.  All I have to do is heat it up.  This also works great for Jack.  If I'm going to be late getting home from work, he has a healthy meal waiting for him in the fridge.

Here is what I fixed yesterday:

Beef Stir Fry with Snow Peas:

Here are the fixings for the Beef Stir Fry - minus the carrots.  I didn't remember them until after the photo.

Beef Stir Fry - complete (with carrots!)

Crockpot Chicken Chili - with Cauliflower:

These are the veggies that go into the Chili.  Add chicken thighs, a jar of tomatoes, and spices.  8 hours later, Chili!!

One of our mainstays:  Roasted Chicken and Vegetables:

I cook this every week.  The chicken and the roasted vegetables are delicious!

Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Pablano Peppers

Before Roasting:  This is my favorite way to prepare Brussel Sprouts

Green Beans with Peppers, Onions and Mushrooms:

The green beans are so green because they have been blanched.

Green beans cooked and ready to eat

 Homemade pork and turkey sausage - ready to mix and roll into a log.  After it has been refrigerated for several hours, I slice the log into medallions and freeze the individual medallions for future breakfasts.  I often use the homemade sausage in an egg scramble with spinach, mushrooms, and onions.

A 1/2 pound each of ground pork and ground turkey and a lot of spices make a pretty decent breakfast sausage

The only meal I did not cook yesterday was our salmon.  It's simple to cook and tastes best straight from the oven.  I will cook it tonight, after dinner.

I was supposed to run this morning.  I got up at 4:20, ate breakfast, looked at the clock, sighed, and walked back to the bedroom to change into my running clothes when what did I hear?  Rain!  Ugh.  I checked the forecast and the rain is supposed to be done by evening, so I decided to wait until tonight to run.  When it gets a little warmer I may decide it is OK to run in the rain.  I have a very bad habit of saying I am going to exercise in the evenings and not doing it, which is why I get up so early in the mornings to exercise.  Tonight, I will run.  It's part of my challenge, after all!!

Kickball yesterday was a lot of fun.  We lost the first game due to some really sloppy defense, we could seem to get it together.  We got it together for the second game, and won that one with a walk-off in the 7th inning.  Fun times!!

Here's to our health!!

4/17/2016: 12 Week Challenge, Day 2!

Weight:  162.6 pounds - I've made a little progress already!

Yesterday was an exciting day for me as I dreamed up the idea to start a 12 Week Challenge, set goals with Lauren (my personal trainer), made a brand new chart (I do love my charts!), and put up my first blog post in months.  I was practically giddy about getting back on track and accepting the challenge to reach my new goals.  I am a goal oriented person and it helps me so much to have something specific to work towards.  I was really pleased with how my chart turned out and today I got to put my first mark on it, showing an 8/10 of a pound weight loss.  It was a good way to start!!

I had a great workout with Lauren yesterday.  I can't put my finger on why, exactly, but working out with a trainer completely changes the way I feel about lifting weights.  If I do it alone I have trouble pushing myself beyond comfortable.  I also feel like it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get through all of the exercises.  I think constantly about what I could eliminate to make the workout shorter.  But when I work out with Lauren I almost have fun.  In fact, maybe I actually enjoy it.  I look forward to her coming here.  I don't do it because I have to, I do it because I want to.  The effect lasts all week, too.  She designs three workouts a week for me, one we do together and the other two I do on my own.  My desire to fulfill her expectations drives me and gets me out of bed in the morning.  I don't want to disappoint her, so I get up and work out.  I also don't shortcut her routines.  I don't know why it motivates me so, but it does.  I like Lauren, she is still relatively new to this business, but she is keen to succeed.  She listens carefully and designs workouts to help me achieve my goals.  Finding a good personal trainer that really listens and responds to your needs is as tough as finding a good shrink.  I've worked with several different personal trainers over the last 15 years and I have found two that I really enjoyed working with.  The first one was Jeremy, my first trainer at 24 Hour Fitness.  He quit the business (after I followed him to Aspen Fitness Center and signed a three year contract) because he could make considerably more money building decks with his dad.  I worked with quite a few trainers between him and Lauren, but finally found Lauren at the beginning of 2015.  Unfortunately, she left Gold's Gym (my Aspen membership transferred to Gold's) and I had learned my lesson about following trainers from gym to gym.  It's a tough business.  You never know how long they are going to hang in there.

But finally, all of my gym memberships expired and I was not beholden to any particular gym.  I was a free agent again!  I poked around, visited gyms, talked to trainers, and nothing felt right.  I did not want to invest a bunch of time and money with someone that I didn't enjoy training with.  I kept thinking about Lauren, but her new gym was too far away from home and work.  I had made that mistake before, too.  If the gym isn't convenient, I don't go very often.  Finally I decided to offer to pay her to come here and she accepted.  As I said in yesterday's blog post, the arrangement is working out great for both of us.  She gets paid enough from this one session a week that she was able to give up her part-time gig installing hard wood floors.  Since she is coming here, I can be very flexible with regard to what day a week we work out together, so she can fit me into her schedule.  I have a pretty decent collection of equipment here, so she can design robust workouts.  I am thrilled with the arrangement!

Here is a photo of my little home gym:

Home gym - 4/17/16

This is the back half of our family room.  On warm sunny days like yesterday, I open the blinds and the windows.  It is a delightful place to work out.

And here is the workout I did yesterday with Lauren:

4/16/16 Workout

I've done this workout twice, the first time on my own, those notes are in black.  The second time was yesterday with Lauren, her notes are in red.  She changed it up a little bit on the fly, but you get the idea.  The workout takes a solid hour and it is hard work!  But when it's over, I feel great.  As I've said before, I love to exercise - the other 23 hours a day.

The clock just chimed for 8:00AM so I better run.  I have a lot of cooking I have to get done before kickball this afternoon.  Go Tequila Mockingbirds!!!!

4/16/2016: 4 Months Post-Op Pics and 12 Week Challenge!

Hello Everyone!

OK - It's been awhile.  Talking about recovery got old.  Work got way too busy.  I lost some motivation to blog.  Party season derailed me a little bit (our 7th wedding anniversary and Jack's 60th birthday party).  I kept trying to exercise, but my body wasn't quite recovered enough.  I got cranky, irritated and frustrated.  And I was just plain tired.

But it's a new day!!  Spring is in the air, the lilacs are blooming, and I'm feeling much, much stronger.  So hey, what do you say?  Let's get started, again!!

First, let's talk surgery results.  I will not post breast photos on the internet for everyone to see, but here are my before and after tummy photos.  Even I am impressed with the difference in these photos and I've been looking at the results every day for 4 months!

Before surgery:  @ approximately 158 pounds

4 months post-op:  4/16/2016 @ 163.4 pounds

Suffice it to say that there is an even bigger improvement with my breasts.  'Nuff said about that!!

I am going back the surgeon's office on Wednesday, April 20th, for some minor touch-up work.  He is going to straighten the abdominal scar where it dips down on the left side, nip & tuck the "dog ears" on either side of the abdominal scar, and he is going to do steroid injections in the breast scars (from directly under the center of my breast, around the side, to under my arms).  The scars under my arms are much thicker than they should be and they are still painful.  The steroid injections will hurt, but  they should facilitate the healing of the scars.  It's unfortunate that those scars are not healing as they should, the rest of my scars look great.  I don't know why those scars aren't healing as well as the others, but the steroid injections should help.

I know you can't see it in the before photo, because of the rolls of skin and fat, but the mole that is visible in the after photo, under my belly button, used to be about two inches above my belly button.  Also, in the after photo you can see a small vertical scar below the mole, that is where my belly button used to be.  That gives you an idea of how much he pulled down my skin.

As you can see, I still have stretch marks, there is nothing we can do about that, but wow!, what a difference the surgery has made.  My clothes fit much, much better.

Now, comes the next step - getting back in shape.  Four months of inactivity (and 6 weeks of not being careful with my diet) has taken it's toll.  I am in terrible shape.  I kept starting and stopping and starting and stopping exercise programs.  I'd start because I felt lazy and sluggish and because my arms and legs were starting to jiggle a little too much.  I'd stop because the exercise was uncomfortable and I could tell my body wasn't quite ready.  Finally, I got so frustrated that I started eating off program. Talk about adding insult to injury. In case you're wondering, there was a little bit of drinking going on, too.  I thought about hiring a personal trainer, but hated the idea of starting all over with someone new and I really didn't want to join another gym just to be able to have access to a personal trainer that I didn't know.

That all changed two weeks ago.  I still had the contact information for Lauren, a personal trainer that I worked with when I belonged to Gold's Gym.  I called her and we worked out an arrangement that I am absolutely thrilled with!  She comes to my house once a week for a one hour personal training session.  In addition, she provides me with two additional strength training workouts per week.  I text her with progress updates and questions throughout the week.  I have plenty of equipment at home for her to be able to design robust strength training workouts.  This morning was our 3rd at-home training session and it is working out beautifully for both of us.

In addition to lifting weights 3 times a week, I am jogging three times a week.  The 7th day of the week is a rest day.  With regard to food, this is my fourth day back on the Whole 30 program.  No sugar, grains, alcohol, dairy, etc.  I am not going to get into details on "What is the Whole 30," as I have described it in detail in previous blog posts, but I am back "On Program," which means that I am back to eating the Whole 30 way.

That pretty much gets you caught up.

Now it is time to tell you what I am going to do as I move forward and work at getting back into really good shape.

First, why is this important?  That is an easy questions to answer, I like the way I feel when I am fit and strong and when my diet is clean.  There are so many benefits I can't describe them all, but I will list a few.  When I am fit and strong and my diet is clean:

• I feel energetic
• I sleep better
• I feel like a young person
• My memory improves
• My balance improves
• I am more optimistic
• I'm happier
• I find more joy in everyday life
• My clothes fit better
• I feel sexy
• I am more playful
• I flirt with my husband more
• I am stronger and can lift more and do more
• Hiking is more fun
• I'm a better kickball player (can kick the ball further, run faster, am more coordinated, making it easier to catch the ball)
• It is easier for me to keep up with my grandchildren
• I feel like I am actively working at improving my odds of being healthy into old age
• I feel more comfortable in my clothes
• I am more confident
• I feel more like me

Right now, even though I am thrilled with my surgery results, I am not fit and I am not strong.  My upper arms wave in the breeze and my thighs are a jiggly mess.  I feel puffy and weak.  Three weeks ago I couldn't jog 1/4 mile or do 3 push-ups without resting.  Before surgery I was running 4 miles easily and could do 30 push-ups in a minute.  It's amazing what 4 months of inactivity will do.  I knew this was going to be an unfortunate consequence of the surgery.  I also knew I would have to kick myself in the ass to get started again.  Today is the day that I am seriously committing myself to getting my rear in gear!!

Two weeks ago I started the process of getting serious about exercise again and I've already made real progress.  I can now do 6 push-ups and I can run 1 1/4 miles without walking.  Yeah!!  It's encouraging to see my body respond this way.  Now I am ready to take on the challenge of getting back into excellent shape.  To motivate myself I have made a chart and taken before photos.  In addition, I have established a set of goals for my 12 Week Challenge.  First, the start photos:

 

4/16/2016 Before Photos - 163.4 Pounds:  4 months post-op

Ugh.  I kind of hate posting these, yet it is motivational for me to share them, so that I can show you the improvements from week to week.  My back.  Oh, goodness, I have to do something about my back!  As a point of reference, this is what my back looked like, before surgery, when I was in much better shape (but still had a really saggy stomach and even saggier breasts):

2015 - pre-surgery.  Approximately 158 pounds

Yes, my back will look much better in 12 weeks than it does now!  I promise myself that!!

And now the chart (you know how I love my charts!):

4/16/16:  12 Week Challenge Chart - Day 1!

The chart is for tracking weight loss, as well as progress on all goals of my 12 week challenge, that are detailed, below:

Start Date:  4/16/2016

End Date:  7/9/2016

WEIGHT GOAL

Start weight: 163.4 lbs

Goal weight: 150 lbs

FITNESS GOALS

Start jog distance (before I have to walk): 1.25 Miles

Goal jog distance:  3.0 Miles

Start push-ups to fail:  6

Goal push-ups to fail:  20

Start bent-arm-hang to fail:  0 Sec

Goal bent-arm-hang to fail:  5 Seconds

MEASUREMENT GOALS

Start right bicep:  13 ½”

Goal right bicep:  12”

Start circumference right under bra:  34 ½”

Goal circumference right under bra:  32 ½”

Start circumference at belly button:  34 ¼”

Goal circumference at belly button:  32 ¼

Start circumference at top of hip bone:  39 ¼”

Goal circumference at top of hip bone:  36 ¼”

Start right thigh 9 inches above knee:  21 ½”

Goal right thigh, 9 inches above knee:  23”

During my 12 Week Challenge I will:

• Exercise 6 days a week
• Eat On Program (including abstaining from all sugar and alcohol)
• Weigh myself and record my weight, daily
• Update my blog posts regularly
• Measure my progress towards the goals listed above every 4 weeks.

I am excited to have goals established and a plan for getting my strength back.  I am looking forward to feeling great and having a little less jiggle in my wiggle!!  I hope you will stop by from time to time to check on my progress.  Words of encouragement are welcome!!

Here's to our good health!!