Statement

Oh how I wish life had an undo button!!

 

 

Mental Lap Band

It seems though I have lost my blogging mo-jo or my blo-jo if you prefer.

I think I need a jumpstart.

For those of you who expressed an interest in how I dropped the weight:

1) Falldownthestairsandbreakyourleg

2) Spend two weeks in the hospital/rehab not eating hospital food

3) Spend a another month or so eating whatever food your husband makes

In addition, I also came to the realization that I am indeed a sedentary person, so why was I eating like a weightlifter?

Now this part sounds a little silly, but I was also thinking about how when people have weight loss surgery their stomach is made smaller so that they get fuller quicker and eat less. I never even considered surgery (I was after all, just overweight, not the half-ton woman) so I decided to install a mental lap band. I trained myself to do the following:

My mouth to open less.

My stomach to differentiate between true hunger pangs and cravings.

My eyes to read the label for suggested serving size

My hands to bring no more than the suggested serving to my mouth.

Slowly but surely it worked.

I still eat Oreos but only three instead of six. I still drink soda but only 8oz at a time and not every day. Vegetables are still anathema but I eat them because they are good for me.

Exercising would probably help me lose the last 25lbs I need to get down to the weight I was when I got married. But my stamina/capacity for exercise is limited. So if anybody wants to give me some good exercises I can do sitting in my chair in front of the computer, I'm willing to give it a go.

This is me as of 5/6/09:

That is Laura to my left and Cathe to my right. I'm looking pinched and unhappy because we just came out of the restaurant into the frigid (for May) rainy night.

For a reference point - this is me July 4th of 2005:

The wee bundle of baby is nephew Alex. He is a great, big boy of almost 4 now. We were watching fireworks and he slept through the whole thing. Never even flinched. Nerves of steel, he has.

Feeling pretty dang good

Last night I went out to dinner with some former colleagues, all of whom I haven’t seen in a year.

They greeted me with amazement and compliments on my weight loss.

My friend Laura told me, “Jen, you look as hot as shit!” It filled my heart with gladness and I spent the rest of the evening with a silly grin on my face.

There is nothing like getting affirmation from people who love you!!

At the end of the night, as we were departing the restaurant, my other friend Cathe hugged me good-bye and said ,“At the risk of sounding superficial, you don’t even look like yourself”. As I hugged her back, I told her that the new slightly slimmer Jen looks more like me than that puffy, bloated Jen she’s known for years.

Ask Sanna or Jess or Ginger and they will probably tell you that they barely recognize their formerly slim friend under her layers of avoirdupois.

For the record, I’ve lost approximately 35lbs.

Lupus follow-up

I cannot even begin to describe the feeling of lightness that came over me when I came home yesterday and saw that the 5 bags of clothing and miscellaneous junk was removed from my front porch. The older I get, the more I realize that I don't need all this "stuff" in my life. And as long as the Lupus organization is willing to come and pick it up I'm putting out as much as they can take away.

The thought never even crossed my mind that it might be a scam. So that either makes me very gullible or Melody and Sanna very skeptical. Either way, my stuff is gone and I'm already making a pile for the next time they come around!

lupus

A week or so ago I got a mailing from the Lupus organization. They sent me a plastic bag and asked me to fill the bag with unused clothing and other household items, then I should call or go online to lupuspickup.org and schedule a pick-up, put my bags of stuff out on my front porch by 7:30am on the given day and wait for someone from the Lupus organization to come by and pick it up.

I very nearly threw that mailing away.