Your stomach

When was the last time that you thought about your stomach.  Weird question, huh?  But really, when was the last time that you thought about it?  I really thought about it Tuesday night when I went to the Bariatric Surgery Seminar with Pete.

Most people realize that their stomach should be about the size of their fist.  I say should because in reality most of us eat way more than a fist size.  It becomes a cycle - eat more, stretch stomach, need to eat more yet, stretch stomach...  You get the idea.  I believe that this is why most diet plans (gosh I hate the word diet), suggest that you eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day.  Your stomach should decrease and you should feel fuller longer. 

How much do you drink when you eat?  Did you know that you shouldn't drink anything?  And that you should avoid drinking for at least 30 minutes afterwards?  The liquid that you eat washes the food from your stomach into your digestive tract quicker.  Therefore, you end up feeling less full whole eating and generally eating more in each setting.

Did you know that it usually takes at least 20 minutes for the stomach to send the seratonin to your brain that says "I'm full."?  How long did your last meal take?  If it was less than about 20-25 minutes, you're eating too fast.  You're shovelling food in and your stomach has no idea that it's over full.

On another note, the seminar touched on the fact that people who have surgery tend to lose friends and have issues in their personal lives with relationships.  That hit me like a ton of bricks.  Here I was jealous of Pete and he hasn't even had surgery.  I was honest with him though when he asked me if I was.  I told him that I'd love to have a tool like the lap band to help me in my journey.  However, I don't meet he criteria.

I'm still here

I'm blog stalking.  Saturday Pete and I went out in the 20 degree Minnesota weather for an hour to take pcitures.  I know that we're hearty Minnesooooooootans (said in my best accent), but damn if 20 degrees with a wind isn't cold!  And to top it off, the outfits that I bought for us consisted of sweaters.  Yep, no jackets.  At the end we Harely'd up with shirts & sweatshirts for some fun pictures.  Pete says to me as I'm taking my sweater off OUTSIDE to put on a different shirt "I'm not taking anything off!!"  I laughed and told him that he didn't have to. 

Anyway, hopefully some teasers will be up on her blog soon and the pictures in a couple of weeks. 

Do you want to stalk too?  Or even just someone local who wants pictures taken?  Because Pete is SO NOT a picture guy.  As in he complianed the whole time leading up to this.  As in he questioned why he had to do this (I told him he had to because he LOVED me).  Well Leah had us laughing in the freezing cold and at the end, while driving away, Pete says "Well that wasn't bad at all!".

Here's the blog:  Leah Maria Photography.

Still sore & don't freak out

So it's now Thursday and I'm still sore from Tuesday.  I think this time the soreness is from the foam roller shw used too agressivly on my right leg.  The rest of the soreness is something that I expect.  I'm hoping to be ok by tomorrow or so I can work out again on my own. 

Saturday Pete and I are having photos taken.  I wanted pictures of us that are good and not in wedding attire.  After I scheduled them I realized that this would be a good before & after and that we should re-do them this time next year to see where we are at. 

Don't freak out, ok?  I added a bunch of recipes to my recipe blog Adventures in Everyday Food today.  They're all Thanksgiving Day recipes that I'm making.  I say don't freak out because I'm not eating them all! 

Walking...barely.

So I had another session with the trainer Tuesday at the gym. Yesterday. Wow, seems like so long ago. Anyway, I was a little sore last night. The kind of sore that reminds you that you worked out and worked out well. Today? I'm hobbling. Not as in my back hurts, but definately I wonder (silently of course) if I really need to use the bathroom that badly because it hurts to lower myself & get up again.

So I wonder, on these days, is it worth it?

Is the soreness for a couple of days afterwords worth losing? Is the stiffness from sitting for a couple of days worth it? Because I end up lifting weights 2 days a week and spending 2-3 days afterwards sore. So really I'm living in a state of sore and not so sore.

I really need to get back to the place where I'm working out and sore the next day and then it's gone. I REALLY need that rhythum again.

Holiday Challenge

I joined the holiday challenge at the gym today. They'll weigh me tomorrow when I go back and then weigh me again on 1/7/11. If I haven't gained I'll get a free t-shirt. It's still really, a t-shirt? Is it motivation though? Yep. The competative side of me wants to win that damn shirt. That same competativeness says that I should only get the tshirt if I actually lose, because after all that's my goal, right?

So the last time I weighed myself (last Friday) I was 240. My goal is to be at least 230 by 1/1/11. Small goal and 6 weeks to do it.

I really want to make this about others.

As I was getting ready this morning I thought about telling you all about Pete and his journey here. I had 5 days of posts worked up in my head. Then I went over and read Ex Yo Yo Dieter .

Talk about a wake up.

Talk about hiding!

For several months now I've done nothing. Well, almost nothing. I keep saying here how happy I am that I haven't gained. Yet I haven't continued my journey to lose either. I am stagnant. Not moving. I've done good things like worked out some and walked. But I've also done bad things like eaten 4 cupcakes and too many servings and not exercised when I could.

My newest obsession is Pete. His journey. He is a candidate for the lap-band or another surgery called The Sleeve (which sounds like an evil villan, but I digress). He is beyond excited. Just attending the doctor's appointment he knows (and now I know) that I can never be a candidate for weightloss surgery. I have TMJ and cannot open very wide. Once again I am worried. What if he figures out hiw journey and I am still...well like I am now?

What if I can't do it? Am I self sabotaging my journey right now so that I have a good excuse when I don't lose more weight?

All that for nothing

I just got done eating. I think it took me all of 10 minutes.

It occurred to me that I just spent all afternoon cooking a big dinner only to consume my portion in 10 minutes. A lot of work for just 10 minutes.

I don't seem to have this problem other places, but at home I scarf down my meal so fast. Maybe it's because we have no kitchen table to eat at. We eat in the livingroom in front of the tv. Maybe it's because the eating isn't important once I've spent all that time cooking. I literally was in the kitchen from 2pm-5pm cooking breakfasts for the week, ham, bread, mac & cheese, corn, apply torte... A long time. Maybe it's because I'm wondering if Pete likes what I've made. Wondering if he likes a new recipe or not.

At any rate, I don't savor my food here at home. I gulp it down and don't seem to notice what I'm eating.

Likely not a good way to do it. And I need to figure out how to change this.

Food as fuel

I keep thinking about this notion that food is just fuel. Then I think about the fact that I LOVE food. And then (if it could get any longer, right?) I wonder why it's so bad to love food?

I grew up with parents that never cooked alternative meals for us kids. Parents who made us try everything on our plate at least once. Parents who made us eat every meal. Parents who made us finish what we took. Some of those things are good and some are bad. I can credit my parents with giving me a wide aray of choices for food. However, I can credit them with feeling like I have to clean my plate no matter how full I am.

I think what it comes down to is that I don't have to see food as fuel only. But I have to figure out how to work good food into my daily intake and limit the bad-for-me-but-good-tasting food.

How do I do this?

I seem to get fixated on bad food lately. Cake is one of them. I could eat cake every day so I've learned not to buy it/make it very often. But I still crave it and think about it. Chocolate is good and bad, right? I crave a little chocolate daily. But I think I have that one because I was introduced to the Attune Chocolate Bar at the Prior Fat Girl get together. I can stake having one of those daily and getting probiotics in too.

it's the breads and the pastas and the fried foods that I can't seem to work in when I get absolute cravings for them. I need to work on that.

Ironic

I worked out with the trainer on Tuesday.

Couldn't walk by Wednesday.

Lost 3 freaking pounds when I weighed in on Friday morning.

If only the losing thing was that easy, right?

Fred

Are you old enough to remember watching Fred Sanford on Sanford & Son? If not, watch one of the clips from the show.

Notice how he walks?

I just realized while walking to the printer at work that I walk like him today. Really. My butt is pulled into my pelvis, my hips waddle from side to side and I use my arms to propel me forward. Now I don't normally walk like this. But I did it again.

Let me show you the pattern:
no exercise for a while
exercise
pumped up the day of exercise
a little sore the next day
VERY sore the 2nd day & walking funny
anger the sciatica
walk even funnier to baby the sciatica
injure lower back
walk even funnier
unable to work out for a while
lather, rinse & repeat.

I need to figure out how to break the pattern.

The Food Blog...

Adventures in Everyday Food

Check it out.

Recipes

The time I normally spend writing a post I used in different way yesterday. A couple if years ago I put together a recipe blog to track the cooking I was doing. It quickly fell by the wayside when I started yet another blog about planning my wedding. Can you say blog overload?

What I've realized in the last couple of months is that I gave a pattern. (doesn't everyone?). I search for recipes, I make recipes then I lose the good ones. Shortly after coming back from our anniversary trip I made great biscuits. Now I'll be famed if I can find that recipe.

So I resurrected my recipe blog called Adventures In Everyday Food. I'll post a link in the next few days to the site. My hope is that I can both log the recipes I make but also track the nutrition and see if I can revamp them to make them better for us.

Prior Fat Girl

Have you been over to Jen's site to read about her? Prior Fat Girl I've written about her before and her journey of weightloss and her struggles.

She's running a contest of sorts to invite a new Prior Fat Girl to join her site and blog about their journey. For the last several days she's been listing nominated bloggers and their stories. If you haven't been to her site today, GO! Read James' Story .

It brings up an interesting point, no? I mean I think that we tend to think of weight loss and eating as a female thing. Something that only women struggle with. But obviously this isn't something that is gender specific. So while it's not talked about often by women, it's not talked about even more by men.

Can I tell you how much I appreciate hearing it from a man's perspective? I often struggle with how to best support my husband in his journey. I think I know what I need to support me. I think I have the tools that I need at this point to figure out what to do. But how to I support him?

For a while I was limiting his food intake at the meals that I cooked. For a while I went to the gym and worked out on weights with him, skipping my own workout. For a while I went to eh gym when he wanted to g, instead of what worked best for me. For a while I would comment about how many servings he had of food. For a while I stopped buying soda and commented every time he bought one. For a while I challenged him to work out so many times a week. For a while I reminded him how much better he felt when he worked out.

Nothing helped though. Nothing. Just writing this out made me realize that I can't help him, he has to help himself. I knew that intellectually. But in my heart I want him to be happy and it seems like I was (am) willing to do whatever it takes to make him happy.

For the last year he has been talking about weightloss surgery. If I'm honest with myself I feel crappy because when we were working out before I was getting upset (internally) that he was weighing less than me. When he started gaining it back, he started talking about weightloss surgery. I felt like it was a cop out. Then I had a friend who had a lap band and realized that it wasn't easy and weight didn't fall off, it was still work. Pete kept talking about it and telling me that I should make an appointment for him.

You read right. I should make his doctor appointment for his surgery. I resisted. I told him that he needed to do it. I felt like he needed to be at the point that he was willing to make the call himself. He's to that point. He has an appointment at a local bariatric center next week to start the process with the lap band. I think he's starting his own journey. And I need to remember that everyone's journey is different.

Trainers

Have you every worked with a trainer? I grew up in a home that didn't place any impoartance on physical activity. I think it's one of the factors in my weight issues. Things that you don't learn as a child sometimes take twice as long or more to learn as an adult.

When Pete and I were working out at the same gym a few years ago I mainly stuck to the treadmill/elliptical. I didn't know how to use the machines, let alone the free weights. Pete showed me the machines and I used those. I really didn't know what I was doing though. I'd do 15 reps sometimes, sometimes I'd do 60. Sometimes I'd work the machines and the treadmill all on the same days. Sometimes I'd ry the balance ball and other pieces of equipment. But I had no clue. No clue how to work out, what to work out and how to be successfull at it.

When we joined the Y last winter, I started out on the same plan. I'd be on the treadmill/elliptical for 35-40 minutes and then use the machines. I think I knew that you weren't supposed to do a major workout both in the same day. I think I knew that you weren't supports to do all major muscle groups day after day. But it didn't seem to matter for me.

Then I worked with a trainer over the summer. She's this little peppy, petite woman. At times I was frustrated with her, happy with her, scared of her... But the bottom line is that I saw results. Good results. Results that have stuck with me. I still have definition in my uppoer arms. I still have definition in my back. I keep kicking myself for not continuing what we had started. But I also know that my hard work makes it happen.

So tomorrow at 5am, I'll be back at the Y meeting with that trainer again.