Walls...

People talk about hitting a wall when it comes to running, writing, daily tasks, weight loss or patience.  In my life, these walls have names.
The first wall is called Ankle Surgery...
This wall is annoying, frustrating, necessary, and about to be broken down.  I only have about 2 more weeks of limited activity before I can get back to doing crazy things like walking and stairs.
Initially after surgery, I lost weight due to several factors.  I was in too much pain to get up for anything more than a bathroom break, so that eliminated my knack for snacking.  I was also too nauseated to keep much down.  After the first couple of weeks, things slowly got back to normal and I got back to snacking.  So what was an initial loss of 10lbs has still resulted in a loss, but now I'm only down 5lbs, which is fine with me because I lost it for the wrong reasons anyways!

In Niobrara for Mother's Day
I like to refer to it as "Das Boot"

***
If you're curious here are the multiple procedures that I went through to get myself stable.
Evans Procedure
Brostrom Surgery
Calcaneal Osteotomy
None of these are fun to go through, but neither was the pain I was in sometimes daily.
***
My other wall is named THE LAST 15!
These last 15 lbs have weighed on me (PUN INTENDED) for far too long.  The longer my weight stagnates, the farther and father that goal of 155-160 feels.  I get comfortable with my fat and let it sit there while I sit there.  Being laid up these past few weeks have made me more motivated to kick things into high gear once I'm medically cleared.

Another wall that we struggle with as a family is called Someday
Someday...
We'll add on to the house
We'll do major renovations
We'll have time to relax
We'll have more space
We'll travel more
It's so fun to dream, but we keep catching ourselves in the future and not enjoying the here and now.  Sometimes I need to pull myself back here when I was just 20 years in the future.  Time is flying and 20 years is going to be here in a flash.  In the meantime, I want to focus on taking care of my body so that in 20 years I can still do all the things I'm dreaming about today!

***Congratulatory shout out to my dear friend who is kicking butt at weight loss!  She ran the Lincoln 1/2 marathon earlier this month!  Check out Amber's Story!

Dear February,
    Thanks for the artic blast that nearly drove me insane with intense bitter hate for this midwestern climate.  Then you did something that totally redeemed yourself.  Today it is a beautiful 64 degrees.  You knew I needed this little warm spell to get me motivated for Spring and more importantly, Summer!  I know you have plans to drop back down into the 30s, but you're entitiled...you are Mr. February after all. 
With love (and hate),
Annie

I am so sick of the Y.  Ryan is too.  We were talking about how waaay back in november, how excited we were for join and have a facility to work out, but it wears off.  Now we want to be back outside and if all this ice melts, it looks like thats a good possibility.  Time to change things up! 

Chugging along!

     Welcome to my first and last post for January 2011.  Things are going pretty well, considering how much we have going on.  The only things is that we went on vacation on Jan 13th and I have not been back to the Y since.   Yeesh, I know!  Over 2 fulls weeks of sleeping in (as much as a 2 year old will allow) and I'm finding it so hard to get back into my groove.  I'm going tomorrow and I'm going to weigh myself.
     Also I'm doing SlimFast again, and I figured if all I did this last summer was SlimFast and I lost 10 lbs, then what could I lose if I actually coupled it with good diet and exercise?  I know what you're thinking, "Thats crazy person talk!  You can't diet and exercise!!!"  Oh yes I can, and I am going to.
     Waaaay back in December (or November), I got back on the coffee.  I can't kick it for the life of me!  I'm even going so far as to making decaf in the afternoon.  I think its because I feel so cold all the time (fat kept me warm!) So now I constantly find myself drinking coffee, hot chocolate, hot chai, tea, whatever! I can get my hands on to warm my bones.  That's also now a running joke in our family.  I told my husband and my mom that I'm cold all the time now because I'm so super skinny.  Just being obnoxious, but now that's kind of a thing we'll say if one of us is cold.  Lame and true, but a fun inside joke.  I had a client once who had gastric bypass and lost something over 100 lbs and she was telling me how she used to sweat constantly and now she could never get warm and her feet hurt.  I thought that was really interesting, because now I can relate to the being cold thing, but I never thought about the feet.  We have fat pads on the soles of our feet, isn't it funny to think that if you lose enough weight, your feet will get skinnier?  But in losing that padding, she began to have foot pain.  Just an interesting tidbit!
     I'm weighing in tomorrow and I'm expecting a huge gain, but we shall see!

On my way to another great year!

Even though I didn't come close to achieving my goal in the timeline I initially set out in my first blog entry, I'm still very happy with my accomplishments this year.  We've pushed some (baby) plans back so that I've got more time to get to my ideal weight, but it's all for the best.  2010 was so good to me!  We celebrated 3 years of wedded bliss, our son's 2nd birthday, vacations, family bonding, and lots of love!  These last 15 pounds are tricky, but I've got a new plan of attack for 2011.  Wish me luck!  

Enjoy a few before and after pics from last Christmas to this one! 

How I'm handling the Holidays...

I love love love this time of year.  Not for the crappy weather, not for the gifts, not even for the liquor laced eggnog....no, I love it for the food.

     Nothing says "Happy Birthday Jesus!" like gorging yourself with the people you love.  This Christmas marks one full year since I knew it was time to take off my baby weight.  You can see the picture that got me motivated from last Christmas here.    So here we are again Christmas, I've been waiting for you so you can see the new me.  I am not to my initial goal weight, but I am down to pre-baby weight.  I'm actually down to my high school weight, but I gained 20 lbs senior year so I don't really think it counts.  I know that Christmas is waaaay more important than some weight loss, but the way I see it, I've just added who knows how much more time to my life to praise Jesus.
     My baby brother-in-law graduated from college this past week.  We drove up for it (despite a blizzard!) and ate wonderful food, stayed in a hotel, swam, talked, and had a blast.  It was such a great reason for us to all get together and I know my husband could not have been more proud of his little brother.  My mom sent along a pack of Joe-Joe's.  These are Trader Joe's version of an Oreo, filled with bits of candy cane.  I'm pretty sure I ate 3/4 of the box.  So that was obviously a mistake.
     Right before we left for the graduation, my mama, son and I had gone to visit relatives in Kentucky for about  a week.  I really was mildly impressed with myself.  We ate in a lot and cooked for my beloved 92 year old relatives.  I can't even pick out something that was totally outrageous that I may have eaten or gorged on.  The only thing that comes to mind is that on the 13-16 hours we were on the road (one way) I would buy RockStar Energy Drinks at some of our stops...

Now take everything on that label and times it by two, since there are two servings in every can.  I'm not a big label person, but even I know this is just too much of everything to be in something I'm drinking.  I also may or may not have had 2 or 3 Dunkin Doughnuts and some sugar with coffee and cream at a gas station at 5:30am on our drive home.

Despite all this, I weighed myself when I was at the Y yesterday morning and I'm only up something like a pound and a half.  I did crunches every night when we were in Kentucky and it felt so good to get back into the gym yesterday.  I got into such a groove running, I went past my usual one mile before I looked down to realize I was almost to a mile and a half.

Things are going well and maybe by Christmas 2011 I'll be to my goal weight...hopefully sooner though!!!

Good news, bad news situation...

I'll go with bad news first, because I like to end on a good note.


     I have high cholesterol.  Not insanely high, but high all the same.  I went in for a physical a couple of weeks ago so that I can make sure all my levels are good, or if any need improvement.  Initially he said, everything looked great!  Then my lab results were mailed to me.  Everything was fine except for one, my cholesterol.  Normal is under 200 and I am at 206.  I'd rather be much much further from 200.  HDL (High-density lipoprotein) was high at 62, but it is referred to as your good cholesterol because it is responsible for transporting your cholesterol back to the liver to be processed.  Then, in true doctor fashion, a barely legible "acceptable" is scribbled across the front of the report and signed by my doctor.  This may be acceptable to him, but I want to be in tip top shape before we have another baby to help prevent any complications on my end.  I was so frustrated, because I felt like I'd been doing everything possible for me to be healthy and this kind of blind sided me.  So now for the good news...
     We joined our local YMCA.  When I first started losing weight I was very anti-gym.  Mostly because I did not want anyone to see me run, jog, walk, or crawl on a public treadmill.  I feel like losing this first 35 pounds has given me more self confidence about working out in public.  Plus, I have been doing my workout videos for like 10 months now and I am getting super bored with them.  I got up this morning, with a little elbowing from hubby, at 6:30 am.  Did you know that in the beginning of November the sun is not even making a effort to come up by 6:30?...I really don't care for winter.  I did a mile run on the elliptical.  I've been having some knee/hip/ankle/back pain, so elliptical was the most comfortable.  It felt really good to run and get my blood pumping, and hopefully it will help with my cholesterol too.  Then I jumped on an ab machine (do not know what its called, but its the one where you support yourself on your elbows and pull your legs up to your chest).  I hate hate hate sit ups or crunches.  I can never do them just right and I always end up straining my neck, so I'm going with the machines from now on.  Then I worked my back a little, hoping to slim down my adorable lipoma.  Plus I loved when I used to have those back dimples, oh, some day I'll see them again.  
     I feel awesome.  Hubby and I are going to take turns every other day with getting up early and working out, but taking Sundays off.  This will mean 3 days of workout a week for each of us, without losing out on family time.  He made a good point the other day.  If I can lose 35 pounds with relatively mild diet and exercise, imagine what my body would do with more intensive exercise.  Food for thought!

Typing quick! Nap time is almost over!

Hitting up a few topics today...
#1 Our son turned 2!
This seems so ridiculous to me.  I sometimes can't believe he is even here, let alone that he is 2.  We had a fishy party!  It was adorable.  A few of his little friends came fishing and we opened presents and he blew out the candles on his fish cake and we ate fish shaped cookies.  I had so much fun getting everyone together and getting ready for his party, I came down off a huge emotional and sugar high when all was said and done.  I ate more sugar cookies and a weeks time span than I have all year.  Not to toot my own horn, but the cake and cookies were delicious!  My hips are not thanking me.

#2 Pumpkin Patch
This is my favorite time of year despite how bad all of our allergies are.  We went to the pumpkin patch and watched our guy run (no wobbly walk this year) though the attractions.  It was such a fun time.  Also I didn't notice till I started looking though last years pictures that I wore almost the exact same thing this year as the year before.  This is weird and makes for good comparison pics!

2009                                               2010

#3 We have baby fever!
I don't know if its because I have a 2 yr old now or what, but we have babies on the brain.  Our timeline for the next year and a half is crazy, but a baby is in there somewhere too, jut not sure when though!  I had so many issues with our first I want to make sure I am in tip top shape before we get pregnant again.  I want to reach my goal weight (thanks to the cake and cookies I am still looking at another 15 lbs.)  I went and got a physical just to make sure blood pressure, cholesterol, and whatever else they can check is all normal.  My doctor, whom I love, was great.  Said I should definitely get down to goal before getting pregnant and that will really help with any complications that I could prevent on my end.  I got a big pat on the back for losing weight in a timely and healthy manner.  Glad I am going about things right and its actually working for me!