Violence makes exercise easier November 24, 2010

 

Wii snowball fight. Totally fun!

 

 

When I got to eighty pounds lost, I wanted to reward myself with something non-food.  In the past, I often ‘rewarded’ myself with food for all kinds of victories.  Personal, professional, family, etc.  No more food rewards for me!  I don’t want food rewards anyway because they undo all the work I’ve been doing.  So, last Friday I bought myself the Wii Fit Plus.  I just got it up and working yesterday and this morning my ass hurts.  There is a huge selection of activities, and they are grouped by what kind of work you want to do.  It also graphs out your time spent (breaking it down into categories like strength, aerobics, balance, etc) and calculates calories burned.  I spent most of my time doing the aerobic activities and my favorite is the Rhythm Kung Fu.  I must look like a complete idiot while I’m doing it, but thankfully, my family already knows I’m a dork and they don’t seem to notice.  It’s just hilarious.  My other favorite is the snowball fight.  It’s really the only one where violence gets to creep in there, and I like that.  Violence makes exercise easier.

Something else that I want to mention is the phenomenon of “transfer addiction”.  I think it’s entirely possible that I am suffering from this!  I read about it early on in my lap band journey, and I distinctly remember thinking, “Oh, piffle.  Transfer addiction.  What a crock of shit.”  Now, I am reconsidering that earlier opinion of mine.  Transfer addiction is where you trade one addiction for another.  My transfer addiction seems to be trading food addiction for shopping addiction.  I will say that while food addiction is far less healthy, shopping addiction is far more expensive.  I have bought several new items of clothing in the last couple of weeks.  It’s really fun for me to buy clothes that I like.  I am not just buying clothes because they fit.  I don’t think I’m really at the ‘addiction’ stage yet with the shopping, and I am not spending money that I don’t have.  I did get all new underwear and that was really necessary.  Everything else I’ve purchased wasn’t exactly necessary, but pretty damn fun.

No more onion rings for me…ever again November 19, 2010

This alone should be enough to keep me out of any Burger King.

Onion rings and I are done.  For good.  I learned tonight that they are no longer a viable option for me, without some serious ugliness.  I met my mom and brother for dinner tonight at the always-lovely Applebee’s Bar & Grill.  I had a great weight loss this week (my total loss is now 80 pounds…yay!) and when we went for dinner tonight I thought I would just order myself a nice little wrap sandwich.  Great.  But then the waiter (who was a complete tool, by the way) asked, “Would you like onion rings with that?”  And of course I said what any red blooded American would say.  “Sure!”  What was I thinking??  I don’t know.  I am a Bandster, for God’s sake!  I can’t order onion rings at Applebee’s!  Well, I CAN, but I can’t eat them.  So anyway, I only ate half the sandwich and I ate one onion ring.  I got to experience said onion ring a second time in the restroom about two minutes later.  I know that some bandsters say that they don’t really have any warning when something “comes back”.  That would be truly awful.  In my experience, I have usually up to about two minutes before I desperately need to find a restroom or a dark alley behind the Indian restaurant, if you know what I mean.  I am lucky that way.  Yes, lucky.  I’ve got plenty of time to politely excuse myself and then yak it in the restroom. You’re welcome for creating that splendid visual for your enjoyment.

This band experience is a learning journey.  I am doing great (better than even I expected of myself) and I still have moments where I lose my head a little and try something that, in my gut, I know isn’t going to work out.  So now I know onion rings are a no-go. And I think it’s the texture.  You know how you can’t really chew or tear off the onion part with your teeth?  And how it’s just a long, greasy string?  I think that’s the issue.  My good friend Kathy told me tonight that the onions they use in the Burger King rings are minced.  I have to say, I love Kathy, but I really did NOT need to know that and I hate her for telling me because I’m sure they would slide right on down the gullet.  And I happen to think that Burger King’s onion rings are some of the tastiest cuisine around. But I am willing to let them go over the cliff, into the deep abyss that is filling with things I can no longer eat and are bad for me anyway.  I heart my band!  In my next post I have decided that I am going to write  a letter to my band.  Should be interesting.

Support groups are NOT lame November 11, 2010

Really cheesy graphic demonstrating the "rainbow of support"

I will admit it.  I have spent most of my adult life being skeptical of “support groups”.  Maybe it’s because I grew up in a family where support from anyone other than your own self was considered an infringement of someone else’s right to not have to deal with your problems.  We’re Swedish, we can’t help it.  Stoicism rules.

Tonight I attended the lap band support group for Good Sam patients.  I missed the last one, and I was looking forward to seeing people again and hearing how others are doing.  For the first part of the meeting, I didn’t get much out of it.  I was thinking, “I’ve heard all this stuff before.  Get your protein in.  Take vitamin D.  Take vitamin B.  No drinking with meals.”  Blah blah blah.  But at some point tonight, I thought, “Hey! Maybe this ISN’T just all about me!”  That got me to thinking about why I wanted to start a blog in the first place.  My initial motivation for starting this blog was so that I could hopefully be helpful to others in the way that some had been helpful to me.  I found a couple of blogs when I was in the incipient stages of research on the lap band surgery, and they were helpful (dare I say instrumental?) in helping me to come to this life-changing decision.

So, an update on my progress.  I am down  about 77 pounds  total.  That is 77 pounds down from my first surgeon’s appointment in May.  However, it’s over one hundred pounds down from my highest ever.  I am back to exercising regularly after being a little under the weather.  As the time passes, I become less and less concerned with the numbers on the scale.  It’s really more about how I’m feeling and how my clothes fit (or don’t fit!).  I have set a weight loss goal for myself though. I would like to have lost 100 pounds by Dec. 31, 2010.

I have experienced plenty of NSV’s.  (Non scale victories)  I fit in places I didn’t use to.  My underwear is falling down.  (That’s a victory for me, but maybe not for passersby)   At our school’s music program last night, I had someone come up to me (who I had not seen in a while) and she told me that she did not recognize me.  Yay!  That’s what I’m going for!  I want people to not know who I am. I want to start fresh and I want people to lose their misconceptions of me based on how I look. Someone who meets me now, today, would have a different impression of me than someone who met me five years ago.  Some people who lose a lot of weight like this say “I am still the same person!  I just look different.”  Well, I am here to tell you that I am NOT the same person.  I’m new and I’m here!

New post November 3, 2010

If you want to see my latest post, check my reply to Debbie!  I started by just thinking I would reply to her comment, and then I went on, and on, and on….