BYOC!!!

Thanks to Draz  for giving me something to write about this week!!!

We answer 5 little questions - some serious, some silly - to give our blogging brains a break and to get to know each other better.  Copy and paste to your own blog and ENJOY!!

1. Tell us something that you want to do or wish you could do but you continue not to do it for fear of judgement or failure or of what others may say or do?


I would quit my job and open up a little gift boutique! I've always been obsessed with paper, stationary,  bags, little happys, but money and fear of failure will pretty much always take over. 

2. What’s your favorite pizza topping and brand?

I'm boring - pepperoni and sometimes add a little mushroom! We have Grimaldi's here and I LOVE it!!! I think it's local to AZ and it's wood fired pizza.. so good. Rosatti's comes in a close 2nd. In chicago - it's def Lou Malnati's. Everyone goes crazy over Ginos, Giordano's and Uno/Due, but Malnati's is really the best! 

3. If you could go back in time but only as far as five years – would you go or not go and why?

HELL NO!! Let's recap - 5 years ago we were just in the midst of the great Stull depression. I wouldn't wish that time on anyone. I'd say the last 4 years have been some of my best so I'm fine not going back! 

4. Who is your favorite Disney princess and why?

This is a funny question b/c I've honestly never thought of having a favorite Disney Princess. I'm not a huge fan of any of them, we are lucky I even know who they are but since I know Kennedy, I know them by default - I think one of them is Aurora and isn't there a Jasmine?? 
The only other one I know of is the newest girl in crown - Sofia the 1st. So, I"ll go with her, she's my favorite!! 

5. Repeat Question – summarize your week!

This week was decent. WorkWise, as always, it was busy busy!! I had 17 people at my house on Easter Sunday so that was fun! Then, my Bro, SIL and kids came in on Sunday night and have been here all week so that's been fun! Tonight we are having more people over and this weekend is packed with lots of stuff as usual. I can barely stop and take a breath! 
I did get to see my Dr this week and got a fill. I'll write about that next week some time, but it's all good!  I'm ready for my WL to really kick in and start seeing some good results. 
Next week, my girlfriends come in for Shannon's bachelorette party and I'm super excited about that! 

have a great weekend! 
xo, js

Weigh In Wednesday - Wah Wah

Last Week's Weight:  246.4
Today's Weight:  245.9
Total Loss:  .5

Geez Louise..  not surprised though. I've been non-stop for the past week and haven't worked out like I planned. My eating has been not bad but I'm so hungry all.the.time.  I'm heading to my dr. this morning so hopefully a fill will do me some good. I'm sucking up and paying all the $$ since my insurance doesn't cover Bariatric anymore, so I'm hoping that's even more of a motivator to get this shit done!! :)

Be back in a bit.

xo

Weigh In Wednesday - duh, duh, duh...

Last Week's Weight:  249
Today's Weight:  246.4
Loss:  2.6

I'll take it. I could have done better but I know I'm moving in the right direction.

What I did right:

• Tracked my food daily (with the exception of Saturday/Sunday) on MyFitnessPal
• Walked 3 times after work with Mac
• 1 Pilates Class (more on that in a minute) 
• 1 Zumba Class 
• Cut out the Diet Rockstar Energy Drink I was drinking 1x a day
• Ate lunches from My Fit Foods - everything is all portioned out calorie wise so it takes guess work out of thing 

What I could have done better: 

• drank more water
• Not drank a shit ton on Friday night which led to the worst Pilates class in the history of time on Saturday morning. We took Brandon out for his birthday on Friday evening and the wine was aflowing..  I knew Pilates was going to suck and there were more 4 letter words coming out of my mouth than normal. BUT, on the plus side, I did go.. 
• Watched my intake on Saturday and Sunday 

Goals this week: 

• Don't overdo it on Easter. I'm hosting a brunch for like 10 of us. 
• Keep up the workouts. Went to Zumba last night and really pushed myself and was sweating like a beast
• I have 3 PIlates sessions on the schedule between now and next week's weigh in 
• Walk 3 times before next Wednesday
• GET MY FILL ON WEDNESDAY!!! 

have a good day! 

xo,js

Jiggly Wiggly Pudding....

Anyone know what that's from??  If you are an avid watcher of the Disney Jr. channel, you'd know that that is what the King on "Sofia the 1st" loves and always says! "Jiggly Wiggly Pudding!"

anyways, I digress..

a funny thing happened on my walk last night with Mac... I walked about 1 1/2 miles UP the road and then while we were walking the way back, I decided to run a little (sidenote, I had read Kelle Hampton's blog yesterday and as usual, she inspired me.. she talked about running and "girl on fire"). As I was running, I could feel all my chub just jiggling up and down and all I could think about was "Jiggly Wiggly Pudding!"  Not, "Girl on Fire"..

BTW, Mac loved the running!! he loves running and while I was running, he kept looking back at me and waving his arms and saying "Run, Run, Run"...  that's serious motivation!!!

Lest you think I'm now  a runner, get your minds out of the gutter..  I maybe ran for 5 minutes total, on and off, down-hill, pushing a stroller.
It's a start.
I also did some push-ups and some planks. Eat that Jillian Michaels.

I'm ready for Weigh-In Wednesday. I'm hoping I won't be disappointed. I would say with the exception of Friday and Saturday, I've been about 75% on track with my eating, which is better than about the 40% I was at last week.  Fingers crossed and please say all your prayers tonight that I at least 1 lb!!

see you tomorrow!
xo, js

Pics from my walk last night:

Chicago FUN visit recap!

Hey all, first, thanks so much for the support I received on yesterday's post. It was soo hard to write that weight down and put those pictures in but I appreciate all the comments and love!

I also realized that I hadn't posted since I went to Chicago a week ago for my bestie Shannon's shower.
As usual, it was FUN!!  It was literally a quick 48 hour trip but we packed alot in in that time. Tim and Mac also came with and we met my parents at our hotel (which BTW, if you are going to Chicago, stay at the Omni on Michigan - great location, all suites, good price and excellent customer service!). We met up with Shannon, her moms, and fiance Kevin for dinner that night which was yum!

Let's just get this out there that Mr. Mac does not travel well. He has like zero patience (I mean, he is only 20 months old) so by the time we were getting on the plane, he was going ape shit bananas and every person on that flight was looking at me with those "please don't let that screaming kid be sitting next to me for 3 1/2 hours" eyes..   once we finally took off, he fell asleep for most of the flight.  but damn, mama gets a little stressed out and then it all goes downhill!! We got to the restaurant and he wanted to run around like a maniac, but finally sat down and ate like a polite little gentleman!! This was his real first time experiencing the cold and he didn't seem to mind!!

Saturday morning, I got a much needed little break away and headed up to my friend TMac's house to put together the favors and get some flowers and cupcakes for the shower. Since the shower was at a wine bar, we put together these cute little favors - mini-wine bottles with a chalkboard wine charm attached and a piece of chalk (everyone thought it was a cigarettte, b/c you know, that's how classy we roll, putting a ciggy in a favor!) they turned out super cute!

The shower was a super success and Shannon had a good time and got lots of fun gifts. It was nice to see a mix of people there to celebrate her - some of Kevin's family, his and her friends and then her family and friends.   She was grinning ear to ear for most of the day! It seriously makes me soo happy to see her so happy!

After the shower, my girls, moms and I went to an old neighborhood bar and just caught up some more. I know I say this all the time, but I love these girls. When I'm around them, I just have this feeling of being "home".. hard to explain.

Sunday morning, we headed over to my friend Laura's house so that Mac could meet her son, Logan, and we could meet my friend Margo's new baby.. so fun! Mac and Logan will be BFFs some day, they just don't realize it yet.. instead, they wrestled for toys and knocked each other around like boys do.

Then we boarded the plane for another fun filled ride home.. actually it wasn't so bad since Mac dozed off as soon as the wheels lifted off the ground and then woke up as soon as we landed.  I wanted to scream "your welcome" to all the other passengers around us!!!

Now, we are back in the swing of things and I'm prepping for easter when we'll have our traditional 3 family get together with the H's and the G's!  then, my brother and family come into town on Easter Sunday for a week and then the following weekend, all the girls come in for the bachelorette party (woot woot) Then, it's the wedding!! So, I'll be slowing down some time around mid-May!!

Coming Clean..

I've been blogging for almost 4 years now and while the original intent of my blogging was to document and journal my weightloss journey with the lap band, it became so much more than that. I've had a baby and the blog has become more about my life and family and friends than what it's original intent was. While I still want to use this blog to chronicle my "life", I need to refocus on what I started out to do, which is to use this tool that I've been given the opportunity to have and use it to it's full advantage to change my life.  One thing I never did for fear of judgement and honestly, just shame, was ever put a before picture nor did I ever disclose my weight on my blog. ( I started out with a lot of real life friends and family reading my blog and I still have those readers)  I figured that since so many of my blog friends were hiding the fact that they even have the band, what was the big whoop with me not telling my weight. I have come to realize though that the most successful lap banders/sleeve folks are those that are full disclosure, doing weekly weigh ins, talking about their plans, eating habits, etc..
I need to be one of the success stories.  So my shame and fear of being judged ends today.  I plan on doing weekly weigh-ins on Wednesday and I plan to share my successes as well as my short-comings. I need to support, I need to do this and get it done. I'm tired of watching everyone around me succeed and me just being OK with it.

So here we go:

Today's Weigh In:  249

249? Pathetic!  I'm up 10 lbs since my unfill before my EGD a month ago.  When I did my EGD, he filled me back up to 6 ccs which is totally not enough for me. I am usually good at around 9.5ccs. He wanted me to go about 3 weeks with this fill level. In that 3 weeks I've found out that my new insurance doesn't cover the band at all.  So, I'm going to be self-pay and I'll be damned if I waste all this money and not get moving in the right direction. My lowest I've ever been since having surgery was 235.  My goal is around 175/180 so I have a ways to go. I'm going in this week to meet with my new doctor and come up with a plan.

Here are my "before" pics.. from yesterday. I'm considering it an NSV of sorts that I was even in a tank top walking outside, but it was hot!! (Also, lordy be is my garage a mess!!!)

 

I met up with Elizabeth yesterday at a baseball game! Super fun to meet her daughter who was a trooper and so sweet to run after Mac every time he tried to escape our area!  She is a great support and I can't tell you how nice it is to just talk to someone who get's it. Today she's having her port moved so she's going to be back at it as well!! :) Love her!


so, that's it. I'm finally out. Feels good!!  I'll be doing weigh-ins on Wednesdays since it seems a lot of peeps do that, plus "Weigh In Wednesday" just sounds right!!

Thought I'd make myself feel a little better about myself today by wearing a dress that has been sitting in my closet for quite some time and I finally have a little color on my legs to wear it! Sorry for the blur but just couldn't get it to focus.. also for the messy playroom!!

Expect to be seeing more of me in blogging (less of me in weight!!)!
xo
js

Busy Bee, Bullets, and Band Get-togethers

Hi all, I've been horrible about keeping up with blogs lately.  I wish I could get into a regular blogging habit but it's not happening.
I've been crazy busy lately so I'm going to photobomb all of you and do it bullet-style.

• Have had a couple of fun band buddy get togethers!! Met up with my AZ girls Elizabeth and Jenn for lunch a few weeks ago. Always nice to get together with them and just chit chat!
• THEN, some of us AZ girls got to meet LapBandGal and AmyW when they were here for an Allergan panel. It was so fun to finally meet these superstars of the band and nice to see that they were exactly like they were in their blogs! (sometimes you meet people who aren't anywhere near the way they come across on their blogs!) We met up with them at their fancy resort and just hung out in the cigar room and chatted! Lots of laughs and really good support! 

                                         

                 

 We look a little demonish, but still cute! 

• It snowed in AZ.. WTH?? Hell has indeed frozen over.                                                   
• Spring Training has begun and we've been to 5 games already. Shoot me now. Let me tell you, taking a 19 month old to a Spring Training Baseball game is my new version of what hell might be like.. good thing he's cute though:          
• I have a new doctor for my band!! I finally just sucked it up and paid the $500 to go see the surgeon that Jenn and Elizabeth go to. I actually saw a different one but I loved him.  I had an EGD done last Thursday to check everything out and it all looks good. He re-filled me to 6ccs once done (I was at 9cc) and I'll go back again in about 3 weeks. I'm super excited to finish what I started with this band! 
• Work still blows.  There really aren't enough minutes in the day to do everything I need to do which is why I'm writing this on a Sunday night! This weekend I decided to NOT do anything work related and not even look at my emails. What a concept, Weekends are for spending time with family.. hmmm.
• The only good thing about work lately is that the President gave me his tickets to the Suns game last week.. 3rd row, right behind the Suns bench. AND, we got access to the Blue Moon club - unlimited free drinks and food..  I took my girlfriends Jen and Erin. We were a bit like the Beverly Hillbillies acting all excited about the perks, but it was fun! 

                                    

• I'm heading to Chicago this weekend for Shannon's shower. Not gonna lie, I wouldn't mind if I could just stay there! But I will come back, for now!! :) 
• One of my girlfriends Jen (in Chicago) had a sweet little baby boy yesterday! Can't wait to meet him this weekend. There has been an influx of boys in my circle of friends lately.. where are all the girls?? 
• Timmy and I had a little impromptu date night the other night. I'd be lying if I didn't say that one of the reasons I suggested the date is so that I could get a little shopping done before our trip to Chicago so I chose a shopping mall with a good bar that I knew he'd be ok with hanging out in while I shopped!  I found some really cute fun colored pants for spring and NOTHING to wear for the shower this weekend. 

                                    



Ok, gotta go to bed now!  hope you are all well! and still want to be my friend after the lack of blogging!

xo,js