Update

Its been about 12 weeks since my revision and things are going pretty good. I have finally got my energy back for the most part it took quite a while for it to come back . I have made some more changes other than just surgery . While i was out on disability for my surgery I decided to look for a new job. When I was dreading having to go back , not to work but to the place I worked I decided to take the time to apply for a few other jobs. As it turns out I got one ! I am now working at an allergy clinic and Love it . The hospital was part of what was draining me so physically and I just could not see going back to that .

Because of my new hours at work I have the time and energy to walk now. I walk almost every night. Something I have never been good at sticking to . But I have been doing well for about 3 weeks now . I walk at least 6 days a week . Which is good for me and its been REALLY hot lately .
I have had some people ask me how this surgery compares to the other surgeries.

As far as how I feel and how i eat now, I have more restriction now after my RNY than almost any other surgery . I have only thrown up a few times and mostly from eating bad food ( really dry usually) which is a huge change from the lap band and the sleeve I could eat nearly anything in any amount .

Over all I feel REALLY Good. There is one thing that is really annoying and while I hate to put it out there for everyone to read .. its something I think surgery patients or people considering revisions should know goes on. Due to the malabsorbtion issues I have with the surgery I have chronic loose BM's . Its embarrassing and some times too much for me to deal with . I spoke to my doc about it a little bit and he said it was not "normal" but consequential of how I eat now . I will contact my NUT next week to talk to him more about it . I have started taking a probiotic to see if that helps .

So over all I feel good . I am down 31 pounds at this point and down from a 18/20 pant size to a 14 and they are getting a little loose. Also down from a XXL shirt to a Large Shirt .
Sometimes I do not see the difference and its hard for me to believe people when they say I look good or that they can tell I have lost weight .. I think because everyone know's i had surgery they are just saying it to be nice ! That's just me .

What do I still need to work on ? I want to start doing some yoga to tone up . Also eating better. I do not eat bad , however we have started a bad habit of eating out . While i eat healthy when I eat out I don't know what i am putting in my body . My B1 levels were low as were my B12 So I need to be able to get in the vitamins and calories I need and know what I am eating ! So that's the goal this month to eat at home more and try some yoga !!

Ok So what's been going on . The Short of it is ..

As i said we finally got moved in . Its been stressful .
Its stressful living with my parents. Let me let you get a mental picture of this set up of an "Apartment" LOL . ( Actually i will probably take a picture later ) Above their garage they have a room , it has enough room for a queen size bed, computer desk, futon and a chair. THAT is where I am living with my youngest son . My oledest son is staying down stairs in their extra room. So my younests and I have to come down stairs for the bathroom and to eat.
When Jason is in town ( hubby) he's up stairs with us too.
Now my dad loves to cook, and normally is home early from work or works when he wants ( he has his own company ) But because of the job he has going on he's working 12 hour shifts. Im not the biggest fan of his cooking. He does not use hardly any fresh veggies , just does not cook the way I do .
SO I told my mom , can I cook if you know dad wont be home. Was not sure if he would appreciate that or not. All last week dinner was ready when both of them got home from work. Not only did mom like it ( she's trying to lose weight so she likes my healthy cooking ) dad seemed to really appreciate it .
My mom would rather have my whole wheat pastas, breads, ect.
So things SO FAR are ok.
My dad has a bad habit of bringing home crap to eat. Donuts, cakes, ect.
So im having to watch it. Im still been able to maintain 140 pretty easily . But I am not comfortable with 140 as a "goal" , "final" , Im done number for me. I would be much happier with 130 I think. Someone who found my blog is suppose to have surgery with my surgergeon next week I believe , after that I get 2 free fills for a referal . So I will go get a slight fill and try to lose these last 10 pounds AGAIN !I swear these last 10 pounds are the death of me.

Im also thinking MAYBE i just need to get off my ass and just start walking, working out , doing something and I can get these last 10 pounds off like that and maintain it . I like the way I am eating now. Its not a lot , its a little more than "usual" but its good. So we'll see what i decide.
Cant tell ya'll how good it is to be back and be able to spend time on here and catch up on everyone's bloggs !

Update , Saying Hi

Hi ya'll. Im in Houston seeing my hubby and going to his gma's 75th surprise birthday tomorrow so I am back in cyber land for now ! LOL
Wanted to say hi to everyone and thanks so much for everyone's kind words of support.
My weight loss for what ever reason has decided to kick its self in again .
I am down another pd or so . Down to 130-131 . I think i'll faint when i make it into the 120's finally .
I just went and bought some much needed tops in SMALL !!! . The party tomorrow should be interesting. I Have not seen most of dh's family in 7 yrs . So they have not seen me thin. Im thinner now than when we got married. Which is the time before last i saw them. So should be funny .

WOW

I am not sure what I did this week but I lost 5 pds this week . Not typical for me to lose that much nor "healthy" But i have been bouncing these last 10 pds back and forth since last July really .
I am now at 133 and 8 POUNDS FROM GOAL !!! And get this ... Its that TOM right now !!
Go figure !!! I cant believe I could be at goal in a couple weeks ??? Is that possible ? WOW Im just speechless, i honestly did not think i would get or could get past 140 I had been there that long .

Holy Crap Wow Holy Crap Wow

Last night i was working the concession stand at a basket ball torny at the high school. While i was there 2 of my sons old wrestling coaches walked in .
They had not seen me in about 4 yrs. I said" Hey do you remember me " I could tell by the look on their faces they did not " I said" Tyler's mom from wrestling"
And i could see the wheels tourning and one of them said " Oh yeah , OH YEAH OMG Your.. your ... " I said" Thinner " He said " OMG Holy crap , WOW holy crap " LOL
The other one said " OH CRAP I do remember you now wow you look amazing where is the rest of you " So we sat there and I showed them pictures of my son and ever now and then one of them would just go " WOW , CRAP " ROFLMAO it was THE FUNNIEST THING !!!!
They walked off and one said to the other " that is THE MOST AMAZING transformation"

Gotta love it !

The 411 and all that Jazz since I have been gone !

Ok so I am back in cyber space thank GAWD ! Trying to check my emails from my razor NOT Fun ! Those were the times i wish i had not traded in my black berry and wished my SON was not the one with the iPhone !

So here is what's going on .... The birthday sleep over/party . Party went well.
Had about 6 boys here which was a good number. Just my parents and 1 good friend and my son's girlfriend and her mom was here ( Her mom and i have become friends HA gotta love that ). I'll tell more on a friend who did not come to the party later .
So the "party" ends and the sleep over begins , a couple boys left and there were 4 kids that were spending the night.
Okkkkk. I dont drink , but A NICE STIFF drink was in order. I have NEVER in my life wanted to beat someone else's child in my life the way I wanted to one that was here. And to make it even lovelier it was my neighbor's kid !
The other 2 boys are great, nice polite kids , just great kids. The 3 of the boys would have been WONDERFUL ! But this one kid is one of those who is RIGHT ALL THE TIME, KNOW"S EVERYTHING and is just SO GOOD AT EVERYTHING BETTER THAN YOU ARE !
They could not do Any Thing with out him starting an argument . His parents were at a funtion otherwise i would have sent his ass home . He was bullying the other children , taking things from them , throwing them up in the tree's. i got these glow sticks so the kids could play in the back yard and run around w/ them and have fun at night. He kept taking them and throwing them in the tree's.
Now this kids parents is one of those " my kids SO freaking smart kids " and I Know 50% of how he acts is thanks to them.
He's in the gifted and talented program at school, she said something to me the other night a bout him spending 3 HOURS doing home work. (He's in 3rd grade !!! ) i told her " ya know if he's spending 3 hours doing home work something is very wrong , district guidelines state they should only spend 10 minutes per grade level , i think maybe you should speak to someone about that, maybe his work is too hard " She right off" OH NO He's in GT its not too hard he's just lazy " I told her " WELL I thought that about my son too and found out he was dyslexic ! My point, no child needs to sit and TRY To do homework for 3 hours period a note would be sent to the teacher saying " SORRY NOT happening " She did not listen to me . SO anyway to my point. She comes to pick him up from the party the next am and says " SO was he good"
Humm how do I answer that ? I just said " OH YEAH Besides waking everyone else up in the house at 530 AM he was fine " DH got mad at me and said " YOU should have told her her son is a BULLY , argues with you , is disrespectful and cant play with other children " I said WELL that did not come to my mind at that moment. So I am not sure if i should say anything now or not ?

So that's that. NOW I have been trying really hard to get out of my depression I am in . Its all related to money , or the lack of it . I still cant find a job . But it is what it is. We'll make it one way or another im sure.
So I got an email from one of the booster club mom's at my son's high school. It said they needed a new Track Coordinator and someone to help with a festival coming up. Because of my weight over the yrs my son's freshman yr i did NOTHING to get involved w/ the sports program or the other moms to help do stuff.
So before football season i decided i was not going to sit back and be a spectator parent this yr. SO I went to the booster club meeting and volunteered to be the new Track and Field Coordinator . And to help with the Annual Wiener Dog Race Booth.
That is right the wiener dog race booth ! LOL
So im hoping that will help keep me busy , give me something to do and motivate me to get out of my funk .

On to my weight loss . My band got SO damn tight, i had to go off my wellbutrin for a week or so and i think that had a lot to do with it . If i had the money to go in back then I would have probably gone in for a slight unfill.
BUT Im glad i did not now. It has loosened up a bit and now its a pretty darn good fill. I dont think i know anyone else who can go since 11/06 was my last fill then got a slight unfill a month later and NOW still not need a fill because my band has seemingly filled itself LOL or that's what it feels like LOL
My band is something else that's for sure.
So im down about 136-137 now . So that's a good 3-5 pd weight loss. So Im happy with that.

I think that's about it i wont bore you with any more .
Thanks for listening !!! I have missed ya'll ~

Busy , busy , busy

I wont be around much i dont think the next few days. Lots going on and I have not times !!!
Tomorrow my little boy will be 8 ! So tonight , lord help me I made 24 cup cakes AND a cake .
Thursday is DH and I's 9th wedding anniversary , yes that's right I was IN The hospital on our one yr anniversary . LOL We did not wait long for the baby !!
The 13th is DH's birthday and then the 14th is that stupid heart holiday !
So between birthday parties at school, home and all that goes I dont have much time.
OH Yeah my disaster of a house needs clean !!
SO If im slacking sorry i'll see ya when i see ya ! OH WAIT one more thing, im down 3lbs and IM BACK ON MY MEDS !!!! SO maybe when im back i'll be HAPPY MINDY !!!!

Weight In Day and Time for New Goals

Its a new month time for new goals ! Go over to the weight loss Weight in Blog and post your new goals for February ! I did not meet mine !
But I at least did not gain TOO Much I guess ?
So dont forget to comment or email me your goals.
If you are not a follower do not forget to become a follower if you want to "Join" the blog

http://mindyntexas-wlsweeklyweightins.blogspot.com/

SOB

Im SO Tired of gaining. or not losing. I gained another pound. Im back up to 141 !
Seriously . I still cant afford another fill. But im going to have to SOON !!!
I dont see how I can get one anytime soon though . Next week is my son's birthday , the day after that is our anniversary , the week after that is my husbands birthday.
UGHHH So another 2 or 3 weeks before i can afford it !
I cant afford my antidepressants , So i dont want to do ANYTHING ! But i have got to get off my ass and work out if i cant get my fill !
This just sucks ya'll ! Seriously . I have not been in this much of a funk in a LONG TIME !

Me tips. Our time is NOW !

Bel, Of the Miss Piggy Chronicles inspired this post . Here is her post that lead me to mine :
http://misspiggychronicles.blogspot.com/2009/01/me-whinge-never.html

Weather it be before surgery or after at some point i think we all get back to what we had surgery for . US , me , myself , I , numero uno !
After all if anyone is like me for so many yrs I neglected myself, put myself on the back burner. I was a mother first, a wife next and a woman last.
After I had surgery I slowly started to get some confidence . I slowly wanted to look better. But I realized too , i was not quite sure how to do that .
It had been SO Long since i had any style. The last " Style" i had was in high school and I was a "cowgirl" , or that was my style. Wranglers and Boots.
NOW , let me say this .. I am BY NOW MEANS a style expert. At ALL . I laugh really about giving any kind of advice in this direction . However, I think its a good idea to know where to start again .

My first venture , make up . It could be cheap ( or not) it did not require me to constantly buy new stuff as i went down in size.
So a friend told me about a few sites on youtube.com .
Make up tutorials if you will. A W E S O M E !
I dont have a ton of money to spend nor will i spend a ton on make up . If i get somthing on sale im SO HAPPY .
I found this one ... this guy tells you which paint brushes , every day brushes you can get that are exactly like MAC brushes. NOW If your like me and dont know WTF MAC is , its an expensive form of make up . The brushes can run $30 and UP for ONE ! 2 words for that .. HELLLL NOOOOO will i spend that on make up brushes , STUPID !
SO here is this site
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9lPfKzQAXE&feature=PlayList&p=BC93C2326DC9FA07&playnext=1&index=6
He also has a tutorial on how to make brush cleaner ! As well as make up tutorials on cheap alternatives to MAC .


This one ,,, Awesome make up tutorials . She's so cute and funny . I wish I could do half the stuff she does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCmhj4NHylM

The next one is more "every day" looks that's just great.
http://www.youtube.com/scalmat

You can also just go on youtube.com and search "Make up " or make up tutorials"
Its very useful . Its a whole new world. Or at least it was for me .

Clothes. I am ALL about cheap clothes. I am REALLY all about CHEAP designer clothes.
Now the closer you get into "normal" size clothes ( non plus size ) the cheaper they get. The best advice someone gave me ( granted I am a stay at home mom So i dont need a lot ) is to get 2 or 3 pairs of pants and multiple shirts. Old Navy ROCKS for this.

Once you want to start buying designer clothes 2 words CONSIGNMENT SHOP !!!
I recently got 3 pairs of Seven for all Man Kind Jeans ( retails for $200 each ) for $20 each . Also got a pair of Lucky Brand Jeans again retails for over $200 for $15 at a consignment store. It takes digging and hunting but take the time it works !

If anyone else has any "ME Tips" to add feel free !

What is your blog spot ?

Ok Im working on mine but after seeing a post by Doc Sly who was inspired by Nola I thought this would be fun for all of us on here.
Post a pic of what your blog spot looks like . Where you sit to blog .
After seeing Doc Sly's cute little , clean office spot I am in the process of cleaning mine up . SO ill try to post mine by Monday .
Would love to see everyone else's ! OR if you do not want to show your office how about the favorite room in your house.
Mindy

Getting Back on Track : The Shame

I have not been a good bandster lately . I know its hard for me to admit that to ya'll because i preach so much to everyone about following rules ect.
But i thought maybe if i came here and admitted what a loser ( and not in a good way) i have been I would stop. As i mentioned in a previous blog about being in a funk lately. Well its not getting a whole lot better. It is and it isnt.
My eating is suffering. I either do not eat until late, late in the day because i have been in bed all day ( until my kids get home) or I am not eating the right stuff.
And the worst , my confession. Ice cream ! I have been eating a bowl of ice cream every night. I know its probably not a HUGE deal . But for me it is. Granted im not eating the whole thing, I have never been a binge eater. But Im eating 150 extra calories i do not need.
My youngest son has been suffering in my funk . He's always been a picky eater. But he also will try anything and eat some pretty healthy things. But in my laziness I have not wanted to make good dinners for him or my oldest.
I worry , since my youngest is not in sports yet ( I did just sign him up for baseball) that he will get over weight. ( just a fear of mine)


SO yesterday i went to the store. I told my youngest NO MORE , no more junk , no more waffles for dinner , no more waffles for snacks ( he would eat them all day if i let him ). I did get him 100% whole wheat with flax seed waffles he can have for breakfast and breakfast only . I got him yogurts , granola bars, fresh fruit and other healthy snacks. Also I got myself one pint of sugar free fat free ice cream and will allow myself one of those every month. ( If my kids do not get to them first)
I have got to snap out of this and start doing things right again .
Not only am I suffering but my kids are too.

On a side note our grocery store had these light whipped yogurts for 5 /4 packs for $1.00 each . I got 5 of them 5/$5 . I am not a big yogurt fan at ALL . But one flavor they had was key lime pie and it was VERY GOOD. So i think i might lets my kids have the ice cream and replace my midnight ice cream w/ the yogurt until i get it out of my system at least.

Weigh In Starts on Monday

Come on ya'll I have 1 follower for the weekly weight in blog !!!
I need more . Lets go MOVE IT MOVE IT MOVE IT !!! We all need the support !
Dont make me go drill sergeant on your ass' !!

COME JOIN !!
http://mindyntexas-wlsweekly
weightins.blogspot.com/

OMG A New "Before" picture of me

My mom found this "new" before picture of me ! Hold on to your lunches my friends !
My 7 yr old son said " EWWW MOM " when he saw it LMAO I am pretty sure I am bigger in that picture than my original "before" picture .
YICK ! Nothing like seeing that to perk ya up . Before pictures do not make me feel good about myself though. I am obviously I am glad i have lost the weight. But I do not like looking at them that's for sure ! Does that make sense ?

Weekly Weight In's ?

I weight myself every Monday . Its a habit I have gotten into since day 1 of surgery .
So I got to thinking if everyone ( who reads my blog ) would want to start a "weekly " weight in post . We use to do this on a board i was on . Kind of keep you accountable thing.
But we also set "goals " .
For instance , at the start of the month we would set goals for how much we wanted to lose and some would set goals for how much they wanted to work out ?
We can do this I can start a Weekly Weight in Blog for everyone ?
Since Jan, if half way over we can do what we can now and start fresh in Feb. It might help with "new yrs resolutions" anyone made ? Anyone game ?

I'll start working on a blog for it . If anyone is interested.
Mindy