The Pin-Up Girl in ONE-derland

* 198 *  You had to know that I couldn't stay off of the scale.. LOL!  Whew - I finally made it.  I'm excited and really relieved.  I don't know why I stil feel self-doubt when it comes to weightloss.  I know I'm doing what I'm supposed to, so why do I sometimes think "That's it - I'm going to start gaining now - I just know it"  I guess it's hard to fight years of feeling defeated when it came to my weight.  It meant a lot to me to get under 200 - I haven't been here since I was a sophomore in high school.  Now I feel like my goal weight is achievable.  Why did I not see that at 204?  I have no idea.

I had an interesting conversation with my coworker Liz yesterday.  We were talking about clothes and she mentioned that I needed to get new jeans because the ones I was wearing were too big on me.  I told her "yeah, these are 16s" and I pulled them away from my waist (yes, I have one now!) and they were several inches too big.  I told her "I could get some 14s but I just haven't wanted to spend the money".  And she said "wow - 14 is a totally normal size".  I had to laugh - I guess I'm "normal" now.  Who woulda thunk it?

Better budgeting through WLS.. Does Suze Orman know about this?

I love a good salad bar and my favorite by far is the Wildflower Cafe, which is conveniently located 2 blocks from my office. They sell their stuff by the pound.. $5.99 per pound to be exact. I remember times pre-op where I easily spent over $10 for lunch.. and was starving and unsatisfied by 2pm. Today I made myself a salad of greens, grape tomatoes, red pepper rings, hard-boiled egg, kidney beans with sliced roasted turkey on top, along with a slice of the cold vegetable omelet.. got out of there for $5.20. I ate half (and I'm so full!) and I'll have the other half tomorrow. I have never spent $2.60 on a meal that left me satisfied .. and certainly not one that had nutritious value. Good thing I'm saving money on food because I need the money for new clothes.. everything I own is hanging off of my body!

Lovely

It's a *gorgeous* day in the City! I took a walk at lunchtime over to the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building. There were some fantastic vendors of organic produce from all over Northern Cali. I bought the most delicious strawberries from Watsonville - they tasted like honey, they were so sweet. I bought dried white nectarines and dried kiwi fruit.. so unusual and so yummy! I also bought almonds and pistachios.. the vendors were from Ripon, which is out by my Mom in the Central Valley. I've become quite a connoisseur of locally-grown produce lately - I've been researching and seeking out the best (and cheapest!) produce markets and farmer's markets in my area. Chris told me the other night that he eats more fresh veggies and fruit now than he ever has in his life - that made me so happy! WLS has awakened my love of cooking and food.. healthy, beautiful, colorful, fragrant, nutritious food!

On the road to ONE-derland * Week Eight *

* 204 * Yep, I'm stalled. And I'm more frustrated about it than I thought I would be. So I'm taking another 2 weeks off from the scale.. hopefully I'll see some movement by then.

The good news? I just bought size 14 pants.. and that's not a women's size 14 .. that's a regular misses size 14.

Hoppy Easter!

I made these as a special treat this morning - they were so yummy! They taste like an apple cheese danish.. mmm. I had a little butter and sugar-free maple syrup on mine.. Chris liked his with honey. Enjoy!

Ricotta Apple Pancakes

recipe courtesy of www.bariatriceating.com

Per Serving: 94 Cal, 7 g Protein; 5 g Tot Fat; 4 g Carb; 0 g Fiber; 2 g Sugar; 119 mg Sodium

3 eggs, separated
1 whole egg
1 cup Ricotta
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon Apple Pie Spice OR Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon Splenda
1/4 cup flour
1 cup grated apple

Beat 3 egg whites until stiff; set aside. Combine remaining ingredients just until blended. Fold in egg whites. Spray skillet with non stick spray and heat over medium-low. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls into hot skillet and cook until golden brown, turning once. Serves 8 - three pancakes per serving.

On the road to ONE-derland *Week Six *

* 204 * Shel is going to kick my ass and beat me to ONE-derland - I just know it!

Keep on keepin' on..

Just rambling

Hi all! Nothing major to report today - just lots of little things that are adding up in my brain. Let's see.. first, my step-sister Barbara, my nephew Nick and their German foreign exchange student Stephanie are all in SF for a few days, visiting from Coeur d'Alene, ID. I'm meeting up with them after work today. I haven't seen Barb in about 2 years, so I'm expecting that she'll do the "omg.. look at you!" freakout that I seem to be getting pretty frequently now. I have to admit that, as embarrassing as it can be, it's still really awesome to get the reaction. The last one I got was from my neighbors that live upstairs. We have different schedules than they do, so we don't see each other that often. The wife, Tammy, asked me "what are you doing?". I had kind of assumed that everyone in the building knew about my WLS.. mostly because our former manager was nosey and liked to gossip. Ok.. second, I'm pretty bummed because Chris' school/work schedule will have him coming home after 10pm Monday thru Thursday. So I'm going to have a lot of evenings by myself. The good news is that he'll have Friday thru Sunday off, so we can do more on the weekend. It's a good trade off - I'm just going to have to entertain myself during the weeknights. Third, I have officially shrunk out of all of my pants. I had to put the only two pairs of slacks that I had in the donate box that's going to Jane. I have a handful of skirts that still fit, so I've been wearing them. It makes me feel really girly to wear skirts and heels, so maybe I'll just buy one pair of slacks. And one pair of jeans maybe. We'll see. Fourth, I have discovered that I am a dumper. I never really posted about this before, but I've had a couple of accidental dumping incidents lately so it's been on my mind. The first one I ever had was on my birthday in February. I stopped at Starbucks on the way to work and ordered my usual sugar-free vanilla latte. I sucked it down, not noticing that they had given me a full-sugar vanilla latte. I still can't believe that I didn't taste the difference. Anyway, by the time I got to work I was sweating, shaking, dizzy, nauseous and I generally felt like I was going to die. Happy birthday to me. I turned right around and went home, hoping that I wouldn't hurl on the train. My latest incident was this weekend at my friend J's place. He ordered Chinese and I ate a few things that I didn't think contained sugar, or much anyway. Boy was I wrong. Within minutes my heart felt like it would beat out of my chest and I was pouring sweat. I sat on the couch and Chris held me until I stopped dumping. When it was over, I was completely exhausted and I had to lie down. We ended up crashing at J's place because I just couldn't get up. I'm definitely thankful to know that my "tool" works - many people aren't so lucky and they get way too liberal with sugar and end up gaining. But I will say that dumping completely fucking sucks and I will be even more careful than I have been about hidden sugars. Fifth, I'm realizing how much more I laugh and smile than I did before my surgery. Life is just so good - I have so much to be thankful for. I can't help but try to share my happiness with the world. Ok - I think that I've rambled enough for now. I'm headed to pick up my sweetie from the BART station. Good night!