*woof woof*

Happy Early Halloween everyone! Today we are celebrating Halloween @ my office, and were told to dress up and for anyone who has kids to bring them in and we would pass out candy. Well come to find out, I am the only one who took advantage of this and dressed up. REAL CUTE! And to top it off, there is only 1 kid coming in, and she is not coming till 4, I hope to be long gone by then! Oh well, I love my cute little puppy dog costume and am leaving it on all day and barking at people. When else will I get the chance to do this haha.

As for the weight loss front, this has NOT been a good week. Along with a few other bloggers, I must confess my eating habits have not been that of a good bandster this week :( I only went to the gym 3 days, and Wednesday night we ordered a pizza for dinner, and I had 2 slices of cheese from a large pizza. Yesterday for dinner I had a buffalo chicken wrap, which wasn't too bad for me, but not the best choice either...but then @ 11pm the leftover pizza was calling my name in the fridge and I had a slice :( Totally not needed, but SOOOOO good! Let's not even get started on the Halloween candy...I've probably had about 3 fun size kit kats, and 1 reeces PB cup. Thank god when I went to dunkin donuts this morning they were out of the Halloween sprinkled munchkins...that could have been disastrous!

My mom is coming down today to spend the weekend with me, I am so excited. I miss having her living close. We are going to a Bruins game tomorrow afternoon, and since I live about a mile from Salem MA (the Halloween capital) we will probably walk around there tomorrow night. I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend! XOXO

Weekend Update

Hey everyone, I have been pretty busy these past couple of days so I haven't been able to update my blog at all. Let's start with Friday.

Friday I was on mushies due to my fill, I had greek yogurt for breakfast and got full off of 2 oz wahoo, soup for lunch and able to eat it all. Dinner consisted of more soup and a meatball. I was able to eat half the meatball, and was then full.

Saturday, my parents came to visit and to take a look at Rick and I's top 2 wedding venue choices! I had an English muffin with PB for breakfast, everything was fine. Lunch was a cup of chicken noodle soup and half a turkey sandwich. I had about 2 bites of the sandwich and started to slime..ick! It was a quick episode though, so that was great. Dinner we went out for Chinese, this made me a little nervous but I did great! I had 1 steamed chicken dumpling, 1 scallion pancake, 1 piece of beef and 1 piece of chicken...we had a ton to take home :) As for the wedding venue, it's OFFICIAL, I will be having my reception @ Atkinson Country Club on May 21, 2011!! http://www.atkinsonresort.com/ My mom was shocked when she saw me, she hasn't seen me in about a month, and said she could really tell a difference and that I was "tiny" She also kept talking about how much fun it was going to be to go shopping for my wedding dress and how excited she is. It was great to see how happy my progress made her.

Sunday: I had 2 slices of peanut butter toast for breakfast and for lunch we had a family birthday dinner @ Outback steakhouse. I ordered the 9oz teriyaki sirloin with green beans cooked with no butter. I ate about 3-4oz of my steak and all my green beans. I brought the remaining steak for lunch today, and it was delish. I did a great job eating slow and chewing lots and didn't have any issues. yay!

Today: Today I woke up nice and early and went to the gym for muscle class again. It was a lot different then last week's muscle class, she said she tries to mix it up. We did a TON of lunges, OUCH! After the class I did 15 min on the elliptical. It was a really good workout. I checked the status of my heart rate monitor and I will receive it tomorrow, I am super excited to see what it has to tell me! Who knows what my heart rate actually is and how many calories I am actually burning! Today I actually received the best compliment about my weight loss that I have gotten. I was standing my our copier at work making some copies and my boss walked by and said "krissy, your not allowed to stand sideways anymore, I can't see you when you do" I was so excited! I feel like I look really good today, I am wearing a new pair of Old Navy jeans size 18, and a cute red shirt from express size L!!

Also today my car went into the shop to get fixed, and I got to pick up my loaner car. I went to enterprise and the guy showed me a bunch of different cars that I could pick from, and then he said "oooo I have the perfect one for you, come here" we went to the back out the lot, and it was a 2009 Mitsubishi eclipse 2 door sport! It is AWESOME! It is such a fun car, so not practical for what I need, but definitely fun for a few days! I wonder if I got this car, because of how cute I'm looking today?? lol

*Third Fill*

I went for my third fill today, and I must say it was a success! The one thing I had been really worried about was gaining weight since my last time there, and for some reason the scale gods were on my side today and I was actually down 5 in 3 weeks! The nurse practitioner who does my fills said I was doing an awesome job, and doing everything perfectly. I asked her about my heart rate at the gym and she told me to never trust what the machine gives for a #, and to think about getting a heart rate monitor. I think I am going to get the Polar F6, does anyone have any experience with these? I found a website online, that is offering free overnight shipping and 20% off so it'd only be like $85.

As for my fill, she gave me another 1cc bringing me up to 5.5 total. She read in my file how the dr. had a hard time accessing my port last time, and how he had to stick me 4 times....she said she promised to do better, and she did! She got it on the first try and didn't have to fish around at all once inside. We were both super pumped!

We scheduled my 4th fill for November 20th which should work out well. I'll be in Aruba from the 7th-14th, so it'll give me time to come back home and get back into a normal schedule somewhat, and it's not too close to thanksgiving!

I've been eating soup all this week for lunch, and I remember being told during pre-op classes that it wasn't a good option because it's a "slider food". It has been working out really well for me though, and it's so easy to bring to work. I've been getting the Progresso Light which have about 10gms of protein and 160 calories. I think this along with a string cheese (8gms protein) is a pretty decent lunch.

Workout Barbie!

This was my dinner last night, it was really good! It was an old weight watcher recipe that I had.


Ingredients
2 spray(s) cooking spray
1/2 cup(s) plain fat-free yogurt
1 Tbsp paprika, sweet-variety, divided
15 item(s) saltine crackers, crushed into crumbs
1 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
16 oz uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 4 oz thin pieces

Instructions
Preheat broiler and coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.
Place yogurt and 1 teaspoon of paprika in a small shallow bowl; mix to combine. Combine cracker crumbs, salt, pepper and remaining 2 teaspoons of paprika on a large shallow pie plate; stir to combine. Place each chicken cutlet in yogurt mixture and turn to coat. Next, place chicken in crumb mixture, turning to coat both sides and pressing lightly to make crumbs stick.
Place coated chicken on prepared baking sheet and lightly spray with cooking spray. Broil 3 to 4 inches from heat source until golden brown and cooked through, flipping once, about 4 to 5 minutes per side.


On another note, this morning I woke up super early to go to the gym and I did my first group class! It was called muscles and I really liked it. This is the class description: This class uses hand weights, resistance bands, resist-a-balls, and other equipment to tone and sculpt the entire body. Concentration is on toning all of the major muscle groups of the upper and lower body. I feel like was a great workout and that I got to work a lot of muscles that normally don't get much attention. I will definitely be going back for this one, the first one is always the hardest because you don't know anyone in the class or know what to expect. It is offered M,W,F so that will perfect.

Tomorrow I get my 3rd fill, eeeek! I am excited and nervous. I have a list of questions to ask the Dr. My heart rate was up to 180 today on the elliptical, pretty sure this isn't safe lol. I think they will be doing blood work also so they can check up on my levels. That will be a good thing to get done, since I haven't had it done since surgery. I wonder how everythings looking?? Let's all hope for some restriction and happy vitamin levels!! Have a great day!

I'm a Star!

I made it! I completed my first 5K yesterday at the Making Strides for Breast Cancer in Portland Maine. It was actually a lot tougher then I expected, I'm not sure if this was due to the hilly terrain, the disgusting weather, or me being really out of shape lol. It was a great family activity though, and I got lots of compliments for planning it. The best part is, I made it on the news! Here is the link http://www.wmtw.com/video/21333958/index.html)http://www.wmtw.com/video/21333958/index.html if you are super bored you can watch it and look for me. You can see me around the 1.25 mark I'm in the pink coat :)

So everything got straightened out with my car. It will be going into the shop next week, and insurance is handling everything. Yipppeeee.

I did pretty good eating this weekend. Saturday night Rick and I ate in, and he made chicken parm. I had one small piece and was satisfied. Sunday morning I had 2 pieces of low cal bread with PB for breakfast, then for lunch after the walk we went to a pub and I had a cheeseburger without the roll, and last night I had my first ever Sonic experience!! They just built the first one in New England about 5 miles from our house, and the line is always 30 min or longer. Rick had been out all day, and decided to try and go on his way home, and for the first time since they opened there wasn't a line! I had no idea what to get but wanted everything! I had a few chili cheese tater tots, about half of a grilled chicken sandwich, and a diet cherry limeade slush. I loved the slush and tater tots, the sandwich not so much. I'm glad I've finally got this Sonic urge over with! Today for lunch I had leftover chicken parm and got stuck :( I was really hungry and excited for it, and guess I ate too fast. I had about 3 bites and then slimmed for the next 30 minutes. I even had to change my shirt cause I made such a mess :( OOPS! I go for my 3rd fill in 3 days, hopefully that will help the scales move. I was good this morning though, and went to the gym and did the elliptical. It really helps now that Rick has joined with me, it makes it so much easier to get out of bed in the morning. Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Christmas came early!!

Today Rick and I had an early morning, we had to get up and go to our church to meet with our priest and take a compatibility test. I was really disappointed because once we had gotten settled in the testing room, our priest came into the room and announced he has been transferred to a different church about an hour away! I really liked Father Jim, and was really looking forward to him marrying us, so this wasn't the best news. He said that if he is still in the area on our wedding date he can perform the ceremony, so hopefully he doesn't get transferred again! The test went well, the questions were silly and awkward. Their were about 10 about sex which was weird! Hopefully we get the results soon!

After the test we ran some errands, we went to costco, and dicks sporting goods. I got a cute new nike sports bra which I was happy about. After running the errands we came home, and to my surprise there was a box outside our door. When I went to pick it up I noticed it was from Gen!! I got really excited and ran into the house and tore it open. The dress is GORGEOUS, I can zip it but it's a little tight under my boobs. 10 more lbs or so and it will fit perfectly! There were also about 5 jersey knit skirts in the box, these all fit perfect and will be amazing for our trip to Aruba in 3 WEEKS!!! Thank you so much Gen, this was so thoughtful and generous of you. I cannot wait until I have lost enough weight to be able to help people.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I have the 5K tomorrow and it's supposed to be a nor' easter! Good Times!

boom boom POW!

Last night I got to go to my first bridal show with my best friend, my maid of honor Stef. We were really excited to go, and to find out what they were all about. On our way there (it was about 45 minutes away) we hit a little bit of traffic. I slow down, look in my rear view mirror, think to myself hmmm this guy behind me doesn't look to me slowing down, then BAM! we were hit :( This was my first accident I have ever been in, and hopefully my last. We are really lucky there wasn't much damage and neither of us got hurt, just really shaken up. We were able to pull over the breakdown lane, and I immediately get out of the car and start yelling at this guy (probably not the best idea, but it was the hear of the moment) He apologized and said he didn't notice us stopping quick enough. I called the police and they came, and handled everything, his car was totaled and had to be towed, but mine was drivable. Stef and I decided we had come this far, we might as well still go to the show so we went. It was a good time, I think they are best if you have a specific vendor in mind and know they will be at the show. They were offering awesome deals for signing up at the show. We got to try a few samples of cake mmmm yummy, I counted this as my dinner lol.

The scale was in a good mood this morning, yay! My lowest I've weighed so far was 2 weeks ago @ 215, and for the past week I have been going between 220 and 218 well finally this morning I was back to 216. I have been doing pretty good eating, haven't gotten stuck since Monday so that's a plus! Tonight I am hosting speed dating, it should be a good time. The group is for 35-45 single adults, I've never done an older group before, so it should be fun!

This Saturday Rick and I have to take a compatibility test with the priest that will be marrying us. I guess it takes about an hour and there are about 150 questions on it. After we are done the scores will get sent to the priest and then we will have to have another meeting with him to go over problem areas. Needless to say neither of us are too excited about this haha. I think we'll do OK though, we have discussed all major areas of concern I think. We will see.....

Sunday I am doing my first 5K walk! My mom, 2 aunts, 2 cousins and I are doing the Strides for Breast Cancer Walk in Portland ME. I am really excited for this and think it will be a great family day. On of my aunts was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and will be having a mastectomy the day after our walk, so it couldn't have come at a better time.

I think that's all I have for an update, I hope everyone is having a good day, it's almost the weekend WAHOOO!

Heart Rate

I have a question for everyone....When working out and doing cardio, what is your heart rate normally? Yesterday I noticed mine was in the 160-170's and Rick's was only at 130. I pointed it out to him, and he said that mine was way to high and it was bad. What's going on here, why is mine so high, and is it bad? I think we've all seen the charts on the cardio equipment that show the ideal heart rates for the fat burning zone and cardio zone, I am above the cardio zone, I'm a little worried now. An example of my typical workout is the elliptical for 30 mins, and this usually equals 250 calories burned and 2.30 miles....is this normal? Thanks in advance for any advice!

Here I am!

So it has been a few days since my last post, I have been super busy! I'll try to catch everyone up!

Friday: Worked 9-5, I forgot a lunch so I bought chicken teriyaki and white rice (brown wasn't available) BAD IDEA. This got stuck and I slimmed for a bit. It was my own fault though and I realize this, it was too yummy to stop. It was also Rick's bday, so I had planned a family dinner out to a nice restaurant on the ocean. I ordered roasted chicken, which came with 2 sides....dare I say I got the truffle mac and cheese and mashed potatoes?? They were sooo good, I did a really great job with my portion control, I ate all of the mac and cheese which wasn't much, and about half of the chicken and no potatoes. I know these weren't the best choices, but it's over with and I'll move on.

Saturday: Saturday I met up with my friend Breanne http://www.ladylapband.blogspot.com/ who I met on LBT. We went to lunch @ unos and had a great time! We talked for hours, about our lives and surgery. It was so nice to talk to someone going through the same situations as me. We hadn't seen each other since before my surgery, so it was well overdue. She is such a great friend to have, and I am so happy we met! Saturday night Rick and I went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, I wasn't very hungry so I just ordered a side dish of meatballs. I ate one medium sized one, got stuck and slimmed for an hour, AWESOME. Then once I recovered we went to see Couples Retreat, we both really liked it.

Sunday: Rick, and my friend Stef went to an apple farm. We did a corn maze (see the pic above) This was my first time doing one of these, it was super cool...especially since they made it family guy themed! We also picked pumpkins, went on a hay ride, and shot apples out of a cannon lol. Good ole New England! It was a blast, and it made me appreciate fall in New England.

Today: Rick and I woke up nice and early and went to the gym. I did 30 min on the elliptical and it felt great! I went and got a couple tank tops like Amy's from Old Navy that she showed in her blog last week. It was super comfy, and didn't ride up at all! I had to work today despite the holiday, but it is super quiet today so it has been a good blog catching up day :) I brought my lunch which was the 100 calorie deli flat bread, low sodium turkey, and reduced fat swiss cheese. I made an open faced sandwich out of it, and toasted it in the oven. It was DELISH, and I got pretty full of it. I think this will make it into the lunch rotation. I also wore some black pants to work today which are lane bryant 20's, they are really too big to be wearing and I have the waist folded over multiple times. These are my only nice black pants though so I decided it was time to order more. I went on lane bryant.com and didn't see any I liked, so I tried old navy. I ended up ordering 1 pair of black 18W's and a pair of 18W jeans...I'm excited to see how they fit. I will def. post pics once they come in, if they fit that is! Hope everyone is having a great day!

Funny Story

This is random, but I kind of got a chuckle out of it so I thought I'd share. A couple of week's ago I ordered special shampoo to get chlorine out of my hair, because the pool was wrecking havoc on it. Today at the gym when I was in the shower, I went to use the shampoo and when I squeezed to dispense it into my hand the bottom of the bottle flew off and shampoo exploded everywhere. Not the top where the cap is, but the bottom! I thought this was so strange and random, but was pretty pissed since I just bought this. Rick told me I should email the company and tell them what happened to see if I could get a new bottle. First thing this morning when I got to work, I emailed the company and told them what had happened and that I was disappointed in their quality of product. 2 hours later and I just received an email with a shipping confirmation....they are shipping me a new bottle! *YAY* It totally pays to voice your opinion. Even though this was just a small thing, it all adds up. Hope everyone is having a good day, it is really rainy and windy here, GROSS!

Complete 180

Today has been a really good day so far. Rick and I woke up @ 6AM today and headed to the gym. I did my usual pool routine, and he tried out the gym. He said he really liked it, and thinks he will like going with me a few mornings a week *yay* The only part he didn't like was the showers haha, I guess in the men's room they just have 1 giant shower for everyone, not stalls like the girls. Oh well, he can deal with it!

I had yogurt and string cheese for breakfast, and then brought left over chicken for lunch with sliced apples. YUM YUM. Steak is on the menu for tonight's dinner, I'll just have to remember to chew lots and eat slow. I should be OK.

This is a pic I took this afternoon. I thought I looked cute today. This is a new sweater dress I got at old navy, size XL wahooo! Hope everyone else is having a good day. XOXO

it's one of those days....

All I feel like doing is crying, and I don't know why :( It all started this morning, Rick and I were supposed to go to the gym @ 6, but apparently he set the alarm for 5:50pm instead of am. I woke up around 7:30 screaming OMGGGGG. Then I was rushed getting ready and a half hour late to work, which sucked.

Now I'm thinking about what I want for lunch and am clueless. I got stuck twice yesterday, once from a potato and then from mac and cheese. I made shitty food choices all weekend, and am frustrated. I feel like I'm in a food rut. Nothing sounds good to me, and I need to make a list of healthy things I can start bringing for lunch. I was doing turkey rollups for a while but got sick of them. I wish I wasn't such a picky eater, then I would probably have a lot more options. What do you guys do for lunch? I'm thinking maybe I'll get a 6in turkey sub from subway on whole wheat with just turkey and a little cheese, and then remove the top piece of bread to make it an open faced sandwich. Is this a good choice? I don't even know :(

Please help me think of better choices!

FIRST PB!!

AHHHH I had my first PB episode tonight!! I can't believe it. Serves me right for eating real food the day after a fill! I should have known better than to test the limits. It happened tonight @ dinner, my friends and I went to a chinese restaurant in chinatown. The plan was for me to just get egg drop soup....but then the poo poo platter and chicken lo mein came. I had my soup and it was terrible, so I tried some white rice, then some lo mein, then a chicken finger.... BAD NEWS. I immedietly felt this feeling like something was stuck in my throat, I announce to my friends OMG I think I'm stuck! All of a sudden I projectile PB into my napkin! I run to the bathroom and continue to get everything out. It was such a weird feeling, not like puking, just like whole food being stuck in my throat.

As sucky as this was, I am glad my first PB episode is over and I know what to expect when it happens again.

2nd Fill

I don't even know where to start with this one....Alright, so I was scheduled to have my fill @ 4pm today, which meant I had to leave work @ 2:30 in order to catch a train and get to the hospital on time. I arrive @ the hospital @ 3:55 and check in. The receptionist says "oh didn't anyone call you, Corrine called out sick today." My eyes start watering and I say "um NO!" She then says "oh I'm sorry, we have rescheduled you for next Wednesday" I reply with "I don't think you understand....I just took UN-PAID time off from work to come here, this is not acceptable, there has to be someone else who can do it!" She agrees and tells me to stay put and she'll go check around. She comes back 5 minutes later and says that there is no one that can do my fill. I continue to have watery eyes and be irritated, she then says "OH, there is a surgeon here, maybe he can do it!" She goes and explains my situation to him and he agrees to do my fill!

I thank him profusely, he tells me no big deal, it was there mistake. I lay down and he asks me "so, how much do you want today??" I say EXCUSE ME?? How much do I want?? He mentioned Corrine had written 1cc for a fill today in her notes, he said that if I wanted more he would give it to me. So he put the needle in, nothing....trys a second time, nothing....trys a third time (I start whimpering), nothing finally he says "sweetie, please let me try one more time, I know I can get this" I agree, in goes the needle for the fourth time and I scream F@CK!! He starts laughing, and in goes the needle into the port! He ended up giving me 2.5 cc's making my total 4.5. After he said OK I'll see you next week probably right? I said um for what? He said well you'll need another fill. I said that I've always been told I need to wait 4-6 weeks before coming back for another. He starts laughing and says its a load of crap, and that I will know by next week if I need another fill and theres no reason to wait. This puts a HUGE smile on my face, I drank some water and off I went.

So liquids it is for today, and mushies tomorrow. I'm not feeling any difference as of yet, but hoping once the swelling goes down, I will feel something! I hope that I can make my future fill appointments with the same surgeon, he was awesome!

Anyone want these?

If anyone wants these, please let me know. I have these in both khaki and white size 22 from lane bryant, they are stretchy so a little on the bigger side.