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Saturday, October 30, 2010

Challenge Update

Hey everyone, I wanted to do a quick post to update everyone who is interested in the holiday challenge on a few things.

1) The paypal button is up and working- it on the sidebar of my blog and says "pay now" If you could please make sure and do that by this Friday the 5th- that would be super helpful! Also, when paying can you please make a note on the payment with your blogname so that I know who is who.

2) The amazing Joey- has helped me to simplify the weekly weigh in process. She has made a tab and an icon for everyone to use when sending their weekly weights. The tab can be found right under my header it says "holiday challenge" the icon can be found on the sidebar of my blog and says "Holiday challenge: enter your weight here" You can use either one-if you want to click on it and familiarize yourself with the new process that could be helpful. Basically it is just a form you fill out with your name, weight, blog name etc. and the form gets automatically emailed to me. You will still need to take a picture of the scale the first and last week of the challenge and manually email me that, but for all the other weeks this form should be use. It's going to be very helpful it helping me identify everyone and make sure and log everyone's weights under the correct name. I know this will take some getting used to, but I know in the long run its going to be awesome. Thank you so much Joey for helping me to streamline this whole process!

3) As some of you noticed we have a new rule this challenge- We had an issue with people emailing me their weights in the past so this time around please let me know ahead of time if you will be on vacation or away and not have access to a scale/email. If I am not told you will be away, you have a 1 week by, after that you will be taken out of the challenge. I will HATE to have to do this, but it is necessary.

4) We have 40 participants so far which equals $200. Does everyone want to do a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prize again, or keep it to 1 grand prize? Let me know- majority rules!

Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween! I will make sure and do a picture post with my costume last this week! xxoo

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Holiday Challenge Icon

Here it is ladies- Wear it proudly and represent!! Thanks so much Joey, xxoo

*Holiday Challenge* Participants (working list)

Hey Pretty Ladies!

Here is a working list of everyone who I have heard from that is interested in participating I will post a paypal link soon. Everyone who expressed interest will be in black- once I receive $5 from you I will change your name to red, so we can keep track! XOXO

1) Kristen (me)- I'm with the band
2) Angela S (AZ)- A Better Me
3) Laura J (WY)- non-blogger
4) Jen S (AZ)- What you lookin at skinny
5) Mary S (AL)- The perfect place
6) Steph- Electric LadyBand
7) Tori (CO)- The Winding Road to Parenthood
8) Carmen (CT)- I'm with the band....
9) Susan (MO)- Stop Spending our Precious Time
10) Gilly- (Canada)- Something something something fat chick
11) Jess P(CA)- The Little Bandit
12) Heather (IL)- Am I actually doing this? Heather's banded journey
13) Paige- Once upon a Band
14) Joey(CA)- Volume Control
15) Donut Butt- Does this donut make my butt look big?
16) Annie(NY)- Band-Aid Baby!
17) Camille(TX)- living large in C.C.
18) Bonnie(PA)- Banded and Proud of It!
19) Sam(Australia)- Banded for me
20) Read(MD)- My Trek Downward
21) Kellie(Australia)- Something About Kellie ...
22) Angela V(TX)- Repair and Renovation
23) Perry(CA)- Pie in Progress
24) Jenny W(NY)- Life's Little Journey
25) Maria(MI)-Last Train out of Fat Land
26) Nicole(NH)- Better Banded
27) Bianca J(Canada)- Breaking Free From My Self-Imposed Exile
28) Kristen R(AL)- *Kristen's Lapband Journey*
29) Mary H(UT)- Being a Winner by Being a Loser
30) Liz(NY) -Tales from the Band
31) Andy- Changing my life
32) Nikki B (TN)- girl,banded
33) Kiki (MA)- Livin' Large No More
34) Breanne P (MA)- Lady Lap Band
35) Lyla- Big Fat Professor
36) Amaris (CA)- Distracted by Diets
37) *~D~* (KS)- A Fat Chick Gets Skinny
38) Meghan (NY)- Bandedtolose
39) Nikki P (Austrailia)- I'm Finally Losing It!
40) Janet (GA)- That's how I roll...
41) Stephanie J (FL)- Dreams of Skinny High Heels
42) Kristin Z (CT)- Catchy title here
43) Ms. M- Fatscapades of a Redheaded Chick
44) Melissa W- Does this band make my butt look small?
45) Linda H (MD)- Lindas Bandwidth
46) Amy M 'Amester' (NY)- A "Bandee" on the Run
47) Rachel- Rachelthinwithin1
48) Grace (MI)- Grace's Fat Chance
49) Cindy E (CA)-
Changing ME! For the Better!
50) Jen W (CA)- Band Geek
51) Joia J (CA)- Tales from the Band...
52) Colleen V (NY)- This Time I Mean It

Guess what time it is- CHALLENGE TIME!

Alright Ladies- It seems we are all desperately in need of a challenge! Here is my proposal- We do a Holiday themed challenge starting Sunday, November 7th and run through Sunday, December 19th making a total of 7 weigh-in weeks. Let me know if anyone has a problem with these dates-but I think it should work out well and give people enough time to sign up and get the word out. Does everyone want to do $5 to paypal again?

For anyone who is new to challenges here are the rules:

Challenge rules:
1. Challenge starts SUNDAY November 7th. and ends SUNDAY December 19th.
2. Weigh in days are SUNDAYS, please make sure to email me (knwitham@gmail.com) your weeks weight by 8 pm SUNDAY night so that I can post your numbers for the week.
3. Please include a picture of you on the scale, on the FIRST and LAST week of the weigh in's.
4. The challenge prize will go to the biggest loser meaning the person who loses the most % of weight from challenge week # 1
5. We had an issue with people emailing me their weights in the past- Please let me know ahead of time if you will be on vacation or away and not have access to a scale/email. If I am not told you will be away, you have a 1 week by, after that you will be taken out of the challenge.

*Joey- would you like to make us a Holiday themed challenge image?*

**Please just comment on this post if you would like me to add you to the participant list- I will keep a running list of everyone who I hear from**

***I will post a paypal link as soon as I get a confirmation that we want to do that again***

Let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions! You can always post a comment on here, or e-mail me @ knwitham@gmail.com

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

sometimes.....

***click to make bigger :o)

when the scale doesn't move- your measurments do!!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

what a week- phewwww

Hey Ladies- Sorry I have been MIA for what seems like forever! My life has been pretty hectic lately, but seems to be calming down. I must say thought these hectic past few weeks have put a toll on the scale- I am holding steady around 174 lately.

Lets see where to start?!? About a month ago Rick's mom was diagnosed with having 2 brain aneurysms- both were not huge per say but big enough that they needed to be operated on. She had one on each temple, and they could only be operated one at a time. Almost 2 weeks ago she had the first one operated on, and it went pretty smoothly. She is home safe now, but lives alone so we have all been taking turns making sure shes OK. She cannot drive or lift anything over 5 lbs for 6 weeks, so you can imagine it's pretty tough for her. We are just very thankful these were caught before bursting and that she is healing so well. As for the 2nd aneurysm they can operate as soon as 6 weeks or she can wait 6 months its up to her- we're all hoping for the 6 weeks though just to be safe!

Last Monday on Columbus day my friend Janelle and I did the Tufts 10k in Boston. My goal was to finish within 1hr and 50 minutes which was my previous 10K time, well who knew Janelle was going to push me so hard that we ended up finishing in 1hr and 30 minutes! And guess what?? I actually RAN a little! wahoooo! Here is the 2 of us pre-race:


It was a ton of fun, and I can't wait to continue with more races and keep trying to better my time. The best part of the race- my HRM said I burnt 1249 calories- WHEW! Here is a link to some more pictures that event photographers took during the race http://www.brightroom.com/go.asp?83986502

Hmm what else is new? Rick had his sleep study last week- it went OK. The sleep tech. said he stopped breathing a few times but never for any length of time. The dr. should be in touch with him soon to discuss the results and what they should do moving forward.

I got my blood lab results back this week- my cholesterol was a little high @ 212 (it shouldn't be over 200), I think its all the cheese and ice cream I eat. I need to work on this! I feel like its a catch-22 sort of, I mean protein is such an important part of WLS patients, but so much of proteins are high in cholesterol, so what do we do?? My copper was also pretty high, what the hell does this mean?? Camille- any idea? lol Other then that everything was normal, so that's good!

Something non-weight related that got me super excited this week was JetBlue was having a $7 fare sale for flights from Boston to DC. Ricks sister lives in DC, and the fare was good on Tues,Wed and Saturday's until December 15th. I was able to book a flight from wed-sat for $35 including taxes! I can't wait! I am going December 8th, such an exciting find!

I think that is about all that's new in my life- I'm thinking it's time to start another challenge if there is any interest. What does everyone think? I know I need some scale inspiration!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

aww shucks :o)

Let me pre-face this story for you- In my office I work for 3 different companies, only 1 of my bosses knows about my band.

Yesterday I took a personal day and I guess one of the bosses who doesn't know about the band approached my other boss that does know to ask if I was OK. He said he noticed I've been losing a lot of weight, and had always thought I was a beautiful girl and didn't need to change a thing. He wanted to make sure I was doing OK health wise and losing weight on purpose not because I was sick.

OMG how freaking cute is that?!?! The boss who knows just told him that I've been working very hard, and that yes I've lost a lot of weight, but it is on purpose. haha. He then asked her if she thought it would be OK if he complimented me on how nice I look, she said of course! I haven't seen him yet, but I can't wait till I do!

I wanted to thank all of you for all of the awesome comments on my 'bombshell' picture. I'm trying really hard not to let all these compliments go to my head, but it's difficult lol. I just feel like I'm at a really good place right now. That seems to be the trend around the blogosphere- A lot of us are getting into 12-14's and into the 170's and feeling comfortable. I know I still have a bunch more to lose, but it just feels great to be considered 'average' size!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week! XOXOXOXO

Monday, October 4, 2010

Bombshell Revealed!

Hope your not disappointed!






BOMBSHELL!

That's what I look like today- an absolute BOMBSHELL! Not to toot my own horn, but I think I look pretty damn fine today! Let me set the scene for everyone- I am wearing a new v-neck sweater from Express (size L) in a magenta/purplish color, Dark skinny jeans from Old Navy (size 12), and my brand new KNEE HIGH BOOTS! I would love to share a pic, but I'm in the office alone today, maybe later tonight Ricky can take one for me! I cannot put into words how I felt shopping this weekend. I bought my FIRST ever pair of knee high boots, even the wide calf ones never fit me! The feeling when these boots zipped up in the store for the first time is in-describable. It may seem silly, but this is by far my best NSV to date.


My mom was in town visiting this weekend, and wanted to treat me for all my hard work lately. We shopped all day Friday and Saturday and I got some awesome new (smaller) clothes! Work clothes have been the hardest for me to keep up with- I hate coming to work with saggy butt pants. We went to New York & Company, my favorite work clothes store and bought 2 new pairs of pants in a petite size 12!!! AHHHH! I am officially a size 12/14- 16's are now to saggy! WAHOOO! It is true what they say, once you are down into smaller sizes it only takes a few lbs to drop a pant size. As for tops I went to Ann Taylor Loft and got size large sweaters, at Old Navy I was a medium and at Kohls I bought a sweater in a SMALL! WTF! Now trust me- this sweater ran HUGE, but still...me in a size SMALL, OMG! Shopping trip=Success!


On Friday I also had my yearly lab work done for my band, they took about 25 tubes of blood it felt like-yuck! I'm super excited to get the results though and compare them to my 6 month lab work. I will post the results once I get them.


In eating news- I had my first fried oreo on Saturday night! The fair was in town, and I've heard a few bloggers talk about them, so I just had to try one for myself. ORGASMIC! It came with 5, and I ate 2 1/2, but I could have eaten all 5 probably if I let myself lol.


In wedding news- Rick and I booked our honeymoon last week!! Can anyone guess what we're doing?? A CRUISE! hahahaha. I told you I was addicted! This is a 9 night Eastern Caribbean cruise out of New Jersey (so we won't have to fly!) It is going to Bermuda, St.Thomas, St.Martin and Puerto Rico. Rick and I haven't been to any of these islands yet so we're super pumped! We will be cruising on the Royal Caribbean- Explorer of the Seas.


As for an update on where Rick and where him and surgery stand- he has a few big appointments next Monday. He will be going for a barium swallow, to meet his surgeon and decide on a surgery, and also for a sleep study! BIG DAY! I think he's excited to see what comes, I know I am!


Speaking of next Monday the 11th, I don't think I've mentioned this but I'm doing the Tufts 10K run in Boston with a good friend of mine. It is going to be my first "real" race with a timing bib and all. I don't plan on running much, but I will try my best! My goal is to beat my 10k time in June of 1 hour and 49 minutes. My friend that I am doing it with is in amazing shape, so I know she'll give me the push I need.

I think that's about all for bullet point Monday. Thank you everyone for all your responses to the BOOBS cruise, I look forward to looking at all the possibilities !