down again and skinny massage

Down another 2.2lbs this week to 158.6... this means.... my dearies... that I am just 6.6lbs away from my all time lowest as a teen or adult weight.... MADNESS!!!!!

Even though my new goal is 150, I've agreed with my nutritionist to just keep on doing what i've been doing and let my body find its new set point. that could be 155 or could be 145 or something else entirely. I'm happy with the size and weight I am now and am interested mainly in toning what's left, but will go wherever this journey is taking me.

I can't remember if I mentioned already, but I had a minor car accident Friday evening... Monday evening some whiplash set in.... serious shoulder and upper and lower back aches... So Tuesday morning I called and booked in for a deep tissue massage with a therapist who came highly recommended by a friend. I had the massage yesterday afternoon and man did she work me over. It HURT (as deep tissue massages do) but I needed it. Next week she's giving me a combo massage since i'm still tense even after all that. What I found fascinating though was as she was massaging me I think I felt thin for the first time!!! It was interesting to see how different this probing felt when there's not layers and layers of fat to cushion your muscles and bones!!!

One more day of work and tomorrow morning some friends and I are headed to the more remote island of Long Island

I have my two tankinis and my bikini packed (in June last year I never would have thought those words would come out of MY mouth!!!) as well as my trusty camera so will be posting upon my return!

Chicago bound

I did it! I booked my flights just now. Heading in on Air Tran via Atlanta on the Wednesday... flights there all get in rather late (I get in at 6:10pm) and leave really early in the mornings so leaving on the Monday morning. i figure this way I have a day and a bit to get in some shopping and do some things that might not fit into the group thing..... and I didn't think my roommate would appreciate my being on a 6:30am flight on the Sunday morning!!!!!!

Colour me excited! Heather of  www.heathersbandedjourney.blogspot.com are rooming together and are interested in finding a third and fourth if anyone's still looking for roommates for the weekend.


Soooooo..... if you're going to Boobs 2.0 and need roomies, let me or Heather know


Jessica

Check out my ticker

You see that?!?! I have officially lost 101.6 pounds. HOLY CRAPOLA PEOPLE!!!!!! 101.6lbs in 9 months, one week and 2 days. I say it again. HOLY CRAPOLA!

I also have changed my ticker to reflect the revised goal weight of 150. As of this morning's weigh in I was .8 away from meeting the original goal of 160. I'm feeling good about the decision to go lower. We changed the goal when it was determined that I was 5' 4.5 and not 5' 5.5 as I'd thought when I started the process.

This feels good. No... this feels amazing!

Three girlfriends and I are off to Long Island April 1 for a long weekend getaway.... Of course I have no bathing suits so I splurged an treated myself last week... I bought a hot pink tankini with coordinating sheer beach coverup and a black and white bikini with boy short bottoms.... I figure I need coverage on either the top or the bottom... i had always said that even with the weight loss this body was not ready for a bikini... but when i tried on one-piece suits they just made me look short and squat!

In honour of my 100lb milestone I will post a pic of me before... and one of me in one of the new its of beach attire.... as soon as I get a photo taken, that is

I'm baaaack

Hadn't planned on being away... certainly not for so long.... but I moved into my new house last week Friday and only this morning did I FINALLY get cable and internet hooked up. Ugh.... our cable company is lousy!

I've still not booked my tickets for BOOBS in Chicago because I haven't had internet.... but I am going. Just need to decide how many extra days I want to tack on. I figure if I'm going to go all the way there I might as well make my vacation out of it. The only time I went to Chicago it was February and so freakin cold I thought my eyeballs were going to freeze!!!!!

I didn't weigh in last week because I was so busy and tied up with moving. I took the whole week off and now feel I need a vacation to recuperate. I'm almost done with the moving in... a few more things to get sorted. Will be great when I get my countertops in place and then I can really use my kitchen... ah well.... all in time.

I'll wait until Thursday when I hit the official scales, but I have a feeling I've hit 100lbs gone!!! How incredible!!!!!!!!  Still got lots of toning to do, but I can see where 160 wasn't the right goal weight for me. I guess I should change my ticker to reflect the new goal weight of 150.

My band relaxed about the time I moved in here.... it's weird.... and more importantly, it's WONDERFUL!!! The acid reflux is totally gone... I can eat more like 1/2 cup of food if I want,.... but I'm not starving. It's just nice after all this time (pretty much since I got my first fill at the end of October) to have food go down and not hurt or set me off on a burping and belching frenzy!!!!!

I'm off.... got lots of blogs to catch up on again!!! argh

Some more numbers

I had my official weigh in this morning and down another 3lbs this week!!!! So i'm at 165 and 97lbs gone. Last night my nutritionist/trainer measured my body fat and i'm down to 34%. That was a relief as I had nightmares that I was loosing weight but not loosing fat and would end up super skinny and flabby!!!! I need to get down to no more than 25% body fat so still some work to go, but that will come with consistent exercise and toning.

At the gym last night I ran half a mile. I think I could have powered it out for longer, but my exercise pants are clearly too big and i kept having to hike them up!!!! 

I'm moving into my new house tonight..... it's been a long time coming, but I'm so excited. I picked my dog Sylvia up from her foster home this morning and took her to the groomers... she was NOT impressed when I tried to get her up their stairs and slipped her collar so i spent 10 minutes trying to catch her and praying she wouldn't dart out into traffic!!! I can see she and i are in for some good times!!!!! lol  She's never really been on a leash before so I have lots of training to do.

Have been watching the devastation in Japan. My god. A reminder that we are all such small and insignificant pawns in this game of life. Woke up to a message on Facebook from a college friend from Japan... She's ok... ended up having to walk home four hours from work with her 4-year old twins and says the aftershocks continue to freak her out... so scary.

And to everyone who sent lovely messages about Boobs 2.0 - I can't wait to meet you either!!!!

Boobs 2.0

So to make up for my deplorable blogging record in January and February, here's a two-fer -- second post for the day :)

I missed out on Boobs 1.0 because it happened just days after I was banded.

I've decided I can't let Boobs 2.0 happen without me. I've looked at tickets (yikes) and have decided that I'm going to head on over to Chicago on the Wednesday and leave on the Sunday. Why so damned early, you ask? Well the flights to Chicago from Nassau all leave and get in late.... and I'd like a full day to do some shopping and exploring before things get going with all the organised festivities. I'm hoping there's not too much planned for the Sunday as the latest flight I can get out on is 9:40am..... i HATE when airlines don't work according to my needs and plans! lol

So..... who else is going or at least seriously considering it? Anyone looking for a roomie? I know most people don't get in before Thursday or Friday, but we can work that out no problem

Only time I've been to Chicago was a couple years back for a long weekend to visit a friend who was at school there. It was February. My eyeballs felt like they were going to freeze. All I could think was this would be a cool place to visit when the weather was reasonable... I think it will be quite reasonable in late September.

ahhhhhhh.... how do you spell relief?

G-A-V-I-S-C-O-N. that's how.

Ever since my brief interlude at 6.2cc in my 10cc band where I was wayyyyyy too tight, I've experienced intermittent bouts of acid reflux. YUCK! Well after a week of being woken up by it, I had an unfill (back down to a seemingly happy point of 6cc) and my doc prescribed Gaviscon and another med for the heartburn and reflux.

Well problem is, they both come in big bottles. Way to cumbersome to carry around with me and i find I need the relief not just at night or after dinner when it does flare up.

My esophagus was burning all morning to the point where water was irritating it and so I headed over to the nearest pharmacy to see if I could find something. anything. to ease this pain up. Lo and behold they had these:

Oh my word they worked fast. Instant relief. And so portable. I think tomorrow I'm going to head back to the pharmacy to stock up so I can stash them in the house, my office desk, my car, my handbags, my parents' house, my dbf's place.....

As soon as I finish with lunch (and of course, wait at least 1/2 hour) I'm going to see how much water I can get in.... been feeling a wee bit dehydrated these past couple of days because of the burning sensation.

Thursday mornings are my official weigh in days, but I had a work committment this morning so will head to Dr D's office to hop on the scales tomorrow morning

Attention

I'm learning how to deal with all the attention my weight loss and subsequent new figure is earning me.... I think many of you can relate that this is a tough hurdle to cross over.... as someone who has been overweight pretty much all of my life, I'm used to lurking in the shadows.... so now that I'm being inundated with kind and gracious comments, I'm learning to accept them with grace and know that they are meant with kindness.

Yesterday afternoon a good friend was sworn into the Senate. His wife is my best friend so I wasn't going to miss the ceremony and reception for nothing! I borrowed another dress from my colleague with the amazing closet... this one a simple black fitted size 10 Calvin Klein sheath dress. It was a bit loose in a few areas, but looked really sharp.

I got all kinds of lovely comments... including from my friend the senator who, when he, his wife, another girlfriend of ours and I sat down finally in a restaurant said "you know,,, you're really looking hot these days!" We teased him about making such a comment in front of his wife (who could care less and agreed wholeheartedly) and he said 'you need to know this.'

It is nice to get lots of comments, but I'm finding that it's ALL anyone has to say to me these days.... it's a bit strange, but like I said, I'm learning to accept the comments and then try to steer the conversation on to something else!!!

I have no photos yet.... completely forgot to get someone to snap a pic of me with my camera buried in my handbag!!!!! Will hopefully get a few that were taken by the event photogs and his brother who was snapping candids

The other thing I got lots of comments on is....my lapband commercial that just started running on our cable network 2 nights ago.... lots of people have seen it and sent rave reviews. If i can get my hands on a dvd i'll post it for you. Funny thing is, I've lost @20lbs since we shot the commercial at the beginning of the year :)

What a weekend!

This was one of those weekends that make you feel you need a weekend to recuperate!

My brother flew in from another island first thing Saturday morning to re-do my floors.... back breaking work that he and my contractor spent the entire weekend doing.... meanwhile I had his 2 kids... and 3 nieces and nephews in addition! Managed to take 5 kids ranging in age from 4-13 to a big fair and didn't lose any :)

We all had a great time... I still giggle when I recall how the 4 & 5 year old girls literally SCREAMED and hauled their little butts across the fairgrounds when they spotted Dora off in the distance. I love that they still don't know it's not 'real'.

That night I ended up with all five of them sleeping over. Why was I so exhausted and them not?!?!? Ended up having to split up the little girls... melt downs all around.

Yesterday we had a bbq (christened my new lovely, huge bbq in grand style) over at the dual construction sites. Also invited a good friend and her family as her kids are the same age bracket as the crew I already had and all get a long. They had a blast riding bikes and scooters, swimming, playing tennis.... it was good times.

Most fun is this Friday, I'm moving in!!!!!!

A new blogging friend

Hi friends

Just wanted to introduce you to a relatively new bandster and blogger.

Joy left a LOVELY comment on my last post so of course I rushed right over to check her blog out and follow it. Looks like she's deep in bandster hell and could use more support from those of us who've lived to tell.

http://roadtodescent.blogspot.com/

1/4 cup ain't no food!

Hi all

It's been a while. A shamefully, scandalous long while.

But don't despair, my absence does not mean I've fallen off the wagon. Not in the least. To catch up, I'm going to revert to bullet points:

• As of this morning I'm officially 168.2lbs
• That means I've lost 94.2lbs since mid-June.... Holy Crap!
• I'm 5.8lbs from 100 pounds gone... Holy Crap!
• I'm 8.2lbs from my initial goal and 18.2lbs from my new goal.... Holy Crap!
• I've had a number of fills and unfills to get to this point.... Am now sitting comfortably (most days) at 6cc in my 10cc band.
• Was up to 6.2cc for about 2 weeks and that was too tight. EVERYTHING hurt going down.
• I've finally come to terms with what 1/4 cup of food is and this has helped. It ain't no food, but it fills me up.
• I'm still trying to get the right nutritional balance going.... this is hard folks!
• Can't eat in the mornings (too tight) and so usually only get in 2 baby-sized meals a day...
• Sooooooo..... need to add a protein shake in every day to increase my nutritional content.
• Adding a protein shake will allow me to use my other two meals on foods other than protein.
• I'm wearing size 8 pants now and some of them are getting too baggy.... This is mind boggling!
• The other day I borrowed a HOT slinky black Calvin Klein dress from a colleague who used to (and still could) model.... It BLEW my mind to think that I'm now in a position to borrow her clothes... 
• I've been busy.... have started moving some things into my new house and will officially make the move on March 11 or 12. So exciting!
• The weather has started to turn down here and I've realised I don't have a single bathing suit that fits.... and as much as I'd love to say I could, even at 168lbs and size 8, this is NOT a bikini bod!!!! Tankini shopping, here I come. Maybe by next summer I'll have toned to a point where a bikini will look great.
• I've missed you guys and am going to spend some serious time catching up as best I can!
• Although there are times I HATE my band (only because I want to be able to eat more than 1/4 cup of food), I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO... happy I got Betsy :)