tight bands and hair cuts... opinions please

As is usually the case when Betsy the Band self adjusts, I have no clue what caused it. Late last week I began to notice that I couldn't eat as much as I had been. Then over the weekend, she clamped down. Lots of PB episodes and not a heck of a lot of food going in. But liquids are ok and I'm managing sufficient nutrients so I'm going to ride this train as long as I can.... I need that scale to start moving again.

I'm thinking about cutting my hair off. I've had short hair in the past and liked it, but now that my face is much more angular, I think I can pull off a really short cut..... I've fallen into the rut of pulling it up into a pony tail or clip and am BORED with it. Not sure I'm loving the blonde hair either. I spent some time last night having a look through some websites and pulling together styles that I like. They're vastly different, so clearly I haven't narrowed this down. I think I'll pop in to my hair dresser and give her the print out and ask her to start thinking about what would suit me best and be easiest to manage..... Any thoughts on the styles I've selected? The top row, at least, is pretty much in the order that I think I like them

Vote for Sally PLEASE!

I nominated Sally from Sally's Journey with Lapband Surgery for an amazing blog makeover by the incredibly talented Jen of Just Foolin Blog Designs. Our nomination is #10.
Of course LOTS of deserving, awesome bloggers were nominated. But I just want my friends to vote for #10.

This is what I said in my nomination:

Nominee #10: Sally's Journey With Lap Band Surgery

Nominated by: Island Bandit

"Although I absolutely smile everytime i see her bright red toenails in the sand at the top of her blog, I'd like to nominate Sally. At the end of last year she had to have her band removed and she's gained a lot of weight back. she has been an absentee blogger and she's just revealed in a post that the reason for this is she feels like a failure for re-gaining the weight. I want her to know she's NOT a FAILURE! She is hoping now to be approved (by insurance... her doc is ready to go) for gastric. In my mind she's not a failure because she's not giving up!"


Email Jen at justfoolinblogdesigns@gmail.com and put the number 10 in the subject line. If you follow her blog you get 2 points. Whoever gets the most votes wins a new blog design and I'm sure Sally could use it.
Why are you still here? Go email!

bikini days (edited to include a comparison pic)

Well yesterday at the Atlantis waterpark with my nephews was so much fun! They had an incredible time and were so well behaved. We all did the innertube rapids multiple times and one of them turned out to be a bit of a daredevil so guess who had to go on the challenge slide with him! It was great.... only my bikini top buckle snapped on the way down so I ended up having to tie it off for the rest of the day.

The best part of the whole experience was that I spent the whole day, in front of all those people, in a bikini. No wrap. No cover up. Just me. in a bikini!

I don't have a full body shot, but here's one I snapped of myself.

Completely forgot I'd intended to include a comparison pic. So here goes.... one of me from last summer. Definitely not even imagining a bikini was in my near (or even distant) future!

the worst stuck episodes are..... (and lots of pics)

....the ones where I KNEW BETTER!

I KNEW cracked conch was NOT going to be something I could chew into smithereens. I KNEW this. And STILL, I gave into temptation and ordered a cracked conch snack. And THEN.... I proceeded to eat it in the CAR. Good lord this was one bad idea immediately followed by another.

I ended up having to pull over onto a side street and spit a bit.... luckily it went down without a pb episode. And my pup Sylvia appreciated the snack she got when I made it home and let her have a few pieces before I chucked it in the garbage.

Got a new dress today... I don't think it photographs all that well, but I fell in love with it in this resort boutique and had to have it. Chuckled when i saw it was a one-size fits all dress. Finally those things fit ME!

I also got a little black summer/beach dress coverup thing. I tried on the medium and it looked pretty good. But in the back of my mind were all the comments telling me the white top in the last post was too big. So I trotted over and grabbed a SMALL. And that's the one I bought! Madness!!!

Tomorrow I'm taking my two nephews to Atlantis for the day. The resort has an amazing set up of pools and slides. Hoping the boys are tall enough to go on the big ones, but if not, i'm sure they'll manage to have a blast.... I plan on parking my bikini-clad derriere on a deck chair somewhere with my kindle and chilling.... who knows.... i may do a ride or three as well. Just picture me at one of the following:

and i end with some pics that make you laugh. Sylvia has developed a real taste for ice cream. see for yourself.

Going to BOOBS? Need a roomie?

Are you going to Boobs or thinking of going to Boobs and still looking for a roommate? Or have a double and willing to add a third? Ronnie at http://bandumentary.blogspot.com
is looking for someone to share a room with in Chicago. If you are looking too, hit her up!!!!!!
I'm already rooming with three others otherwise I'd squeeze her in for sure.

Things I learned when I plugged in the Wii

So i finally got my lovely nice big new flat screen tv (gift from my dbf). And i FINALLY plugged in my Wii and unwrapped the new exercise programmes I got a month or so ago.

And I learned a couple of things.

1. It's best that I give Zumba a try in the privacy of my living room. Good lord I am uncoordinated. But I managed to make it through a few beginner routines and had fun while moving my butt.
2. Moved onto my new EA Active 2 programme and learned that doing floor exercises with Sylvia (my dog) in the room is not possible. As soon as I got on the floor, she was on top of me thinking we were playing some kind of fun new game!
3. Sylvia is a licker. Big time. But she took it to a whole other level when i had finished my routine and was sweating up a storm. She thought she'd died and gone to heaven!

I did take pics along the way, but somehow they disappeared when I synced my i-touch this morning :(

the pic i promised.... and body image

It's not a great shot and of course although I had my camera with me at the party it never occurred to me to take it out and get a nicer picture taken!!!!

That's a medium top and size 6 pants. Still in shock over that.

Now here's the tough part... something I know so many of you grapple with. When Will my mind catch up with my body?

I'm intelligent to know that having lost 105.8lbs and going from a 20 to a 6 that I'm ALOT smaller than I used to be. But I roll my eyes when people call me slim or skinny. BECAUSE I DON'T SEE IT.

I was chatting with a good friend the other day about this whole journey. she's one of the few who knew well in advance of surgery that I was doing this and has been 150% supportive. I was commenting on the fact that post last un-fill I'm finally back on track with my eating and the scale is moving (albeit slowly) in the right direction.

She was surprised when I told her I weighed 157.... she thinks I look more like 130-something. I told her I wanted to get to 140-something and so have about 7lbs to go..... but said that at least I don't look 'skinny'..... she thinks I do.....

When will I see myself the way others do? I look at the photo above and yes, I love how I look, but I don't see skinny. I see healthy. I'm not mortified anymore because I'm not obese but I don't go 'wow!'

How do i get to that point? will I ever?

it's official

I am a size 6!!!

sick and tired of trying to cobble together an outfit from the handful of clothes in my closet, I bit the bullet today and went shopping for an outfit to wear to my dad's g'day party tonight.

I was amused that there were lots of things in 14's and 16's and size large, but I was only able to find an 8 in one pair of white pedal pushers and a 6 in another. I tried on the six and they fit. perfect fit. wooooo hooooo. will take a pic when have them on with the white with black detail tunic I got to go with them and post for all to see.

cheerios

Who IS this person?!?

Tonight, instead of going on a cinco de mayo pub crawl, i headed to my nutritionist/trainer for a torture session and then came home where I was supposed to meet a friend for W1D2 of C25K. She couldn't make it and my legs were a bit sore so instead I took miss Sylvia for a long walk... we even ventured into some bushes for extra adventure!
When I got done with that I trimmed the excess length off my brand spankin new jumprope and did a few minutes.

Who IS this person?

Then, I hopped onto the couch and laptop and picked up with my sometime ago forsaken research into next year's 40th bday adventure.... Two girlfriends and I had talked some time back about going on an epic adventure. We'd talked extensively about where to go... and Vietnam seemed to hit the top of the pile.
I've got to touch base with them to see if they're still up for it.... and get researching and booking.... trouble is, next year is an election year here. We don't have fixed election dates like you have in the US so all we know is the election will have to be held before sometime in May. Two of us work in management in the media and one is married to a politician so elections will have to come first.

Anyway... I started looking at various tours with some companies whose travel philosohies and styles I know and like... and found myself strangely drawn to active adventure trips - hike, bike and kayak Vietnam... and cycle Vietnam.... these would only be possibilities if for some reason I end up doing this epic adventure on my own.... but hiking? biking? kayaking?

Again I ask... who IS this person?!

weighed in this morning and was up to 157.5  i knew i'd be up, but the weight has come down a bit from last week and I still have some restriction when I eat solid proteins so as long as I continue to do what I know i'm supposed to do I am confident my weight will start heading down again. the 153 i hit a month or so ago pre-unfill was brought about by dehydration and starvation so i'm not concerned. we checked the files at the nutritionist's office and i'm down a pound since the last time she weighed me so all's well.

all's well so long as I promise myself to never ever buy easter candy again.... it's all gone... and no... i didn't toss it out or share....

self-imposed starvation

It's been a while. I guess life just got in the way.

So about this title. One thing I've found since my slight unfill a few weeks ago is that the hungry switch got turned back on and I'm constantly thinking about food and the next meal. Being tight is so lovely in that it takes all that away, but of course, leads me into other problems.

I've been indulging this hunger. A lot. And not necessarily with the best things. And as a result my bowels are all messed up and i've put on a few pounds. Nothing to be alarmed about, but I know why and I know I need to arrest this development.

So this morning I decided that I needed to remind myself what true hunger really feels like. Not the little 'oh it's about that time of day when i should eat and so i'll eat' hunger. But the tummy rumbling, gurgling feed me feed me feed me hunger.

I had to get up at 4:40 this morning and head into work for 5:30 am. I was the first kind of hunger really early on, but I know that food is not my friend first thing so I had a coffee... and that got the bowels going into overdrive.... thank goodness. i was really bloated.

so anyway, morning work kept on and i decided not to feed the hunger and before you know it' it was noon and i was ravenous... that second kind of hunger.

I really needed to remember what that felt like as it's been such a long time.

Of course once I filed that feeling away, I headed out for some sushi..... and was so hungry (and have lost my knife) that I started scarfing it down. Three pieces down and i'm feeling a little bit stuck. Hoping it works its way down because I DON'T wanna have that come back up. ewwwwwwwwwwww.