recipe time

Look what I made last night. I told my son they were "egg cupcakes," so he'd give them a try. It didn't work.  (Dangit, he's gettin' smart!).  My one year old devoured his though.  I used this recipe from allrecipes.com but used 3 veggie sausage patties from Trader Joes (microwaved, lol) and a red onion because it was all I had. Plus I cut the recipe in half and baked it in a muffin pan so I could have some handy meals to pop in the microwave for the rest of the week.  Oh and I used less butter too.  So mine probably had less calories than the original version, especially when half the recipe made 12 "muffins."  I can only eat one as a meal and that's only half a serving...maybe next time I'll use carmelized onions and bacon.

Did I really need surgery?

It was great seeing some friends during my little vacation last week.  One of them asked, "But don't you think you could have done it without surgery?  You were doing so good on your own."

Hmmm.

She isn't the first person to ask me this.  I kind of don't know what to say.  Obviously I did not think I could do it myself.

I don't know what to think of this question.  Sometimes people make statements that are disguised by questions......so I wonder...is that what this is?  Was that a statement?

I really don't know.  I love my friends and I don't think anyone would purposely hurt my feelings, but this question kind of does.

The answer is NO.  I could not have done it on my own.  Sure, I lost 30-35 pounds before surgery but I hit a plateau of 175-180 lbs.  That is where I ALWAYS got stuck.  And by "always" I mean for the last 8 years.  In the last 8 years I have gone up and down and could never get to less than 180.  It takes MAJOR focus and determination to get down to the 180-185 mark for me.

And by "major focus," I mean to say that I had to learn to live with hunger.  I had to find ways to distract myself from eating even healthy foods.  My appetite was out of control.  It didn't matter what I ate.  Protein, fiber, healthy fats, etc.  I was HUNGRY all the time.  To get down to my "low" weight of 180's, I had to work out like crazy and constantly stuff myself with foods such as grilled chicken, black beans, greek yogurt, and raw fruits & veggies.  Honestly, I got SO SICK TO DEATH of chewing up these foods but I had to if I wanted that gnawing feeling in my gut to go away.  We all know how long it takes to chew up raw broccoli and carrots.  Eventually, I'd get tired of all the jaw motion and just slather peanut butter on toast and gobble it up.

Once I got to about 190-195 lbs "on my own," I started taking Topamax which totally killed my ferocious appetite.  It made it so much easier to lose weight.  So that's actually how I got to 175.  Oh and that little drug called Alli---about six weeks of free samples from my doctor.  That helped me too.  But then I started having some side effects that I couldn't tolerate so I had to stop taking the Topamax.  Slowly, despite my best efforts, my weight crept back up.  From 175 in February to 180 on the day of surgery in July.

Dieticians love to tell people that losing weight is SIMPLE.  As long as you eat less calories than what your body needs, you'll lose weight.  Well, obviously it's NOT THAT SIMPLE.  Their little equation totally disregards hunger.  That annoys me.  Can you tell?

Now that I've had surgery, it is that simple for me.  And THAT is heaven.

I love charts. Here is my weight chart that I keep on my phone.  It's an app called Weight Tracker.  I had to take two separate screen shots to show you this.  The first pic is a photo BEFORE surgery.  See how I lost weight but then it crept upwards after I stopped taking Topamax?






And now look at this second photo.  AFTER surgery.  I could not have broken the 175-180 mark without it because my appetite was a MAJOR factor in my weight problem.




It is heavenly to feel satisfied after eating.  Yes, I needed something drastic, like surgery.

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150's!!

Just got back home after spending a week in Texas. I'm very behind on blog reading, please forgive me, I'll catch up this week. My mismatched socks are a result of fumbling in the dark last night looking for anything to keep my feet warm after a long day of flying with a 3 year old and a 1 year old. But look at the scale!! 150's!!! My BMI is at 28 (overweight still) but I feel really good and know that I'll get to "normal" soon enough.


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