Phat Browngurl

Start weight:  242

Current weight: 171

 

Wow, yeah it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged.  Had some real life issues happen – like the kids going back to school, Cat her and pending braces, and sadly my mother having a stroke.  My husband had to come home on emergency leave from Korea to help out, but she’s improving every day and we’re thrilled she’s doing so much better.

 

As for me – I’m up to working out four times a week:  1.5-2 mile run at 5mph and an all over weight lifting work out that culminates into a 45min work out.  Four times a week is rough, I won’t lie, but I’m keeping at it.  I fit comfortably into a size 12 and I think I need to buy a smaller bra – 36 DD.  The girls are still large, but at least my chest width is getting smaller – that’s a first, let me tell you.  I’m starting to see muscles in my arms and my thighs, but after six months, it’s about damn time!

 

My husband finally had quite a bit to say after not seeing me since July and about -15lbs lighter and definitely toner.  He keeps looking at me and grabbing my butt – “where did it go?”  He’s a naturally quiet guy who clams up if socially he’s expected to react a certain way (everyone asked what he said in July and he was just too shy to really say anything lol) but this time I really wasn’t expecting him to say anything.  I was just so wrapped up in my mother, I even forgot about sex!  But he’s been nothing but doting, supportive, and loving.  Whew.  I’m so lucky to have him.

 

I only got to work out once this past week, but that’s because I’ve been spending all my time in Seattle with my mother.  Now that Mike is returning to Korea for his last 6 weeks tonight, I’ll be able to return to my normal schedule with the kids since I won’t have the day care for them to make sure they get to school and get home on time.  It’ll distract me from my mother’s plight, but I wish I could be with her all day/night.

 

That’s it, will blog more soon =)

start weight:  242

current weight: 179

 

It’s like being pregnant, I swear.  7 months post op I’m still just over 60lbs lost and I now know exactly what ‘plateau’ means in terms of weight loss.  My weight seems to fluctuate within 5lbs – 178 to 183, but I think it’s water weight because it’s not like I’m eating all that much.  I’m hungry as hell still, but it’s because I am still consistently working out 3 times a week.  Wearing a size 12 old navy sweetheart classic low rise jean, but my 14s feel tight sometimes.  I think I really retained some water this past week though.  I felt it in my legs and my stomach was bloated as hell.  Feeling better today and I was surprised to see my weight go from 182 last night to 179 today.

 

I’ve decided to try pilates to help strengthen my core muscles which are total shit.  I can’t even do a sit up.  Seriously.  I suppose that’s from having a C-section and the bypass surgery – granted it wasn’t like I was sporting a 6-pack before the kids anyway.  But good gravy, 60 mins of doing yoga type movements doesn’t seem all that hard until the next day.  Woof.  I started last week and I thought I was going to die 24hrs later.  Went to my second class today, different instructor (it’s volunteer at the Fitness Center on base so it’s free) and I went from beginner to intermediate within a week, I guess.  The class was infinitely  harder today, but I was able to do more.  Seems weird to have that much progress, but I’ll take what I can get.  So it’s Mon/running +weights, Tues/Pilates, off Wednesday, Thurs/Pilates, and Friday/running +weights.  Figure that’ll give my body time to heal and maybe use the weight lifting benefits more efficiently.  I guess people are still surprised I’m sticking with it.  Am I over doing it?  Probably, but I’m going to try and keep it up until I can strengthen my core muscles enough to just use weights to maintain it.  Or vice versa, I dunno.  I enjoy working out though, especially since it gives me 1hr to myself.  Thank god Catherine is old enough to watch David now!

 

I still want to lose another 20lbs – I think 40lbs more is unrealistic.  If I can get to 160, I know I’ll be able to squeeze into an 8 with the amount of working out I do.  Before at 140lbs I wore a 10, but I’m almost in a 10 now and 180 so I can live with 160 because it’ll mean considerably more muscle than pre-kids size 10.  Wish me luck!

 

 

start weight:  242

current weight:  who knows

 

So I got the results back from my diabetic A1C yesterday.  Yeah, kinda weird.  I take less insulin, but because I cut out my lunch dose, my a1c went from 8 to 9.1 .  That doesn’t mean anything to you, does it.  Ok, so normal, non-diabetic is 5.  Good for a diabetic is under 7.  Yeah…not doing as good as I thought.  So I’m back to testing my sugar fasting/lunch/dinner/+2dinner to make sure it’s under control again.  My doctor wants me to come back in and talk to him about it.

 

I fucking hate my new doctor.

 

Just wanted to put that out there.

 

He reminds me of my 9th grade english teacher Mr. Barrett.  I didn’t like him.  At all.  Talks over you, isn’t friendly, and is generally a…well a doctor.  Not going to follow up with him, but that’s another story.

 

I’m still running – I can go just over 3 minutes at 5mph now which is super awesome.  2 miles in 30  minutes.  That’s running for 2-3 mins, walking for 2-3 and back and forth.  Learning to breath is interesting, I try not to think about it but apparently there’s a correct way.  I don’t get side aches or hyperventilate when I run, so I guess I’m doing ok.  My appetite is incredible still, but I am expending that energy.  I weighed myself at the gym with my sneakers and clothes on – 180.  So minus 3lbs, that’s SUPPOSEDLY 177, but I doubt it.  I gave up weighing myself because it’s frustrating.  I feel like I’m losing inches still so that’s a relief at least.

Start Weight: 242

Current Weight:  179

 

I say 179 but really it’s probably 180 consistently.  I’ve hit that plateau.  Again.  I’m experiencing that catch 22 – the more I work out, the hungrier I get.  I’m expending the energy, it makes sense, but I can’t seem to really break that 61lb mark =/  However, there is a plus side and it’s not my jeans.  My body is still getting smaller – I’ve noticed this by the distance my jeans seem to gravitate toward my knees, despite not losing the pounds.

 

Jeans are evil.  Well, jean SIZES are evil.  LEVI jeans?  I can fit into a 12 no problem.  Michael Kors skinny jeans?  I can’t even get a 12 up past my thighs.  What the hell??  I hate that crap.  So I figure I’ll go by Old Navy and the Gap and see how those jeans fit me.  My Old Navy size 18s literally fall off me now – which is so weird.  I started this journey not even able to wear them I had gotten so big, but now I just look ridiculous in them.

 

Mike’s was home in July and we must’ve ate out a million times and I still managed to lose 5lbs.  He left the end of July, but I haven’t lost anything really since then.  Our high school reunion is this weekend, but as much as I wanted to go and show off my boobie shirt…

 

 

…I won’t be going.  Really, the people I want to see, I can already see.  Everyone else I don’t even really know and it’s not like anyone even noticed my ‘Oh can’t come’ post anyway.  I’ll be taking the kids to the beach anyway.  I’m looking forward to chasing David and Catherine up and down the beach and not wanting to pass out afterwards.

 

My workout schedule is as follows:

 

All the damn time.

 

No, I’m kidding.

 

15-20 mins cardio – either Elliptical or Running (lately it’s been running and I friggin love it!)

15 mins of lifting weights – Legs are up to 110-130lbs, Arms – up to 55lbs (and I can totally see the muscle definition now.  Janet Jackson arms, here I come!)

Another 15 mins of cardio – running or elliptical, whatever I didn’t do the first time.

 

There’s a cardio boot camp class that I’m considering trying.  I don’t really like working out with people, but I’ve seen the class and the variety might help boost my weight loss again.  It’s this Friday at 12.  Wish me luck!

 

Other than that – I feel super great, other than lower back pain that has plagued me since 16.  I have to see the doctor about that – I’ll score a free boob reduction if it’s the last thing I do.

start weight:  242

current weight: 183 (-59lbs)

jeans size: comfortable 14

 

So my husband has come home on leave from Korea for 26 days – that would be why I haven’t updated at all since a couple days before he came back.  We immediately went up to see our parents in Oak Harbor and then drove down to California for a week at his sisters.  I am proud to say that I maintained my 3x a week workouts.  Granted walking in 90 degree weather (or 900, felt like it) with no water is not something I’d recommend, but we did pass a starbucks and I did have the presence of mind to carry enough money with me to get a tall iced tea.

 

My husband has been extremely encouraging, if not a little quiet about my weight loss.  He’s always getting me to eat my protein and happily shares his meals with me, getting whatever I want for the most part.  His first reaction to my weight loss was speechlessness.  And for those of you kiddos out there reading – (cover thine eyes!) he did comment on my lack of ass after sex.

 

“There’s so much less of you.”

“This is bad?”

“Well no – it’s just…weird.  Not as much cushion for the pushin’.”

 

A poet, my husband.

 

He kept touching me, probably more out of the fact that he hasn’t seen me in 7 months, but today he commented on my choice of pants – a pair of size 16 khakis that didn’t slip off my almost nonexistent ass.

 

“Please change.”

“Why?  These don’t fall off my hips.”

“Yeah but they’re huge.”  Tugs at the material billowing around my hips and thighs.  “Look at all this material.  No, go change back into those skinny capris you had on.”

 

I was wearing these size 14 capris from Old Navy fit surprisingly loose except for my calves (a sore point for me and always have been) but he insisted I looked much better in those than the baggy khakis.  I suppose it takes getting used to – wearing clothes that show off my shape.  Don’t get me wrong, I love shopping – in fact I bought a shirt today that said, “Hershey’s Milk Chocolate” (I mean really, how friggin cool is that) and a Large top.  It’s been over a decade since that’s happened.

 

I’m definitely in better shape now at 183 than I was back in 2003 when I weighed that much and could squeeze (barely) into a size 14.  Who knew all this exercise would be handy?  I can also feel the muscles in my forearms and I’m starting to see the muscle outline in my biceps.  OMG, right?  Forty more pounds to go, but I’m thinking I’ll be able to squeeze into a size 10 (pre-Catherine size) before then.  I will keep you abreast of the situation as it develops!

start weight: 242

current weight: 188

jean size: 14

 

I’m losing weight pretty damn fast now, and to be very honest, I have NO clue as to why.  I’m eating my 6 meals a day – really small meals (I should take a picture the next time) and admittedly I’ve been snacking on ritz crackers (GOD THEY ARE SO GOOD) but I’m still working out my minimum of 3 times a week.  I’ve upped my protein intake by adding fish to my diet at least for lunch every day and I’ve noticed the more protein I take in, the less hungry I am.  Who knew the doctor would be right about that?  I mean, pssh, he just went to medical school. /snort

 

I’ve added supplements to help with my hair loss, but I’m hoping the extra protein will help with that as well.  It’s inevitable and will happen no matter what I do, but I worry about it growing back in at the same thickness.  Hopefully it does – you live your life with awesome thick black hair just to lose it along with the extra 100lbs you picked up after 2 kids and 20 years of marriage…it’s disheartening!

start weight:  242

current weight:  191

Jeans size starting – 18/20

Currently jean size – comfortable 14

 

It’s odd, being able to walk into a department store junior/ladies section and actually pick up a pair of jeans, off the rack, and buy them without even trying them on and know that they’ll fit.  Ok, I was pretty sure they’d fit.  When I bought a pair of clearance jeans at the BX today, I thought – ok, it’s 75% off, if it doesn’t quite fit yet, it will, right?

 

Oh they fit.  Fit super fine.

 

I stood in the kitchen looking down at the jeans and thinking…they fit?  And they were 3 dollars?  Ladies and gentlemen…it does not get any better than this.

start weight:  242

current weight:  192 (-50lbs)

 

Hell YES!  Finally hit the 50 pound mark, which is coincidentally my halfway mark to my total goal of 100 pounds.  Will I achieve that lofty goal?  I hope so.  I’m giving myself 1 year to get it to be realistic.

 

I’ve been losing about 1-2lbs a week, with some serious plateaus, but I’ve lost about 3lbs this past week so I’m hoping I’m over the first really big hump.  I haven’t been this weight since…shoot…I worked at Comcast back in the day?  Around 2003, almost 10 years.  Yoinks.  How sad is that?  Pre-Catherine I weighed about 140 and that took about 2 years to achieve.  I was 198 moving back to Washington in 1995 and promptly lost about 15 pounds.  I settled at around 175 in…1997?  Something like that.  I hovered around 165 for a little while and then boom – suddenly every time I went to the doctors, I weighed less.  They started me on metformin and then one day at the doctors I weighed 142.  I had stopped eating, for the most part, because the medication made me sick to my stomach, but I know for a long while I was losing inches, not pounds.  So at around a size 8 and 140lbs, I got pregnant with Catherine, which was planned and we were thrilled.  I put back on about 60lbs.  Lost about 20 after she was born, but Comcast had so much candy and food – I put that 20 back on and then some.

 

So, it feels great to have lost 50lbs.  Sucks that I put it on in the first place, but it’s gone and I’m working slowly but surely back to my pre-Catherine weight.  I’m excited!  I work out at least 3 times a week – doing 30 mins on the elliptical machine and then a variety of weight lifting, nothing too hardcore, at McChord’s big boy gym.  Why the HELL have I been putting off working out at the gym?  The eye candy is RI-DONK-U-LOUS!  Yes, I usually just take my glasses off, close my eyes, and listen to my IPod, but when I open them there I’m suddenly surrounded by beefy men.  God bless the armed forces, yo.

start weight: 242

current weight: 195 (-47lbs)

 

It’s a wonder I’m not bald yet.  I’ve had to cut down washing my hair to about 2 times a week due to the amount of hair I’m finding at the bottom of my shower.  I’m talking tons – if it didn’t look like a small rat, I’d post a picture, but seriously…it’s a lot of hair.  I know it was bound to happen, which is why when I got my hair cut right before my surgery I asked my stylist not to thin it out like she usually does, but it is starting to freak me out!  I’m constantly cleaning my bathroom floor, my hair brush, and the shower drain – just tons and tons of hair.  I can still twist my hair into a thick rope, but I’m thinking it’s only a matter of time before you can tell.  It’s making me sad sauce, yo.

 

Lost another pound though – still maintaining a pound a week, and my old clothes are outrageously huge on me.  I figure in another month or so I’ll need to buy size 14 jeans.  16’s fit just fine, little loose in the legs, right now.  Still working out and added a little running to my workout, but really I only do that if the elliptical machines are taken.  I’m going to start a more concentrated weight workout now that I’ve been doing it for two weeks.  Still enjoying working out and it’s not a chore at all.  I love it – especially the quiet time.  Who knew 1 hr would be so awesome by myself?

start weight:  242

current weight: 196

 

196 is what the gym scale says I weight with my workout outfit on and my baseball cap.  The house says I’m 197, so of course I’m going to side with the gym’s.  I’m just thrilled to death I’m below the 200 pound threshold.  My next goal now is below 190 and I’m hoping I get can to that in about 2 weeks.

 

Still working out, up to 4 times a week.  I do 30 on the elliptical and then lift weights, but I’m still getting my body used to that.  I suppose it’s time to start using the big girl gym, not the family fitness one.  They don’t have all the equipment.  I’m not sore anymore, thank god, and I still feel pretty good.  Eating is still an adventure – sometimes I feel like I’m stuffing my face, but my scale is telling me otherwise.  Eating slow something I just can’t do.  Habits are hard to break.  Still eating only about 4-5 oz of food though with little snacks in between meals.  Drinking my water (and coffee) but  lamenting my starbucks runs since I’m slightly lactose intolerant now.  Blergh.