December 13, 2008 Odds and Ends

It's abeen quite a week here. The Christmas rush is on, busy busy busy! Happy to say the gifts are wrapped, the cards are sent, and I'm DONE!
The scale was down another pound yesterday. Just 0.4 away from that 186 goal and my new UGG boots! I will check on Tuesday (becuase I REALLY want to wear those boots!), but hopefully by Friday for sure I'll be there. The really cool thing is that since Halloween, I've lost 7 pounds, but I've GAINED 7 pounds of muscle! So my BMR has gone up, and my body fat % is down.
Saw the nutritionist on Monday and got an A+ in food and fitness! We discussed maintenance, as well as how to handle the drop in exercise after surgery. I think I'm going to be ok with this! She says I should do Pilates at least once a week because it makes my muscles burn more calories. So on Thursday I went to another Pilates class. My body had just stopped hurting that morning from Saturday's class, so I wasn't keen on the idea of more pain. But this class was much more to my tolerance. There were still plenty of things I couldn't do, and some things I had to modify (the woman next to me did likewise, and I just followed her), but for the most part I kept up. And I'm happy to say the pain was minimal. Just the lower abs are sore. Hey, I'm so glad to know I HAVE lower abs, I don't care if they hurt!
Last night was the annual girls' Christmas party. As always, it was great fun. I really got a kick out of some of the responses when people saw me. (alot of them I haven't seen since last year's party). Several literally did not recognize me! Everyone had to ask what I'm doing, etc. Again, a bit of disappointment when they found out it wasn't a quick fix, and that I'm at the gym 6 days a week.
I was a bit nervous about food, but I did really well. Thankfully, all the "bad" stuff was either stuff i don't like, or it had eggs in it. Poof! No problems there! I ended up only about 100 calories over my limit. Not too shabby! I did eat some mint M&Ms when I got home, but I know that was a combo of stress/emotional eating and a bit of the "what the heck" attitude after the party (and before I knew how well I'd actually done.) At any rate, I am back on track today with no problems.
I figured out that if I lose one pound a week (and only 1/2 pound Christmas week), and lose nothing the month of February (after surgery), I will reach my goal of 175 at my April 3 weigh in. I really really like the idea of having 3 1/2 months to go before I get to maintenance. Only 11 pounds, but it should take me awhile. Now watch, I'll start losing like crazy and get there before surgery!
I bought some Christmas shirts at WalMart (realized I had NO Christmas clothing, and I usually wear it the entire month of December). I ended up with Misses LARGE (size 12-14)!!! That was an unexpected treat!
I saw the hernia surgeon and he says I've lost enough weight now that whenever I'm ready, he will cut out all the bad tissue, clean out all the mesh that my body keeps rejecting, and pull together the good tissue, close it with Alloderm (which I DON'T reject) and then mobilize all the layers and close it with a tummy tuck. Cool!!! So, worst case scenario, I'll have a draining abdominal wound in a little tiny waist. STILL an improvement over now! And God willing, I'll have a little tiny INTACT waist! (oh please, oh please!) So probably right after Easter. Gotta have time to recover before Scotland!
Wednesday is my annual physical. I'm curious to see how my blood work looks. The doctor will certainly be pleased with the change in weight from last year, although she's seen me intermittently over the past year, so it won't be a total shock. I can't remember the last time I was in, but I've certainly lost inches since then.
Well, just 11 days until Christmas. I'm still not really in the Christmas spirit, despite the gifts, cards and decorating being done, and despite wearing Christmas clothes every day this past week. And even listening to Christmas songs on the radio all week. Not sure why I'm not into it this year. Maybe becuase I see the sorry state of the world and realize how messed up everyone's priorites are as they stand in line for hours in the cold to get the next hot gift for their spoiled kids. Call me a cynic, but I just can't get into that. I wish everyone would take a few minutes to stop and think about what Christmas is REALLY all about--the birth of our Savior. That's the greatest gift ever given. Nothing else even comes close.
Merry Christmas!