OMG, I'm BOOB-ing!!!!

OMG, my husband is officially THE. BEST. EVER. Without doubt.

I was just out to lunch with him and my mum and he presented me with an early (5 months early) 40th birthday present - a flight to Chicago, so that I can attend BOOBS II!!!!! It was a complete and utter surprise; I didn't have a clue, even though he told me he had something planned which was happening before my actual birthday.

Apparently he has been in secret email contact with Stephanie so this could all be organised. How wonderful is he?!

I can't believe I'm going to get to meet so many bandsters in one go. I'll have read so many of your blogs so I'll sort of 'know' you, but I'm sure there will also be ladies whose blogs I've not (yet) read. It's going to be weird/awesome/scary/exciting/unbelievable all rolled into one. WOW.

And not only that, while my flight from London to Chicago is direct, on the way home hubby has routed me via New York and booked a night in a hotel so I can spend a little time in my favourite city and do some (more) shopping!!!

Did I say already - isn't he wonderful?!

A 'Tiny' NSV

Yesterday during a conversation with a very good friend of mine, I received two major compliments which made me feel very chuffed indeed. The first went something like this: 'Your thighs are tiny' and the second was 'You really go in at the waist'. What was great about this was that it followed a comment my darling hubby had made the day before about how I had a nice figure that went like 'this' - cue hubby making hourglass shape with his hands.


The funny thing about the thighs comment is that I see them as being one of the worst parts of my body; I think they are really big because I struggle to find trousers that fit properly. If trouser fit on the thighs then they gape at the waist; if they fit on the waist, there is no way on God's earth I would be able to wear them due to the twin issues of tightness and indecency. However, if you turn this issue on its head, perhaps it's not that my thighs are TOO BIG, instead it's a case of my waist being TOO SMALL. Oh yes sirreeee, that's the problem. My waist is too tiny to find trousers that fit properly. Yeehaw! (and, of course, trouser designers have no idea what real women look like.)


And this all leads back to the issue that so many of us have of only seeing the negative parts of our bodies when all along these 'bad' bits are either not that noticeable (except to us), or are actually non-existent. Time to accentuate the positive methinks.

Detailing My Food Intake

On the back of my post yesterday where I complained (again) about my band being tight, I thought perhaps I should write down everything that I eat in a day and then analyse whether my band is actually tight, or if perhaps I'm just being greedy wanting to eat more than I should/can. Now that the day is done and I've finally finished stuffing my face (give or take a couple of chocolates...) I'm almost embarrassed to list all that I've eaten considering all I seem to have done is whinge about my band being tight. Not to mention the fact that pretty much all I have eaten today is largely junk. Anyway, here's my food intake for today: I think it's fair to say my band isn't tight and I'm just greedy.

8.30am: 2 bites of toast; 1/2 a mug of coffee (hubby will tell you that I'm a demon for leaving half drunk mugs of coffee around)

11.30am: 2 shortbread biscuits

12pm: 2 crackers with duck pate

1pm: 2 more crackers with duck pate - very moreish; 3 olives

3.30pm: half a red velvet whoopie pie; ate too quickly and had to 'dislodge' some. My own stupid fault.

5.30pm: small (say 2 inches x 1 inch) piece of refrigerator cake

7pm: 2 shortbread biscuits

8pm: large handful of pretzels with small bowl of taramasalata as a dip

9.30pm: portion of New York (the best sort!) cheesecake with cream

Apologies for the lack of breaks/returns in this posting; I wrote it on my iPhone, and clearly that's made a difference.

80lbs Down!!!

I'm contintually amazed by how much the band has done for me and continues to do for me in terms of weight loss. I meant to post on Monday that I'd lost another 1lb, but didn't get round to it and now today, I got on the scales to find another 2lbs had disappeared overnight.

13st 0lbs - 182lbs - BMI 30.3

(a total loss so far of 80lbs; 14lbs to go)

80lbs lost in just under 17 months. WOW!!! Thank you band!!!

The strange thing is that the band is still annoyingly tight; not so tight that I can't eat or drink anything, but still much tighter than it used to be. Why is that? Why would it have got tighter? Should I be worrying about slippage? Or do I simply need a very small unfill? Or, should I just get used to the fact that as I've lost weight my 'upper' stomach has got smaller and so my meals need to get smaller? Any thoughts?

Before Photos, As Promised

December 2008; 6 months pregnant. No idea how much I weighed, but probably 18stone something (252lbs+).March 2009; 4 days before giving birth, again I can't remember how much I weighed then - but probably in the region of 19stone (266lbs+)Day before I gave birth. Looking good. Ha.April 2009; a couple of weeks after giving birth; I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight by then, having only gained 2stone during the actual pregnancy, but that still only took me back to about 18stone. May 2009. Don't know how much I weighed here but wearing a UK size 22 (US 18?) outfit and no reason to think I was anything less than 18stone (252lbs)

June 2009. Same weight.
July 2009. Same same!

September 2009; no doubt the same

I can't find any photos of me from October-December 2009 and then in January 2010 I had the band fitted - thank goodness! And you've all seen the photos from then onwards.

Just wanted to leave you with a couple of photos from April of this year - what a difference 5.5stone (75lbs) and 15months can make:

Tight Band = Another Pound Down

My band is still tight; it's not craaaazy tight because I can still eat, but it's tighter than it used to be, which means I can't eat as much. How is that? I was under the impression that as you lost weight the band might actaully loosen up due to there being less fat about the place; or, if not actually loosen up, then definitely not get tighter. Very odd. The only other thing I can think is that perhaps the amount of PBing I was doing when the band got super-tight around TOTM has agitated it and there's a bit of swelling.

Whatever the reason, the result is that I'm not eating as much which means I've lost another pound. Today's weigh-in has taken me down by exactly 5-and-a-half stone (77lbs):

13st 3lbs - 185lbs - BMI 30.8

(a total loss so far of 77lbs; 17lbs to go)

I find it hard to get my head around the fact that I have just 17lbs to lose before I reach my initial goal weight of 168lbs (12 stone)! When I was first banded, 16 months ago, my goal weight seemed a very, very long way off. Now it is very much achievable. At my current rate of losing (avg 3lbs a month) it will take me til November to get to this goal, but I'm more than happy with that. In fact, I'm more than happy to be the weight I am right now; although of course it goes without saying that I'm even happier as each further pound disappears!

But, would you believe the weight I am now still puts me in the OBESE category according to my BMI. In fact, I need to lose another 6lbs just to be OVERWEIGHT, and another 36lbs - yes THIRTY-SIX! - to be deemed NORMAL. Ouch.