Waiting...

I've been standing in line for 3.5 hours now for my parking pass for college. 

Today's food has not been so great. 

I've had 2 coffees and half an assorted wrap. In line there isn't much choice. 

I managed to get my student card. I won't be showing that pic to often. 

Hopefully I'll be able to get my pass within the next hour. 

Lordy Its Been a While

Sure has been a long time since I've been on my blog. Good news is I'm still smoke-free. Yesterday I celebrated 11 months without a cigarette. The bad news is I put on some weight. The highest I climbed up to was 222 pounds. That's a whopping 60 pounds from my lowest in October. 

I'm finding it very hard to get back on track. I try this diet, I try that diet. I can't seem to stick anything. 

Today I decided to go back to basics, eating every 2 to 3 hours and eating no more than 3 g of sugar per meal. 

In a couple of weeks my life will be changing once again. I've decided to go back to college and earned my diploma as a social service worker. I'm hoping this will help me with managing my food as well. 

My daughter Erin has moved back home.  That's been somewhat of an adjustment as well. She moved home following statement hospital. She was diagnosed bipolar. I'm still unsure of how things are going work out. 

Back in April we took a nice drive down to Dallas. We drove 19 hours straight to get there for a hockey game. We decided to take an extra day on the way back and spend the night in St. Louis and then the next day have lunch in Chicago. 

Last week we decided to make a tour the eastern seaboard and started off in Niagara Falls driving up through to Maine, down to Boston to New York City to Washington DC to Pittsburgh and then finally back home. We really enjoyed the sites. Can't say food choices were the best but we made do with what we had. 

So here I am trying once again to shed the few pounds I put on.... okay so it wasn't a few. I'm going to try my best to start log in daily. I really need to be here. 

Until tomorrow. 

Day 3 Of Not Smoking.

Yesterday I hit my lowest weight yet, 164.5 lbs. I really can't wait to see the 150s. I think that will be a huge milestone for me.
Three days ago, on Sept. 4 2012, Dan and I quit smoking. I hope Dan sticks with it, but I feel confident I will, mostly because I'm doing it for me this time.
So far so good. I'm just grateful I have my food under control and if it wasn't for the strictness of Atkins, I think I'd be in a world of trouble.
So my total Atkins loss in about 95 days is 28.5 lbs. the grand total since surgery is 168.5 lbs. I'm ready to make THAT number go up.

Goals

Well it's been a while since I've blogged and I've reached a few goals. I started Atkins 79 days ago and I'm down 28 lbs.
I reached my first goal which was to beat my lowest weight since gaining after surgery. My lowest was 172.5 and I have beat it.
My second goal was to lose half my body weight which would have put me at 166.5 and I've beaten that. Today I weigh 165 lbs. I have 104 days to lose 10 lbs and reach my final goal of weighing 155 lbs. at that point I will start adding carbs back into my diet.

No Scale Today.

I'm refusing to get on my scale today. I was up all night and all I did was eat. I made sure to eat low carb, but I know I went over my 20 carb limit.
Today is another day. Will be strict with my carbs.

Finding Success At Last.

It's been a while since my last post. For the past 58 day's I've been on The Atkins Diet. I am still on the Induction Phase, but I'm enjoying the foods I'm eating. I'm trying to be creative with my cooking.
I decided to go on Atkins because I've had success in the past.... before the gastric bypass, and I figured the rules of surgery are similar because you can't have sugar with either food plan. Atkins is definitely stricter, but if gives me a head start kicking carbs, sugar and decreasing my appetite. I'm now back to eating smaller portions like I use to.
Since starting Atkins 58 days ago, I've lost 25lbs. I started at 193 lbs. I had really gained with my out of control eating, bad habits and with all the traveling, losing wasn't easy. I am now down to my lowest weight since the surgery.... 168 lbs.
My goal is to get to 155lbs. I still have 130 days to reach it. I think it's very do-able.
Some time in the future, I will start to increase my carb intake. Adding low carb breads, berries, nuts and higher carb meals. I'm on a 20g of carb plan right now, but I'm hoping to add 5g a week till I reach about 40g-50g.
I really think this lifestyle is sustainable long term, especially since I'm not to have sugar anyway. At some point, I hope to just go back to eating the way I'm suppose to post-op, while eating low glycemic carbs.
Since I began to follow this food plan, I have energy I could have only dreamed of. During the school year, it was normal for me to get up at 7am, make the kids' lunches, then go back to bed for 3 or 4 hours and wake up at 11am. I was always so tired. I assumed that as summer began, I would just be able to sleep in everyday. Somehow I found myself getting up at 7am and staying up when I didn't have to get up early at all. I found it odd, then it clicked.... Atkins. I also was taking Melatonin to help me sleep, with the occasional Tylenol PM when needed. I am now able to get to sleep early and stay asleep all night long. It is truly amazing.
Well, I'm going to log off now. I'm going to back a low carb cheesecake. I'm will not be denied LOL. I've sweets to much.

Another Good Day.

Well I started off eating a few small powdered doughnuts, but all was not lost. I took my vitamins,drank my water and stuck to my plan.
I have 1 hour left to do my eating so I plan to drink another bottle of water then have 2 sugar free cookies and candies as a treat. After 8pm, it's just water for me.
Tonight I also got signed up at the gym. So after I attend the Ladies Expo, I'm going to hit the gym and shock my body but good.