Unofficial 7 Month Update and Some Photos

Time for a much needed update! Yes, I have passed my 7 month mark now. I didn't take photos or measurements, or make a video, because not much has changed, so I think I'm going to wait until my 8th month to do so. Although when I *finally* hit 100 lbs lost I'll probably take some photos. I am currently still bouncing between 211.5 and 213. My body seems to really like hanging out at this weight... and I am actually okay with it. I am totally enjoying my life and my body and how I feel health-wise. So let's just call this my unofficial 7  month update :)
 So on my 7 month (Dec 20th) this was my weight:

Yes I still would like to lose more, but I'm not in a hurry :) Things are good and I'm letting my body do what it needs to do. I'm trying to up my exercise again, but every time I do it causes a lot more hip and back pain, so I'm trying to keep a balance and respect what my body needs. Damn pain :(

 Anyway, while I am perfectly fine with things going slow right now, friends and family are constantly asking me if I have hit the 100 mark yet. That gets a little frustrating - I know they all mean well but it just seems like they are so disappointed when I tell them nothing has changed. So I'd love to hit that mark just so I can shut everyone up and say yup I'm there lol. Other than that I'm good.

We've been having an EXTREMELY busy holiday season - I am up to my ears in photos I want to share and blog posts I want to write. I hope I can start catching up soon. I'm so busy with my knittng and crochet classes right now too! Just know that I'm here and I do have lots to share :)

While things have been slow the past couple months... there's nothing like seeing how far you've come to make you realize things are really freaking good.

The other day I was going through my husband's phone and emailing myself photos of his that I wanted. I came cross some old photos I don't ever remember seeing... why he even took these I don't know lol but man, were they crazy to see....

Then I also found this photo from my honeymoon:

Then I started getting a chance to look at photos that have been taken THIS holiday season (haven't even put any of these on Flickr yet)... and I am just so happy with what I am seeing these days!

That last one, while not a particularly flattering photo, is a special photo for me. It's one that made me go... wow... that's me? I know I'm still a big girl but man, I feel like I am starting to look pretty normal. My stomach looks fairly flat (at least it's not sticking out) and I am just happy with what I see. Can't remember the last time I saw a side-view photo and I liked what I saw. This feels great :)

Well I'm off to try and finish up a knitting assignment before class tonight. I hope to be back with more to share soon!

First Sleeved Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was... interesting. I don't like to sound negative, but family drama is never a good thing, and we certainly had some of that this year. BUT, I will say, the cooking & eating part of the holiday went very well :) My dad made the turkey & stuffing and my aunt brought a delicious Costco pumpkin pie. Other than that, the rest was up to hubby and me!! He was my kitchen assistant and chopped all the things I hate chopping lol and he helped me stay calm. Cooking really overwhelms me, especially making several dishes at once!!

I opted to pick up mac and cheese from Panera so I had one less thing to worry about, so I just warmed that up in a small crock pot for about an hour before dinner.

The first thing I made was garlic mashed potatoes. I made them in the crock pot so I had to start them about 5 hours before dinner.

I'm having trouble locating the recipe I used but basically it is red potatoes (3 lbs), a whole white onion, diced... minced garlic. After that cooked through, I mashed them up and then added onion and chive cream cheese, milk, butter, and some additional spices. Forgot to take a pic of them finished but you will see a little bit of them on my plate later :)

The second dish I made was Shelly's Crazy Corn Casserole. For me this was a lot of work compared to stuff I usually cook, but not too bad and DEFINITELY worth it because it tasted absolutely AMAZING!

It then got cheese on top and baked in the oven til melty and bubbly. It was a crowd pleaser. I am already thinking about making this a meal casserole by adding beef and possibly beans also. Will have to try that sometime soon! This thing has just so much flavor.

The third dish I made was something I have done for about the past 6 years - green beans with almonds. I buy frozen whole green beans and cook them in the microwave first. I sautee sliced almonds in a little butter and with a lot of minced garlic. Then I add the green beans to the skillet and add a little garlic powder, salt and pepper. This is always tasty. I didn't take a specific photo of this either but they are on my plate.

Here's my Thanksgiving plate. FYI, it is a salad sized plate not a dinner plate!

On the left you see my green beans with almonds! Going clockwise there is panera mac and cheese, then my garlic mashed potatoes, then turkey, stuffing, and finally corn casserole. Everything was awesome!

Here is what I wasn't able to eat:

About an hour and a half later I had a 1/2 slice of pumpkin pie. YUM!!!

We had lots of leftovers. I only ate them a few times though. One time I used turkey to make a melt, and had veggies with it:

Another day I had some leftover meat loaf with some of the potatoes and mac and cheese. And I also had another 1/2 slice of pumpkin pie the day after Thanksgiving.

It's nice to enjoy this holiday, still eat all of the food, but not stuff myself. I never felt uncomfortable and never went into a turkey coma LOL. Enjoyed the leftovers too... but never any pigging out. And I lost 4 pounds this week, how wonderful is that?!

Thanks for stopping by my Thanksgiving table :)

July 3rd Family BBQ

Super late in writing about this, oops! Our 4th of July celebration this year was a family barbeque and my aunt Carla's house. We love hanging out on her nice deck with its fabulous mountain view. As soon as we got there we had my dad take these photos of us which you might recognize from the weight loss surgery blog post.

I thought these pictures came out really cute and that's when I realized how much weight we had been losing, thus the comparison pictures I created out of them.

How about that mountain view!!! Pretty nice huh?

There was plenty of delicious food to enjoy including some fresh corn on the cob. Oh yum, had to have some of that! Well... one bite... but it was delicious. It was nice spending time with family and also getting a chance to meet my aunt's good friend Carol.

After dinner we got to enjoy an amazing sunset over the mountains AND saw a double rainbow in the pink clouds!

We hung around until late in the evening to watch fireworks from her deck. We thought it had turned out to be a poor view as all the ones we saw were small, far away, or blocked by houses. After an hour, we all decided to go home. As Ian and I were leaving my aunt's neighborhood, Ian noticed fireworks. We pulled over and had a fantastic view of the fireworks... our own private viewing!! It was lovely.

Here is a video of part of the finale...loved it!!

We did find out later that my aunt and grandma saw the whole thing from the deck and had a great view... so at least next year we know to stick it out! They started them a whole hour later than the announced time so we just assumed the ones we were (barely) seeing were them. It's so nice to have a good spot to see fireworks without being in a crowd of people.

We enjoyed our 4th of July. We had planned to also see fireworks on the 4th itself, but the weather was so bad here... and we ended up hiking instead, which you will hear about in the next post! Tata for now.