Week 25 Update

A bit late this week but here is my week 25 post-op update. Firstly here is my video for this week:

Here is the link I mention in the video if you want to read about the donating food for pounds lost idea :) http://www.vsggoodlife.com/2010/11/100-pounds-lost.html

So, my weight this week is:

215.4 lbs! That's a loss of 1.8 lbs this week. Definitely staying on the slower side, but I'm very happy it continues to go down instead of not doing anything. I doubt I'll lose 5 more lbs by the 20th when I hit my 6 month mark, so probably won't make 100 lbs lost by then, but I'm getting close and will definitely hit it DURING my 6th month so I will take that :)

Here is the hair product I mentioned in my video also:

I feel that it really helps my hair to look fuller. I got it from my salon for $10. Hubby is using it also and it makes his hair look fuller on top as well. Definitely a good product and it's not heavy like moose, it's a spray that feels more like a leave-in conditioner.


Workouts this Week:
Thurs 11/4 - 3.32 mile walk : 1 Hour
Friday 11/5 - 1.65 mile walk : 32 mins
Sunday 11/7 - 25 min walk plus Leslie Sansone 5 day Slim down (35 mins) warm up + mile 1 + mile 2 + cool down
Monday 11/8 - 50 Mins of Leslie Sansone 5 Day Slim Down - Warm up+ mile 3 + mile 4 + mile 5 + cool down


Food this Week:
Most things were same old same old this week, but I did cook another recipe. This one wasn't new to me, we used to make it before surgery but we would have it with mashed potatoes or rice plus a veggie. Now we eat just the meatballs.


Sour Cream Meatballs

You will need:
2 lbs lean ground beef (I use 93/7)
3 cans campbells soups, you choose combo (I used 1 can cream of mushroom, 1 can cream of chicken, 1 can cream of chicken with herbs, cuz that's what I had)
2 eggs (or egg beaters)
2 packets (1 box) Dry Onion Soup Mix
1 cup Sour Cream (I use Daisy Light)
Water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl combine ground beef, eggs, dry onion soup mix, sour cream. 

2. Mix well and form into meatballs, whatever size you prefer. Place meatballs into 13x9 baking pan.

3. Brown meatballs uncovered in oven for 30 minutes.

4. In separate bowl combine 3 soups plus 1 1/2 soup cans of water. Remove meatballs from oven, cover with soup mixture. Cover baking dish with tin foil and bake for 30 more minutes.

5. Check to make sure meatballs are cooked through. You're ready to eat! We are able to eat 1 - 2 meatballs with some soup mixture. Very filling!

That's it for this week's update. Back with more soon!

Week 23 Update

(I'm not going to repeat everything from my video, so if you can't watch it now, please do go back and watch it when you can.)

This is my first crack at doing WEEKLY videos instead of just monthly. I had PLENTY to say this week. I really enjoy making the videos so I will be trying to do so every week and see if I can keep up with that :)

This Week's Weigh-in...

219.4 ... a loss of 1.6lbs from last week's weigh in. Things stayed the same the first 4 days of the week, then I stayed off the scale til today... so it must have happened in the past couple days. I am only weighing in once a week from now on. I'm glad things are moving again, but I am definitely going to stop focusing so much on the scale.

Workouts This Week...
Fri 10/22 4 Mile Super Challenge DVD (Leslie Sansone)
Sat 10/23 1.0 mile walk in 20 mins
Sun 10/24 1.8 mile walk in 40 mins
Tues 10/26 1.6 mile walk in 30 mins
Wed 10/27 40 mins ARC trainer- level 4 hill intervals, stretching

My personal training on Monday got canceled so I walked Tuesday instead. :) I have workouts planned already for tomorrow and Sunday. Really ENJOYING my workouts this week! Here's a photo from our Sunday walk...

Some Things I Ate This Week...

I have been taking a lot less food pics lately since I eat a lot of the same stuff over and over, but I do need to get better about taking pics again. We had dinner at my aunt's house on Sunday and I didn't take pics of anything!!

Here's the ones I do have from this week...

Two round whole wheat crackers (Archer Farms), each with an ounce of chicken salad (Market Pantry). About 1/4 cup of grapes and 1/4 cup of cheese and salami diced up. I did finish it but it turned out to make me a little too full.

1/4 cup Campbell's creamy tomato soup and 1 small fajita sized whole wheat tortilla with about 2oz of tuna and 2 slices american cheese. I was only able to eat 1/2 of the tortilla shown here so I ended up saving the other half and having it later with another 1/4 cup of soup. Very comforting on a cold day. Since the soup container has 2 cups, it's going to take me a while to get through it! Ha.

That's all the news for this week. I had to cut time from my video where I was talking about some great blogs I've come across this week and how timely they were... they really spoke to me and helped me change my mindset also. I'll do a separate post soon sharing some of these blogs and the insight I've gained from them!

5 Month Update: Part 2

Back as promised (although a little late) to share my video update and progress pics for 5 months. :)

Full Progression:

This month compared to last month:

This month compared to the start:

Thanks for checking in on me :)

New Clothes, New Size

Hey everybody! First a quick update since my last post ~ no, my weight did not bounce back up and I am at 220.5 right now...yes, my period has actually stopped (thank God! finally!)...and yes I am feeling all better now :) Almost done with my antibiotic. Just a little scratchiness in my throat but nothing too bad.

Today is going to be my first personal training session!! It's not at Lifetime, it's at the independent place that works with bariatric patients. I'm aiming to do personal trianing Mondays and the group class Thursdays (both are strength training) in addition to my 3 cardio days per week. I'll let you know how it goes :)

OK so on to what this post is really about... new clothes!!

Everything I had left that fits is all t-shirts and tank tops. It is definitlely fall now, although we are still having a lot of days in the 70's, there are some in the 50's and 60's.... and this is Colorado so, it could snow tomorrow without warning lol. The only predictable thing about Colorado weather is the fact that it's unpredictable ;) or so they say.

So! I put together Fashion Show Video #2 :) Hope you enjoy!

The summary, if you don't have time or can't watch the video:

Stocked up on great layering pieces that will work for fall and winter. Long sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, sweaters, and a puffer vest. I got 10 pieces at JC Penney for $141.00... feel like I got a good value... and a lot of great stuff for the season- until it gets too big anyway :-D But since things are moving a little slower now, hopefully the clothes will last a little longer. Anyway, the big news of the video is that I went to plus sizes, tried on a bunch of 1X's and most of them were huge on me. A few things ran smaller and fit well, so I got those. Then I went downstairs to REGULAR sizes and tried on a bunch of XL's - which ALL fit. Well, all except one thing that was a little too tight. This felt great - first time ever fitting into regular XL's in my adult life. I also talk a little bit about body dismorphia and how I still look at the clothes and think they are way too small.
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I ended up getting even MORE clothes after the happenings of this video - and I didn't have to spend any money!! Why? Because I am now the same size as my sister in law Melissa... and she went through her closet and got rid of a bunch of stuff she didn't need anymore. I went over there last night to try things on and I came home with like 6-7 tops, a couple sweatshirts and a pair of jeans! Whoo!! Score!

I had suspicions I was getting to be an XL because I tried on some clearance tops at Eddie Bauer last week in XXL that were too big. They didn't have them in XL so I didn't know for sure. My SIL keeps asking me if I can shop at Old Navy yet (plus is online only, so stores are only regular sizes)... and I said yes I think I'd fit in the XXL's. Well when I was at her house last night, I tried on some things in her closet also just to see - I tried several Old Navy XL's (not XXL!!) and they all fit too. I'm sure I'm still a ways away from fitting in a juniors XL for some of the cuter,trendier stuff I see in the stores...but hey, I am well on my way now to shopping in regular stores. :) YAY!

This pic is of my favorite top that I got (if you watched the video you already saw this pic)... I am posting this pic because it really makes me see/realize that I've lost 90 lbs. :) Love it.

4 Month Progress Update

Hi everyone! I'm back!! No reason to worry :) I was on vacation and just been crazy busy since I got back. I will have lots of posts coming up once I get photos from my vacation posted... took photos of a lot of the foods I ate, have lots to say about traveling post op, and also about how seeing myself in lots of new pictures was a crazy experience!

For now though, let's focus on the 4 month update!! I was 4 months post-op on September 20th. Yes, yes... I made a video!! :)

Watch it when you have time :)

My weight at 4 Months Post Op:

Whoo hoo! So happy - that makes a nice round 80 pounds lost at 4 months.

This month I lost 15 pounds, same as last month.

This month I lost 7 1/2". Total of 56 1/2" in 4 months.

What a great month! And best of all, the very next day, I saw this:

Yeah!! I'm in the 220's! A whole new decade. Very excited. Still 229 today, so it is for real :)

Now for the progress pictures! I do have the whole row here with each month side by side. It's getting a bit long so this month, in addition, I also have this month compared to last month, and this month compared to the start.

These are side by side of just last month next to this month:

The things I notice the most since last month - lost more from my face, neck and chin... and lost some of my "side fat" lol, if that's what you call it.

Now for the ones that really made me go.... WOW. The side-by-side comparisons between this month, and the very start.

I was working at Starbucks yesterday putting these comparisons together, and trying not to cry right there lol. I hadn't really seen the current right next to the start before, and it just really hit me. I can't believe how big a difference 80 pounds has made... I honestly can not imagine what the next 70 pounds is going to bring.

I'm feeling wonderful. I could not be happier that I had this surgery. I feel like I am just living my life, happily.

Also, I am late in posting these because of my vacation, but I have my husband's 3 month progress pictures from September 3rd!

This is his 3rd month compared to his 2nd month:

And this is his 3rd month compared to the start:

Ok this has been long enough! Hope you enjoyed the update and I'll be back soon with more posts!

Fashion Show

Made a little video of the new clothing and accessories I got :) Yes I am modeling them lol.

3 Month Video Update

Finally got my 3 month video update posted to YouTube! Although my video was 14 minutes 50 seconds and it says it can be 15 mins, for some reason when it uploads it changes it to 20 minutes and rejects it. Weird. So I had to split it into two parts again.

Hope you enjoy :) I talk about my dr's visit (3 month checkup), how it's going for myself and my hubby, lots of random stuff.

NSV today

Had some NSV's at the chiropractor's office today. I went in for a decompression treatment. I lay on this table... and first of all it is so much easier to get up on it now. Also, before surgery, I couldn't see the fish:

Now I can easily see them when I am laying there! Matt and I were talking about it (that's him in the background) and he had some nice things to say. Check out my video!

Video Update!

PASSWORD IS: healthupdate

11 Weeks Random Chatter from Christie Stearns on Vimeo.

I posted the Vimeo video here since it is higher quality. If you are also a YouTuber, you can see this video on YouTube HERE.

I had to end the video abruptly, so here is the proper ended and also a shoutout to my friend April.

Proper Ending to 11 Week Video from Christie Stearns on Vimeo.

Again, password is healthupdate, and if you would prefer to check this out on YouTube you can do so here.


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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.

I'm on YouTube

While I love the higher quality video available on Vimeo, I recognize that way more people use YouTube and if I wanted to be a part of the community of surgery "vloggers", I had to get my videos up on YouTube!

I created a whole new account there and will only be using it for surgery-related video. The bonus to this is I don't have to password-protect them like I do on my Vimeo account. When I post here on the blog in the future, I'll include both videos so you can choose which to watch!

So here you go...


Check me out on YouTube!

PS ~ I really wish you could choose the video still they show for the video. Why am I always making a stupid face in them?

Two Month Update

Today is my official two month 'surgaversary' :) Things have definitely slowed down this month but I've made some progress. During this 2nd month I lost 13 pounds.... bringing my total loss to 50 pounds in 2 months :) I have also updated My Stats Page to include my newest measurements.

I can see a LITTLE bit in the photos, not too much... I had a few changes in measurements... not too much lol.

Now for new progress pics!

In an effort to see all the positives, here are the things I DO notice :)
- My face is still getting smaller
- My waist is indented a little more
- Lost a little more off hips and stomach
- From the back I can tell my stance is less wide
- The shorts I am wearing this month are a size smaller than the shorts I wore in last month's photo :)

This month most of my inches lost came from the hips, lower stomach, and waist. Interesting how it caught up since I lost so much on top the first month (very little change this month up top.) That explains though why all my shorts got too big! If you want to see all of the detailed measurements for this month, check out my stats page. Most of my measurements were a lot less change than the first one... BUT... there was ONE that was more! Can you guess which one? It was my upper arm! The first month I lost 1 inch, this month an inch and a half. Whoo hoo... I think swimming is helping ;)

And now for my 2 Month VIDEO UPDATE!!!! Hope you enjoy... as usual the PASSWORD is healthupdate

2 Months Post Op Video Update from Christie Stearns on Vimeo.

If you want to catch up on my previous videos, check out  my Videos page!!