February-The Month of Discovery!

Well, here we are at the end of February! Six months after I inquired about the surgery and I am scheduled to have it on March 15!! Wow! I prayed and prayed that if God didn't want this to happen, He would close the doors and let me be at peace with that! That SO hasn't happened!!! I know people who struggle for upwards of 2 years to get this surgery approved and it didn't even take me 6 months!!! I am so convinced that it is a God thing!! This whole process is! From the approvals to the relative ease I am having with exercising and eating right! He is so awesome!

But it isn't over by a long shot! I have my pre-op appointment on Friday and I am not sure how close i'll be to my inital weight loss goal. Last weekend at WW, I was up .4 for a total weight loss of 13.8. I have been real good this week! Drinking tons of water and not bingeing! I feel lighter, if that makes sense! I also swam 1 hour on Monday and I am going to shoot for that again tonight!

The success for me is in what I am learning about my body and the effects of what I put in it. I was excited to learn about protein and how not getting any affects my energy level! The day I had no protein I could barely swin a 1/2 hour much less my normal 45 minutes!! I am learning amazing things from my WONDERFUL WW leader, Rosie. For example, it takes 3,500 calories over your daily 1, 200 to gain a pound! So when I eat that one piece of chocolate (or 4 garlic rolls from Pizza Cookery) and feel like I have totally blown it, I probably haven't. That is, as long as get right back on the wagon! "It is not what you do, it is what you do NEXT", right Rosie?? :)

I also learned a HUGE lesson about sugar! I had a major indescretion that led me to feeling totally miserable for over 24 hours! I hadn't had processed sugar in over a month and went on a total feeding frenzy at a reception! I was eating lemon bars and making noises that shouldn't be made in public! So, I fought myself tooth and nail and went to the gym! Even though I couldn't get there until 10PM! I just wanted that junk out of my body and to never feel that way again!! I think about it when I start to eat sugar! I can't even start it because it is like alcohol to an alcoholic! So I have become real good about reading labels! The food industry has really sneaky ways of calling sugar things other than sugar. High fructose corn syrup and Corn syrup are the main culprits! Did you know that high fructose corn syrup is the first ingrediant on the McNugget sauce packet? READ LABELS!! I discovered my Just Chicken at Trader Joes wasn't on my WW plan because it was soaked in Pineapple juice! Who knew that Just Chicken wasn't just that! LOL!

That leads me to my next discovery: the evils of fast food! I have come to think of the fast food industry as one of my worst enemys. Now, there are fast food places that I can work with such as Koo Koo Roo and on some degree, El Pollo Loco. But as any one who as seen the movie "Super Size Me" knows, fast food is all around not good! Hidden sugar in most everything and they manipulate us like mad! So I just don't go there! We did an exercise in one of my pre-op classes at UCLA where we calculated the fat, calories and carbs of what we used to eat on a regular day. I added up my day where I would eat Carls Jr for breakfast and Taco Bell for dinner. 3,558 calories, 391 carbs and 154 fat grams!!! OH MY WORD!! Was that an eye opening exercise!

Afer cutting out most fast food (definately all burger and mexican ones) I realized that it wasn't the taste but the convenience that I needed. So my new fast food of choice is Trader Joes!! I love that place! I am in there just about every other day! I can find good ready to eat meals as well as great quick dinner ideas! I don't cook, I assemble. So I get their Just Shrimp and their Asian Stir Fry Veggies with the Soy Sauce. 6 minutes in a wok and I have enough for 2 meals. The whole meal is just 3 points and I can cut that out if I don't use the sauce! I sometimes even add the microwave brown rice (3 minutes and no points on the core WW plan). I have come to enjoy trying to make existing recipies core and finding quick and easy healthy meals that aren't boring!

I have also come to love my exercise! Thanks to the awesome support of my loving friend Dave, I am up to swimming at least 45 minutes a day, 3-4 days a week. I motivate myself by looking forward to the jacuzzi soak afterwards! I also use that 45 minutes as meditation or prayer time! It is so relaxing! The wonderful thing is that I am finding myself scheduling my social life around my exercise time! I almost turned down a chance to go to a hockey game because I wouldn't be able to go to the gym. I decided to go in the AM instead! I have to switch to walking next week as I can't swim for 6 weeks after surgery and had to freeze my gym membership 1st of the month. I am a little nervous about that as walking has always killed my knees and ankles. I am hoping new walking shoes will be the cure to that! I have never had a good pair of exercise shoes and have always used that as a crutch! Now I don't have a choice! I am going to try a 30 minute walk and see how it goes. If it doesn't, i'll just cut that time in 1/2 and see how that goes!

I can finally see light at the end of this tunnel! I am living a much healthier life and will continue to do so! My energy and self-esteem has skyrocketed just with the 13 pound loss. I don't think it is the loss as much as the fact I am finally making positive changes in my life! I am emailing Ryan Secreast asking for a date, reading my fashion magazines knowing that in a few months i'll be reading them for more than just makeup tips and just feeling all around great about life! But even more important is that i'll have a life to live! I'll be able to walk without pain and sleep through the night! I'll be able to sing more than a couple of words without being winded. I'll be a visable witness to the power of God! It doesn't get any better than that!

My 40th birthday is in June and I am giving myself the best gift ever! I feel I am giving myself a new lease on life! What a great reason to look forward to my 40s. After all, 40 IS the new 30!

More updates to come! Love to all!

Cynthia