Upon Special Request

Let me preface this post with the fact that I wanted to spruce up my iphone pictures so I figured Picnik would be a good idea..... yeah. It was fun... a little too fun! So please excuse my creative editing :) But at least they are interesting! haha.

I got a text today from someone asking how my weightloss is coming along. On the scale, it is still somewhat slow moving. I am at the point now to where I really need to be consistently working out and watching what I eat. With everything going on in my personal life, the last thing I have been wanting to do is work out. But I am proud to say that at least I have maintained my weightloss and even dropped a few more pounds... but I have not lost the 10 that I was hoping for. Cest la vie I guess.

BUT the good news is that bodies like to take weightloss breaks and in the process re-figure themselves in more compact shapes! So, although I haven't lost much in the numbers department I have shrunk some. So much so that numerous coworkers have commented (i.e. my boss "I wanna go on whatever diet she is on! she just keeps shrinking!") and even my mother greeted me with "Hello Skinny!" on Sunday when she saw me.

I can finally say that I reached my goal of a size 6! Woohoo! Funny thing though about this weightloss business.... I am never satisfied. I hit my target weight of 145... that isn't good enough. I want to be 125. I swore if I ever got down to a 6 I would have a party and shout it from the rooftops.... yeah not so much. Now I am shooting for a 4. Wow, I wonder if I could ever be a 4. Or even a 4-6 range... just to be able to say it. You know how us women are, never satisfied!
BUT, being heavy the majority of my adulthood, I had a non-scale victory the other day that I was so excited about I had to photograph. Remember me and my jeans tucked into boots? Well that ensemble has been recreated numerous times and I even invested in another nice pair of skinny jeans.... so take a look to your left and notice.... YOU CAN SEE BETWEEN MY THIGHS!!!! Yup, that's right, me standing in a normal position and my thighs don't touch. They still touch up top, but omg you can see through my legs!!!!! I honestly did not ever think that would happen.

***File that under Roger's list of "things skinny people never even think about so it is funny to hear Alexis talk about it".... that list also includes feeling your clavicle, your breastbone, your hip bones, your knee caps, tying your shoes directly upright as opposed to sideways like a pregnant woman... the list goes on and on :P


So after I took the picture from the front I decided to follow up with a side view. I have been noticing my booty is small now. Weird. AND I wear belts a lot now.... now that I can actually reach one around myself :)


So, recently I got the entire wedding clip video from our videographer Josh. Ironic timing, but it was neat to watch nonetheless. But something interesting that has been said probably by about 10 different people is "You have lost a LOT of weight since the wedding". And yeah I have probably lost about 25 lbs... but for whatever reason that 25lbs has equated to 2 dress sizes or so. To your right is a professional picture from the wedding (Y studio photography) edited by me and picnik :P But really I think I look good in the picture... and looking at 99% of the wedding pictures, I am happy with my figure. I certainly was not feeling ugly or fat the day of my wedding. I felt like a princess! So it is just weird to have a bunch of people recognize that I am a lot skinnier now. To be honest I kinda want to go wedding dress shopping just to see what size I would be in those tiny samples! haha At the end of the day though I am just so grateful for my surgery and how much confidence and pride it has given me. Really, a whole new lease on life!

Other than trying to get in protein, drink more water, and exercise on a regular basis, I am just in maintenance mode. I need to be in loss mode but I will take a pound here or there for now. There is really so much going on personally that I feel like worrying about my weight is pretty trivial. I am lucky to be alive and healthy and have a job and roof over my head. Oh and those 2 little kiddos of mine... those two have really made me a proud mom these days. They both are so resilient and so loving. It is nice to have a ray of sunshine around.... well 2 of them actually! :)

I'd like to thank the Academy...

When I blog, I see it as a chance to just get out what is brewing in my mind. Little things happen on a day to day basis, and I think to myself "I should totally blog about that". So sometimes I grab my phone and take pictures for the specific reason of blogging.... others I go back and realize that they pertain to what I am thinking about. But the weird thing about blogging is that although it is a personal reflection of my life, I know that people can and will read it.

I absolutely LOVE feedback. Of course it is nice to hear all of the "great job"s and "amazing!" but when someone takes the time to truly recognize what I have been going through and make a connection with me, it means a lot.

I posted my Goal Post a few days ago along with pictures, and I shared the link on my Vertical Sleeve message boards, http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/ . A few of the posters on that board also have blogs, and one of them was kind enough to nominate me for a blog award. I am not really sure what that means, other than someone is actually reading what I write, but I have to say I feel special!

So here is the rundown on the award that she nominated me for:

About the award:The Liebster Blog Award is designed to bring additional recognition to those bloggers with less than 200 followers. If you receive the award, you should link back to the blogger that nominated you and nominate five more blogs.

So thank you to Sheila at http://thisonebody.blogspot.com for nominating me! I will have to think about which 5 I should nominate to pass on the good juju.

And on to other news: I have not lost more weight. Perhaps because I have not been doing what I need to do to lose weight. This week has been very challenging and I am SO ready for it to be over! I feel like the cold, rainy weather contributed to the general "blah" feeling. But today I woke up and the sun was shining, traffic was light, and despite being broker than broke, i was able to scrounge up enough pennies to get Starbucks. Life is good!

Wish me luck that next week I can start fresh and get back on the gym going bandwagon. It feels so good when I do go.... it just sucks to get there!

The Day has Dawned

A lot has been going on around here lately and I realized that in the midst of it all I haven't made a blog post to reflect the challenges life has brought my way. Instead of dwelling over the negatives (trust me I do enough of that on my own), I am making myself post about the one shining star hovering over it all.
I woke up Saturday morning and saw this:

I know what you are thinking: the clouds parted, the angels started singing.... yeah I know, you can see it now! But no, it was just me and my bathroom scale standing there in disbelief. I ran to get my phone to take a picture and said a silent prayer that when I got on there again the number didn't change.... that has been known to happen. But alas, I got back on and it was the magical goal number: 145lbs. Exactly 100 lbs lower than when I started my weightloss journey.

I had always joked that when I reached my goal weight I would throw a party to celebrate. We are broke, and my audience was my husband and children so we did the next best thing....

We took the kids to 7-11 and got donuts! The "old" me would have had a donut as well, but the new, skinny, 145 lb me declined the offer. Pat on the back for that one! But the kids thoroughly enjoyed their celebration treat as well as an early morning walk in the wagon (we live less than .5 mile from a 7-11 which is mighty convenient during times like this!).

Also, I thought I would cry when I saw the scale, but I didn't. I just kind of stared in disbelief and casually mentioned to Roger "Oh, I am 145 today" and he responded "Wow, that's really good". I don't know if he necessarily realized that 145 was my goal weight, he just new it was a lot of weight lost in the grand scheme of things.

So you might be wondering how I finally hit goal.... and the answer is simple. Exercise and drugs. Seriously. Once I hit 150 lbs losing weight became extremely difficult. My body has been toying with the last 5 lbs for over a month and I knew that I needed to pump up the volume if I had any hope of reaching my old goal (145), let alone my new reach goal of 125 pounds.

I have been going to the gym 3-5 times a week, sometimes more. I will do Zumba, or go on the treadmill, and I try to lift weights every other day as well as do strength training exercises. I never thought I would be a morning exerciser but with kids it is pretty much my only option. It feels great though to consistently work out!

I also scheduled an appointment with my doctor to check in on my progress. The day I went into his office I weighed 147lbs. Not bad. He asked how I was doing and what my next steps were. And I flat out asked him for prescription drugs. Right before my wedding, when he told me that if I wanted to ever reach goal I needed to buckle down, he kindly prescribed phentermine for me. IT WORKED. It worked well to say the least. And after I explained that 1 more month of it, combined with my new improved attitude about exercise would most likely break my stall, he happily agreed.

I know what you are thinking : she cheated. And ok, depending on your viewpoint, maybe I have. But the reason that I wanted to mention it is because a)I am not ashamed and b) I think it is important to record in how I have lost the weight in this time period. And despite medical intervention, I have also been watching what I eat, trying to consume as much protein as possible, and exercising like crazy. So it is an addition, rather than the end all be all for weightloss.

Today I was on Facebook (shocker) and saw that a family member had posted pictures from a barbeque in 2010. I was flipping through them thinking "oh geez, wait til I see myself in these"... little did I know. This is what I saw:

Yup, that's me in the white! Holy crap, right?! I seriously cannot believe I looked like that. And looked like that for a few years to boot! And to top it off, that wasn't me at my heaviest, which I know because I recognize the jeans in the picture. They are a size 16. I ended up an 18/20 before surgery! Oh and those little cuties are my kiddos.... they are much bigger now!

So, you might be wondering what "goal" looks like.....

It looks like that snazzy girl to the right! Up, that's me the day before I hit my goal weight! I am in skinny jeans (never thought they looked good on me), tucked into boots. My calves have always been SUPER wide, so imagine the size of them 100 lbs heavier.... this fashion statement was simply not possible! But alas, my dream of wearing jeans tucked into boots has come true, and let me tell you, I have a black pair and a brown pair and I am wearing the heck out of both of them!!! Also, I was indeed wearing a sweater for this outfit, but I wanted to show off my arms... I am in the process of "sculpting" them at the gym :P

The last thing I want to mention in this celebration post is that one of my dear friends from grade school got married this past weekend! She looked AMAZING, and it was so nice to attend an event, see people I hadn't seen in years, and not be self conscious about my weight. Most of the people I know have not gained much since high school and still look fabulous. So last summer, when I attended a mutual friends' wedding it sucked to feel like the "fattie". And when I saw the pictures I was horrified. Well, some of the same attendees were at this wedding, and someone's mom walked by my, touched my arm and said "you look amazing". I thought that was pretty darn kind of her to do.

I've lost a 6th grader from my body, but I have gained a whole new outlook on life! I'd say that's a fair trade :)