So after rummaging through all of my goodies last night, I decided that even though I normally hide from the camera, I needed some before pictures. So I asked my brother-in-law to take some of me. Of course he was shocked. He knows that he isn’t allowed to take any pictures of me or my sister without threat of death.
So I got a front shot and a side shot. Dang! I look pregnant even though I am not. I carry most of my weight in my abdomen and butt. In fact, its a joke around the office that I don’t have a white girl’s butt. Most of the women I work with are from the Dominican Republic.
Anyway, this morning I weighed myself so I knew exactly how much I weighed when starting the program. I will continue to weigh myself on Fridays like I normally have. Besides, that is our weigh in day over at Our Wicked Weighs.
I will put my before pictures up in my album on the Nutrisystem website before I leave for work.
Well, my shipment didn’t come in as early today as I had hoped. I figured that since it hit the local UPS place at 6am on Saturday, then it should be on the truck and ready to go for this morning.
However, it didn’t get here until this evening. So I can’t start until tomorrow. 
At least I get to start! I am way to excited about this. I already have the food all set up in the cabinet. All my breakfasts are in one area, my lunches in another, my dinners in yet another, and then finally my desserts off by themselves. They are close to each other, just separated. That way if I am really running late and am having a Libra moment of not being able to decide which one I want, I can just grab one.
I knew that the free week wasn’t going to be food that I got to pick. I figured that there would probably be quite a few things in there that I wouldn’t like. However, I was pleasantly surprised that there was only one thing in there that I wouldn’t eat and that was Split Pea Soup. First off, I am not that big of a soup fan. There are some soups that I absolutely love such as Broccoli and Cheese. Then there is the fact that I hate peas. The only thing that peas are good for is starting a food fight. LOL! So I will definitely be getting rid of that. One of my coworkers was asking about the food because she is thinking about going on NS too. So I might just see if she likes Split Pea Soup and give it to her to try. I don’t know.
I am starting to get really excited about this. I actually had a dream last night of me as a thin person. I haven’t weighed under 200 pounds in over 13 years. I know its possible. I just need to get myself back on track.
I had been on South Beach diet back in September and October. I had lost about 20 pounds. Then I had a bunch of things going on and just really had trouble staying on track. Even when I was following it strictly, it was really difficult for me.
My average weekday starts around 9am. I wake up and take my morning medicines. I can’t eat or drink anything for about an hour after I take them. So I can first start to eat at 10am. However, I also have to start getting ready for work at that time.
I am due at work at 11:30am. Since I get to work at that time, I don’t get to eat lunch until around 2pm or 3pm. I also work at the front desk, so its not very easy for me to eat something healthy at the desk. It is way to easy to hide junk food in a drawer and snack until lunch.
I then leave work around 8pm. If one of the departments are running behind schedule, I may leave later then that. Once I get home, I can eat my dinner. Since I have gastroparesis, I must stay awake for several hours after eating to make sure that my food has time to digest.
So my eating schedule is pretty messed up. I feel that with Nutrisystem, I will have a better chance. I won’t have to really sit and wonder what to eat. I will just grab my breakfast for the day and go. So at least I will get to eat something and won’t be hungry until 2pm.
I worked with a woman a few years back who had been on Nutrisystem and said that the food tasted great. I remember that she had lost quite a bit of weight on it. However at the time, my thyroid levels were so far out of whack, that I could eat only1 baby carrot a day and still gain weight.
Now that my thyroid is balanced again, it will be so much easier. The only problem will be exercise. My doctor won’t clear me for anything more then just walking. My sister insists that I use the new Total Gym that she got. I don’t even know why she bought it. We already have a Bowflex, an exercise bike, and an elliptical trainer. None of those gets used, so why she had to go out and buy the new thing, I don’t know.
Today was my first day back at work. It actually went much better then I thought it would. I was working up at the front desk. We weren’t very busy. I was shocked that DP actually let me go to lunch with CS since I come in so much later. It was nice though. We got to go to our favorite pizza place. (Hey! I can had to get one last time in before the big diet!)
I am actually getting very excited about going on the diet. I really wish the food would get here. I can’t believe that I was able to order pizza, tacos, Mac & Cheese, and so much more. I am so glad that I don’t have to give up any of my favorite foods.
We finished work about an hour early today. It was really great to get home. I was exhausted after working all day. But at least I wasn’t completely frustrated. I guess I needed that time off.
Well, I went to the doctor’s today. Everything was fine. My stitches are now gone. I get to go back to work tomorrow.
However, he got on me severely about losing weight. He said that now that I have had the surgery, I am at a greater chance of getting a hernia. That isn’t something that I really want to deal with. So I am going to do everything in my power to lose the weight.
I have sat down and figured out that buying nutrisystem for a month would be about the same amount as what I spend on my lunches every day for the month. So instead of getting Quiznos, McDonalds, and all the other crap I was eating, I went ahead and ordered Nutrisystem.
I was actually shocked with how many different types of food there were. It should be arriving here on 2/4. So I will let you know how good the food is.
If you are like me, the optical insurance at your company costs too much. I have to find other ways to get my glasses. They can be very costly without insurance, but to pay that much out in insurance on a monthly basis just doesn’t make sense when I only use it once a year at the most. Heck, I normally don’t even get my eyes checked every year even though I know that I am supposed to. 
Well, knowing how much glasses cost in the big chains, you are not going to believe the deal that I found!!
Zenni Optical: Sell Rx Glasses $8 with case!
Now I know what you are thinking! You probably think that these glasses are going to be granny glasses or the big thick black frames that you see in the nerd movies. Well, you would be wrong! Definitely wrong!
They have some really cute, stylish frames. I would have to say that my favorite would have to be these frames:
I love frames that are light-weight and aren’t easily to see. In fact, I already own a pair like this in red.
Now granted, the $8 are for single focus only. Which is really all I need since mine are basically just reading glasses. However, the other ones are just as cheap. Think of what you pay for progressive lenses at the major chains. Well, the progressive lenses are only $37.
Plus there are so many options to choose from. You can get tinted lenses, anti-reflective, anti-radiation, anti-reflective, and sunglasses. If you wear goggles for your job, you can even get them with your prescription built in.
January 28, 2008
sleepy
I don’t know why, but I have been extremely tired all day. I really don’t have much to post about since all I have been doing is reading and sleeping.
Well, I can get up and down the stairs quite easily. I do take it slow though since I am afraid of falling.
However, I still can’t bend down to get anything. It just hurts too damn much. My brother-in-law was upset that I was no longer filling the dishwasher after dinner. Well, ummm… last time I checked, I had to bend down for that.
He thinks that since I can walk up and down the stairs, that I can do everything. He isn’t thinking that I had surgery on my abdomen and that they use an entirely different set of muscles.
Oh well, not much I can do to sway his mind.
I am feeling ok after the surgery. I did have some issues with the anesthesia though. I wasn’t able to keep down liquids on the first night in the hospital.
At first, they weren’t sure if they were going to let me go home. They said that it would all depend on how I handled breakfast on Tuesday. So when they brought my breakfast in and I saw that it was clear liquid again I was upset. The doctor had told me that I would be getting a regular meal at breakfast and if I tolerated it, then I could go home. The nurse had switched it over to clear liquids since I had problems with clear liquids the day before.
I told the kitchen to call my doctor and get it clarified. The brought me in a warm breakfast in a very short time. It included a nice warm biscuit and eggs. Plus there was cereal with milk as well. I was so happy to have real food. 
I tolerated that with no problem at all. The only reason I had trouble the day before was because of the anesthesia.
After breakfast, the nurse then said that she wanted me up walking around before I was allowed to go home. So I quickly got out of bed and made several laps around the floor. One of the aids commented on how fast I was walking. I just wanted to go home. So if I had to stand on my head to accomplish it, I would certainly do everything in my power to make it happen.
Finally, my nurse conceded and started getting the discharge papers ready for me. So I called my brother-in-law to come pick me up.
Now, don’t get me wrong. This nurse wasn’t being a hard ass for no reason at all. In fact, she is one of the most caring nurses there. However, she was my nurse when I was in the hospital back in December. She remembers how I was discharged way to early, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it. She wanted to make sure that I wasn’t being shoved out again this time too.
It was so bizarre. I actually ended up in the exact same room.
I would love to thank Carol, my nurse, for being so great! She was a complete doll both of the times I was there.
Hopefully if everything went ok yesterday, I should be coming home from the hospital today. I highly doubt that I will feel up to walking up the steps to let you all know.
Tomorrow I will have my cell phone back on and will attempt to post an Utterz to let you know I am ok.
