NOT a liquid. :)

I had a few pieces of a small cheese pizza for lunch yesterday. Nothing crazy, but it made me totally sick. I felt like my gallbladder pain was back. It was most unpleasant.

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I had heard that some people get sick after eating greasy foods once their gallbladder is removed, but it hadn't happened to me. I'm wondering if because I totally cleansed my system for two days, my body couldn't process the junk?

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Either way, it taught me a good lesson about staying away from bad foods, even in moderation. It's not worth it to be sick. I was up until 1AM from the pain. Very odd.

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I was going to go back on the liquids today, but with my stomach still recovering, I'm just going to take it easy and eat normally.

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I had a multigrain breakfast bar for breakfast, I'll have a banana for snack, a stir fry lean cuisine for lunch, and we'll see about dinner. I'm thinking left over turkey and some veggies, and maybe a potato to even it all out.

Down 2 more lbs

...it's a start...

I ended up kayaking for my exercise yesterday.

It's a beautiful day out, so perhaps today I'll do laps!

1 candy = 15 calories

I asked Darcy to get me some sugar free candies for my office at work. Instead, she got me the full sugar individually wrapped life saver candies. I love them, but they have 15 calories in each one!

Between the pickles and the gross sugar free carnation instant breakfast aftertaste, I felt like I needed a mint (or something) three times today. That's 45 extra calories! For some reason, I thought they were five calories each. Nope!

So now, I'm going to limit myself to one per day. You gotta read those labels!

Liquid Diet Update

So far, so good, although my body isn't used to this amount of fruits and veggies and fiber! I've had 430 calories for the day, and 16 grams of it was from fiber. I know it's good for me, and I need to get back to focusing on getting 25-30 grams in every day.

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You should too! Fiber is responsible for reducing incidents of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, gall stones, kidney stones and more! Fiber also helps you lose weight, and foods rich in fiber make you feel full longer.

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Why are you still sitting there? Go get some fiber in you! ;-)

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Fiber pills and fiber flakes aren't the same.

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Foods High In Fiber

Grain and Whole Wheat Products Bagels, Bran Buds, Brown Rice, Buds, Cereals, Granola, Muffins, Pasta

Fruits

Dried fruits (apricots, dates, prunes, raisins) Apples, Avocado, Bananas, Blackberries, Blueberries, Mango,Oranges, Peach, Pears, Raspberries, Strawberries
Vegetables

Broccoli, Beans, Carrots, Cauliflower, Corn, Green Beans, Green Peas, Greens, Legumes, Peas, Potato with Skin

Nuts

Almonds, Peanuts
Beans

Black, Chick, Kidney, Lentils, Lima, Pinto, Soy

It's a start

I lost 4 lbs yesterday. That's the weight of the very adorable Yorkshire Terrier pictured above. I should/could have lost more, but I had way too much salt on the 3 ears of corn I ate plus the 730 mg in the cup of soup I had. It's okay, four lbs is plenty, and I'm going to watch the salt today and tomorrow I'll be down even more.

Yesterday and today, I looked at the number on the scale, and I told myself, "That is the highest number you will ever see on the scale for the rest of your life." I believe it, too. Every time I lose weight, I will plan to tell myself that even though it's a loss, the number on the scale is the highest number I'll ever see for the rest of my life, until I get down to a healthy weight. I want to get back into visualizing and planning for success.

My upper body is a bit sore from my workout yesterday, but in a good way. My knee is still healing, but it's much better, and I'm working on strengthening it so I can get back to working out with it.

I have been hesitant to use my kayak since I hurt my knee getting in and out of it (once it was already injured) a few weeks back. However, I *think* my knee is getting strong enough that if I wear the brace and am very careful, I should be okay.

Unfortunately, it looks like there will be thunderstorms when I get out of work, so there goes my big plan for an outdoor workout. You never know in New England, but I think that if it's nice out when I get out of work, I'll plan to go kayaking to cupcake island (and then cool off in the water!), and if it's stormy, I'll go to the gym and do the soul numbing exercise bike.

I also need to get back to doing my crunches at the house. Yes!, I do...

It's never tasted so goooood

One of the things I love about the "liquid" diet is that foods you normally take for granted seem so much better. I like corn on the cob a lot, and I've only been on the "liquid" diet for less than a day, but by lunch time, I was really missing food.

Darcy made me some delicious corn on the cob as a snack around 2:30. It was phenomenal. Some of the best corn on the cob I've ever had, and even better since I was so hungry.

Another thing I like about being on a strict diet like this is that it takes away my choices. Generally, I much prefer choices, naturally, but when I'm ready for a stark change, sometimes it's a nice break to have my food choices already made for me. It's simple, and I'm getting all the nutrients and calories I need. I've had 626 calories today, and I've already gotten in 24 grams of fiber, and 36 grams of protein (and less than 5 grams of fat).

I'm going to take a break from working in a bit to head out to the gym. Thank goodness I can go for a swim when I get home, because it's a SCORCHER!

Jump starting me

Once again, I have let everything in life creep on top of my weight loss goals. I know the reason I had so much success at first was because I made losing weight/getting healthy my absolute top priority. It's hard for me to do that now, since I don't have the obstacles in my way that I used to, and I have had so many other important things take priority over weight loss...

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While I'm starting a new full time job, going back to school, working on getting my CD released as well as my documentary, and of course, my consulting work, and everything else I have going on, it's probably impossible for me to make weight loss my absolute top priority. I need to be realistic.

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I need to make sure that weight loss, exercise and healthy living are part of my daily life, even if they can't be the extreme top priority I once made them. I knew that with my competing goals and ambitions, it wasn't a likely long term scenario for my weight loss to be number one, and what I haven't done a great job of is making the transition from main focus to one of my top priorities, among others.

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My all or nothing mentality can be one of my strongest points and one of my worst as well. When I go for something, I go for it, and when it's time for me to find a happy medium, I flail.

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So here I am, flailing. :) I've put off getting a fill for WAY too long. At first there were a million other reasons, but then I didn't want to go until I'd lost some weight from my last fill (which was about a year ago), because I like to get gold stars from my MD...more recently, I didn't want to go until I was down to the weight I was at my last fill.

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Obviously, I need to just do it. I have gained some weight, and I will continue to do so if I don't stay on the track I should be on. I have this great tool, and I need to use it. It's okay if for one visit with my MD, I'm not the golden child. It's worth it to be able to have access to this tool again, so that I can start losing weight again.

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I'm going on the "liquid" diet for the next few days, really just to cleanse my system, shrink my appetite and get back to the basics. I'm going to limit my food intake to sugar free Carnation instant breakfast, low sodium soups, salads and fruits. I was just about to call to make an appointment for a fill, and it occurred to me that I don't have insurance currently. I ended up skipping out on COBRA when my insurance ran out at the end of June, since I knew I'd be on new insurance in September/ish.

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Well, my new plan is to find out what date my new insurance kicks in and make an appointment for that week. Hopefully I will be back to my last weight by that time, and if I'm not, so what. Long term success is more important to me than my perfect lap band weigh in record at the doctor's office. :)

Holy fluctuation, Batman

Well congratulations to me, I weigh 8 lbs less than I weighed yesterday. I know I've said it before, but it's seriously ca-razy how much my weight fluctuates day to day.

Oh well, I did fine-ish with my eating yesterday. I consumed more calories than I like to, but I made healthy choices. We went out for Mexican for dinner, but I got my usual steak salad. There's no dressing, and they only put a little sour cream on it. I know it's still higher in calories/fat than a normal meal, but it's not terrible.

I went to the gym. So good for me. No one's getting $20.

I'm going to the gym today as well. The same offer stands. It's good online accountability. LOL

Hopefully I'll lose another 8 lbs today. ;-)

Gotta love that PMS

It's 9AM, and I've already consumed 556 calories today.

Just because it's "diet" food, doesn't mean the calories don't add up. LOL.

I have had:

2 cups of light popcorn
A low fat breakfast bar
1 lean cuisine

Nice.

LOL.

I think it's safe to say I've officially broken my plateau!!!!! For the last year or so, I was at pretty much the same weight, give or take, and I just kept losing and gaining the same weight over and over. Well, I've moved past that, and I officially weigh more than I have in the past year.

Today, I weighed 19 lbs more than I did 2 weeks ago. Seriously. How does that happen?? My weight fluctuates in an insane way. When I'm retaining water (ew), I can gain up to 12 lbs that just seems to come and go over night... Not 19, though... I've given into my PMS more than I normally do, and I haven't been exercising at all.

There's a silver lining in this - believe it or not - I felt like no matter what I did, I couldn't move my weight. Well, I guess that's not true. If I can get it to go up, I can get it to go down.

Recharging my diet batteries while in the middle of PMS isn't the best laid plan, but I'm just going to eat when I'm hungry, and only items that are healthy or low fat. It will be better than I've been the rest of the week, and soon my appetite will go back to normal.

My knee is almost better, and I'm going to start slowly using it again on the exercise bike to see if I can build the strength back.

I AM GOING TO THE GYM TODAY.

There. It's in writing AND with caps locked, so it's clearly a fact.

Okay, I'm going to raise you one. If I don't go to the gym today, I will mail every ready of this blog $20. You have to comment to be considered for this special offer. LOL.

Abs of the day

Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) from True Blood. This kid has like 3% body fat. It's insane.

I have about 3% muscle...

Determination needed

My knee is still not better, which greatly limits my opportunities to exercise. Even kayaking is dicey because I could hurt it getting in and out of the kayak that's so low to the ground. Whenever I can't exercise, I always get a little more apathetic about eating. I need to find a way around that, but in the mean time, I'm going to try to continue to eat healthy while my knee heals.

To motivate me, I have downloaded some pictures of some very physically fit celebs that I love, such as Ryan Reynolds (above) and LL Cool J. :) I know I will neeeeever have those abs, but even the pursuit of those abs will take me to a much better place than I am now.

I like Ryan especially because he used to be such a scrawny guy, and now he's totally ripped. I think it's an awesome transformation. When I see people in crazy good shape, it motivates me, so let's hope it works!