When Fleeing Tempation . . .

There is this great little church down the road from our house. And of course they post little inspirational messages on their reader board out front. For quite a while now, these are the "in" thing for churches. I have found it remarkable how appropriate this little church's words of wisdom have been for me. I often feel that I am motivated to drive past that church by the Will of God to receive a special message.

Today's message was:
When Fleeing Tempation, do not leave a forwarding address

It was clear to me that this little message has to do with all the little forwarding addresses in our house -- all the little goodies left from the party: gumdrops, hershey kisses, gumdrops, etc. I finally packed up the remaining peanuts there were in the silver dish, and had Vince toss the rest of the cake. The same day we tosssed the cake, our neighbor friends brought over an apple pie. This isn't terribly tempting for me since apple pie isn't one of my favorites. Though there was at least one moment where I consciously made a decision to NOT have a piece of pie. I chose raw apples instead.

Exercise Getting Easier

Friday morning G.. and I ventured into the PowerFlex class at the YMCA at 6:00am. I had taken this class once before, and was immensely sore the next day. We made it through the class and felt pretty good. Attempting the flight of stairs to the first level of the Y to hit the showers posed a small amount of problem. If you've never taken a Powerflex class, this is basically instructor-led free weights. You do lots of things like lunges and squats. The great thing is that you get a total-body weight training workout. Lots of times if I am trying to do weight training, I don't nearly get all of the muscle groups.

So, Friday night the stiffness began. Saturday morning I could barely walk. Putting pressure on my muscles in my thighs was painful. I kept barking at the kids to quit climbing on me in the bed. Going downstairs was by far the most challenging task. I forced myself to keep moving all day. It was not comfortable. By Sunday things were looking up. The only muscles complaining now were my inner thighs.

The beauty is, though, my lower back has not hurt since Friday morning, before class! I had been waking up to a sore lower back and I think the strength training that focused on that area really improved things back there.

I started the week this morning with working out on the elliptical machine for 35 minutes. This was relatively effortless, other than the wierd foot pain I get on that machine.

I cannot say that I have been doing perfect with the food arena. I have definately improved though. I have not eaten any pastries from Starbucks since last Tuesday. I was reading online that some of the items I frequented were costing me 500 calories or more! We still have fuzzy navel cake in the fridge and throughout the day yesterday I ate three small slivers of this cake. Also, the other night I was chomping on big gum drops. This is all crap left over from the party. I just can't bring myself to getting rid of it.

I can say one thing for sure. . . I am starting to feel better. Starting to feel more confident in my ability to stay on track. I have definately had this feeling before, and I need to turn to my journaling with I'm feeling weak. This feeling will not be constant and I will need to be able to get through the times I don't feel this way to move forward.

Taking One Day at a Time

The last couple of days have gone well food-wise. I am really trying to find some balance in this arena. I don't want to be drastic, but at the same time I need to be diligent. I haven't visited the vending machine since I started this blog. I think that is a great start. I also think it has been around 2 weeks since I have had anything like burgers or french fries.

I just decided to stop being stupid and thinking the Chicken Salad Wrap I've been getting at Arby's was a good choice. This little gem is 640 calories with 39 grams of fat! I haven't been getting any fries, but 39 grams of fat?!? I definately need to come up with something else to eat for dinner on the way to teach my cake classes.

I really wish I could keep up with my Fitday food diary. I guess I will have to start writing everything down on paper to transfer to the program at night. That really helps me keep tabs on what I'm putting in my mouth. It becomes a matter of simple math at that point.

The other thing I would really like to do is join TOPS again. They are an excellent support group with the added accountability of a weekly weigh-in. I don't see how I'll have time for it until I lighten my teaching load, considering most of them meet on Mondays or Tuesdays.

I did work out at the YMCA this morning -- 25 minutes on the elliptical machine. I would have liked to do more, and possibly some weight training. I got to the gym too late for that though. I ended up leaving the gym at 7:45, which puts me at work at 9am.

I will keep trying and not give up. V.. played a video he took of me proclaiming how good I felt after working out. I guess I can't argue with myself, can I?

Pondering Solutions

I am hesitant to even discuss what is on my mind right now. I can just see T.. reading this and slapping me down. But it has crossed my mind several times. How much longer should I keep trying to lose weight before I take the ultimate weight loss plunge -- Bariatric Surgery? The local hospital in Grand Rapids performs the Roux-en-Y procedure laproscopically... which means its less invasive.

My BMI is just over the minimum of 40 to be considered morbidly obese, at 41.5. I've watched several people in my family under-go "stomach stapling". Not a one ended up with long-term weight loss. My dad came the closest, but after a heart attack, he became very sedentary and appears to have lost all consideration for what he eats.

What I have observed in my own weight loss efforts, is that I can lose weight if I exercise four or five times a week and watch what I eat like a hawk. If I attempt to eat "normal" my weight loss evens out. If I stop exercising I gain. I feel like I need help in not eating so much so my activity can overcome the amount of calories I eat. The one thing about the procedure is that you physically cannot overeat without becoming extremely uncomfortable, and even still, there just isn't that much room for anything in the little pouch of a stomach. If your "will power" fails, your stomach just won't enable you to overeat.

I have watched and listened to my father hacking in the bathroom when he has gotten "plugged". Maybe this is the vomiting they talk about on the bariatric surgery websites. It seems like this should be fairly easy to avoid.

I would also be committing to not become pregnant for at least a year. This was my biggest concern.. of if I would be allowed to become pregnant at all after such a procedure. I'm not entirely sure of if we will decide to have more children, but I don't want to be in a position where I can't decide.

I will stew over this for a while. I probably should bring it up with V.. just to get an idea of where he stands on the issue.