Conquering Old Rag

Some friends from church wanted to go hiking for Memorial Day, so I decided to go with them. I haven't hiked since I lost the weight (I had a disastrous fat hiking experience with my family several years back....), but I figured I could handle it. Then I found out they were hiking Old Rag. I looked it up and it was described as "strenuous" and "very challenging" including a "one mile rock scramble"

*gulp*

I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to keep up, but I was determined to try so I went on.

It. Was. Awesome.

So fun. The first two miles headed steeply up a narrow mountain path. Well before the first mile was over I looked like someone at poured a bucket of water in my head. (I sweat a disgustingly large amount. I need to look into that at some point) The side of my foot was hurting and I could feel blisters developing, but I was keeping up. (It was the same pain I got one other time. I've decided that I must walk differently in shorts and that's what causes it) At our first rest, I put some band aids on my heels and we started up again. The toe stopped hurting, but the blisters got worse throughout the trip. Oh, well.

After those two miles, the last mile up was basically rock climbing. Huge piles of boulders that we had to climb up, slide down, squeeze through, jump over, and basically meander our way through. It was tough but really fun. It helped being with a group because we could help each other through. We stopped frequently to admire the view. When we finally got to the top, it was amazing. We hung out for a while, ate some lunch, battled some flies, and headed back down. The way back down was longer - 4.5 miles - but not nearly as interesting. Most of it was a fire road, so it was an easy walk. We booked it back down, playing the name game to keep ourselves entertained.

All in all, we were hiking for about 5.5 hours. We were disgustingly dirty and sweaty and exhausted. I had a MAJOR blister on my right heel and fairly significant one on my left. We left and collapsed into an IHOP where we devoured dinner.

At one point on the way up, one of my friends asked, "Could you have done this a year ago?" and my answer was a quick "HELL no!" But it's not even no. It was so far out of the realm of possibility that it wouldn't even have been fathomable. I mean, this was a HARD hike. And not just the hike, but the rock climbing....there were places I had to squeeze through that I wouldn't have even fit last year.

So I'm flying high off of this and will be for a while. The fun you can have when you're not fat! Who knew?

A Beautiful Day!

So today we finally had some nice warm, sunny weather - the first time in a long, long time! It was so exciting! So I went to church, then went out to lunch with some friends from church. They were playing ultimate frisbee this afternoon so I went home, threw on an old t-shirt from the play I did in high school (Go Go Go Joseph!), and headed out to join them. I didn't actually play frisbee - I am no good at that and people who take these things seriously would get irritated if I tried to play - but I did play a little bit of basketball, which is awesome. I need to do that more. Then I headed over to the Masinick's to catch the end of their barbeque and play some ladderball. (Awesome game)

While this may sound like an awesome, fun day to anyone, to me it was nothing short of a miracle. Let me tell you all of the things from this day that would have never happened last year - note the phrase "some friends from church". I made friends, which is not something I did well when I was super fat. Note that I went to be involved in some outdoor physical activitiy - not something I could have done fat. Note that I threw on an old t-shirt from high school. It's actually looser now than it was then. Why I kept it all these years, I don't know. My life now is made up of miracles everyday and I'm so, so grateful.

I'm rarely sappy, but today I was just feeling this so much. I even called my mom and told her thank you. Not only did she pay for my surgery, but she encouraged me every step of the way. I have a long, uphill battle still to go but I'm celebrating how far I've come for now.

A dream come true!

I've talked before about how much I love really old movie outfits. Well, this weekend I went to a movie character themed birthday party, and I rented a dress and went as Guinevere. (You know? From Camelot? She was a bit of a tramp but the greatest, most idyllic kingdom ever was destroyed because of her?) It was sooooo exciting for me. I love being Guinevere. I want to be her every day. Here are some pics:

The outfit

The hairdo

Not only did I love being Guinevere, but it's amazing to me to be able to wear a costume at all. When I was fat, I could never have found an awesome outfit like this. In fact, I probably wouldn't have been willing to even go to this party. It's so strange how so, so much about my life is different now.

In running news, I've decided to scale back my training a bit. I was using the Y training schedule, but I was combining the novice and intermediate training schedules a bit. So I'm going to stick from now on just to the novice schedule. Although I can do the longer runs from the intermediate schedule, I think I'm running more often now then I was before which is making it more difficult. So I'm going to try and be ok with taking it slowly and setting more realistic expectations for myself, which can be frustrating to me.

One more note - I'm working on setting up a second blog where I'm copying all of my posts about WLS. That way if you don't know me and don't care about all of the other nonsense in my life, but are interested in hearing about my WLS journey I can send you there. I'm telling you this now so that I get motivated to finish it and get it up and running :)

No gallstones for me!

MY BFF JULIE HAD HER BABY ON FRIDAY!!!!!!

Lila was born at 7:23 am and weighed in.....um, I forgot. But she weighed in as something. 7 lb, ? oz maybe? Anyway, she's really, really cute. Julie was in the hospital 3 days and I went to see her 4 times :) They came home Monday so tomorrow night I'm taking them dinner and I can't wait to see that sweet baby at home away from all that hospital stuff! She's absolutely perfect and I LOVE that I live so close to her. Poor Julie is going to want to kick me out soon! I'm not going to post any pictures b/c I haven't asked Julie if it's ok. But I will if she says ok.

So, after a few days of phone tag with the surgeon's office, I found out today that my ultrasound was clear and I don't have gallstones. I didn't really think I did, but I feel better having ruled it out. There are, however, two downsides to this situation - 1. This pain isn't terribly frequent but I don't handle pain well and it HURTS. Now I don't know how to fix it. and 2. I had to get the ultrasound done at the hospital where I was considered an outpatient and my co-pay was $100!!! But, all in all, good news.

I know I haven't updated lately - smack my hand here - so here's what's going on with me:

- I have been a GRUMP RUMP this week. I felt icky on Monday, but I don't really know what's going on here. I have not been really pleasant to be around, so be glad you're not around me. I apologize if you are.

- I don't know if I've talked about this much, but I've had to seriously scale back my running because my knee has really been hurting (see previous point about me not handling pain well). I was up to running 3-4 miles at a time, but for the last month or two I've only been about to make it about 2 before it hurts so badly I can't run anymore. So mostly I've been doing other things - swimming, classes at the gym, the elliptical, etc. Several people have told me to go get good running shoes, so yesterday I took some of my Christmas money to Roadrunner and had them watch me run and evaluate me and help me pick out good shoes. The girl was really nice and I picked out some Nikes. So last night I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill. My knee didn't hurt nearly as bad when I ran, and I made it just over 3.5 miles :) (It took me about 45 minutes) Although, my knee did hurt quite a bit after I got home. I'll deal with that another time. But by the time I got off I had blisters on the inside arch of my foot and my toes were hurting and feeling cramped. At which point I realized I forgot to mention to the girl how enormously wide my feet are. So I took them back today and she watched me run some more and exchanged them for new ones. (She also suggested running socks which I, naturally, bought) My new ones are made by Saucony and they look like this:

They're a Progrid Omni 7 Moderate if any of you know what that means. I don't. I'll let you know how they do.

- This one is also about running. So it really could be a sub-bullet point of the last one. But I'm letting it stand on my own. Just a personal decision. I think I'm going to sign up to do the Monument Ave 10K here in Richmond at the end of March. This race is a huge deal around here, and I know lots of people who are doing it. They limit registration to 35,000 so I need to hurry ;) They have a training program through the local Y that I think I'll sign up for. How scary is that? Last year at this time I couldn't even run 6.2 yards, much less 6.2 miles! But I really want to do it. I'll be sure and keep you updated on my training. Quit holding your breath. It's like 2.5 months away and I don't think you can go that long without breathing.

- After I went shoe shopping yesterday, I went costume shopping. Some friends are having a come-dressed-as-a-movie-character birthday party in a few weeks, and I've been thinking about what to wear. So I went into a costume rental store just to try on a few things. It was SO MUCH FUN! It was like grown-up dress up. And, honestly, it was mostly fun because I could fit into the costumes ;) I would NEVER have even dreamed of trying that when I was heavier.

- Despite the fact that I bought some size 14 jeans tonight (a size I haven't seen since like middle school), I am feeling FAT FAT FAT FAT. Part of it is the fact that my stomach is shaped like a muffin top even when I'm not wearing pants, so I always have this nasty stomach roll to contend with. Part of it is some recent pictures. And part of it is just seeing the fat. It used to be that just be "normal sized" would make me happy. Now I think I'm going to need to be actually thin. Maybe this is part of my grumpy mood this week. Maybe I'm PMSing and have hormones flying all around. Maybe this is part of my "good enough is never good enough" mentality/issues. Maybe it's just part of the normal cycle following WLS. Maybe I need to seek therapy. Maybe this whole bullet was TMI for some of you. Sorry!

- On Friday, Abby turns 2!!!! And Brian is being baptized on Sunday. So everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) is going down for the weekend. I'm really excited - it will be fun. I'm also really excited that I'm staying a day longer than everyone else so I'll have some time with my sister. She reminded me that last year on this weekend the two of us went to Patriot's Point. (Since Kay planned so well and had Abby near MLK, Jr. day we fortunately always have a long weekend to go down and celebrate.) It was a good time, as you can see from these pics:



So I'm thinking that we need to make a "sister outing" a tradition for this weekend. I haven't mentioned this to Kay yet, but I'm sure she'll agree. Kay? Whaddayathink?

This is why I should post more often. I get so wordy when I don't....

Here's to lots of sleep and warmth for all of you! And me, too!

Being Thankful

At church, we have a monthly prayer focus where we join with churches all around the area to pray for a specific area. For December, it's for those who are lonely and without family. I've been feeling really sad lately about being single. (A normal thing, but I definitely go through ups and downs with it. Last week, the leader at Kid's Club made a totally normal innocent comment that "As far as I know, no one in this room has ever been pregnant" and it completely, completely crushed me. Out of the blue and for no reason) But that prayer and lunch today have forced me to think about how blessed I truly am. I have an amazing family that supports me no matter what. I have great friends that I can totally count on. For goodness sake, I have 217 Facebook friends! ;) God knows how incredibly weak I am, so he has given me a great support system.

Although, if you know any single, Christian, 30-something guys feel free to send them my way... ;)

Last thing for today. I promise. My favorite sister and her family made it to Lynchburg today (although I won't get to see them until next weekend :( ) and Brian rolled over! Yay!!! I don't have a picture of it, but I do have a picture of Brian, so here you go:
(I know, look at all that hair! That's what everyone says. At 10 weeks old in this picture, he already needs a haircut. Doesn't it make him look like a little old man? Isn't he just SO SWEET?)


Toodles!

Warm fuzzies

Sometimes being a teacher leads to great moments. (And often it leads to very stressful moments, but this is not about those) Last week, my 3rd graders were using a basic template to write a poem about something they like. Here's sweet Daija's poem:

Ms. Nash

I like Ms. Nash
Ask me why
Because she is beautful
Because she is funny
Because she bring books to me
Because she is nice
Because she help me on my test
Because she have nice hair
Because she have nice jewelry
Because
Because
Because
I like Ms. Nash

Not to be outdone, Tre'Shanna threw away the template and produced this one:

I like Ms. Nash

She is nice to me
and she help me on
everthing and she
help me on the test
and she her hiar is long
and her shirt is my
fivorte coler love
Tre'Shanna

We may have some work on spelling and grammer to do still :), but I may frame them anyway. I just love these kids! Last week's dance party was another example of how awesome they are :)

Today I went to Charlottesville to shop with my cool friends Sarah and Meg who used to teach with me. We went to the Barracks Road shopping center and David Baldacci was there speaking and signing books at the Barnes and Noble! I love his books and was so excited. Sarah and Meg patiently waited over an hour while I listened to him talk and waited in line to get him to sign a book to my grandmother (I was #65 in line!)

I have decided that in order to solidify my status as a young adult woman, I need to join a book club. Because that's what we do. So I am now officially looking for a book club to join. I don't know how to begin. Any ideas?

What 100 pounds looks like - Sarah style

I've been in one of those vicious cycles where I keep thinking of things to write about, then I don't, so I feel like there is more that I have to write about so the task becomes overwhelming so I don't do it, and then there is more stuff to write about so it's more overwhelming... know what I mean?

Anyway, I've realized that it's just a blog. About nothing but me. So I can relax a bit. Speaking of the "about nothing but me" part - I feel like I owe you (the great collective "you" that is out there reading this) an apology/explanation: This blog is completely, totally self-centered. That feels very self-absorbed of me. But I really only started it as away for me to have like a journal of my experiences after WLS. Of course, now I write about other things in my life as well. And I'm glad that so many of my friends read it :) But that's why it's only ever about me. Sorry about that.

I can't believe I'm doing this on this very public internet, but here it is. My "before" picture (I could have at least fixed myself up a little don't you think?) and my "I've lost 100 pounds" picture. I've been taking pictures all along (definitely something I would encourage you to do, by the way, if you are considering or have had the surgery) (or are losing weight another way), but always considered them very private. But for some reason I'm feeling brave enough to show them to you tonight. So here they are:


Can you tell which is the before and which is the after? ;) (I'm kidding, of course. Even I can see the difference there). I've been doing these with the self-timer on my camera and they haven't been coming out great. My friend Laura took the most recent one last night, though, and I think I'm going to get her to do them all from now on because I'm pretty sure I look skinnier in that picture than I do in real life :)

The greatest time of the year is upon us, people. That's right - CAROLINA BASKETBALL SEASON HAS STARTED!!!!!!!! My Heels opened up their season with a 15-point win over Penn yesterday which I, much to my everlasting consternation, did not get to see. I realize that a 15-point win over Penn is not very impressive. Especially for a team that is ranked unanimously #1 by everyone who does these things and is bombarded by talk of the "undefeated season". (I hate that talk, by the way. Absolutely, positively, hate it. I'm going on record right now as saying that I won't be completely devastated if we lose an early season game - before conference play starts of course - just to shut that up. ) But our injury list reads like a top-1o team all on its own. Hopefully we should get most of our major players back soon. Next up - Kentucky on Tuesday night in a game I actually get to see!!!! Kentucky is obviously a pretty major game. Don't let the fact that they lost to VMI at home fool you. Even though that's horrifyingly embarrassing, this is Kentucky. Luckily they will have my excellent from-home coaching to help guide them through.

I had a fun weekend celebrating my BFF's 30th. Happy Birthday Julie!!!!!

Her dad told me this weekend that I seemed different. I pointed out that I had lost 100 pounds :) He said no, my personality seemed different. He thought that I had become more confident and extroverted without so much extra weight. I don't know if he's right, but I've been thinking about it. I did just post a pretty embarrassing picture here...

What I really, really wanted to post was the video I made of my super-awesome kids at our dance party on Friday. Those kids are hysterical. But I've tried all weekend and can't get the video to upload. I did get it uploaded to my Facebook page, though, so click here to see it.

Ok, I have been lazying away my Sunday afternoon (which is what they are good for) but since I don't have any lesson plans done for this week I guess I better get on that!

Some thoughts from the head of me!

I love the re-usable grocery bag trend. They hold more and are easier to carry. (And, sure, I'm happy about the environmental goodness thing - whatever. Even though my mom was one of the first people to warn us about global warming and the loss of rainforests. Just ask her)

Actually, my friend Beth gave away pretty red bags as favors at her wedding last weekend. She was a BEAUTIFUL bride with a beautiful wedding. And, to make it all about me - I didn't even feel jealous at this one. Usually weddings are hard for me because of my lack of even the hope of one. Let's be honest - just being around married people is always hard for me. So I push past it and look hard for my happiness for them. And I find it and have a good time enjoying being with them. But this weekend I was just happy for Beth and enjoying being there with good friends to celebrate.

the happy couple

the cake

me and my BFF Julie

The Game Club crew! (see how cute pregnant Julie is?)

I met with my nut, Pam, again today. She was pleased with how I've been doing and even said that she thought she was too hard on me last time. (She wasn't, by the way - I needed to hear it. I honestly had thought I was doing ok but I wasn't) She gave me a lot of new helpful suggestions. *note here - none of these suggestions were for foods that I hate followed by "just try it". This was my old nut's way. This is why I no longer see her* She's very sweet and non-judgemental, which makes it easier for me to be as honest with her as I can, which makes it easier for her to help me. So it's good all around. I told her today that I worried that I never hear from anyone else who is not completely in love with their WLS. I tend to be pretty honest about admitting my doubts and frustrations about my surgery. And she told me that there are other people who feel that way, they just don't go to support groups and follow up appointments like I do. So that made me feel good. I'm going to keep fighting for this!

I'm still so tired it's almost dangerous for me to drive, but I went to bed earlier last night and I'm headed that way tonight as well. I need to give this "getting enough sleep" thing a legitimate shot. ;)

Today as he was leaving, one of my third graders had a ratty piece of notebook paper taped around his arm. I asked him (jokingly) if he broke his arm. He said, "Nah, I'm the QB in football at daycare" I cracked up. There were things written on the paper. I didn't look closely, but I'm assuming they were football plays. (For those of you not in the know - football quarterbacks often wear a playbook on their arm for calling plays)

I'll leave you tonight with a thought from Sunday's sermon. Steve's series on Jesus raising Lazarus is still going on, and this week was on Martha running to meet him. His focus was on how Mary was mixed-up and wrong in a lot of her thinking, but she took her disappointments straight to Christ and that was the right response. He said that we should do the same thing, too - we don't have to get ourselves straight before going to Jesus. We can go to him as messed up as we are. In the passage, Martha is comforted yet Jesus has not yet raised Lazarus from the dead. Here's what Steve had to say about that:

"Jesus comforts not by relieving pain, but by revealing who he is"

A Busy Weekend

I had a great weekend this weekend, keeping pretty busy. Friday night I went to a high school football game with some girls with my church, which was really fun. It was a perfect night for a football game! I spent Saturday in Harrisonburg at my friend Beth's wedding, which was gorgeous and perfect. Then we went to the Book Fair on the way home, and I got lots of awesome books! (I will skip over the part of Sat. where we went out to dinner - that was not something that needs to be relived) Sunday I went to church, then met up at the Purdy's (one of the pastors at West End - the one who leads the Young Adult class) for a post-retreat lunch/debrief/get-together. I crashed on the sofa for a while, then went out to my small group. I actually learned a lot and will post some of that at some point. Oh, and then upon leaving - I drove my car into the ditch at the end of the driveway and had to call a 12-year old tow truck driver to come get me out. Oh, well. No harm, no foul right? In truth, there's a lot to say about the whole weekend but it could get pretty long and tedious ;)

A big part of me feels like I'm just moving to Richmond - in a new job, finally getting actually involved in church, etc. I'm meeting a lot of new people and I'm really excited about that.

I've been doing much better these past 2 weeks with my food choices and I hope when I go back to see Pam (my nutritionist) tomorrow that she'll be pleased. I know the weight has been coming off faster, although the last few days it's slowed down again some. I'm working on being ok with that :)

My big complaint at the moment is that I'm SOOOO tired. All the time. I just can't seem to shake it. I feel asleep at my desk on Wednesday and I feel like I crash every chance I get. I don't know if I'm a little sick, if I'm not getting enough sleep, or if I'm missing some vitamin or something that I need. I don't want to jump to conclusions or be paranoid about it, but I'm tempted to call Dr. Elliot and ask him to go ahead and do my bloodwork just to check. He said he would do it at 6 months, which would be January. Maybe this week I'll just focus on getting to bed early and see if that helps.

Let me mention, also, how irritated I am that the temps are supposed to get up into the 80s this week. Fall was supposed to be here,people!

Ok, I need to get off to school. Toodles!

Shopping!

So a good friend is getting married this weekend (and let me add how THRILLED I am for her!!!!!!!!!!!!) and I decided that this was my chance to actually get some new clothes. As I'm losing the weight, I'm trying not to shop too much because (theoretically, at least) I'm losing so quickly that I can't wear the clothes for very long. I need new clothes, of course, so I've been shopping places like Goodwill, Wal-Mart, and my sister's closet.

So my BFF and I hit the mall on Wed. in search of the perfect cute new dress. She, naturally, found 3. She's pregnant and it was so much fun shopping for cute little maternity dresses with her! I can't wait to meet the baby, of course (due on my birthday, as all cool kids are) but for now it's fun watching her be pregnant. Anyway. I didn't have much luck. For one thing, it's hard to know what size to get. Obviously, I just have to keep trying things on and different dresses the sizes run differently but still it's confusing. It's a totally new experience for me, though, to be able to say "This is too big. I need a smaller one." I've always worn whatever the biggest size was. Seriously. One time I was in a friend's wedding and just told her to order the biggest size bridesmaid's dress they had. I think this freaked her out, but I was right. It fit.

Ok, too many tangents tonight.

I'm going to cut this story short and tell you that, after much work and heartache, I have found a new dress! This is more exciting to me than it probably is to the average person. For one thing, it was super on sale at Dillard's and I got it for $16! (The only other one that I had found was $90 and I just couldn't go there) Another thing....it's a size 16. Seriously. Let me put this in perspective for you - before surgery, I was a tight 24. When I bought the dress today, the pants I was wearing were a 22. I'll admit they're a little big. But I was thinking I was just barely into a 20. Now, let's be fair. I won't fit into a 16 in pretty much anything else. This dress just happened to run big or something. Still it's exciting to me. (Normally I do not discuss my clothing size. Ever. But I got over it because it's an exciting part of documenting this process for me.) Here's a fuzzy-because-I-used-the-self-timer-and-I'm-having-issues-with-that picture of the dress:

Oh, and here's a kid quote for you from Kid's Club at church this week:
We were discussing standing up for people and one kid was telling us how if a man pointed a gun at his friend he would stand up to him (not to worry - we steered away from this) and another boy chimed in and said,

"I would kick him in...in the bad place"
First kid, "Dude! You can't say that in church!"

Wish I had more exciting things to post, but the search for the dress has pretty much consumed my last few days. This weekend, after the wedding in Harrisonburg, we're going to hit the Green Valley Book Fair. If you've never been there, it's a must-go. And if you're going, it's a must-call-Sarah-and-invite-her situation.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Just a shout-out to my friend and former co-worker Sarah who's turning THIRTY today!!!!!! Miss ya and hope you have a great one :)

In other excellent news, I'm leaving straight from work for Charleston today to finally meet my favorite nephew - and since he's been around for 4 whole days now, I should say it's about time.