Surgery and the first 48 hours after

Surgery day - Jan 28th

5am - wake and shine baby it is surgery day. So far still feeling good excited and only slightly nervous. Take my shower with the antibacterial soap as requested.
5:30-6:20 - everyone else wakes up, packing lunches for 2 days for S, cuddling both girls, getting everyone dressed, stuffies packed and the girls suitcase with clothing for the sleepover. During which time i down a large glass of water and 2 glasses of apple juice.
6:40 - Dropped the girls off at our Daycare with all there stuff, lots of hugs and kisses with the girls oh and i downed a bottle of water . I was certainly not going to be dehydrated. However it did cause a stop at a gas station to use there bathroom with all that liquid :)
8:10 - Signed in at the hospital, got into the ever sexy hospital gown and a housecoat they provided all jewellery removed and all clothes except my socks. and i got to put on great booties the hospital provided. Went to the recovery area to see the nurse on duty confirm all my info again answer last question, a timeline provided.
8:40 - went to the waiting area where Garnett was waiting for me and we sat down to wait for just over a hour to be called in for surgery, meeting everyone taking part in the surgery and getting prepped.

By this point i was still pretty collected a bit nervous but pretty impressed with myself on keeping it cool. I never had the nerve to take photos of myself  without my bra on for before photos but i will share what i have and will do comparison in 3 months of what i look like now in a bra and also with that same shirt.

Not the best view but i can guarantee you will see a difference

Double chins are still there working on that :)

Most of the time the boobs did not stay fully in the bra.

These photos were taken back in June 2013

9:45- 5ish
 I was called in said my goodbyes with hubby and then was moved from recovery area where i had to take off my glasses which i absolutely need to see everything is fuzzy, to the little wait area to be brought into the surgery room. i met my doc assistant who preformed all the markings/measurements on me. Now i have to tell you it is quite awkward to have someone who looks younger than you and not your husband moving your breast around to mark them is weird and on my part hilarious i had some inappropriate chuckles over it... yes nerves took over. I was wheeled into the operating room right on time. And from that point on the doc was fantastic, he was caring and bedside manner was warm and comforting a complete difference from the office (which is what i had read about when i did actually look the doc up) and it certainly helped calm me. He checked out the markings and made some improvements because of the previous breast reduction. They told me i would be in surgery for about 2 1/2 hours they were putting some things on my legs to help with circulation for being out for so long. And then i was put under. The surgery took almost 3 hours, i remember waking up in the area they take you after surgery before bringing you to recovery. I asked for my glasses and was told i was not there. Then there was nausea meds given to me and at some point there was pain med given to me as well, then some more nausea meds. I was in and out alot during this time. Right before i left this room to go to recovery (around 2 pm) the doctor came in to check on me and to check on my breasts noticed that both nipples were pretty blue so told me to make sure to massage them at least once a hour to help with oxygen, and then i passed out again. I woke up after being in recovery for a bit i remember asking for my glasses and book as i was feeling quite alert, i was offered a beverage and some cheese and crackers to see if i could stomach it. I managed two little bites of cracker and it was all i could do to not get sick. More nausea meds followed and as alert as i might have felt i was falling asleep every 15 mins or so for 15-30 mins each time that was the first hour of recovery. After that it got a bit better, now i remember at some point the nurse had come in closed the curtain around to check the dressings when i remembered what the doc had said i swear she must have thought i was on crack lol but the nipples were still blue so massaged i did, no pain at all thanks to those wonderful pain meds. From their like i said i started being able to stay awake longer, had a couple glasses of gingerale to help with nausea, eventually got dressed went to the bathroom (very wobbly walking my balance was completely off with the loss of boob). Sat down in a lazy boy and continued to drift in and out a bit by that time Garnett was allowed in to see me. Took about another 30 mins before we were allowed to leave.

Tried eating around 7 or 8 that evening i was not hungry at all and i vomited about half of the soup up. Took a gravol pill some extra strength tylenol and we both went to bed. I slept on the lazyboy that night and it was painful, i was up every couple of hours to get more tylenol. but tylenol covered the pain. Now throughout the evening i kept getting leaks of blood if i moved around to much.

As a funny side note at 1:45 that night my cat Doggy decided to drop a present on my lap, yep a dead mouse (thankfully it was dead), that created a large leak from throwing the mouse outside. What lengths our pets will go to say they love us *sigh*

Jan 29th

Not to bad of a day, painful still only used Tylenol and not the extra prescription they had given me and i slept alot all in the lazyboy. Though that night Garnett got home and had our girls with him i was so happy to see them. Missed my munchkins to pieces and while i was so thankful for them to not see me the evening after the surgery still missed the time with them. S who is almost 6 now understands that she had to be very careful with mommy, she showed me the card she had made for me and the picture she did for me so i would feel better. And little K who is almost 2 1/2 well she was gentle that day ... but easy to forget that i was very sore. But still we got them fed and chatted then it was time for their bed and another very early night for both Garnett and I. I tried sleeping in bed with two pillows on either side of me both as a barrier and to help keep me elevated a bit as my arms were pretty sore too, i lasted till about 2 in the morning then headed to the lazyboy due to pain.

Oh also took my first shower it was quick but delightful, wasn't able to wash my hair but was able to soap up most of my body.

Now throughout this day there was no more leaks but what had started happening was my left nipple started bleeding quite a bit, i googled it and came across a neat blog http://newboobs.livejournal.com/ which explained it was happening through my milk ducts and further searching confirmed can often happen.

Throughout this day i was still taking tylenol every 4 hours or so for pain relief.

Jan 30th

This day started off bad, i was waking up every couple hours throughout the night. I got up at 5:30 to help prepare the girls for school/daycare doing what i could. However i was feeling very faint and like i was going to throw up. This ended up staying with me throughout the day and by late afternoon my pulse started going up. I slept alot that day aside from all the other symptoms i was experiencing my pain was starting to go down a bit, did not have as much tylenol.

Now my one nipple was still bleeding a bit throughout the day i finally got smart and put a pad to help wisk away the blood.

By 8 at night things were finally back to almost normal my pulse was still elevated a bit but everything else was fine no more faintness or nausea.

Went to bed around 10 that night and was able to stay in bed all night, still broken sleep but it was a bit better


Coming up

Tomorrow I will be posting about what i started to notice was going wrong, there will be some pictures of what my breast looked like on the 31st and what they looked like on the 3rd of Feb. From there you will be almost caught up posts wise to where i am now and what i am dealing with

Pre-Op

The meeting

Dec 18th was my first meeting with the surgeon to see if he would take me as a patient and do my breast reduction. i had been impressed as i got a apt within 2 weeks of finding out i had been referred to him from the original doc whose waiting list i had been on. I had done no advance check on the doctor (did not occur to me at the time). I arrived at the office which was gorgeous and very relaxing, had maybe a 20 min wait then was shown to his nurse who handled the initial questions as to why i was looking for a secondary breast reduction and going over the concerns with me. She was fantastic very personable, easy to talk to and very comforting. The doctor came in after i had removed my shirt and bra had on a lovely robe on. And it was like a glass of water to the face. He was abrupt and very to the point. He made it seem like he would not do the breast reduction without me paying for extra liposuction for the fat.... He was a artist and was very clear about that, also seemed pretty disgusted with my breast with the nipple size from the last surgery and that the nipples were not close to straight and definitely not perky ( well trying to nurse two girls never helped them lol). Be he was honest and would answer my questions as to why it had to be a specific way. He listened when i told him of the issues i had had with my previous surgery and the knots (i forgot to write about that on the last post but all of the knots had become infected, badly, and i at the wise age of 15/16 decided not to go to the hospital but dug them out myself and had to get the knots out and the puss ... it was horrible but once i had done it the knot area healed up well) and stated he would use a different type then was normally used just incase. Then he had his nurse come back in and we had a talk about the costs to me as long as OHIP covered the breast reduction for the extra items he was talking about (lipo and bit of a lift at the same time) it was going to cost us $3900 plus taxes .... GULP ... I stated for now to go ahead to make sure it would be covered and if it was during that time we would discuss if we were willing to pay the extra costs

Needless i had left the apt very confused not sure what i was going to do, we had the savings for it, but its still hard to wrap your mind around spending that much on your boobs when it would not normally be needed ... Garnett and I had many conversations about it. I was so afraid to be referred to another doctor and get on a different waiting list when i had waited so long already plus my back was very bad by this time, i could not sit on the floor without being able to lean back and even then that would hurt, it was hard to do dishes and fold laundry i had gotten to the point of using my absolutely amazing sports bra (moving comfort - Juno) to be able to do more that 20 mins at a time and even then it would still hurt just not as much. Eventually my husband said to me that it did not matter about the money we had plenty set aside but how did i feel about the doctor. While i was still feeling pressured into the money part i appreciated the way the doctor had been with being a straight shooter in his answers and i really liked his nurse and staff (they are the ones that won me over). That i wanted to go with him.

I still had to wait till Jan 18th when i heard the message on my voicemail that OHIP had approved me and to call back if i was interested in going forward with it. I called them on the Monday Jan 20th they were not in the office on Mondays so called back on the Tuesday and got the best news of all that they had a cancellation where it was the right timing for a breast reduction, I accepted the timeline right away and from that point till the 28th of Jan there was something every day pretty much for getting ready for the surgery.

Normally there is much larger timeframe for all of this to be completed buy what it looked like for me:

Tues Jan 21st - got the news surgery was one week later, had to talk to work about time off and what i needed to do from there.
And panicking about what to do about the girls the day of the surgery, multiple calls and texts regarding what to do.

Wed Jan 22nd - Meeting at the office with the nurse going over all the info again, signing all the releases and going through any questions i had with the releases and any concerns i had. And paying for the extra parts he had been requesting to do.
 More talk with work confirming and sending off to our Short Term Disability department for the request of time off

Thurs Jan 23rd - talked with the hospital to book a official meeting to confirm the info that had been sent to the hospital thankfully because of my history i was able to just do it over the phone and it was booked for Friday morning.

Fri Jan 24th - Spoke with the hospital no big deal just confirming the questionnaire that i had to fill out and to confirm that i would get a call from the hospital Monday at some point to tell me what time the surgery would be for the next day and to confirm no eating after midnight Monday night when i could stop having fluids.
And again talking with work as i had not heard back from Sheppel who deal with our STD, was confirmed i would get the call by Monday morning at the latest.

Sat and Sunday were to me and my family

Mon Jan 27th -on my way to work got a call from Sheppel from the person who was to be my caseworker approving a full two weeks offs for recovery (woohoo) and getting me the forms by email that i needed to fill out by both myself and the doc only after the surgery had been completed.
And about two hours into work i got a call from the hospital confirming my surgery time was for 10:15 the next day i was to show up at the hospital for 8:15 and i was to stop having fluids by 6:45 but before the cut off i had to have at least 2 cups of water.

Support

Now i have not talked about this at all but the only people that knew about the surgery was my husband, my sister (as she is thinking of having one as well however she needs to loose some weight before our doc will send of a referral), my husbands mother (trying to figure out if she could watch the girls the night of the 28th) and my daycare provider. And two people at work one as she is the liaison with Sheppel and helped me get everything in order and one a friend. Everyone else any other family members (my own mom, stepdad or my daddy), colleagues and close friends i said nothing. I can be a very personal person and also find it very awkward to say certain things.

Anyway due to things our daycare provider who is a FANTASTIC lady (from day one we are so lucky to have her in our girls lives) ended up keeping the girls and having a sleepover with her kids. And super thankful that she did i was pretty useless for a full 36 hours but more on that in the next post, and the start of some photos

Breast reduction - a different type of post

Wow its been almost a full year since i have posted on the blog, i often think of it but always make excuses. Just once quick update and then i will get into the title subject. My weight as of Feb 2nd 2014 is 189. So a 6 pound difference from last year. It has gone up to as high as 196 with a normal weight of 193 ish ... And then this happened...

Breast Reduction

So i don't think i ever posted this on the blog but back with K was only 8 month old ish (June/July 2012) and i had lost 30 pounds at that time i had started getting alot of back pain again doing normal things and while working out. At one of my littlest ones check ups i talked with my doctor about having a breast reduction completed as we had previously discussed ...

A referral was sent out and i did not hear anything back till Nov 2013 that the doctor i had been referred to was retiring and i would need to find another doctor. I was referred to a Cosmetic Surgeon this second time, by Dec 18th 2013 i had a consult, Jan 18th I found out i had been approved by Ohip (Canadian health care) and on Jan 21st i got a call that a cancellation had happened and they could fit me in a week later. Jan 28th!!!! I was crazy excited and nervous, this was to be my second breast reduction with my first having been when i was 15/16 yrs old. The next series of posts will be over my experiences and difficulties i have had. There will be some pretty graphic pictures but for people that are thinking of doing a breast reduction or are currently going through it hopefully what i have gone through will help. And once all of this is done i am looking to bringing this back to a weight loss journey and some of the races i have already signed up for :)

The Past

So as i mentioned in the last part this is my second breast reduction and i want to talk a little bit about what i remember from half a lifetime ago.

I cannot remember what age for sure i was when it happened either 15 or 16 yrs old and it was summer cause i remember not wearing a shirt for a couple of days as back then i was taped up quite differently. I do not remember much of that time... I remember having my doctor take a Polaroid picture and sending it off for approval as i was quite a bit younger then they would normally have taken. At the time i was probably 145-150 pounds and i was a size F with a lot of back issues. It was approved i have no idea how long it took me from that point to getting to a doctor I feel it was within a 6 month period but i could be completely wrong.

I remember the pre op meeting where i was asked if i smoked (at that time i did but I think my mom was with me and i lied saying no as she had no idea ... so stupid) i remember being told that i might not have nipple sensation, that i might not be able to breastfeed any children i might have and many other things. At that time i did not care (and even to this day i am glad that i did it for the relief and normalcy it provided in my last years of high school and even on to college not to mention my confidence) we went ahead. I remember things as pretty spotty from the surgery till my wrappings came off a couple weeks later (it was a gauze and tape bra that i had one till my post op apt very different that this time). I was on T3 at the time and i remember a lot of pain.

At the end of it all i had gone from a F down to D and i was ecstatic, i had lost a lot of sensation anywhere there was scars probably a 1/2 inch to either side i had no sensation, my nipples had none at all. i also had huge nipples like the size of small pancakes. but i did not care it was pure freedom.

In the years since then sensation never returned, the only time i got a bit of sensation in my nipples was when my girls were born and i was attempting to nurse (both times i could not nurse long and my girls were not getting enough nutrition as my hind milk would/could not come through). Over the years i went from the D to a overflowing 40 DDD at the beginning of my weight loss, even at my lowest (183 pounds) I was down to a overflowing 38 DD because of the last surgery my breast were a very large surface area which made fitting bras a horrible experience.


My next post will be on the lead up to the surgery... Then the one after that will catch you up on post surgery and one difficulty i experienced that i hopefully will have news on.

Feb - 5 by the 5th Run details

Alright so after the awesome start to blogging last month i stopped, blah!! Things are going pretty well getting more exercise in but still have not changed my diet so still yo-yo-ing around the 183 mark. Lots of sickness going on at the household this month started with my husband where both girls ended up getting it. I thankfully was spared that round however a week or two later the girls both fell sick again. Turned into a virus. Every couple of days it would go around in a circle, fever for a day or two then fine for a day or two then back again. Last week on Tuesday started to get really bad little K got a really bad cough by that evening she was running a high fever. Then S followed the next day with coughing and fevers. Thursday more of the same with nausea thrown in for good measure. Friday took all of us to the doctors to check us out. i keep just getting the beginning symptom and fine after a day (well up to yesterday that was) little K has a double ear infection and S a upper chest infection. ugh! Poor girls, both on medication and starting to get better think S will even be going to school tomorrow.

Oh and i have started with a actual cold now, nice drippy nose, headaches last night i slept for 10 hours and it was fabulous. However i kicked my cold in the bum this evening while i took part in 5 by the 5th run tonight and i did it in a bit better time that last month so super happy about it.

Finishing this post up today Feb 6th as my Internet at home decided to die on me last night :) I will be running another 5 k either tomorrow or Friday night for a virtual run in my 13 in 2013, I could have done them together but thought it would be good to make sure i kick some more treadmill ass :P

Hope everyone is having a great day,

Jess

Recap of the last couple days

Hi everyone,

Friday Night:
Went out to see Les Miserable with my daddy, and had a great date with him. Loved the movie, found the singing to be a bit shaky in the beginning but by the end it was pretty fantastic. I cannot lie i might have had a couple tears streaming down my face in a couple spots :) My sister was not able to go with us as her little puppy had a allergic reaction to her shots. Sucked as she left for Kingston the next day to head up for school so was not able to get to see her though she will be back this weekend for when Mia (her dog) gets fixed.

Saturday:
I relaxed with the family, took down the tree, did some dishes organized a bit. Read and watched tv. That is all

Sunday:
Worked out in the morning just did weight loss program on the treadmill nothing overly much, after lunch went outside with our eldest daughter while the youngest was napping played out in the snow for a bit then took her in the sleigh down the road to see the horses at one of our neighbours. We got to feed them some treats S was so very excited. On the way there the sleigh was super light on the way back well I could feel her 40 pounds lol. Later on that night i did W1D3 of Zombie 5K training, love me some Zombies. All in all a really good exercise day.

Monday:
Up TWO pounds, as if ..... i know it is water retention but really not cool.  I had a long distance exercise date with my sister in law :P We both got on the treadmill for 30 mins and worked out she started intervals (i am getting her training to do a colour run with me in Aug). Super proud of her for starting with intervals. Go Mari GO!!!!

Today:
Just taking it easy tonight having issues with my knee where if i extend it to much or its twist a little it wants to buckle :(     think i need to get my knee brace out again for the next while during exercising. Oh lost 1.4 pounds of the 2 that i had gained, still up overall from all the holidays currently at 154.6.

Thats it from me tonight,
Jess

First Virtual Race Completed

Hi yall,

pretty impressed so far this is the 3rd post within 4 days of a new year, might be on a roll :P

Completed my first virtual race last night doing the 5 by the 5th and i have to say for not really running since my last 5 k in November i didn't do all that bad my time to the actual 5 K was 48 mins and 40 ish seconds. Very happy with it and looking forward to it going down in the months to come :) This also makes it my first race for the 13 in 2013

Yes very bad photo of me but hey still proud :)

So a run down of my "race" I still am doing intervals need to build up to be able to run the full 5K. I started off with three mins of walking then i went into a 15 min run (super proud of myself for that longest full out run in a long time) That got me to 2 KM. Then took 1 and a half to recover ran again for another 3 mins then repeated basically till i got to 5 KM. At that point just did a very slow walk for another 0.12km just to cool down.

Last night i was pretty sore after running that long the last couple of times i have done zombie 5 k training my max was 3 km in 36 mins and that was alot of walking and running, my knees and bum muscles was pretty sore. This morning though was good, very slight stiffness but nothing bad and no sore parts. Yay!

Think i will be taking tonight off working till 4 pm today then head out to pick up my girls, meet the hubby at home then headed off to have a Daddy & daughters date tonight. We are going to see Les Miserable, we got my dad a gift card to a local theatre to do this as we all went when we were younger to the opera Les Miserable. So my dad is very excited and i wont lie and am super excited as well :)

Will be posting again on the weekend, enjoy your Friday
Jess

And the craziness continues

Hi to anyone out there :)

So yesterday ... the day before ... something like that, i mentioned that i had signed up for the 12 in 2013 well today i just signed up for the 5 by the 5th virtual runs. It can either be 5K or 5 miles that have to be done every month by the 5th, which works perfectly for me especially for jan - april as i had no races lined up. Join the 5 by the 5th Virtual run series with @mommyrunfaster – sign up here: http://wp.me/p2fC61-15C

I am very excited for this not only for the swag that you could possibly win :P but again its another way to keep me accountable for my goal to run the 13 in 2013.

Oh and for anyone interested the 13 in 2013 has opened up there registration till the 6th of Jan to sign up for the challenge if you are interested here is the facebook link https://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/groups/428416323891230

Also did everyone see the button that has finally been set up on the blog for the 13 in 2013, got some great steps from a helper on the blog post about the challenge :)

Also i will be adding a list up on the blog of the runs that i have set up/completed in 2013 to help hold me accountable as well.

Thats it for now, hope everyone is having a great day :)

Happy New Years

Hi Lovelies,

Wow 2013, not sure where the past year went. Between spending time at home during the end part of my maternity leave and going back to work the time went by so quickly. I am thankful for so many things mainly my girls and my hubby (through the hard and easy times) and for the fact that both Garnett and i dedicated to making ourselves healthier in 2012.

Over the last couple of days the only day i did not exercise on the treadmill was yesterday but hopped back on today and did the 2nd day of zombie 5 k training. I have also opened up 4 browsers on my comp for races i am planning on doing this year, now its time to start registering for some of them :)

I also commited yesterday to doing 13 races in 2013 eep must have been a bit crazy :P

not able to get the button to work so here is the link to it http://jillconyers.com/buttons/

Looking forward to the challenge though think this will be a good kick in the ass to keep me motivated :) plus a discount to the Color Run and there happens to be one only a hour away from me in Aug its a Win Win :)

Till next time,
Jess

Time to stop procrastinating

Hello all,

I realized that i am putting off exercising and eating right till the new year. And i realized that was just plain silly it was time to step up and at least start doing something. So for now I am making a promise to start exercising on a daily basis.  I started today by going on good ol faithfull and did some weightloss to start me off, hoping to also get some squats and sit ups done later today. Will start to slowly get my eating under control but that is going to take me a bit, little steps at a time.

I decided as well to do a picture of my current weight at 184.6 to kick start this off it is a pound early but figured this would hold me more accountable as well.

My first two pictures that i did the first was about 10 pound lighter than when i had first started as i was 235. and as always i apoligize for the first sequence of photos i never thought i would ever share these how wrong i was :P

Next set of photos wish i would have realized i was sticking with the blue as i put on the green one today :P

Not seeing a big difference from 193 - 184 

I also took my measurements:

Weight: 184.6

Arm: 12 1/2

Bust: 42

Waist: 32

Hips: 42

Thigh: 23 3/4

Calve 16 3/4

Have a great weekend all,

XOXO

Jess

Christmas Eve

Wow posting again, someone check my forehead quick i must have a fever :)

This blog has been weighing on my mind more heavily, i think in the new year i will make it a point to start writing up more posts, makes me feel more accountable even if no one is reading this blog :P I have skipped over my promise after losing 50 pounds that i would post my blog for all to read, it was just scaring me and i realized that it was ok not to feel ready to share it with my family and friends.

Doing pretty well during this holiday season, staying around the 183.6 mark (4 out of 5 days in a row yesterday went up to 185.2 then today dropped right back down). Don't really have much more to say currently at work hoping for 4 pm to roll around as soon as possible so that i can go home and spend the rest of Christmas eve with the family.... Oh we all have onsie pjays will be posting that photo sometime in the next couple of days lol.

xoxo
Jess

Dusting the cobwebs off

*choking a bit on the dust in here*

Oh boy i cannot believe that it has been so long since i last posted... Sept 22nd and today is Dec 16th eep, i will say that i have thought of this blog often but have not had the motivation to post. Returning to work has been a huge adjustment for me, i never feel like i have enough time and find it much harder to work out and eat better (two reasons laziness would be number one but also with it being darker earlier and later in the mornings and right now the holiday season is full of stuff going on). So today as i was sitting down about get up to fix my daughters bed as she informed me the blankets were falling off (and whos fault was that i wonder lol) i hear my hubby typing away at the keyboard i look over ask him what in the world he is doing looks at me sheepishly and says he is blogging, well that got my interest peaked and the want to blog myself made me pull up my blogger.

Really aside from that i don't actually have all that much to say, lots of things have happened, i did my first and second 5 k races finished under 45 mins which was my goal, have continued to lose weight very slowly with lots of ups and downs current at 184.4 (have been under 183 but until i can get back under there and not see a gain i will wait on doing my 10 pound lost photos). My littlest girl turned one, my eldest just finished with her dance sessions and is looking forward to going back in January. My dog passed away :( it will be a week as of tomorrow and i miss him terribly.

I think for now will just end this with some photos

part of K cake smash photos

can you tell she was enjoying it lol

cannot get enough of this cute face

before the cake smash in the pumpkin patch

At the end after cake cleanup was done

This was from the Canadian thanksgiving weekend at the same pumpkin patch

K rocking her owl hat

Cuddling up with K as S was out running around with our friends kids

And here are some of our Christmas photos that were taken

That's all for now, if i do not get on before the holidays are over i hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

xoxo

Jess

P.s Forgive my photo placement blogger and me were not working well tonight

New weight loss photos

Hey guys,

Well the rest of the week ended up pretty ok, cold is almost gone. Garnett father is still in the hospital as they have held him longer due to issues with his kidneys hopefully on monday they can get the final stint in and then time for him to go home.

Stepped on the scale this morning to 193.0 which meant it was time for progression photos and measurements :)

Like the tiger decal on the mirror >^_^<  Meow!

Really starting to see the difference now from the beginning to today which is making me happy. I started this journey wearing a 2XL on top and size 22/24 jeans i am currently wearing a XL to L shirt depending on the brand and between a 14/16 size pants :)

To show all of the photos

Yes my forever hide my face in shame a very dirty mirror the first time and seeing the cleaning supplies the next time lol.

Even seeing quite a difference from just the 203.8 to 193

Measurements:

Starting weight: 235

as of Feb 14th (when i started tracking my weight) 224.8

Measurements as of Feb 22nd:
Arms:   14 1/2
Bust:    47 1/2
Waist:  44
Hips:    49
Thighs: 27

July 7th

Weight:  214.2
Measurements: 
Arms:   13 1/2 
Bust:    45 1/2 
Waist:  43 
Hips:    44 
Thighs: 25 
Calve:  18

Aug 10th

Weight:  203.8
Measurements: 
Arms:   13 (-.5)
Bust:    45 (-.5)
Waist:  40 (- 3)
Hips:    43 (-1)
Thighs: 24 (-1)
Calve:  18 (0)


Sept 22nd

Weight:  193
Measurements: 
Arms:   13 1/2 (+.5)
Bust:    44 (-1)
Waist:  37 (- 3)
Hips:    44 (+1)
Thighs: 25 1/2 (+1.5)
Calve:  17 1/4 (-.75)

So i think i was measureing a couple of areas wrong before actually saw where you were supposed to be measuring so i am hoping that is why it is all over the place. Total inches lost 1.75 but whatever i can see some big improvements so again i just think it was me mis-measuring before.

Enjoy the weekend 
Jess

Crawling out of the rock i was under

Hello everyone,

bet you didn't expect to see a post from me after not writing anything in the last what 2 almost 3 weeks now .... yes i was a chicken. I had up the blogger page for a couple of days but just kept ignoring it wishing it would go away, i was not in a frame of mind to deal with writing - when i should have been writing the most as i dealt with things.

Well as of my last post it had been S first week to school and i had messed my back up. My back was not a pretty sight, i was not a pretty sight. I was in quite alot of pain for a while nothing as bad as the end of jan and beginning of feb, it was sort of the same pain as just recovering from that. So i had to be extremely careful on how i bent and picked up little K. Which also really impacted my exercise i was not able to even walk without alot of pain but by the middle of last week wed or thursday things started to loosen up a bit. Was able to finally enjoy my last couple days of freedom before the dreaded return to work date. Took the girls on daily walks of about 2 kms.

Last weekend i got to spend some time with just S while taking her to dance and K stayed home with Garnett. Then that afternoon i spent some time with K taking her out for a walk in the stroller with our dog Cronos. Sunday we had a visitor from our neighbour down the road and she brought her pony all saddled up for the girls to check out.

K was the first one to try out the pony Chico

S thinking that maybe she would like to try

Thats my girly

Chico smiling for the camera lol

Sunday

Now before i go into the rest of my sunday and the dreaded return to work date lets  talk about my weight a bit. I was fluctuating like mad lowest i went down to was 196.4 and went up to 199.0 as of sunday morning i was 198.8 eep so i started to get myself underwraps. Sunday i started the laundry and then the 30 Day shred over again, went well felt great went into town by myself did our groceries headed home put it all away and then i was stupid and decided to do a second load of laundry. Well i started that second load and then the water quit for the 5th time this season. Which created a huge meltdown, G was pretty upset ... I was upset ... and then the tears started (mine of course) it was the day before my return to work after a year off, the water was shut off no idea if we were going to be able to start it. S shut me down when i asked if she wanted to go for a walk with me but she just wanted to cuddle with daddy, that was the last straw my tears turned into waterworks. I ended up taking our sopping wet laundry to my dads place in town and got them washed from there and brought back home to dry them. Had supper and G went to work on the well - pumpy thingy to see if he could get it working fast forward 2 and a half hours and voila we had water again ... at 11 pm.

Monday

Up at 5am and the day starts, get the girls dressed and ready to go to daycare, cry a bit as they were leaving. Rush into the shower finish getting ready and headed off to work. I will say it is a bit easier going back to work with the second child plus having had a breakdown the day before everything was good. Then just before 10 get the call that Garnett father had a minor heart attack. He is doing good still in the hospital at this time waiting for a second stint to be put in. I stayed under my calories and got a workout down in the evening.

Tuesday

Woke up with a cold that came out of left field, head throbbing, fever, sinus pain the whole shebang. That is all. Stayed under calorie but no workout and i went to bed at 8pm tossed and turned all night.

Wed

Bad night of the tossing and turning, sinuses starting to calm down to be replaced with coughing. However this morning stepped on the scale and saw 194.6 woot woot officially down 40 pounds. Definitely picked up for me on a hump day and ended up being a decent day. Still no work out though, going to wait till tomorrow to see how i feel before trying again

The only other thing is that each night i have hardly seen my hubby as he has been at the hospital visiting with his dad and making sure his mom is eating and taking care of herself as well. Wish I could go with him to see  his dad and give him a hug but until this cold is gone gotta stay far away :(

I promise to write in here again soon, need to keep myself accountable

Jess

Scared

I know its been a little bit but life has been pretty hectic so lets talk about the good things first. Weight is slowly coming off weighed in at 197.8 this morning. I am loving my Zombie, Run! app the other day went for a walk/jog with Cronos and i had the Zombies chase turned on (usually where i live the gps wont find us that day it did) oh holy heck talk about going at a faster pace i am normally between 8 -9 min per km well when the Zombies are chasing i hit up to as high as 13 km per hour lol it was great :)

Triend a new class this past wed called Kickboxing Cardio the first class for this month was free, i was super nervous as i was going by myself and knew no one there... So glad i went i LOVED it in 55 mins burnt 544 cals and was a true sweat monster :P This upcoming monday is a free Zumba class with the same instructor and i am going to check that out as well, says it is in the dark so no need to feel self conscious ... well when i knock everyone down with my uncoordination it wont be so good :p

S started school this week, wed was her first day and she says she really enjoyed it but will give me no details of her day *fustrated mom*, she is back at school today and was extremely excited to be going back.

Her Hello Kitty backpack

While wearing a Hello Kitty shirt

little K looking up to her big sister

And talking about this little chunkmiester (is that even a word ?) she just turned 11 months old weighs 20 pounds right on the dot. Has two top teeth (came within a couple days of each other) and two bottom teeth. Has finally figured out to crawl forward (a couple weeks) and is getting faster at it. Figured out how to sit up by herself from when she is lying down (that caused a panic the first time she did it in the crib as she was still on the top level as she wouldn't do it. She had grabbed onto her mobile and was having a grand time giving it a shake). Oh and will stand if holding onto the crib, our hands, playpen etc... AAAHHHHH so many  milestones in just a short couple of weeks.

Took photos for a photo invite but think i will use them in a banner instead

Now onto the reason for the title ... for the past month or so i have been having twinges in my back. I usually throw out my back roughly 2 - 3 times a year usually it is just sore and i am hunched over while walking for 3 -4 days then it is over. Well these twinges point to a full out back episode. I have only had two of them both have been in January right after having my babies (S was 9 months and K 3 1/2 months) and it scares the shit out of me. It means physio for approx 1 and a 1/2 months where i can barely walk without crying cannot pick up my daughters etc ... Today woke up was feeling great and somewhere between getting my eldest ready for school and getting my youngest out of her crib i felt it, the pain that i associate with a hell of a back outage. It got worse, right now taking my back meds from jan and some normal robaxacet (sp?) for the pain hoping it will cover it. I am thinking that the back pain is just due to stress of S going to school and my approaching work date and all the hiccups that have happened with both in the last couple of weeks.   Hope it blows over and my concern is for nothing...

Have a great weekend will check in on monday,

Jess

Long weekend

Wow for the first time in a long time having a weekend that i have actually lost weight on. Back down to 198.8 as of this morning even after attending a family BBQ yesterday where i might have had a hamburger and macaroni and potato salad ... oh and a couple of chips ... oh and when i got home might have had a original cider from Alexander Keiths as well and wow it was all so yummy. But something went right and i still lost so thankful for that :)

Happy that my Zombie, Run! app got fixed they had a issue with android phones where you could do the mission but it was not completing so tonight when i take Cronos for a walk i can get to mission 2 (did mission 1 twice, the zombie chase not as scary the second time around) They also added a option for long runs for android so that is kinda neat don't need it yet but good for the future.

C25K - update

Well i moved to W5D2

31 mins:
Warm up 5 mins
Run 8 mins
Walk 5 mins
Run 8 mins
Cool down 5 mins

Got through the 8 min run and i was kinda surprised it wasn't bad could have kept going, however after the 5 min walk when i went to do the next run it was a total fail. going to try again tomorrow and rock it (hopefully) think i will only do day 2 twice successfully then i will go to day 3 (20 min running non stop - eeeeppppp).

Also just joined a fb group done by one of the girls from Mama Laughlin's Fit Camp called 100- fat burning miles in September (hee hee love the name) closed group which is nice, so as per the title of the group the challenge is to walk/jog/run/crawl 100 miles (or 160.9 km) during the month of Sept so roughly 5.36 km per day. Just joined the group today and have done 15.53 so far this month, going to have to step it up just a little bit but it is totally do-able.

Personal note:

S starts school on wed, going for the very first time, she is so excited and i am of two minds, excited for her to go but dreading it at the same time as she is growing up so quickly.

Also kinda worried about making lunches, what if i pack the wrong things, what if i don't pack enough? What if, what if what if .... Anyone else ever worry about that in the beginning?

And then there is the return to work date of Sept 17th that is getting closer and closer ... what is going to happen when i return to work, can i continue to eat well, will i continue exercising or make excuses, which i cannot i tell ya having a 5 k that you are registered to do a month after returning to work is a good motivator. Oh and have i ever mentioned just how bad i am at planning? I find it impossible to plan ahead for the week for meals while i am at home not to mention work ....  I tell ya enough to give a person nightmares lol

Jess

New Month

Sept 1st already where does the time go ...

Having a better day today under my calorie goal of 1400, did C25K week 5 day 1 again tomorrow going to actually move to day 2, will do that for a couple of days then will move to day 3 (eep 20 mins straight running is a bit daunting).

 I also bought Zombie, Run! app for my android phone its currently 2.99$ instead of 7.99$ sale is on till monday. It is pretty awesome, used it taking my dog for a walk 40 mins 4 kms done not too bad. At the point when the old "Runner 5" is chasing you in zombie form i almost forgot i was only to be walking and was ready to get the hell out of there. I have a love hate relationship with Zombies so listening to this is giving me a delicious shiver of danger lol.

Here is to hoping tomorrow is as good as today :)
Jess

Difficulties

This week has been pretty low for me, my high point was getting below the 200 pound mark, but with school starting for S this upcoming wed and work looming up in two weeks i have been pretty down. I feel exhausted all the time, have not wanted to exercise and when i get like this i kind of bottle all my feelings inside and say i don't care, which has resulted in me not making the best of decisions. I am down from the 199.8 to 199.4 but i should be lower than that, with the weekend looming up i always gain a pound or two which means i will probably end up seeing the 200s again :(

Also my littlest one is changing so fast which i think is also not helping this funk. All of a sudden she has popped her 3rd tooth (first one for the top), started finally crawling forward (still mostly crawling/pushing herself backwards and boy can she go) and has learnt to sit herself up in the crib. Oh and her 4th tooth should be out any day now.

Today is a bit better calories are on track going to exercise tonight just need to pull myself out of this funk

Hope everyone has a great long weekend,
Jess

Onederland :)

WOOHOO this morning i saw this when waking up 

Officially out of the 200s' and so excited and proud :)

Not much to talk about

Well i was a bad girl yesterday and decided to not workout ... then spent a hour or more awake in bed feeling guilt for not working out but midnight is a bit late to work out ...

Weight is still going well yesterday morning woke up to a 1 pound loss so was at 200.8 and this morning woke up to 200.6 (which i am more than happy to take).

Leaving this post with a couple photos of the girls that i took yesterday

Little K was not so interested in looking up and having a photo taken

Aahhh when did she start growing up so much

Only photo taken in the hammock swing little K was in between fake crying here

Super happy to be on the swing by herself got lots of giggles from her

Will report in on monday, have a great weekend everyone

Jess

Crazy Thursday and a confession

*phew* what a day. Woke up to see 201.8 this morning so had lost 1 pound getting close to my 2nd mini goal (1st was hitting 30 pounds 2nd is getting below the 200 mark) - where i have promised myself that i would make myself a apron - and very excited however i know the weekend always throws a wrench in my plans somewhere, hoping to be good.

This is the apron i have promised to make myself, for anyone trying to place what this is supposed to represent it would be Sailor Moon outfit :) A little known fact i LOVE Sailor Moon i even have Luna tattooed onto my back.

So as to my confession, i have not really run since last wed, i tried a small bit the last couple days (3 mins on tues and maybe 2 mins yesterday) and was failing horribly, my heart was not into it. Finally got onto the treadmill today and told myself to suck it up and get it done. So week 5 day 1 finished in full only breaks were the normal schedualed kind ... Whoo .. going to do it 1 - 2 more times then will move to day 2 in week 5.

Then from there had a pretty normal day including having to go to my MIL place to catch up on laundry since the scare with our well laundry has been kinda piling up thankful i was able to go into town to get some done, from now should be able to do 1 load per day here. Got home made some crazy yummy egg mcmuffin type food for supper, then headed downstairs did a 30 min weight loss program on the treadmill followed by Jillian kicking my ass in 30 ds (3 days in a row - not counting the other two days i did last week those were my learning days lol). Total cal burned today with exercise 890, go me (yes such a dork)

Last 2 days or so i have brought up my calories just a bit so instead of being just under 1200 have been under 1400 instead, still losing and more than the normal 0.8 that i was losing so i will take it :)

Here's to hoping for another loss tomorrow

Till then
Jess