Good (Bad) Food, Workouts and Gambling - All In One Post!

I admire all of you who are so dedicated to exercise and regular workouts. I've been derelict in stepping up my workout game, which is kind of strange since I used to exercise pretty regularly.

This week I've walked - really walked, a few miles and enough to sweat - four days in a row.

This is partly to combat the deadly combination of a loose band and the delicious but nutritionally godawful food available to me here on the Jersey shore. Barb and Cindylew, you know what I'm talking about - cheese steaks, Rita's Italian Ice, Kohr Bros. soft-serve, funnel cakes, etc. I've had some of my very favorites, but a lot less than in years past.

Last night we had a grownup dinner at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City. Gambling isn't my thing, but there's a steakhouse that my brother likes, so six of us went. It was so nice to get dressed up and not feel awkward and embarrassed about how bad I looked. Because I didn't look awful!

I'm pretty sure my eyes didn't look demonic in real life but I couldn't swear to it. Isn't my sister adorable?

I have two full days of vacation left, and I intend to keep up my walking workouts. I like to quantify every single second I spend exercising - I have a heart-rate monitor and I've always logged workouts in a running diary.

I was so excited to use the Nike+ feature that's built into my new iPhone. I've used it before with iPods but I was looking forward to the ease of the built-in program. Well, guess what? It sucks. It doesn't record distance properly, and it's not a calibration issue - I hiked for two hours and it said I went 0.15 miles. Then the other day I walked 2.5 miles on the boardwalk and got the 0.15 miles thing again. Now the phone won't even pair up with the shoe sensor. Grrrr. Not happy about that. Get on it, Apple!

Crazy Family Times

I realize the title could be read with a couple different meanings. They're both accurate.

We're at the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey with my parents, siblings and assorted spouses and kids.
Here's the view from the family room of our (rented) house:
Beautiful, right? Notice how far the dunes stretch? Now just imagine trying to herd seven children ranging in age from four weeks to eight years, beach toys, boogie boards, towels, umbrellas, coolers and chairs alllllll the way through those dunes to get to the ocean. Where we then have to stand in the water to make sure the children don't drown. It's super relaxing. And luxurious! We've even experienced nature, in the form of overly aggressive seagulls stealing my niece's grilled cheese out of her hands yesterday.

But it's been fun. And funny too.

Around 11 o'clock last night, my brother-in-law, who almost never drinks unless he is peer-pressured into it by my brother, was sitting in front of the toilet waiting to throw up while my very very pregnant sister stood with him, alternately consoling him and laughing at him.

I was standing in the doorway of the bathroom, convulsed with laughter at the whole scene when we heard a thump. I walked into the boys' room to find my 5-year-old (the one who is always having some crisis or another when we're away from home) had fallen face-first out of bed onto a pile of Legos. There was a lot of blood, and this morning he looks like he was mauled by a bear.

The good news is, my daughter loves the beach! So much that I'm starting to wonder how much sand a baby can eat before I need to start worrying about a blockage or something.

My band is on the looser side here but I'm walking on the boardwalk every day and so busy that I'll be surprised if I gain.

Finally, is anyone else's hair still falling out? I took this picture yesterday and my forehead is getting alarmingly big.

"I'm Up, I'm Down, I'm Fat, I'm Thin"

Is anyone here old enough to remember that line from St. Elmo's Fire? The rich girl's mom - the one who whispers every time she says the word cancer - mentions it resignedly at the family dinnertable.

The line has stuck with me all these years, because it completely applied to my experience with my weight. Although in the last 10 years I can't say there have been more than a few months where I felt "thin." And by that I mean weighing less than 200 pounds. This morning I weighed 209.6, up from a low of 206.8 the other day.

I'd love to be out of the 200s by Labor Day, but I don't see it happening. I'd *really* love to be out of the 200s by the time I land in Chicago, and maybe that's a good goal to set. I'm on the slower side in my losing, mostly because I'm lazy and have slipped a bit from my model bandster ways. It's not a mystery to me why I'm not going gangbusters with this thing.

So I'm setting my goal: I have five weeks to lose either nine pounds or 6.8 pounds. That's a tall order given my recent patterns. But it's a good, solid goal.

I'm due for a small fill, scheduled on Sept. 1st. So maybe this is do-able.

Where's the Progress?

Today was a hungry day. I ate a lot. Bad choices. I need a tweak when I see my surgeon after Labor Day. No real workout, but I walked a little bit because I took the boys to see the King Tut exhibit in Times Square.

(Side note: I've spent more time in Times Square in the last year than I did in the entire three years I lived in New York. People who live in New York don't go to Times Square unless they're passing through on their way to the theater district or on the way to work. It really is ridiculously crowded there. So much so that I tucked a note with my cellphone number in each kid's pocket just in case I lost one of them.)

Here they are, watching the madness of Times Square from the (relative) serenity of the Broadway Lounge.

I am sooooo close to 60 down and my halfway point. Gilly, who was banded around the same time I was, is at 90 down. (YAY GILLY, you skinny bitch.) And you guys, she is *never* going to let me live it down that she is kicking.my.ass. Ugh.

It's All About the Portions

Isn't that just the truth? And the truth is, I'm not doing so great on portion control. My band is doing some of it, but the 'Kristin' part still needs, ahem, a lot of work.

I use small plates, try to put my fork down between bites and chew, chew, chew. I don't drink with meals except for when I have wine with dinner. I generally avoid slider foods. But limiting how much I put on my (much smaller) plate is something I'm still working on.

I keep reminding myself that it's not about how much I can shove in, it's about how little I can eat and still feel satisfied.

It's an ongoing process.

Getting Closer...

Thanks for the encouragement in my last whiny post. You were right, the scale showed a delayed drop, and as of this morning I am down 59.2 pounds, less than a pound from 60 and just 1.3 pounds from my halfway point to goal!

Barbara, I hope you and your husband had a great time in downtown Philly. KoP was as magical as I remembered it. {For the uninitiated, KoP is the King of Prussia Mall, which is nice and bright and huge and has every store I could ever want to shop in.} I could move right in to that place and stay there for a lonnnngggg time before I got bored. We mostly walked around because you can't do any serious shopping with a baby in tow, but it was fun to get out with my sister and get a little walking in.

I think my goal gift to myself will be a kids-free shopping trip to KoP.

Can you believe how close we are to Chicago? It seemed like ages and ages when the idea first popped up.

It Moved. A Little.

The scale moved a bit, although just by a few ounces. Whatever, I'll take it.

We've been doing a ton of driving, and my tailbone is KILLING me. I get out of the car looking like I'm bent in half. Very elegant.

I went to dinner tonight with my parents and sister for my dad's 62nd birthday. I had some bisque - not a great choice, but it was crab and artichoke. You understand. Then I had the scallop entree. I ate two of them and gave the rest away and was absolutely, completely full, like I really pigged out.

And then I realized IT WAS MY BAND. DOING ITS JOB. Which was all the more exciting because I didn't at the same time get sick or slime or PB or anything. I didn't even get that awful feeling at the far back of my throat.

IT'S WORKING. IT'S WORKING!!

That Can't Be Right. Can It?

Just back from a few days of hiking and, um, experiencing wilderness. We were so busy keeping the kids busy, covering them in bug spray, bathing them to get the bus spray off and cooking for them (and then of course finding an Urgent Care clinic for my middle child because what would a vacation be without searching for a doctor in a foreign land? ). I felt like I barely ate a thing. And I hiked! Two decent hikes!

And I came home and I weigh exactly what I weighed when we left.

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Amy from Babbles, happy to send you the shirts you claimed in the previous post but I need your mailing address. Can you please send it to catchytitlehereblog (at) gmail?

Clothes for the Sisterhood

Happy Friday!

I have a few things for the sisterhood. First person to call something gets it, and if you let me know today I'll mail stuff out tomorrow. If you let me know after tomorrow morning, it'll go out on Friday.

1. Black semi-dressy v-neck short-sleeve jersey material shirt. I wore it out to dinner with black pants a lot. Size 2X.


2. Hot pink Polo-style Ralph Lauren pique cotton shirt with bright orange collar. Size 2X.


3. Pink Polo-style Ralph Lauren pique cotton shirt. Size 2X.


4. Pink dotted jersey short-sleeve scoop neck with pink rosettes on the neckline. Size 1X. I've worn it just a couple times.


5. Khaki colored Charter Club linen pants, full-length, worn twice. Size 20W.


6. White linen cropped pants. Jones New York size 18W, never worn. I couldn't get a great shot of them but they're really nice. Tags still on 'em.


You can claim something in comments and email me your mailing address at catchytitlehereblog {at} gmail dot com

FINALLY!

This morning I got on the scale and it said 210. Then I went about my day and hopped on again at 8 pm and it said 208.8 - my lowest post-surgery number. Guess which one I'm entering in my spreadsheet?

I am so relieved to see 208.8 again, and I will be even more relieved when I break through and keep moving downward. It's been almost a month of bouncing around with no real losses, and I'm over it. Over. It.

The last few days have been so busy that I haven't had time to eat much, and today was the same. So I'm hoping the scale will be benevolent tomorrow despite the olives I had with dinner. Dare to dream, right?

Side note: Had a business lunch at an Asian place today. I had checked out the menu and figured sashimi would be safe because it doesn't have rice and would be easy to get down.

People, sashimi is literally just sliced chunks of raw fish. I guess I should have known this, especially since I fancy myself quite sophisticated, having lived in New York for three years. Really, though - chunks of raw fish with some ginger and the green spicy stuff on the side.

FYI, it does go down easy with the band.