PHOTOS!

I've got two pictures for you - one "during" shot and one "before" shot. Both taken on the same day.

Hmmm. Sounds like a case for Encyclopedia Brown, no?

This is my during weight loss photo. Please note my hair remains in a ponytail because I HATE doing my hair. If someone gave me money for a completely frivolous expenditure and forbade me from using it for anything useful to myself or others, I would totally have someone come to my house every morning and blow my hair out for me.

Here's me, 50 pounds down:

Can you believe how short my legs are? I mention it every time, I know. But it never ceases to amaze me. It's like God doesn't love me or something.

BUT! NSV: Those white pants are pants I bought in 2007 after my sister's wedding. I took them to be hemmed and by the time I picked them up from the tailor, I already couldn't wear them anymore. Yesterday, I put them on, and with thanks and praise to almighty Spanx, they fit.

And here's the before shot, of the aforementioned criminally awful upper arms:

I know, right? I know. The good news is, any improvement will be major. At noon I will have a heart-to-heart with my trainer and tell him that even though I *look* like a person who could use a whole-body makeover, what I really want to focus on is getting Michelle Obama arms.

Well, I Done Did It.

I made a gym appointment. Tomorrow, 12 noon. Haven't been there since late last summer. But my friend sent me some pictures from her wedding, and my upper arms should be outlawed. For serious.

In other news, the scale is inching back to where my ticker is, ever so slowly.

I Like to Think It's My Independent Spirit Shining Through (Also: Sushi Question)

The fact that I gained weight the first week of the challenge, I mean. I'd hate to go along with the crowd and lose a shitton of weight in a single week, so I ate like a heifer and here I am, two point five pounds heavier than last Sunday. You're welcome.

Actually, this morning the scale read 218, so I managed to shed half a pound overnight. Yee-haw. I got a new scale last week and its readings are very close to current (old) scale. But I'm keeping old scale at least through the end of this challenge so I'm consistent from week to week, and I'm using the old scale for my official Sunday weigh-in reports to Kristen.

We were away for the weekend, back to Delaware and Pennsylvania (it never seems to be anywhere glamorous like Southampton or Nantucket) for my aunt's 70th birthday party. Middle son got a stomach virus on Friday night so I left him home with the Hubs and took older son and baby. Baby threw up all over her pretty party dress 10 minutes before we arrived and then was miserable from, I assume, the same stomach bug that felled her brother. Oy.

So I ate party food on Thursday and Saturday, and then snacked on Jordan candied almonds on the lonnnggg drive home yesterday. Not great.

Today I am back to my "normal" routine, which I hope will translate to a downward trend on the scale. Also planning to spend more time commenting on blogs. The typing keeps my fingers busy, so I can't snack. ;)

On to the Sushi Question: When you eat it, do you cut it up? I can't imagine taking the whole thing in one bite with a band. Walk me through this, please...

The Scale Is Not My Friend

Last night's cocktail party went well, we had about 60 people - all new families to my kids' nursery school for next year, plus some board members and the school director. I swear, it felt like every mom in this town is an Amazon woman. And they wear really high heels. I was easily the shortest and outweighed every other woman in the joint by 60 pounds, minimum.

However, I didn't spend much time worrying about it. Everyone was friendly and mixed well; I think they were pretty happy to meet other parents. Wine never hurts either.

My mom was here, and that woman worked like crazy. So many people came up to me to say, "Wow, your mom is amazing." She totally is, I owe her a massage or something. At least a mani/pedi.

The scale is completely betraying me these days. I've been busy gardening and cleaning for the party all week and haven't had time to eat much so I don't know exactly what's going on. I'll keep drinking water and hope the scale starts sliding the right way soon.

I've been reading your blogs but for the most part haven't had a chance to comment. Doesn't mean I'm not keeping up with you, though. Have a great weekend, ladies. xoxo

The %^&%ing scale was up 3.5 pounds this morning. But I'm sure that's water weight. Well, maybe not all of it.

Anyway, onward and downward. I was so busy today planting flowers and getting things ready for Thursday's cocktail party that I didn't have time to graze or snack much.

My mom is coming tomorrow to help with party preparations and hang out with us till Saturday. It's especially nice to have her here since the Hubs isn't home till Thursday.

I had an artichoke (of course) for dinner with 1/2 cup of the leftover chicken salad. It got dry overnight so I had to add more Greek yogurt, and Nicole said the same thing happened to her. But with more yogurt it was really great. Lots of good flavor, and it went down easily.

Now I'm finishing my glass of wine and going to bed. Here's hoping my scale will be kinder tomorrow morning.

It's Monday

I don't have too much exciting to report: Snacked and grazed and snacked through yesterday, woke up during the night with that godawful ovulation pinch, had a better eating day today. I'm currently enjoying some chicken salad courtesy of Nicole's awesome recipe (I used chives instead of green onion; still delish).

Scale was up today, not stressing too much about it. Bought a ton of flowers to plant and got about half of the planting done, I'll finish tomorrow. The Hubs is traveling most of the week, my mom comes to visit on Wednesday. Preparations for the nursery school cocktail party are well under way. All I need is good weather and we're all set.

Thanks to all of you for your great comments and warm wishes on my 50-pound milestone. I've said it before and I'll say it again: All of you have given me so much support and advice on this journey, I would never have made it this far without you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

PS Should I be concerned that my 4-year-old is obsessed with Michael Jackson, the Village People and Lady Gaga?

Thoughts at 50 Down

Fifty pounds ago I had a lot of aches and pains. My feet hurt every time I stood up and I walked funny because I was so stiff. I snored a lot, sending my husband to the guest room more often than either of us liked. I was tired and irritable and depressed and despairing.

Today I feel like I'm on my way. Popping up from a sitting position is easier, moving is easier, I'm not nearly as tired as I was and my snoring is almost gone. I'm a lot more comfortable when I go out in public, and I feel better when I'm socializing. My spirit feels lighter now, and I'm looking forward to doing things with my kids this summer rather than dwelling on the things I can't do because of my weight. That's a great, great change.

I just did the math and I'm averaging a 1.7 pound loss every week. Not setting any records with my pace but I'm OK with slow and steady. I don't feel deprived, I don't feel like I'm making any big sacrifices. I eat, I'm satisfied, I'm losing weight.

I could probably use a tiny fill. I'm at 5.5 cc's in a 10cc band. 5.75 was too much, I had to have some taken out because I wasn't losing weight and was all kinds of uncomfortable. Wonder if my surgeon would do 5.6 cc's, just adding 0.1 cc's?

The Hot Summer Meltdown Challenge starts today, which will be a great motivator to keep my A-game through the summer.

I still need to exercise consistently and start weight training to firm up the flab. But I'm grateful for where I am; the road ahead doesn't look as long or as daunting as it did 50 pounds ago.

FIFTY! 50!! FIFTY!

I hit fifty pounds down today, five months and one day after surgery. I'm happy and excited, but also mindful that there is still a long way to go. Fifty pounds less than before, though.

Note: I lost 13 of those pounds before surgery, so I haven't lost 50 in five months. I think it's important to let people know that, particularly if you're considering surgery or just got your band.

I think I may have lost that last pound from sheer stress. I made salmon and scallops provencal last night for my in-laws, which went well despite losing power at 3.45 pm and then having it go on and off intermittently for the next couple of hours. I did what I could on the gas cooktop with the side dishes and we ended up grilling the salmon since the oven was a no-go.

After about 5.30 pm, the power was just off, no flashes back on. So it got hot and then my 7-year-old started throwing up. I spent the rest of the evening doing dishes by candlelight and cleaning puke out of three bathrooms (clorox is my friend), one bedroom rug and a couch by flashlight.

Power came back on sometime after 1 am, so this morning I whipped the Magic Machine into action:

Do you have one of these? They. Are. Awesome. The Bissell Little Green is a lifesaver, particularly with small children who tend to vomit without regard for upholstered furniture or bedroom carpeting.

That's the latest. I'm not sure what kind of curse we've got going on with our utilities, we've lost power a lot lately and had a water main break that shut down the street for 12 hours last Friday. Plus, the boiler went, a water pressurizer blew up in the basement and the upstairs air conditioning went on the fritz a couple weeks ago.

Please send good utility karma to me this week. I'll need it.

I Did It! I Exercised!

The thunderstorms everyone was calling for never materialized, so I managed to squeeze in 30 minutes of laps in the pool this afternoon. I am so out of shape that I could only do breast stroke, with the occasional freestyle added in. Lame much? Anyway, I did it. Go me.

Thanks for the party suggestions. The board members are bringing wine, so we should have at least 10 bottles and I'll have five or six on hand to keep things moving along. So nerve-wracking, this party throwing thing. I've never once hosted a cocktail party. Ridiculous, right? We have a party once a year, and it's catered by Planet Pizza. That's the level of entertaining we usually do.

Gilly posted a completely awesome recipe for a quinoa summer salad. I made it yesterday and it's delicious. You can throw anything in this salad and it's great. I used fresh mozzarella and added some chopped cucumber and red onion. So good. Try it.

It's been a crazy day. I'm still reeling from Tipper and Al's breakup, and now we've lost another Golden Girl. Jeesh.

Water, water everywhere

Damn water. Scale was up 2.5 pounds from yesterday. Damn damn damn. So today I drink and drink and drink. Oh, it'll come off. Just watch.

In other news, I need to start swimming. Or walking. Something. I am astonished by how f-ing lazy I am. Truly. It's embarrassing.

Stressful end of the school year stuff happening here. I need to buy teacher gifts. I'm hosting a nursery school "new families" cocktail party for 60 next week. (WTF was I thinking? Had no idea there were that many new families. It's a small school.) Lots of gardening and landscaping needs to be done by then. Oy.

Is anyone out there a party planner? How much wine do I need for 60 adults? Please God let the weather be OK so some of this can be outside. Helllllpppppp.