Personally, I only have children of the furry 4 legged variety. But I still love Mother's Day because I am lucky enough to still have my Mom with me…..at 82, going on 50, she is an amazing woman, you'd all love her. We bought her flowers, a dress jacket, and went out for lunner (the meal that falls somewhere between lunch and dinner).
We broke tradition….for years we have gone to brunch at the Wm Penn Inn. A local upscale restaurant with a Mother's Day all you can eat "buffet" that is to die for !!! And let me tell you we never hesitated to get our money's worth….they lost money on us just from our trips to the dessert tables alone. Every year we starting drooling over the thought of going to the Wm Penn Inn Brunch as soon as the dishes from Easter Dinner were cleared from the table. However, this year, figuring that asking a lap-band patient to go to a sumptuous buffet would be like sending a gambling addict to a free weekend in Vegas (you can look, but you can't touch) Mom kindly suggested we go to the Olive Garden instead. Now Olive Garden, with it’s bottomless salad & breadsticks IS like winning in Vegas to me…..JACKPOT !!! I was salivating on the drive over, and it was a wonder I didn't get a speeding ticket in my haste to arrive and get in what I knew was going to be a very looooooong line (they don't take reservations).
Little did I know, my band had other plans for Mother's Day……in the end my meal consisted of 1/2 cup salad and 1/2 breast of chicken parmesan…...that was it…..I was full. No breadsticks, no pasta, no dessert. I was satisfied, and I did NOT feel deprived the least little bit. I did NOT need to unbutton my pants to be able to breathe, or need to go home and nap after eating.
As we sipped our coffee, we couldn't help but talk about of how much emphasis we place on food. How much I looked forward to "going all out" during the weeks building up to the big event (only to be replaced by the next big event on the calendar). How in the past I would have had several helpings of salad (it's good for you, right???), and by the end of the meal we would have asked for several baskets of breadsticks (they are free, right, so they don't actually count as part of the meal)…. oh, and don't forget the dipping oil for them…..we are half Italian after all. Speaking of which, it's impolite to leave anything on your plate, so both chicken breasts and the pasta would have disappeared as well….and dessert and coffee are necessary to relax and help the digestion. NOT so in lap-band land.
So, my memories this year of Mother's Day do NOT consist of another buffet just like the year before, and the year before that, and the year before……
This year, we went shopping together, talked a lot, took the dogs for a walk, took them to the farm and rode my horse, watched a movie together as a family…..oh, and we stopped off and got a bite to eat along the way.
What a difference a little band makes :-)
Monday, May 11, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Personal Trainer, Shopping Nirvana & New Pics
About 6 weeks ago my friend and I had a moment of pure insanity.....we signed up for 12 weeks of personal training, twice a week....worse yet, in our enthusiasm, we pre-paid for the full 12 weeks. After the first session, I needed my boyfriend help to drive home (I'm not kidding....I could't raise my arms all the way to turn the steering wheel). While we soaked in the hot tub for an hour, he listened to me whine about how sore I was, and how they knew what they were doing collecting payment for the full 12 weeks up front, because no one in their right mind would ever go back for round 2 of this torture !!!
It's been 6 weeks now, and my friend and I simply adore our personal trainer, Bob. He is a young guy who I honestly think enjoys the twice a week sessions as much as we do. He is amused by our half-hearted attempts to try and talk our way out of things.....of course he never gives into us, he just pushes us harder, and we love him for it.
The scale wasn't moving as quickly as I expected, and I was beginning to doubt the value of my efforts until my friend and I went shopping one day. I had always sighed as I walked by the Michael Kors shops, but too embarassed to walk into a designer store and bear the embarassement....knowing that nothing in that store would come close to fitting, so why torture myself, and why waste the sales girls time. For some reason, this time we had the guts to walk in, but was still very hesitant to try anything on. A sales girl saw that I was staring at this jacket for quite a while so she walked up and said the cut of the jacket was really flattering and I should try it on, then she then walked away. Still not convinced, I thought for another minute or two, but realized that she didn't seem to think I was too heavy to try the jacket on, soooooo......Stunned, shocked and thrilled beyond imagination the jacket fit perfectly....and I whipped out my credit card before I woke up from the dream. I can't remember the last time I bought clothes in a "normal sized person's" clothes store.....PRICELESS.
Even though the scale may not have reflected all my hard work during the personal training sessions, my body was still undergoing changes !!!
I wore the jacket to 3 different events that weekend, and if I could have slept in it I would have :-) I also fit into a pair of my "skinny jeans" I had pushed to the rear of my closet several years ago.
Anyway, they say a picture is worth a thousand words....so here are a few pics of me and my new jacket before the "Yanni Voices" concert...check it out against my "before" pic:
Current - 4/2009 - 3 months Post-op
Before - 1/2009
We had a "meet & greet" with the young performers before the concert as part of our pledge package to the local PBS station. If you get a chance to get tickets to this concert, you should, it was an absolutely amazing evening.
Here are 2 of the incredible performers, Chole & Ender.
It's been 6 weeks now, and my friend and I simply adore our personal trainer, Bob. He is a young guy who I honestly think enjoys the twice a week sessions as much as we do. He is amused by our half-hearted attempts to try and talk our way out of things.....of course he never gives into us, he just pushes us harder, and we love him for it.
The scale wasn't moving as quickly as I expected, and I was beginning to doubt the value of my efforts until my friend and I went shopping one day. I had always sighed as I walked by the Michael Kors shops, but too embarassed to walk into a designer store and bear the embarassement....knowing that nothing in that store would come close to fitting, so why torture myself, and why waste the sales girls time. For some reason, this time we had the guts to walk in, but was still very hesitant to try anything on. A sales girl saw that I was staring at this jacket for quite a while so she walked up and said the cut of the jacket was really flattering and I should try it on, then she then walked away. Still not convinced, I thought for another minute or two, but realized that she didn't seem to think I was too heavy to try the jacket on, soooooo......Stunned, shocked and thrilled beyond imagination the jacket fit perfectly....and I whipped out my credit card before I woke up from the dream. I can't remember the last time I bought clothes in a "normal sized person's" clothes store.....PRICELESS.
Even though the scale may not have reflected all my hard work during the personal training sessions, my body was still undergoing changes !!!
I wore the jacket to 3 different events that weekend, and if I could have slept in it I would have :-) I also fit into a pair of my "skinny jeans" I had pushed to the rear of my closet several years ago.
Anyway, they say a picture is worth a thousand words....so here are a few pics of me and my new jacket before the "Yanni Voices" concert...check it out against my "before" pic:
Current - 4/2009 - 3 months Post-op
Before - 1/2009
We had a "meet & greet" with the young performers before the concert as part of our pledge package to the local PBS station. If you get a chance to get tickets to this concert, you should, it was an absolutely amazing evening.
Here are 2 of the incredible performers, Chole & Ender.
ONEderland is ONEderful !!!
It's been a while since I have blogged....life has been crazy, but band life has been wonderful....I mean ONEderful. My weight has finally broken the 200 mark and I am in the 100's, aka ONEderland.
Living with the band has been exactly what I expected from all I read on lapbandtalk.com. I've had days where eating the recommended small amounts is easy, days where eating anything made me nauseous, and days where I felt like I could eat my way through the entire grocery store without a second thought. Through it all, I kept the band rules in mind....protein first, vegetables second, and carbs third.
I will confess, I am a life-long carb addict....breads, pasta, pastries, etc.....thankfully they don't agree with my band (uncomfortable pressure feeling and mild nausea), so I hesitate to even reach for them any longer. This is fine with me, the band does for me what I was NEVER able to do for the long term for myself !!! The band definitely is a tool, not a magic bullet.
My 3rd fill was on 4/8/09, and I now have the appropriate restriction. Weight loss has been slower than I was hoping for...but don't we all want 100+ pounds to simple melt off over night???? I struggled daily with my frustrations, asking "How could I be eating so little, excercising so much, and not be dropping 10 pounds a week???". Then I realize that I've lost over 35 pounds in a less than 4 months.....how cool is that !!!!
Living with the band has been exactly what I expected from all I read on lapbandtalk.com. I've had days where eating the recommended small amounts is easy, days where eating anything made me nauseous, and days where I felt like I could eat my way through the entire grocery store without a second thought. Through it all, I kept the band rules in mind....protein first, vegetables second, and carbs third.
I will confess, I am a life-long carb addict....breads, pasta, pastries, etc.....thankfully they don't agree with my band (uncomfortable pressure feeling and mild nausea), so I hesitate to even reach for them any longer. This is fine with me, the band does for me what I was NEVER able to do for the long term for myself !!! The band definitely is a tool, not a magic bullet.
My 3rd fill was on 4/8/09, and I now have the appropriate restriction. Weight loss has been slower than I was hoping for...but don't we all want 100+ pounds to simple melt off over night???? I struggled daily with my frustrations, asking "How could I be eating so little, excercising so much, and not be dropping 10 pounds a week???". Then I realize that I've lost over 35 pounds in a less than 4 months.....how cool is that !!!!
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