Hello there. My name is Jenn (you may know me from my personal blog, 
I’m fifteen pounds away from being able to say I have lost exactly half of my original body weight, but at 181 lbs and a size 13, I can quite happily say that my jeans are half the size that they once were!
The jeans I’m wearing are a juniors’ 13. The jeans I’m holding up are a plus 26. Back when I wore those they were rather snug fitting, especially around my hips, butt and thighs. I’m still bottom heavy, and on more than one occasion have had to go a size up in jeans in order to get my thighs into them (I then had to counter the loose waist with a belt, heh), but at least I’m at a much more manageable size! 
I satisfied my craving for lasagna tonight. Lo and behold, thanks to the wonderful invention of egg noodles, I can indulge in my pasta cravings! (Spaghetti doesn’t always work out for me, and after a disastrous encounter with ravioli stuckage last winter, it’s safe to assume that ravioli and other thick pastas are a HELL NO). Bonus: egg noodles have a decent amount of protein in them.
SO GOOD. Thanks to Food.com for the recipe!
There are days when I am definitely afflicted with Fat Girl Vision. I’ll spend an hour or more doing my hair, putting on makeup, getting the right outfit together, coordinating it with the right jewelry, and yet when it’s all said and done I’ll look in the mirror and still see myself as a majorly fat person.
I don’t get it. Logically I know by the number on the scale (180.6 today, by the way) that I’m out of the obese category and working my way from “overweight” to “healthy”. Logically, I know that I have less than 25 lbs to go until I reach my goal weight. And there are days when that awesomeness is reflected in how I feel about myself. Those are the days when I’ll splurge on something like hair straighteners (want your own? Check out http://www.ghdhair.com!), pick out a super bright nail polish or mascara, and feel cute and sexy all day long. But then there are the days where I feel like a big, sloppy mess. Those are the days when I definitely have a case of Fat Girl Vision.
Today…I kind of go back and forth. I’m trying to focus on the positive, but I can’t help but look down and see my deflated stomach and be annoyed and oh-so-forgetful of the fact that I have less than 25 lbs to go until I reach my goal weight (!!!). Once I do reach my goal weight, I plan on doing some mega-splurging. I’ll probably get some nicer ghd hair straighteners, get a hair cut and a professional color (as opposed to the DIY job I do now, which stains up our bathtub in the process), and get some new clothes. I can’t wait! 
Prior to having gastric bypass surgery, I had to completely revamp not only how much I ate, but what I eat. Let me tell you, nothing is more of an eye-opener that having to log everything you out. But I didn’t go the cold turkey route on anything, because as we all know the easiest way to set yourself up for failure, particularly with changing eating habits, is to completely cut things out. But I cut down portions drastically, and for homemade items, I tried to find alternatives.
Enter the best low fat chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever tried:
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg white
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 cup flour
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ⅓ cup chocolate chips
Combine butter and sugars and whip together for two minutes. Add in egg and vanilla, beat until just mixed. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients, then add to wet mix. Finally, mix in chocolate chips (I usually use the minis, but sometimes I’ll do a mix of the regularly-sized semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips).
Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes.
Recipe makes: 16 cookies
Serving size: 1 cookie
Nutritional info (per cookie): 123 calories, 4.7g of fat, 11g of sugar
With spring just around the corner, I’m suddenly reminded of the fact that I have very little in the way of spring clothing. You see, I’ve “in”grown (as opposed to outgrown) all of my clothes from last year. Last spring I was in the 225 lb range. This spring I’ll be in the 170 lb range. That’s a 55 lb difference! OMG. (Seeing it spelled out just made me realize the significance of that) And while I do have some short-sleeved tops and a few tanks (I deliberately bought some items 1-2 sizes too small last summer and fall so that they would fit this spring and summer), I don’t have any capris or shorts! The ones I did have were in the 15 – 18 range. This year I need the 13 – 15. This year I think I want to add some maxi dresses to my wardrobe. While I don’t dress up every single day, it’s nice to have the option!
But in addition to regular everyday clothes, I also need a dress or two for special occasions. The local stores don’t have much that interests me, but I really like the maxi dresses that www.very.co.uk has. They’re cute and stylish, and this green one in particular would hide my flaws! What do you think?
P.S. While writing this post, I got dressed. And while getting dressed, I noticed that my belt is tightened to the third set of holes for the prongs! Just last week it was only on the second set. Yay for losing inches!
Between mid-October and mid-February, I bounced between 186 – 189 lbs. Annoying, to say the least. My mom thinks it’s because my body has hits its “ideal” weight, whether I agree or not. I beg to differ… nearly 190 lbs? Even at 5’6” and a medium frame with childbirthing hips and thunder thighs (hey, just keepin’ it real!), that seems to be a little overweight (and according to my BMI, it is — my idea is in the 140 – 155 lb range). So I’ve stepped things up, have been using My Fitness Pal to monitor calories and am trying to get to the gym 2x per week, and I’m now FINALLY past that… and onto a new plateau. Now I bounce between 183 and 185. But I’m being patient, since I only reached this new range less than two weeks ago.
Weight loss plateaus are annoying, to say the least. But I’ll deal with them and fight through them, because I will get down to 160 lbs dammit!
But if you ask the doctor who performed my endoscopy back in January, that’s exactly my problem. Really? I beg to differ. There’s no way that the pain I’m experiencing is from the small amounts of you-know-what generated from the small amounts of food that I eat. Besides, I have been faithfully taking stool softeners for a MONTH now, and the pain still comes around. There’s no pinpointing it, though I’ve noticed it does tend to happen anywhere from ten to thirty minutes after eating. But according to the dude in the lab coat, my issue is just poop. Pffft. I don’t think so.
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