More Before Pics

I was going to post these but then I was posting my dinners each night and didn't want two posts in the same day, but if I wait until I am done with the 90 day challenge then it would be February, so going to go ahead and post these now.Some of them are repeats with some current pics next to them and some are ones I have never posted before.

The purple shirt on the bed is a shirt, not a blanket. That is a full sized bed just for reference.

 There was a time when I outgrew this dress, by about 90 lbs. So I got even bigger then this picture here.

 The red jacket was an unlined windbreaker, the Boston jacket is a fully lined winter coat.

I was holding the extra slack in the jacket behind me.

My Mommy and I

In looking at the pictures with my Mom I noticed that I am not that much bigger then she is anymore. I also noticed that my posture has gotten better and I stand up straighter. I am almost 3 inches taller then her but for a long time I was standing slouched over and we looked closer to the same height.

This is me with my Mom in December of 2000. She has lost about 50/60 lbs since then too.

This is me with my Mom in December of 2009. She has lost 30 lbs since then.

 This was my Mom and I last week.

 She is still smaller, but I am not that much bigger then her anymore. :)

 I posted this pic before, but I am going to post it again because I <3 it!

 Her puppy still likes my feet, but didn't bite them this time.

So good to be home!

I got to use my scale this morning and I didn't gain or lose anything on my trip.

On Tuesday, I started my morning with the sun rise in Kansas and an early morning drive to Lawrence to meet a friend.

I had to stop by the University of Kansas campus, but after living in Massachusetts and seeing all the pretty trees here, campus just doesn't see as pretty as it use to. It's still pretty, but it lost a bit of it's charm I guess. But it is a nice change from all the wheat fields in western Kansas. LOL

Turning in my rental car. It was an ok car, but I like mine a lot better.

 My salad in the Kansas City International airport. I was craving a salad, but they only had Chicken Cesar. I picked off the croutons and the dressing was unmarked so I grabbed a couple of mayo packets and a mustard packet and used those for dressing instead.

 Landed at Boston Logan International airport just in time to see the sun go down. It is good to be home and be able to breathe again and not have my allergies and asthma bother me. My first night in Kansas I woke up at 4am with a heavy chest and it hurt to breathe. It was the hardest for me over night and in the morning, but afternoon and evenings I felt better. I think I truly am allergic to Kansas, I was sick almost the entire 11 years that I lived there. LOL

 My boys should work in airport security with the Beagle Brigade. I brought them back a rawhide from Kansas and it was wrapped up in plastic but they could still smell it. They were barking and pawing at my suitcase.

 My oldest beagle.

 He just wanted to lick my ears.

 My youngest beagle....... well, he wanted to roll on my head and smother me.

 I had to wait for him to calm down a bit and hold him back from getting in my face.

 I think they missed me just a little bit. LOL

Air Plane Seatbelt

Hello from Kansas!
I had two flights yesterday, so I scheduled my connecting flight in the town where my Mom lives so I got to see her for about 4 hours yesterday. On my first flight I got on the airplane, pulled the seat belt out as far as it went, buckled it and this is what I saw.

I was totally shocked. I have never had extra room in an airplane seat belt before. I use to have to ask for a seat belt extension and when I flew at Christmas time the seat belt fit me snuggly with no extra room. The seat belt on the second plane was a bit smaller, but I still had extra room. After so long of being huge, it feels good to be getting close to "average size". The people that I am seeing in KS have not seen me for 2, 3, 5 and 7 years. I have not seen all of them yet, but the ones I have seen just kept saying how great I looked and that was on 3 hours of sleep within the past 48 hours and being on planes all day and everything. I did nap for 20 minutes on the first flight and I was debating napping on the 2nd flight but, I ended up talking to the person next to me and they were fun to talk to. So then I was awake and not tired at all cause I was enjoying talking. Talked the whole flight and was surprised how quickly the time went by. lol

Here is a pic of my Mommy and I:

I <3 my Mommy!

Dehydration, Cranberry, Exercise, PCOS and my Parents.

This is probably about the most random post ever, but I am finding it hard to pick just one topic today. So here it goes. I learn something new all the time..... and guess what, I never knew that Cranberry was a diuretic... meaning it helps you to SHED water. So I was dehydrated and drinking Cran-Grape and only Cran-Grape and wondering why I was not feeling better..... (go ahead and laugh at me, it's ok.....)

I <3 my Cran-Grape, I just like the taste of it and it seemed to be good for me and has vitamin C in it so I was drinking it all the time. As much as I like my Cran-Grape I think I better stop drinking it 99% of the time and mix in something else when I go to the gym or when I haven't had very many liquids that day. I am still going to drink it a lot, I just need to find something else too.

Anyway on Thursday night it took me 6 hours to be able to drink just one 32 ounce bottle of the Powerade Zero, then the next one took me a long time as well and I didn't finish it until about 4pm on Friday. I was feeling better then I was, wasn't sick to my tummy anymore and headache wasn't as bad, but still felt bad, but I wanted to go to the gym really bad. I was talking to a friend and whining about wanting to go to the gym and they told me to just drink more now, take more liquids with me to the gym then normal and then drink more when I got home. So I went with two bottles of Powerade Zero and I drank them both while on the treadmill. I took this picture when there was about 18 out of the 90 minutes left that I normally spend on the treadmill.

I thought it looked kinda funny at first, but then I thought... well... they do have two spots for drinks on the treadmill for a reason..... It is important to stay hydrated while exercising and I have finished my one 32 ounce bottle before and wished I had more, so I think this may have to become the norm for me to bring two bottles with me. Anyway, I am soooooooo glad that I went to the gym last night!!! It made me feel so much better! I didn't check my pedometer until I got home, but I ended up doing 8.3k on the treadmill in 90 minutes, while not feeling good.... what??? really??? me????? If you had of told me I would be doing that this time last year I would have laughed at you and said you were crazy! That was the girl who could barely make it through the grocery store without wanting a nap..... now I just want to go go go and don't want to sleep.

I know I mention it a lot, but it really truly is a HUGE difference in energy level. Before I just felt awful all the time and I was always sick which made me feel even worse. Now I always feel good and I am rarely sick (knock on wood!) so I think I get even more whiny when I don't feel good because I seriously miss how good I normally feel. I have an old personal blog that I don't use much anymore and I was looking at it the other day. I even had a "Labels" category called "Tired/Achy/Sick" I saw that section and I was just kind of like... wow....... I made a whole section for being tired, achy or sick? I got to thinking about how much I really was tired, achy and sick all the time back then. What a difference!


On a bit of a personal note with the PCOS  (Any male readers can stop reading this paragraph and skip to the next one!) When it was that "ToM", I would seriously just be even more drained and doubled over with cramps and just want to stay in bed all day and not do anything and be dizzy, light headed and feel horrible. Now I can still feel bad, have cramps and be more tired but I still go to the gym and do my normal workouts and it doesn't even phase me. I have found that it actually makes me feel better and made the cramps go away when I went to the gym on a bad day that normally I would have stayed home for. I had an appointment with my trainer, so I went anyway, on 3 hours of sleep no less. But I was so surprised, I felt wonderful after going and after the training session was over I went and got on the treadmill and stayed another hour and a half! I surprise myself all the time these days. :)  If any of you ladies also have PCOS I would strongly recommend low carb, it truly is the only thing that has reversed the effects of the PCOS and there is no "cure" for it, but you can treat it and not have to deal with the symptoms.


Oh on a funny note..... That 64 ounces of Powerade Zero woke my bladder up half way home..... I made it, but just barely. I thought my workout for the night was done, but it ended up including a brisk walk to the bathroom. Reminded me of being a child and my Mother telling me, "Even if you don't have to go, let's go try anyway before we get in the car".

Speaking of my Mother..... She has now lost 20 lbs and I am soooooooo proud of her!!!! She doesn't have that much to lose, just about 50 lbs total but she has adjusted to a low carb lifestyle as well, not near as low carb as what I do, but she cut her carbs and is losing weight and it is so nice to see her enthusiasm, she is so cute when she loses another pound. My Father has also decided to eat healthier and exercise, he is doing semi-low carb but he has whole grains as well. He has lost 7 lbs now and wants to lose about 40 or 45 lbs. It is such a good feeling when friends, family and even strangers have told me that I inspired them to change their life style and get healthier, but it is even more touching when it is my own parents telling me that I inspired and motivated them. They are both amazing people and I am so proud of them! Now if I could just get both of them to relocate to my area then I could drag both of them to the gym with me. I love my Mommy and my Daddy and I don't care if the whole world knows it!  :)

Pictures of the three of us together are rare as they live in separate states now but just compare these pictures.
I started my senior year of High School at 205 lbs in a size 16/18, my PCOS was acting up and the weight gain was starting. I was 260 lbs and barely fitting into a size 26 in this picture on my graduation night at 17 years old.

Compared to this one at 26 years old, when I was 525 lbs....... The dress was a very roomy 6x (56 or 60 woman's size) and I had a 90 inch belly.....

I am going to have to get them together and take a new picture when all 3 of us finish losing the weight we want to lose.:)

Here is a picture of my Mother and I when I was 23 years old and somewhere between 460/480, I don't know exactly, but that dress was a roomy 5x. My Mom isn't huge, but she isn't a teeny tiny woman either. I think she was about a 2x in this picture, but I made her look tiny standing next to her.

Compared to a picture from last Christmas when I was 326 lbs. in a size 26 and ummmm... I would rather not say my age! lol.

OK, before this post gets any more random I am gonna hit the submit button. :)

Before Pictures

The black shirt was from March and the purple shirt was from my biggest. That is a full size bed just for size reference.

The white shirt was from last summer.

This is me wearing the black shirt in March, that skirt falls off me now and I liked it so that kinda makes me a little bit sad, but not too much. :)

The pics on the left were from November 2003 and the ones on the right from May 2010

And then the picture I have in my header right now.