Monday mix tape

Fat on Facebook
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 Over the weekend I came of the blog closet and shared my blog with all 287 Facebook friends. I promised myself I would once I hit 600 followers and that happened thanks to this lovely young lady! Thank you for being the kick in the ass I needed to put it all out there. I got a really nice email from Worlds Nicest Ex-Boyfriend encouraging me to keep 'living out loud'. I also got a few other messages that were so full of love and encouragement that I got all verklempt (I never pass up a chance to use my favorite yiddish word)



 Margaritas? Also not considered a liquid!
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And so it begins. I'm easing my way into my pre-op liquid diet a week ahead of time by doing juices and protein shakes during the day and then having something sensible for dinner. Because of that I felt I DESERVED a Vitamix! Actually I've been saving my money, gift cards and Blood Bath and Beyond (funniest store name ever on the Simpsons) coupons. Of course someone like me (some say obsessive, I say neat) would never buy a $500 blender without rearranging my entire kitchen to accommodate it so I haven't even used it yet because I just went to the farmers market for stuff to put in it.

If you had ever told me in my twenties that I would own a $500 blender and a $500 vacuum cleaner I'd have laughed myself silly.

 Luckily we have the best juice store on the planet and it's a minute from my house. This one is new and I'm THRILLED because it has no cucumber in it. Most of their juices do and it's all I can taste. I just hate cucumbers. Always have. It's a shame because they are a good non-carbohydrate vehicle for hummus. I'm going to try to replicate this one in my Vitamix.

That was lunch and it was DEEEEELISH! There's kale in it but didn't taste like dirt at all!

Pinteresting
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Over the holidays I did TWO projects that I pinned on Pinterest. One of them was a New Years Eve gift to our best friends and neighbors-we each of us got a simple mason jar (I made it a little more fancy) to be filled with things we are grateful for throughout the year. I thought it would be fun to look through all of our jars next New Years Eve. I tend to rattle off all the bad things that happen to me in a day or a week or a year. This is a way to keep me aware of how awesome my life is.

I already have 2 things in there. One was a love note my husband left on my pillow AFTER he made the bed with clean sheets! See how lucky I am????

The Last Supper 
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One of things I'm trying really hard to avoid is the urge to eat everything on the planet since my days of eating like "normal" are numbered. I've been working out constantly (anyone want to go to spin at 6am tomorrow?) and I feel like I'm really doing well here in the early stages of my divorce with food. I've decided to have "The Last Supper" instead of dragging this out over multiple days. We're going for ONE decadent night of food and drinks. Rathbun's Steak for dinner and for drinks, Sister Louisa's Church of the Living Room and Ping Pong Emporium. Everyone asks why I want to go to a dive bar and a fancy restaurant on the same night but it's MY night and it's also because they have this painting (and kick ass sangria!)

I hope this isn't offensive to anyone - it's not to me and I'm a good Catholic. I just love art of all kinds and find it very apropos.

The crazy decadent meals with the multiple courses and bottles and bottles of wine will be greatly missed in my life but will be totally worth it.

New year, new everything!

Welcome to 2013!

Normally I hate the new year because it means that it's just another year where I achieved none of my weight loss goals. It's also that time of year when us die hard gym go-ers are horrified to find our usual spaces packed full of New Years Resolutioners. February will be back to normal and the herd will thin...much like the 2nd year of art school in a beach town :)

I woke up with a sore back which is a direct result of a week off of yoga because they've been redoing the floors at the yoga studio. Thank GOD they are replacing the carpet with bamboo. Carpet...at hot yoga...disgusting btw. I did some at home which could also explain the sore back. Swimming sounded like a nice idea today since I THOUGHT that kids were back in school but because I didn't do a simple googling, I ended up at the Y in da 'hood  and it was full of 'em. So much so that I had to sit in the hot tub for a while and wait for a lane. Getting into the hot tub was interesting since there was an enormous woman with neck tattoos sitting on the steps. I said excuse me and she said "you can get in over there". She could have eaten me for lunch so I bit my tongue and entered very awkwardly not using the steps. The whole time she yelled at her 3 kids in the pool swimming laps "aint none of you gonna be Michael Phelps if you don't get your asses up an swim faster". Luckily she got out right before a lane opened up so I could get out using the steps. Unluckily, she was wearing a white tank top with nothing underneath. Ahhh good times at the Y. I swore I would never go to that pool again and I could have driven to my fancier gym but then you wouldn't have gotten to hear this story!

I do feel pretty self righteous for having worked out right up until the holidays. Christmas day and New Years Day were my days off - NOT all the days between Halloween and the 2nd week of January like I've been known to do. This year is different. For so many reasons.

Since I decided to have weight loss surgery my goal was to have all my prerequisites met by the end of the year - which I accomplished on December 28th, leaving the pulmonologists office with a letter in hand. Clear for surgery. The second to the last hurdle. All my letters from my primary care doc, psychological evaluation and pulmonologist will be sent to my insurance company on January 14th at my final appointment with the dietician. 5 days later I will have a date. January 29th is my guess but it could be the week after.

I've been doing nothing but preparing and researching and preparing some more. I'm going to be more prepared for this surgery than anyone has ever been before. Obsessed would probably be the word to use at the moment. I feel like the harder I work before, the quicker and easier it will be to heal and get back to normal life.

Today I started testing all the protein shakes I've purchased for my 2 week pre-op liquid diet Can you believe red wine is not considered a liquid? The Muscle Milk variety was okay but it gave me protein flavored burps. More of the powdered variety are on the way through the magic of the internet and I have several brands of the ready to drink to sample. Apparently most people don't like whatever kinds they drank before surgery after surgery so it's best not to stock up on the Costco sized barrel o' protein. I won't have to drink them forever - they want me eating protein from food after about the 6 week mark.

SO in less than a month, my life is going to change forever. 2013 is going to be the year I finally achieve my health and fitness goals. Next New Years Eve will NOT be spent miserable and stuffed into the last pair of jeans that fit. Did I mention I've been working out like a dog? Yeah and my jeans are still too tight. 

My 25th (barf) high school reunion is this October. If all goes well I will have lost 100 pounds by then. For the first time in a really really really long time, I believe that's possible.