Hey girls! Guess what! I've kind of kept quiet about this because I didn't want to get all excited....but I've lost 4 pounds since the surgery! Every day I get on the scale and I've lost. I'm not doing anything different from before...except, I'm not going to the gym..so I should be gaining...especially considering the mushroom swiss burger on sourdough bread at 7:30 pm last night WITH fries! I also had Reeses Peanut Butter Cups yesterday afteroon. Is it normal to lose weight like this after gallbladder surgery? Someone told my mother in law that they knew someone who had their gb out and lost a ton of weight!? Here's my theory...with my gb in it was slowing digestion down and everything I ate was in my system longer which would cause more of it to be absorbed therefore...more fat was absorbed. Now things are sped up because there's no disfunctional gb slowing everything down. My body's not absorbing as much now. COOL! What do you gals think?

Okay, all for now!

Lisa

Wow thats amazing....there could be lots of reasons...one reason could be what you think..now that your gb is out, everything is working normally instead of sluggishly

Also, your body uses up more energy healing itself...therefore you are burning up more calories.

Another reason could be you may have lost some muscle mass or gotten rid of some water your body was holding on to.

Whatever the reason is...keep going and kudos for you.


Cyan

Hi,

Today was a much better day than yesterday. My son had a playdate with two other four year olds so I ended up at McDonalds for lunch. I had a salad shaker with no fat dressing and of course, a few fries for Jake's happy meal but I think I burned them off this afternoon chasing the kids around.

I found another favorite low fat food--flavored rice cakes. Very good even the kids like them.

Lady rider your husband sounds so sweet!

Miki, Cyan and Reina it sounds like you are all so motivated that I am sure the scale this Friday will move.

Lisa, as Cyan said there may be many reasons for the weight loss. Since I had my gallbladder out a few years ago I thought like you that I would lose weight but.....it didn't happen at least for me. This is the way to lose weight... to be motivated...do it slowly...exercise...be accountable to someone other than yourself...and change your eating habits....and just eat less and burn more calories. I know, I know I am preaching to the choir...sorry.

Oops...a little high on the calories today....1633. Also, still having too many fat grams. (Finished up that tuna salad sandwich today)But I did use my lunch hour again to exercise. Did 20 minutes on my in-laws' AirWalker outside again. It was a little chilly. Around 35 degrees Fahrenheit, I think. My hands were cold but other than that, I kept moving fast enough to keep warm.

It's nice being there while noone else is home. They have 3 horses in a pasture outback so I can see them from the patio while exercising. They were extra frisky today because of the cool weather. They ran and jumped all over the place. At one point, I had to laugh. All of a sudden, all 3 of them walked over to the fence, standing all in a row facing me, and just stared at me for probably 5 min. It was the weirdest thing. I felt like one of them said, "Hey, come check this out ...what in the world is she doing?"

Just got home from Josh's basketball game. We won! And Josh got to play a whole 2 minutes this time. lol

Lisa, congrats on the 4 lbs!! Hooray!! You know, I had forgotten, but now that I think about it, I think I did lose weight after my surgery also. That was enough years ago tho that I have gained it all back. I'm anxious for you to find out about that knot. I didnt have anything like that. The way you described it does kinda sound like a hernia. Be sure to let us know! It sounds like your daughter should be on the road to recovery now with all the medicine and breathing treatment. Thats good to know.

Reina...I wasnt crazy about the awards show either. What happened to the music we used to know? And seems like half the ones who won something didnt even show up. Seems kinda unappreciative to me. I know some are on tour or working or whatever, but still doesnt seem quite right to me. Also, it didnt take long for Ms Osbourne to get on my nerves.

Cyan, so glad you're feeling better today. The sunshine definitely helps! I love cold sunny days.

LadyRider...Ditto to Bryan's WOW!! 145 lbs...I'm envious but so proud for you.

Debee, dont you just love those McDonalds salads? My favorite is the grilled chicken one. Yummmmy. It was good to hear that your day was better than yesterday.

Lobocal...missed hearing from you today. Sending cheerful thoughts your way!

Well ladies, it was great reading all the posts as usual. This is definitely the highlight of my day. Everyone keep up the good work.

Miki

Miki, thank you for empathizing with the year and for the prayers for Kevin. ;-) I do appreciate that. It sounds like you are keeping things going...and I can already tell what a wonderful motivational and great group of people this is going to be! I'm so excited and doing so much better than I was doing with this than even last week. Yay!!

Lady...that's WONDERFUL news about being down to 145...I know that you must be extremely excited about that. And how cool about the soap on the mirror...and the response you got from that!! Way to go!!

Deebee...I can only imagine how much you must know about Lizards now. I'm glad to hear that today was a much better day for you than yesterday. And the Flavored rice cakes are something that I hadn't thought about. I'm doing fresh fruit right now for snacks...but that's definitely something to considered. I snacked on cherries after work this afternoon. And when I got home from the gym this evening, my AppleBanana's were waiting for me. I can hardly wait for them to be ripe so that I can let my family try them...they are SO much better than just regular bananas.

Cyan...I'm so glad that your headache has gotten better. Headaches are horrible things!! Especialyl when they are really bad ones. I can relate to the sunny but cold. That was what it was like here too...not quite as cold today...but we've been very cold lately....I'm not one for much cold weather...I'm thinking fond thoughts of summer. ;-) But if it has to be winter I will take sunny, anyday.

Reina, I good job on sticking with things yesterday. And I think you are smart to just wrap the high fat on the pizza up as a high fat day and focus on the future from here on out.

Lisa that's great news about the 4 lbs. I imagine you will see some weight loss simply from the surgery...and from the loss of the gallbladder. After all you no longer have that organ in you. But...also because your body will be digesting food differently now. As far as 802 dollars for books! WOW! I had forgotten how expensive those college books can be. I'm glad that you had a voucher too.

Well...I've had a pretty good couple of days. Yesterday I went to the gym and started using the weights. They walked me through it 1 time. Tomorrow I go through the weight routine 2 times and then on Friday I will do it 3 times. Yay!

As far as food intake etc goes. I did manage to stick to the no eating after 8 yesterday. And I ate 1447 calories, and 40 grams of fat.

Today...and I'm proud of today. It's been a great day exercise and food wise. I've consumed all 64oz of water as I did yesterday too. Yay. But my supper was Risotto with brussel sprouts, cauliflower, carrots, and broccoli. I also had some cherries this afternoon. And so I ended up with 1280 on the calories toda and 29 fat grams!

I did about 45 minutes of Cardio at the gym this evening. And I've had a couple of classes of herbal tea since I got home...but I have managed the no eating after 8. So that's great!

I hope that everyone's day has gone really well...I'm headed to bed. Good night!

Betty

Don't know why I haven't been posting much. We are busy getting ready for the Chinese New Year coming up. We already have our tickets for the 8 hour (one way mind you) train ride to my hubby's family. It will be fun as my sister in laws baby girl is only 2months younger than Josiah. They think its amazing at how I feed my kids and how healthy they are. So she wants me to teach her how to make baby food. My youngest just loves millet porridge and now one of his meals is yogurt with fruit (recent fruit is papaya as it is in season). So it will be interesting. I was thinking how am I going to keep exercising while there, then I thought--they live on the 11th floor, maybe I can do steps once a day.

My eating was ok yesterday. I didn't go over 1500calories, but not sure about how much fat and such. My dinner is what killed me, but it was good I made an omelet with 3 small-medium eggs and the inside was spinach, one slice of low fat cheese and two tablespoons of beef. Now, please no one tell me how much that ended up being. I knew that I could have a 400 calorie dinner and be at my 1200calories for the day. Anyway, I did some exercise on what is probably an Air walker-for 15min. Sweated alot so I must of burned some calories My shoulder is still killing me so I haven't done the kick and jab since Monday as you have to use your upper body alot. Went another day with no eating after 8. Thats 3 out of 4 days so far

Lisa--good to hear about those 4lbs. Glad to hear about getting your daughter's sickness under control. Here's is something I read in a home remedies book and do it for a precaution anyway. After the child/baby has had their hair washed and you are drying it (I always use a hair dryer on my boys hair) make sure you swing the hairdryer past the ears so to make sure they are dry. Now, I also know that it is recommended to do that to dogs (my parents are private breeders and I am not comparing kids to dogs ) so they won't get infections. It's worth a try. My son is 4.5yr and has never had an ear infection and youngest is 7months and hasn't either. There is also some herbs that are safe, one is echinea (sp?) and the other is pro--something (something that is similiar to the benefits in yogurt). I have heard good reports. Just something to take into consideration.

Miki--sounds like a beautiful place to exercise. My grandparent had a farm and all the grandchildren spent the summers there. Some of my best memories are from that time. I just love the farm and country area. You are doing great on the air walker. Keep it up. Gives you so much energy for the rest of the day doesn't it? and you aren't buring calories only you are toning those muscles. Keep it up.

Debee--sounds like you are doing great too. We don't have fruit flavored rice cakes here, and McDonalds doesn't have salads here either but they have red bean icecream sundaes (not great tasting I feel but my chinese hubby likes it). I really miss the easiness of buying healthy stuff in the states. Have you seen the yoga for kids? I was thinking about getting something that my 4.5year old ds and I can do together. Give him the good impression of exercise from early on. He does go and play basketball with his daddy almost everyday. He made 5 baskets with a regular basketball yesterday (shooting granny style ).

Lobacal--I love fresh fruits. Papayas are in season now, though I am trying to get used to them. I think before I had some not too sweet ones and that ruined it for me. My youngest (7months) just loves papaya. We have alot of fruit here that you all probably don't get in the states and it's pretty cheap here too. Fruit is a great snack. Though I read someplace that do to the sugars in fruit, it's best to have them before noon and not after (anyone heard that?)

Reina--you've started to get the right attitude! have something we shouldn't, oh well, life goes on right? That's great. don't let it control you, you control it. Sounds like you are really doing great. wow, I can't wait till we see all the results in on Friday. everyone is doing great.

Lady--145lbs!! Thats my goal. Of course I give myself until August 15th to be that, but that's my goal. You are doing great.

Cyan--glad you are feeling better. Headaches aren't fun. I used to get bad migraines in highschool and college. My poor roomates couldn't do anything in the room as it would make it worse. Haven't had them much since I've had kids (hey, there's an idea for you ), but at almost 29yrs, I have white hair coming in --due to kids and hubby I am sure Make sure you get the sleep you need, that always helped me.

Well ladies, I have a class to teach soon. I teach ESL at home 4 days a week. Oh, the space heater in my boys room caught fire yesterday Thankfully they were in our room (unusual, well not really, the Lord was protecting) at the time. Both woke up very early. no one was hurt and only the carpet got burned. It would've been very easy for the whole room to catch fire. The thing just overheated I guess. Now Joshua is always asking if the fire will come back. Scared the poor guy. But all is well.

This is a long letter. I'll give some one else a chance now

Its another cold day today...its minus 22 without wind chill...but it is bright and sunny.

I didnt do so well calorie wise but I did do well fat gram wise.
Exercise wise....I didnt do any last night....but I will be back on the saddle tonight...its been a little hard going back to work and readjusting my schedule after having such a long vacation...but that's no excuse....must keep exercising

Taiwan, stairs are amazing as a workout...so I would do that to get my exercising in.

Miki...wow, I actually pictured those horses staring at you...how cute are they...so lucky you are to be surrounded my nature and animals...lucky you!

Lobacal...kudos for going to the gym...keep us posted on your exercising and food intake.

Lady...as always...you keep me going...your endurance is amazing...you just keep going...thats the way to do it.

Reina...did you enjoy your chicken dinner...I love corriander...I will try that recipe.

Lisa...let us know what the surgeon said about the knot in your belly.

Big hug to all and I will post at the end of the day to tell you how I did exercise and calorie wise

Good day

Cyan

Hi All, I'm back!!

Sorry about the long absence. No access to a computer to send replies! They really monitor what we do at work because someone totally abused computer access etc. so I have to resort to logging on at home and since my boyfriend is a programmer I have to fight to get on sometimes!!

Christmas went well. The Norwalk virus unfortunately hit everyone here badly so no one was eating. I never got the virus until today which is why I am at home during the day writing.

I am taking up learning downhill skiing as a new hobby. I have never really done it before this year so it is very new to me and also a bit scary but fun! So I have been skiing quite a bit and I start taking lessons once a week in February for a few hours at a time with access to ski and practice for the rest of the day. So it should be good exercise.

Unfortunately, I put on about 3-5 pounds in January when the cold hit us ---I got sooo hungry!!! Weird time to put it on--when everyone else is taking it off from Christmas. So I will have to go back to my food journal when I recover from this virus (the journal really works!) and touching in with all of you regularly for the support that is really encouraging.

It is more difficult to maintain than to lose the weight I find! I can't seem to keep up a consistent exercise routine and when I do, I seem to think I can eat whatever I want because I am exercising lots!!!

I am catching up reading all the replies and hope to hear from you all soon!

Cjunk!

WELCOME BACK!!!! We've been so worried about you! We've missed you soooooooooooo much! If you check back in the posts, you'll see you were not forgotten!

I'm so sorry you're sick! I hope you get better soon!

downhill skiing sounds sooooo fun! Let us know how that works out!

Oh, Cjunk! I am so glad you are back. So many things have been going on with each of us. You'll have to read the posts. Take about 4 hours and catch up!

Please don't leave us again!!!!! You really deserve a cyber kick in the butt! I'm sure cyan will fill you in on that!

Welcome!
Lisa

Hello Lisa,

Thanks for the Cyber Kick in the Butt! I really needed that! I missed you guys....

Lisa, I have been reading back on the postings. It sounds like your surgery went well. How are you now? Congratulations on the loss of weight since your surgery too!!

Is everyone now online for chatting at MSN too???

I may be able to get a computer for myself and access to that because my boyfriend Joe is out a lot in the evenings working with his notebook.

Also, were people going to be travelling somewhere to meet each other?? I would love to meet everyone!!!

The whole group has been working very hard and there are so many things I want to say to everyone ---but most of all....Keep up the great work!!!

WELCOME BACK CJUNK!!!!
I am so happy to hear from you. You have really been missed. We were all wondering where you went!
Sorry to hear you caught that god-awful virus. I hope you feel better soon!

Yes, we are all planning on meeting here in Chicago in October! We really hope you can make it!

Hey, I just realized right now that I didn't post this morning.! I always do! Well I had a good evening yesterday. I had Boston Market Chicken. Very good, and I ended the day with 1360 in calories. But I am still at 56grams of fat. But according to Cyan, that isn't that bad. I am allowed 50grams of fat per day! So I will keep it at that. I really hope I can stay on track today. I was telling Lisa and Cyan earlier, that I am a bit emotional today, so what does that welcome???
Emotional eating!!!!
I will try really hard tonight, and workout to curb the apetite, but that monster gets really ugly, and the Lisa, the crankiness may verywell set it by 8pm!


Taiwan, an 8 hour bus ride with kids??? GOD bless you!

Cyan, I am feeling your cold weather! Let's think of warm weather and weightloss, we might get lucky with one of them??

Lobacal, congrats on sticking to no eating after 8, I know that can be tough sometimes.. And the Drinking the water dailly, I fell off that bandwagon, so I will need to get back on! that.
I am so gonna have to try the herbal tea. Everyone tells me I should try it.

Miki, good for you for continuing to work out daily. You calories may be high according to you, but you are really burning off alot with the kids and everything! You are gonna wither down to nothingness really quick

Hi everyone,

Welcome back Cjunk. I read some of your past posts and you sound like a very motivated person!

Taiwan, thank God no one got hurt in the fire! You are a brave woman...8 hours on a train with kids.

Miki, do you horseback ride?

Reina, welcome to the emotional eating club!

Sorry, this post is short tonight but the kids and I are really getting into the yoga tapes...its become a new bedtime rountine...20 minutes of yoga and mediation and a bedtime story before bed. Although we have only been doing it for three nights the kids seem to really enjoy it and they seem to fall asleep quicker. Even though this a tape for kids some of the poses like the tree are hard. I bought a few more tapes and a yoga mat today. I hope I can keep it up.

Today I went food shopping at a great health food store and bought hummus, more rice and corn cakes, blood oranges, lots of veggies for pita veggie sandwiches.

Have a great night everyone!

Wow! A chatty bunch today arent we?? I love it! Nothing better than coming in to find lots of reports of how things are going with everyone.

Cjunk....Yeahhh, you made it back!!! I had really gotten worried about you. Welcome back and just jump right back in. It was good to hear that maybe you'll have more computer access soon. It wasnt the same around here without you.

Betty, you're doing great. 45 minutes of Cardio made me tired thinking about it.

Tawain, you better get to posting more before you have to get in line for one of those "cyber kicks". You were right about the energy from AirWalking at lunch. Makes the rest of the day go better and it is really nice to get home from work and know I have already had some exercise for the day.

Cyan, Finally today I got my fat grams down to 25!! Can you believe it?? I had almost decided it was impossible for me. Several times I would think I had done ok, then when it all added up, there was a ton of them. I was pleasantly surprised today.

Lisa, did you go to the doctor yet?? I'm anxious to hear your report.

Reina, I too fell off the 'water drinking' wagon. Let's try to get back on it together! I did it without even consciously realizing it. I do still drink it with all my meals, but hardly ever do I just get a glass to drink in between. Somehow, I just forgot all about trying to do that. I guess because of spending so much time concentrating on FOODS. ( oh, and dont worry, I promise not to wither down to nothingness... Thats hilarious.)

Debee, I dont ride horses but Josh, my oldest son does. Luke is more like me...those animals are BIG. My father-in-law rides alot also, but I just never have. I have never been around horses much..well, not at all before marrying into this family, and now my experience with them consists of watching them while I exercise. They are beautiful to watch tho. Do you ride?

Ohhhh, I forgot to tell ya'll yesterday...I had a breakthru. At work, everyone gets a birthday cake of their choice one day during the week of their birthday. Well, yesterday was someone's bday so we had chocolate cake. It looked wonderful, but I took one look and left the break room. ( very unusual for me ) Right after lunch, a co-worker's mom brought in still hot out of the oven homemade baked bread. You could smell it all over the entire bank. She came in and said.."I brought homemade bread and there's honey butter for it too". I went in and once again took a look. Someone said,"help yourself" and I said, "Nahh, thats ok, I dont want any." She said.."You know you do" and we both laughed. BUT then I said, "yeah, but if I did that it would erase the 20 minutes I just spent on the AirWalker" and I left again. Hooray!!! I"m telling you, that is not something I would have done before getting involved with this group. It is soooo cool to turn down temptation and feel good about doing it!

Well, I hate to run but my cute little niece Kaylen ( the one who will be 2 in March ) is supposed to call me. My sis said she got up crying for me this morning. ( they live almost 3 hrs from me ) I called her this afternoon but she was napping so she's calling me back ( with moms help) tonite after church. Cant miss that.

Nite all!! Have a great day tomorrow!


MIKI

Good morning ladies. It's a brand new day!

Miki, I too need to drink more water. When I have diet Dr. Pepper around, I just drink that instead of water. Shame on me. So, today I will drink more water! 64 oz!

Yesterday I did okay eating wise, excpet for lunch. I had one of those "Pasta Anytime" meals in my pantry. It's been in there forever so I decided someone had to eat it. I heated it up and ate it. Honestly, it wasn't very good...but It had 24 grams of fat!!!!!!! ANd over 600 calories!!! THat's HORRIBLE!!! For dinner I cooked a pork roast in the crock pot with carrots and potatos, and I made some rolls. It was very good. I probably had too many rolls though.

I really miss going to the gym. If I were to go, I don't even know what I would do. I can't to the classes and I can't do any heavy lifting. So, I could walk on the treadmill, but even walking for an extended amount of time starts to make me hurt. I could sit in the sauna. That sounds nice. I hope I never have to have surgery ever ever ever again!!!!!

Debee, that's really cool about the yoga with your kids. That sounds like a lot of fun. Maybe I should look for something like that for my kids. Do they have them on DVD?

Reina, I don't like herbal tea myself. I've tried it and I just really can't stand it. Good luck though if you try it. At least it's not expensive so if you dont' like it, you haven't lost much.

Cjunk, we're planning on meeting in Chicago, in OCTOBER I think. It will be so cool if you can come. I really hope you get more computer access soon! We really missed you. Now, if only Annie would come back, it would be like a family reunion!!!

Well, I have a dr appt today for my school physical. I have to get shots and stuff. YUCK! Tonight is the orientation for all the new nursing students. I'm really excited about that!!! Next week, my schedule will change. School starts on Tuesday and from then on, I will have class Monday through Thursday till noon and then Wednesday nights from 7 till 10. I hope my schedule will allow me to post as often as I have been, but I know there will be alot of studying to do! I've set up my own little studying space with all the supplies I'll need. I'm so obessive compulsive .

See y'all later!

Lisa

Just to let you know how my day went. It went well until dinner. Seriously, I totally lost it at dinner. Well, I didn't think so until I counted stuff up on Fitday.com. My hubby was supposed to cook, didn't and still don't have hardly anything around here to eat. So we order Domino's Pizza (we have one in our town). Well, I was starving after my ESL class and then hubby gives the Bible lesson before the community Japanese class that is our church has. So we were rushing around (since dh decided to go play basketball til 6pm, but we won't touch that!!!). I ate 4 slices!!!! they aren't really that big, but I ate them. I figured it up on fitday and it said like a total of 569 calories and 120grams of fat!!!! I about fainted. That still put my calories under 1300for the day, but the fat oh my. I did do the airwalker for 20min and then walked with our fosterdaughter for 30min. I still feel so bad.

I am in a slump about food. It's so hard to cook here. My mom got me a book, but the recipes call for like egg substitutes and such. Hey, I can't get hardly anything I need in this town. The only place I could get stuff would be 2hours over a mountian. I can only have spinach so often. I am not a cook and really hate trying to cook new things. I need to get over that I know. And my attitude stinks right now because "aunt flo" should be here any day now (hasn't been regular since the baby and it's quite annoying). So I am in a mood--watch out world!!! If momma ain't happy ain't nobody happy.

Ok, I said this was going to be quick. I am tired and going to bed.

night girls (or good morning whereever you are!)