It has been a long 11 days. I have stepped on the scale almost each of those 11 days, and I haven’t been able to record a loss. That’s frustrating.

Even worse, on some of those days my weight went up. It didn’t go up much, but when you are trying to lose weight any bit of movement in the wrong direction is frustrating. I went up to 218 and somewhere in there was a day where I was back at 215, but it went up again to 217.

Yesterday, I finally saw 215 again, and today, I was able to record a two pound loss. I am officially at 213 and hopefully no longer in a stall. Woohoo!

Net Carbs are Nasty Things

So what do I think was behind my stall? Consuming carbs. I am now free to try any food, and I seemed to gain weight the day after I tried even a small amount of carbs. I also learned that food I didn’t realize was high in carbs (like Carnation Instant Breakfast). Once I was able to get my intake below 50 again, the weight once again started coming off.

I also learned about net carbs. I bought a couple of boxes of Atkins protein bars, so I would have a healthy snack when I was on the run and short on time.

(I’ve found that sometimes an hour just isn’t long enough to mix up a protein soup, get the protein to dissolve and eat it while still allowing for about a 10 minute walk to class.)

Back to net carbs, so I purchased the Atkins protein bars and made sure to read the labels. Except I didn’t read the RIGHT label. I relied on the summary on the front of the box. It proclaimed 6 grams of protein with 1 gram of sugar and only 3 grams of net carbs. Great. It was perfect.

Last Wednesday, I ate my protein bar for lunch and then went to record my food into www.myfitnesspal.com. When I reviewed my overall stats, my carbs were a lot higher than I expected. The database was saying that my protein bar actually had 18 grams of carbs and not 3 grams like I thought. Ggrrr.

I will have to put off the protein bars a bit longer, and I will do a lot better job of checking out the actual nutrition label rather than just what the box says.

Coffee
Yesterday, I drank my first cup of coffee since July. I had trouble sleeping, and when it was finally time to get up I needed the caffeine boost. I was a bit worried it would make my stomach upset, but it didn’t.

The coffee was nice, and I’m glad it is an option although I don’t want to make it an everyday habit again. I enjoy having coffee with my husband on the mornings we are able to spend together, so I’m glad we will be doing that again.

Exercise
Now that it has been two months since my surgery, I no longer have any restrictions on what I do. To celebrate that, I bought a stability ball. I’ve found it is a great exercise tool, and I am enjoying working out with it. I have also increased my walking and am considering joining a Zumba class or gym.

I am a bit hesitant about joining a gym because I don’t know which gym to join.

Here are my options:

• The best financial option is to join the university’s gym, but I don’t have time to workout when I am there, and it is too far to drive when I’m not working (over an hour one way). I’d love to exercise in the morning before class, but my first class is 8 a.m., and I am already leaving my house shortly after 6 a.m. If I left earlier, I wouldn’t see my kids at all on those mornings.
• The closest option is Curves in Lake City. The hours it is open seem to be limited. For instance, it isn’t open after 7 p.m. It is about 10 miles away, but I don’t live in Lake City. I do all of my life stuff in Houghton Lake.
• The Curves in Houghton Lake is almost 25 miles away. There are also two gyms in Houghton Lake including one that has a 24/7 option, but again the distance is about 20 some miles. I think I would be more likely to use the facility if it was close to my home, but I am in Houghton Lake a lot. Plus when I am in Houghton Lake, I usually have an hour or so to kill because I am waiting for children at various activities. For instance, Justin has football practice 3 days a week, so I could go to the gym during his 1.5 hour practice. I just don’t know if I would go enough to warrant a membership but too frequently for the day passes.

So I am holding off making any decisions about the gym. In the meantime, I’m filling in with workout DVDs, active video games that get me up and moving and sweating as well as working out with my stability ball and walking. Plus, I use 3-pound hand weights for some of the workouts.

Monday, I meet with a personal trainer, and I am looking forward to her helping me establish a routine, goals and some advice on my thoughts about gym choices.

My Incredible Shrinking Body

I have lost over 30 inches from various body parts including about 8 inches from my butt/hip area. It is amazing how my body is transforming. The first thing I’ve noticed is that my butt and thighs are shrinking.

I was also dismayed to find that bat wings have already started appearing on my arms. At my heaviest weights, my arms were 14 inches. They are now about an inch and a half smaller. I didn’t think they were that big to begin with, and they haven’t lost much, but the lower part of my upper arm is already drooping a bit. The batwings just appeared last week, and they were not welcome when I was already in the middle of a stall. To combat them, I am doing a lot of upper body exercises including weight-lifting that specifically targets that area.

Other body changes include my hair. When I looked at my photo taken from behind the night before surgery and compare it to the photo taken from behind two months later, I noticed there was much less hair. It was not looking good. I had already known I was losing some hair because it was showing up in my sink when I stood in front of it to brush my hair. I was just dismayed to see that the loss was so visible.

I have THICK hair. Hair so thick that I have never gone to a hair appointment without a hair dresser commenting on how much hair I have. Thick. So I have hair to spare, but I am still worried about this. I did get my hair cut to about shoulder-length to clean up the raggedy ends and hide some of the most obvious loss.

To be clear, while I can tell I’ve lost hair, my hairstylist assures me that it is only noticeable to her and to me. She said I still have plenty of hair. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Thanks for playing.