Pants

I am desperately in need of pants. The ones I wore today fit great when I put them on, but as the day progressed, they began to look like I pooped my pants. Look...

And, no, I didn't pee my pants either. That's just good old fashioned Texas sweat. It's like an oven outside!

Perhaps I should just go pantless and make this my theme song...

I'm scouring the earth for affordable pants. All the pants I have right now are skin tight or falling off. I have looked at several Goodwills and they have crap in plus sizes. I think a trip to WalMart is in store.

And here's a funny story... Last week I wore an ankle length skirt that I bought in Germany 10 years ago. I don't know how it fit because I was a bit smaller when 10 years ago when I bought the skirt. I guess it's the elastic. Who knows? Anywho, I pulled the waistband out to see how much room there was in the skirt and I think the elastic really crapped out then.  My coworker and friend, Deb, helped me to rig the skirt to fit with binder clips. By the time I got back to my office the binder clips came undone. Then an ingenious idea came to me! I tucked the top of the skirt into the band of my bra and made it a knee-length skirt! Viola! And I wore it like that the rest of the day! I used my MacGyver-like skills for good instead of evil!

3 Month Bandiversary & Pictures

Saturday was my 3 Month Bandiversary! Wow! I can't believe that it's been 3 months already. Here are the obligatory 3 month pictures... I am officially down 53 pounds! Woo hoo!

                          

Before                                  3 months

Doctor Visits and Update

I went to my primary care physician last week to discuss my routine lab work.  When she walked in the room she mentioned that they were all very excited for me to come in that day. She said that my cholesterol was way down and that I should take half the dose of the medication I am taking now. She said that perhaps the next time I come in she will take me off of my choloesterol medications completely! She also lowered my thyroid medication a bit as well. She was very pleased with my weight loss and told me she couldn't wait to see me next time.

I also went to my sleep medicine doctor yesterday. I am doing better with wearing my CPAP, but occasionally I wake up with the mask on my forehead. I can't stop myself from doing it though. Also, once I took the mask off and put it under the pillow... still going.  Despite that, she said I was doing pretty well, and to keep wearing it every night. I can't wait until I never have to wear that thing again. A while back I asked when it would be possible to do another sleep study to determine if I need the CPAP or not anymore. She said that she would repeat the sleep study when I had lost about 100 pounds. 100 pounds! Really? Well, I guess I'm at least half way there.

I'm doing well on the Hot Summer Meltdown Challenge and the challenge at work. I have been visiting the fitness center at my apartment complex pretty often. I have also recorded some shows on the Fit TV channel and plan to check those out and do those in the comfort of my own home. I hope that I will find a show or an exercise that I love and will really want to do it. I keep hearing about Zumba and would like to try it. However, I am terribly uncoordinated and can't dance to save my life. That should be interesting. I'm going to try it at home first so that no one will laugh at me except my dog, Bruno. Wish me luck...

The Big 5 - 0!

It's official...
I hit the big 5 - 0!
No, I'm not 50 years old, I lost 50 pounds!

Woo hoo! I am very excited and can't wait to reward myself with a pair of pretty new earrings. I will let you know which ones I get as soon as I figure that out. I can't wait for the next 50 pounds!

Fitness and Weight Loss Challenges

The scale is toying with my emotions. My scale at home says great things. The scale at work says so so things. I don't know which to believe! I'm very close to the 50 pound mark and therefore I'm anxious to know exactly how much I've lost. My reward to myself for losing 50 pounds will be a nice pair of pretty earrings. I haven't chosen which ones yet, but am looking at a few on Etsy.

As you may know, I follow a bunch of other bloggers who have had weight loss surgery.  Well, today I joined a little challenge put on by one of the other bloggers. It is is called the Hot Summer Meltdown Challenge and it runs from June 6th to August 1st. Those who want to take part donate $5 and the person who loses the largest percentage of their body weight by the end of the challenge wins the donated money in the form of a gift card to their favorite store. So far 33 people have accepted the challenge. That means one lucky person wins a $165 gift card! A very cool blogger made this cool little picture thingy.

I'm hoping I do really well. I have exercised two days in a row already. (Hey, that' s nearly a record for me!) I'm hoping I will do it so many days in a row that it will become a habit.

This challenge couldn't have come at a better time because I am also involved with the Wellness Committee at work and am a team leader in a fitness challenge.

As some of you may know, I am a Legal Assistant for the Texas State Board of Pharmacy. We license and regulate pharmacies, pharmacists, technicians, and technician trainees in the State of Texas. Anywho, we get a lot of complaints - complaints regarding arrests and criminal histories, dispensing errors, impaired pharmacists, etc. Our complaint resolution time is 211 days. That may seem like a long time, but we get thousands of complaints a year. Some take a long time to resolve, some don't. 

So, the Wellness Committe at work created the Complaint Resolution Challenge to motivate employees to stay active. To begin, we were divided into various teams. (Here are the names of the teams - Aiding and Abetting (a pharmacist allowing a technician to work without being registered), Technician Employee Pilferage, Dispensing Error, No Counseling, Pharmacy Application (Owner DWI), Technician Application - Falsification of an Assault, Felony Possession of Marijuana, and Pharmacist Application with an out of state order.) My team is the Technician Application - Falsification of an Assault. I was hoping for the Felony Possesion group since I seem to work a lot with those. But I do have a number of falsification of assaults as well. The rules are to keep track of your physical activity starting Tuesday, June 1st. Each day during the week that you do at least 30 minutes of physical activity counts as a day. You will report your total "days" for the week to your team captain. The first team to 211 days will be the winner. Our executive director is very generous and is giving everyone who competes in the challenge two hours off and if your team wins, you get two more hours.

I'm hoping that my participation in the Complaint Resolution Challenge will also pay off in the Hot Summer Meltdown challenge too! Wish me luck!