Finally... Good Riddance 270s

Finally I lost the 3.5 pounds that I had magically gained. I have no clue where the 3.5 pounds came from but I know that they were anything else but fat.

This morning I stepped on the scale and it finally displayed the number I was so much waiting and working hard for:  269 pounds!

This brings my total weight loss to 26 pounds!

I increased the exercising to 30 minutes power-walking in the morning and in the evening, my dog loves it even more than I do ;-) and 30 minutes on the elliptical and 20 minutes on the stationary bike. Unfortunately I have not found a boot-camp-style jerk yet, that will boss me around (a/k/a personal trainer). Not an easy task, I guess my personality and looks are too sweet a/k/a soft and people are afraid that I could start crying when they boss me around. Until I find the right person I will  continue to  exercise at home / outdoors. After reading your Blogs and your work-out DVD experiences I  also ordered some for myself... they will get here by tomorrow but I will most likely not get a chance to watch them until the weekend. I ordered The Shred and some Pilates DVDs and will definitely let you know how much I like them or hate them ;-)

In regards to the restriction... well... Since yesterday I do not have much of a restriction left... it magically disappeared the same way as the 3.5 lbs appeared - no explanation whatsoever. So tomorrow I will call my surgeon's office and hopefully I can get another fill next week.

09/09 = 295
09/11 = 290 (Surgery)
09/16 = 283
09/19 = 282
09/22 = 279.5
09/25 = 278.5

10/03 = 277.5
10/06 = 276 (First Fill)
10/11 = 274.0
10/12 = 273
10/13 = 272
10/14 = 271.0
10/16 = 274.5
10/20 = 271.1
10/21 = 269.0

14 pounds to go until I reach my first mini-goal of 255!

My band yelled at me....

I worked out on the Elliptical Trainer for an hour today and I wanted to give up after 5 minutes because it was so hard and I did not have a lot of energy today, but I pushed myself and once I completed the first 20 minutes it became easier and I completed the hour. Anyway... after I stretched and hydrated myself I became so hungry and weak that I thought I would faint. I prepared another tuna salad (the one I posted a couple of days ago) in record time... sat down and started eating. I guess that I was so hungry and weak that I ate faster than I was suppose to. What happened then really shocked me. After the 5th spoon I felt that pressure in my chest and out of a sudden I was soooo full. Really full! Full like eating Appetizers, Dinner and Dessert. I had no PB and I did not panic but felt like somebody just slapped me in the face and yelled at me THAT IS ENOUGH - STOP EATING. I was so disgusted with food that I had to get up and walk around. It did not make me feel any better so I went outside and took deep breaths... it did not help neither and it took almost an hour for that feeling to go away.

After I felt better I had to giggle because I was not hungry nor weak any longer... unbelievable... really... I worked out like an animal and was almost fainting out of hunger and weakness and I ate 5 small spoons of tuna salad and it filled me up like I inhaled a 4-course Thanksgiving Dinner.

I did not feel any restrictions before, remember, I did not get filled yet and all the other foods I ate never caused me any problems... they went down perfectly fine and so did the tuna salad for the past 2 days. No idea why it gave me problems today, but I did not mind at all.

I guess I just fell deeply in love with my band ;-)

On the water front I did pretty good today, I drank 7x 24-oz bottles of water, 2 teas, 3 cups of coffee and also one bottle of isopure because I missed a lot of protein by not eating the tuna salad.

For Dinner I made a Mediterranean eggplant dip and put it in the smalles cast iron casserole I own, sprinkled it with cheese, broiled it for 10 minutes and it was really delicious. I ate only about a quarter of it (size of 2 small scrambled eggs) but I could have eaten more.

Testing out my limits and willpower :-)

Recipe for the Eggplant Dip:

This makes 4 portions of eggplant dip, each portion has 80 calories (I ate 1/2 of a portion)

2 lbs eggplants, 2 lbs tomatoes, bunch of parsley, bunch of cilantro, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 lemon, 2 tbs olive oil, 1 tbs paprika, 1 tbs cumin, salt, pepper.

Clean and rinse eggplants, cut into cubes, boil for 20 minutes on medium heat in water with salt added. Skin the tomatoes, remove the core and cut into small pieces, Rinse and dry the parsley and cilantro and cut small, peal the garlic. Drain the eggplant. Heat up the oil in a pan and saute the tomatoes. Add herbs, garlic (use a garlic press), lemon juice, paprika and cumin... then add the eggplant and let everything simmer for about 20 minutes. It will turn into a paste with very little soft chunks. Normally this is eaten cold, but I like it hot just as much and it was something I was very much in the mood for today. I sprinkled it with approx. 1/3 cup of low fat cheese and broiled it for 10 minutes.