I know what you're thinking...

She didn't post yesterday so her portly behind must have fell off the wagon right?? HA! not hardly!! Let's just say that I was so busy WALKING ON MY TREADMILL that I didn't have time to post. Ok, so I only managed two 5 minute sessions and that is hardly an excuse for not posting so I'll try to make up for it today.

So, an update on yesterday: I ate some wheat chex for breakfast (normal sized portion), skipped lunch (I know that isn't great, but I walked on the treadmill and then took a shower on my lunch break), I had a banana for a snack around 4:30PM and then Tanner and I had salads and some broccoli for dinner. So I even managed to stay on my diet woot!

Tanner has shocked me the last two days! On Sunday, he went to a hockey game with his Big Brother (not actual big brother...the mentor kind of big brother). He actually had a hotdog at the game so wasn't going to eat dinner. I made a salad for myself and he surprised me by asking me to make one for him! I'm not going to argue with the kid when he willingly requests something green that's for sure! The salad probably sounds gross, but honestly it is surprisingly tasty. It is kind of a taco kin of salad without all the bad stuff. I used a combination of spinach and iceberg lettuce, a scoop of cottage cheese, some salsa, a bit of light ranch dressing and a tiny sprinkling of shredded cheddar. Normally I would have added some lean ground taco meat, but we were out. Mix it all up, and it makes for a really good salad. I managed to convince Tanner that the cottage cheese was egg I'd cut up for the salad! (score one for parental deception!) I texted Erik, who was at work "OMG, I just made a salad containing spinach, cottage cheese, and salsa and Tanner is eating the HELL out of it!" Erik said it came through as two texts so he thought something was wrong when his phone kept going off. Although he's not supposed to check his phone while "on the floor" at work, he peeked because he was worried there was something wrong...he said he laughed when he saw the text and said "Well, I guess Tanner eating healthy is newsworthy!"

Last night, he wanted McDonalds, but when I told him we weren't going to McDonalds, he chose a hot dog and was begging me for tator tots. I told him Mommy wasn't making anything that mommy liked and couldn't eat. He wasn't thrilled with that response, but accepted it, then I realized we didn't have any hot dogs :( I told Tanner and he said "Well, can you make me that salad again?" *mom pinches herself to make sure she isn't dreaming...nope..not dreaming* So, I made the same salad for the both of us and some broccoli and cheese (low fat...about 1g of fat per serving). He didn't even ask for dessert...seriously...something is up.

Ok, I plan on walking on my breaks and may even try to do 6 minutes. I try not to use the hand rails too much while walking. I keep them lightly hovering over the bars though and as my back starts to ache, I use them more for support. I try to use them as little as possible because I know that I NEED some of that ache because it means my muscles are getting a workout. If my knee starts to hurt, I use them to support enough of my weight when I step with that leg so that it doesn't hurt as bad and that seems to be helping.

I don't know if it is that I've built up a tiny bit of strength already, but walking off the treadmill seems easier. You wouldn't think that a handful of sessions on the treadmill would start to make a difference, but I honestly don't think it is in my head.

I also called the gym yesterday and talked with Darin about starting back. I'm going to have to be there by 5:30 in the morning so I'm going to adjust my work schedule so that I can get to bed at a decent hour. I may try to do the pool three times a week and just keep doing the treadmill at home.

So far, in my preparation for surgery, I also managed to get my cardio appt scheduled for next Thursday, my psych appt for next Monday and my upper endoscopy for this Thursday. Expect to hear lots of moaning about that tomorrow. I have never had an endoscopy and I'm not looking forward to it. Apparently it is something they do pre-surgery now to make sure there aren't any anomalies with my esophagus or stomach. If I was going to be awake for it and could actually watch, I think I might be a bit more stoked, but they are going to give me something to knock me out or at least put me in a twilight sleep so booo! Maybe, I'll get a cool picture of my innards that I can upload to the blog. Stay tuned!

Once I finish all these appointments, all that is left is the weight loss. I've weighed myself a few times since I started dieting Saturday. I've lost a couple pounds. Just FYI, when I weighed in at the doctor's office, he had me around 446 and I think that is what I weighed on my scale when I got home. Yesterday, when I weighed, I was down to 444 and some change. My goal is to get under 400 lbs before the surgery and be up to 15 minutes at a time on the treadmill at least once a day. They may be somewhat lofty goals, but not completely unreasonable; especially since two weeks prior I have to be on the super starvation fast. If all goes well people, I hope to schedule the surgery for early March...I can't believe I'm actually going through with this!

2:20PM: ETA I've figured out how to link to my sparkpeople food log ya'll! I'll include this as a link at the end of my posts, but you should be able to access it and see what I'm eating throughout the day. Way too much sugar and caffeine this morning lol. I need to have Erik pick up some more splenda. And WOW, had no idea there were so many more calories in the flavored creamers!

What I ate today