Lost and Maybe Found?

Wow, so I am working on getting up to speed on working out. Last week I did yoga and/or belly danced three times. This week I stepped it up and did 43min of Billy Blanks' Tae Bo on Monday and 30min of yoga yesterday on top of helping DH lug concrete on Saturday for 4 hours.

Where does this leave me? I was doing fine until Tuesday night when I discovered my right ankle had swollen up to twice the normal size. Wednesday i did the yoga as a compromise to try and not push so hard. My ankle was a little swollen last night, so I hope this is just my body's attempt to derail my more healthy life style vs. a re-emergence of the clot issue. We'll see.

Otherwise, I am down a pound and DH and I have been eating home and making healthier choices. Here's hoping this works!

Pass the Velcro Please!

Hi! I'm Dara Young, sometime Twitloss blogger and romance writer. You may remember me because I used to blog here weekly...not so much lately. Someone pass the Velcro please, I need to stick this time. :D So, here is where we stand (in case you missed it) I am 90% clear of the clot. *Happy Dance until overly winded because I am SO out of shape* That means I am off the meds and back to eating healthy.

Now, I will not say all is well, but I will say I am starting to pick up the pieces of the train-wreck that is my health. Here is where I stand:

Weight: 205lbs (no folks, that was not a typo)
Height: 5'9"
Hair: Blonde (that's right...I went blonde cause I can)
Boobs: lumpy (I have cysts, always have always will)
Skin: blotchy and prone to acne (apparently puberty is not over?)
Energy: What's that? Even when I sleep 9 hours I feel tired.
Migraines: Cyclical, but not totally connected to Aunt Flo
Temperament: Bitchy or on the verge of tears

There it is...my health status. I think you get the general gist of things. I have complained about all of this to my doctors, but I am not seeing the response I would like so I am tackling this alone. I will go in to all of this more next time, but needless to say I feel like crap! That said I have not given up...ok, there are moments when I want to, but I talk myself down. Anyhoo, what I am happy to report is that this week I have done pretty well.

Monday I shimmied, belly danced, when I got home from work for about 40min, Wednesday I woke up early and did yoga for an hour, and then this morning I woke up and shimmied for 20min and did yoga for 20min for a total workout of 40min. Yay me! Now, if you subscribe to my husbands line of thinking you might be asking: But did you sweat? Well, no. But I see this weeks victories as being those of combating and winning against being sedentary. I am working up to actual sweat. LOL!

In all seriousness, I am easing in to activities again. I am hoping to start back up slowly with an "easy" Billy Blanks cardio routine once next week and then maybe twice the week after that. See, I don't want to hurt myself because I have never had to exercise with this much weight on me before. It's crazy! So, I feel like I have a plan of action, My eating is better, but not great...there is always room for improvement. In the end, if I can shed a pound (or two) a week for the next month or so, I will feel like I made some progress.

Goal: 1-2lbs of weight loss a week for a total of 5-10lbs lost by June 16th

I am sticking to short term goals for now, I recognize there is a bigger picture, but seriously, I don't have the bandwidth to do more than baby steps right now. As I have been gone, what have you all been up to? Any significant weight losses I should hear about? Got any goals you are working on? Talk to me!

Weight Watchers

Hello My Peeps!

Very, very sorry for not posting lately. Had my surgery and life just got in the way. Had a relapse and ended up making bad food decisions as well as started drinking soda again. Needless to say, things didn't turn out so well.  I didn't gain all I lost back but I gained about half of it. Ugh!

<------ See him? Umm yeah that's Jimmy Thomas in case you were wondering. I know he has absolutely nothing to do with weight loss but gah the man is so sexy. He's also a romance book cover model. His handsome face (and smoking hot body) has graced over 1,200 book covers. *sigh* Just thought I'd share him with you lol He always put a smile on my face when I see his photo.

Ok back on track.  Several years ago I joined Weight Watchers and had success with it. I lost over 30 pounds. Before my surgery I was eating healthy, drinking all water with the exception of a glass a milk twice a day. To be honest eating that way was healthy but I didn't seem satisfied at the end of the day. I somehow felt deprived. Anyway, I think that was the problem with my binge eating while recovering after my surgery.

With that said, I have decided to join Weight Watchers again. I will continue to work out with my trainer and do my cardio as well but wanted help with the eating issues. On Weight Watchers I can pretty much eat anything I want but I have to stay within my daily point values. I think this will be much easier for me to stick with. I joined the Weight Watchers Online since I don't have time to go to meetings every week. It costs around $20.00 a month and you get access to all their tools and such.

Moving on....I recently discovered Hungry Girl. Have you heard of her? Here's her website if you want to check her out. http://www.hungry-girl.com/ She has several recipe books out and is appearing on The Food Network during the month of May. Maybe longer. I'm not quite sure on that. You can find out more information by visiting her website.

Her newest cook book is 300 under 300. I purchased it over the weekend. While I did find a handful of recipes that I think I would enjoy, the majority of them had ingredients I don't even eat. Most of which don't even sound good. But if you like things like eggplant, ground beef-style soy crumbles etc then you might want to check her book out.

That's all for now. Here's the damage I managed to do while out after surgery.

Starting weight: 210 lb

Last week: 192.2 lb

This week: 199.4 lb

It's depressing I know. I'm ashamed to say I've gained the weight back (half of it anyway) but on the bright side, I am back on track and hoping to be able to stick with it. Have a great rest of the week.