Random turtle at our campsite.



Mmm campfires.

We had a GREAT time. Friday was a slow day. My boyfriend, my brother and I showed up at around 4:00 PM to check in and we set up the tents and canopy. Which I have to say for my second camping trip ever... I'm pretty awesome at setting up a tent. The rest of Friday night was pretty slow. We went for a walk and just hung out at the campsite. I have to say Grove's camping sites are very nice. The bathroom facilities were really nice too. I definitely want to go back there when we go camping again.

 



Gryff really wanted those ducks.



There was a lot of really pretty scenery.



Saturday started off REALLY early because some of our neighbors got up at the crack of dawn and didn't really have any manners. :P They were not quiet, but oh well. We rented a boat out at the marina for the day. The boat was nice and spaceous and I got to drive it all over! (My Mom really sucked at driving the boat, but I think she enjoyed just relaxing.) The only down side is my boyfriend and I got REALLY burnt, which is funny because it was so cloudly out. We really should have worn sunscreen, but it was worth it. We tubed for a while, fished and even just chilled in the water. We ended up being there for 10 hours.



 



Jon and I driving the boat!

As for my weightloss I'm weighing in at 260.5 pounds as of right now. WOO! Only 2 more pounds until I meet my "Mini Summer Goal" of 258 pounds. Basically in May right after school ended I weighed 288 pounds and I wanted to challenge myself to loosing 30 pounds by the time school started on August 22nd. At this rate I should meet my goal and then some!



I start exercising again tomorrow now that the poison oak is gone and the sunburn as finally become manageable. Ugh 6:00 AM comes early.



-Cookie

Well I have to say I'm surprised that I have a follower and that so many people have been supportive of my blog! Thank you Facebook friends <3! Much love!

I'm a bit up and down with my weightloss right now. Last Sunday I got out in the yard and was helping my mother pull weeds from our landscaping and somehow grabbed ahold of a HUGE poison oak wine... So I've been on steriods for a week and it's causing my weight to go ALL over the place. I'm keeping my head up though and just doing my usual, hopefully once I get off the medication the weight will start coming back off. I'm holding firmly at 263 for the last few days. I'd love to see 259 before I go back to the doctors on August 2nd. I hope I get rid of this poison oak this weekend because I'd really like to start exercising again. My doctor advised me not to exercise until it's gone because the sweating can cause it to spread like crazy. GRR!

On a positive side note I'm going camping this weekend with my family and boyfriend. It should be a lot of fun. We're going to sit by the campfire and roast hotdogs tonight and then tomorrow we're getting up early and going to spend the day on the lake! Woot.

I'm pretty proud of myself...I've already planned my meals for the weekend so this camping trip won't throw me off my food schedule. :) Oh yea.

Well! I'm off to pack up the rest of the stuff. I hope to have some pictures for my blog when I come back! Have a good weekend!

-Cookie

So welcome to my blog. I'm going to try and update this daily to talk about my life and how weightloss surgery has affected it. The good and the bad. :)

A little history about me. I'm a 23 year old girl who has struggled with weight loss my entire life. I've tried countless things...Adipex pills, crash dieting, Weight Watchers, exercising, plain ole starvation. Nothing worked for me until I got my Lapband. I was offically banded March 11th 2011. I wish I had started this blog back then so I could have recorded my emotional ups and downs, but I suppose better now then never!

As a child I was always overweight. The weight really started adding up when I was in highschool and the first years of college. Before I knew it I was in the 300s. It was just the combination of bad food choices, too large of portions and the stress of nursing school. However this year I made a deal with myself that I would do whatever it took to get this weight off so I could be a newer healthy person.

So in a short summary here is what has happened since I started this journey to the current.

There is a two week pre-operation diet that most Bandsters have to go through, also known as "Two Weeks of Hell" in which you're only allowed to have sugar free jellow, popsicles, chicken broth, and a cup of cottage cheese. Yummy. During those two weeks I lost 28 pounds (I set a record in my doctors office for the most weight lost by a female in the pre-op diet phase). It was really hard but I just tried to concentrate on other things, especially my upcoming surgery date. The reasoning behind the two weeks of fluids is so the liver will strink in size and therefore be easier to move around during the surgery. This weightloss took me from 327 down to 299.



Morning before my surgery, at 327.





Then finally the morning of March 11th happened.  I was REALLY scared...actually petrified of what would happen but I went through with it and the recovery wasn't bad at all. I was able to walk and didn't have much soreness at all. The only problem I had was the air that was trapped in my upper chest. It took about 24 hours before that went away.

The next month (April) was really slow. I was only able to drink fluids for a week, then able to eat pureed and mushy foods for another week and then finally able to move towards solids. I didn't loose anything that month. Which is normal.

 



Around 288.



In the beginning of May I dropped 11 pounds, taking me to 288 pounds. It really slowed after that, I couldn't figure out what I was doing. I was only eating 1200 calories a day and working out 6 days a week, pure cardio. This stall continued on into the next few weeks where I only lost 3 more pounds and it was very heart breaking. The scale just simply would not move.





Around 270.

Finally in June I had a break through. I dropped 15 pounds in a few weeks. From all of my research it had to have been water weight my body was holding onto because it needed to repair the muscle I was building. During this month, July. I've decided to work out 6 days a week doing 30 minutes of cardio on either the elliptical or treadmill. I've also increased my calories from 1200 to 1400 and it seems to be working. I'm hoping for at least a 8 pound weightloss from my last doctors visit.

And now we're current!

-Cookie