Whats on your (Photo) Friday menu, RNYers?

Amy, you crack me up!

Haha I posted this pic on my Facebook and one of my friends said, "my fatass thought these were cupcakes."

I thought they were donuts at first glance, too!

G'morning Janet et al!

I hope Daisy's migraine is not worse and her pup is doing OK.

Busy weekend for us. DS has his last surf contest of the season for the high school surf team. On Sun, I along with two friends are going to see Hamilton in San Francisco. We are very excited and acting like high school girls, comparing notes on what to wear. I was thinking of incorporating green for Patty's day but I was voted down because the plan is to dress sophisticated. I'm good with whatever, funny now that I'm not worried about my weight, planning to dress for events is so much easier and so much more fun.

1)Before surgery (including as a child, young adult) were you active or athletic? Yes, but it was not presented to me as exercise to lose weight or have to be active. It was fun. I played tennis, we went on family ski trips, and living where I lived we always walked everywhere

2) When did you start being more active after surgery? Did your surgeon encourage exercise? My center was HUGE on exercise. I was cleared after my first after surgery appt with surgeon. The only thing I was told not to do the first 4-6 weeks were the ab exercises.

3) What kind of activity do you do now and how often? I had a personal trainer even before surgery. She has gone through my ups and downs with me. After surgery we started with 3 days of weight training and two days of cardio (45 mins). Now I do 3 days weight and 3 days cardio (1 hr each)

4) What motivates you to get out and do it or what do you struggle with most? I never thought I'd become a gym rat. My gym is a small neighborhood gym, slowly I got to know everybody and the weight room no longer intimidates me. It's like meeting up with friends, buncha gym rats. The struggle is if I slack off. If for some reason I can't go for 2-3 days then it gets easier to come up with excuses. Nowadays I do it like any other meeting, no room for cancellation. But at the beginning when I would come up with the excuse that I'm sick my trainer would show up at my door to drag me out. I love her for that, she pushed me when I needed it the most. She is not just my trainer she is also my therapist! I always tell her she needs to charge me double because I unload on her all of my daily struggles, not just workout related.

Accountability: 100%

My meals for the day:

• TONS of coffee and tea
• Eggwich
• Turkey meatballs
• Chicken fAnita
• Yogurt & parm cheese

Picture is one of our evening walks on the beach after the time change.

Happy Fri-YAY!

happy friday everyone!

Surprisingly, this week has been relatively stress free (after last weekend's flood debacle).
We are planning on getting our taxes done tonight or tomorrow and then we are going shopping for some last minute additions to our ComicCon costumes- C2E2 is next weekend!!! I decided to go for something relatively simple and less revealing than many superhero costumes and I will be dressing as Jessica Jones...DH is going as the Punnisher and Story will be wearing her favorite Wonder woman outfit as usual haha.

QOTD: 1.) I was never athletic. I hated Gym class and sports. I like to swim but I am not great at it.
2.) I started to plan workouts about 3 months post op. I could've done it sooner physically but I was exhausted for a while. Surgeons office recommended walking immediately and 6 weeks post op encouraged full workouts.
3.) DH and I have 3 nights a week we are home together and use our exercise equipment in the basement usually--Elliptical for 30 mins or so, and then weight machine. we also do some other random stuff like stair jumps and wall pushups, etc.
4.)I would have zero motivation to work out if it were not for the agreement DH and I made. I have a super hard time motivating myself to exercise, which is probably why I can never really stick with a routine for very long. I am still looking for something that will get me excited to work out.
I used to go to the gym 5 days a week for almost a year before I had Story, and I loved feeling stronger and seeing my muscles grow. I am just looking for a way to find the time to do something I will enjoy. classes sound great but my life/schedule does not allot for the time and money I need to do it right now.

B: coffee w/1/4 Caramel PP as creamer, 1HB egg, 1/2 C cottage cheese and 1/4C raspberries
L: turkey chili
AS: greek L&F
D: Sushi--not sure yet what I will get/eat...I'll take it slow but I am excited to go out tonight!
ES: PB & Celery

I will go ahead and attach some of our vacation pics from last week here

The family pics are so cute.

I LOVE that pic of you in yellow with the butterfly.

What an awesome trip, Amber! You three are just too cute!

What a gorgeous family! Have fun at ComicCon!

Mornin'!

Fasting today (after 9:00 am - which was a few minutes ago) due to a research study I'm in this afternoon. Ugh. Then I'll be home starting to cook for that Turkish dinner I'm having tomorrow. I'm also speaking at a pre-op class later this morning. That's it for my day!!

QOTD: 1) somewhat active, never athletic

2) I started walking right away and went back to Aqua Zumba and yoga at about four weeks out. I think I was doing TRX at the time, too - I would have started that a little later

3) some kind of cardio (Zumba or water fitness, usually) 2x a week, yoga 2-3x a week

4) I know that it's good for me and I always feel better after doing it, but it's a struggle sometimes to walk out that door. Not sure why - but I often find myself coming up with excuses not to do it.

3 years 9 months out

pre-9:00 am I had about 1.5 C of Greek yogurt with protein powder added in so I can stave off hunger as long as possible

D: ?? Hopefully I won't maw. Maybe something with a ton of protein in it again - breakfast was pretty filling!

Hi all,

Very interesting QOTD, I must say!

As a kid, I was not very athletic. When i was little my mom had me in swimming lessons, t-ball and soccer...but as I got older and bigger, I didn't see myself as athletic and my friends weren't athletic so I was just lazy.

Then, when I was morbidly obese, I didn't have the stamina to workout. The year before surgery, I did walk (slowly) on the treadmills at my office gym.

After surgery, I walked a bunch, but I wasn't comfortable joining a gym until I was under 300. Maybe around 250? Which is funny because once I became a regular at my gym, I realized no one was thinking about me! Then I splurged for a trainer and he was awesome. I felt more confident using the machines once he had taught me.

As others have said, I work out to be strong and for mental health. It certainly does not make the scale go down (for me). I have found that I am motivated by classes and by being part of a group. So I try to do 4-5 classes per week, and I have a group of women who switched from my old gym to my new gym with me and they make ALL the difference. We text each other, we figure out classes to do...and if I wake up and feel tired, I know that Dawne and Linda are waiting for me at boot camp so I drag my butt up! I would say, people need to find out what they like and take it from there. Peach is running half marathons and that would NEVER happen in my world - I just do not enjoy running. My BF goes to our neighborhood gym and lifts very heavy weights, alone, for 30 minutes every single day and that would NEVER happen in my world. So each person is different and I think it's important for people to figure out what brings them joy (or at least that they don't dread!).

I think WLS patients in particular need to understand that there is no need to wait until goal to start. Even when I was 250 lbs at the gym, no one noticed me, no one stared at me, and no one judged me. And the weight was melting off at the same time that I was building strength. I felt very empowered, feeling my body be able to do more or lift more or walk more...it was really motivating!