Eatin' Good in the 20's Neighborhood - TGIF!!!!!!

Howdy 20-somethings!  It is Day 5 for the Exercise-a-thon.  How is everybody coming?  I've got 200 minutes (more than 3 hours!) and I planning on an hour-long beginners yoga session tomorrow.  I never thought I would be getting 3 hours in 5 days.  Wow.  WTG Brock for suggesting this exercise-a-thon.  It was a great idea and motivation starter. I made it through my first week of spring semester classes relatively unscathed and it looks like I should be able to keep up well enough, though I need to pick a topic for the book I'm writing for my Advanced Writing class over the weekend if I am going to have a prayer of finishing it before the semester is over.  That's right people - my professor told me that he will help me GET PUBLISHED by the end of the semester.  This is a dream.  Of course it would be more of a dream if I could pick a topic.  I have wanted to be an author forever, but now that I have the opportunity I can't pick a topic!  Figures.  Anywho, on to food.... 8:30am - 3 oz espresso, 3 oz skim milk, 4 oz calorie countdown milk, 1 oz sf davinci sf syrup 20 oz water 10pm - 1 kashi honey almond flax granola bar 20 oz water 1pm - Mongolian Grill (basically broccoli, green/red peppers, onions, green onions, carrots, mushrooms, peanuts and chicken with a tablespoon of diced garlic, chicken stock, garlic oil and a little bit of soy sauce tossed on a wok with rice noodles - this is the BEST meal my college serves all week - they make me a huge portion right in front of you with fire bursts and everything - and it feeds me all day) 20 oz water 4pm - Mongolian Grill 10 oz water 7pm - 5 bacon wrapped waterchestnuts A good day.  Lots of veggies, protien and good carbs.  How are things out there?

I'm feeling a little bit better and a little bit guilty about how I ate today, so perhaps, tonight I will start participating in the exerthon.... Amy - right away I've already figured out what you're book should be about - either WLS - maybe uniquely from the perspective of a college-aged person? More and more young people are looking into it but I don't think I have ever seen anything authored from that perspective before OR how about a book about the effect the media has on America'a dysfunctional relationship with food? I think you and I both know what the catcchy - eye-grabbing title would have to be for that one! Anyways, on to my food today: morning: coffee and coffeemate creamer late morning: baja steak gordita from taco hell early afternoon - string cheese and four ounces of pastrami late afternoon - a handful of peanuts dinner - half a veggie patch pizza from Applebee's - Got home and looked up the nutritional info: 900 freaking calories in that pizza, granted I only ate half of it and was stuffed but I was thinking about eating the rest of it later...now I'm thinking about feeding it to my dog.. 6 pm - ff sf latte from starbucks So, not the greatest day, but fine for maintaining

Wow, a veggie pizza has 900 calories??? How big was it? Must be the cheese... That is the topic I am thinking about...though I am afraid of that topic.  People who know me very well at all know about my bypass, and I have always been very open if ever anyone asks, but it isn't like my whole campus or town knows.  My classmates largely do not realize that I used to be 300 pounds because I look so radically different than I did when I started at UWP (since I lost the weight I have "met" people who used to know the morbidly obese me, that still do not realize that I am the same person they met 2 years ago...).  If I write a book about it people are going to know.  It has been nice to live in a little bit of anonymity weight-wise - I'm not the morbidly obese girl or the girl who lost a lot of weight, I'm just me...if that makes any sense at all.  And I'm not perfect at this.  Sometimes I eat M&M's and cheesecake   and more than I do those things I don't always exercise...Yeah I know, shocking.  And I had complications that might scare potential post-ops away.  I am not the WLS poster child in other words and I don't want to scare people.   But..............................I never thought it would be this complicated!  That is probably what I will settled on.....you guys will some of the first to know when I make up my mind.

Ahh, don't feel bad Mike, I had pizza yesterday.  but you'll all be thrilled to know I did NOT give in today (yet, anyway). Amy, you should write about the Plight of the Blue Footed Booby (hee!)  I'm watching Animal Planet right now (sort of...it's on in the background).  For realz though, I think WLS from a college kid's perspectiv would be fresh and unique.  I know when I first started researching this, I thought only middle-aged people were having this surgery. As for food: Slimfast Beef broth Crystal light Lean Cuisine (chicken/broccoli alfredo) s/f pudding Cream of chicken and mushroom soup Saltines (hunger is rising, will try not to give in to anything bad)

Oh today was a pretty bad day.  One of my good friends at work is leaving and moving to California and we had a farewell party for him and I overdid it.  B - skim milk and carnation instant breakfast L - salad w/chicken, spinach, green apple, goat cheese, walnuts and ff raspberry vinaigrette S - Oh yeah protein wafers And then the damage began....  4ish glasses of red wine over the course of 5-10pm and a few small bites of some appetizers that were floating around.  By the end of the night I was starving so we went to get food and I had one slice of hawaiian pizza and a few too many french fries.  I don't think I would call it dumping, but I definitely felt like crap for about 20 minutes after the pizza and fries.  Today was definitely an exception to how I usually eat, but lesson learned!

Hey everyone, I'm trying to get back on track with posting my food on here.....so here we goooo: Breakfast----Boca Chicken patty Lunch----2 string cheese sticks Snack-----Saltines with peanut butter Dinner----out to SUSHI for my friend's going away party....LOTS of garlic edamame...my FAVORITE, 2 tofu squares, hamachi (sp?) sashimi, one piece of spicy tuna roll (picked out the tuna), one piece of another roll with tuna, avacado, macadamia nuts, more garlic edamame!!!!!

Thank you. In the 5 complete days of the exer-thon I have done 330 minutes.  I gut curious yesterday, and I have lost about 5 pounds so far.  But I had a weird gain in the last month so A LOT of it is just an adjustment.

Hey hey!!  Yesterday was a GREAT day for me as far as food and exercise goes.....I was extra hungry yesterday....but I still lost a pound so I'm not that worried bout it...plus I ate fairly healthy for being extra hungry. B: 2 oz of pizza in a pot pasta S: piece of cheese w/ 2 crackers S: piece of cheese w/ 2 crackers L: South Beach Diet protein bar-Chocolate Peanut Butter....omg it was SOOOO good!! S: 6 oz of milk S: piece of cheese w/ 2 crackers S: 3 SF chocolate mint cookies (tastes JUST like Girl Scouts thin mint cookies...YUM) D: 3/4 of a childs cheeseburger (only 1/4 of the bun though) and about 4 french fries with cheese and bacon S: piece of cheese w/ 2 crackers lol Okay...so the crackers aren't good...but at least the cheese has protein in it! lol Amy, I totally think you'd be the PERFECT person to write about WLS....I think this because you haven't had the cookie cutter time with it.  You HAVE had complications, but you've persevered through them and you've still made the most AMAZING progress.  Through it all you kept your strength and every single day you continue to be an inspiration to me and many others.  I just think you're awesome and I love ya to pieces!

Awe, thanks Rianne.  I'm still up in the air about the whole thing.  My other option would be to do something about modern history in the Middle East (my specialty) or some kind of current events comentary... I feel most comfortable with the WLS thing because I have lived it.  I want to do it, but I don't, if that makes any sense.  Choices, choices!  I really appreciate the encouragment.  I will let you know when I decide!

Amy,  what about a commentary on how society treats people differently based on their weight?  I'm not talking one of those lame-ass  "experiments" sorority girls do when they dress in fat suits.  I mean from a real live person who has been on both sides of the coin.  As you said, there are several people who never would have paid you the time of day when you were 290.  Also, you could talk (if you're comfortable) about your sister's struggle (like you were saying the lady on the plane treated her so rudely). That way you're not necessarily talking about your WLS.  It would be more centered around how you were treated before and after.  OR you could go into the mental/psychological issues people who lose a lot of weight (no matter what method) have to face.  Identity crisis, head not keeping up with the body changes, having to deal with things in a manner OTHER than eating now, etc.  I do think WLS from a 20's perspective is unique and interesting, but a social commentary might be more widely  read and accepted because it doesn't necessarily have to be about WLS but just losing weight in general.  I heard a cool thought on TV the other day, wondering if "fat" is the last socially acceptable form of discrimination.  In a way, it kind of is. God, I could go on forever LOL.  I almost wish I had a paper to write for college now