Losing it!

I've always been on the chubby side; I think the last time I remember being the same size as the other kids in school was elementary school. I grew up on sweets and junk and it still haunts me today. I don't even remember eating lettuce until I was in middle school or a salad until I was in high school! Strangely, a perfect salad (combination of lettuce, fruit, nuts, and cheese) is now one of my favorite foods. I was diagnosed with a hormone balance (PCOS) in 2006 which makes it a little bit harder to lose weight and may cause diabetes or difficulties becoming pregnant if I don't get everything under control. When I was diagnosed I was pretty careful about what I ate and extremely broke from paying for grad school, so I lost nearly 20 pounds, but then life took back over and I gained it all back plus 10 more pounds!

When the details of our wedding started coming together, I knew it was time for me to get serious about losing weight and getting healthy. Ryan and I are hoping to start having children in the not-so-far-away future so I had two good reasons to get it together:

1. Losing weight and being as healthy as possible increases the chance of a woman with PCOS becoming pregnant and staying pregnant.

2. I want to be a good example of living a healthy lifestyle for our future family.

I started to get serious in April. I have lost a total of 28 pounds and a size or two! I'm more than halfway to my goal of losing 50 pounds! I've been using myfitnesspal.com to track everything I eat and drink as well as the calories I burn. It's super easy to track everything and they even have an app for android and iphone. I can still eat the foods I love because I know exactly how many calories I can eat based on what I burn off. With the exception of the last three weeks recovering from the tonsillectomy, I've been taking kickboxing, step aerobics, and zumba classes at the YWCA not far from my office, riding my bike, walking, and working out at the gym in our apartment building when I can't get to a class or do something active outside. I have been having a lot of fun tracking everything and finding ways to be more active. The best part is seeing the results! Today, I bought new jeans in a size I don't remember buying since the beginning of college. It felt pretty fantastic!!

Second surgery

I've never had luck with my tonsils... and healing from my tonsillectomy was just going too easily. 13 days had passed since my surgery and I was just branching out to easy to chew foods like chicken and was really looking forward to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when suddenly, an hour after eating a popsicle, I felt like I had a backward nosebleed! I ran to the bathroom, coughed up some blood, turned to Ryan and said, "emergency room! Now!" Our brief visit to the ER left us with instructions to take come cough syrup, sleep sitting up, and call my ENT first thing in the morning. When I saw the doctor and he learned that I bled off and on all night, he decided to get me back into surgery again that afternoon. After pumping the blood out of my stomach and getting a breathing tube that gave me blisters on my tongue, my doctor decided to re-cauterize the right side where the tonsil used to be. I got stuck in the house all weekend again, healing and on codeine, and was back to work on Monday, whispering and practically falling asleep at my desk.I'm so lucky to have Ryan taking such good care of me at home and my girls helping me out at work! Hopefully, I'll be fully healed soon! I really miss eating regular food and would like to get back in the gym asap!!