Maybe I Should Give Up Now!

I have been looking at this DVD for months now debating on if I really wanted it. I have heard from many people that it is great, but hard. So when Joey said it was the secret to her success, I thought that maybe this was the time. I have been working out for months now (with a 3 week break due to “injury”) and I can walk 5 miles without getting too worn out. I have gone from a 25-30 minute mile to under a 17 minute mile (yippee!!)

OMG! I think the whole routine is 20 minutes and I made it through 8 almost 9 minutes of it before I stopped. I even resorted to swearing at Jillian when she said not to rest. At this point I consider 8 minutes a huge accomplishment since I wanted to stop after the 2nd set of jumping jacks.

But I have to tell you if Joey does this all the time she deserves to win!!! Maybe by the end of the challenge I will be able to finish the thing, but holey crap is it hard. Seriously though, a few months ago I wouldn’t have gotten through the warm-up. I have can’t believe how far I have come and I hope that Jillian is what I need to build a little more endurance. Thanks for the sharing your secret Joey, but I think your lead is safe – unless this fill finally brings me restriction and then I am not promising anything ;)

A little about me

In recognition of my new signature (and the trip to Chicago), I thought I would share a little about me.


As you see in my sig below my name is Tracy Jo. Except for a couple family members everyone calls me Tracy, but I always sign things with my first and middle name. As you probably guessed the TJ comes from this – and yes some family members called me that too as well as Teeg and Trace. I was named after my great grandmother Tracy (everyone that her name was really Theresa until she died – including her own daughter) and my grandmother whose middle name is Josephine.

As I mentioned a couple times before I am an introvert. That doesn’t mean I am shy – in fact people who know me laugh their heads off at that thought. It becomes really evident when I am in large groups since they really wear me out. I need alone time to recharge. I also tend to hold myself back until I get comfortable. People have told me that they thought I was arrogant or thought I was better than them – which is soo not me. Luckily, these same people said that they realized later that it wasn’t true and it just took me a while to break out of my shell.

I am an Adult Child of an Alcoholic and it has affected my life. Most obvious is that I don’t drink – the risk for me is just too big, but I don’t judge people who do. Sad to say this stops me from being invited to many things – even by my own family. But then if drinking is that important to them that I would bring them down maybe I don’t want to go anyways :) But after reading Joey’s post  I realized that other characteristics I have are linked like my overdeveloped sense of responsibility. I kind of knew this, but I am still digesting everything and may do a post later.

On a lighter side, I love the outdoors. I have been camping with my parents since I was a toddler and some of my best memories are at the campground. I also have in a canoe since I was little and today one of my favorite things to do is to kayak. I haven’t been able to do this very often over the last few years, but actually bought a kayak of my own last year. The only sad part thing is I bought the kayak because I was too big to be comfortable in the rentals and I didn’t want that issue to be evident when I went out with the extended family. Now I don’t have that problem and am looking forward to enjoying my kayak as much as possible this year.

I have many more things I could share, but I will hold myself back and save some for later ;)

60 Pounds!!

Just in case you didn’t see my ticker ;) I finally hit my 60 pound goal. I have to say the 50’s seemed to last a really long time. Yesterday, when 215 showed up unexpectedly on the scale I was shocked since the day before I was 217. I really thought that it was dehydration since my water intake has been low and I have been taking Cold meds. I changed my ticker, but I didn’t do a post. I was positive that it was a fluke. Today, when the scale said 214 (really 213.2, but I just can’t claim that), I almost had a heart attack.


Almost 5 pounds in THREE days. Wow. And honestly I haven’t been eating the greatest. Don’t get me wrong I am hitting my calorie budget, but with all the wrong foods. Yesterday, I actually had a quarter pounder (meat only) from McDonald’s as well as a piece of Pizza (both firsts since surgery). I also went shopping (all the food in my fridge was bad due to an open door) and bought a bunch of carby foods. Mashed potatoes (which I also had yesterday), polenta, pancake batter (whole wheat though), and other things that would be ok in moderation, but not all at one time!! My only saving grace this week was the amount of stress that I was under. When under stress and sick I tend to eat really light so with the high calorie foods my calorie budget was actually spot on. Of course I would have rather eaten right and had less stess…

My mom thinks that all my hard work the last month has just paid off. I have lost much less than what my calorie burn should have given me. It makes sense, but I do think a little might be dehydration. But today I am celebrating my 60 pound win and I promise to post new comparison pics and measurements tomorrow – even if I gain a couple pounds back.

March Update on 2010 goals

I am reallllyyyy late getting this out here – especially since I have had all but the finacials done since the 1st of April. But late or not here it is:

1. Lose 15lbs every 10 weeks


Progress: I was a little concerned that I wasn’t going to hit this goal due to my slow down in March, but luckily things are starting to get back on track. The scale still bounces up and down daily (4-5 lbs at a time…grrr…), but I did see my 15 pound goal (221.5) show on the scale during the end of March.

Plan for April: My average loss over the last 4 weeks has been under my 1.5/week goal so I am trying to step things up. My current 10 week challenge is to be 211.5 by May 9th.

2. Pay off 10k of debt (house, credit card, student loan,car) not including interest by end of year.

Progress: I hit my monthly goal with a few dollars to spare, but it was close. I am going to have to keep things tight to keep hitting this goal.

Plan for April: Don’t charge ANYTHING – even if you pay it off by the bill time. This may be hard due bill timing and taxes, but it can be done.

3. Toss or box for garage sale 10 items from each room each month until sale - trash doesn’t count :)

Progress: Knocked out of the park! I packed up lots of stuff this month while spring cleaning and tossed/donated a bunch more.

Plan for April: Work on de-cluttering the basement and garage. Be tough when determining if you really need something. Donate , toss, or box for sale at least 25 items and aim for 50.

4. Complete 10 blog postings every month

Progress: Completed, but still having problems keeping up with up with the blogs I follow!

5. Exercise 10 days every two weeks, with an average of 10 minutes of vigorous activities every day and 10 hours of total activity each week

Progress: The first two weeks were not on track, but I made great progress towards the end of the month. I am exercising 5 days a week now and even though I have toughened my standards for moderate and vigorous activity I am still hitting or surpassing my goals.

This has really kick started my calories burn again. Even on days that I don’t exercise my calorie burn is higher than my goal of 2400 and on a couple days I have topped 3000. I feel so much stronger and healthier. It is amazing at times!

Plan for April: Continue working though my 5K/Half marathon training plan. Determine by the end of April if the half marathon is feasible.

6. Attend 10 events this year

Progress: I attended 1 event this month for a total of 2 so far this year. I also started attending a new gym and continue to go to my support group meetings. My introversion is still winning, but I am making progress ;)

Plan for April: I don’t have any events planned for April (well except Easter, but there is only going to be a small group of us). I have started looking into more things to get involved in and need to continue this during April since I am running behind at the moment.

7. Save 10% of income by year end

Progress: No change this month.

Plan for April: No plan for next month – more changes will occur later in the year.

8. Complete a 5k by 10/10/10 and run a 25 min mile by April 15th, a 20 min mile July 15st, a 15 min by Oct 15th and a 10 min mile by year end

Progress: I started my running/walking program back up a couple weeks ago. I am consistently completing my mile in less than 25 minutes so I am on track. What I find a little funny is that I am actually faster when I walk the whole thing than when I do my walk/run intervals.

Plan for April: I have a 5K planned for May 23rd so I really need to stick with this next month. I would like to slightly accelerate my plan so that I can complete my 5K under 60 minutes (<20 minute mile pace). My mini goal for April is to complete at least one 3 mile walk/run in less than 1 hour.

9. Decrease utility bills by 10% (in total) by year end (tv, cell, phone, internet, gas, electric)

Progress: I was able to lower my cell phone bill significantly this month. I also made progress in lowering my gas/electric usage for this month (in comparison to last year). Hopefully this will result in a lower bill once they refigure my budget plan, but the last couple years they just increased the rate more than the amount I lowered my usage.

Plan for April: Continue cutting gas/electrical use during the mild weather. Continue to look into to alternatives for TV/Phone/Internet so I can change once a benefit is worth the new contract.

10. Spend 10 hours a month dedicated to house work

Progress: I made great progress on this during the first part of the month. Early spring cleaning was a great success and I was able to de-clutter several rooms and catch up in several others. Since then things have gone down hill slightly, but that was due to my increased travel – which was expected. It is amazing how much more organized the rest of my life feels when I am able to actually dedicate time to get extra house tasks done.

Plan for April: Start de-cluttering garage and basement. Set aside at least 6 hours for those tasks. The remaining 4 hours should be spent in 1 hour increments each week to catch up on all the extras (possibilities: steam clean floors, organize kitchen cabinets, rearrange dining room).

Good Thoughts PLEASE!!

I need some serious help. I have lost my keys and it is driving me absolutely NUTS!!! Not only is my house and car key on there, but so is my work security fob. But it isn’t just that I feel so MESSED UP!!!! My life feels so chaotic and the stress is arghhh!!! My dad was even down here to help me with a couple things and he coudn't find them either.  I know I used them to get into the house late last night, but they seem to have disappeared.


I would honestly pay someone a few hundred bucks if they could just hand them to me right now. Heck I would gladly be 275 again tomorrow just to know where the HELL they ARE - as long as I had my band to lose it again of course. It still drives me a little crazy the time I dropped my keys on campus and couldn’t find them and that was 8 or 9 years ago.

Honestly, I know it is a little crazy that this bothers me so much. I am a control freak and things like this do drive me crazy, but today… well this is more the straw that broke the camel’s back. Things are just a little crazy over here. Family illness galore. Serious life threatening illnesses. I have almost lost 3 family members – in the last three weeks.

One won’t make it. She is 89 and is in her 3 round of cancer in her life.  She was given 3 months to live a year ago.  She lives on the other side of the country and I rarely see her.  In fact, I never really liked her that much because of the way she treated people.  However, my dad and I went out to visit her last summer and although she has her issues I got along great.  We could have really got along great had we had a chance to get closer over the years.  I realized while we were there that we are so alike.  I could be a lot like her at 89 and it made me think about what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to change.  She is now in her last days if not hours and it makes me think about what could have been. 

Another family member had double bypass surgery today after a heart attack a couple days ago. I would have never guessed.  Although he smokes and does some other unhealthy things he was skinny.  I figured clogged arteries was more a fat related thing (yeah I know the genetics thing too).  He is now in the ICU on a vent, but doing great. 

One had what everyone thought was a stroke - after having kidney replacement last year and his leg amputated a couple months ago. He started going outside to feed the goats (goats they don't have - have never had).  He didn't know his name or anything.  He was in the ICU for days.

It just is too much. People need to stop getting old because it is just way to hard. I wish I go back to being a teenager where almost everyone around me was healthy. 

So back to my keys. I need my keys. I need to have some control back and I need to find my keys. Yes, I know it won’t really fix the issues, but it is the only one I have ANY control over. So if you could please send good thoughts my way I would appreciate it. Ohh yeah and please please think that they are in my house and weren't picked up outside by some strange person walking around the building at dawn that will steal my car and try to break into my house tonight.  I have a "club" on my house door so they won't get in without a lot of effor and causing enough noise to wake me up, but I would perfer not to have to deal with the cops tomorrow.  (I am 95% sure they are in my house or I would have changed the deadbolt).

For Gen

Gen asked asked us to post our weight loss on a month to month basis so here we go:

• PreOp (10 days): -15
• Rest of Nov (10 days):  Zero
• Dec: -15
• Jan: -8.5
• Feb: -10
• Mar: -6.5
• April: -3 (so far)

My average weight loss per week including pre-op is 2.67. Not including pre-op it is 2.15. Over the last 4 weeks it is 1.75. 

I haven't got to the 6 month mark yet so I won't be able to shed info on that, but I am starting to see a slow down now (4.5 months).  It was really hard to lose that 6.5 pounds in March and I bounced plus/minus 5-8 pounds throughout the week.  A couple weeks I would have shown a gain on my charts, but I am not strict with Sunday being my official weigh in day (except for challenge results).  If I am down on Saturday or Monday I consider that my offical weekly weight. 

This month has been a little easier, but only because I really pushed up my exercise towards the end of March.  I am still doing good and the intensity level I am going at seems to work really well for me right now.  I personally think the reason I slowed down is because I didn't ramp up my exercise enough as I lost weight.  Even though I was doing the same amount of work, my body didn't burn as many calories since I was lighter and more fit.  As time goes on I am not sure if I will be able to continue to ramp up my exercise at the same rate as my body seems to need to continue the 2+ pounds a week.  I expect that will cause my averages to fall, but as long as I am still losing a pound on average and pushing myself on the exercise side I am hoping to be ok with that.  I am not sure if I will be once it happens, but I don't know if I am willing to kill myself with excercise either - the C25K program might just do that as it is :)

I am boycotting Dr. Oz!

I know some of you like Dr. Oz and I think he does have some great tips, but as of today I am boycotting the show! I always heard that he was against WLS, but I had thought that most of it was passive persuasion. For example, he had a huge audience one day of all people who had lost a 100 lbs – the RIGHT way. I didn’t think he had actually said don’t have WLS.


Well today’s show proved me wrong. Ok. He never said don’t do it, but he had overweight couple on the show who son had changed his life. The son was now concerned about his parents who had just decided to do gastric bypass. The mother had some type of severe injury that hindered exercise and the father had diabetes. In my mind those are too great reasons to consider WLS (not saying they have to pick it). However, Dr. Oz convinced them to try and loss the weight on their own.

He went on and on about how their current medical conditions were bad and shortening their life span. He talked about how losing 5% of their body weight would make a difference (which I agree with, but at 300+lbs 5% is just a start). The plan they ended up with was what he called the Three D’s: Downsize your Portions, Don’t skimp and don’t skip (meals that is), and Dump the white carbs. All great ideas, but he never mentioned what the success rate was for someone of their weight – which many large studies put at <2% for people over a 40 BMI. Combine that with serious health problems and the need to keep the weight off long term I think the success rate is below 1% - way below.

Not a thing was said about the 90+% success rate of gastric bypass. Not a thing was said about the 90+% cure rate of diabetes with gastric bypass or the impact of rapid weight loss on joint disease (which would allow them to get exercising better sooner). Nothing…

Now I know that WLS isn’t for everyone, but why isn’t more accepted by these Drs as an option – especially for people who have 100-200 pounds to lose. Yes it has risk and those should be weighed out, but so does diabetes, extremely high blood pressure and the other medical issues these people had. I am sure he talks about heart surgery as an option for his patients (he is a cardiologist). He may recommend against it or to try something else first, but I am sure that the options are looked at!

Now I might have not gotten so upset, but when I heard him tell the son – “Ultimately, It all comes down to your ability to motivate them.” I just about had a heart attack. What if they can’t do it (which they have a 99% chance of failing)? What if tomorrow or next year one of them succumbs to the medical issues they have now and dies? IT WILL NOT BE THE SON’S RESPONSIBILITY!! How dare he say that the 20 year old son is ultimately the reason they will be successful (or fail). Yes he may help and I hope he does, but it all comes down to if they, the parents, follow the plan. And honestly that is true whether they have WLS surgery or not, but I prefer to have all the tools I can have helping me!

Ohh and yesterday I watched an episode where he talked about plastic surgery options... if it is all about not having surgery and the risks associated with surgery why would you even think about for a non-medicial reason!  Arghhh!!  Well at least my DVR will have lots of open space once I get done deleting the episodes :)  Maybe someday I will be back, but maybe by then he will be more open minded!