Well, the last 12 hours have been a bit disappointing.  I had hoped to go down to Rabbit Hash to dance last night, but it was apparently canceled.  So then, I decided that I could take a nice bike ride to burn some extra calories, but Branden decided he HAD to cut the grass last night and then he had homework so I wasn’t able to do that either.  Then, I hardly got any sleep last night so the gym didn’t happen this morning. Bleh.   I’m going to try, yet again, to get a good ride in tonight… though with Nora’s music class, I’m not so sure that I’ll get the chance.  We’ll see…

Last night for dinner we had an ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ kind of salad lol.  It included:

Bagged Romaine Lettuce

Red Onion

Cherry Tomatoes

Mushrooms

Green Bell Peppers

Fat Free Feta Cheese

Pecans

Chopped Gala Apple

Raisins

Grilled Chicken

Topped off with a Balsamic Vinaigrette… it was yummy!  I love those kinds of salads J

Food Today:

Breakfast:

Chocolate Protein Shake w/ Skim Milk

2 Egg Whites, scrambled plain

Snack:

Low Carb Yogurt

Lunch:

1 Slice Frittata (same as yesterday – delicious with hot sauce!)

3 slices eggplant w/ sugar free ketchup

Snack:

Protein Mousse

Dinner:

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

This was a request from Branden… I don’t know that I’ve ever made a casserole because I don’t really like them, but I found a ‘lightened’ recipe so I’m going to try it tonight. 

So when I was in Louisville this weekend, my sister showed me an old picture of myself that she had found on her laptop.  She said that she didn’t really realize how much weight I had lost until she saw this picture… I thought I would be excited with seeing it, knowing what I look like now, but I wasn’t.  I’ll post it below with an updated picture for comparison… it was a strange feeling when I looked at that image.  I remember what it felt like to be that heavy, and I remember trying SO hard to get the right ‘angle’ for pictures and I remember how my clothes fit, the looks and ridicule that I got from people and just how uncomfortable my body was.  All of those things kind of came rushing back to me and I was just upset with myself that I ever let it get to that point.  It may sound kind of strange to say, but looking at the ‘large’ picture and then looking at my more recent picture (from my birthday party, June 11^th), I said to myself “I actually look like a person now.”  In all of the older pictures, I feel like I just look like an inflated version of a human, but not a real person.  Now I feel like I actually look like a human… you can see my collar bones a little and my cheek bones and jaw line are more defined, before everything was just… round.  I almost hated seeing that, but I’m glad that I did because it just reminded me even more why I’m doing this.  It’s embarrassing and then I think about my husband, Branden.  Branden and I were dating when this picture was taken… and I can’t help but think, what the hell was wrong with him?  He told me a long time ago that he loved me for the person that I was and I can’t do anything but love him even more for that.  He’s not a ‘chubby chaser’ by any means… and even typing that makes me uncomfortable lol.  He’s very much into health and fitness and has always wanted me to get healthy, and I’m grateful for having him in my life and pushing me to make the changes that I’ve made… no matter how unorthodox his tactics may be lol.  Anyway, here are the pictures:



Before, approx 340lbs



Recently, around 270lbs

Pretty crazy, huh?  It may not be that big of a change to some... but to me, it's a world of a difference!

Well, that's about all I have for today... until tomorrow ;)