Back on the Wagon. . . Again

Man, this semester has seen me be all work no play which means 1) I've once again disappeared from blogland and 2) I went way off-band.

Before Thanksgiving I'd managed to get solidly into the 157-159 range, but frankly my volume is way up from where it had been and my choices were hmmm, not always great.  Still, I was maintaining easily.  Then Thanksgiving came and I had my first real gain since before getting banded.  It was a kick in the ass for me-- I'd been playing around with the idea of getting serious again so I could get to my goal and actually seeing a real gain back into the 160's on my scale convinced me to go for it.  So I joined Weight Watchers (I can't get in for a fill until January).

One week on WW saw me back down and today my scale showed a new low of 156 so whew.  I have always been able to lose about 20 lbs on WW before I get tired of counting and tracking, and considering I want to lose about 20 lbs to get to my personal goal, this will hopefully work out well for me. I know some banded folk are critical of going on weight loss plans after banding-- I've heard people say, for instance, that they got banded so they could be DONE with Weight Watchers.  I just don't see it that way-- I have always viewed my band as making it easier to change my eating behaviors, but not to replace the need to occassionally tweak my calories, etc. Sometimes, I mentally need a plan to follow, because left on my own, I push slowly toward more and less healthy food.  It's that "food addiction" thing-- I like food.  I'm a fat girl in an almost-normal BMI girl's body and that may not always be true but it is true for now. 

In other, somewhat anxiety provoking news, I'm having a strange pain under my left rib-cage during deep breaths.  Sometimes it is horribly sharp and very painful (when it first happened) and other times it is a twinge here and there (like during yoga).  I have to admit that given my band looseness and the volume I've been able to eat lately, that I worry this is a little sign of erosion.  Of course I have nothing to back that up with.  I have an appointment for January to see my band doc-- if the pain gets sharp or more frequent again, I'll push to get in earlier but otherwise I'm going to wait it out and see. 

Non-Scale Victories:  This week I wore 3 different pairs of size 8 pants in different brands (Gap, Banana Republic, Express) and I'm wearing size 10 designer skinny jeans.  My shirts are pretty much Medium now (yay!) unless it's clingy to my belly.  This week I ran a route around my neigborhood that used to be difficult for me to walk, and I went to yoga today.  I got my tenure and promotion application in at work, I successfully supervised 4 different experiments my seniors ran (papers and presentations to come), and I submitted an article to a top journal.  I have a HUGE amount of grading to do, I have a Secret Santa and a Sisterhood package (Joyful, I'm a flake, but I do remember) to mail, and an incredible amount of other stuff to complete before the holidays-- but I have the ENERGY to do them, and that is the biggest NSV.