Super Busy - WLS Meet and Greet Countdown.

Wow - time flies, I have been super busy this last few weeks getting everything sorted for the WLS Meet and Greet, which is now only 24 days away. I can't wait and everything is slowly falling into place. 

I have had some amazing support from heaps of different companies and have even in the last day had emails from some US companies that I was having trouble making contact with, but with the help of Diva Taunia introducing me, I am getting some doors opening. Hoping like anything that we will be able to get the stuff here in time and that it will come through customs okay. 

As I thought, we would also get a little bit of a late rush to register and we now have around 95 people registered and most of those people have also paid, so fabulous news. The girls from the Palmerston North group are going to come over and help me make up the goodie bags this week, so that is fabulous. I really need a couple of days now just to get the programs finalised and the name badges printed.

I have been really busy at work over the last couple of weeks as well learning a new product at work, and that will pretty much take me right up to when I finish a couple of days before the Meet and Greet. 

We are also still doing the fostering/adoption training and have another session this Saturday, and another one on the 13th Nov. Actually the 13th is going to be a busy day as we have that to do as well as a wedding, the Harris family christmas and also I have two workdo's on the same day.  We have decided that we will miss the work dos but try and fit everything else in......going to be manic on that day. After that I only have 3 days at work as I have taken the 18th & 19th of for the Meet and Greet. 

I guess I should try an update more, and once the goodie bags are done, I might try and show you whats in them, although I don't want to spoil it for anyone who reads and is coming.....so maybe just after the event I will show everyone. 

Anyway - off to check on dinner and get some more emails sent. 

Take care 

J

A Video Update on the WLS Meet & Greet 2010

Just a quick 10 min video telling you all about the WLS Meet & Greet and some of the things that are going to be in the goodie bags and some of the events happpening on the day.

Long Overdue Update

This is a very long overdue update and I have had a few comments from people or emails asking if things are okay. Things are, just full on busy at the moment.

Work is going well, and I have had a commitment that I am on day shift now till the first week of January. This is kinda cool although I was planning on doing some of the organising for the Meet & Greet during the mornings, so this has made it a little more pressured to get everything done.  I have taken off a couple of days in early October to tidy up some aspects of it.

Specialist wise, my liver specialist is actually happy for us to get pregnant, although he does not want me to do this via fertility treatment, and that is fine as we had already discussed this and did not want to add any more drugs into my system.  The specialist actually upped my dose of immune suppressant in the hope of being able to get me off steroids….but at this stage it is still hit and miss as to what effect the drugs are having. One of the side effects is swollen gums, and I have always had a few issues with my teeth and gums, and this is causing me to have bleeding gums everytime I brush my teeth and I wake up with dried blood on my pillow and around my mouth every morning.  SO, I am going to get to the dentist and get my teeth professionally cleaned to minimize the damage to my gums. The specialist said if it gets to bad he will have to put me on a different medication. Actually thinking about it,my gums bleed even eating an orange…..I hate to think how much blood I am swallowing.

Sorry if that was TMI…….

The next 8 weeks or so are going to be really busy and the end of the year is going to be here before I know it. On Wednesday we start the fostering process by going to an information evening and depending on that we will continue with the training that runs over October and November. We are looking at both Adoption and Fostering and it will be interesting to see what the information evening holds.

Foodwise, Simon & I are trying to make sure our meals are planned, for two reasons, one so we eat healthier and also so we can put as much money aside as possible if we want to have an awesome trip to Australia next May for Simon’s Birthday. I would love it to be Las Vegas for the WLS Meet & Greet over there, but there is no way I could save enough money….and with still some other bills I could not justify spending that amount on a trip. Definitely one day!!!

GRAPEFRUIT – We have so many grapefruit – like 400 of them on the tree and I am not allowed to eat them or even have the juice, so if anyone locally wants them, please drop me a line as I am sick of having about 100 grapefruit on my lawn!!!! I have rung the local foodbank and they are checking to see if someone can come out and pick them. I also thought about the local rest homes but it is a matter of getting them down from this massive tree!!!!

Okay well that is me done for a while…..will update when I feel like it. LOL

Been a bit going on

So this week has been a very up and down sort of week. As I mentioned I had a specialist appointment, and I have another one this Wednesday as well. Although I am not sure that this next one is going to change anything significantly.

So the long and the short of it is that it is unlikely that Si and I will be having any children. The specialists are concerned with how much stress a pregnancy will put on my body and my liver especially. Even if it is okay ( I will find out Wed) it appears I would need assistance to get pregnant, as I don't appear to be ovulating normally and we have decided that it would be unwise to add more drugs to the mix. SO, what does that mean. Well, depending on what the Dr says on Wednesday we will either A) Keep Trying without drugs or B) look into fostering and adoption.

As you can imagine this week has been pretty rough and I have done my fair share of withdrawing into my own little shell. I am slowly pulling myself out of it, but it sure has been a bit rough.

Day Zero - 101 List in 1001 Days

Yup - thanks to Laurie and to Jaxx for paving the way. I have also created a list that I am going to work towards. You can check it out here.

I don't really feel like I have much to say at the moment, alot on my mind but not the right words to express it.
I have a specialist appointment tomorrow, so will pop back on at some stage and update about that. Really need to post a you tube video as well.

Oh well, off to have some dinner.

Huggles

J

Thoughts

So, I am sitting here and getting random thoughts popping into my head. I thought I may as well process them by writing it down and at least amuse myself…..LOL.

So anyway, I am loving my hair…..It is so easy to do, it takes about 5 mins in the morning including straightening, and I am finding that I am wanting to actually wear make up (well at least a little mascara and lippy) and it is amazing how much more proud I am of looking good….it does actually seem to put me in a better frame of mind.

Food – well, what can I say, the Gluten Free thing is actually is going okay, although I do need to stop the snacking and ask myself “am I really hungry?” and to be honest, a lot of the time I would not be, I would just be bored. Si and I have made a rule that we are not allowed to eat in the computer room at all, and that we have to actually sit down at the table for our evening meal. Infact I should do that for all meals. I know at lunchtime to make my tuna on rice-cakes more appealing I put it on a plate with my cut up fruit…..Makes it feel more special.

Si is actually working on his food as well, as he gets a really bad upset tummy after most meals and after speaking with the dietician last week we both think that he might have IBS – and that is based on FODMAPS….don’t ask, just know that he is most likely intolerant to a whole heap of different foods across a whole heap of different food types……so now we are going to work on finding out which ones trigger him. Luckily for us, most high protein foods are fine for both of us, but we have to tweak some of our meals.

Exercise, - well, this is just not a happening thing……In some ways I am looking forward to going back to late shift as it means I can actually get out and do some Aqua Aerobics and get out and walk the dog in the morning sunshine, rather than in the cold…I also have the Wii, but I just don’t seem to find the motivation to jump on it……or should I say I should say I can’t be stuffed…….really the Wii was a bit of a bad investment, we don’t play it and it sits there gathering dust really.

Meet & Greet – Well the Meet & Greet is going well, so far we have about 70 people registered to come to the event, and another say 15 for the dinner. Registrations are still coming in and I know this does not include the companies attending and does also not include the speakers. So there is less than 90 days to go till the event and I will be working on reminding the vendors of what we need from them and finding out how many people from each organisation will be attending. I will also be organising all the freebies to be shipped to me so I can start working on getting the goodie bags together. Listing all that down it looks like I still have heaps to do!!!! I have also thought about how we can do a WLS cookbook for the event, and idea that one of the other girls came up with, but I thought I might email all those attending so far and ask for a recipe that we can add to the cookbook that they have found useful during their WLS journeys. That was we can collate them and hopefully even get one of our sponsors to look at publishing it for us. Wouldn’t that be fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Room – we are looking at renting out the back room (attached to the garage) to help reduce our rent…..not because we are finding it hard or anything, but just that we both want to go over to Australia next year for Simons birthday and if we do this we can do it comfortably. It means I need to get off my tush and get my passport organised, and we might even need to get Si’s renewed. As soon as we do that, then I will work on getting the airfares/accommodation together and as soon as we have that money we will book and pay for it, leaving only the spending money. That way we will be set and ready to go next May.

Well that is probably enough dribble from me, tomorrow I might even get around to letting you know what we did over the weekend and what we plan on doing next weekend!!!! Oh and I might just let you know how the weight loss is going – after all this is meant to be a blog about weightloss!!

Didn't get the job

But that is 100% okay. Sure it would have been nice, but I am such a newbie to the organisation that I was thinking that it was unlikely that I would get it. They said that I interviewed brilliantly and that I nailed the assessment, but their one concern was actually my sick leave. Si doesn't think theyhave a right to actually decline me on that basis, but when it is an internal application they do look at all of these things, and on paper it doesn't look good that I have used my entitlement in the first 8 months. At the end of the day I just don't think it was meant to be, and there will always be other opportunities that will come up.

Weight has crept up a little this week, sitting at 107.6 kgs yesterday morning, but since the last week has not been good with evening meals, and we have been grabbing what we can (ie not planning) then it is to be expected. I will take ownership of that and make it work.

The plans for exercise have also fallen a little by the side as well, as for this week and next I am on a funny shift, neither early or late......oh and both the pedometers I bought are useless....so back to wearing the mobile, which is not so good for work, but still more accurate than anything else I have tried.

Went to the dietian at the hospital today, which was interesting as I was not sure what her focus was, as I was not sure which specialist had referred me to her. Well it turns out that it was for my Gluten Intolerance, and the latest research is that for my skin conidition you need to be Gluten Free, not just low Gluten, which I had kinda figured out, cos as soon as I have anything with Gluten I get itchy and come out within 36 hours little blisters/rashes on my elbows and buttocks. She was not however aware of my Auto Immune Liver Disease or my Gastric Bypass, but she was impressed with how much I had already researched about being Gluten Free and how many changed I had put in place.

Other than that, things are ticking laong nicely, we have another order of wood arriving on Friday and hopefully that will be the last one and it will be enough to see us through till Summer. Oh for those of you who are not on Facebook, I got my haircut on Monday morning. It was driving me nutty over the weekend, and although I am not a girlie girl, I do want to feel good about myself, so I took charge and I went to a proper salon and got my haircut.....I had been thinking about it for a while. I was kinda worried that I would pick a style that I could not recreate, but I dreamt about this one on the Sunday night, talked it over with the hairdresser and bingo, i love it, and have managed to actual style it the same for the last 3 days!!! and it only takes 5 mins.......FANTASTIC.....so anyway, here is a pic of it, although I think it looks better  with big hoop earrings, which I bought myself today!!!

Back in the swing of things

Home from my weekend away with Roz. It was an awesome and very tiring and challenging weekend and I came down with a cold whilst away, no where near as bad as the last time and I am almost over it already.

Back at work yesterday and really enjoying it. I am still to hear back about the job (at work) that I interviewed for. It will most likely be early next week before I do. I did however hear back about the other position I applied for, and I was unsuccessful in obtaining. The teamleader of that team gave me some feedback yesterday, which was great, and he pretty much said that it was just a matter of timing. I have only been in my current role for 6 months, so I didn't have enough experience yet for the role, although he was very positive about the possibililty in the future and he said hehad some very positive comments about my work ethic and abilities, so that was awesome.

Scales yesterday were positive and said 106.7 kgs, so that is another 700 gm drop in the week.
My aims have changed slightly with this. I am not going to stress about the figures, they are what they are, but I am going to commit to me and move forward. The plan I have put in place is to follwoing my surgeons guidelines in regards to my eating plan, and more specifically the water part. I know that I have not been getting anywhere near as much water as I could, and part of that is not paying that much attention to the guidelines.

Exercise wise, well I am going to get another pedometer, the cellphone is great when I am going out for a formal walk, but not so good for wearing all day as it is a bit bulky. I was thinking of a watch pedometer, but they look so "manly" and are not very elegant. (listen to me....I sound like I am trying to be elegant).

My step aims for the week are starting out small but acheiveable....I know that I tend to jump in with 3 guns blazing (with only two hands) sometimes, so I need to make it real and most importantly acheivable. So, my plan is:
Aqua aerobics twice a week

• 4000 steps everyday (incidental)
• 10000 steps x 2 in a week
• Follow the guidelines for eating from the surgeon
• Continue with gluten free
  

Small but simple steps will make this so much more acheivable. The plan for the two days where I need to get to 10000 steps is to do a formal walk, so something like a 4- 5 km walk on those days as well as the normal incidental walking.

I just looked up jaycar electronics and they have just basic pedometers for only $2.50 so I am going to pick up one of those on the way to work (they are across the road) and maybe even splashout on the ones that can be uploaded to my PC - they are a whopping big $6.

A short week

This week seems to be flying by already.....I only have 4 days at work this week and then I am spending the whole weekend with Roz doing a course in Wellington. It sure will be a full on weekend and I am bound to learn alot!!!!

I have moved weigh in days to Tuesdays as Monday's my weight is always slightly up for some reason, I think it must be to do with salt intake and maybe it is higher in the weekends or maybe just because my eating routine is not the same. So for this week, I have weighed in at 107.5 kgs which is not too bad since it is also that time. so a loss this week of 700 gms.

I get my blood test reults back today and will be able to see if the new combination of gluten free and the new drugs are having a good effect on my liver results. I personally think that they will be, but I won't actually know till I see the results.

The weekend was pretty fantastic.....Saturday we didn't do alot actually, just mucked around home and played on the computer. But on Sunday I had our WLS monthly support group and we had a great turnout, including visitors....Tim from Taupo who was on his way down to have his surgery in Wellington, and he has promised to drop by to our next meeting to join us as a post op boy. Also, Emma from Wellington and her hubby who were up here doing a show at centrepoint, who is having her surgery with David in about 3 weeks.

The WLS meet & greet is being promoted by several of the surgeons now and we are getting more registrations through, which is fantastic.......so if want to check out our website or if you want to come along, just pop along to HERE

Oh - I also have a job interview tomorrow at work for one of the permanent postions doing a different role. If I am successful it will be not as much phone work and it will be daytime hours.....so keep your fingers crossed.

I have a couple of medical appointments this month, more on those at a later time.......and maybe just on my private blog.

Anyway - off and about...

Janine

HMMM

Well a week of eating right and exercise resulted in a gain.......just don't get it, had gone up to 109.2, which is a gain of 400 gms.....but then this morning, I got on the scales and I was down to 108.2. I can't keep up with what my body is doing at the moment, so I am taking todays weight as my official weigh in.

Exercise has dropped of a bit, I am still wearing my pedometer but have not been for any organised walks. I am still jumping on the Wii for step but that should all change next week when I can get out for morning walks or to morning aqua as I revert back to the evening shift next week.

Oh I got an appointment in the mail yesterday to the Palmerston North Hospital Dietian, which was a referral by my gastroenterologist.....weird as he knows I am under the care of my surgeon's team. However as the new meds seem to be having more of an effect and I feel so puffy and yuckky right now, maybe it is best I still go.....another opinion can't hurt, however it will be interesting to see what they make of a "gluten intolerant cut and paste girl"

On Wednesday I am heading off to Lower Hutt with my Dad, my Mum's brother passed away over the weekend, so we are going to the funeral. He was the last of her siblings alive so the end of an era really.

No news on the work front regarding the positions at work, I am really not expecting to get one of them, but if you don't put your hand up you can't be considered. I think they would be more me actually as It is more a mix of admin, phones and data entry and you get to manage your own workload, which I think would be better. Maybe it is just after 18 years or so I am over the call centre environment.

One exciting thing.....my friend Annie.......who I had surgery with on the same day has started blogging, but she is kind of a private gal, and is a bit shy, so I thought that some of my loving, kind and considerate readers might be of as much support to me as they are to her.......so if you would like to support Annie with her WLS journey and battle then drop me a message with your email address and I can pass it onto her.....or email me janine.hallewell@gmail.com