Snow Day

Winter is here. It started snowing last Friday, but then we had nothing for the next few days. Now it has turned into something of a blizzard. We've gotten over 2 feet in 24 hours. At least it's a little warmer now--19 degrees, instead of 2.

We were supposed to have a year-end school brunch today, which was cancelled. OR tomorrow was also cancelled for us. As it stands, the hospital has cancelled all elective surgeries anyway so there wouldn't be much for us to do. Spokane is a city that is accustomed to snow, but this is an emergency even here. But as opposed to places I have lived closer to the coast, where people freak out and act a fool (like Seattle and Portland), in Spokane people just enjoy the snow. If it's an emergency, like this particular snowfall, they stay home and do snow things. Most people here have trucks or SUVs with 4wd (I do not, I have a Jetta and don't even have snow tires) so they are a little bolder about getting around. I am bound to the house for now, since I have the little car with no traction, but I am in walking distance to the hospital and the grocery store, so I'm doing okay. Just a bit bored.

I don't care for the cold too much, so it's hard to convince myself that I should get out my snowshoes and go up to the park. I know I should. I haven't been able to run since Friday. And I will...I'll go snowshoe and get some exercise. Lord knows there is enough snow for it. When the sidewalks are shoveled, and it stops snowing, we'll be left with packed snow and ice and I can run again, or so I hear. There are two ways I have heard of to get traction on your tennis shoes for running on snow and ice. One, buy YakTraks, which go on your shoes somehow (I've never seen them but many people swear by them). Two, buy a bunch of 1/2" screws and screw them into the soles of your running shoes. They are short enough that they won't go all the way through but they give you some "studs" to grip the snow. They come out, but they are dirt cheap. So I am sure sometime this winter I'll be trying these things out. I'm not really made for the snow and cold, though.

It will soon be time to try to tackle the last 10 pounds. I've been waiting for this semester to end. Here are some things I was thinking of doing when the new year arrives:

Food: Try the plateau-busting diet that Sandy R developed. (I would post it, but I'm not sure it's okay with her, so for now I won't.) That is 2 weeks max. It's basically the same as the liver shrinking diet that many surgeons put their patients on pre-op.
Then, see how my restriction is (like actually pay attention) and go in to see the surgeon and determine if I need a fill.
Eating is always about going back to the rules and the basics, which I haven't been sticking to very well this semester. Using FitDay again will help me out with that.

Exercise: My running is good, but I need to get back to something in addition to that. I haven't decided if it will be weight training again, or yoga, or both. If I have time next semester, both would be good. I'd love to do a weekly or twice-weekly yoga class, but weight training might be better for me. I haven't decided about that yet.

It's nothing earth-shattering, by any means. It's just a cluster of things to focus on again to see if I can lose 10 more pounds. But what is interesting to me is that right now I have maintained the same weight for 6 months. And that weight is exactly how much weight my surgeon initially told me he thought I would lose. Of course, it's about 70% of my excess weight (that's what they always predict) and I want to lose more than that. But I'm not going for 100%, I don't think that would actually work well for me and it would be extremely hard for me to maintain even if I could get there. I guess the lesson here is that on-going weight loss is not a mystery with the band. It's still calories in, calories out, more or less, no matter if there's WLS involved or not. If these things don't work, then I either need to regroup with my surgeon, or maybe just be okay with this weight. I'll keep ya posted.