20 pounds down & counting!

Well, I lost 9 pounds before surgery and now I've lost 11 since being banded. I am so stoked and motivated. Last weekend I had tried on clothes I had purchased on eBay and on sale several years ago that ended up being too small and lo and behold they fit! One dress I bought that still had its tags on it was even too big. So Saturday I went through the closet and packed up winter sweaters and other too-big outfits, 11 outfits on hangers and a large garbage bag full of clothes and took them to a consignment shop.

As far as eating goes, I've made it through the "mushy" food stage. I decided to try eating just a little bit of solid food last week beginning with a bit of sauteed shrimp Thursday night, a chicken tender at lunch on Friday, and halibut for Friday dinner. All was fine. Saturday we met our dear friends Kim and Roger for an early dinner in Poulsbo and I had a cup of clam chowder and a crab cake appetizer. It was delicious and I was full!

And I have been so much more active! I barely sat down to relax all weekend. Last night I didn't sit town to watch TV until nearly 10:30 (we had socialized with friends after dinner) and then today we went to go through our storage unit in preparation to weed out everything to eventually give it up (after virtually ignoring it for over two years). It's full of books that I want to get ready to either sell on eBay or at a garage sale, along with several boxes of keepers. We're giving ourselves the next month to get it cleaned out for a planned garage sale on the weekend of July 18th. That is always a lot of work but I need to weed out so much of the clothes, books, and miscellaneous items stored in the attic and elsewhere. That weekend is also the weekend of our local Relay for Life for the Cancer Society. They hold the event at Middle School near our home so we've decided to give 10% of our garage sale proceeds to Relay for Life.

Tomorrow I have two appointments, one with a counselor and the other my local bariatric support group, and I have to fit in my Artist's Date for my Artist's Way class. Where did my plans for a relaxing three-day weekend go? I got very little reading done, did read a sample of Elizabeth Berg's The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted on the Kindle (enjoyed it every much) and downloaded Megan Chance's latest book, The Spiritualist that I am itching to get into. I am also reading Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo and Before the Storm by Diane Chamberlain. I am trying to decide whether I'll go do some photography for my Artist's Date or just go to the beach and do some reading. I had wanted to go to a matinee at our local movie theatre but the only movies showing are the near Indiana Jones and the animated movie about a Panda, neither of which interest me.