Acne and skin tags

Those of you who are obese like me know the shame of skin tags. They're nasty, they're embarrassing, they can even be uncomfortable sometimes.

Today I had mine removed at the dermatologists's office. It was not a painless procedure. They cleaned them, which stung because they were irritated from when I shaved my armpits yesterday (they were in my armpits). They then numbed the tags with injections under the skin, which hurt. After I was numbed up, they cut them off. I'm a little tender where they were cut off and hopefully I won't be bruised tomorrow. Bruised armpits probably hurt.

The doc took one look at the severe cystic acne that has been plaguing me since I started my weight loss journey and said it was hormonal. Most of the acne is on the jawline. I've tried everything, and I mean everything, except Proactiv. The doc injected some of the more tender and juicy zits with steroids, which hurt a LOT. I was prescribed four things...can't recall exactly what they are but I got topical creams, antibiotics, and a blood pressure pill that the dermatologist said clears up acne for all his other patients.

We shall see. $160 poorer and clutching a sheaf of prescriptions, I headed out to the car gingerly as to avoid injuring my tender armpits and drove home by way of Walgreens to drop off the scrips. I shudder to think how much they'll cost even with insurance.

Big Medicine

I've become totally addicted to a show called Big Medicine that is shown on Discovery Health at 11pm Central time every Friday night. I Tivo it; I'm usually not around on Friday nights to watch it *g*!

Some of the people on the show are simply extraordinary, but they have done it the "cheater" way, i.e. with gastric bypass surgery. At my heaviest, I would probably have qualified for GB and I see people on the show who started off smaller than me who now have to have plastic surgery to remove excess skin. Zoinks! I hope that doesn't happen to me, but it very well might. :-(

On this week's show there was this one woman who weighed about 450 lbs. She was crying about how she had always been at 350 lbs and how she had "let herself go". Yikes. If you weigh 350 lbs, you let yourself go a looooong time ago. She's also married with 3 children. It kind of depresses me that SHE has what I want, i.e. a husband and a family, and she weighs twice what I do. How does that work? I wonder sometimes what's wrong with me. I hate being single.

But I digress. It's an interesting show and I recommend it.

TOM

I just love my TOM now. I gained a couple of pounds in water weight and then took most of the week to get it back off. :-(



It's off now though, and I'm at 213.8. I haven't seen a number that low staring back at me in about a decade. Awesome!

Down to 214.2!

I'm rapidly approaching mini-goal #4: 20% weight loss! WOO HOO!

I'm starting to enjoy clothes shopping, probably because I get to wear the smaller sizes (eeee!) and because I'm very close to not having to shop in the fat lady section anymore. I can almost taste it.

I can't wait to pass Lane Bryant by and head straight for J. Crew or Banana Republic or The Gap. It's going to be awesome.

Bronchitis is the gift that keeps on giving.

I've lost a LOT of weight since October 1st...I started the month at 224lbs and weighed in today at 215.8. Part of it is due to a loss of appetite, but I'm still surprised at how much weight I have dropped due to this illness. It's a little worrying.

Went clothes shopping yesterday

I peeled myself off the sofa long enough to go clothes shopping yesterday.

I've been wearing Red 3 bootcut jeans from Lane Bryant (fellow Lane Bryant shoppers know what I mean), but they're a bit large now so I bought a pair of Red 2 bootcuts. I was also encouraged to try on a pair of Yellow 3 bootcuts because my body shape has changed. I used to have a bigger butt in relation to the rest of my body but I have lost a lot of inches off my hips and butt, so they recommended the yellows. They fit differently, but also looked good. So I bought those too.

Started with: Red 4 bootcut
Wearing now: Red 2 bootcut/Yellow 3 bootcut

Then I went to JC Penney and looked for work pants. I found a pair of those Lee plain front pants. I started off wearing a 20W in those, and I'm now down to a 16W in that particular style of pants. I could only find one pair in any color in that size, so I bought it. I also bought a couple of casual long-sleeve tees in size 1x, which is the size I've been wearing all along. Those shirts shrink a lot. The 1x started off a little on the small side for me and is now a little too large.

Started with: Lee Plain Front trouser 20W
Wearing now: Lee Plain Front trouser 16W

Since the other pair of 16W plain fronts that I have is a little baggy on me, I wandered over to the normal-sized section of the store and was shocked at how HUGE it is. Oh god, the selection! Amazing! I hadn't been to that side of the store in years. I found those same Lee plain front pants in size 14, so I got a pair plus a pair of Dockers Ideal Fit in a size 16. I knew they wouldn't fit just by looking at them, but they're for later. I also bought some of the same casual tees I had bought in the big lady section, but in size XL. They fit perfectly, but they will shrink when washed.

I tried on the smaller pants at home and I cannot pull either pair all the way up, but they'll be a good yardstick for me. I weighed about 218 lbs yesterday and I'm thinking both pairs may fit by the time I achieve my Christmas goal of 199 lbs. I will fit into them *someday*, so it's not a waste of money.

I ended up spending about $175 on new clothes, but I am also giving away a large bundle of clothing that is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too big for me. I am getting rid of those clothes because I never want to fit into them again. If all I have are clothes that are my size or smaller, that'll be extra added incentive to not order that pizza or eat that 3 Musketeers bar.

15% weight loss achieved!

I've been hovering above my mini-goal of 15% weight loss...I was over it by .3 lbs. Wasn't going to cheat and said I'd met it until today, when my weight dropped to 217.6 lbs.

So yay! I've lost 39 lbs so far on my journey. I went shopping for clothes yesterday even though I was sick, because I'm giving some of my old "fat" clothes away to charity. I'm keeping a couple of pairs of my largest pants so I can hopefully someday pose for a photo with both of my legs in one of the legs of the fat pairs. I can only hope.

I'm just a little lacking in enthusiasm because I've been sick as a dog all week. I went to the gym on Wednesday and thought I was going to pass out. I haven't been since. I can't wait to get well so I can get back there.

I've been sick

I haven't been updating the blog because I've been sick for a week. I finally went to the doctor a couple of days ago and was diagnosed with bronchitis. I've been banned from going to the gym until at least Monday.

On the plus side, I've lost over 5 pounds this week alone.

*sigh* I hate being sick.

Inch loss

I first measured my chest, waist, and hips on 08/20/2008. Those measurements were:

Chest: 41"
Waist: 42"
Hips: 49"

Today's measurements are:

Chest: 37"
Waist: 35"
Hips: 44.75"

That's a loss of 4 inches off the chest, 7 inches off the waist, and 4.25 inches off the hips. Pretty cool huh????

Being sick = good diet?

I came down with a cold on Sunday. When I'm sick I generally lose my appetite. I'm down to 219.4 lbs this morning. I think I approached 1,000 calories consumed yesterday, and I had to kind of force those down because I know I am supposed to eat when I'm sick; I simply don't want to.

I hope as I get well, these pounds I've lost don't creep back on. I don't think it's water because I have been drinking plenty of that; I get really thirsty when I'm sick.

I also passed the metric milestone and then some: 99.5kg this morning.

Nearing a metric milestone!

It's not one of my goals, but my weight is very close to dropping below 100kg. Yay for metric milestones!

Still going down!

This week was slow in terms of weight loss, but I think that 223 reading earlier in the week may have been a fluke as my weight shot up by a pound immediately afterwards, but then I dropped weight again at my regular rate.

Not a setback...just an irritation. This is the least I've weighed in a long time.

Today, I'm going to a friend's barbecue and it's going to be tough temptation-wise. I'm bringing fruit salad, so I'll try to stick closer to that! And small portions of meat. I hope there will be crudites.

Quiet week

It has been a bad week weight-wise. I hit a low of 223 lbs, then immediately bounced up by a full pound, then lost a bit of it. I try not to get frustrated by fluctuations but it is disappointing to look at the scale some mornings.

This week I've been so tired and so wrapped up in work; I'm so glad it's Friday. So so glad. I'm so tired.