Back to the blog!

I can give all sorts of excuses. I was close to goal. The blog posts were repetitive. I couldn't think of something to write.

And then there was my ruptured Achilles, and the surgery, and the cast, and then the physical therapy.

But the fact is that I just weighed in at nearly 280, after being at 255 at the end of summer. Yes, 10 lbs of that was going off Medifast and back into a real diet, as soon as my body had carbs again I popped up, as expected. However, what I didn't do was stay there.

I can blame the lack of exercise due to surgery, and bloating and swelling, but I also know that I wasn't eating properly. So it's time to get back on the wagon. Blogging regularly. tracking my food intake. Getting back to the gym regularly. Rehabbing my foot so I can play tennis again and start running.

Today is a new Day Zero. Nearly a year ago I started this journey and was sitting at 332 pounds. I had gotten down to 280 in April. My goal is still at 240, and I've got 39.8 pounds to go, starting now.

I don't really want to kickstart things with another bout of Medifast, but it is definitely time to go back to small meals, lots of healthy snacks, and reasonable dinners. MyFitnessPal needs to be back on the daily website rotation, and I need to update the app and track religiously.

Yes, that includes the cupcake I got in the break room this morning. *sigh*

Overdue update!

So, let's update what's been going on the past month.

I severed my Achilles tendon, and had to wait three weeks to get into surgery. Well, surgery was a success! I wore a splint for a couple days and then went and got checked on and got a cast.

Two weeks in a cast, completely non weight-bearing, and then I got stitches out. Stitches came out Tuesday of this week and everything looked good. I got put into a heavier cast with my toes pointed down to protect the healing tendon. I'm in this cast for three weeks, BUT I'm  now allowed to do as much weight bearing as I like.

I've hobbled around a little bit with a crutch, and done some 'scooting'. It's not easy, but I'm doing it.

On November 25th I'll be taken out of the cast and put into a walking boot with a heel lift, and can start walking with a crutch or a cane. This will be just in time for our drip to Disney, so I'll be scooting around the parks on a motorized scooter for much of the time, and limiting my walking to just a little bit a day.

I've gained a bit of weight over the past month, which isn't surprising considering stress, Halloween, and limited exercise. But it's time to get back on the wagon and make sure I've not lost any ground when I get out of this thing. I want to be at no more than 260 lbs when I get the cast off. I weighed 266.8 this morning, and I think my cast weighs 3-5 lbs between the cotton, the fiberglass, and the tape.

So, today, I'm back to tracking on MFP and I'll weigh every day now that I can stand on my own feet. I should be able to get back in sync pretty easily, and then it's just 'make good decisions' and hit the holiday season at 260, and not 340 like last year.

Hogwarts Challenge on MFP and Weekend Update

I just started a Hogwarts Challenge on MFP. 120 of us got sorted into the four houses (I'm Slytherin, obviously!) and will be tracking our weight for 10 weeks and doing food, exercise, and trivia challenges.

My 30 house mates and I are already working hard, and are kicking butts and taking names, with only the pesky Ravenclaws keeping up with us so far. (Edit: Scratch that, now we are clearly in the lead, with Hufflepuff chasing us, and Gryffindor is eating our dust!)

Our first challenges have been basic: Introduce ourselves, give an initial weight, and our first exercise challenge, do 100 jumping jacks.

I'm looking forward to the challenge, and I'm sure Slytherin will destroy the competition and take home the House Cup!

In other news, you may have noticed I failed to blog this weekend. It's getting easier to skip blogging on the weekends, and then catching up on Monday. This weekend I did a ton of yard work on Saturday: mowing, trimming, cleaning up branches. There's still a lot more to do.

Sunday we had a board game afternoon, and ended up playing two games of Eminent Domain with the Escalation expansion... one with  Scenarios, one without. Then we played Euphoria, the game I showed a picture of last week. We played two-player this time, and while it wasn't as good as 4-player, it played in 40 minutes, which was nice. We closed out with a quick game of Can't Stop and did some work on our Puzzle as well.

Finally, I am still playing Hearthstone! Not as much as some of my friends, but I've gotten over the hump and and am making decent progress. I'm trying to get all nine heroes to at least level 15 right now, and I want to level them up together, as I think playing a Hero is the best way to learn how to beat it!

Not great, but I'm getting better!