Hello! Long time, no talk. It’s been a weird year. I haven’t been around too much, on your blogs or on mine. I’m hoping to change that, and decided to start back up with what I’m loving lately!
First, I should probably give a couple of life updates since it’s been a bit. The biggest thing that’s happened is that my Dog, Dakota, passed away in March. It was very, very hard and unexpected. He’d been acting weird and not eating, so I took him to the vet on a Tuesday evening thinking he just had an infection or something, and left after being told he had cancer and would need to be put to sleep the next day or very soon after. Wednesday morning, I made an appointment to bring him in later that day, but instead, he died on my lap at home several hours before the appointment. I really miss him. I still expect to see him and hear him, but I’m not ready for another dog right now.
On the good news front, I have made amazing progress on my weight loss post-surgery. I’ll talk a bit more about it below, and should probably do a whole post soon! Oh, and we also had our big author event here at work in March, that I also haven’t blogged about. It was AMAZING! Etaf Rum was amazing, and so is her book A Woman is No Man.
Anyway, onto the things I’ve been loving!
❤️ Granola butter
If you know me at all, you know that I hate peanut butter. You also know that I have a sweet tooth, but have had to cut waaaay back on my sugar intake since having my surgery last August. One day, I saw a Facebook ad for Oat Haus and promptly ordered 3 jars of Granola Butter, just on a whim… and holy cow, I’m obsessed. I bought it because I figured when I’m having a sweet craving, I could eat a spoonful of this to satisfy the craving. So far, so good, and I’m already planning my next order. It’s made out of oats! My favorite flavor so far is cookie dough, with vanilla being in second. Chocolate is number three (surprisingly). I’m planning on trying original and birthday cake when I do my next order. I am not being sponsored at all, but if you want to use my link to try it out, I’ll get a small commission.
❤️ Long weekend
I had a glorious four day weekend. I was off Monday for the holiday, and off Friday because I had worked the previous weekend. I wasn’t NEARLY as productive as I’d planned to be, but I had a good time never the less. Lots of family time, organized a bit around the house, watched some TV. We had a cookout at my parent’s house on Monday and we had homemade garbage plates and bananas foster for the first time (so good. Jerry made it).
❤️ Warmer weather
I don’t like hot weather at all, but I do enjoy warm-ish weather a bit so I can go for walks / jogs. It’s finally nice around here, so I’m hoping to pick running back up again soon with Caleb, like we did last fall. Oh, I don’t think I ever blogged about this either, but Caleb ran his first race on Thanksgiving with Jerry and me: the Turkey Trot! Anyway, the kids are loving playing outside, and as long as there’s a breeze, I don’t mind sitting out there. There’s a lot of stuff we should try to get done this summer outside: weeding, maybe attempting to plant something again (lol, we suck at gardening), fixing the doorbell, replacing the mailbox, etc. It never ends.
❤️ Nadine West (clothing subscription)
Now that I’ve lost a great deal of weight, I’m enjoy clothing again and decided to try out some of the clothing subscription services. I tried and enjoyed Short Story (for petite women), Stitch Fix, and Wantable (and will use all again at some point), but my favorite is Nadine West, which I discovered from a Facebook ad. It’s my favorite because the prices are pretty affordable compared to others, and the customer service has been outstanding when I’ve emailed on several occasions. I’ve loved basically every item of clothing they have sent so far! Again, I’m not being sponsored, I am just obsessed.
❤️ Rompers / Shorts
Another weight related thing… I’ve gone basically my whole life not wearing shorts. I’ve only worn pants, capris, or leggings with skirts and dresses because I’ve always hated my legs. They are still not where I want them to be, but I had a revelation last week. Wantable sent me a romper that I assumed I’d send back, but when I tried it on… I loved it, bare legs and all. I’ve decided I’ll wear rompers, shorts, and skirts / dresses without leggings this summer. It’s freeing to not care like I used to, and to not COMPLETELY hate my body. (PS I kept the romper.)
❤️ Tiny ice cream cones
Someone in one of my bariatric Facebook groups shared these tiny little Nestle “mini drum” ice cream cones and I am obsessed. They’re just a couple of bites, and the sugar content is low enough that I can easily tolerate one without getting sick. Yay!
❤️ Costco
Costco is always a mad house, and we don’t get much from there, but we’ve been going every weekend for the last few weeks. Holden is a little fat boy and LOVES the samples (he also eats flaming hot Cheetos), and we all like getting lunch at the little cafe. We also discovered these amazing almond danishes that they sell and they’re my new favorite. Also, so are these Crunchmaster crackers. Funny enough, I discovered both of these things at work in the break room. YUM.
❤️ Hitting my initial weight loss goal
Yesterday, I hit the initial goal weight that my surgeon gave me. However, when I saw her a couple of months ago, we readjusted it and now I’ve gotta lose 10 more to hit the revised goal. She changed it because I was doing well losing and she knew I’d hit the initial goal sooner than expected. She initially wanted me there by my one year anniversary on August 9th, but she figured I’d get there earlier than that… and I did! Personally, I want to lose about 30 more pounds, but I’m happy that I hit her initial expectation and goal for me. I hit this big milestone and I still can’t believe it sometimes. Less than 10 months ago, I was a totally different person. I had surgery. I changed my life. It’s all surreal at times and I am so fortunate and grateful that I changed my life in this way. In total, so far I have lost 110 pounds since surgery, and 135 from my highest. I have zero regrets!
❤️ Protein shakes
I hated protein shakes for a little bit after my liquid diet and post surgery liquid phase, but I’m back into them because I have a hard time hitting my daily protein goals. I usually just drink the premade ones from the stores, but there’s a local place that makes protein shakes and I loooove them. I usually go about once a week because they’re a bit expensive, but they’re delicious and taste like milkshakes.
That’s what I’ve been loving lately — now it’s your turn. What little things are making you smile right now?
No comments