Tuesday, August 31, 2010

How to order Bandwagon

I hope to get my shopping cart feature set up on this blog by the end of this week, and Bandwagon will be available on amazon by mid-September, but in the meantime, you can order an autographed copy by sending an e-mail to:

jmcmillan159@gmail.com

When I receive your e-mail, I'll tell you where to send your check or money order. The book is $19.95. (It's a BIG book, because as you know, I always have a LOT to say on the subject of the adjustable gastric band.) Shipping/handling costs are $3.00 for media mail or $5.00 for priority mail.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Oh, happy day!

When I got home from a long day of retail drudgery this afternoon, a happy surprise awaited me...a carton full of my freshly printed book, Bandwagon! Although I almost immediately found a tiny but irritating typo (my fault) in the front pages, I am thrilled! On Monday I will start shipping orders for autographed copy, and next week will get a shopping cart feature set up here on my blog site, and when that's done, my Obesity Help ads will go live.
I finished writing the book exactly one year ago. Getting it published has taken longer than I would have liked, but it all seems worthwhile right now. Oh, happy day!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Before & After, again

Trying to look happy in 1995, versus actually being happy in 2011.









Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Emotional eating

I do most of my exercise at a new fitness studio owned by a woman named Caroline. She's about my age (50 something), has a BS in health & exercise science and 30 years experience in the fitness field. Her approach to exercise has made an enormous difference in my life and I think it's helping my fibromyalgia as well as my muscle tone, flexibility, balance, and cardio fitness. I have a lot of confidence in Caroline.

About a week ago, I had Caroline do a postural assessment of me because I think some of my pain problems may be postural, and on Friday I'm starting the first of 4 personal training sessions with her (if it goes well and I can afford it, we'll do more than 4). While talking about my fitness and health goals, Caroline asked me a few questions about my band surgery. One of them was, "What has been the hardest thing for you to deal with since your surgery?"

Good question. I answered, "The hardest thing has been learning ways to deal with stress, boredom, and emotions that don't involve food."

She said, "Huh. I never thought of it that way before." At the time I thought it was a slightly weird answer, but maybe I had misunderstood her. Had she meant that she'd thought that weight loss surgery removes ALL eating urges, physical and emotional?

A few days later we were alone in the studio while waiting for the rest of the class to arrive, and Caroline said, "I've been thinking what you said the other day, about the challenge of dealing with emotional eating when you're trying to lose weight. I just hadn't ever thought of that aspect of it before, but it's very interesting."

At that point, other students started coming in, so our conversation ended. But ever since then, I've been wondering how on earth Caroline could spend 30 years in the fitness field, including a bachelor's degree in health and years of working as a personal trainer with people trying to lose weight, and never before encounter the reality of emotional eating?

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Food deprivation

I now have more fill in my band than I've had for over a year, and wow, what a difference. The kind of difference that makes a bandster cry, "So this is what it's all about!" I'm not eating much and not hungry much, I'm losing weight, I feel good, but I also feel a bit discombobulated. When I have to stop eating after only 3-4 bites of food, my mind says, "No, no, that's not enough." I feel deprived and am tempted to take another bite, but if I do that, I invariably regret it.

Last night I felt as if I must have eaten only 500 calories for the whole day, but when I logged my food, it totalled 1000 calories, with 70 grams of protein and a good assortment of healthy carbs and fats. So I have to reassure my anxious little brain that I am not starving to death!