Bessie's Babes

Update

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 03:15:00 GMT

Wow, I realized today it had been awhile since I stopped in and added to the blog. I am doing ok, I have lost almost all the weight I gained over the holidays and this past week or so I have had a terrible sinus infection that has zapped me of most of my energy. The gym will have to wait for next week so that I can just recoup and get better. Thanks to everyone who stops by and shares with us, it really does mean a great deal to us. Losing weight and making lifestyle changes is not easy we all find it easy to go back to the place we are comfortable. For me it's hiding out behind turtleneck tops and eatting fried food and then wondering why I gain weight. I am an emotional eater and to add injury to insult I worry all the time. There used to be a time I'd worry about eveyrthing but I truly am working at making my worries be about family, friends and things I have control over. My New Year's resolution is to make sure when I speak up that my intent is not to harm or hurt and if it is not one of those than to speak but remember to be kind when I speak. I am working at building my inner self confidence.

On another note I look at our web page and it amazes me.. now you might think I am bragging and I am but not about me... but about Kim, she has worked so hard on this site and done a fabulous job. She is an amazing person with courage and strength beyond words and she has a heart the size of a country. We consider ourselves blessed to have her and her family as part of ours.

Well it's time to call it a night, this week I will focus on reducing my calorie intake and next week ramp up th exercise again! Have a great week and keep up the good work!

It's 2 AM, shouldn't I be asleep?

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:15:17 GMT

So, as stated, it's two o'clock Saturday morning, and I'm awake... wide awake, with a pain that does not want to go away. I know it will, but it seems like it should be gone by now. Until it goes away, my mobility is limited, and that SUCKS (and it makes me very cranky!) I'm trying real hard to be satisfied with the fact that surgery went well, which it did, and I am ecstatic about that, but I am tired of the pain. It doesn't help that the surgeon thinks I should be back to leading a routine life by now either. I am not making this up. He makes me feel like he thinks I'm a whiner/hypochondriac/attention seeker. Okay, so on that note, enough of the whining! I have improved on my snacking this week, although I had pizza tonight, and enjoyed every bite of it! I have managed to lose a couple of pounds while laying around this week, so, I'm proud of that. If only I could combine it with some exercise... I do have to say that if I ever lose enough weight to show off my stomach again, I am going to have to come up with a good story for the inch and a half long scar I have. Gonna have to work on that!

Kathy got to go to a Silvertips (the local team) game tonight. I hope she had a good time. We have barely talked this week, and that is strange. I am sleeping all different hours though and rarely find myself awake when she is near a phone!

I've enjoyed checking in with different profiles and seeing how everyone is doing. Everyone is working so hard and should be proud of any and all progress they make! Keep up the great work, and try and fun while you are doing it! ~ Kim

Sunday Update

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 03:44:34 GMT

First, to those who are supporting Kim and I thank you so very much. Kim had her surgery on Wednesday and all went well. She has had a couple of challenges since the surgery, not feeling well, needing stitches and still at the end of the day taking time to see how I am ... she is a remarkable friend! She is such a strong woman and I am so proud of her and all that she has endured and overcome, she is an inspiration. You know she goes through this and still is working to make sure she is looking at what she is eatting. WOW!

As for me this weekend was the first time I really really made serious attempt to watch what I ate and make wiser choices. It's amazing to me that I can do ok without all the picking that I so love to do on the weekends. I allow myself some simple treats but realize that treats can't be on a daily basis and some can't even be on a monthly basis. When I went back home to WI I ate 1/2 a pizza (if you have ever eaten Drag's pizza) you know and 1/2 is goooooood! And I allowed myself some of other food favorites, one in particular was I asked my sister to fry chicken like our Mom did when she was alive..... something about going home and gathering in the kitchen you just feel that ole comfort food kick in.

So this weekend stresses from work got me up early (too early) went to the office and then to get rid of some of the stress I went to the gym and had a great workout.... This is year two for me on eating better, exercising and reclaiming my health! My challenge to conquer this year is the weekends and gaining self control on my choices.. you know no couple of pices of candy, or pick fries off my husbands plate (his diet is changing too this year) shhhh don't tell him he's not ready to hear it. And you know just really looking at what I am eating and if I choose something special to enjoy it!

This week I will be ramping up to level 4 on the elyptical which makes me nervous but happy.... I think I have become comfortable at level 3.. wish me luck...Tomorrow is weigh in for me so keep your fingers crossed and look for changes in the ticker....

Good luck to everyone this week you can do it together we can succeed!!!

Energy

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:35:51 GMT

Good Morning, well today is the day of Kim's surgery I keep only positive thoughts and want to help in any way I can. Today that is spending the day with Kylee and Kim is right be day's end I will be tired but it will be a very rewarding type of tired. So to prepare I am a crazy woman who started the day at the gym and got on the scale afterwards... oh my my treats from Christmas showed up and now my mind is so set to show a weight loss on Monday not that it wasn't before but a weight but yikes the truth is I had fun and now just need to regroup and stay focused on making better food choices. Why can't peas and carrots taste like brownies???

Kim: Yeah on your test I am so happy for you its gotta feel good to have it read normal.

Well I am off to finish getting ready because Kylee and I have a lunch date and I need to make sure to wear my small jeans so I don't indulge. Have a great day!

Nervous energy

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 01:23:02 GMT

I have spent the last day and a half cleaning / rearranging my daughter's room. Wow! Did I sweat while I was doing that? Kathy laughed at me yesterday. As she says, she has taken to rambling and I have taken to cleaning! We seem to rub off on each other. I switched from drinking apple juice all day to drinking water, with just an eight ounce glass of juice that I sipped off of all day for the taste. As Kathy said, we went to dinner last night. I wanted to get one of my usual meals, but I knew I would eat it all. Not because I was hungry, just because it tasted good. So I chose to eat chips and salsa (yeah, I know, and made it even worse by having sour cream with them!) and get my taste from a taco and fill up on the salad. Did I do anything "low-cal"? No. BUT, I did decrease my usual portions. I'm okay with that. I feel that portion control is something I really need to work on. And true, when my husband got home at 11:30 last night, I was hungry. But instead of the usual full meal that I eat when he gets home, I had 1/2 cup of chicken noodle soup. When I woke up at 4:30 this morning and thought I was hungry, I grabbed a tangelo instead of the aforementioned snacks. So, while it wasn't a great day... it was okay. My psyche has to go after those okay days to work up to the great days, or else I feel I have failed and am therefore defeated.

I go in for surgery tomorrow. I hate the thought of going under anesthesia, (by the way, why isn't there a spell check on here?) and am trying to keep busy so that I don't munch my way through the day. I'm doing okay. I have had a chocolate-chip cookie today, but it has taken me four hours to eat it. I go in, I take a nibble to satisfy the craving and then walk away. Again, baby steps. I so badly want to stress eat today.

Hey Kathy - I forgot to tell you, my thyroid test FINALLY came back normal yesterday! Five and a half months of battling with it, and it is finally leveling out again. Yay! No more palpitations...no more medication to combat the palpitations!

Do you know that when I went in for the first appointment with my plastic surgeon (doesn't that just sound ... snotty!) he told me that he could reconstruct my breasts, but unless I lost weight I wouldn't be able to show off his work - or something to that effect. Oh, how I wanted to kill him. I wanted to scream at him, "I have cancer, do you really think I care!?" And you know, I still think he was out of line. BUT, he was right. And now, when I go in for a recheck in three to six months, I'm going to make him proud of his work. Not because I want to make him proud, but because I want to be able to wear tight fitting shirts again and make people look. I don't want them to look because they want to see if they can see the difference. They will look, because I'm gonna look good! Want to know one of the things I am really afraid of after tomorrow.? Ater the (4 cup) reduction (that's being done on the "non-cancerous" side) which will even everything out, I'm afraid that my tummy will stick out farther than my breasts. How vain is that!?!? But I can't remember that ever being the case. And yet, another reason to lose weight!

Kathy is going to watch my three and a half year old tomorrow while I am "under the knife." She's (Kathy) gonna be exhausted (mentally, if not physically) by the end of the day! Chasing Kylee all day is a different sort of exercise than Kathy is used to. I know my daughter is in trustworthy hands and I know they will have a great time. I just wonder who will tell the better stories?

I hope everyone feels successful over the next few days! Remember the little steps are as important as the big ones. ~ Kim

Today's Challenge

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:01:10 GMT

Well today I took the challenge presented by Cindy and Colleen's, to not take the elevator and there were five opportunities today in which I choose the stairs... So thanks to the team that set the challenge, I will continue to make that choice this week. Kim and I went to dinner tonight and I so wanted the Enchilada with cheese and a taco and although I still ate a taca salad and most of the shell it was still a better option thanks to Kim. Just as I was all set to order something filled with lots of fatty cheese Kim ordered a salad a taco.. it was just the gentle reminder I needed to keep me focused on our goals. It is much nicer to have someone in the effort with me even better when it's yoru best friend. Well here's to the end of another day and hopes for a better tomorrow.

Sunday Supper

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 01:49:18 GMT

You know, I have dinner every other night of the week. Sunday's though, Kylee and I have supper! That's because we get together every Sunday with Dan and Kathy and then watch the reality show of the month. It has become our routine. It's our "family" time. And it's very special. But I just told Kylee we were going to Sunday Supper with Aunt Kaki and Uncle Dan. I don't have supper...I have dinner!

A little about me

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 07:08:19 GMT

Kim here... As Kathy said, I'm the one in the lovely hat! I've been married to a wonderful man for the last four and a half years. I have a twenty-five year old son, a ten year old step-son and a three and a half year old daughter. I also have a lovely daughter-in-law, a grandson who is five months older than my daughter, and another grandchild on the way. I am currently a stay-at-home mom, although I am trying to find some at-home transcription work.

Kathy and I have each had our own journeys this last year. I know that mine would have been much more difficult if she hadn't been walking beside me. I'm so proud of her. She's lost fifty pounds in the last year. How phenominal is that!? Me... I lost twenty pounds (on what we call the chemo diet) and then gained it back. I don't recommend that diet to anyone, by the way. You know, I had kind of hoped that if I was going to have to go through all that, I would at least get to keep the weight off, but nooo! So, now I get to go about it the old-fashioned way. And I have to say, I'm so glad to be here to do it!

On January 19, 2007, at age 40, following my first mammogram (Please note, this is why you get them!) which my doctor had said I was getting only because of my age, not because of anything she noticed, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Following a lumpectomy it was determined that there was more cancer than originally thought, but, luckily it hadn't spread to the lymph nodes. So I had Stage II breast cancer. Yippee yay! I had a mastectomy on March 2. I completed the usual two rounds of chemo on August 29, and finished radiation on October 25. A couple of weeks after finishing chemo I started going back to the gym. When I started to lose weight, the radiation oncologist told me I couldn't until I was done with radiation! Then, I finished radiation and started having side effects to one of the medications I was on and still couldn't start back to the gym!

So, here we are. In four days I go in for my final reconstruction surgery, followed by two weeks when I won't be able to lift over five pounds. The gym will still have to wait. In the meantime, I am going to try and go back to eating better. That is my first goal. I've fought hard this year to be here. I'm going to stay! I need to lose some weight to help achieve that.

Kathy and I used humor, A LOT, last year. I imagine we will do the same for this. As cliche' as it is, humor really does help. When we talk, we keep saying that this is going to be fun. I know it will be. I even think the harder we work, the more fun it will be! I hope that each of us, and each of you, can look back on this and smile. Best of luck on your journey!

Beginning

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:14:27 GMT

As can see we are getting our photos up and next will be our blog and why we are doing this. I am thrilled to be sharing this experience with Kim she's the good looking one in the hat.. We have shared so much that sharing this seemed so fitting. We will succeed with challenge as we have met other challenges in the past we will meet this one head on and with a "can do" kick ass attitude.

An Invitation for a Friend

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:44:32 GMT

You have had such an amazing journey this year. Through it all, you were there to encourage me through mine. I hope you know how much I admire what you have accomplished. You should be so proud of yourself. Now comes the next leg. Can I tag along? Okay...after this last surgery/recovery, then can I tag along? Will you allow me to grab your coattails and use you as my reference point? Will you be my partner for the million pound match-up?

Photo Album: January 04, 2008

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:08:19 GMT

January 04, 2008

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Photo Album: April 7, 2007

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 02:49:44 GMT

April 7, 2007

Kim and Scott

Dan, Kathy and Kylee

Custom List: Kim's Goals

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 07:26:49 GMT

Kim's Goals

Participate in Race for the Cure this year
Stop eating dinner with Scott
I know it sounds terrible, but my husband gets home from work at 11:00 at night.
Eat smaller portions
I really should be able to move after I eat!
Improve eating habits
If I can't cut out the snack, at least make them healthier
Lose two pounds per week
Support Kathy
In whatever way she needs it!

Custom List: Cindy & Colleen's Weekly Challenge

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 07:25:40 GMT

Cindy & Colleen's Weekly Challenge

January 6, 2008
No more elevators... take the STAIRS!
January 14, 2008
Start in the middle of the grocery store, work your way to one end. Go back to the beginning and go to the other end.That's an extra half mile or so!
Their site

Custom List: Kathy's Goals

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 03:14:01 GMT

Kathy's Goals

Breast Cancer Walk
Begin to work with everyone to get our team in place and pick our hats!
Eat Healthy
Choose Better Options
Lose 50 Pounds this year
Continue with the gym
Weights and Cardio three times a week.
Walk Colby
3 Nights a week Colby will get walked and hopefully once a week at Green Lake
Support Kim
This is an always!