Macrae’s Spaghetti Sauce

There aren’t tons of upsides to having surgery, but one of the upsides after I got home from the hospital was having a huge vat of spaghetti sauce in the fridge. My cousin Macrae brought it over so my mom and I had good, healthy food already prepared while I recuperated, and we made good use of it.

The sauce is loaded with vegetables and lean meat, has tons of flavors, and is thick and satisfying. I’ve now eaten it as part of four meals. The first time was over whole wheat spaghetti (which I forgot to photograph). I’ve also had it over a spinach salad…

Health Update, Button Update

After staring at it on my to-do list for a month, I finally sewed the button back on that had popped off my pants as a result of my recent weight gain.  The pants have red accents, so I used a bold red thread.

Project Runway, here I come!  I’ve lost a few pounds since popping that button, and while I haven’t worn the pants since the repair, I have a good feeling it won’t pop again.

Here’s the bigger, more exciting update – the one about my health (and other stuff):

My Roller Coaster Day

It’s been an up-and-down sorta day. It started with a double-whammy: it’s been great having my mom here to help out while I recover from my surgery, but I took her to the airport bright and early this morning so she could hop a plane back to Michigan. It was a bummer to see her ago, and I’m man enough to admit that I already miss her.

Despite the circumstances, we had a nice visit (it also helped that the outcome of the surgery provided so much good news). We saw extended family a couple times, and before the surgery we had a nice meal out and saw “The Great Gatsby.” The other day we both wanted to get out of my place for a little while, so we turned a trip to Trader Joe’s into a pleasant scenic drive, where I pointed out a few celebrity homes and stopped at two very scenic overlooks on Mulholland, the road that winds across the top of the Hollywood Hills.

I only see my mom a couple times a year, and luckily for me, I’ll get to see her (and my dad) in about a month, so that will be really nice. Plus, she left behind presents in my freezer in the form of healthy food:

The top shelf, and part of the second shelf, has

It’s Not Cancer. Phew!

I’m back at home, hopped up on pain pills, with good news to report: I don’t have cancer. Woohoo!

My surgery was yesterday, and it went swimmingly. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? Catch up here.) The good news actually started coming in before the operation began.

Do You Have the Stones?

If you’re looking for an update about my impending surgery, you’ll have to wait a little longer. I wrote this post a few days ago and scheduled it for today, just to have some fresh content up. You know, because I’m an awesome blogger! Speaking of the surgery, a big thank you for all the messages of concern, support, love, and well wishes – they’ve been coming in from all over the place, and even though I haven’t been able to respond to all of them, I’ve read them and appreciated them!

Anyway, because the surgery will keep me away from strenuous exercise for 2-4 weeks, I decided I better get my fill of Slimmons classes while I could. So, last week, I went twice, with Thursday being my last class for a while.

It was a really fun class, and Richard Simmons was his

Surgery

There’s a lot to talk about in this post, but I thought I’d kick things off with a quickie update: It’s been one week since my beginning-of-the-month weigh-in, and yesterday I stepped on the scale and was down 2 pounds. Woo-hoo!

Moving on…

If you’ve been a diligent Keep It Up, David reader (and I know each and every one of you has been, right?), than you’ll remember that, about a month ago, I fell off the wagon (and directly onto a pile a junk food) and stayed off the wagon for a couple weeks after a health concern unexpectedly threw me for a major loop. As the aforementioned two pounds shows, I’m back on the wagon and making progress on losing the weight I gained, but I left you in the dark about what else is going on. Well, you won’t be in the dark for much longer. Here’s what’s going on:

The Double-D Workout Challenge!

Greetings!

A great big hello to any new readers out there. I got a ton of traffic yesterday because the Everyday Health column about me was featured on the AOL Homepage – what a wonderful surprise to wake up to! So… I welcome any new readers that are sticking around (and I hope you do!) – and don’t forgot to follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

Last week, during my weigh-in post, I mentioned that I’ve been communicating with my two sisters in an ongoing text message stream as a way to stay accountable and check in about how we’re doing. I find it very helpful and fun, but it’s just one of two things that I’ve started in the past couple weeks to help with accountability. The other is…

…The Double-D Workout Challenge!

Check It Out: New Everyday Health Article!

About a month ago, I got contacted by an editor at Everyday Health, a big health and wellness website. And by ‘big,’ I mean ‘gigantic’ – they get 20 million unique visitors a month. They were starting a new column featuring weight loss success stories, and the editor was curious if I’d be interested in being featured. Heck yea! I provided some photos and answered a bunch of questions and woke up today to an email saying that my column was published. Happy Friday to me! Check out my Everyday Health column by clicking here.

I filled out the questionnaire before I had my most recent weigh-in and before I fessed up to the troubles I’ve been having this month, but I just reread what I wrote, and it all rings true, and is all good advice for the situation I find myself in now. So nice that the me of the past is looking out for the me of the future!

In other news, today marks the end of the first week of getting back on track. 

The Damage…

…has been done.

It’s the first day of May, and that means it’s time for a weigh-in. Wanna see what two weeks of uninhibited eating and no exercise did to me? Here, take a look at my scale:

That right there is a fifteen pound gain. But, believe it or not, I’m pretty sure there’s good news too.

A Tight Squeeze

Things are still going pretty well, ladies and gentlemen. I’m now on Day 5 of getting back on track, which means 5 days of making good food choices and 5 days of exercise (I haven’t worked out yet today, but I will).  On Sunday, I made a big crockpot of chicken and veggie soup, so I’ve been enjoying that for my lunches. I’ve brought workout clothes to work, so I can get my exercise in after I’m done in the office.

While it’s a big improvement from how I was eating last week, I haven’t been perfect.