Early Weigh-In Results and Produce Haul

Yikes – it’s already almost the sixth month of the year! I’ve been feeling really good about how I’ve been eating, and even though June is still two days away, I decided I didn’t want to wait two more days before having my monthly weigh-in. So, this morning, I stepped on the scale.

DOWN FIVE POUNDS SINCE MAY FIRST!

Very exciting news. It wasn’t a complete surprise, since I’ve weighed myself a couple times over the past few weeks to see how I’m doing, but I’m still elated, especially since this month was a challenge, what with my surgery and my inability to exercise afterwards (I’m still not able to fully exercise, but I am walking a lot). I still have 10 pounds to go before I lose the 15 that I gained when I fell off the wagon, but I’m getting there!

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Awesome Product Alert: PB2

Peanut butter, along with almond butter and other nut butters, is one of those foods that I really can’t keep in the house. It has benefits, like protein and healthy fats, but I love it too much, and I can never limit myself to a serving size. I’ve eaten peanut butter with a spoon directly out the jar, and when you exceed a serving size, the cons start to outweigh the pros. Peanut butter is loaded with calories and fat.

While I was hanging out in Colorado last weekend, my sister and brother-in-law introduced me to a product that solves those problems. I instantly fell in love. It’s called PB2, and it’s Powdered Peanut Butter.

PB2 is a product that keeps all the stuff that’s great about peanut butter, and greatly reduces the bad stuff.

Greetings From the Centennial State!

I’m in Colorado! I came to visit my sister Sarah and her family for the long Memorial Day weekend. I’m leaving bright and early tomorrow morning, and it’s been a fun-filled few days, full of smart choices and restraint.

First, a health update: I’m healing quite well. The only real issue that I have to contend with is a giant, very uncomfortable hematoma that formed after the surgery. A hematoma is an internal pooling of blood, commonly in the form of a bruise, but this is much worse than a bruise, and in a very delicate area. I’m smart about it by wearing supportive clothing and not pushing myself physically, and there’s nothing I can do to speed up its healing, so I just have to live with it.

Anyhoo… I arrived in Colorado on Saturday morning, and as soon as we got back to Sarah’s house, we turned around and headed out for a walk. There’s a reservoir nearby, and walking to it, around it, and coming back equals about 2 miles. Here I am on the walk with Sarah and my niece (and Goddaughter) Allison:

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!