Slice of Healthy, Please: November 2011

This was my weigh in this morning on the Wii.

WARNING: This will be a long post! lol I have lots of pictures to share.

Take a look at this! I'm so excited! I weigh 198 lbs. ONE-DERLAND!!!! I made it! Wow! I weighed last night and I was at 199.2 .... so I lost .9 lbs. over night. What an awesome feeling. I thought I had gained over this last week because I ate so many things I shouldn't have but I told myself, that while on vacation if I wanted something, I would have it so that I wouldn't feel deprived. Well, I sure didn't deprive myself..that's for sure. Most days, I got all of my protein and liquid in but I had a few days that it just seemed impossible because we were running here and there. I'm not sure why I didn't gain anything but maybe the fact that even when I indulged in the forbidden foods, I didn't have much because my stomach can only hold so much at a time or perhaps all the walking and climbing we did counter acted the junk calories I took in. I'm not sure why I continued to lose but I have to say that if this last week would have been a week without my sleeve, I would surely have gained 5-10 lbs. Thank you sleeve...I heart you! :) It is so nice to know that if I mess up for a week, I don't pack weight back on...in fact, I still continued to lose. I'm so shocked by this. This is totally opposite of what it was like with the "before sleeve" reality.

I'll share our vacation with you. We have never taken a "vacation" trip during a holiday week. This year has been stressful and we needed a breather. So we went to Branson, Missouri. Actually, Kimberly, MO. This is about 8 hours from where we live...Texas. It was cold, in the low 40's, but it was fun. The first night we stayed in a one room cabin. We liked it but it was expensive and didn't have a full kitchen which was important to us being that we were going to be there for a week and we didn't want to eat out for every meal. Isn't it cute though?

After that, we found a condo with a very close balcony view of a lake. It was very nice but the bed was as hard as a rock. Don't get me wrong, I slept...just not comfortably. We mainly went to Branson for Silver Dollar City. They had over 4 million Christmas lights. It was beautiful! They also had many Christmas shows and of course, lots of rides for our son. I think I will just shower this page with lots of pictures. Some pictures didn't turn out so great because it was night time and our camera wasn't cooperating. Go figure! Anyways, we had a blast and my energy level was soaring! My mood was good and I felt like I could conquer the world. Past vacations I sat on the sidelines, felt sluggish, and tired a good amount of the time. I know this time was different because of the weight loss. Not only not dragging all that extra weight around but also my hormones don't feel totally out of control. It's so weird and I know I have a long ways to go but I feel like a new person. We even went down into a cave that was physically challenging. You had to go down steep stairs that equaled a 50 story building. When we reached the bottom my legs were trembling. But I was okay and able to keep going. My hips gave me no trouble and I had the energy to lug around what weight I do still carry. We went through the rest of the cave, going up and down steep passages. Then at the end, we had to climb 10 stories worth of steep stairs. It was hard but I did it! I was a huffin' and a puffin' but in the end, I was "A" okay! We also tromped all over Silver Dollar City which is in the hills. Up and down hills all day long for 3 days. It felt good! It was a lot of fun! My leg muscles were sore. We were going to go for a 4th day but the crowds were so bad that we decided to do some other things like bowling, swimming in the indoor swimming pool, and we played some games at the condo.

We had a great Thanksgiving! I hope y'all did too!

Down time in the condo.

We went to the Springfield, MO Discover Center. This was a lot of fun for all of us.

Bouncy bridge! I tried this, too, and it was very bouncy and fun.

Tops table!

234 cans! Wow!

Pull yourself close to the poll and it would go super fast. This thing nearly made me sick! Of course, you don't see a picture of me doing it. lol

About to go flying! Look at his face.

He has his hands on a static machine. You can't see it but the guy's hand is making his hair go up and down. It was funny as you can see us laughing.

Then it was my turn. Can you see my hair standing up? It was pulled up in a pony tail. We decided to let my hair down to see what would happen. See the next pictures.

Yes, my hair goes down to my butt. These pictures just don't do justice to what that static machine was doing to my hair. It was everywhere. It's hard to see it all.

Talk about a bad hair day!

I think this was called a pixel board. We had fun with it.

This is a drinking fountain...made to make you squirm a little. They did it to play with your mind. Did we drink from it? No way! I just couldn't!

A real human brain.

Inside the eyeball.

This was one of my favorite things. I just love bubbles, especially when they're this huge!

Can you believe this?

He's being eaten! lol'

Then we got to pretend we were doing a news caption. This was fun too.

He looks really serious here! Something big must have happened! lol

He was 3 stories in the air. It took awhile for him to conquer his fear but he did it! I'm so proud! Look at his face.

Now look at his face...he's calm and having fun!

Silver Dollar City

Glass blowing

Holiday spirit? Ha! Don't ask...lol

Just beautiful! This was a huge display ... look at its reflection in the water.

Look! Santa Claus!

Okay...this was the only ride I rode. I'm not a ride kind of person. I hate the way it makes me feel. This was fun though!

This is one of the many rides they rode together.

Isn't this just the sweetest thing? My baby!

Major huggins!

Gettin' some lovins!

He's having his hand made into a wax statue. This was really cool. I'll have to take a picture of the final art piece.

See my guys on there. You don't see me on there! Are you crazy? lol This ride had 5 loops in it. Acckkkk!

Silver Dollar City: Marvel Cave

This was the beginning of our cave tour. See the picture behind her. This was were we would be traveling by foot.

In the cave now.

Going down steep stairs that equaled a 50 story building.

Back to the rides:

Bouncy bridge!

They had a live Nativity play. This was after the play was over.

On our way home, we took some back roads through Arkansas. This is Beaver, AR. This is a really long, one lane wooden bridge. You don't see this every day.