Kansas Pearl_VSG

I have been thinking a lot on food addiction which is the reason why a lot of people are overweight and although I can admit that I am a victim of this, to myself, I can't say it out loud to anybody.  I have never had an addictive personality, meaning I don't get addicted to things easily, or so I thought. I guess my entire life I have had this addiction and in ways, it is like the people I have been following on social media but in ways it is not.  I don't turn to food when I am angry or sad but I do celebrate with food, for example, when it is a birthday or anniversary, we go out to eat.  I think a lot of people do that but I want to change that for me, I want to celebrate with push ups LOL JK but I do want to change it.  I also don't eat that much food at one time, but I often think about my next meal soon after.  My husband, who doesn't have a food addiction, doesn't think about meals, doesn't plan meals, and  doesn't have a preference what we eat. ...

I have been thinking about a post for Evie for a very long time.  I love her down to my CORE and its strange to think that most of my life I didn't want a child of my own.   While most of my friends were naming their unborn children, I wasn't.  Some people didn't understand and they didn't have to, it wasn't for me, or so I thought.  I have very little patience and honestly, like I have mentioned previously, I knew I didn't want to pass down any weight issues to some innocent baby.  After I met Josh and Gracie, I knew that our family wasn't complete.  When we got married we decided to start trying because who knew how long it would take but ya know what, it took about 14 days ☺️.  In December we went to a Christmas party and we got a box of funny gifts and one of those was a pregnancy test.  One night, and for a reason I do not know, I decided to pull this odd looking pregnancy test out where you have to manually place your pee on to the stick wi...

Hi guys!  It is a great Sunday to be alive!  I have just been feeling so upbeat and excited to get whatever I can done.  It feels like I am nesting but not for a baby this time, nesting for surgery.  I won't be staying at my house for a couple of days after surgery (leaving a husband and child there) and then when I do come home my mom is coming with me to help clean up the house so I want to have everything clean before she comes to clean...you know what I am mean??  I also have been decluttering EVERYTHING.  Every cabinet, under the stairs, in all the rooms, every tote, the closets, I mean you name it and I have probably cleaned it.  Josh has been helping a lot too so we are GETTING  IT  DONE!  I am going to be making them frozen meals to use a little before surgery and the rest after surgery so I have been gathering those products and making list and checking them twice; I just feel ready....for everything.  I will share later ...

You would think that with YouTube being around so long and the amount of time I spend on social media that I would have at least an idea of how to run it, but I don't.  I mean, I know that I have a YouTube, and I know how to search for videos and watch them, but beyond that, I am clueless.  I am watching YouTube vides on how to make YouTube videos 😃  I don't have any videos yet but I have a name on there and a banner and TRUST ME....that took some serious time.  I have figured out where I will probably be filming and I even bought some back drops so I can appear to look like I know what I am doing.  Josh wants to know why I need a back drop and why I wouldn't be walking around......he doesn't get it either.  I mean, I know some people VLOG which is so cool but I am not that advanced yet. I need to be sitting and talking into something and then when I get comfortable, I can maybe move around BUT my videos are more informational videos so I don't know why I ...

NSV=Non Scale Victory Hopefully you will be reading a lot about NSVs I have.  Today I have two to share inches lost empty hangers Like I have said, I started this journey in January 2018 and honestly, I don't like to have my picture taken and I definitely did not want to know how many inches around my body was BUT after reading a lot about how you should, for days where you don't see progress on the scale or in the mirror, you can look back at measurements and pictures AND my husband kept bugging me about it, so I decided to take measurements.  Pictures are another story; he has snapped many unflattering ones of his own and I am sure I will thank him down the road.  Anyways, I took the measurements in February and today....here are the results SO FAR: 4 inches lost in my arm 3 inches lost in my neck 8.5 inches lost in my chest 7.5 inches lost in my thigh 1.5 inches lost in my calf 10.5 inches lost in my belly 5 inches lost hip/butt area (I can'...

November 1st means CHRISTMAS DECORATING!!! I love everything about Christmas.  I especially love the lights and the music so I put lights all over the inside of my house while listening to Mariah Carey in the background.  My favorite is waking up before everybody (maybe not Evie) and the only light being the Christmas tree; its magical.  Then of course comes the first snow and this year it was a little more special because I get to see it all through Evie's eyes.  Although she calls everything a snowman (she is confused and I can't wait for her to really see a snowman) she is so EXCITED about it all.  When I turned on the Christmas lights she squealed and cheered because last year she was just too little to really care or get it.  Then, when I turned on the carousel that plays Christmas songs, she got the biggest smile on her face and stood up clapping and dancing, and then yesterday, as the snow fell and covered the ground, she would get up every so often ...

There is nothing like being supported by people who have the same goals as you, and in my situation that means HEALTH.  There are so many different paths to get there and I will cheer you on no matter what path you are taking.  I am so thankful for the Facebook groups, Instagram community, and YouTubers that all have gone through weight loss surgery or who are about to.  Being a part of those groups means I get to see how people are doing 10 year after surgery, 1 year after surgery, 1 day after surgery, and how they are preparing for their surgery. I would be LOST without all of them.  Of course the hospital gave me a book that talks about nutrition and stages and simple things like that, but these people give me their experience!  They do reviews on items so I don't waste my time, they do giveaways so you can save money, they show you all kinds of ideas for food and exercise, they show pain and issues they run into that I might run in to.....it is just amazing....

Josh is the kind of guy that you know the ladies look at but he doesn't know that.  He doesn't talk some  big game and when he was trying to win me over, he didn't use lines and sexual harassment to do it.  He has big thoughts but isn't one to tell you he is right and you are wrong; he likes digging into things and finding out WHY.  He has the biggest smile and when he gets excited about something he does little jigs or waves his hands in the air.  Josh cares what people think of him so I like to think that one of my purposes here is to teach him not to or at least care a little less (we are getting there.)  I stare at him A LOT, I love when he wears his hat backwards, he makes a simple white t-shirt look sexy as hell, and his lips are soo soft.  He makes me really mad a lot of the time but at the end of the day, I wouldn't trade him for the world. Josh is unbelievably handsome  a hard worker always willing to help others a j...

So I decided it was time to tell my work place that I would be off for about 3 weeks at the end of the year and some of January so that we could all be prepared.  The hospital had talked to me about FMLA and when I asked my supervisor who to talk to about it, she stated Human Resources.  In my entire work life, I have never had to use FMLA, I know it stands for Family Medical Leave Act, and I know it protects your job, but thats about it.  I requested a meeting with the HR lady, she accepted, and then a week later I was standing in her office.  She stares at me like why the hell are you here, I remind her we have a meeting about FMLA, and she says "I thought there would be a lot more people here"  I am going to type the conversation in an easier read format below HR: I thought there would be a lot more people Me: Nope, just me and you HR: WHO IS HAVING THE MEETING? Me: Me and you HR: blank stare Me: I scheduled with you last week to meet about requesting ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! So Friday was my 31st birthday and I spent the day listening to Evie tell me happy birthday and sing me happy birthday and then we went out to eat Mexican food and had a donut with candles so she could blow them out.  Saturday, we spent the day with my parents and ate dinner with them and then went down to the local bar with friends and had a Hippie themed night.   Josh got me a printer/scanner that I desperately need working from home, my parents got me some pajamas for after surgery and some cash, which I also need, and my friends got me some alcohol, a cute glass, and a Starbucks gift card.  THANK YOU ALL. **** I was nervous after Colorado to weigh in because in 9 months I have only gained one time and I didn't want this to be my second but THANK GOODNESS I lost 1.6 lbs!  I did work really hard last week and did cardio more than usual to try to offset anything I did gain and it worked luckily. After another weekend of some junk food an...