Swimsuit review: Junonia

I ordered a new swimsuit from Junonia, and being the first time I ordered from them, I ordered a 4X. It fit fine everywhere except the bust (it squished the rack of doom something awful). So I called to return it and make sure it was available in a 6X in the color I wanted (turquoise, this one). Well, they only had the turquoise one in black in a 6X, so I ended up ordering this one instead. It was $20 more, and I had to pay return shipping on the one I returned to exchange, but it was so worth it.
I returned the turquoise one last week, and the black and hot pink one came today. I can tell you right now that I'll never order another swimsuit from anyone else ever again. When it comes to swimsuits, Junonia has all of my business forever, or as long as they're making swimsuits in my size. This is the first time I've ever had a swimsuit that the bra part of it actually fit the rack of doom and gave it support. The suit is easy to get in and out of, and it actually looks pretty good on me (I think I look good in it, which is saying something for me, I don't usually think that about swimsuits). The only thing that could be improved is that it's just a bit long in the torso for me, but I'm willing to deal with that for the way the rest of the suit fits so well.
I hated to spend that amount of money on a swimsuit, but now that I have the suit and have tried it on and compared it to every other less expensive swimsuit I've ever owned, it's well worth the $109.95 plus shipping that I paid for it (DH thinks so too, he likes the way I look in it).
If you're looking for a swimsuit, and have a rack of doom and are fat to boot, Junonia is the place to go. I can't recommend them enough (and no, I'm not getting anything from them for saying this).

A week off helped get my head back on straight

I took last week off...from everything weight loss related. I didn't post anything, I didn't track or weigh and measure any of my food. I read very few weight loss blogs and commented on even fewer. I worked out three times last week instead of my normal six, and they were light workouts.

After a fitful night of sleep last Monday (I'm sleeping the sleep of the damned again), I woke up up exhausted. My first thought that day was "I'm so tired I just can't do it today." Normally I ignore these thoughts. Exercise has become a habit after two years. That morning I decided maybe it was time to take a break.

I got up and looked at my exercise calendar and realized I hadn't had a day off from exercise since Easter. Fourteen straight days of exercise. My body was sore and tired. My left elbow and shoulder had been aching for days. An old injury that happened about six months ago when I was trying to lift 25-pound dumbbells when I wasn't ready to move up on weights.

My previous week's workouts had been pathetic. Each day was a struggle. Each day I'd written in my exercise journal something negative. "Too hard today!" or "Just not into it." or "Worst workout ever!" I was going through the motions but my heart wasn't in it.

I decided last Monday maybe it was time to ease up on myself a little. In the NRWL4W it says you should take a recovery week between stages. It talks about the necessity of letting the body recover, the connective tissues, nervous system and bones need a week off every once and a while. I've ignored this advice for over two years for fear of falling into another one of my long term bouts of not exercising at all and gaining back weight like it was my job (history repeating itself).

The previous week I lost four pounds and was down to 164.8. If you want to lose one pound you need a 3500 calorie deificit. Multipy that by four and that means I had a 14,000 calorie deficit the previous week. No wonder each workout had been tortuous and miserable. I was starving. I wasn't tracking my food, just eating a lot less.

Last week I was in the mood of "to hell with all of it". The one thing I continued was my ban on sugar. I ate good, healthy food. The cravings are still non-existent, the night-time binges are a thing of the past. I still get hungry, but nothing like when I was hooked on Weight Watcher ice cream bars and other "healthy" junk foods that are full of sugar.

My weigh in yesterday showed I was up 1.4 pounds. I'm not upset or worried about it, I'm not freaking out over the small gain. I needed the added calories. I needed to eat and take a break. I'm finally learning to listen to my body.

Yesterday my workout was probably one of the best workouts of my life. During my hour and forty-five minutes of cardio and strength, I was energized. I felt much stronger than the last several weeks. Taking a week off was probably the best thing I could have done for myself.

Yesterday I was back to tracking my food, making sure I eat enough, but not eating too much. It's a fine line I walk these days between not starving myself and making sure I'm getting in the calories I need, yet still lose weight. It feels good to be back, back in control, back to exercising. Back to being me.

Carpal tunnel surgery results

Well, I had my carpal tunnel surgery on February 5th, stitches came out 10 days later, and my hand is still numb. Doctor says it could take as long as 6 months for the numbness to go away, and I could still end up with some numbness all the time. I've never seen carpal tunnel surgery done where mine was done on my hand. I have an incision that's 1.5" long and starts at the heel of my hand, just above my wrist, and runs into the palm of my hand (I always thought it was done more in the wrist than in the hand). My hand is still sore on either side of the incision whenever I put any pressure on it, and when I was making some of the new curtains for the living room this weekend, it felt like it was burning under the incision (I think from the pressure of using the iron to press the hems/casings on the curtains).
I only did 4 panels, I still have 12 more to go. My hand is going to be killing me if I don't take it easy. I think what I may have to do is plan on pressing and sewing 2 panels a day, and doing them every other day in order to give my hand a chance to rest. It's not the sewing that bothered me so much, it was the ironing that did me in, putting enough pressure on the iron to get the wrinkles out of the fabric and making sure the hems and casings were pressed in crisply.
I did see the neurologist last week, and she wants to do another EMG in September to see how that nerve is healing (and she wants to check the ulnar nerve in my left arm, I told her I had damage to it from 15 years ago that nothing had ever been done about). So yay, I get to have two EMGs done in September.
I'm going to do what she said, and keep wearing my wrist brace at night and when I'm driving long distances (more than 30 miles or so). The doctor who did the surgery said I didn't need to wear it anymore, but he's an orthopedist, not a neurologist, so I'm going to go by what the neurologist says.