It’s been a month

Since I’ve been here.  I’ve been in a bit of a funk diet wise.  Yes, I’m still eating healthy for the most part and with the days being longer, I’m getting a good bit more exercise.  Most nights I get home from work and don’t even go in the house until almost dark.  I’ve been riding the horses and camping a lot – all of which leaves almost NO down time to blog or read or even surf the internet much any more.  I couldn’t tell you the last time I sat down to just watch a TV show!  lol

On the weight loss front, I was at a stand still for 3 weeks.  Didn’t go up or down by even a half pound.  It was extremely frustrating.  Then when I quit stressing about it, I dropped 4 lbs in 2 days.  Yes that’s right between this past Friday morning and Sunday morning I dropped 4.  Yes I got on and off and on and off that scale (which mocks me mercilessly), it said the same thing every time.  I even drug hubby in and made him get on just to be SURE that it wasn’t broken.  (digital scale) It’s not broken, it’s telling the truth!  🙂

And hubby it seems has dropped from a 36 inch waist down to a 32 in two months.   *sigh*  It is just NOT fair!!

I am starting to see the weight loss in little areas that are completely unexpected.  When riding Saturday, it felt like my riding boots were flopping around on my feet.  I am down a full pants size and wearing things that I haven’t worn in a long time.  Looks like both hubby and I will need a new wardrobe soon!

 

 

Me and Dusty tackling the rock fields last Saturday at the Walls of Jericho

 

 

 

me and Patches at Bankhead National Forest – 03/31/12

 

 

Feb 26  Bankhead

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ate out tonight for the first time…

Our normal weekly treat  is to go somewhere and have a sit down meal on Friday night.  Poor Chris has been just dying because he’s not getting to eat from his favorite restaurants lately.  (that was sarcasm by the way)

So this evening when we got home, I was feeling adventurous so I suggested dinner out.  You would have thought I gave him 10,000 dollars.  We decided to go to Cracker Barrel because he LOVES their country fried steak and fixings, plus I could get some ‘mushy’ food there.   I had the beef stew, slaw and cornbread.  It was really good, and I didn’t have a bit of trouble eating the stew and cornbread, but the slaw was a little much still, two bites and that was enough – gave it to him.  I ate very slow and thoroughly chewed and enjoyed every bite.  I realized how badly I miss having cornbread, it was really good.   I ate most of it, didn’t want to stop eating, but when I started feeling that topped off feeling I quit.  No need to over eat and have it come back up – and trust me – it has to go somewhere and follows the path of least resistance!

 

After dinner we stopped by Walmart to check on a tip Melanie gave me about some protein shots.  I picked up 3 flavors and will try them tomorrow.   I’ll let you know how that goes.

Hopefully I’ll like at least one of them and that will really help me out a lot.

And here’s a big shout out to my new friend Cristyl, she got her approval for surgery from BCBS today and her surgery is scheduled for the 15th, so y’all keep her in your prayers.   I met her at the nutrition class and we hit it off.  She’s a horse person too and actually lives fairly close by.

Morning Weigh In

 

Haven’t been on the scales in a few days so I decided to weigh in this morning…..

Down 2 more pounds – brings it to 16 total in 16 days.   Wow huh?  At this rate (and I KNOW that this rate will not continue but a girl can dream, right??) I will be at goal weight by mid March.   Yeah right, lol.   Seriously though, I have been thinking about goals and I probably need to set some, especially since I’m now slowly introducing ‘soft mushy’ food into my meal plan.  Right now I think I just want to get another 15 lbs off during December.  That will put me below 220, a place I haven’t been in 3 years.  So that’s number 1 goal right now.  Shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish I think.   If I pass that goal, then I’ll set a new goal.  I would REALLY love to be below 200 by the end of January.  Again, I don’t think it’s impossible.  It may or may not happen, we will see.

I also need to measure my food and see exactly what I am eating.  I am pretty sure that I’m not getting enough protein, and that’s the reason I have a total lack of energy right now.  Had to drag myself out of bed this morning.  Bebo (my cat) finally got me to get up and let him out after Maowing and making biscuits all over my tummy to wake me up.

And probably most of all, I have to start forcing myself to take in more WATER……   ugh…..

Why would YOU get surgery??

Took my truck into the shop this morning to have a couple of minor (fingers crossed) issues taken care of.  I ran into a few guys who I used to work with and one of them flat out asked me – why did you get that surgery?  You aren’t fat! You look fine the way you are!

Well, first of all, thank you to those of you who think I looked fine before, and let me give you the number of a  really good eye doctor.  Seriously though, is our society becoming so used to seeing EVERY one over weight that we now see someone who is ‘just 100 lbs overweight’ as normal???   I mean come on, yes I am a little on the taller side for a woman, and was blessed/cursed with the genes that spread it out all over the body (read big butt, big boobs here), but honestly without my clothes you’d throw up in your mouth a little bit – who am I kidding – a LOT.   When you are shopping in the Plus sized clothes racks, it should be your first indication that you may be overweight.   If your clothes have an “X” in the size, you might be overweight.  If you have to reach down and help your foot up so you can tie your shoe, you might be overweight.   See where I’m heading with this?

Now, don’t get all huffy and mad at me for saying those things.  They are TRUE.  And Hey, if you are overweight and happy about it, more power to you, enjoy your life and all the challenges that the extra weight brings.  I’m a live and let live type of gal, not my business.   I personally have chosen to do something about the weight.

This brings me once again to the WHY did I have surgery question.  My number one reason is because of my high blood pressure .  I am still on 2 medications and FINALLY got it under control right before surgery.  It was not uncommon for me to check it and find that top number was close to 200 (Yes two hundred) and the bottom around 150 (one fifty).  One of the medications I am on (even with insurance) costs me over $60 a month.   Yes you read that right.  That’s two months of water bills, or 4 bags of horse feed, or a tank of gas for my truck.   NOT acceptable.   This is not even counting the other two meds.

People can’t look at you and tell that you have high blood pressure, well maybe a RN or MD can look and see some signs that we lay people can’t see.   To look at me you would think, why she’s healthy, just look at her always on the go – riding horses, working on the farm, plus an outside job.  She’s GOT to be healthy.   Ummmm, nope.   I just didn’t give in to my body and what it was telling me.  My GP doctor told me flat out that if I didn’t loose the weight that one day I would have either a stroke or heart attack.   May not be tomorrow, but I have been playing Russian roulette with my health.   THAT got my attention.   Dying young is not on my list of things I want to do.  Being in a vegetative or handicapped state is not either!!   So I decided to do something to correct the problem….

I  believe that there is something in my genetic make up that predisposed me to be fat.  My Mom is overweight, Aunt Brenda was (until her surgery 5 years ago), my maternal grand mother was overweight, and all the way up the family tree on that side for as far back as we have photographs, the women are overweight.   You could blame the down home cooking, or whatever else you like, but I will always believe that there is a gene in my code somewhere that is running around like Paul Revere telling my body that a great famine is coming, store up all the fat that you can!!

Diets do not work for me.  I have probably lost and regained my current weight at least 3 times over the last 10 years or so.  I had to do something permanent and drastic.  And this is the path that I chose.   It may not be the right path for anyone else, but right now I’m happy with the decision and don’t expect to ever look back.   Take some advice from the Band Boston:

 

Don’t look back, a new day is breakin
It’s been too long since I felt this way
I don’t mind where I get taken
The road is callin, today is the day

I can see, it took so long just to realize
I’m much too strong not to compromise
Now I see what I am is holding me down
I’ll turn it around

I finally see the dawn arrivin
I see beyond the road I’m drivin

It’s a bright horizon and I’m awaken
I see myself in a brand new way
The sun is shinin, the clouds are breakin
Cause I can’t lose now, there’s no game to play

I can tell there’s no more time left to criticize
I’ve seen what I could not recognize
Everything in my life was leading me on,
But I can be strong

I finally see the dawn arrivin
I see beyond the road I’m drivin

Don’t look back, a new day is breakin
It’s been so long since I felt this way
I don’t mind where I get taken
The road is callin, today is the day

I can see, it took so long just to realize
I’m much too strong not to compromise
Now I see what I am is holding me down
I’ll turn it around

I finally see the dawn arrivin
I see beyond the road I’m drivin

Blah-ging

Not feeling so great today.   This dreary weather makes me just want to stay home in my comfy bed all snug under the quilts and snooze all day.  But, I have fur kids to feed, so here I am dragging myself through another day of aircraft problems.

I am starting to notice the weight loss in my hands and feet.  I suppose that sounds really strange, but they are both not as bloated as before and looking sort of wrinkly.   I guess that means if it starts in the extremities and radiates inward, my butt and gut will be the last beneficiaries of any weight lost.  Oh joy.  I’ll look like marshmallow with tooth pick arms and legs before long.

Something else that I thought of last night that I don’t think I’ve told you about is the morning tightness.  Upon arising in the morning, it feels like there is a LOT of restriction and it can be difficult to swallow anything.  This is a problem because I still have 3 meds and a bariatric vitamin I have to take early in the day.   I have discovered (thanks Aunt Brenda) that if I drink something warm it helps relax the muscles and tissue and get stuff flowing properly.  My ‘warm up’ of choice right now is chicken bullion simply for the fact that I can heat a cup of water in a go cup, drop the cube in and then drink it when I’m about half way to work.  Hot tea or coffee would probably work too, but at the moment, I’ll stick with what is working.

Didn’t try the grits this morning or even get a protein shake in yet.  Like I said above, not feeling really good.  I had a lot of pain again last night, evidently somewhere along the way yesterday I stretched something that wasn’t quite ready to stretch yet.  I took some of the last of the Lortab liquid and slept deeply, and was almost late for work.

Jim and I took a walk at lunch and I think it did me some good to be out in fresh air and sunshine.  (Obviously I started this blog early this morning and haven’t published as of yet)  We probably walked 1/4 of a mile total, down to see the horses and back.  It was nice and the pain is pretty much gone.

I have found my challenge….

Monday was my first day alone out in public and was the first day that I actually drove myself around.  It was a challenge to me.  Not the driving (although it did bring along a set of problems with stretching to see beside and behind my truck – kind of got the still tender spots all riled up again), but seeing the fast food places.  Before yesterday (and it was reinforced this evening driving to and from Birmingham), I never knew just how much of a fast food junkie that I really am.  I can’t explain to you just HOW bad I wanted to pull into BK and order a Cheese Whopper with extra mayo.  Or McD’s and get a Fish Sandwich with extra tartar sauce.   This shall be my challenge, my Achilles heel if you will.    Driving has somehow become synonymous with eating a bag full of fatty food and slurping down a jumbo Coke. Just a snack of fries and a shake, after all why else would they put two cup holders in my truck?  One for the drink and one for the fries.   I even briefly considered getting the food and chewing but not swallowing, spitting each bite back into the bag. Both PATHETIC and Gross- huh??…    So I must come up with a plan.  I understand that in my day to day life EVENTUALLY I will encounter times when I simply must eat fast food, and that is ok, after all everybody has a kids meal or grilled chicken these days.  But for the time being, I’m going to avoid it like the plague.  I was determined to break the Coke and sugar habits and now I am not even tempted although there is a brand new 2 liter on my kitchen counter.   I shall slay the burger and fries demon too!    I know that it’s entirely mental.  Maybe a part of my psyche relates fast food with something deep down that I think I need.  Any Freud’s out there that care to detangle the mystery?

 

Suggestions and feedback to help with this would be greatly appreciated.  I think I’ll get maybe a couple of the Campbell’s soup at hand things to keep in the truck for now, and I have some of the canned protein shakes, but to be quite honest – they taste foul to me at this point.  I can’t think of anything else that I know I can have right now that would be safe to leave in the vehicle, and easy to consume while rolling down the road.  Don’t want candy, and I can’t have crackers or hard stuff yet.

 

Good report

from Dr. Schmitt.  Everything looks fine, and he took the staples out.   I was REALLY glad of that.  I can start really thin mushies and see how I tolerate them in the next few days.  The port site pain seems to be normal, and he said to just watch it for a week or two and it should get much better.  It might also be a sign that I over did it at work this morning by sweeping and vacuuming the floors…..  ‘Course I didn’t tell HIM that.  I’ll just take it easy for a few days and go back to getting waited on at home.  😉

Overall a good report.

 

On the drive home I was thinking about a conversation that I overheard in the waiting room.  Seems that one of the patients was on the phone with her ‘bestie’ and making plans to leave her man as soon as she dropped the pounds.  Evidently she had not had a surgery yet but was there on the ‘info’ visit.  I was sitting there thinking, you know, if you want to leave the dude, leave him NOW. But then it dawned on me that the dude is probably the provider of insurance for her and if she loses that insurance, she loses the surgery and her ticket to hottness.     Kind of a rough deal for the guy, eh?   Of course I had no way of knowing what their relationship is like, but she seemed to be a real piece of work!

 

 

AND lastly, I really need to resolve to get my water and protein in every day.  I’ve been really lax about the water especially.  It gets difficult for me in the winter months because I’m just NOT thirsty.   Made some peppermint tea at work this morning and before I could drink it, it was cold…..  Maybe I need one of those electric cup warmer things or a small thermal cup for work.  I’ll figure it out….

 

Think I’ll make some runny grits for breakfast in the morning to have with half of  a strawberry protein shake.

Sounds like a plan!

 

 

I don’t know about you….

But I want and plan on living a long life.  There are too many places I want to see and things I want to do.  THAT is why I am on this journey.  Take a look at this map:

 

Yep, I live right smack dab in the middle of one of those red blobs.  I want to be the exception to the rule.  Somewhere along the line we’ve got to stop the madness of   ‘home cooking’, sitting on the sofa eating junk food and watching TV.   Obesity has become an epidemic and I don’t want to be another statistic.  There IS help out there for those of us fighting this disease, and YES, I do believe it is a disease…..

 

Here’s a decent article on the subject. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/15/nation/la-na-womens-health-20110615

 

The backsliding for women began before 1997, but researchers found it had accelerated in the last decade. Only 227 counties saw women’s life expectancy decline between 1987 and 1997, according to the study.

The grim trend is fueled largely by smoking, high blood pressure and obesity, according to Murray and other population health experts.

Drum roll please

I only have a couple of seconds to do this but I couldn’t wait until after work.  (and amazingly enough I DO have work to do today!)

Sorry got side tracked there….

I have lost a grand total of 14 lbs since November 15th!!!!!  I’m just so tickled.   Now let’s hope that the rest comes off as quickly.

Hi ho hi ho – off to work I go…..