Week 1

I didn't have [make] the time to weigh myself until this morning, so I guess today is my starting weight.  I am weighing in at 151.8 to start.  My subsequent posts will be on Mondays.

And this is the perfect segue into a battle I have this time of year.  I struggle with making time for eating right and exercising when I feel busy.  And spring is BUSY.  I tend to put off less urgent things until I can spend a bit more time focusing on them.  I need to figure out how to incorporate this stuff into my daily life regardless of how busy I am, or it will never be a lifestyle change.

The best way for me to do that is through my diet.  I have to take time to eat regardless, so all I need to do is make the choice a healthier one.  I'm also going to make use of little opportunities that come up (like when both kids happen to nap simultaneously) to squeeze in a workout. 

If I keep waiting for my life to slow down, I'm never going to start.

This week is the perfect time to put that to the test.  I have a lot going on this week.. so much so that I'm not exactly sure why I'm sitting at my computer right now.  On that note, I'm going to end this post.  I will make it happen this week, cats.  To a lower weight next week.

Begin again. Again.

It has been MONTHS since I last updated.  To be honest, I almost forgot this blog existed.  After my beloved grandma passed away last fall, daily life took a backseat for a while.  Then it was the holidays.  At Christmas time, we came down with the stomach flu, all of us.  And at least one of us has been sick EVER SINCE!  Up until this week.  We have had pneumonia, bronchitis, colds, coughs, sniffles, sore throats, ear infections, weird stomach pains that landed us in the ER, rinse, repeat.  I have never been so completely annoyed with my health in all my life.  I'm tired of feeling old and moldy.  I'm getting my health back.

In the midst of getting sick repeatedly, I had made several vows of getting back on track with exercise and this blog, but just as I would work up the motivation I'd get sick again.  This time I feel like I can really commit without fear of getting derailed again.

So here we go again.

This time I have a plan.  For realsies.

I know, I know.  I always have a 'plan'.  But if you remember, I sort of went with the no-plan plan last time and I really think that's why I lost motivation so easily.  I do better with a goal in mind and a method in place.

Goal: 135

Method: Quit eating

Kidding.  This might sound like quite the lofty goal, but ideally I would like to lose one pound a week.  That's all.  As someone who has resorted to very drastic weight-loss methods in the past, I'm officially worried about doing permanent damage to my metabolism.  I'm going the slow but sure route this time.

Brief weight history:  I currently weigh somewhere between 150 and 155.  I'm around 5'8".  My body seems content to be around 150 it seems.  I always 'normalize' here.  After college, getting married, fasting, having babies, switching jobs, quitting work altogether, rarely exercising, and consistently eating sub-par foods... I always find myself in the 150s.  It's my body's comfort zone.  So I guess the good news is that I haven't put on any weight since I last posted.  My body does not appear to be in an upward trend, just a holding pattern.  So in theory, any changes I make for the better are going to result in some weight loss.

What changes?

1. I'm going to drink water.  Not just more water.  Enough water.  Oddly enough, this is the one I'm dreading the most.

2. I will eat breakfast.  Bah.  I'm not sure when this became such a chore, but I really need to find ways to make this happen.  I'm no longer a breakfast person.

3. I'm going to weigh in once a week and post the results here.

4. Exercise.  I consistently struggle to find the time/motivation/ability/desire to exercise.  My current solution is to try to work out downstairs while the kids play.  I'll let you know how that goes.

5. Rewards!  I get a reward for every five pounds I lose and for every five hours I work out.  The rewards are yet to be determined, but shopping will be involved.  And a pedicure.  Ooh, and a massage.  I think they should be: 5 lbs- manicure, 10 lbs - pedicure, 15 lbs - massage, and goal - new clothes.  And for exercising: every five hours I exercise earns me a new song on iTunes.  Sounds small, but it's enough.


Tools:

I have a few tools for keeping me motivated and accountable. 

1. A body measuring tape.  I'll take measurements weekly.  When the scale fluctuates, it's nice to see that inches are still melting away.

2. lolo Treadmill running app.  It analyzes your playlist to come up with beats per minute of each song.  It then creates a custom playlist for your running program so you are always running to the exact beat of the music.  How sweet is that?!

3. This blog.  I'm going to keep track of my desired weight for each week.  I'll then post my actual weight so I can see if I'm meeting my goal.


As usual, I have my (meticulously googled) plan in place.  Now I just need to implement it.  I doubt I'll be able to regularly do updates on Wednesdays, so I have yet to pick a specific day.  But this time.. I will keep updating this blog!  Nothing will interfere this time. 

Swear.

So let's begin again.. again.

November 11, 2011

It has been a month since I last posted.  Hard to believe that that much time has passed already.  The last time I posted was Tuesday, October 11th.  My beloved Grandma Aggie passed away the next day.  We miss her dearly, and she has been the focus of many days since.  This blog has fallen onto the back burner yet again as a result.

But I would like to do a quick update.  Things have been busy around the house, too.  The kids are both teething, so my days have been quite full and busy, and nights are short.  I have to admit, I'm seriously in shock that it has already been a whole month since my last update.  I'll try to get better about posting.

Okay.  First things first.  Since I last posted, I have lost around 7 pounds!  I am now ten pounds over my wedding weight.  I have been doing Insanity (with some reluctance) and while I'm still nowhere capable of finishing a whole workout (I can still barely get through the warm-up), I have noticed a change in my muscle tone.  In that they are sore constantly.  Kidding.  But I have definitely noticed a little 'looseness' in my clothes that wasn't there before.  Very happy about seeing results.

Another victory: I no longer have gallbladder pain!  I did a modified gallbladder diet which consisted, to my dismay, of apple juice and walnut oil.  I did that for two days with very small meals for supper.  To my surprise, my gallbladder pain has since disappeared.  As maintenance I'm going to start taking walnut oil at least once a day.  Two tablespoons at suppertime.  I'm so excited about that change, because the gallbladder pain was hindering me from working out.

What else... ah, yes.  My cupboards.  I last reported that I was going to start slowly but surely letting things run out that were unhealthy.  As you already know, I no longer keep pop in the house.  I do buy one from a pop machine on occasion, but that has dipped drastically.  I still drink coffee, but, and this might sound strange, I switched to a sugared creamer.  Here's why.. when I used real cream and added my own sugar, I was using about 4 teaspoons of sugar.  That's 16 grams, if I'm doing the math right.  When I use the creamer, it's only 5 grams of sugar.  Plus it tastes better.  So there you have it, I made my swap.  And believe it or not, it's actually cheaper to buy the creamer than the real cream!  I found that interesting.  I have let the following foods run out: flour (so no more dumplings or baked goods), macaroni and cheese, candy, sugary snacks, boxed cake mixes, pancake mix, and white frozen bread dough.  We still have ice cream and salty snacks on hand because Jason enjoys them, but they don't tempt me at all.  Those of you that know what an ice cream fiend I used to be will be happy to know that I finally burned myself out on it!  Yes, thank you, I realize the irony of getting "burned out" on ice cream.

Finally, I had two skirt victories this last week.  I was able to pull on two denim skirts that I wore pre-pregnancy.  It's the little things like that (expanding my wardrobe) that are very motivating to me.

So onward ho.  Here's hoping for more victories to report next week.

Baby steps

Short one this week.  Some things came up last week so I was not able to do my gallbladder diet.  I hope to get to it very soon, but as long as things are as hectic as they're promising to continue to be this week, it'll be too hard to start something new.  But when I do, I'll let you know if I experience any improvement in my symptoms.

Until then.. I have been slowly trying to eliminate unhealthy foods in my house and simply not replenish them.  We've gotten to the bottom of the flour barrel!  I have decided not to buy flour for now and see how it goes.  This one will be particularly interesting because there are so many unhealthy things that I can and do make with flour that it'll be nice to have no choice but to make something else.  So far we've been out of flour a week and it hasn't been a concern.

Another one is cream.  I love cream in my coffee, and as soon as it's out, I won't be buying more.  Without cream, I'm pretty sure my coffee intake will dwindle quite a bit too.  So that's knocking a few birds out with one stone.

This approach has worked with pop and sweets so far, and I'm excited to see just how healthy I can get my cupboards.

The other issue: exercise.  I was out of town for most of last week, so exercise resumes tonight.  I am determined to do Insanity again, and I think I have figured out the best time and way to get it done.  I'm going to start fresh.  The next time I post, I will have completed the first week of Insanity.  I PROMISE.

My weight is down only two tenths of a pound for now.  Haven't done measurements but I'll do some tomorrow morning.  So... baby steps.  But we'll get there.

October 2, 2011

Hahaha! Yeah, I’m laughing. That’s how much of a joke this blog is. It, admittedly, has been a long time since I’ve updated or even cared if I updated. Lots of things going on as usual, but particularly convention and preps. It’s a busy time and a very hard time to focus on diet and exercise! But worse, I’ve been derailed by increasing bouts of gallbladder pain. It’s an epidemic in my family. Almost everyone in my family has had issues with gallbladder failure eventually, so it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to believe I was headed down the same path. But if you know me at all, you know I’m going to try the natural route first.

First of all, what leads to gallbladder pain? Bad bile. Bile that has formed stones, bile that has become stagnant, bile that is too concentrated. This can often just be hereditary, and in my case I believe that’s a huge part of it, but I still believe there are other things at play. I have a diet high in sugar, flour, and saturated fat. It’s low in unsaturated fat and water, unfortunately. Bile becomes too concentrated when a person becomes dehydrated, and over time leads to stone formation. However, once the stones have formed, you can’t just drink water and hope to cure yourself.

So.. I’m going to do a gallbladder/liver cleanse.

Oh come on, you knew that was coming.

Here’s how it works. When you consume fat, your body uses bile to emulsify it and prepare it for absorption. Your body prepares bile in anticipation of a meal, so whether you eat fat or not, your body is going to build up its store. So let’s say you skip breakfast regularly. There’s bile sitting in your gallbladder waiting to be used but isn’t needed. It becomes stagnant and more prone to stone development. Let’s say for lunch you just grab a banana and have steamed vegetables and brown rice. You are eating zero fat, therefore your bile is again not needed and left in your gallbladder unused. It’s very important to eat a healthy amount of unsaturated fat at every meal to empty the gallbladder so that it doesn’t sit unused and cause problems. Does that make sense? So remember in the 80s and 90s when low-fat diets were the biggest thing? I haven’t checked statistics or anything, but I’m willing to bet that gallbladder removals skyrocketed after that. As for my sisters, they had done juice fasts immediately prior to suffering severe gallbladder pain. As someone who has also done juice fasting, I’m sure it has contributed to the pain I have now. In fact I remember quitting the very first fast I did because of the horrible pain I now know is gallbladder pain. I’m also a serial breakfast skipper (not by choice but because of busy mornings) and I don’t eat a lot of healthy fat. I eat a lot of carbs and might eat one meal that contains an enormous amount of saturated fat after which I’m suffering terrible gallbladder pain.

Bile is formed in the liver and simply stored in the gallbladder until it is needed. Therefore, gallstones can be present in both places. The cleanse or flush I want to try would remove stones from both places because it uses the body’s normal process of bile formation to flush out stones. The process is just greatly intensified. 

Think of a hose that is filled with marbles. What is needed to remove the marbles from the hose? Water pressure. However, the water pressure is greatly diminished by the presence of the marbles. You can see where it would become a vicious cycle with gallstones. As stones form and diminish the flow of bile over time, the decreased pressure leads to stagnation and development of further stones, etc. But what if you could greatly increase the pressure within the hose for a brief time? And make the hose just a bit bigger temporarily so that the marbles could come out more easily? Some of the marbles would come out of the hose, and any other marbles in the hose would be pushed forward. This is the action of a gallbladder cleanse. It’s simply increasing the size of the ducts and the pressure inside the liver and gallbladder so that stones can be pushed forward and, best case scenario, dislodged altogether. 

Here’s how I will attempt it:

Days 1-5
• Drink lots and lots of water. The body uses a tremendous amount of water to create bile. Drinking enough water helps to prevent further stones from forming.
• Drink lots and lots of apple juice. The malic acid in apple juice can help to soften and dissolve gallstones in preparation.
• Take double doses of magnesium taurate. Magnesium is what will serve to dilate the bile ducts and make it easier for stones to pass through unimpeded. (i.e. without triggering a full blown attack)
• Cut out dairy and sugar. Eat plenty of unsaturated fat throughout the day, as well as lots of vegetables, fruits, and other good carbs.

Day 6
• I will eat NO FAT in my breakfast or lunch. This will serve to build up pressure for the cleanse.
• Breakfast: Fruit and apple juice
• Lunch: Steamed vegetables and brown rice, apple juice
• 2-4 pm: Combine 4 oz of walnut oil with 4 oz of apple juice and drink. Follow by 4 oz of fresh squeezed lemon juice. Do this process four times total in two hours.
• As you might guess, drinking a full 16 oz of pure fat in the form of walnut oil combined with the increased pressure in the gallbladder from a morning of no fat at all combined with the dilating effect of the magnesium taurate leads to a highly effective and powerful “flush” of the liver and gallbladder that allows for the removal of stones and chaff and bad bile. Sounds good in theory, right?

Post-cleanse

After the cleanse I will begin my “white-out” diet. Low sugar, no flour or dairy or potatoes. But that’s a blog entry for another day. Hah! I need to buy things for this cleanse, so I will begin on Tuesday of this week. I intend to do an official start of Insanity tomorrow. I did one workout last week but didn’t count it. Also.. I have been off pop for a week. Anxious to see what this week brings!

Format = Flushed

I'm a mom. Finding time to write in this blog is hard, to say the least. I like having it and while it doesn't keep me as motivated as I had hoped, it does keep me honest about my eating and exercising habits. It makes me much more conscious of the behaviors that are contributing to the need for this blog in the first place.

Let's just say that I don't care to post my weight every week. First of all, I think weight is somewhat irrelevant in that it fluctuates frequently, it isn't a very accurate measure of body composition, and it varies so greatly from person to person that it doesn't tell a reliable or relatable story. I think I have gotten too caught up in weight. And honestly, I think shows like the Biggest Loser do too. I've read too many horror stories about contestants who quit eating and quit drinking water before the last weigh-in just to attempt to win the show. One of the contestants actually got so dehydrated that he was urinating blood! Anyway, my point is.. if you get too hung up on the "number", you'll start to engage in more questionable tactics to achieve it.

Take it from someone who used to juice fast. I weighed 140 when I got married and in just a few months, I was up to 153. I decided to try a juice fast. I think the first one I did was 8 or 9 days long with a 2 day break and then another ten days or so. I lost 23 lbs. But it was horrible. Unfortunately, I got hooked on the results I achieved (which didn't last) and I began a four-year stint of yo-yo fasting. It has destroyed my metabolism, to be sure. It has also given me a near-constant desire to regain control through juice fasting time and time again. I haven't fasted since January 2010, and I like to believe I will never try it again. I know it's harmful for me. But I still have the urge to do it, just to get the short-term drop on the scale.

If I ever mention anything in my blog about being tempted to do a fast just to get a head start, please send me a message reminding me that I'm an idiot. But be nice about it, sheesh.

I heard recently that 3% of diets work in the long-term. Three percent. What's the point? In the past year or so, I've really tried to get myself out of the mindset of calorie restriction and just focus more on WHAT I'm eating. Initially this whole blog was about cutting out sugar and seeing how I felt. I would like to get back to that point. So... that is the renewed focus of this blog. I will no longer be posting my weight. I will, however, post inches. And maybe periodically I'll just give an update as to the total pounds lost overall, but that is no longer the focus of this blog. I'm removing my weekly numbers since ultimately I have nothing to show for the past 3 months anyway. We are starting fresh.

So what have I done so far to kick this off? Well.. I took my vitamins this morning! I haven't spouted off about vitamins in a long time! So here goes, this is what I'm taking: Vitamins A, a super B complex with vitamin C, D, E, a prenatal vitamin, magnesium taurate, coenzyme B-complex, fish oil, lutein, probiotics, and glucosamine and chondroitin. Calcium is suspiciously absent because I'm trying to fix what I think is a magnesium deficiency. Once those symptoms disappear, I'll start taking Calcium and Magnesium conjunctively in a 10:4 ratio.

Another thing: I won't be keeping pop or junk food in the house. It's much easier to deny myself things that I don't even have around. Plus we live in the country, so it's not like I can just run out and get whatever I'm craving without piling the kids in the car and driving 50 minutes both ways.

One last thing: exercise. I am struggling to figure out some way that I can get Insanity back in my daily routine. I want to do it. But with Ember teething, I can only set her down for a few minutes at a time before she's screaming again. And her naps have been very brief catnaps. I can't rely on finding a babysitter every day when I want to work out, so I have to figure out something that will keep her entertained during the time that I exercise. Maybe just the video itself will keep her entertained. But for an hour? I doubt it. I guess I'll have to try it. I have to figure something out.

All for now. Until next week!

Weeks Eleven and Twelve

SIGHH. Yeah, that's right. I'm a couple weeks late posting this. I'm trying to decide if I should give all my excuses or just blow past them. Hah. I have not been exercising lately, let's leave it at that. No, I should add that I've also been out of control eating-wise.

Struggles are still the same: finding time to exercise is hard with two kids, and Ember is teething which means we've struggled to get her down by 10:30 or 11 most nights. Jason works a lot this time of year, so I can't rely on him to watch the kids. My only real option is to do it after the kids are asleep, but since Jett wakes up at 6 these days, I'm not overly inclined to stay up late. What it boils down to is finding my motivation again.

Eating will always be my biggest struggle. I'm a compulsive person, especially with food. I'm also very impulsive with food, so it's very important that I don't have things laying around. Or that the things I do have laying around are healthy.

I wish I would've planted the garden this year.

Numbers. More big mopey sighs. My weight is 157. Waist: 34.5 inches. Hips: 38.5 inches. Up, up, up.

Next week my best friend is coming to visit for most of the week. She's pregnant, so we won't be eating healthy or exercising. I can promise you that! But after that.. I'll get serious. Right? I have to. I can't keep posting these terrible blog updates, it's killing me. Blah.

Well, I can't end on that note, so here's what I propose. I will figure out some way to have the kids in the basement with me while I do my workout. Even if Jett decides to join me (i.e. get in my way), it's still better than nothing, right? And I can see if Ember will keep entertained in her exersaucer. There's hope.

Until the next time. And the next time.