Fit & Healthy - Nov. 3

As of 6:30am EST today I have lost 31 pounds. That is a 1.5 pound loss over last week.  Finally it's a step in the right direction!

Nighttime snacking remains my biggest challenge. It's getting better but I'm finding that's the hardest old habit to break - again.

Fit & Healthy - 10.27

This is unacceptable and I have no one to blame by myself. As of 6:30am EST today I have lost 29.5 pounds. That's a 3.5 pound gain since last week, which doesn't seem totally possible. I expect at some point this week I will lose those 3.5 pounds quite suddenly.

But ... if I'm being truthful I am still struggling to get my eating habits back on track from the summer's debauchery. I do OK for breakfast and lunch. It's evenings that I continue to cheat. I eat a healthy meal but then snack after that. Nothing horrible - yogurt covered pretzels, popcorn - but it's adding up to tasty treats and tighter clothes.

It has got to stop. I need to refocus or not only will I miss my goal of 40 pounds lost by Christmas, I'll start regretting giving away all my "big" clothes.

The Oracle and I did take a step tonite that we hope will help us turn the tide back to weight loss. We have decided to purchase a piece of workout equipment for our home.  We tried out Elliptical machines tonite.  With my hip problem I have to be careful about what I do so I don't aggravate an already painful situation.  So I'm going to give it a few days then try it out again on Friday. If I don't get any more pain than usual, we'll be bringing home an Elliptical. If I can't handle it, we'll get a Treadmill.

Either way, it will give us easy access to a great cardio workout - which added to our renewed commitment to healthy eating - should allow us to break thru the weight loss plateau and reach our goals.

ARGH!!!

Fit & Healthy - Oct. 20

As of 6:30am EST today, I have lost 33 pounds. This is nearly static from the 33.5 pound weight loss I reported last week.

I continue the struggle to re-lose the 7 pounds I've gained over the summer and I remain optimistic that I can do that by the holidays.  I'd love to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with a 40 pound loss.

Fit & Healthy - Oct 5

As of 9:00am EST today, I have lost 33.5 pounds. This is a 1.5 pound loss since last week and I couldn't be more surprised! Or pleased!

I have attempted to re-focus myself on my goals this past week. A few work-related social obligations kept me from eating healthy at lunch and I tried to make up for it at dinner. I've started adjusting portion sizes back down, avoiding red-flag treats and in general getting back to what helped me lose 30+ pounds to begin with.

It's nice to see results already!

Getting Back on Track

It’s been over a month since I last spoke about my efforts to get Fit & Healthy. And it hasn’t been a particularly good one, weight loss-wise. As of 6:30am EST today, I’ve lost 32 pounds. That is a whopping 7 pound gain since early July – and it’s disgusting.

I’m still struggling to get back into the swing – eating healthier, smaller portions. It truly is amazing that more than one year after I started this odyssey, the old habits come creeping back with alarming speed. And I have to say, breaking those habits is proving to be much more difficult the 2^nd time around.

Once again though, we have a health crisis that is forcing The Oracle and me to re-evaluate our eating habits. I mentioned several months ago that The Oracle was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. He did extremely well immediately afterwards, eating healthier, exercising and getting his blood sugar under tight control. Frankly his diagnosis was a good thing for both of us as it refocused our efforts to a common cause – keeping The Oracle healthy.

Well, with all the naughty eating behaviors this summer, he’s now got a nasty gastric problem that afflicts 70% of diabetics – gastroparesis. It’s a very nasty condition that flares up upon consumption of too much rich or heavy food. It is a literal paralysis of your digestive system – food doesn’t move correctly but your gallbladder and pancreas continue to put out the chemicals necessary to digest food that isn’t there. It causes all sorts of horrible problems. The last bout The Oracle had a couple of weeks ago landed him in the emergency room for IV fluids due to severe dehydration and IV medication to take care of the symptoms. He was put on a brutally restricted diet for 48 hours with a ramp up of food types over the course of a week; he’s been fine since then, though he initially lost nearly 7 pounds in just 2 days.

We needed to really deeply acknowledge that he does have a health condition that affects every aspect of our lives; he’s no invalid but we do need to accept the fact that he has to monitor his health far better than we have in the past few months. Which we have done – together.

So, until I get myself back on track I will begin another round of weekly Fit & Healthy reports – keeping myself honest as always and focused.

Fit & Healthy - Aug 18

Fit and healthy says the title; at least 50% of it is B.S. right now!

  I’ve gained 5 pounds in the past 6 weeks or so. Five. Pounds .

I feel disgusting, yet I find it nearly impossible to stop myself. Corn on the cob. Homemade devil dogs at cookouts. Macaroni salad. Chips & dip. Juicy cheeseburgers with fries. All those summer goodies that just lead to further debauchery called popcorn and yogurt-covered pretzels.

The one thing I haven’t done – and I am proud of this – is gone back to my original addiction. That would surely cause me to fall off the wagon for good. Otherwise, my willpower has gone on vacation.

GACK!

I am most displeased with myself – as I have no one else to blame, much as I’ve tried to find someone else to take the fall for this – and I must, repeat must get back on track. Else I’ll have nothing to wear as the seasons change.

Fit & Healthy - 07.23

With all the technical problems I had here this week, I haven't done my usual every-other-week Fit & Healthy report.

Since I've been stalled at a weight loss of between 35-40 pounds for several months now, I'm going to reduce my report to the first Monday of every month, at least until I can start making progress again.

As I've said many times in the past few months, I'm not upset that I can't seem to break thru this plateau. I have maintained that weight loss all this time, which is a very good thing.

I need to start exercising if I'm going to break the plateau. And I have a physical situation that needs to be resolved before I can do any appreciable and meaningful exercise, beyond yoga stretches.  I've been trying for several years on finding a treatment that will resolve the problem - and so far I get some relief of the chronic pain, but nothing that holds for very long.

I was in several different car accidents back in the early 1980s - 3 of them to be exact and all of them bad. Frankly, I should not have survived one of them. The obvious injuries were treated at the time; unfortunately there was a less obvious one that started to cause me chronic problems in the past few years. My right hip is the problem - hard to describe what it's like, except that every step can bring jaw-dropping (and sometimes body-dropping) pain - or not. Very unpredictable making it difficult to diagnose the problem. I've had all sorts of tests and nothing comes up. I've tried massage therapy - big mistake. I tried physical therapy torture - biggest mistake. Chiropractic seems to help the most, but it's not enough. I'm looking at alternatives like acupuncture - which a friend of mine with a similar problem got results from.

Anyway - long story to say that with the pain I experience all day, every day, exercise just isn't safe or comfortable. Once I can get this under control, I'll be able to start taking long walks every day, using my exercise ball and in general getting the aerobic workouts I need to start losing weight again.

Until then I will continue to maintain.

Fit & Healthy - July 7

As of 6:30am EST today, I have lost 39.3 pounds. This is a 1.3 pound loss since my last report.

I am very happy about this. I re-dedicated myself to my goals in the past 2 weeks; it's very nice to see the fruits of those labors.

My original weight loss goal was 50 pounds in one year. I missed it by 12 pounds. So my new goal for the remainder of 2008 is to lose those 12 pounds by the end of the year. It's a reasonable goal and I'm already 1.3 pounds on my way!

Fit & Healthy - June 23

As of 6:30am EST today, I have lost 38 pounds. This is a .3 pound gain since my last report two weeks ago - and frankly I'm quite surprised it's not more of a gain! 

It's funny how old habits can return pretty quickly. After a year of eating healthy and with common sense and willpower - we went to Bermuda. All willpower went out the door - which we knew would happen and didn't waste a moment's guilt over.

The problem is we haven't really gotten back our willpower since then. We still don't eat nearly as much as we used to, and we do try to stay away from the "bad things".  And in our defense we've been balls-to-the-wall since we got home with social activities.  Which either doesn't leave time to really focus on eating right, OR encourages us to eat badly.

So in all, I'm not disappointed at a .3 pound gain in 2 weeks. I'm actually quite pleased with myself that I've maintained the 38 pound loss in spite of our eating sins of late.

But it's time to get back on the straight and narrow! I've been stalled at this weight for months now and it's time to break thru the plateau. I'd like to lose a total of 40 pounds by the end of summer - not an overly aggressive goal I know, but trying to be realistic. What I really want to do is hit my original goal of 50 pounds lost by the end of summer, but if I can get to 40 I'll be very satisfied.

Fit & Healthy - June 9

As of 6:30am EST today, I have lost 38.3 pounds. This is a .3 pound loss since my last report.

Which is, quite frankly, an amazing achievement considering the debauchery of food that was committed on our vacation last week.  Stay tuned for further details - but sufice it to say that locally caught fish and chocolate were high on the list.