Three H: Holy, Healthy, Happy

For the past several months, I've slipped into, wallowed around in, and am now trying to climb myself out of a rut. The last post back in April was all about my desire to redouble my efforts. I even bought a cute new journal to track my weight and food intake. I tracked everything I ate. For a day. After that, it became clear that I wasn't going to be able to maintain that. I journaled just a little, but basically ended up using the book to track my weight. And then even tracking my weight began to falter. But I knew from past experience that not weighing at all equals huge weight gains. The main thing I did to take care of myself over the last few months was to weigh myself daily; I didn't do so great at it, but I kept going and starting again after faltering. Leafing back through those old pages, it became clear to me that I was too busy or too frazzled or too stressed to really care for myself. Even my weight log began to look a jumbled mess; dates scribbled out, weigh...

Spring is here in the southeast, and with it I'm feeling the need for a fresh start. Whether one calls it a plateau or a maintenance phase, my weight hasn't gone down too significantly since about November. I've been fluctuating around the 250's... sometimes as low as 247, sometimes as high as 256. What's been causing it? Well, it's not the plan or the medication. It's my adherence to the plan! Around Halloween I became a bit slack. I've continually taken my medication and made sure to eat a protein-based breakfast and lunch, but dinner took a nose dive. And my sugar-free snacking slipped a bit towards sugar-coma snacking. And I've been hit and miss with my vitamins/supplements I'm supposed to be taking. So, it's up to me to make a change. I had a setback, but in my history, this setback is in a way, an achievement. I didn't revert back to my old behaviors 100%. I didn't gain all my weight back, plus some. I've basically just ...

Last January, I set out on a journey to lose weight. I called it "Project 52" and intended to say at the end of the year, "I did it my way!"  Life intervened, and it turned out that "my way" was good, but not good enough on it's own. And I gained weight. I gained back all the weight I initially lost, and then some. I eventually reached 296.6 pounds, the most I've ever weighed in my life. So I reached out for help.  I called and set up an appointment with Dr. Pate at BioSymmetry. All the weight loss success I can claim at the end of this year, is because of the BioSymmetry diet and medication plan. And most of the weight I've lost was lost using the BioSymmetry plan was lost during the first two and a half months on this plan. Since the end of October I've been creeping downward through the 250's, and zigzagging in the 250-260 range. I got slack with the diet plan. According to my home scale, I gained 2.8 pounds over the mont...

Today completes four full months on the diet and medications prescribed by Dr. Pate at BioSymmetry medical weight loss. Thus far, according to my own scale at home, I have lost a total of 44 pounds. That's great! I lost more quickly in the beginning, but I am still continuing the downward trend as you can see in the graph below. I could be moving along more quickly if I were stricter, but I am still living my life in a world filled with holidays and birthday parties. Progress during November 2015 Here are some notes I made to myself in my daily weight log: 11/13: Big victory for me! I went to Belk to do a little Christmas shopping for my mom. I wanted to get her a couple of nice vests and long sleeved tees to match. As soon as I walked in, there was a large selection of vests right by the door and I saw several I liked for myself. Luckily, they had them in my size - 3x! So I grabbed a few to try on and was shocked to find that the 3x was TOO BIG! I've been wearing a ...

I'm still moving right along in terms of my weight loss. My progress isn't as fast and dramatic as it was in the beginning, but I can't argue with a continual downward trend.  September 2015: 11.4lb loss (30.4 lb total loss) October 2015: 8.6 lb loss (41.0 lb total loss) Some things I've noticed: The upward ticks on the graph tend to occur after I've indulged in carbohydrates. It's not shown here, but on November 1st I weighed almost four pounds more than I did the morning of Halloween. We had a little Halloween party and some of our daughter's friends came over to trick or treat together. I wasn't a glutton. I ate what I wanted, but the portions were not ridiculous. But I ate plenty of carbs. A couple slices of pizza, a few chips, miniature cupcakes, candy corn... but I daresay the biggest blow was done by the kick-ass apple cider I made in the crock pot. Liquid sugar, right there. And it was delicious. I had a couple of cups. Then I re...

I had my check up at BioSymmetry today. I've lost 10% of my body weight in two months! Dr. Pate said that he really can't say enough how great that is and to keep doing what I'm doing. It's going fairly easily for me, so that shouldn't be too difficult! I'm really pleased with my progress, but most of all I'm feeling great and that's what this is all about- being able to move about and live my life to its fullest. I did have a setback a couple of weeks ago. This story may be TMI, so don't say I didn't warn you.  I went for a walk, got all sweaty, and then got sidetracked and too busy with other things to shower right away. I paid for it with a yeast rash along my C-section scar. Apparently I've lost enough weight for that skin to flop and fold over on itself. To make matters worse, it was itchy, but hadn't seemed too bad, probably because my nerve endings don't feel much along the scar tissue... and by the time I looked ...

Starting weight: 296.6 pounds Weight lost in August 2015: 19 pounds Weight lost in September 2015: 11.8 pounds; 30.8 total  August 3: You can tell I was doing well just to get up that first morning and take a photo... August 17: After two weeks, I'm holding my head just a bit higher. I'm feeling much better overall and it's easier to get around. I no longer have the constant stiffness in my muscles and joints. I finally had a period... it had been MIA since May. September 2: By September I was feeling good enough that I bought that new shirt you see me wearing in this photo. While 19 pounds is significant weight loss, those who do not know me well will not readily see the loss. I'm tall and lost the weight all over my body- but I can tell my waist is smaller, and thighs are smaller. My neck is the easiest place to see that the weight has come off. This is the day I had my weight checked at the doctor's office. According to their sc...

It's been months since my last post. Over six months, in fact, and sneaking up on seven. You've probably assumed that I fell of the wagon. And you would be right. But as that old Chumbawamba song from my high school days goes, " I get knocked down, but I get up again ." (Let's just ignore the fact that the song is about drinking and pissing the night away and I've never even been a drinker.)  When I last wrote, I had just seen my OBGYN and I weighed 269.6 pounds on my scale at home. For that entire month of March, my weight hovered within a few pounds of that number. The highest recorded weight was 270.2 and the lowest recorded weight was 267.6. But there was no downward trend whatsoever. It zigged and zagged up and down. I also wasn't walking the way I planned to. I think I looked at the exercise goals I had set for myself as TOO easy and therefore not worth the time.  Then, at the end of the month, family issues struck. I had been told earlie...