Tampilkan postingan dengan label My Health. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label My Health. Tampilkan semua postingan

Senin, 28 Maret 2011

Living without the scale, and an NSV

For the past week and a half, I haven't been weighing myself.

My weight loss has been slow. slash non-existent. slash very frustrating over the past 6 months.
Yes, 6 whole months.

After losing 40 pounds, my weight loss went form a nice steady walk, where I would lose 2 pounds a week, to a painfully slow crawl, where I would only lose .5 to maybe 1 pound a week. I tried cutting down on my sugar intake, which didn't seem to help. Then I started the low glycemic index diet and ate cleaner, but that still didn't help the scale move any faster.

A vicious cycle followed:
I would do great on my diet for 3-4 days, step on the scale and see that I had only lost 1 pound after 4 days of perfect eating. Then I would get frustrated, and eat poorly for the next 2 days. I would of course gain a pound from my recent eating tantrum... so I would go back on my diet, do great for 3-4 days, lose only one pound, get frustrated, eat, gain back a pound, and so on and so forth. 1 step forward, 1 step back. 1 step forward, one step back. This went on for way too many months, which is why I am still 165 pounds. This was all caused by my frustration with the scale moving slowly. That frustration would cause me to go on and off my diet, losing a pound, and gaining it back, for the past 6 months. Where as if I had just come to terms with my new (slow) pace of weight loss, at losing .5 to 1 pound a week, I would have lost 12-24 pounds by now. That is a heck of a lot better then 0.

My solution: Stop weighing myself.

There are so many reasons why I need to live this healthy lifestyle:
  • I need to be :Deliciously Healthy, so I can have a baby.
  • I am borderline diabetic, and refuse to ever be diabetic.
  • My PCOS puts me at a higher risk of having heart disease, and of course, diabetes.
  • I need to be as healthy as I can be to combat my Lupus.
  • Because of my RA, I need knee replacements. Being the healthiest I can be, will no doubt help me to hold off on replacements for as long as possible, as it already has.

So, whether I am trying to lose weight or not, I need to live and eat healthy. This is my new lifestyle. I don't know why I have been forgetting that.

My new focus is on eating healthy (low glycemic diet), drinking lots of water, and exercising. To be healthy. I've been doing those things already, of course, but the focus has changed.
It is no longer on the scale. Losing weight will naturally follow my healthy lifestyle. I don't need to keep checking in on it, and risk letting frustration with the scale, drive me to donuts.

I have been doing this for about a week and a half now. I have been doing better then I have in a long time. I haven't been going on and off my diet anymore. I am finally consistent again. Living one healthy day, after the next, and loving it. I am now doing this to simply be healthy, and that stupid scale doesn't mess up my progress.

We have two scales in our house (one in each of the upstairs bathrooms). I haven't moved them, or hid them. They are both still on the bathroom floor, right next to the toilet. I walk past them everyday, and don't give them a second thought.

I can feel that I've lost weight in the past week and a half, but I don't know how much, and I like that.

With all that said, it's the perfect time for a NSV (non-scale victory), wouldn't you say?

My husband left for a couple days on a business trip, and left half a pizza sitting in our fridge. I had a decision to make:
To eat the pizza, or not to eat the pizza?

I chose not to.

And to make sure I stuck with my decision, I threw the rest of the pizza in the trash.We can do this. One healthy decision at a time.

Rabu, 16 Februari 2011

Today's wake up call- lab results

A couple weeks ago, I got labs done for my fertility doctor. We've been playing phone tag for almost a week, and today I finally got a hold of the nurse to get my results.

2 things:
I have high cholesterol. Sweet.
I'm 2 candy bars away from being diabetic. Double sweet.

The nurse said that I wasn't diabetic, but my test results were pretty elevated, and I'm "At risk".

She then told me that I needed to get on a diet, and lose weight. I laughed (because if I didn't laugh, I was going to cry), and told her that I was on a diet, and I have already lost 45 pounds. She literally took a sigh of relief, and told me how encouraging it was to hear that I was already doing something to better my health. She was very happy to hear that I was doing the low glycemic index diet. I explained that at the time of the labs, I had only been on the diet for a week, and she explained that that probably wasn't enough time for the benefits of the diet to show up in my lab work. She strongly encouraged me to continue with the low glycemic diet, and that counting calories just wasn't enough for me, and my health issues.

The past few days I've been considering just going back to counting calories, and I've been trying to figure out what was best. I guess I got my answer. This low glycemic index diet truly is a part of my
new lifestyle
. It's pretty easy for me to feel down in the dumps about this. I feel like I've been doing all this work to be ":Deliciously Healthy", and I'm still "At Risk" for diabetes. But on the other hand, I'm very grateful. Thank goodness I put my chunky butt on a diet over a year ago, and lost 45 pounds! I'm certain that phone call would have been very different if I was still 206 pounds. Because I took action, I'm at risk for diabetes, but I'm NOT diabetic!
I dodged a bullet
. And that's sweet.

Today I had a wake up call, and found new motivation. I have to do this. And I have to like it. I absolutely refuse to add another diagnoses, to my already long list.

Sounds good to me.

Senin, 09 Agustus 2010

I Need Me Some Iron!

Last week I had a good old doctors appointment. At my previous appointment I had mentioned to my doc, that I was pretty tired all the time. If you hung out with me in person, you would see that I yawn like every 5 minutes. Any who, so he did some blood work, and called me back in, to have a chat with him. He said that your "iron levels can range from anywhere between 20 and 250, and mine are at like, 22." I don't know if he was using those numbers as an example, or if that's really what it is, but he told be I was borderline anemic. Figures. Now I have lupus, PCOS, low thyroid, rheumatoid arthritis, blood clotting, and "borderline anemia".
Sweet.

Since I'm pretty tired of being tired (hehe) all the time, I'm excited to take action, and get those iron levels up! My doctor told me to take an iron supplement, and to eat more
iron rich foods:
  • Clams (eww)
  • Pork Liver (eww)
  • Oysters (eww)
  • Chicken Liver (eww)
  • Mussles (eww)
  • Beef Liver (eww)
  • Beef (not a big fan)
  • Shrimp (eh)
  • Sardines (eww)
  • Turkey (finally something I can eat!)
  • Cooked beans
  • Lentils
  • Spinach (so that's why Popeye eats it!;)
  • Almonds
  • Dark green leafy vegetables
  • Dried fruit
  • Iron-enriched cereals (eh)
  • Chickpeas
  • Soybeans
  • Artichokes
  • Broccoli (dang!)
In an effort to eat all my iron ;) I'm trying to incorporate more of these foods into my diet. Except the ones that have "eww" next to them. Those foods go against my deliciously healthy beliefs (not that there's anything wrong with them. They just don't get along with my taste buds, and that's a must for me;).

My friend told me about a yummy recipe she got from the Cancer Project, that I had to try! It seemed like an iron rich recipe, so tonight I gave it a go!

Easy 3 Bean Salad:
It was delish! Plus it was very quick and easy to make!
And you know how I love that ;)

Aside from being deliciously healthy, it's really quite pretty, wouldn't you say?
Here's what you need:
  • light Italian salad dressing
  • 1-2 10 ounce bags of spinach
  • 1 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed, or 1 1/2 cups cooked kidney beans
  • 1 15-ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed, or 1 1/2 cups cooked pinto beans
  • 1 15-ounce can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed, or 1 1/2 cups cooked peas
  • 1 10-ounce package frozen lima beans, thawed. or 1 1/2 cups cooked lima beans, or 1 1/2 cups cooked green soybeans (shelled edamame)
  • 1 cup frozen corn, thawed, or chilled cooked fresh corn.
  • 1 large diced red bell pepper
  • 1/2 medium diced red onion
  • salt and pepper to taste
This is what you do:
  • In a bowl, mix kidney beans and next 7 ingredients.
  • Serve 1 cup of bean mixture onto individual beds of spinach.
  • Drizzle Italian dressing over top.
Here's what I'm thinking:
  • Serving size: 10
  • Calories per serving: 210
Love it!

***

Today's weigh in had me at 167. That's a 0 pound loss this week. Of course my body is going to play games with me, and stop 1 pound short of me losing 40 pounds! Just to drive me crazy of course. Hopefully next week I can say that I'm 40 pounds lighter!