Potty Emergency! (this post is not as gross as the title implies)

For most of my adult life, I’ve had what my doc likes to call “Idiopathic Peripheral Edema” – his way of saying, “I have no idea why your ankles swell up like that.”

He prescribed a diuretic a while back.  I rarely took it – I hate how it makes me feel.  A couple of years ago, he changed me over to Dyazide. It’s technically a blood pressure med, but it does the trick and is supposed to be easier on the system than the other pill he had me on (cannot remember the name to save my life).

I’m not a huge fan of taking this, either.  To give you an idea of how much I enjoy taking them… I just realized I’m almost out and thought I should call in a refill, just in case. Oh, look there… 12 refills available… until May of 2012.

So, basically, I’ve taken less than 30 pills in a year.

I’m not sure if it’s the exercising aggravating my joints or the gallon of water I’m drinking each day… but my ankles are giving me issues again.  Yesterday was an especially bad day – I had cankles by the time I got home. I gave in and took a pill.

Within a few hours, I was feeling so much better.

This morning, I was a little puffy again. I took another pill. My legs look awesome right now, I must say.  Unfortunately, I’ve been running to the bathroom every 45 minutes or so! 

Whenever I tell my doc that I don’t like taking the pill, he goes, “Just take the pill, Sara.  Do it.”  Yes, boss!

I need to try to eat more natural diuretics. I’ve been eating more fruits and vegetables…I need to stick to that.  Less bread, cheese, etc.  I love my eggs, chicken and tuna, but I need to get back to avoiding the packaged stuff as much as possible. It’s amazing to me how much salt is in packaged food. 

 

I gave the pedometer a rest yesterday and felt naked without it.  And even though I said I was going to “rest” yesterday, the swollen ankles and all that made me feel fat and so I did about 30 minutes of Wii Just Dance 3 (borrowed from our sitter) last night.  Fun fun fun.  I needed that!

Contemplating Zumba tonight… we’ll see.  Too hot to do much else with the kiddos, so I might go to the gym regardless of whether or not I catch a Zumba class!

Zumba Zumba!

The Zumba classes at my gym fill up pretty quickly.  Usually, if I’m hoping to join in on a class, I’ll either reserve my spot in advance ($1/reservation) or I’ll show up early.

Yesterday, I didn’t do either.

We’d had some drama with the kids and I was contemplating not going whatsoever.  But I know I need to stop making excuses. I explained to our boys how important it was (for the millionth time) to behave at the Kids Club or they’d get da BOOT. (No, but, seriously – they’ll kick you out of the gym for the day if your kid gets out of control – it’s happened to us before. If it happens twice in a 6 week period – I think that was the timeframe – you’re suspended from the Kids Club for something like a month. Don’t want that to happen!!)

We walked in around 5:18pm and I half-jokingly asked if there were any spots still open for the 5:30pm Zumba class.

There were!

I hadn’t planned for that!  I had thoroughly expected to be stuck with a treadmill/elliptical/weights sorta routine and didn’t bring a bottle of water with me (because I could hit the fountain if in the main gym).  NO MORE EXCUSES – I drank as much water as I could stand and headed to class.

The woman that’s been teaching the class for a while left for the summer to spend time with family in Brazil.  I wasn’t sure who was teaching and didn’t really care – a new instructor might mean I’d look less lost than usual!

In walked Jason.  Ex-football pro (so he says! didn’t get a last name to check!), fit, lean.  He was ready to GO! 

Class was a blast.  A little less booty-shaking than usual, but a lot more toning (read: sooo many squats & lunges!). I didn’t sweat as much as I usually do (though I still sweat an awful lot!), so I didn’t miss my bottle of water as much as I was worried I would.  I am IN PAIN today, though!! A good pain!  That delicious sore muscle pain that tells you that you really worked it the day before.  My thighs are killin’ me!

I made quite a few bad food choices yesterday, but I’m not going to dwell on that. 

I discovered something delicious today!  Evol Burritos.  Have you ever seen these? Ever tried them? 

Photo credit: http://evolfoods.com

I’d seen them before, but avoided them because I considered them too pricy. ($3.80/burrito at Kroger)  Today, this one – the Cilantro Lime Chicken burrito – caught my eye.  I should never go shopping while hungry!

I read the package and decided I wanted to give it a whirl. No hormones, no preservatives, no fake JUNK in this food.  The burritos are a little high in carbs (due to, duhh, the tortilla), but one of these bad boys packs 16g of protein and 4g of fiber.  320 calories.  Not too bad for a burrito.  And I love that I can read the ingredients list and not once find myself saying, “What on earth IS that?” 

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Yesterday I went to my stepdad’s mom’s funeral.  She died at 102 years old.  ONE HUNDRED AND TWO. That’s crazy.  She was born in 1910.  Just imagine all the changes she’s seen over the years.  Something they pointed out at the funeral yesterday was that in 1920, the average life expectancy for a woman was 51.  She doubled that.

My mom and stepdad married just 4 years ago, so I didn’t get much of a chance to know Grandma L.  She was 98 when I met her.  I got a feel for her personality and stubbornness, but I didn’t really learn her history.

Yesterday, the pastor shared some key notes from her life.  At the age of 96, her car was finally taken from her.  As old as 92, she was still known to disappear for weeks at a time to go on solo camping trips!  She would stay in state parks alone – she loved camping, loved nature, LOVED the water.  My stepdad (her son) runs circles around me at the age of 71, I can only guess she would have done the same.

I want to be that energetic when I’m older.  If I were to start where I am now – never getting stronger, leaner, healthier – and continue on the path I was on, I would likely not be able to get off the couch by age 71.  I don’t want that.  People like my stepdad and his mother encourage me to be better, do more.

My husband and I are going to Austin/San Antonio this summer for a few days (sans kiddos!) and I’ve been trying to think up some physical activities for us while we’re there.  Swimming, biking, maybe some kayaking? I don’t want to wear us out, but I don’t want to just drink and lounge around the whole time, either. I want to explore and enjoy things I’ve been skipping out on in the past.  I’m tempted to go on this cool-sounding bike tour, but I haven’t ridden a bike in years!  They say you never ride for stretches of more than 20 minutes at a time.  Wonder if we should take a chance!

Coming clean and moving on

I went to see my mom yesterday.  She was doing a lot better than I’d anticipated, so that was a relief.  My sister’s been watching her like a hawk since she got out of surgery, but I really do feel she’ll be fine on her own – my sister leaves Tuesday and my mom lives about an hour away, so quick trips over there aren’t really possible.

Her incisions are so small!  She has four or five little tick marks on her belly.  I told her that her incisions looked even better than Rick’s did after he had the band installed.

After a little chit chat, I said, “Have you walked today?”  And with very little coaxing, she agreed to go for a walk with me.

On that walk, I told her everything I had blogged about in my last entry. We had a good talk about it all.  In that moment, I felt closer to my mom than I have in years. She said she had worried about how I was feeling and she’s proud of me for taking the steps that I’m taking.  I told her I think it’s a shame that people spent the first many years of our lives telling us we were fat when we weren’t…and then telling us as adults that we aren’t fat when we are!  Just…kinda comical.

 

I had a fairly good weekend. We went to a pool party on Saturday, and to prepare myself for the ensuing junk food, I drank a smoothie before we went (1/2 peach, 1c peach yogurt, ice cubes, vanilla protein powder, splash of milk, splash of water). I still had a hot dog and some chips at the party, but I didn’t go crazy.  I tried to stay in the pool most of the time – that helped! 

I’ve been walking at home in addition to walking at work.  Last Wednesday, I popped into the gym to take a Zumba class, but it was full. I thought about staying there to work out, but it seemed so dark and dreary compared the gorgeous day outside, so I went for a 2 mile walk in our neighborhood instead.

I’ve been dancing to the Wii Just Dance about 5 nights/week in addition to walking.  I’m trying to hit my 10k steps/day, but at the very least I want to hit 9k/day.  Yesterday I managed 11.5k!  Best day so far.

I’m soooo close to getting under 240. This morning I weighed in at 240.8lbs.  So a little over 3 lbs in 2 weeks. That’s not too shabby.  I also decided to peek at a couple of measurements now (was going to wait until the month was up) and I’ve lost about 1/2″ in my waist and 3/4″ in my upper thigh so far.  Didn’t check the rest.  Will do that on 6/18.

Kinda sore all over, but I feel great overall.  My shoulder hurts from tossing kids around in the pool on Saturday!  I also joined a little weight loss challenge here in the office that goes from month to month (weigh in the last day of each month).

 

Feeling good!  How about you?

Two of my favorite “motivational” posters

Pedometer Issues and Other Things (quite possibly a TMI post)

I’ve been wearing my pedometer for the Global Corporate Challenge since last Wednesday. (We started our official challenge on Thursday, but I wanted to get a feel for where I was before trying to push myself.)

Today, I’m wearing a dress.  Guess where my pedometer is!

I hooked it to the waistband of my panties. 🙂 I didn’t really see another option. I’m not going to wear a belt!  (A woman with a 50″ waist tends to hate belts – especially when her hips are 50.5″. A belt just accentuates the problem at hand.)

This has worked fairly well, I guess, but I occasionally feel my undies trying to head south – especially when I go on my walks.  Ah well. I’ll deal with it for now.  I don’t have a lot of “pants” options for work – what I find in the stores either doesn’t fit my apple-shaped body or looks like I stole them from my grandma’s closet.  I’ll probably stick to skirts for a while.  It’s too hot outside for pants anyhow! (hahaha…when proofreading my post, I realized I put “It’s too hot outside forpantiesanyhow!)

Not sure my pedometer will ever go this high!

Quick Fact: 10,000 steps = approx 500 calories burned.

 

My weekend was spent with family in a small town of central Texas.  There was a lot of indulging – a lot. I told myself it would just be for one day, but it seeped into the 2nd day before I even noticed!  But I was back on the wagon yesterday.  I even managed to break past my 10k steps/day goal for the first time!  (I thought all the walking I did over the weekend would have gotten me there, but no.)

I pretty much lived on grilled meat (this is Texas, after all), veggies and…cream puffs.  My mom was trying to clean out her junk food in preparation for her bypass surgery (she’s already on liquids) and brought up this bag of cream puffs she bought at Sam’s a few months ago.  Add copius amounts of tequila and Sara found herself sneaking off to the fridge way more often than she should have.  I’m telling myself I had some help, but I’m not so sure I hadmuchhelp. 

Anyhow.

To make up for some of my gorging, I did a lot of Just Dance booty-shaking yesterday.  I challenged the kids in the AM and I danced my hiney off solo after they went to bed.

And today?  I’m sooore!!! (And I’m a whiner!)  But I hurt in all the best places. My obliques and the sides of my back (er…are those still the obliques? Maybe?) are killin’ me.  Yay!  Maybe I’ll get that back fat under control sooner than I thought.

Another advantage? I slept like the dead.  I might have rolled over once last night.  Otherwise, I don’t remember budging one inch.

Downside? My skin is taking a hit.  With all the sweating I’ve done lately, my face is starting to break out. I need to start showering at night, too, I suppose – that will help.

 

Is it nap time yet?

Reflections on Week 1

Tomorrow will be day 7 of “getting back on track,” but since I will be on the road, I won’t get a chance to post. I thought today I’d do a little reflecting on how the first week has gone.

Accomplishments:

• Walked at least 20mins/day every day this week
• Substituted multiple trips to the candy bowl with occasional sugar free treats (SF pudding w/protein after dinner, SF popsicles, etc)
• Played 15-30 minutes of Wii Just Dance 3 nights this week
• Kept my net calories (food – exercise = net) under 2200 each day (really kept it under 1700 most days, but had a little too much fun at HH last night!).

What I’ve noticed:

• I find myself getting full on less. I’m also enjoying my veggies more and more.  I’ve always loved fruit and vegetables, but when you eat processed crap regularly, they start to lose their flavor.  They’re becoming more and more delicious to me now.  Since I’ve cut out the candy, an apple tastes so sweet!
• My mood has improved greatly.  The 20+ minutes of sunshine each day is doing me a world of good.  I may only go walk for 10 minutes at a time, but just getting outside and feeling the wind on my face, sun on my skin… it cheers me up and clears my head.
• Muscle aches – oh, you glorious sore muscles!  I think I’d forgotten some of you even existed.  My legs are sore from walking. My arms and body are sore from all the dancing.  I love it.
• The lighter my breakfast, the lighter my day.  Eggs are still my go-to, but I’m trying to add more veggies and instead of a sandwich I’ve been keeping my morning carbs to one piece of wheat toast or a Flat Out wrap (each 70-100 calories). I’ve noticed my breakfasts going down in calories…and as they do, I seem to eat less the rest of the day as well.
• I feel less bloated.  This is the best part. In less than a week, I’ve lost about 2.5lbs, but more importantly I’m feeling more comfortable in my own body.
• I “accidentally” gave up caffeine. Wednesday afternoon, I got a bit of a headache.  I was stressed over the phone call from my doc that day, but thought it might be something else.  Usually it’s caffeine related.  That’s when I realized it. I hadn’t had caffeine in over 24 hours!  I had been so focused on drinking water, water, water…I’d forgotten about sodas.  I didn’t even want them. And the walking was energizing me more than a diet DrPepper ever did.  I’m not 100% off caffeine – I shared a diet Coke with my husband earlier – but I’m not craving it. I’m not seeking it out.  I’d rather have a glass of water.  That’s…kinda nuts.

Sooo…it’s been a crazy week. I took “before” pictures, renewed my vow to get myself fit and healthy, got denied for Lap Band, went to HH with my friend.  I’ve avoided birthday cake and doubled my fruit/veggie intake. I’ve sweat more in this past week than I have in months. 

I’m excited to see this year – and the rest of my life – through.

No fad diets.  No pushing myself too hard.

I have two goals – I think they’re both fairly realistic.  By the end of the year, I’d like to be under 200lbs. (42lbs/31wks = 1.35lbs/week)  One year from today, I’d like to be 175lbs or lighter. (67lbs/52weeks = 1.29lbs/week)

I’m really looking forward to measuring myself on June 18th to see my progress. 🙂

Walking path by my office. How did I ignore this for 5 months?!

So far, so good

It’s amazing how much better I feel after just a few days of making better choices.

Rick and I hit the gym on Sunday morning – 35 minutes on the treadmill at a decent pace (3.5mph – just walking, no running for me yet) and about 20 minutes of weights.  I was hurting within an hour of getting home – man, I’m out of practice!  Rick and I both passed out on the sofa Sunday afternoon for almost an hour. 

Sunday night, I turned on the Wii and decided on a lil’ Just Dance. I went with the “sweat it out” option and picked some high-intensity songs.  Just three songs and I was sweating my hiney off!

Sunday, I also started counting calories.

Monday, I took a nice walk on my lunch break.  Our office is part of a beautiful development with walking paths, bridges, ponds…we even have a little bit of wildlife to check out – herons, turtles, ducks.  I’d glanced out the window before, but never actually walked along the paths.  What a gorgeous area.  I haven’t gotten around to bringing my sneakers to work yet, but I can manage a 10-15 minute walk in my work shoes easily enough. 

I’m using the Lose It app for Android to track calories and exercise.  You can enter your goal weight and then pick a plan (I chose 2lbs loss/wk) and it tells you a) when you should meet your goal and b) how many calories you have to stay within in order to do so.

According to the app, if I stay under 1,672 calories/day, I should be 155lbs by March 25, 2013.  Considering I figured a year with the band would be reasonable, it’s pretty encouraging to see that it might happen sooner than I think as long as I make good choices (along with the band!).  Of course I’m trying to avoid saturated fats and processed foods, in general.

Sunday, I ate 1,932 calories, but I burned approx 375 calories, so that still put my net intake under the mark.

Monday – 1,757 calories in and about 90 burned. Not too bad.

Today – I’ve already plugged in what I plan to have for dinner along with what I’ve eaten all day (I try to put things in there in advance so I can see how much wiggle room is left).  Including dinner, I’m at about 1,430 calories.  I went for a walk this AM and plan to do so again in a few minutes – just little 10 min walks on my breaks. I’m also planning to “sweat it out” again with the Wii Just Dance for at least 30 minutes tonight, so hopefully I’ll have burned a couple hundred calories.  My goal is to eat less than the 1,672 regardless of exercise, but I’m not fooling myself into thinking I’ll get there overnight!

(I dread to plug in what a “normal” day was for me, calorie-wise, just a couple of weeks ago. I’d guess at least 2,500 calories.  At least.)

I feel great.  A little sore, yeah, but otherwise… happier.  And sore muscles have always made me feel just a little less fat. I still look the same, but at least I can feel that there are still muscles in there somewhere! They’re crying for me to use them!

I’m off for a quick walk. 🙂  You should go do the same!

Addiction

We may think there is willpower involved, but more likely change is due to want power. Wanting the new addiction more than the old one. Wanting the new me in preference to the person I am now.
–George Sheehan

Food addiction is a difficult thing to overcome, as is any addiction.  I think one of the must frustrating things about food addiction is that food is a lot more difficult to avoid than, say, cocaine or liquor.  Don’t want to run into drugs and alcohol?  You might have to change who you hang out with and where you go.  Don’t want to run into food temptations?  Then don’t leave your house.

I like the quote above because I think it hits the nail on the head.  It’s not just about willpower.  It’s almost as if you’re replacing one addiction with another – and the new one has to win in order for you to succeed.  Want a cookie?  Take a walk.  Craving that 9pm bowl of cereal or ice cream?? Flick on some Wii Just Dance instead. 

My drive to work is one of my biggest struggles – both for my calorie count and my pocketbook.  I love breakfast.  I want to eat 1st, 2nd and 3rd breakfast.  I crave fast food breakfast sandwiches, tacos, biscuits, kolaches…all of it.  I used to have an 1.5hr commute to work, so eating breakfast in the car just made sense.  Now my commute is about 25 minutes.  I no longer have time or reason to eat breakfast in the car…but I still crave that routine.  And lord knows I drive past at least a dozen drive through/walk in places that sell breakfast.  I’ve practically got them memorized.  Even the new spots that I haven’t hit yet!  Bakers Dozen (donut shop), Burger King, McDonald’s, 7-11, Sonic, Braums, QuikTrip, Jack in the Box, another donut shop, another 7-11!  These – and more – are all just on my 11 mile commute to work!  I can talk myself into spending $5-8/morning sometimes. I tell myself I need it.  I’m sooooo hungry!  I’ll work harder/smarter/better if I’d just stop for a bite of something to eat on my way there.  Of course, I need the caffeine, too!  Sure there are no calories or sugar in an “Absolutely Zero” Monster – that doesn’t make it health food.  And I’m spending about $2 on these each time.

The best part?  I do this after I’ve already eaten breakfast at home. I’m wasting money and adding a good 500+ calories to my day.  I’ll even find ways to come up with money to do this when we’re broke. [Sorry, honey!] I’ll use my almost-maxed-out credit card or dig quarters from the change jar…maybe make sure there’s just a few extra bucks in the kid’s daycare account – that’ll cover a sausage biscuit and a Monster. 

I’m not just hurting myself, I’m hurting my family financially.  I spend – easily – $75-100/mo on breakfast.  SECOND BREAKFAST.  That’s insane.

I’m done.  After taking my “before” pictures the other night, I’ve renewed my commitment to myself.  I’m not waiting for surgery to make changes. I need to start now.  I’m going to replace one addiction with another, if need be. 

It helps that we’re starting our walking challenge here at work on Wednesday!  Bring. It. On.  I’m ready.