Well, I discovered two things yesterday.
First, it's harder than I thought to eat enough points in a day. I completely flubbed yesterday's numbers, and todays, while better was still much heavier later in the day, and I had to resort to a protein shake for an evening snack to get within 5 points of where I should be. Going to have to load breakfast and lunches up a bit more to make up for this.
Second, my doctor has given me time limits.
At nearly 38, he's told me I have until I'm 40 to bring my cholesterol down to normal levels, and I have six months to show some improvement from where it is now or we'll be putting me on medication.
Cholesterol: 6.4
Triglycerides: 2.12
HDL: 1.0
LDL:4.48
The numbers I SHOULD have
Cholesterol <5.2
Triglycerides <2.3
HDL >1.3
LDL <3.0
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Monday, 27 October 2014
Launch day!
So the planning is done!
Today is Day 1.
I bought my wee book to record everything in, more chickpeas than I know what to do with (yet. There's a lot of recipes out there I want to try. The roasted chickpeas from last night turned out pretty well)
Hemmed my yoga pants. I had to take a bit more than six inches off the leg length, wearing them unhemmed I had to pull them up to my armpits, and I was still tripping over them.
Started this morning with a healthy breakfast, oatmeal, flax seed and a glass of milk. Lunch will be a frozen weight watchers dinner, or yogurt fruit and a protein shake. Possibly a combination of both. I need to use up 34 points today, and breakfast was a measly 5. That was my problem last time I did weight watchers about 10 years ago. When sticking to healthy foods, it was difficult to eat all your points in a day. Supper will be whole wheat penne pasta with a tomato and chickpea sauce.
Day 1
Points: 34
Weekly Points: 49
Official Naked First thing in the Morning after Peeing weigh in: 248
And having managed to hem those pants, I'm off to make use of them at the local gym.
Today is Day 1.
I bought my wee book to record everything in, more chickpeas than I know what to do with (yet. There's a lot of recipes out there I want to try. The roasted chickpeas from last night turned out pretty well)
Hemmed my yoga pants. I had to take a bit more than six inches off the leg length, wearing them unhemmed I had to pull them up to my armpits, and I was still tripping over them.
Started this morning with a healthy breakfast, oatmeal, flax seed and a glass of milk. Lunch will be a frozen weight watchers dinner, or yogurt fruit and a protein shake. Possibly a combination of both. I need to use up 34 points today, and breakfast was a measly 5. That was my problem last time I did weight watchers about 10 years ago. When sticking to healthy foods, it was difficult to eat all your points in a day. Supper will be whole wheat penne pasta with a tomato and chickpea sauce.
Day 1
Points: 34
Weekly Points: 49
Official Naked First thing in the Morning after Peeing weigh in: 248
And having managed to hem those pants, I'm off to make use of them at the local gym.
Friday, 24 October 2014
Preparation;
I've spent the last 2 days planning, and now I have two days to implement and get everything in place for October 27, which is when I offically start this whole shebang.
I've got a membership to the YMCA. I'd love to say this is new for this reason, but it's more a sign I realized this was coming as I picked it up about 3 weeks ago. Coincidentally enough, it was about the time I decided to stop avoiding the Doctors office and face the music. I got my bloodwork done about a week later.
It's currently underutilized, I get to the gym about once a week for a half hour of imitating a hampster on the treadmill. That's one of the things thats going to change. I need to make time for the gym a bare minimum of three days a week, and closer to five or six days a week.
It'll still be a half hour on the treadmill for now, and I admit I don't go very fast or very far. Thirty minutes at between 2.5 and 3mph right now.
The first goal is a full half hour no slower than 3mph. When I can reach that and it doesn't make me want to vomit or die, I'll start adding other excersizes.
The next step is joining weight watchers. I think this time I'll try the online version (www.weightwatchers.ca). While I like the face to face for the 'accountability' of having another person seeing my scale numbers each week, I never could stand the meetings and the cheerleader 'rah rah rah' attitude that went with them. I'm sure they're exactly what some people need, but they automatically set my cynisism button to 11.
The online version of the program gets you the same program, but no face to face meetings with anyone. I'll use this blog as a substitute for eyes on the numbers of the weekly weigh in, and it's cheaper at $22 for a month as opposed to $12 a week.
The other thing I'm hoping to use this blog for is collecting my favorite recipes. I'm going to have to make some fairly drastic changes to my food intake, and having a collection of recipes I've tested and actually like will help with that alot.
T minus 3 days.
Di
I've got a membership to the YMCA. I'd love to say this is new for this reason, but it's more a sign I realized this was coming as I picked it up about 3 weeks ago. Coincidentally enough, it was about the time I decided to stop avoiding the Doctors office and face the music. I got my bloodwork done about a week later.
It's currently underutilized, I get to the gym about once a week for a half hour of imitating a hampster on the treadmill. That's one of the things thats going to change. I need to make time for the gym a bare minimum of three days a week, and closer to five or six days a week.
It'll still be a half hour on the treadmill for now, and I admit I don't go very fast or very far. Thirty minutes at between 2.5 and 3mph right now.
The first goal is a full half hour no slower than 3mph. When I can reach that and it doesn't make me want to vomit or die, I'll start adding other excersizes.
The next step is joining weight watchers. I think this time I'll try the online version (www.weightwatchers.ca). While I like the face to face for the 'accountability' of having another person seeing my scale numbers each week, I never could stand the meetings and the cheerleader 'rah rah rah' attitude that went with them. I'm sure they're exactly what some people need, but they automatically set my cynisism button to 11.
The online version of the program gets you the same program, but no face to face meetings with anyone. I'll use this blog as a substitute for eyes on the numbers of the weekly weigh in, and it's cheaper at $22 for a month as opposed to $12 a week.
The other thing I'm hoping to use this blog for is collecting my favorite recipes. I'm going to have to make some fairly drastic changes to my food intake, and having a collection of recipes I've tested and actually like will help with that alot.
T minus 3 days.
Di
Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Half the lady I used to be.
Hello.
This is turning out to be harder right off the top than I thought. There's something to be said for anonymity. It lets you not look at various things. In fact, it lets you pretend there's nothing there to look at. Combine that with a decent poker face, and an ability to lie to yourself (as well as the ability to shut out any of the 'well meaning' people who try to talk to you about it. Seriously, you're not helping.), means you can spend a long long time ignoring reality.
So. Lets remove the lies, and the anonymity and take a good look at my reality.
My name is Diana.
I am 37 years old.
I am 5'0" tall.
I weigh 250 pounds.
I got a call from my Dr's office, asking me to come in to discuss some elevated cholesterol levels. Now to be completely honest, this doesn't really come as a surprise. I've been passively avoiding my Drs office for the last 7 or 8 years because I didn't want the bad news (See the above note on lying to yourself and avoiding reality). I don't see how at my weight and age I couldn't have some cholesterol concerns. My appointment is on Monday, which gives me six days.
Six days for what? Planning. Buying supplies. Starting this blog. Deciding what my plan of attack is, and how I'm going to accomplish it. Because the title of this blog? It isn't meant to to be demeaning. Half the lady I used to be is the goal.
At 5'0" and 250lbs, I have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 49. This falls well into the morbidly obese category, which is anything above a BMI of 35. Garden variety obese is between 30 and 35.
A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9 according to the charts. When compared against my height, that's a weight range of 95 to 127 pounds. Now, I looked at the 95 pounds and nearly cried. I haven't weighed that since I was about 13.
The 127? That seemed a little more reasonable. I weighed about 120 through high school before the freshman fifteen ambushed me, and brought friends, family members, family pets, neighbours and anyone else they could find.
So, the goal, and I haven't even come close to coming up with a timeline for it, but the ultimate goal is lose 50% of my body weight and literally become half the lady I am now.
Step one will be talking to my Doctor on Monday and getting the details on the cholesterol.
Step two starts first thing Monday morning, when I take the little journal I'm going to buy this evening (see that bit on supplies) and start recording everything I eat. What it is, how much of it, and what time of day. Not just what I should eat, but what I actually do eat. This is to short circuit the lying to myself about whats actually happening. If I fall off the wagon and eat a bag of chips it goes on the list. Not to make me feel guilty, but so I have a record of the cause end of cause and effect.
This blog is going to be where I come to chronicle successes, lament failures, discuss progress and stumbling blocks. One step at a time.
Wish me strength.
Di
This is turning out to be harder right off the top than I thought. There's something to be said for anonymity. It lets you not look at various things. In fact, it lets you pretend there's nothing there to look at. Combine that with a decent poker face, and an ability to lie to yourself (as well as the ability to shut out any of the 'well meaning' people who try to talk to you about it. Seriously, you're not helping.), means you can spend a long long time ignoring reality.
So. Lets remove the lies, and the anonymity and take a good look at my reality.
My name is Diana.
I am 37 years old.
I am 5'0" tall.
I weigh 250 pounds.
I got a call from my Dr's office, asking me to come in to discuss some elevated cholesterol levels. Now to be completely honest, this doesn't really come as a surprise. I've been passively avoiding my Drs office for the last 7 or 8 years because I didn't want the bad news (See the above note on lying to yourself and avoiding reality). I don't see how at my weight and age I couldn't have some cholesterol concerns. My appointment is on Monday, which gives me six days.
Six days for what? Planning. Buying supplies. Starting this blog. Deciding what my plan of attack is, and how I'm going to accomplish it. Because the title of this blog? It isn't meant to to be demeaning. Half the lady I used to be is the goal.
At 5'0" and 250lbs, I have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 49. This falls well into the morbidly obese category, which is anything above a BMI of 35. Garden variety obese is between 30 and 35.
A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9 according to the charts. When compared against my height, that's a weight range of 95 to 127 pounds. Now, I looked at the 95 pounds and nearly cried. I haven't weighed that since I was about 13.
The 127? That seemed a little more reasonable. I weighed about 120 through high school before the freshman fifteen ambushed me, and brought friends, family members, family pets, neighbours and anyone else they could find.
So, the goal, and I haven't even come close to coming up with a timeline for it, but the ultimate goal is lose 50% of my body weight and literally become half the lady I am now.
Step one will be talking to my Doctor on Monday and getting the details on the cholesterol.
Step two starts first thing Monday morning, when I take the little journal I'm going to buy this evening (see that bit on supplies) and start recording everything I eat. What it is, how much of it, and what time of day. Not just what I should eat, but what I actually do eat. This is to short circuit the lying to myself about whats actually happening. If I fall off the wagon and eat a bag of chips it goes on the list. Not to make me feel guilty, but so I have a record of the cause end of cause and effect.
This blog is going to be where I come to chronicle successes, lament failures, discuss progress and stumbling blocks. One step at a time.
Wish me strength.
Di
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