Note: It occurred to me that the reasons WHY I chose the resolutions that I have chosen for this year might be an appropriate topic for conversation.. I am going to choose Thursdays as days to be thoughtful and thankful! I will tell the history of my resolutions on Thursdays!
1. Weight, weight, weight! Maintain loss and lose a little more. Tighten and tone…. Develop a daily regimen to stay fit for life! Learn to eat like a thin healthy person.
Sound familiar??? I think that weight loss has been a New Year's WISH for most of my life.
In 2007, I lost 60 pounds! Yep, a HUGE accomplishment..... I never even knew it was possible :-) The story of the loss - yes, it was a quick healthy loss - is for another day. The story of learning who this new person active person was is also for another day...
For now I will talk about today :-) From where I am sitting now... 3-1/2 years later... I have maintained approximately 45 pounds of that loss. I am used to the way I look now and recognize the woman in the mirror. I participate in several exercise classes which help keep me active... martial arts twice weekly, a line dancing group meeting twice weekly, and 5 dance classes - ballet, clogging, Christian lyrical ballet, and Irish soft and hard shoe. I also do a good bit of walking training on occasion in preparation for an annual Breast Cancer 3Day Walk and worry / work on strength exercises for my upper body.
I am chasing the illusive lower weight I think I ought to weigh.. STILL! My logical brain has chosen a number and body shape and still wants it. Last summer, I dropped 20 pounds in a couple of months. No big deal... just be serious and stop eating so much. I felt like I was handling things in a healthy way. BUT my energy level plummeted. My hair started falling out. I was as depressed as I usually am in the middle of January. Yikes!
I went to the doctor for my annual check-up and had lots of tests run.... all the usual PLUS thyroid (for the hair) and Vitamin D levels ( for the depression). I waited anxiously for the results for 2 weeks. When the call came, the nurse blithely informed me that all my levels were normal except my cholesterol. It was too high and the doctor wanted me on mes to bring it down. Well..... I am not opposed completely to drug therapies. I think there is a time and place for them. But since this was the very first time that cholesterol has been mentioned as an issue for me, I declined quickly. I was given 3 months to turn it around by diet and exercise.
Well.. now I was REALLY depressed... no energy, hair falling out... I forgot to mention above that I had been struggling with issues with my eyes for several months already.. (diagnosed with dry eye syndrome and in constant eye pain).... really bad attitude and now.... my cholesterol was too high. My feeling was, that I had been handed another symptom..... not THE problem. I also need to mention that I am two years past menopause... so some of this may be age-related as well.... but still needs a resolution so I can go on with the life I have built for myself.
Soo... I added supplements... I already took Black Cohosh, Calcium, B Complex, D and sometimes C. So I added Omega 3s.... fish oil.. because I HATE fish... okay, I'll rephrase.... I haven't LEARNED TO LIKE fish yet :-) The problem with fish oil is that I burp it back so that was nasty.. sorry if that is too much information. Of course, everyone I talked to has their favorite remedy for that.. including some digestive enzymes that I added to my collection. But the remedies were like all the advice for how to peel a hardboiled egg easily... sometimes they worked.. sometimes they didn't.... but never was anything consistent.
So... I was taking all these daily supplements and trying to eat healthily.... eating every few hours.... protein at every sitting... and my eye specialist prescribes an antibiotic to take twice daily for several months. I understood that it needed to be taken on an empty stomach...... not sure about that because I promptly got very nauseous and ended up losing the pill! So then I read the instructions and find out that it might make me nauseous (go figure), so to eat with a light meal.... BUT not within 2 full hours of any vitamins or protein. Okay, so now I have supplements morning and night..... and an antibiotic with a meal morning and night.. but not within 2 hours of the supplements. Wow - this scheduling is awful...
About a week later, I lost my lunch.... and had enough! I scheduled an appointment with a naturopathic doctor and put myself in her hands to try and use food as medicine. So... here is where things change up for me..... my food ideas / habits which worked so well for my weight losses go out the window.
Next week, I will outline what I learned and what I was asked to try. Where are you on the health / weight loss journey?
In 2007, I lost 60 pounds! Yep, a HUGE accomplishment..... I never even knew it was possible :-) The story of the loss - yes, it was a quick healthy loss - is for another day. The story of learning who this new person active person was is also for another day...
For now I will talk about today :-) From where I am sitting now... 3-1/2 years later... I have maintained approximately 45 pounds of that loss. I am used to the way I look now and recognize the woman in the mirror. I participate in several exercise classes which help keep me active... martial arts twice weekly, a line dancing group meeting twice weekly, and 5 dance classes - ballet, clogging, Christian lyrical ballet, and Irish soft and hard shoe. I also do a good bit of walking training on occasion in preparation for an annual Breast Cancer 3Day Walk and worry / work on strength exercises for my upper body.
I am chasing the illusive lower weight I think I ought to weigh.. STILL! My logical brain has chosen a number and body shape and still wants it. Last summer, I dropped 20 pounds in a couple of months. No big deal... just be serious and stop eating so much. I felt like I was handling things in a healthy way. BUT my energy level plummeted. My hair started falling out. I was as depressed as I usually am in the middle of January. Yikes!
I went to the doctor for my annual check-up and had lots of tests run.... all the usual PLUS thyroid (for the hair) and Vitamin D levels ( for the depression). I waited anxiously for the results for 2 weeks. When the call came, the nurse blithely informed me that all my levels were normal except my cholesterol. It was too high and the doctor wanted me on mes to bring it down. Well..... I am not opposed completely to drug therapies. I think there is a time and place for them. But since this was the very first time that cholesterol has been mentioned as an issue for me, I declined quickly. I was given 3 months to turn it around by diet and exercise.
Well.. now I was REALLY depressed... no energy, hair falling out... I forgot to mention above that I had been struggling with issues with my eyes for several months already.. (diagnosed with dry eye syndrome and in constant eye pain).... really bad attitude and now.... my cholesterol was too high. My feeling was, that I had been handed another symptom..... not THE problem. I also need to mention that I am two years past menopause... so some of this may be age-related as well.... but still needs a resolution so I can go on with the life I have built for myself.
Soo... I added supplements... I already took Black Cohosh, Calcium, B Complex, D and sometimes C. So I added Omega 3s.... fish oil.. because I HATE fish... okay, I'll rephrase.... I haven't LEARNED TO LIKE fish yet :-) The problem with fish oil is that I burp it back so that was nasty.. sorry if that is too much information. Of course, everyone I talked to has their favorite remedy for that.. including some digestive enzymes that I added to my collection. But the remedies were like all the advice for how to peel a hardboiled egg easily... sometimes they worked.. sometimes they didn't.... but never was anything consistent.
So... I was taking all these daily supplements and trying to eat healthily.... eating every few hours.... protein at every sitting... and my eye specialist prescribes an antibiotic to take twice daily for several months. I understood that it needed to be taken on an empty stomach...... not sure about that because I promptly got very nauseous and ended up losing the pill! So then I read the instructions and find out that it might make me nauseous (go figure), so to eat with a light meal.... BUT not within 2 full hours of any vitamins or protein. Okay, so now I have supplements morning and night..... and an antibiotic with a meal morning and night.. but not within 2 hours of the supplements. Wow - this scheduling is awful...
About a week later, I lost my lunch.... and had enough! I scheduled an appointment with a naturopathic doctor and put myself in her hands to try and use food as medicine. So... here is where things change up for me..... my food ideas / habits which worked so well for my weight losses go out the window.
Next week, I will outline what I learned and what I was asked to try. Where are you on the health / weight loss journey?
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