The hardest thing I've ever done

Tyring to get back into diet and exercise after months of not really "being into it", is a huge struggle for me.

I remember many Weight Watcher meetings where our leader would say, "you know, losing weight isn't rocket science" or "this isn't the hardest thing you've ever done". Then she'd ask things like: Did you graduate college? Did you have a baby? Have you raised a child? Have you ever been married? Have you lost someone you loved?" She always name off several things that every person in the room had experienced, usually not just one of the things, but several of them. Then she would say, compare exercising and eating less to that experience. Then she'd followup with, losing weight is easy in comparison to any of those things. Everyone in the room would nod in agreement.

These days I'm not so sure I'd nod in agreement. I'm really feeling challenged. It feels like the hardest thing I've ever done.

I almost made it through yesterday perfectly. Unfortunately, by the time I got home at 9pm I was too wiped out to care about much of anything, much less myself. It was a long work day of fixing major bugs on one of the most challenging projects I've ever worked on at work, with constantly moving requirements. It had a release date that was originally two months ago and now we don't even have a release date (too many issues to set a firm date yet).

When I got home I needed to work on my most challenging personal project, losing weight. I had nothing left to give to myself. I was exhausted. I had taken my workout clothes to work, with the intention of going to the gym after work since I couldn't force myself to get up early enough to go before work. Of course, at 9pm I didn't go. I was mentally and physically wiped out.

After a healthy breakfast and lunch, dinner was a piece of deli fried chicken, left over from a couple days ago. Two Pomegranate frozen fruit bars for dessert. Then bed. No vegetables and no fruit.

I woke up feeling exhausted. I weighed today, 218.8. Not much of an improvement from the 220 yesterday, but I'll take it. At least I didn't gain another pound.

Today is simple. Eat healthy, count calories, exercise. Exercise...I'm not sure when or how that became such a huge challenge for me. I'm not sure how I managed to exercise almost every day for four years and then totally drop out. It's like nightmare come true. Gaining a ton of weight and becoming sedentary.

I guess it's just one day at a time, as so many bloggers say. There's not much else I can do except to keep trying. Maybe today will be the day I get my act together again. Let's hope so. I really don't want this to be the hardest thing I've ever done.

Hitting rock bottom

I think I finally hit rock bottom, and I don't like it here.

1. I tried to pull on a pair of size 16 jeans this morning. I couldn't even get them up over my hips. I had to wear one of the two pairs of size 18's that I bought last week.

2. I don't know how much I weigh. The last time I weighed, last week I think, I was 217. Those size 16 jeans were tight, but at least I could get them on and buttoned.

3. I feel like hell. I get winded walking from my car to my office building and it's a very short walk.

4. Walking up one flight of stairs almost makes me pass out. Three flights almost kills me. How did I managed to climb 69 flights of stairs for the Big Climb last year and I did it in 19 minutes? How could I have let myself go like this?

5. I don't recognize myself in the mirror. In fact, I avoid mirrors if I can.

6. My body aches. I don't like the rolls of fat hanging off my body. I'm very uncomfortable in this body. I don't feel like myself.

7. I haven't been to the gym in over a week. I feel stiff and out of sorts.

I could go on and on with this list. I could write a book about my misery over being fat.

So why don't I do something about it? I know that's what you're thinking. I know it's what I'm thinking almost every minute of the day. I'm obsessed with the question, why can't I fix myself?

I'm perfect all day, then every night I'm so tired, so frustrated with myself, so unhappy about what I've done to myself, that suddenly I don't care about any of it. I'm in a vicious cycle of self-destruction.

Tonight I really feel like I've hit bottom. I don't think I can feel much worse than I do right now. Oh, I suppose another 100 pounds might make feel worse, but I'm not sure I would get there because I'm pretty sure the weight I am right now is going to kill me first.

All that being said, I think it's time I made a change. I came home and put all the cookies and praline pecans I bought last night (and ate about half) down the garbage disposal. I wanted the food out of the house, and I wanted to show myself that this food is garbage. This is what makes me feel so awful.

I had a banana for a snack when I came home, with a big glass of water. Dinner is broiled tilapia and roasted Brussels sprouts. Then it's bed, then it's the gym tomorrow morning. I'm even going to set the alarm for 5am. Wish me luck because I'm going to need it to make it through Day 1 and into Day 2.

I'm just not a caveman

I tried to do the Whole 30 this past week, on and off. Actually, more off than on. I have issues with it. It made me feel awful. Maybe it wasn't the diet, maybe I was coming down with something, but I felt yukky all week.

Deleting entire food groups from my diet didn't feel right. Milk, grains, legumes. Bad for me? The thoughts on how and when to exercise also concern me.

There are good things about eating like a caveman. Eating real food, eating organic when  possible makes sense. Deleting dairy and grains doesn't make sense. 

I know the primal/paleo diet works for a lot of people. I know this because I read it on their blogs. As much as I wanted to embrace the Whole 30, I just don't think it's a good fit for me.

That being said, what is my plan? I don't know. I'm still trying to figure it out. Who knew that at almost 57 years old I still wouldn't have this figured out.

My weight this morning, 216.4. Talk about feeling yukky. As my sister used to say right after her stroke (when she could still talk a little), I--am--mis--er--a--ble.

Today was my first day at making an honest effort of eating carefully, getting in 30 minutes of exercise (walked at lunch and it was painful), and logging my food. Lots of water.

I wore my BodyMedia all day. I was surprised it said I was active one hour and 45 minutes (how did that happen?), and had burned 2471 calories by 8pm. Calorie consumption 1675 (and I weighed and measured everything I ate today).

Well, it's late and I have a book to read for a book club thing I'm doing tomorrow at work. Not sure how I got talked into it, but I said I'd go to the first meeting. Downloaded the book to my Kindle, but guess I actually have to read it now.  Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. No idea what it's about, only that I have to read it.

A rough start with Whole 30

I really thought this would be a good weekend to start the Whole 30 plan. My husband was out of town so I had complete control of what I ate. Or did I?

Saturday went pretty well until about 8pm. I spent the day with my sister. First, her two-hour hair appointment (and she looked gorgeous when they were done). Then Magic Mike. Turned out not to be as fun or interesting as I thought. Stupid subplots, didn't like the character The Kid. Hated Matthew McConaughey's character. Now Magic Mike, he was "interesting", but the movie was a lot more raunchy than I expected. I know, what should I have expected, it was a male stripper movie.  Basically, another stupid movie.

It was 6pm after the movie (where I avoided popcorn or diet Coke - a nasty habit I acquired recently). My sister's normal bedtime is 5:30pm. She sleeps 12 hours a night. I read this is normal post-stroke. At least she doesn't take a nap in the afternoon anymore. She was too tired to go out to eat and indicated she wasn't hungry. However, I asked her, "how about some ice cream?" and she smiled and nodded yes. We stopped at Baskin and Robbins. I got her a scoop of Pralines 'n Cream and nothing for me. 

So all had gone well, except I hadn't eaten anything since 11am. I got home at 7pm. I was starving! I still hadn't gone grocery shopping for Whole 30 foods. I had lots of stuff I could eat. Vegetables, fruit, chicken, fish. Dinner was talapia and brussels sprouts, with a cup of blackberries for dessert. I was still starving. I stood in the pantry and spotted a box of Carmel popcorn. The kind you pop in the microwave and then but a slab of caramel on it to melt. I ate both packages.

Sunday was worse. I was exhausted, probably from all the sugar and a bad night of sleeping. I just didn't care. I had major house cleaning to do, so I ate whatever, then slept four more hours. Got up at noon and cleaned like a manic.

So the whole weekend was a bust. No exercise. Bad eating.

Today I'm trying again. My healthy lunch is packed and I have really good intentions (again) today. The goal is to just get through the day. Just one day of eating healthy, whole foods. Certainly I can do one day, right?

Whole 30 and Dirty Dozen

Second post in one day, I must be feeling better!

I just skimmed through It Starts With Food on my Kindle. This is really going to be a major change for me. I'm curious about the outcome so I feel really motivated to do it. Weight loss would be great and is my ultimate goal, but feeling better by not eating all the crap I've been eating is even more exciting.

Although I'm not sure I'm completely on board with everything they're suggesting, I'm willing to give it a try. I'm suspicious about cow's milk being unhealthy, but they're logic makes sense. I agree about artificial sweeteners. I was pretty sure that Stevia is not all that healthy and the authors validated my thoughts.

A couple links for you, one is the link to the It Starts With Food website with a lot of free downloads, like how to get started with the Whole 30 and even a shopping list (which is in my purse right now): 


They have so much information on their website you almost don't need the book, although there's a lot of explanation as to why you should follow this eating plan in the book. 

Also, a link to the Dirty Dozen, which I think everyone needs to review.

That's it for now. Getting off this computer and getting my day going. Wonder if there's anything acceptable in my kitchen to eat for the Whole 30. Definitely going to be a challenge.

Feeling more like myself

For the last few months, I've haven't felt well. I didn't know what was wrong, but I was always tired and borderline unhappy. Not depressed, just not really happy. In fact, I didn't feel like I was feeling anything. It was weird and not at all like how I usually feel. I was not normal, mentally or physically.

I blamed it on my weight gain of 40 pounds in the past seven months. I'm sure that was part of it, but yesterday I realized something else that changed about two months ago.

A quick recap of the past nine months:

August 2011 - Broke my wrist while bicycling and was in a fingertip to elbow cast for three months (first month was a fingertip to shoulder cast). Told would most likely have surgery. Missed a ton of work since I couldn't type (I'm a software developer). Fortunately it all healed and no surgery, but a stressful period.

Sept 2011 - My sister had a catastrophic stroke that left her completely paralyzed on her right side, unable to speak intelligibly, read or write. Previously a very active woman and now she's in a wheelchair.

Nov 2011 - After a battle with her eldest daughter, my niece, whom I no longer speak to (she is seriously crazy), I was appointed my sister's legal guardian by the State of Alaska.

Dec 2011 - Found out from my sister she'd been abused when I visited her at her assisted living in Fairbanks, Alaska. I live in Seattle. I can't tell you the horror of her trying to explain to me about the "bad" person. The only word she could say, "bad", over and over and point to her window. And her unending tears as she tried to tell me who had hurt her and what had happened, both of which I'll never know for sure because I can't understand her.

Jan 2012 - Moved my sister to Seattle to live close to me in a wonderful adult family home.

Feb 2012 - Filed a Vulnerable Adult Order of Protection with the state to keep my crazy niece away from my sister for the next five years.

Mar 2012 - Started a high-pressure, intense project at work with a very tight, unrealistic, but government-imposed deadline. Very much outside my comfort zone on this project.

Apr 2012 - Started breaking out in horrible hives, first a couple times a week, then every day. Huge red welts would appear for no apparent reason and itch like crazy, on different parts of my body on different days. And of course, let's not forget the lip swelling that happened randomly and made me look like a freak-a-zoid. It was misery.

Late Apr 2012 - On the advice of a nurse, I started taking a 24-hour Claritin on a daily basis. The hives and lip swelling immediately stopped. It had happened three times the day before. I was about ready to go to the emergency room.

Late Apr 2012 - June 28, 2012 - felt out of sorts. Extremely tired all the time. Eating out of control. Exercise almost non-existent. Often would get up early, get dressed to go to the gym, but wouldn't go. Too tired.

June 29, 2012 - yesterday - I got up, started to take the Claritin as I have every day for two months and although I have been hive free for that entire time, I decided to not take it. The pressure has lifted at work, my sister stuff has settled into a comfortable routine. I haven't spoken to the crazy niece since February and doubt I will ever speak to her again. Did I really need to continue taking the Claritin? I decided no, it was time to stop it.

Within only a few  hours, I felt different. I felt like myself. It was very weird. I was sitting at my desk yesterday and thought, why do I feel so different? What changed? I feel happy. I feel excited about my plans for July 4th. Life isn't bad.

I hadn't felt that feeling for months. Then it hit me, I stopped taking a pill I'd been taking every day for two months. Even though they claim Claritin has little to no side effects, I really noticed a difference in myself when I stopped taking it. I also slept better last night than I have in a long time. Like a rock. I didn't wake up once all night which is unusual. 

I feel ready to get back on the wagon. My wagon of choice this time around is the Paleo diet. Thanks to Lyn's post ( and this one) regarding the Whole 30, I thought this is a good time to figure out what foods make me feel good and the ones that make me feel lousy. If that tiny little Claritin pill has such a huge impact on my body, I know all the junk I'm dumping into my body must really be playing havoc with my physical and mental health.

I've got the book, It Starts with Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways, downloaded to my Kindle. I've skimmed it but will do some serious reading today and get the right food in the house (and the wrong food out of the house).

Today's plan:
Gym
Reading (the book referenced above)
Grocery shopping (including the Farmer's Market)
House cleaning - yuk
Take my sister for a color/cut and maybe a movie if she's up to it see a movie. Magic Mike - don't laugh - she loves that kind of stuff. I think she'll get a kick out of it. Rottentomatoes.com gave it an 80% rating (okay, I'll admit it, I love Matthew McConaughey).

Tomorrow - I will try to mow our lawn if it dries out a little. I have never mowed our lawn or even tried to start the lawn mower. We've lived her 14 years but it's my husband's thing. It hasn't been mowed in five weeks. I've never seen it this tall. My husband is usually a freak about the lawn, , always working on it trying to make it the nicest lawn in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, he's in Denver again this weekend. Fifth time in the last six weeks (and he just started a new job five weeks ago).

His dad was taken to ER again on Thursday but is back at the nursing home today. His dad is complaining he can't breath. He's on oxygen, but he can't get enough. It's the emphysema. Damned smoking for the past 50 years. I wish the Federal government would make cigarette sales illegal and put the tobacco companies out of business.

The tobacco industry is something I will never understand. I understand the whole financial aspect of it, the big business, the jobs that would be lost, the taxes the state and federal governments would lose, the revenue for the Indian tribes (we have an Indian Smoke shop on almost every corner here), but I just don't get it. Cigarettes are poison. They kill people. Slowly and painfully. Yes, I know it's a choice but it doesn't make any sense that it's okay to sell cigarettes. Okay, stepping off my soapbox. This is a weight loss blog, not an anti-smoking blog. Still, it just makes me crazy!

Okay, until tomorrow. I plan to be back to daily posting now that I'm myself again. :)

Easy to talk the talk, Hard to walk the walk

Within five minutes of writing my love myself post yesterday, I caught a glimpse of myself in our hallway mirror. I actually said to myself, spoken out loud (husband out of town again this weekend), "Watch out, wide load coming through!".

This negative self-talk is one of the hardest things for me to stop doing. I do it all day long and constantly catch myself either thinking or saying really cruel comments about my appearance. It's especially difficult now because I really don't like the way I look. I'm actually horrified by the distortion of my body and face. If anyone else talked to me like I talk to me, they wouldn't be someone I'd associate with at all. Kind of hard to do that when the person that continually puts me down is me. I'll continue to work on this, and try to say positive things in my self talk, but it's really hard!

My husband is in Denver this weekend with his dad. It's a good thing he flew down there Saturday morning. The hospital discharged him from the hospital on Friday, and took him by ambulance back to his little apartment. The poor guy can barely walk, couldn't even get out of bed. Since he refused rehab they said they had no choice but to send him home.

When my husband got there yesterday morning his dad said he really didn't feel well and thought he needed to go to the emergency room. Another ambulance ride back to the hospital. So Father's Day will be spent getting him moved into a rehab center to try to help him get strong enough to live on his own, although highly unlikely he'll ever move back home. Smoking = emphysema. Bad stuff. 

My plans for the day:

First, a 9:45am spin class. Even though my eating is still not where it should be, I have managed the gym for three days in a row. It's extremely hard to exercise at my current weight (213) and going to the gym is like going to a place of torture. There's really no other way to say this:  I hate it! There's a reason you don't see a lot of really obese people at the gym. I totally understand Who would want to go to a place where everything you do hurts? You'd have to be crazy. Or have to desperately want to lose weight.

There was a study published a few months ago stating exercise really only attributes to about 3% of our overall weight loss. I've always know this is true. I didn't know the exact percentage but you know when you burn 300 to 500 calories at the gym that really doesn't amount to much in food. Building muscle is good, but it still doesn't make that much difference in weight loss. Eating less is what's really important. What exercise does for me is work my mind. I get in the right mindset to lose weight. So my number one priority now is get to the gym, no matter what. No excuses.

The rest of the day is sister day. Our Sunday routine is usually a movie and a late lunch or early dinner. We're going to attempt to see The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel again. The last time we tried to see this movie, it was sold out. It was at a very small, privately owned theater, that I thought would be fun to go to, but their movies sell out quickly. Plus parking was a nightmare. Today we'll go to the big chain theater where I can buy the tickets through Fandango. This time, no movie popcorn for me and dinner will be grilled fish (not steak like last time). It's all about the choices I make.


Happy Sunday!