Eleven months later . . .

november, 2011

here i am after losing 40 lbs.!! after being the weight i was for so many years, and finding that nothing i did seemed to make a difference, losing 40 lbs. in 11 months was amazing to me. what was also amazing is the puffiness all over my body was starting to subside. my fingers were no longer sausages and my wrists reappeared as did my ankles. what was it that seemed to work? i concentrated on eating protein at every meal, plus eating more vegetables and less grain carbohydrates. i was still drinking at least one regular soda almost every day, and i was still having a glass of chocolate milk or mug of hot cocoa every day. i am one of those people who doesn't like to feel deprived!! even with the pop and hot cocoa, i had still cut my carb intake by almost half. i was keeping my calories to about 1600-1700 per day, and my husband and i had worked our way up to approximately 2.5 miles of walking at least 6 out of every 7 days per week. i was feeling pretty good and it was so nice to be able to move my body and not be so sore and tired all the time.

in march of 2011, i was flying back from visiting my daughter in rhode island, and i was seated in a row with two other ladies. i don't remember how we got on the subject, but during our conversation, i discovered one of them was a local doctor with a psychiatric practice who focused on nutrition in the treatment of her patients. we had a 6 hour flight, and my seatmate and i picked this doctor's brain. she was very accommodating, answering all our questions and giving us the names of books, authors and blogs to use as resources in our own journey toward healthier eating. when i got home, i started doing more reading!! throughout the rest of 2011, my husband and i worked on our health. i started using coconut oil in my cooking (it is also great on my skin!) and we were going through vegetables like crazy. i worked on breaking my pop habit (with little success). by june of 2011, my husband reached his goal weight and in november i achieved a total loss of 40 pounds. then, i kind of just stopped losing. what was interesting, though, was that even though the scale wasn't going down, my body composition was still changing. i can wear clothes from 10+ years ago when i was 20 lbs lighter than i am right now.

at the end of 2011, i checked a book out from the library called "wheat belly", by dr. william davis, and after reading it i really felt that the elimination of wheat from my diet would be beneficial. through january of 2012 i worked on that and succeeded in removing most wheat products from even my baking and homemade waffles. in february, i attended an event that presented me with a selection of conventionally prepared desserts. i indulged, and the combination of wheat and sugar left me feeling unwell for a week. i was truly surprised, but this experience just furthered my resolve. i was also able to finally put my soda pop habit to rest. it has been about 10 weeks since my last one. i feel very good about that accomplishment! it is huge for me -- i REALLY LOVE soda!!

in my reading throughout 2011, i kept coming across the term "paleo". it refers to the diet our supposed "paleolithic" ancestors ate. evolutionary theories aside, the diet itself made a lot of sense to me, and went along with what my husband and i were already trying to do with our own diet. in january 2012, i came across another term: the "whole30 challenge".

http://whole9life.com/2012/01/whole-30-v2012

this is an even more strict version of the paleo diet, and it is meant to be initially followed for 30 days. i began to think this was something i wanted to try. i asked my husband if he would do it with me and he said he would. we decided on a start date of april 1, 2012 (no joke! lol!!) during the month of march, i allowed myself to have some of the things i liked (like m & m's and my hot cocoa in a 16 oz mug for example) in preparation to give them up in april. now it is april 1, and the challenge has begun. no grains or seeds, no dairy, no sweetener of any kind, no beans or legumes (no peanutbutter!) no potatoes (sweet potatoes in small amounts are ok occasionally). we are focused on eating protein, veggies, good fats and a few fruits. and LOTS of water.

why am i doing this diet? number one, i want to be healthier, and my bloodwork back in august of 2011, 8 months into our journey, showed some specific improvements. my fasting blood sugar was 20 points lower than it had been previously, my cholesterol ratios were right on the money, and my liver function was slightly improved (my enzymes had always been in the normal range, but this time they were better than normal). number two, one of my greatest desires is to reduce or even eliminate some or all of my medications. i am currently taking a thyroid supplement (for hypothyroidism-- i have been taking it for about 18 years), a statin drug (i have been on this for about 15 years), a diuretic (for the beginnings of high blood pressure -- for 3 years), an actual blood pressure medication (which i let my dr. bully me into taking about 18 months ago) and a potassium supplement (to replace the potassium my body loses because of the diuretic). i feel like it is only symptoms that are being treated by these meds. i am hoping that by eating this way that the issues that are causing the symptoms will finally start to be resolved. i can't find a downside to eating a diet that has let me lose weight and improve my bloodwork by eating meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit and fat, and doesn't severely limit my calories.

i will be posting here every day of the challenge. if you want to follow along, i would appreciate your comments. thanks for reading!

christmas, 2010. that's me in the black sweater, on the right, next to the kid in the plaid shirt. i'm not going to say how much i weighed, but i was within 5 pounds of my heaviest weight ever. i was not exercising, i was eating pretty much whatever i felt like, and i was miserable. i always ate lots of veggies, good fats, whole grains, and kept my total fat intake at around 30% of total calories. pretty much sounds like the usda guidelines, right? i also ate lots of sugar -- i baked a lot, drank regular pop, and i love m & m's. i also was deficient in my water intake.

i was not happy, but it seemed like i was unable to make any changes that would stick. my husband was also overweight (that's him behind me to the right) but any time i tried to suggest changes to our diet, i was faced with strong opposition. this in spite of the fact that he was exhausted all the time due to severe sleep apnea that was being treated by a c-pap machine. that all changed this christmas, when a family member patted my husband's belly and asked him when he was due! the week after christmas, my husband announced that he was embarking on a diet and exercise program starting january 2, 2011. i was welcome to join him, he said, but he was going to do it with or without me. THAT was what i had been waiting for!!

on january 2nd (a sunday morning), i woke up and my husband was nowhere to be found. his truck was there, his wallet was there but he was not. his cell phone was gone, so i called him and when he answered, he was a huffin' and a puffin'! i asked him where he was and he said "i told you i was going to start exercising on january 2nd! i am out walking. i will see you soon." That conversation made me do some hard thinking. i decided i was going to go on this journey with my husband. on monday morning january 3rd, i was up at 5:30 am and went downstairs where my husband was doing some calesthenics. he asked why i was up, and i replied, "i am going walking with you." the look on his face was priceless! we started our walk and i was surprised to find that i was easily able to outpace him in spite of my own condition. we did our walk and got back home and got ready for work.

as the new year progressed, i began doing a lot of reading on diet. i stumbled upon the book "Protein Power" by drs. michael and mary dan eades. i found they had written a whole series of books emphasizing protein and vegetables over whole grains. i did not go as low carb as they suggested in the initial stages of the diet, but i did cut my carb intake by about half, from over 200 grams of carbs per day to around 100-125 grams of carbs per day. my husband and i had agreed to stick to a total calorie count of about 1600 calories per day, which we kept track of on the website www.fitday.com. this website made it possible to keep track of calories, fat and carbs on a daily basis.

by the end of january 2011, both of us had started losing weight. initially, i was STARVING all the time. after about 2-3 weeks, however, that empty feeling had started to subside. and the fact the i was starting to lose weight made me more motivated to continue.

so now you know how this journey started just over a year ago. tune in tomorrow for more of our journey . . .

almost a year since my last post. this is not how i intended to do things when i started this blog. at the moment i am ok that i don't have an audience, but i wanted to remember my past, write things down for my kids, and record the events that are giving us new memories to cherish. boo. i have not done well. a year has gone by and so much has happened, and i have not recorded any of it.

because of this weekend, however, i feel a renewed sense of optimism that i will be more diligent in recording my thoughts here. it has been a weekend of memories brought back to life. i had my 30th high school reunion. my brother brought me a cd of old family pictures and documents to look at. i went to a wedding that included a reconciliation of sorts. all of these experiences have driven home the idea that while it is necessary to live in the present, the past has helped make me who i am today. it is important to remember, to celebrate and to use those experiences from my past to allow me to live today.

thanks for the memories!

school days

wow -- almost a month since my last post. what have i been doing? i have been going to the beach, having birthday parties, spending time with my kids and getting ready for school. i CANNOT believe the summer is over and the kids are back in school. it just seems like yesterday they got out and we had 10 whole weeks stretching out in front of us. now the sun is going down earlier every day and the evenings are cool again and my hot cocoa doesn't make me sweat.

when the kids started school last week, i was thinking about my own school days. when i was a kid, my grandma was the one who always bought me my school clothes. her taste was always very different than mine, but since she was buying, i had to take what i got. there was one exception -- i always begged for saddle shoes. do you remember those? they were either white with a black "saddle" over the instep, or tan with brown. i loved those shoes! my grandma didn't understand why i always wanted that style, and sometimes tried to steer me to something different. in the end, however, she usually gave in and i would wear them home, constantly stealing glances at my feet.

now when i take my own children shopping for school clothes, i find that my taste is different than theirs, and i always try to keep to a budget, even when what they want is more than i want to pay. the one area where i almost always give in, though, is when we go to buy shoes. i am a sucker for letting them get what they want in that department. i always set a maximum price. other than that, as long as the shoes are good quality and fit well, i pretty much let them get what they want. later, when they wear them for the first time, i smile as i watch them glance at their feet when they think no one is looking.

thanks, grandma.

time travel

have you ever been transported back in time by a sound, a taste, a fragrance? it's not deja vu, it is a memory triggered by current events. that is what happened to me tonight.

it was girl's night out and my friend and i were having dinner before our movie started. i had ordered a cheeseburger. nothing exotic, just a basic, fast food cheeseburger. we sat down and began to eat. i took my first bite, and immediately was transported back to my childhood.

when i was a child, trips to the doctor or dentist often meant visiting our local medical school/teaching hospital. as a reward my parents would sometimes take my brother and i to a nearby small restaurant after our appointments. it was called the carousel and it specialized in hamburgers and milkshakes. us kids liked it because they cooked the burgers and then we could put anything we wanted on it. heaven for a picky kid like me! the dining area was decorated with clowns and many of the seats were in the shape of carousel animals, hence the name of the restaurant. we always looked forward to going there, and always felt like we had had a treat.

when i bit into my cheeseburger tonight, it tasted EXACTLY like the burgers from the carousel. juicy, charbroiled (different than the flame broiled burgers that some other fast food places serve), and with only the stuff i liked on it. the sensation was unexpected, but the memory it generated was pleasant. for a moment i was 8 years old again, at the carousel, sitting on a giraffe and eating a hamburger while looking at the clowns painted on the walls. just as quickly, i was back in the food court at the mall, seated across from my friend, wondering where the time has gone.

memories make time travel possible -- "when" have you been recently?

my first memory

i have a terrible memory. (so it makes sense i am writing a blog about documenting and preserving memories, right?!) family and friends often mention experiences and events in which i also participated, and sometimes my recollections are hazy at best. frequently, even after hints and prompting, i have to say, "i'm sorry, i just don't remember." it is sometimes frustrating for me, and amusing for those who take pity on my poor brain.

sometimes when i look at a picture from my childhood, it seems as if i am remembering that particular event. alas, i think it is more that i have seen the picture often enough that it is the photo i am remembering instead of the event. there is one experience, however, that i do remember, and it has no accompanying pictures. it is my first real memory. i was four years old, and my family traveled to northern california on the train to see my grandmother.

i remember my mother sitting with me next to the window, pointing to things outside as the train sped down the tracks. i remember a garden with lots of green and shade at my grandma's house. the highlight of the trip for me was getting to go to school with her. she taught first grade and it made me feel very important to be a four year old in a class full of 6 year olds. i remember being amazed when i discovered that there was a girl in her class who was also named cindy. i don't remember every single thing about that day (hey, i was only four!) but i do recall getting to fingerpaint with the rest of the class. that was fun! my grandma let me bring the picture home and she had it framed for me, and that picture hung in our house until i was in high school.

it wasn't until i was a junior or senior in high school that i told my mother that my grandmother had framed the picture upside down. it was supposed to be a man wearing a hat and walking down the street. my grandmother framed it so it looked like a potted plant. (remember, i was only four!). in spite of the upside down painting, i greatly enjoyed the trip, especially the visit to school.

even as the finger painted man/flowerpot has become a memory, i hold tight to the joy of a four year old little girl who went to school with her grandma and got to feel special for a day. whenever i see an amtrak train speeding down the tracks i feel the awe of a child watching the world pass by as she sits still. this is how my first memory has remained a part of my life to this day.

what is your first memory?

memorable friends

every year (this is the 114th, to be exact), the church denomination i grew up in has their annual campmeeting (also known as family camp). people come from miles around, some traveling 2 hours or more, to attend church services, classes, meals and other activities with others from around our state. the joke at campmeeting is, if you aren't related to someone there, they know someone you are related to. i happen to be related to several people who attend.

it is also a time to see old friends. some of these people have known me for over 40 years, some for only a few months, but it is always a joy when our eyes meet and we make our way toward each other and embrace. the words " it is sooo good to see you!" always make me smile. it is good to be missed! what makes these occasions so enjoyable is the fact that we share memories. memories of childhood exploits, teenage angst, college days, new parenthood, our faith; all of these experiences have been shared with the people we care about, relate to, have a history with. we have made memories together.

our family is not just those people we are related to by blood or marriage. our friends are also our family. our shared experiences have created memories that we will carry for a lifetime. our yearly campmeeting gives some of us a chance to reminisce, to remember what brought us together as friends, and it also gives us the chance to build on those memories. that is one thing friends are
for -- to create memories with.

create a new memory with an old friend -- soon!