Gained this week... sorta

As I expected, I had a gain this week. It was about 2#. I wasn't surprised and, in fact, reacted to it with the "oh well" shrug. I knew that the Prednisone-induced eating would cause me to retain fluid and I also knew that the 2# was more than likely not -fat-. So, I'm looking at the gain and knowing that I -will- have it back off by my next weigh-in. I'm optimistic that it will take some of its friends with it. :-) This is a bad budget week, so I'm having to really use my Points creatively. I may still end up going over on my weeklies, but I'm going to try my darndest not to. We'll just have to see.

The news that got me worse that the scale was the test results I got back from my doc. My cholesterol/triglycerides are way up again. :-/ So, he's wanting me to add a super dose of niacin. Part of me wants to not do it and just get it back down with diet, but he also wants to re-test in 2 months. So, I figure I'll go ahead and fill the scrip when we get paid and give it a shot for those two months. If I can't deal with the side effects, then I'll talk to him about not using it anymore. I have set a goal that I will be off some of my obesity-influenced meds by next year. I'll need to banish quite a bit before the doc will be willing to entertain the possibility, I'm sure, but I want to give it the old college try. I'd really like to be at goal by the time I start graduate school, which is tentatively scheduled for Fall 2010 (approximately 16 months). If I average 2#/week, that gets me darn close. I know I can't count on even full pound banishments, but... I'm thinking positively. :-)

Right now, though, I'm concentrating on getting my lungs in shape so that I can start exercising again. That will definitely go a LONG way towards upping my odds of success. Yes, you can banish weigh on WW without exercise, but you miss out on so many of the benefits from exercise if you don't. Right now, I'm just doing short walks that probably don't even get my heart rate into the cardio range - I'll have to check that. But at least I'm doing -something-, right?

So, onward and downward. I'm pushing a lot of water this week because we're doing a lot of cheap food that is high in sodium. I need to find cheap meals that are still WW friendly so that, if a next budget crisis hits, we'll be ready. :-)

Steriod beast

The next time a doctor tells me I need a steroid in either shot or pill form, I want a detailed explanation as to the necessity of said steroid and whether or not taking it will, in fact, benefit me to the point that eating the house while I'm on it is OK. I try to abstain from eating when I'm on a steroid, but I just get so gorram hungry. I've blown through all of my weekly allotment of Points and then some, and my week starts on Monday. I'm trying hard to stick to low Point foods to snack on, but I end up just eating more of them. I've pretty much decided that this week is a write-off. *sigh* But at least my lungs are to the point where I can walk more than 10 minutes at a time, so I guess that's something. Sheesh!

-So- not expecting a banishment this week. Heck, if I maintain, I'll be happy. Srsly.

I take the last Prednisone pill on Friday, so I'm hoping the effects of it (the eating like a horse and then eating the horse effects) are gone by Monday. I'll start fresh then. I'm still recording everything, so I can have a record of how bad it actually is, so that I'll have ammunition for the "nope, not doing that again" decision on steroids.

Hells bells, people! This is the second dose of them I've had this year. That's enough for anyone. Really.

If asthma treatment requires a regular intake of steroids, I'm just gonna suffer with it (the asthma) and make do.

To Breathe or Not To Breathe....

Asthma. That's what my doctor suspects at the moment. We've thought I might have it in the past, but my lungs will miraculously be symptom-free when he does the breathing test. But he thinks that the Whooping Cough damaged my lungs just enough that asthma is a strong possibility. So, he gave me an antibiotic for the current ick and I have a week on Predinsone and 2 puffs 3X/day of an albuterol inhaler to "tune up my lungs". Then I get to go through the fun of pulmonary function tests in 10-14 days. I guess all the meds are to make sure I don't get a false positive because of the current chest cold. Dunno. I'm a wee bit nervous about the tests because I've heard that one of them involves a blood draw from the artery in my wrist. Owie! I guess I'll deal, but, yeow.

In weight-banishment news, I've banished another 2#. I really wanted to be under 270 by our anniversary (that's today for anyone keeping track), but I missed it. So, that's my goal for the next WI. I know I'd be losing/banishing/releasing better if I could exercise, but even mild exercise tires me out so bad. It's gotten to the point where I have to rest about mid-way going to and coming from the bus... the stop is about 2 blocks away, people. I -know- I'm not in that bad of shape, so... I guess I'm just not getting the O₂ I need.

For now, my exercise is going to be attacking the office/guestroom. I'll only be able to do about 15-20 minutes at a time, I'm sure - if that - but I'll at least be getting activity Points. :-)

TTFN.

Woot!

I direct your attention to my weight loss ticker. (<---- over there)

Yep. I've successfully banished 5.8#. I think I'm doing something right, huh?

Now, if the darn pollen will let me actually be able to exercise some, that'd be great. :-) That and the cold. Who said it could get cold again? Not I.

Wow!

I was -so- right about retaining fluid. Out of curiosity I weighed myself this morning just to see what the difference was... 4.8# Wow!I'm very interested now to see how I do on my official WI day, which is Monday. I'm trying to remember what my 1st week on WW was like & how much I released then. I'll have to go through the archives and see. I know it was quite a bit, though. Prolly not going to release/banish enough to get to the 260s this week, but I should be darn close, I'd think. Yes, that's a LOT. But if you saw the state of my ankles at the end of the day, you wouldn't argue about my losing that much scale weight.

Anyway.

Day 1 OP was good, though I was craving junk by the end of the day. I didn't give into it, though! So far, day 2 is going swimmingly, as well. I need to get to the supermarket and get stuff to bring for lunch because it's risky to try to stay OP and just -hope- that there's points-friendly food available. So far, I've been able to make pretty good choices, but it's not always possible in the cafeteria. I just need to come up with lunch ideas that don't involve bread. Maybe wrap sandwiches... I can see how many points the brown rice tortillas I have are. That's a possibility. I'll ponder.

Wishy-washy Wolf

Deciding that it would definitely help me to put my money where my mouth is (in other words, actually paying for something encouraging me to do it), I joined WW Online this morning. I'm still going to have to be careful with my carbs because I know that too many of them will keep my blood sugar doing the loopy-di-loops it's been doing. I also need to stay away from wheat/barley/rye. Other than that, I should be perfectly fine with doing WW. It's the only program I've been able to stick to for any length of time and actually manage to banish the weight. As of this morning, I have approximately 145# to banish. Sheesh! But, my scale weight is up quite a bit because of how little water I drank over the weekend, and how much sodium I took in. So I'm pretty sure I'm going to get the "whoa, slow down nelly!" message that I've been told that WW Online gives you when you lose more than 2# per week. Maybe they'll give me some leeway in the first couple of weeks because a lot of it -will- be water weight. I guess I'll find out. :-)

I've tracked my first meal, and feel like I'm off to a good start.

Hope everyone has a GREAT day!

Wish me luck!

Well, I knew that continuing to scarf down the copious amounts of refined carbs (read sugar) that I'd been scarfing was not going to cut it, I have cut out sugar and other simple carbs. The sugar is the hard part, as I'd already cut out most simple carbs just because they almost all contain gluten. For now, though, I'm even cutting out GF carbs like rice, popcorn, GF tortillas, oatmeal, etc, except at one meal per day. I'm hoping that will get me releasing some fluid, as the Bakers cyst in my right knee has re-filled and it's making doing any real cardio nigh impossible. However, I am going to the gym tonight to start back to lifting weights. Since it's been so long, I'll start with just one set of about 12 reps at a pretty low weight. It's mostly just to start building the habit that MWF, I go lift weights. T/T will be my cardio days (starting small there, too), Saturday will be something like Yoga or Pilates and Sunday will be my sort-of off day. If I feel up to taking a walk, I will, but it's a day when I'm not going to beat myself up for not exercising.

Since I've cut out sugar and have upped my water again, I should actually have quite a banishment this week. I'm not "losing" weight - cuz I don't want to find it again. I'm not "releasing" weight - cuz that's just not strong enuf a word. I'm -banishing- weight. The 1/2 my current body weight that I need to remove is no longer welcome here. It needs to go. Darn it.

Yeah, I realized I currently weigh DOUBLE what I should. No wonder my poor knees hurt.

Okay, here's the deal...

For the time being (say until the end of February) I'm strictly going to concern myself with making sure that I eat a gluten-free diet. I will get my Healthy Guidelines (milk, protein, fruits/veggies, water, etc), but I'm not going to worry about counting Points for the time being. Once I'm back to being GF, I'll get back to counting Points later. Or, I may switch to the non-counting approach called Simply Filling (old Core). We'll see how it goes. But that's the news that's fit to print today.

Accountability & Apostrophes

Well, the steroid shot I was given to help ease the inflammation of my bronchial passages made me want to eat the house. Since I wasn't feeling well already, I had minimal willpower to prevent me from eating said house. Thusly, I'm no longer in the 260s. I hope I'll have myself under control soon. If nothing else, I'm getting plenty of fruits & veggies this weekend so that, if I do feel the need to eat something, I can have something that won't so completely de-rail my efforts.

I've also been a bit concerned... okay, more than a bit... about the frequency of the respiratory infections, both upper (sinus) and lower (bronchitis) that I've been getting recently. So I went to my quiet place and tried to figure out what might be causing them. Then it hit me. I've been allowing more and more gluten back into my diet. So, I went forth and did some research and it turns out that respiratory symptoms can be caused by gluten intolerance. I almost wish I had full-blown Celiac Disease because I'd know immediately that I'd been "glutened" and I would have a more regular and obvious reason to not eat it. Instead, I have Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity, which allows me to eat and eat and eat gluten and then, all of a sudden, I have a really intense flare of Fibromyalgia or a case of Bronchitis that I need a steriod shot and an antibiotic that they give to slow the progression of Anthrax to fix.

So, my goal is to come up with GF meals that are also Points-friendly so that I can have my (gluten free) cake & eat it too, as it were. I have nearly 130 pounds to remove from my person. I weigh 2X what I should. Double. That's just not right. I also know that I'm not ever going to budge from where I am if I don't cut the gluten back out of my diet. Thankfully, I love fruits and veggies and they are all naturally gluten free. :-) I have a book checked out from the library called 1000 Gluten Free Recipes. If I find a bunch I like, I may see if I can buy it for home. We'll see. I'm not sure if the nutrition information is included or not. I guess they figure that most people who would be using the book are Celiacs, who are typically diagnosed after losing a lot of weight and don't mind how many kCal is in something. *shrug* What are you gonna do?

So, as soon as I am able, I'm going to the supermarket and I'm going to start bringing my lunches again, and I will go back to being GF. Darn it. I vaguely remember how fabulous I felt when I was GF and really working WW. I want that again. Darn it.

Ugh

I finally finished my antibiotic. I am hoping that the nausea it induced will pass soon. Because of the nausea, I've only been able to eat certain things. Unfortunately, because of the steroid shot, I've wanted to eat the house. *sigh* I'm almost 100% sure that my WI on Monday will be back up in the 270s. I hope it's not, but I'm prepared for it to be. I don't feel quite the urge to snack that I did have, so I'm hoping that the steroid is working its way out of my system. DH & I are going to the supermarket on Sunday, and I plan on stocking up on things that I can eat loads of without really derailing me.

That's pretty much all the news that's fit to print.

Woot!

I finally broke into the 260s - with a vengence. :-) I'm down to 265.2, which is 5# less than last week. Yes, I know that is a lot for one week, but I was retaining water from TOM, so there. I'm also going to enjoy the fact that I'm losing big right now because, if my body stays true to form, my releases will get down to fractions of a pound soon enough. For those who are still sitting there saying "Whoa! That's too darn fast, missy", I'll have you know that I'm not starving myself, I'm not taking laxatives, I'm not making myself throw up, I'm not cutting out a type of food, and I'm not compulsively exercising. I'm following WW and I'm making sure I eat all of my Points everyday and making sure I follow my healthy guidelines wherein I'm getting plenty of fruits and veggies, 2-3 servings of milk, lean protein, whole grains, etc. Right now, this is the rate at which my body is losing, which I'm happy about.

Anyway. /Justification. :-)

Since I'm actually feeling better today, I'm going to do some work in the Room of Doom^tm. I promised the hubby I wouldn't over do it, so I won't. I just want to start getting that room de-cluttered. I am really praying that I'll feel up to starting back @ the gym next week. If I'm paying for it, I really wanna use it, darn it. :-)

Blargh, Hack, Patooey!

I finally broke down & went to the clinic on Tuesday. I'd called my doctor's office Monday in hopes that I could convince him to simply call me in an antibiotic. Unfortunately, their practice has seen too many cases of pneumonia this year for him to feel entirely comfortable doing that without someone listening to my lungs and taking a chest x-ray if necessary. Because it had been 3 weeks of near-constant misery, I relented and went to the clinic. The PA listened to my lungs and told me they sounded congested but clear (i.e. no pneumonia), but he prescribed an antibiotic that would treat both bacterial infection due to bronchitis (the official dx) AND pneumonia. Of course, this particular antibiotic will probably kill everything except cockroaches, so I should be as good as new soon... assuming, of course, that the antibiotic doesn't kill me. :-) In addition to the antibiotic, I received a steroid injection. That's supposed to help me get my voice back and help shrink any inflammation of my bronchial tubes. Dunno what it's doing to my bronchial tubes, but my voice is still squeaky. It -is- better than it was, so I'll graciously accept my blessings where I can find them.

I'm doing well sticking to WW - even though the steroid has made me very munchy. I hope to see a good loss on Monday, but I'll be happy with any loss - especially if it gets me back into the 260s. :-) Since I was at 269.4 this AM & 268-ish yesterday, I think I may just see the 260s again. I'm okay with that. I'll probably still not be able to exercise next week, so I'm really going to try to get in and de-clutter the office/guestroom like I'd been planning to do before I got sick. That will earn me some activity points but hopefully not be too stressful on my healing lungs the way actual cardio activity would be.

It's supposed to be in the 60s the next few days. I'm hoping that will further facilitate my getting better. Of course, it only will if we don't then suddenly have another cold spell. *sigh* When I go in for my yearly "please renew my prescriptions, thanks" appointment with my doctor, I may see if he'll either examine my lungs/respiratory system to see why the heck I keep getting all these respiratory infections, or refer me to a pulmonologist and let -them- do it. I'm tired of being felled by every respiratory bug that comes by. I've missed entirely too much work over them and I want it to stop. Darn it.

Sick and tired

Yeah, that old cliche about being sick and tired of being sick and tired... of course, things don't get to be cliched without being terribly true. I'm tired of not being able to exercise, darn it! I am hoping that my writing (oh, okay, I'll be honest here - whining) about not being able to exercise will help me bust through any excuses I try to come up with when I -am- able to exercise and don't wanna. I'm counting my Points this week and am trying hard to get all my healthy guidelines met - except for the glaring exception of 30 minutes of activity each day. My breathing is such that even light housecleaning is wearing me out this week. *sigh* I'm trying to figure out how much longer I'm going to put up with this before I break down and go to the doctor. With this bout, it doesn't feel "off", so I expect it's either a cold or some other upper respiratory infection. I'm drinking lots of fluids and not overdoing it, so I can't imagine my doctor would be able to do anything else. If it -is- bronchitis, I'm not sure how much good an antibiotic would do at this point. I don't -think- it's pneumonia...

Heck. I just don't know. All I know is that my head hurts (that's hormonal), my voice is still nearly gone (but no sore throat), I'm still coughing (non-productive) and feel like I could sleep for a week. So, tonight, I'm going to write in my pen-and-paper journal and go to bed early. Maybe a good night's sleep will improve my outlook.

Back on Track... I hope

After a release of 3.8# this morning, I must say I'm pretty happy with that. That was with just trying to get my healthy guidelines and just journaling. I kept a weather eye out on my Points, but didn't sweat going over. This week, I am back to faithfully counting my Points, so I can't wait to see how well I do on the scale on 02/02.

I'm so tired of not being able to exercise!!! I'm really fidgety because I have more energy to burn off, but no real outlet. It sucks. Thankfully, house cleaning earns me Activity Points, but it doesn't really use up all the extra energy. This week, though, I need to get into the storage room (which will eventually be the office/guestroom) and get it gone through and de-cluttered. That should burn off quite a lot of my excess energy. :-) Hopefully, the vestiges of the cough will be gone by the weekend so I can start back at the gym. That would be awesome! If nothing else, I'll start lifting weights and go from there.

Still hanging in there

Overall, I'm feeling a LOT better. Unfortunately, I don't have much of a voice and I'm still coughing. Hopefully, the predicted warm-up will have a beneficial effect on my lungs. We are also cleaning around the apartment, which is getting rid of a lot of dust and other allergens, so that should help, too. I've been pondering about exercise. I know that you are not supposed to do serious cardio when you are dealing with respiratory issues. But I wonder if something like Yoga or Pilates would be OK. That way I could get some activity without over-doing. I don't know. I guess I should research it. Failing that, I could try one workout and rely on my body to tell me if it's too much.

I'm still not officially counting Points, but I -am- writing down everything I eat in my food journal. Just the writing it down helps keep me accountable and I'm much more likely to make better choices, even when I'm not counting Points. I expect that, when the grand and glorious days of my maintenance phase comes, journaling will still need to be a part of my plan. I have to wonder if just making sure I get my healthy guidelines in and writing it down would be enough? That's not -official- WW, but... I don't know. For now, I probably need to get back on the wagon and start counting my Points. I'll just be glad when I can actually taste my food again.

I can't seem to win

So, I had Whooping Cough, and couldn't exercise. I finally get over it, and go back on WW. I took a 20 minute walk on Monday (a week ago). Tuesday, I wake up with the flu. Now, it's bronchitis. Gah! I -am- down 2.2#, which is a good thing, and I'm keeping a weather eye on my Points, even if I'm not being really anal about them and am, instead, pushing fluids to break up the chest congestion.

My sister told me about the diet her trainer has her following and she's had really good results with it. I'm contemplating it right now. I may give it a go, but I don't know yet. It involves drinking a lot of protein drinks, and I am not sure I can deal with that. But she said she's lost 15# in 2.5 months, so it is tempting. Alls I know is that I need to get this weight off and I seem to somehow be sabotaging myself or something. I told DH that, if I'm not careful, I'm going to associate WW with getting sick because everytime I've restarted it lately, I've gotten really sick.

Mostly, I'm just over it. And tired. Let's not forget tired.

Official Restart

I officially re-started WW today. So far, so good. I even went and walked for 20 minutes @ lunch. I'd allotted 30, but I'm listening to my body these days, and it said that if I tried to push it too much more, I'd regret it sooner rather than later. So... I can already tell I'm releasing fluid, if you know what I mean. :-) Hopefully that will translate into a downward trend on the old scale.

That's pretty much all the news that's fit to print. Have a good week!

Green for launch

I'm okay to go back to exercising. Finally. Sheesh! Between the lack of forward momentum/progress of my cardiovascular endurance facilitated by regular exercise, and the -backwards- momentum caused to it by the Whooping Cough, I'm decidedly out of shape now. I've also gained back ALL of the weight I'd lost on Weight Watchers, plus some. *le sigh*

And speaking of momentum... that's the name of the newly-launched Weight Watchers program (it replaces "Turn Around"). I don't know the full deets yet, but the info I've gleaned gives me the impression that it's just a combo between the Flex and Core plans, where you still count Points, but eat mostly "Filling Foods" (the old Core list). I believe this to be mostly marketing, because a LOT of people on my WW mailing list have been doing this, calling it Flore. *shrug* There are probably some other minor changes, but since I don't go to meetings, I don't know for sure. Anyway, because WW is a healthy, balanced program and I know I can be successful on it, that's where I'm landing. I'd like to get by the WW center and get a new 3-month Food Journal, as it's the best way for me to stay accountable. I've tried to just write things down on paper, but the actual WW food journal seems to give me the most success. Knowing that, when I go, I should probably just buy a couple at a time. :-)

I hope that anyone who might be reading had a good Christmas/Hanukkah/Yule and is having a great year so far!

One minor problem with Low-carb

Well, I discovered that low-carb weight loss does have its downside: muscle cramps. I vaguely remember having them the last time I did really low carb and I know that they pass, but it was still annoying to have cramps last night when I didn't get home 'til after midnight and had to be back up at 6:30AM to come to work. *shrug* I remember the cramps not being so bad on the South Beach Diet, so that may be where I head after Christmas. I'm only doing the really low until Christmas to jump start the weight loss. I'm hoping, if this week is any indication, to have about 20 pounds off by then. Yes, I'm aware that's FAST, but I am also aware that right now a lot of it is fluid and that I'll be adding carbohydrates back in slow increments to slow it down to a healthier 2-ish pounds/week. I'll need the carbs for when I start exercising. For now, heavy house cleaning is my exercise. But, the house definitely needs it, so, win-win.

Going well, I think

I'm actually doing quite well with the low carb. I'm detoxing, so I've got a bit of a headache, but it'll pass soon. I'm glad I already gave myself the deadline of Christmas so that I have something definite to look forward to. What my results are by then will determine if I stay relatively low-carb (stay away from starchy veggies & rice, but add fruit and liquid milk back in) or if I feel comfortable enough to switch back to WW Flex. I'm honestly thinking that I want to stay relatively low carb until after my yearly Ob/Gyn exam in March so that I can get somewhere close to what I weighed when I was there last. I've only got about 30# to do that, so it will really depend on my results over the next 3 weeks or so. Since Monday AM, I've gone from 275.2 to 272.6, so I'd say that I'll have decent results. I know that a lot of what I'm carrying around is excess fluid because carbs make me retain fluid like sodium does to other people.

Anyway, that's the news that's fit to print right now. I'm still not up to exercising, but I'm really hoping my body will cooperate and be up to it in January. *crosses fingers*