knh771

Send Message

Block

Add Friend

It's been ages since I've posted here, but I got an email from OH, and figured I'd write a quick note to check in.  Today is my 3 year anniversary of my surgery.  It is still one of the best things I've ever done for myself.  I only wish I'd had the courage to do it sooner.  I've maintained my weight loss, though I'd like to squeeze out a few more pounds.  Working on the process.  Still using the tool.

Gee!  I've been really lazy about posting to OH lately!  I actually keep my blog on another site, and I haven't been great about copying it over here.  I'll try to do better.  Here is today's.  If you are so inclined, you can see others at www.sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp

Today is the first day of school for children here. As I drove in to work I saw kids with their brand new backpacks, their new "back to school" outfits, and it reminded me of the nervousness and excitement of going back to school as a child. Would my teacher like me? What was I going to learn? Who would I sit with at lunch?

Even when I was teaching, there was a lot of excitement and preparation. Decorating the room, deciding the first day's activities, trying to make my classroom a welcoming and wonderful place where children would want to be. There was always a lot of careful, thoughtful planning. A lot of reflection over the previous year, and decisions to be made about how to approach the new one. There were goals to be set, data to be analyzed, strategies to put in place.
The first day always held so much promise! It always seemed so full of possibility. A new start. Blank pages to be filled. (I know I should come up with another cliché, but none comes to me right now. )

Anyway, it has me thinking about how I could incorporate this new beginning into my wellness activities. I may not be going back-to-school, but I can go "back to basics." I've noticed that I've started to slip a little bit on my eating and exercise plans. Nothing dramatic. Just things like buying food products without carefully reading the labels and ingredients. Choosing foods that are not necessarily high in calories, but are empty calories. Not getting the best bang for my nutritional buck.

So this week I'm really going to focus on making better nutritional choices. Remembering that every bite is a choice, and making sure that my choices are the best ones that I can make.



Blessings!

It's time to look back on the month that was and figure out where I did well, and where I can grow. Overall, it was a good month. I finally broke my everlasting plateau and entered my first 5K in about a decade. Two things that I'm fairly proud of. Here are the stats:

water: average 59 oz./day
range: 32-72 oz.
days at +48 oz.: 62%
days at +64 oz.: 31%

Calories: average 1318
range: 803-1752
within target range: 48%
above range: 21%
below range: 31%

Protein: average 70 g
range: 26-100g
at target: 66% of month
average % of calories from protein: 22%

Fiber: average 21g
range: 4-35g
+15 g: 72%
+25 g: 34%

Exercise: 21/30 days
935 minutes

Highest Weight: 298 lbs.
May 2009 Weight: 178 lbs.
June 2009 Weight: 165 lbs.

Inches lost since May 09: 4.5
Inches lost since Oct 07: 101

Monthly success story:
I improved in just about every category this month. Protein stayed the same, and exercise was a mixed bag. I exercised more days this month, but had fewer overall minutes. I'm really working on reducing the ranges and being more consistent every day and it's beginning to show.

Monthly Opportunity for Improvement:
I still need to drink more water and increase the fiber in my diet. Just like last month, I'd like to improve on overall consistency in my wellness plan.

Onward and upward.

Blessings!

A few entries ago, I mentioned an interesting lunch I had at my meeting in Washington, D.C. I didn't want to write about it then because I thought I needed pictures to do it justice. During the meeting, we had a lunch buffet. Pretty standard stuff, except for one thing. The plates were HUGE! Larger than some of the serving platters I use during holiday parties.



I put some food on the plate so you could get a sense of the plate size. That's 2 oz. of grilled chicken and a hard boiled egg. Using notebook paper to get an estimate (and discussing the matter with my lunch companions) we figured out that the plate was 16" in diameter. SIXTEEN inches. What the heck? And even more interesting to me was that even though everyone in the room knew that the plates were ridiculously large (it was quite the topic of conversation), almost everyone completely filled up their plate. And then went to the buffet for dessert.

Now you and I both know that even if you completely filled a plate that size with salad, you're still going to end up with a fairly hefty percentage of your calories for the day. I started to do some calculations of my lunch companions' meals and everyone easily hit the neighborhood of 750 calories. And there had been a delightful pastry buffet at breakfast.

One of the reasons this was so fascinating to me was that I recently read a book entitled The 9-inch "Diet" by Alex Bogusky.



Mr. Bogusky is not a doctor, or dietician, or fitness professional. He works in advertising. He wrote this book after an interesting personal experience. He and his wife bought an old cottage for a vacation home. They ran off to Target to get some things for the house, and when they got back, they realized that their newly purchased plates wouldn't fit in the cupboard. That made him curious, so he started researching the changes in portion size in the United States over the past several decades.

Some interesting factoids from the book:

1. The average American plate today is 40% bigger than the average plate in 1960.

2. As plates have gotten larger, the amount we eat has gotten larger as well. The average American ate 1,775 pounds of food in 2000 - up from 1,497 pounds of food in 1970.

3. For every inch our plates have grown, our butts have grown half an inch.

It's all really interesting stuff. He talks about the science of perception and how that affects how much we consume, and tells some interesting stories along the way (one of my favorites has to do with the problems IKEA had when they first starting selling home goods in the U.S.). There are a lot of pictures and large print, and the author has a great since of humor.



His basic goal is to get people to go back to using smaller plates as a means of controlling their portion sizes. He has done that, and without any other changes in diet or exercise has managed to lose weight.

Food for thought.

Blessings!

Today was a long, long day. I woke up around two A.M. after having some weird dream where I got lost on the 5K route and ended up in someone's yard playing with a hedge hog or something strange. No performance anxiety there, huh? Took almost two hours to get back to sleep.

Got up and got to the race. Finished in 45 minutes, 26 seconds. I usually walk at a 17 minute/mile pace, so that was really good for me. I was also psyched that I wasn't really tired when I finished. Even thought about completing the 10K route for a split second. I haven't really been sticking to the Couch to 5K thing the way I should, and this was pretty motivating. It's been at least eight years since the last time I entered a 5K and though I don't remember my time from back then, I know it was well over an hour.



I really felt like I'd accomplished something after the race, and I'm thinking about doing another one in August. I've got the entry form... we'll see.

Anyway, the rest of the day was spent running. I took photos at a car show. Went to a celtic music festival. Hit a used book sale at the library. Went out to the ranch for the annual cattle branding (I don't brand myself, I just go to the party afterward). Went to church to rehearse for tomorrow's mass. Went to the grocery store searching for something interesting to photograph for this week's SP Shutterbugs assignment. Came home, cooked dinner, read a little bit, and then hopped online to quickly chat with all of you! It's already time for bed.



Blessings!

I stumbled on an interesting article I thought I'd share. It's about the difference between what medical science tells us is a safe rate of weight loss, and what we generally set as our goals. I know that when I was at my highest weight, I wanted to lose the pounds overnight, sometimes even resorting to dangerous over-the-counter drugs and herbal remedies. Although those strategies would provide some success, it never lasted very long. With some of the pills, I would even feel awful, struggling to make it through the day. The amount of weight I needed to lose seemed SO insurmountable and I was SO desperate.

caloriecount.about.com/realistic-exp
ectations-weight-loss-b306122?utm_sour
ce=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_cam
paign=newsletter_20090615&utm_term=title1



It's interesting that after all of those fits and starts, after all of those repeated failures, I've ended up at a place that is exactly where the science says I should be. I started my current program in late June/early July 2007, and though I've had ups and downs, my weight loss for the two years breaks down to about three quarters of a pound a week. Go figure!

Those doctors know what they're talking about after all. .

Blessings

Today has been a very busy and stressful day. I've been putting off some filing at work, because my filing system doesn't really work for me anymore and I can't decide how to reorganize it. Well, mid-day today, an accountant shows up to do an audit, and tells me he's going to go through some of my files later.

Now, I know exactly where everything is, but I don't think anyone else could find what they were looking for. So I spent most of the day cleaning up my files, so he can dig through them unaided. FUN.

In all of that, I didn't get any lunch today. I ended up snacking on some high-fiber crackers in the file room mid-afternoon when I couldn't take it anymore. I've got a lot of calories left for today, and I was only planning on a salad for dinner.

Anyway, tonight is my weight loss support group with my dietician. Last month, this guy who hadn't been there for quite a while walked in, glanced at me, and said, "Well, Lola's lost weight, but you look the same." It REALLY rubbed me the wrong way. First, because I'd lost twenty or thirty pounds since he last saw me. Second, because "Lola" (not her real name) has made it to goal before me and I'm terribly jealous. Third, because it turns out that the guy only came to support group because he wasn't losing weight, and fourth, because I am on a stinking plateau I can't break right now, and I didn't need someone rubbing my nose in it.



I doubt Grumpy will be at support group tonight, but I think it's interesting how that one, miniscule exchange has really soured my enthusiasm for support group. I'll still go, and I will probably have a good experience, but I wonder why I internalized that offhand comment so much? Why am I still wounded a month after the fact? What exactly should this be telling me about myself?

I really don't know.

 This was not the greatest weekend for health and wellness... I had some kind of stomach bug and ended up missing work yesterday. Good thing about that, is it forced me to slow down and rest for a couple of days. I probably needed that.

Anyway, last Friday I posted that I might experiment with eating with full attention. No TV. No computer. Just sitting at the table with my meal and focusing on the task at hand.



I wanted to see if it would effect the amount of food I ate, or how long it took me to eat it. So Saturday I gave it a try..

It certainly was a different experience.

After four minutes, I was bored.

After seven minutes, I thought I might lose my mind!

Without the TV to keep me company, it was quiet and even lonely. It made eating my meals very utilitarian. More like a task than something to be enjoyed.

I'm not sure if that's a bad thing. I did eat a fair amount less, and my meals were shorter. I'm thinking that maybe I could improve the "experience" by dressing up the dining table. Maybe put some flowers by the place setting. Plug in the MP3 player or put on the radio.

I'll have to see. I want to give the experiment some more time before I give up on it. Maybe even though I spend a lot of time alone, I don't really spend a lot of time with myself, if that makes sense. Maybe I need to practice that.

 

Long time, no OH blog, huh?

I'm actually still blogging, I've just been doing it on a different site - sparkpeople.com.  It gets kind of difficult and time consuming to post more than one blog on any given day.  Anyhoo... I thought I'd stop by and post my blog from that site over here...

Have you seen those commercials lately for a website that allows you to watch TV shows online?  I think it's Hulu.com or something.  They have celebrities walking around who turn out to be aliens using television to turn our brains to mush and conquer the earth. 40

Well, it turns out those commercials might not be that far fetched!  There have been several studies lately that link watching too much TV to depression.  People who have more active hobbies tend to describe themselves as happier.   (Read more at www.realage.com/ct/tips/8755 )

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense.  Watching TV is a fairly isolating activity.  Even when I watch TV with friends or family, I'm not really interacting with them much.  I think I even remember studies I read back when I was teaching that monitored brain waves in children when they were watching TV.  The children's brain activity actually slowed while the TV was on!

http://photos-ak.sparkpeople.com/9/6/b966839020.jpg">

Not that watching TV in smaller doses is damaging, but like everything else, it should be done in moderation.  Think of what you can accomplish if you turn some of those passive hours on the couch into active hours exercising, spending time with friends and loved ones, or even preparing healthy meals as opposed to hitting a drive-through or getting take out!

So, how much TV are you watching?  Is it something you could cut back on?  I know I certainly can.  Since I got my DVR, it seems like I spend enormous amounts of time "catching up" on weekday TV on the weekends.  Come Monday, I don't feel that I've done anything to really refresh myself for another week behind the desk.  When I complain that I don't have time to read anything fun or not work-related, it's probably more true that I took the time I could've spent reading  and wasted it sitting on my tush watching mindless entertainment on the electronic babysitter.

http://photos-ak.sparkpeople.com/5/9/b599372547.jpg">

Something to ponder.

Blessings!

In the last post I talked a little bit about what it was like being super morbidly obese. In this post, I'm just going to reflect a little bit on the process that brought about the change I'm experiencing now.

I've known that I was FAT since I was eight years old. That was the year my doctor really began getting worried, my mom got very concerned and I really started getting teased by other kids. I was bookish and introverted by nature, but this is when I really began to retreat into myself.



I began to actively diet when I was thirteen. I started with OTC diet pills, I tried diet gum, I did a medical weight loss program at the local hospital with my mom. I did a subliminal weight loss program. I did my first round of weight watchers when I was in high school. All the while my weight kept increasing. And I wasn't sedentary. I was very active in dance, loved lifting weights, was a cheerleader - even though I had to buy a larger uniform every year. The teasing that had started in grade school continued into high school. I was miserable. My journals from those years are filled with wish lists of things I would do when I lost weight.



In college, my weight, which was above 200 lbs. when I finished high school, continued to balloon. I continued to exercise, but my eating habits worsened. I dieted constantly, going to desperate extremes to lose weight but never having any success. My journals from college are filled with dreams of being an anorexic. I greatly admired their self-control.



I reached 300 lbs. in my early twenties. My periods completely ceased. I worked with a doctor to lose weight and managed 20 or 30 pounds. I maintained that loss for quite a while, but 270, though healthier than 300, is still not anything to be proud of. During this time, I did two or three more tries with weight watchers, I did other diet pills which made me shake uncontrollably, I bought diet books constantly, reading them and scribbling in their pages, trying anything I could find to help me out. My brother got me a personal trainer for Christmas.



It was during this time that I somehow managed to lose just over 90 lbs. I was proud of myself. People would compliment me on losing weight "the right way", which in their minds meant, on your own. Then the unthinkable started happening.

I started regaining the weight. After a short time period. I couldn't understand why. I couldn't change it. I felt completely helpless. I felt lost. I was suicidal. I would go to sleep crying, begging the Lord to take me in my sleep, and then curse him in the morning when I woke up. Still fat.



I'd given up. I felt out of options. I was in pain all of the time. My joints hurt. My back hurt. I couldn't breathe. Even small tasks are difficult when you're very heavy. I quit praying for death, but I quietly prayed for mercy.



It was around this time - mid 2007, when I first came across the book Rethinking Thin by Gina Kolata. Kolata, a health journalist, wrote a comprehensive layman's guide to the history of dieting in the United States. Starting in the 1800s, she traced how dieting had become America's national pastime, and at the same time, covered the history of medical research on obesity. What the research says is a lot different than what conventional wisdom will tell you.

For the first time, I didn't feel like my obesity was indicative of a lack of character. I wasn't a bad person because I couldn't fit into a size 6. I actually kinda started liking myself. And that was probably the most important thing in initiating the major changes of the last year and a half. I liked myself, and I had hope for the future.