not a usual wednesday wrap-up

The cold I referred to yesterday still haunts me. What's worse is that it hasn't actually developed into a full blown cold, it's just been there, in the background, bothering me whenever I get tired. It's mucking with my stomach too, I think, whatever this bug is.

Over the past 24 hours, I've probably eaten less food than I have in any other 24 period over the last month. Sadly, I have also been running to the loo and had a sinus headache for extra fun.

The smaller amount of food was intentional, the bathroom running was not. Can't really say what that was about. I feel rather strange right now, a little loopy if I'm honest, could be the sinus meds.

Whatever the case, my hubby and I talked a lot last night about our plans to move forward. This came on the heels of him having a doctor's appointment yesterday. In this appointment (which was with a specialist, not his GP), he was told that if he lost as little as 50 pounds (that probably sounds like a lot of weight but we both need to lose a significant amount more than that right now), he could get off almost all of meds. He's a type II diabetic and that means he could possibly be off all of his diabetic medication, his blood pressure stuff and possibly only be taking his cholesterol stuff. Eventually, he may be able to get off that as well.

This news was not surprising to me, I've seen this happen to folks on the Biggest Loser. I've told him that before but this is the first time he's heard it from a physician. It was great to hear this. We're both seriously working on our portion control. What we eat has rarely been the problem (pizza nights and chinese take aways aside), the portion thing has been. The trick I think is to bulk up on the veggies and cut back on the noodles or rice. The two of us have decided to cut pork out of our diets (we already don't eat beef). Our nightly dinner contains tofu at least twice a week, I'm sure we could make that happen more often.

almost a month later

Yikes, last month I said I really wanted to post more often and then I totally dropped the ball.

I wish I could report that every day since the last time I posted was picture perfect and that I was sitting here an entire pants size smaller than I was on September 6 (the date of my last post) but I can't. The last month hasn't been a complete wash out but it didn't end up like I'd hoped it would.

There are lots of excuses I could give for it, work got busy, struggles with a head cold, yadda yadda yadda. The bottom line is that there were excellent days and others which would best be described as wash outs. Fortunately, the good days out numbered the bad days.

Exercise was sketchy, in consistent but still a huge improvement over previous months. Food choices at home and in the grocery store were much better than they had been. Sadly, we chose to ignore the healthy food a few times and order take outs (generally Chinese or pizza).

The big thing is that I refused to be completely discouraged by "bad" days. This thing will get easier and we'll plow through the temptations in the best way we can.

I did promise to talk about long and short terms goals and I still promise to do that. In the meantime, I was actually able to meet one of my short term goals and it surprised me. In 2007, I bought this really pretty pink top to wear to a wedding (with a black skirt). When we restarted things in late August/early September, I was thinking about that top and how nice it would be fit into it comfortably enough to work in. I had a particular work event in mind, that event happened on Saturday evening and I wore the pink top. It fit me much better than I thought it would (although it could still be a bit looser). Wearing that top, as small and silly as it might seem, felt really good. It reinforced and reminded me that we need to stick to our guns and lose this weight.

I want to fit into all of the nice clothes I have in my closet which are just too snug, I want my knees to continue to feel better and I want us to be a couple of active, healthy old people.

holiday monday

I'll do an official wrap-up on Wednesday, like I like to do but I thought I should report in on this holiday Monday.

The first week went pretty well, all things considered. Some of the factors which made the first week a little tough on me were a full 5 days of mega-humid weather and me having my period. Two not-so-great things that don't go well together.

I took Friday off from work so I'd have a four-day weekend and was glad of it. I have spent the past few days puttering around the house, playing with the dogs and getting caught up on my housework. Being at home like this is usually pretty dangerous for me. The snacking devils call my name frequently when I'm home. Keeping busy cleaning helped me to keep the snacks at bay.

We did have some microwave popcorn during a movie on Sunday but overall, foodwise, I'm pretty happy with our efforts. I'm also thrilled with how just a little bit of regular exercise is making me feel. My right knee has improved significantly and I feel like I'm moving around a lot easier now. My husband has noticed it too. The knee thing was really getting bad. If I sat for any length of time, when I stood up, it was taking me a while to sort my knee out. Over the weekend, this was not the case. The flexibility in the knee is improved and the pain is almost completely gone. Not bad for one week huh??

I think that the baby steps thing is the key for me. I'm easing back into the exercise thing and am feeling almost immediate benefits. For me, I know if I tried to do too much too quickly, I'd hurt myself, get discouraged and fall off track. That's not going to happen this time!!

ups and downs

So yesterday was day 3. We both found it a little harder to get through our bike rides on day 3 than it was on day 1 and 2. I rode exactly the same distance last night that I had done on Tuesday but it took me a lot more effort to get there. I know that it's good to work harder, this is not supposed to be easy.

A few months ago I started a new job. My old office was on the ground floor of a small building. Very rarely I would need to go up to the second floor so I got pretty lazy. The new job is a building I have worked in before. It's really old and cut up weirdly and we have lots of stairs. I mean LOTS of stairs. My office is on the third floor, the washrooms and kitchen are on the second floor so I'm up and down them several times a day.

When I first moved over to the new office, I was only there 2 weeks before I had a week of a vacation scheduled. After that break, I was in the office for about 3 weeks and then had another 2 week vacation booked. This week is the 3rd week since I've returned from my vacation and I am finally starting to feel a little better about running up and down the stairs. Now, I'm not actually running up and down them but every day, it gets a little bit easier to do them. Sad huh?? I am THAT out of shape, stairs are a struggle, or were. They are definitely not as tough as they had been and I'm looking forward to being able to do them faster and more frequently as time goes on.

So, right now, the focus continues to be on movement. The more I can move myself, the better!!

just like starting over

Holy crap on a cracker, I cannot believe how long it has been since I've posted here!

Admittedly, my journey to a healthier me has taken lots of twists and turns over the past year. Lots of restarts, lots of derailing...

At the moment, I'm taking a kinder, gentler approach to things and both my husband and I are doing this together.

For the longest time, we've been complaining to each other about how far off track we both got. Neither of us has been thrilled with how we've been feeling, unfit and generally yucky. He's a type II diabetic and we're both overweight. This is not good for anyone.

Last week, he had what ended up being the flu but a few trips to the doctor and the diabetic clinic for some pretty extensive tests was a bit of a wake up call for both of us.

Over the weekend, we talked about it a lot and crafted a plan I think will work for us. It's pretty simple, we both eat very reasonable and healthy breakfasts and lunches - I eat breakfast at home and always take my lunch to work, he eats both meals at home because his work schedule permits that. Dinner and the evenings in general is where we get into trouble. Our food is not necessarily high in fat but our portions have been way too big. We also both are snack addicts in the evening while watching tv. Dangerous combo.

This week, we've been having smaller dinner portions and not been snacking in the evenings. So far (and it's only been two days) it's going very well. He is noticing a difference in his morning blood glucose reading already.

The other part of this is exercise. We have really not been doing anything remotely resembling intentional exercise. We have a perfectly good recumbent bike sitting in the basement which we hadn't used for ages. The second part of our deal is this: when we get home from work, I do my ride while he makes dinner (I don't like to ride on a full stomach). When dinner is over, he rides (which is what he should be doing as a diabetic so we've been told). Riding the bike and eating smaller meals is what helped me lose 75 pounds a few years ago and I know it'll work again. Already today, I'm looking forward to getting back on the bike when I get home tonight.

I think we are off to a great start and because we are doing it together, we can help keep each other on track. I have some short term and long term goals that I'll talk about later. The one I will mention is posting here more often. I realize I miss writing and do like to share my small victories and challenges as I do this.

If anyone is still out there reading this, I plan to be back for the long haul!!