HELEN:

 

   Whew...what a long two weeks :)  Surgery was two weeks ago today and I'm back to feeling like myself again at least mentally. That first week I was in a fog with the pain meds and all.  I was pretty uncomfortable sleeping half sitting up and feeling loopy most of the time.  But I got my staples and drains out the day before yesterday and I'm feeling much much better and able to sit straight up long enough to post and email. 

  I counted 128 staples from hip to hip and I had 3 drains in that I had to empty and measure 3 times a day. I felt like I had bees stinging me all the time where the staples were, and I was always afraid I (or my little boy) would accidentally pull a drain out. Boy it feels so good to be rid of those!

  Surgery went well. I was in surgery for four hours. I came out from under anesthesia faster than I feared I might. I'd guessed to come back to around 2:00 PM, but it was 12:30 when I woke up and looked at the clock.  The doctors and nurses and staff were all great and I have no complaints (other than a security guard or maintenance worker giving my family who were waiting a hard time).

  They removed 12 pounds during surgery and my plastic surgeon told me that I won't see the final result for another 8 weeks or so as there's a lot of swelling yet. But already I'm down a size. I had just gotten into a size 26 jeans at the end of the year and I got into a size 24 the other day when I came home after having the drains pulled out. They are snug, but they came on and zipped and that's overtop the abdominal binder I have to wear for a while yet.

   The first few days I could only eat ice chips and that was fine by me as I was only thirsty anyway (they say from the anesthesia) and then I advanced to gelatin and popsicles (which it turned out was sugar free...nasty stuff and sugar substitutes don't agree with me). But after I came home I slowly advanced to a normal diet.  The ladies from my Women's Bible Study group organized a group to bring us dinner every other day. That's been SO helpful and so appreciated. Everything has been wonderful (though so far every one of them has brought chicken lol), but I'm truly thankful and grateful for their generosity and it's made even chicken every day taste nice :) I'm blessed to have such a great group of ladies looking after us.

  Right now my restrictions are no lifting more than 5-10 pounds for another 5-6 weeks and the only exercise I'm allowed is walking. The pain has subsided a great deal and I'm really shocked at how much easier the recovery is than what I'd read about and anticpated. The only real pain I have now is when I bend over or cough or move just right. It feels tight where the horizontal incision is (from hip to hip) (there's a vertical incision from the hernia repair that's healing nicely) but that's improving too.  At one point it felt like I had a belt on that someone was pulling as tightly as they could while a hundred bees were stinging me :) But now the stinging is gone and it just feels a little snug. As the swelling goes down, I'm sure that will subside.

  My hernia repair surgeon (the bariatric surgeon) said he tightened me up a lot in the upper abdomen before he put the mesh in, and I'm thrilled that that top roll of fat is way way down now and of course the lower fat roll is gone. So I have one roll now instead of two, but if I get back to working out again once I'm able, and back on track with my eating, I can work that off.

   Some of my tops are too big now (I didn't expect that..just pants) and the others fit much better and lay nicely already. I'm better proportioned already now. I used to be a size larger in pants than I was in tops, and now I'm the same size top and bottom. I'm looking forward to the final result and really happy with the results I already see. No regrets :)

  I've spent a lot of time reading since it's been painful to sit upright to be online, so I've gone through about 4 books already. My favorite being "Dead Heat" by Joel Rosenberg (my favorite author). It's the last in his "The Last Jihad" series.

  I hope you're all doing well and I've missed reading your progress :)

  I watched the BL finale the night before my surgery. Congrats to Marcus and Amber on winning the Million Pounds Match Up! And of course to Ali for being the first female Biggest Loser! You all did SO well and really inspire me.

  God bless,

 

Helen

HELEN:

 

  Spring is finally here! My family and I took a walk for the first time this year today and wow did it feel great to be outside with the sun shining and in the fresh air again.  It sure seemed like the winter would never end! 

  It's odd. Up until this year, the winter time was always my best time to lose weight. For as long as I can remember I would do awesome at losing weight after the holidays and until summer. This year is the opposite and I think I'm becoming more like a normal person in that regard.  Most people seem to lose weight best in warmer weather months. I've always been a little odd in being opposite :)  I think I made the switch last year when I got fit enough to start riding my bike a lot, walking a lot more and getting a lot of outdoor exercise. So now this year I've been at this stand still this winter and have been completely freaking out about it in light of my surgery that's coming up in just 10 more days.

   Anyway...I did not lose the weight my surgeon had wanted me to and it definitely was not for lack of trying , let me tell ya. So I find myself extremely nervous about it all... I feel like I let myself down, I feel like I let my surgeons down and have made their jobs more difficult but at the same time, I've tried so hard and worked out so hard so how much can I let myself beat up on myself about it, ya know?

  In all honestly, this past week I have been off track with my eating, but the majority of the winter I've been on track and workout out like a crazy woman.  One of my favorite aunts passed away last week.  Her funeral was just the other day.  I've been comfort eating to block the stress in all honesty and I'm trying hard to get a handle on it and undo any damage this 10 days as possible. So when I screw up, I will readily admit that.  But my screw ups have been few this year and with all the working out I've done I should have dropped a ton of weight anyway, but here I am...stuck and looking at only 10 days till surgery and completely stresssed out about it.

  All kinds of things are going through my mind. Will my surgeon really believe that I honestly have been trying hard to drop more weight before surgery or will he have the preconceived notion that I tossed any efforts to the wind?  Will the lack of lost weight create problems for him during surgery? Will he get into the hernia repair and decide it best to not have the plastic surgeon go ahead with the panniculectomy? Will I be ok with anesthesia? Is my current weight acceptable for a successful surgery for both the hernia repair and the panniculectomy? What if something goes wrong...my husband and son need me...  yada yada.  I lay awake at night worrying about all of this the closer the surgery date gets.

  But any rate....

  I'm going to try to devote this next ten days to eating as sensibly as I can and working out as hard as I possibly can and try to get as healthy in this short amount of time as I can.  Not really all that unlike what I have been doing anyway (apart from last week) but I guess you never know when my body may decide to cooperate finally and let me drop some weight before surgery.  I'm up a few pounds as a result of my botched week last week and I want to try to undo the damage of any regain before surgery.

  The beautiful day and the walk out in it gave me a little boost of motivation, so I hope the nice weather holds out a while.

  I'll try to post a few more times before my surgery date but after that of course, it will be a week or two probably till I get back online.

  I have one appointment with the plastic surgeon a few days before surgery and I'm really glad about that so that I can express my concerns and fears to him and get his input.  The surgeon who is doing the hernia repair is a bariatric surgeon and is the one who was the most concerned about my trying to get more weight off before having the panniculectomy part, which the plastic surgeon will be handling.  So perhaps talking to the plastic surgeon before surgery will help me to sort out my fears and concerns.  My thinking is that if the plastic surgeon had many concerns about my current weight, he would have expressed it to me during my consultation with him, but he didn't. I've seen pictures online of people bigger than me who had the panniculectomy.  I understand my bariatric surgeon's concerns too though... sigh...I'm just confused and really stressed...

  Ugh. What a mess my emotions are lately :)

  Well we are apparently among those who did not win the Million Pounds Match up and among those who are confused where all the 18.000 or more websites are that they said are in the contest. But Kelley and I are going to keep our site up and running and try to keep working on this anyway.

  It is depressing to hear that the winners have been notified, but none of us in all the circles of friends here have seen much over 1000 sites but they said there are what...18,000 or so? 

   Kelley and I have been one of the featured sites for over a week now and I'm wondering why they have some of us featured but apparently none of us are among the winners...that's odd to me. Why wouldn't they feature the winners if there was no confidentiality problem?  (I've read on other blogs that the winners were told that they could tell anyone they wanted to).  Kelley and I are keeping our site up and running, but are wondering if it's some wierd technicality like having music on the site or some graphic that's not allowed or some little technicality?  Ugh :(

  I tried to stay close to the rules and regulations, but found them pretty confusing. Like where it said the the BL logos, etc. they supplied us must not be altered in any way shape or form. What do they consider altered? I know for us, we had to resize it to get it to fit in the modules that Windows Lives spaces restricts you to. Would something as seemingly simple as that keep the majority of us from winning?

  Oh well :(

HELEN:

 

   My appointment for pre-op testing went well today. I had some blood drawn, blood pressure taken (it was normal and perfect), urine collected, answered a ton of questions and then saw a doctor for an exam and answered a ton of questions for him. Then he listened to my heart and lungs and examined my abdomen where the hernia is.  When he looked at the huge hump where the hernia is, when I was laying on my back, he said "oh yes...that's a big big hernia alright". Ugh.
  But it sounds like everything was as it should be from what I could tell. Oh, and they had me get on the lovely scale and I was fully dressed with shoes on and so my weight was up way more than I expected but I'm hoping it's all the clothes and shoes as I usually weigh in naked.
  Before my pre-op testing, I had an appointment with my counselor (in the same building). She works with the psychologist who works with the bariatric team and my surgeon and nutritionist. Her official title is Post-Doctoral Health Psychology Fellow, so she's like a step away from being a full psychologist. But because she's working on accreditation, her services are free to me and that's really helpful with all we have going on.
   That appointment went really well. I really like her. She thinks I'm being too hard on myself and need to cut myself some slack. Easier said than done, as we all know, but I'm sure she's right. I hear that a lot from friends.  But she wants to bring me up in their next team meeting and go over what the others think (the bariatric team that includes my surgeon, nutritionist, her boss the main psychologist, etc.) as she thinks I'm doing everything I could possibly be doing (all but last week when I comfort ate when my aunt died) and my weight loss has stopped. She's thinking the stress I've been under is at the bottom of things and wants to see their thoughts about it. We'll see what they come up with...
  I'm going to try to just watch my point intake the next few weeks and concentrate my workouts on mainly swimming to work on improving my lung capacity before surgery time. The weather is beautiful here today and I'm tempted to get out on my bike for the first time this year too.

   Can you believe there's only one more episode of BL before the finale? Wow, this season went by fast!!  I really thought Roger would be going home as it seemed it was his time to hit a plateau, but I was surprised when it was down to the two brothers. I'm liking Mark a lot more than I used to and am glad to see he's a good guy after all.  Mostly, I'm glad the girls are both still there. I really hope Kelly makes it as a finalist. I like her. Ali has done an amazing job too, but I can relate to Kelly a lot more.  Sidney was beautiful and how cool is it that they did a triathlon? :) I think the running is what would do me in. Maybe once the panniculectomy is done that would change, but that's not an easy thing for them to do and I applaud them all for completing it!  Also, how very cool was it that Mark waited for Ali to catch up with him and finish together? :)

HELEN:

 

  I worked out hard at the rec center (turns out too hard...sigh..) on Monday and
burned 1000 calories, got lots and lots of water in and my food was right
where it should be, so that was all good.
However, at the end of my workout my foot started hurting a little. By the
time I changed and was walking out of the locker room I was hobbling a
little. Then I had to run some errands before going home and got in the car
and drove home (about 20 minutes). I went to get out of the car and could
hardly walk. I barely got in the house. My husband had to get my gym bag from the
car for me and close the garage door. My foot started throbbing worse and I
was in agony for a few hours till I took a pain pill that was left over from
my kidney stone surgery a few years ago.
I haven't had a pain in my foot this bad since I was at my highest weight
and had tendinitis in the heel cord.

   I had my husband take me to have my foot x-rayed last night. It was
feeling better, but I wanted to make sure there was no stress fracture or
anything so I'd know if I could keep working out or not. I didn't want to
give myself an excuse to not work out if it wasn't something serious, but I
wanted to make sure I wasn't supposed to work out if I was tempted to do
so as well.  No fracture, thank God :) It's a mild sprain along with plantars
fasciitis and heel spurs. So I'm supposed to rest it a while and then
exercise when I'm able to tolerate. It's a lot better today and I'm not
taking any more pain medication. It's just a little sore and it's burning
when I walk on it at this point.

KELLEY:

 

I went to the doctor!  Thyroid is fine so now to look to other solutions for the plateauing..  I am going to start using DietPower again tomorrow and deal with calories only no points.  Going to keep a really close watch on it.
 
My A1C was 5.4 down from 5.5 last time.  She took me off my Januvia which is 150 a month.  She told me to start the glucophage back as she would want that for the heart benefits
 
Cholesteral was 142 , triglycerides 128 HDL 42 (up from in the low 30's last time) and LDL was 73.  Said my kidneys and liver tests came back great also.  Some of my liver enzymes are a little low but she said not a problem at this point.  She thinks it is because I have gotten so healthy in the last 6 months.  She checks my liver as my cholesterol meds can affect it and make readings high.
 
My hemoglobin is a little low which explains the cold.  I am to work on eating as many iron rich foods as possible and she will do an anemia panel the next time I am in there (6 months).
 
So needless to say I am on cloud 9.
 
I am observing karate next Monday night and my brother and I are starting classes next Thursday night.
 
I might be the biggest one there but I am not going to care!  Doing this for me not them.
 
With my weight of 219 an hour work out is said to burn 1093 calories.  We will see.
 
 
Kelley

   HELEN:

 

   Hi everyone :) Things have really slowed down in the community on here. I suspect those involved in the Biggest Pounds Match Up challenge have been thinking the same thing Kelley and I have.  Is it ok to post between the time the contest is over and the winners are announced or were we supposed to hold off blogging after the cut off date?

  Kelley and I are still working at this and we're both battling with stuck scales.  I logged some major hours at the gym at the beginning of the week and after a 3 1/2 hour workout on Monday, my scale showed me down two pounds the next morning. Then on Tuesday I worked out hard at home and on Wednesday the scale showed me up a pound.  It brought me down and frustrated me and it got the better of my motivation level once again. So...I've decided to try to avoid the scale for a while till closer time for my surgery in just 24 more days because I'm letting the numbers on the scale have way too much control over my motivation level.

  I've never hit a plateau that's lasted this long and I have to find a way to beat it or at least maintain until my body decides to let me lose weight again.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong, if anything.  Until I comfort eat out of sheer frustration that is, but at least I'm not letting myself stay down once I'm down like I used to, so that has to be progress I guess.

  Anyway...my plan at this point is to work out hard, pre-plan my meals and keep my calories between 1400 - 1700 calorise, get lots of water in, enough sleep and TRY to watch my stress level (which will be the most difficult part), avoid the scales and hope for the best.  Clearly I'm not going to be down in weight as far as my surgeon had wanted me to be for my surgeries, but the surgery is going to happen regardless. So all I can do at this point is stop feeling sorry for myself, charge head first into doing my best between now and April 16th (and after I recouperate of course) and just pray for the best.

  I hope you're all doing well this week!

  By the way...please keep my family in your prayers if you will.  My aunt is in the hospital in very bad shape and her doctors are not optimistic that she'll pull through. She has Lewbody dementia and she just suffered a heart attack and has pneumonia on top of it all.  She's been in the hospital for about a week now and I just found out today that on top of it all, she now has MRSA staph infection.  Her lungs are filling up with water and they drained 2 quarts of water from them today, but doctors think they'll just fill back up again and that it's just a matter of time.  I love my aunt dearly and I don't want her to suffer, but I don't want to loser her at the same time.  Also, I'm super worried that my mom (her sister) will take it really hard and so I'm really worried about my mom as well.

 

  Oh...and someone pointed out to me that Kelley and I are one of the MSN hot spots of the week this week. That's really blown me away and has me curious what it means at the same time. How is a hot spot chosen?  It did give my spirits a much-needed lift today.

 

God bless,

Helen

  Then LAST night at 8:50 (just under halfway through the show) our power went out due to an ice storm and stayed out till 10:30, so I missed over half the show.  I got to see it until Kelly was about to go across the ravine during the challenge. Then I had to run around the house in the dark feeling around for our oil lamps, matches and candles and trying to keep the dog and my son happy while my husband snoozed in the chair.
  Good grief :) My luck at catching the show the past few weeks hasn't been so great :)
  But about last week's show, I'm so proud of all the progress they've all done. I just hope that Dan learns to keep his cockiness under control a little better. It reminds me of the verse in the Bible in 1 Corinthians that says "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall". Confidence is a great thing, but you have to keep it in check after all!  Also, it says "Pride comes before the fall".
  I'm really glad the contestants are feeling SO much better about themselves and they certainly have earned it. But you can't let it turn to cockiness and think you are above going home even if you are on a team of big guys who pull big numbers.  I love Bob, but I have to admit, this year I'm pulling for the ones who were the black team before they went to no teams :) 
Go underdogs! :) 

Helen
 

HELEN:

 

  I'm almost afraid to post this for fear it will jinx things, but I'm excited and haven't been rejoicing about my weight issues lately, so what the heck :)

  The scale shocked the daylights out of me today! Ok, well not literally, but you get the idea. My eating (other than yesterday which was really good) has been way off track the past several days and I decided to get on the scale today. I completely expected a gain. I'd actually seen 290 on Sunday...ouch!

   So as you all know from my continual griping about this blasted plateau, 288 was the number I've been staring at for the past couple of MONTHS now.  I was SO afraid this morning would show me at 292 or something horrible. But it was 287, so I'm actually down a pound.

   I guess it does go to show that I really wasn't eating enough calories like everyone thought.  Now I'm thinking those several days of bad eating may have been just what I needed to straighten my metabolism out.

  I'm not holding my breath, but I'm hopeful it will keep going down :) (Though my eating is on track again though)

  I also added Slim Fast to my meal plans this past few days after all (like every other day drink a shake for two of my three meals and the day in between only for one of the meals) as well as starting to take a supplement of Cayenne Fruit that my cousin has been raving about. It's supposed to support healthy metabolism and it's basically just cayenne pepper in capsule form so it doesn't upset your stomach or set your mouth on fire :) You take it with your meals and it's supposed to help your metabolism. I found the original version of Slim Fast at Walmart a few days ago and bought some since I could actually find it without sucralose (Splenda) or aspartame (Nutrasweet) in it after all.  I noticed when reading the can that it's high in potassium which is what I REALLY need more of too. I got the Cayenne Fruit supplements at Walmart too.

  I did go to the gym this morning and worked out, but my workout was cut short by a phone call from my husband's insurance company in need of yet more information from me. Ugh. So I left and took care of that then went shopping and got my son and niece's Easter baskets and goodies for them. He had a snow day (more like ice day) today and was home from school.

So far today my eating has been right on track too.

 

 So anyone who is tempted to drop their calories too low (less than 1400-1500 or so) learn from my mistake and the TWO MONTH PLATEAU I landed on and don't do it! :)

  I only got to see the first half (almost) of the Biggest Loser last night till our power went out, but it struck me what Bernie said at one point when he said "If you don't eat enough... you could go home, if you eat too much... you could go home."  It really is a delicate balance at times and I think even more so when you've already lost a lot of weight and your body is in standby mode before it lets you start dropping again.  You have to be even MORE careful then.  So please please! do NOT drop your calories too low! :)  If my mistake (regardless of how ambitious it was) can help people here learn to make sure to eat ENOUGH, then in the long run it will cushion the blow that plateau gave me and show some kind of good from it  :)

  Please say a few prayers that the scale keeps going down now that it's moving again in the right direction!  That's another thing I've been doing more of. Praying for myself. I tend to pray for everyone else and and everything else and not for myself enough, so I know that's helped a lot too :) 

 

Helen 

   

 

KELLEY:

 

March 4, 2008

 

Ramblings

 

            Yesterday, I picked up my contacts.  It is going to take some getting used to.  I have worn them before around '99.  It is not the putting in and taking out that is going to be the adjustment.  My glasses were for nearsightedness, astigmatism, and I had invisible bifocals.  The contacts correct nearsightedness and astigmatism so I have to wear reading glasses for close up work.  For most of the day at work I have reading glasses on.  I have been asked why I would want to do it like this.  If I have glasses why not keep what I had.  For the freedom and awesome vision, I have the other times with just contacts.  It is another world with your peripheral vision back.

            I have an appointment with my endocrinologist on the 19^th.  Cannot wait to see my blood work results!  I am sure she will be pleased with my progress.

            I have gotten two co-workers to join Curves.  One I have been giving advice too and talking fitness to for a while as she has been trying to improve her health and weight for some time.  Her first time at Curves was today and she said it kicked her butt!  Did not realize how out of shape she was but said she really pushed it!  That is what I do every time and like I told her why should you do it if you are not going to get the maximum benefit.  There are many people I see there that are just playing at fitness and using it for the social hour.  I would not waste my money if I were them!  If I tell my endocrinologist I work out 6 hours a week she might faint!  We have never talked fitness before but I am sure she will be proud!

            A woman in WW made a remark a couple of weeks ago and I would love to have told her a thing or two.  The leader was asking who participated in a regular exercise program and I was about the only one that raised my hand.  She asked how much I worked out and I told her.  The woman behind me said she did not have time for that!  I wanted to say I do not either BUT I make the time!  I use my lunch hour for Curves three times a week and the other I do right after work before I go home.  If I can work 54-58 hours a week and still make time for working out anyone can they just have to have a desire and I think that is what that woman was missing DESIRE!

            When I went to the eye doctor for my appointment last week the receptionist who has been with my doctor for years did not know who I was!  What a great NSV.  I walked in the same time a man did.  He went to the desk and I sat down.  She asked him if I was with him.  He said no!  I said no and she recognized my voice!  She said there was no way she would have recognized me on the street.  That I had lost a lot of weight and got my haircut and didn't look like the same person!  How good did that make me feel!  I saw him last in October '06 before I started my fitness / weight loss journey in May '07.

            Well I guess I have rambled on enough!  Till next time!

HELEN:  

 

   Dang it. I was expecting to watch The Biggest Loser last night and when I looked for it, it wasn't on the guide. It had been taken off to cover the local coverage of the preparations for the big debate in Cleveland between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (we're in the Cleveland/Akron viewing area).  My husband said it was probably not on this week anywhere, but from the subject lines of the email I have sitting in my inbox from the Biggest Loser yahoo group I see that it WAS on, so it was just our viewing area that didn't have it on I guess :( 
  Darned political interruptions anyway...grrrr
  Does anyone know if it's online to watch anywhere? That makes me so mad

  I  had an appointment with my primary care doctor yesterday.  I hadn't told him I was going to be having surgery in April and I wanted to go over it all with him to see if he had any concerns. 

  After I told him that the CAT scan shows my bowel was caught up in the hernia, he said he agreed it was a necessary surgery. Then I told him about the panniculectomy and he said he agreed that it would be a great idea.  So then he called my surgeon in Akron and got them to fax a copy of my labs and tests and then came back in the office to me again.  He said he was concerned about the EKG from the surgeon a few months ago and wanted to repeat it to see if there was any change, so he did that in the office.  This time my EKG results were normal and fine. He showed me the EKG results form the surgeon's office and said it was almost like it was another persons and not mine because the EKG I had done brefore the surgeon ordered it was identical to yesterdays. The one from the surgeon had a few peaks on it (which he pointed out) and said it was a marker they looked for with people who had been on medication to control their heart rates, but that I was not on any medication that would do that.  He said the only other explanation is that I had been sick or perhaps it was from all the exercise I'm doing. So now I'm wondering if they got my EKG results mixed up with someone elses of it maybe the infection I had in my tooth was working on me then and changed it . I don't know. I'm just glad it's fine now.

  He did a Hemoglobin A1C test while I was there as well and the results of that were perfect. He said it couldn't be any better.

  My lab work he reviewed showed my cholesterol is just fine too. He took my blood pressure and it was perfectly normal. He said he has absolutely no concerns about me having the surgery and scheduled me to see him again shortly after the surgery. The only thing I forgot to ask him about was the constant ringing in my ears. I can't believe I forgot to talk to him about that, but my mind was on the weight loss issues.

  Oh, about that. I talked to him about all the efforts I've been putting into trying to lose weight before my surgery and told him all I'd been doing the past few months.  He said he thinks I messed up my metabolism when the nutritionist had me on the 1000 calorie diet for that time and that he wanted me to keep doing what I am now and not change anything because it would just take a while to get the losses going again and I just had to wait it out.

   Also, I got out my webcam last night and started keeping a video diary for our site.  I was nervous and the lighting was bad, so hopefully I'll get the lighting and angle of the camera aligned better next time, but at least my intro is up now.  Kelley is planning on doing one too so I'll get that up on the site when she sends it to me.

   I'm really looking forward to tonight's show!

 

 

Helen:

 

  So....after literally busting my behind at the gym last week and staying on track with my food and exercise I'm still camping out on the longest plateau in my weight loss history....sigh.  I promise I really AM working SOOO hard on this! Ok, I did lost .4 (point four) pound last week from 288.4 to 288.0, but that was back up from Tuesday when I saw 287, so it's hard to be excited about an overall .4 loss for the week.  But like last week, I'm down some inches again, so I guess I'm doing SOMETHING right.

   Anyway...

   I spent last night and today licking my wounds and taking inventory and trying to figure out what the heck is going on with my body and this stubborn LONG plateau I'm on and what my plan of attack is this time.
  At first I was tempted to go back to the 1000 calorie (or slightly higher 1200) a day diet. But I sat down, thought about it all a lot and I realized that I did raise my calories last week and I did not have a gain. I'd think if my body didn't need the extra calories, it would have given me a gain instead of a near-maintain.
   So this week I'm going to keep my calories/points high, use the WW points plan and do the Wendie plan (I just uploaded to the files section) which is basically alternating your days between higher and lower points with a much higher point day halfway through.  Diana, the list owner of the FOWW (Friends of Weight Watchers) yahoo list asked me to try it with her and I figured I'd see if that helps, so that's my plan. It works out to pretty close to the calorie amount I gave myself last week once I work in activity points (part of the calories I burn through exercise). It's averages out to not going below 1550 calories and then it's like this:  on low point days, I eat all my activity points, on high point days I earn four or more points I eat half of my activity points and on the super high day I eat no activity points, so the way I've been working out, it probably will get to close to 2000 calories on my heavy workout days and between 1550 and 1700 on the low point days, so it's still a lot higher calories than I'd been doing up till last week. The basic premise is the alternating low and high calorie days may kick your metabolism into revving up again.
  It's one of the few things I haven't tried yet this time around, so what the heck...
  (I tried it in 2005 and it didn't work, but I didn't have a plateau last this long then either).
 
  Today I give myself a C day.  Lots of water, but no workout and my eating was higher calories than normal because I was considering using today as my super high point day until I worked the Wendie plan's rhythm out and realized I have to have my super high point day on Wednesday so that I can have high point days on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (the days I work out hard at the gym) and the lower point days on the days in between when I work out a lot less at home.  So today was a reflective day for the most part.
  I'm planning tomorrow as a low point day and hit the gym early on Monday and have a high point day as we have to go to my hometown of  (about an hour away) for me to see my primary care doctor to discuss my upcoming surgeries in April.  I want to talk to him about this incessant ringing in my ears that's driving me nuts too, as well as the absess I had/have.  I'm still running a low grade fever so he may change the antibiotic. I'm hoping the ringing in my ears is from that and will go away when the infection is gone, but who knows. I'm looking forward to that appointment. I REALLY love my primary care doctor and he doesn't know about my upcoming surgeries yet. I also want to talk to him about my EKG results the surgeon told me shows my heart rate was slightly on the low side and see if he has any concerns about it.

  I got in to the oral surgeon yesterday thanks to them having a cancellation. Ordinarily it wouldn't have been till April, so the Lord was definitely watching out for me :)  I was so nervous going in that he would say I needed to have both the eye tooth and the tooth behind it pulled.  Thankfully he recommended a root canal for the eye tooth to save it (whew!) so he did that all the way, taking 3 hours.  I go back on April 10th to have the molar behind it pulled and the eye tooth temporary filling removed and a permanent one put in. That's only six days before my hernia repair and panniculectomy surgeries so I'm a little nervous about it being so close.

  Hopefully the infection from the absess will be gone soon. This dentiset said I only have an absess on the eye tooth, and not the one behind it like the first dentist though, but the one behind it needs extracted as it's crooked and already loose anyway. So I'm still on the penicillin and working to get rid of the infection.

  I skipped the gym yesterday as the root canal left me in a lot of pain, but I went today and did a full workout that I'd planned  for yesterday. I burned 1200 calories according to my heart rate monitor. I walked for a mile, did the stationary bike for 30 minutes, 30 minutes on the rowing machine, 30 minutes on the eliptical and swam half a mile (I usually do a full mile, but had to get home to get my son off the school bus).

  I upped my calories all week, worked out hard and am hoping for a good weigh in tomorrow (please oh please Lord).

  I hope everyone here is having a great week!

 

Helen

KELLEY:

 

February 20, 2008
 
Cheating is Allowed, NOT!
 
            This blog entry springs from an incident that happened in water aerobics yesterday.  This class is conducted in the format that you have your own area of the pool and are told to do a move down and back.  This is unlike my Wednesday night class where the instructor and you as the student do a specified move for a certain amount of time.  In the Monday and Tuesday class, you can get ahead of the other students and be on another move, that the instructor has specified, while others are finishing the first one.  It is a good workout but at times very unorganized.
            Last night we had several new people and when on was being slow she told them cheating is allowed.  In other words, you do not have to do the laps completely so you can be caught up with everyone else.  She said it several times during the 45 minutes.
            I am usually behind myself, as I go in deeper water per lap than she does and the other regular members do.  I go to where I can just touch and they stop 35 – 40 feet earlier.
            The cheating is allowed started me to thinking last night.  To get to the point where we are overweight or obese we have cheated ourselves in more ways than one.  In some cases, like mine, I cheated myself out of my health.  My type 2 diabetes was not preordained I brought it on myself.  Yes, I am doing something about it now to reverse it but what I would give to never had to deal with it.
            We cheated ourselves out of activities we might have enjoyed because we were too embarrassed by our weight to want to be seen.  An example is going to the gym.  Before I started this weight loss journey you would never have saw me in the gym, as I was so out of shape and unfit.  The typical gym rat fits the profile of what the public considers the ideal body and that was not me.  Now I will go with the rest of them and am not embarrassed to be seen in a swimsuit, as I would have been before.
            We might have cheated ourselves out of good friends, as we never tried to get to know people.  Never made the first move as we were of the mentality no one wants fat friends.  Then some people do, as being with fat folks makes them look even better.  Therefore, we get used as a pawn in their little games and become their false friends.
            I will continue not cheating myself out of anything I want to do or accomplish.  Becoming who I need to be and what God intended for me to be is the most important thing to me.  In my book, cheating is a dirty word from now on!