I'm going to start off this post with some fun news - I've lost fifteen pounds. Woohoo! Now, with that important piece of information out of the way, I can proceed with the rest of my update.
As you know, on June 13th I had a doctor appointment and was put on a very limited diet. I have been living it almost faithfully. I say "almost" because about once a week, I do falter, and end up grabbing a sandwich or something like that. I'm also not weaned off caffeine yet, although that is my next big goal. Until I'm off that, I'm not really being compliant with the diet. But it has been over six weeks since I've had chocolate (or dessert at all, for that matter) pasta, rice, or other grains, and I am seeing changes in my body. Even though the weight loss so far is fairly small, the shape of my body is changing. I can feel it in the way my stomach hangs on my body. (Yes, it hangs - we're keeping it real, right?)
Weighing in at my doctor's office was a bit mortifying. My first day of this new lifestyle, my bathroom scale said I weighed 290. Whoa - okay, that wasn't delightful. But then when I got to the doctor's, and got on his very accurate, scary, frightening scale, it added ten pounds. That's right - I started this out at 300. I didn't think I'd gotten that heavy. Wake up for Tristi!! But according to his scale, I'm now 284.5, so yeah, fifteen pounds, and we're backing away from that frightening number that starts with a 3.
Now, I've been down this path before. Huh. A lot. I've lost weight, gained weight, lost weight ... this blog was started during one of those well-meaning fits of losing weight, but then I lost the momentum. This time is different. This time, I can't lose the momentum.
In addition to the food allergies, I've got some health problems. I'm not going to go into them all here, because that's depressing and all that stuff, but also because it would take a long time, but the upshot is that I have to take care of myself or my life expectancy isn't that great. My doctor put it bluntly when he said, "You won't get to see your grandkids." Up until now, I've been skating along, feeling like the golden child, not really affected by anything. These last few months, though ... my knee gave out at the LDStorymakers Writers Conference. I was having to walk a distance between my hotel room and the conference rooms, and I was flat-out exhausted. There are other health factors we've recently discovered that added to that, but the weight was killing my knee, and it plain gave out. I'm tired of all this. I'm tired of weight-related problems, things I can't do - I don't enjoy driving our small car anymore because it's too hard for me to get in and out of. I drive the minivan exclusively now, and it makes me mad that I'm limited in which vehicle I take because of the size of my body. I find that completely wrong.
What it has all come down to, though, is my kids. They are all candidates for diabetes and heart attacks - they got all the bad genes from me and from my husband, and they have problems assimilating sugar. So we're all doing this really limited diet together - no carbs. None. No grain, no fruit, no nothing. We're eating vegetables (but not corn or peas - too high on the glycemic index) lean meats, nuts and seeds, and a limited amount of certain dairy products. We're seeing huge changes in our health, for the whole family. But it has been a challenge.
My biggest challenge right now is that I need to concentrate on making food in advance. This week, I pretty much starved myself to death because there wasn't anything readily available that I wanted to eat, I went too long without eating, and I got sick. I've got to break that habit. My kids will cook up eggs or whatever when they're hungry, and they're fine, but you know, there are just times when I don't want an egg, and I need to be more creative, and I haven't been. This is a way in which I need to be a better guardian of my own health.
I'm going to start checking in more and letting you know how I'm doing. I need further accountability. (Like the doctor's scary scale isn't enough ... ) But right now, here's my report:
1. I'm eating mostly clean. I have had some Wendy's over the last two days - starving, as I mentioned, and didn't prepare, so I need to reset the brain to cook in advance - but for the most part, I'm eating very, very well.
2. No desserts and no chocolate since the start of this diet. Yes, that means I've had no gummy peach rings, no chocolate-covered cinnamon bears, none of my old favorites.
3. I'm now drinking about 16 oz. of Coke - at least, that's what I had today. That's down from about 1 1/2 liters a day. Progress. Progress.
4. I'm not currently exercising. My workload has gotten super, super heavy lately, and what with signing books at Costco, etc, my schedule is more packed than it logically can be. I have plans to reintroduce exercise to my life next week.
5. My water consumption is about 3/4 what it should be, but again, progress.
So ... that's what's up in my world. I'm seeing good changes, I'm making good changes, and I'm very proud of myself. And that's what's important - proud of myself without making excuses. It's a good feeling.
4 comments:
Tristi, you can do it. Sounds a lot like you are going primal, although fruit and dark chocolate are allowed on primal in limited quantities. I used to hate dark chocolate, but now bring on the 85%. You should check out Mark's Daily Apple. It is the primal site that I love. Here are are a few tips I've used to help with your goals. Yes, sometimes we have to eat out. When we do I get the salad as much as possible. I go without the dressing, or only use half if possible unless I know it is low in sugar. If I really can't eat and drive, and know I am going to be bad I go to In and Out and get their Protein Burger (wrapped in lettuce not a bun) or get a chicken sandwich elsewhere and take off at least half the bun if not more and just eat it as open faced. This I do very rarely and the more I read on grains the less I find myself doing it. I had to go cold turkey on coke. For me that was the only way, I was too addicted and loved it wayyyyyy tooooo much. The primal plan has small workouts of the week. It teaches you a new way to work out that is less time consuming and more natural. I still don't have a lot of time, but to make up for my lack of going to the gym or what not I try to walk as much as I can. If I go to the store, I park out in the lot, not front row joe and same at work. It is not much but I usually get 30 to 40 minutes of walking in a day. I have to join you on the water cycle maybe we should do a water challenge since we are having all this rain! As for breakfast, you need to learn to think outside the box. It is okay to have a salad for breakfast, or anything. I have not gone dairy free and depending on if you can have it, there are ways to make cottage cheese pancakes that are yummy. If it would help I can do a post on what I snack on, weekly meals and such. I wish you the best. I know it is hard, but I have not felt this good in years!!!
That's a really hard diet, but you can do it. It teaches us how to eat healthy and gets rid of Candida. Are you going to slowly add fruits and grains back in?
Good for you, Tristi!
I'm glad you're making the right changes so you can live a long life. We WANT you around for a very, very long time. Where would we be without the fabulous Tristi?
Hugs.
Post a Comment