Shopping, Happy Dance!

My weight loss has continued.  Again my clothes are getting baggy.  Shopping therapy is called for.

I needed dress slacks, shoes, and jeans.  I have reached the goal weight I hope to be able to maintain for ever.  Maybe if I write that I will stick to being healthy. Today Marty and I went shopping.  This is why he is a keeper, he will search racks for me while I try on clothes. Plus he pushes me to wear colors other than red and black.  Thanks, Marty.

I have lost so much weight my shoes are all too wide.  I am back to wearing narrows, which few stores carry.  So no luck there.  I guess I will have to go to an upscale shoe department and pay too much money.

But fancy jeans and dress slacks he found for me.  I need a petite length now that I am considered short. Not sure how that happened, I always was the tall girl in the back row of school pictures.  Also I now wear a size 10, instead of a 20.  I can't remember ever wearing a size 10.  Not real sure sizing is the same as when I was a teenager.  But 10 makes me happy.

Happy Dance has begun!

Weight loss, how did I do it?

I am asked all the time, how did you lose so much weight. And I tell them no Cheetos for breakfast.  They think I am kidding, but I'm not.  I gave up a lot of good tasting stuff:  Cheetos, sugar, ice cream, salt, caffeine, wine, Bourbon, and on and on.

Before all the drama, I made half hearted attempts to lose weight.  But I yo-yoed for years. Now I am serious.  Diabetes, A-fib, high blood pressure, bad knees and hip, blood clots; trust me that will give you religion.  I was terrified.  Kiss the bad eating good bye.

How about a before picture.  Not that I am proud of it, but I am proud it isn't me anymore. Yes, I knew I was big as the side of a barn, I just wasn't motivated.

81 pounds ago

In September when I came home from the hospital I was too weak to walk over a couple of minutes.  Every day I added another minute or two to my exercise time.  I would walk 5 minutes and rest 30.  I was one sick chicken.  But I got up to 30 minutes, and I was walking faster and taking longer strides.  Then I added in our 20+ stairs and jogged down them and ran up them.  I was working hard.  I exercised in some form every day for at least 30 minutes.

Now to my diet.  I am not allowed salt, sugar, or many carbs or fats, also I had to watch out for cholesterol.  We read labels anytime we bought processed food.  We found low salt food doesn't mean squat, no sugar doesn't mean low calorie, low calorie. . . compared to what.  You need a Master's degree to shop at Safeway.  Thankfully Marty took over and found/made good foods I could eat.  He made soups, broths, whatever I needed he found or made.  We ate a lot of chicken and pork chops.  I ate peanut butter on a half of piece of bread with almonds on the side.  I made tomato soup and sauces from the tomatoes I had put up.  No salt in them.  I watched Marty make fudge and bourbon balls and only ate one piece.

Small portions were key to losing weight, so we used smaller plates so it looked like more food.  If we ate out I ordered the best I could and skipped the fried food, sauces, bread and cheese.  I was careful, if I ate a rich meal I had really healthy meals for the rest of the week.  Also I never said never.  I allowed myself the right to eat anything I wanted.  I just rarely did.  Knowing I could have it let me wait out the cravings for lovely bad food.  Even my doctor said one meal won't kill you.  Just don't have too many one meals.

Wine and liquor can really mess with one of my medications.  Plus alcohol is empty calories.  So I rarely drink anything except water.  No caffeine or sugar eliminated most soft drinks and fruit juice.

  

November 2013

February 2014

April 2014

June 2014

This has been a difficult process.  No one loves rich food more than I do.  And Bourbon, mother's milk to a Southern Belle.  I have succeeded because of the support from friends and Marty.  His support is huge, cooking and shopping.  And he drives me to Kaiser Emergency often.  I am not scared of A-Fib anymore.  It disrupts our life, but we know it is treatable.  The other problems are scary but controlled most of the time.  

I wrote this because Marty asked me too.  He said it might help others with similar health issues. I hope it will help others.  

Bragging

Just wanted to give an update to my health.  After the ER visit in February, the doctors and I have struggled to keep my blood pressure down and my heart beat up.  Yeah, the A-Fib lady has been running a pulse of 40 - 43.  I guess that is better than 190, but still not safe.

They have tweaked the meds several times and finally the last 4 days I have been in a safe range for pulse and blood pressure. 

Bigger news today, I have lost 70 pounds!  I am getting close to my goal, at least another 15 pounds to go.  We will see how droopy my skin will be, and how gaunt I look.  Vanity will decide what I lose from now on.

I am shopping at a Cancer Society thrift shop.  No point in spending big bucks on clothes I won't wear very long.  Yesterday I bought 2 pairs of jeans one pair brand new and the other gently used for less than $7.00.  They have pretty stuff, great brands.  Even after I hit my goal weight I will continue to shop there.  Pretty stuff is the main thing, not where it was bought.

I thank all of you for the support, love, and prayers.

Where has the week gone?

I find it hard to believe it is Thursday night.  The week flew by and I did so little.  Monday no Marriage Factory.  Marty had a 7:30 meeting in the opposite direction, so I stayed home.  The curse of only one car.  But Tuesday I made it to Kaiser School and worked with the first graders.

I have mentioned how record breaking cold the Bay Area has been.  One of my medications makes me be cold when everyone else is hot.  But Tuesday the classroom was cold, everyone had on their coats.   No heat over night and the room didn't warm up for a couple of hours.   It wasn't unbearable, but I was uncomfortable.  I was missing my electric throw. 

I mainly was organizing  homework packets and making packets of work from the last couple of weeks.  I also listened to the children read. Then I was called into extra duty.  During recess Ms. H came in and asked me to go to the playground and take the class to the library.  She was taking care of another class while the teacher received some first aid.  So off I went outside to the cold cold playground.  Thankfully I wasn't there long before time to go the library.  Ms. H was back in about 20 minutes.

Back in our classroom I read to the class.  Then they did some creative writing.  Their phonics' sound for the day was ar.  As Ms. H said, "Who knew ar could be so hard."  They had listed lots of ar words such as dark, car, start, star, barn, far.  But they just didn't lock into the sound.  So they had to draw a car, a very special car.  It could go into the future, or go back to the time of the dinosaur's.  Maybe their car could fly, or was silly.  It was their car and they had to write about it using ar words in three sentences.  They really got into their special cars. 

Wednesday made I country ham puffs for a  party this weekend.  These can be made ahead of time and frozen.  So I made extra for Christmas brunch.

Today was another clean out the closet day.  I filled a huge bag with clothes to go to the Salvation Army. I have now lost 52 pounds and most clothes in my closet hangs on me.  This is a good thing, except I am now down to my smallest clothing.  Five more pounds and I will have to buy clothes.  I have found a shop a block from us that has really low prices and cute clothes.   This will be my new favorite spot to shop. 

Marty just told me we are invited to a cocktail party Friday afternoon.  I am going even though I won't be drinking.  Marty says he will be taking me to dinner afterwards.  YAY, no cooking!