Daisypath Anniversary tickers

January 05, 2011

Because I Need to Keep Myself Accountable

Well, guess what? I put on some weight over the holidays.

I was doing really well, happy with my progress, keeping in the back of my head "slow and steady wins the race" and "you didn't just wake up one morning suddenly 40 pounds overweight, don't expect it to just fall off one night while you're sleeping!" (although that would be really nice wouldn't it???). I went to our condo in the mountains and was there for copious amounts of time with a very sick little girl who just needed her Mama to hold her and rock her and walk her and snuggle her. Poor Littlest One (she's doing much better BTW) and her ears...

So, while BB and the big kids went sledding and swimming and shopping and were running around to work up a an appetite for the large amounts of food we had with us, I was sitting around and resting and relaxing and snuggling...not working up an appetite.

All in all, the week before Christmas I was only up 3 pounds (not too shabby if you'd seen the food!). However, the week of Christmas, I was up another 3 pounds. Then, I weighed myself this morning and was shocked to see it up a total of 9 pounds from December 16. I am mad at myself, dismayed, disgusted...but only for 4 pounds of it...you see, this morning, for the first time since 2008, I am actually bloated and have several pounds of weight hanging about due to a visit from dear old Aunt Flo.

I'm happy about that...I wasn't sure my body would ever get back to normal after Littlest One. Having PCOS makes for interesting cycles. Or lack thereof. Or extra ones. Or all sorts of other medical oddities I shan't get into today.

Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to my final weigh-in tonight, but know that in part, it's a chemical change in my body that has my skin looking like a 17 year old that works in a greasy fast-food joint and feeling as though I look like Paulette in Legally Blonde, stuffed into my jeans.

SO - I'm going to post the things I need to be doing, was doing before, and will be doing again as soon as I'm done posting. Also, this is in case anyone is dying to know just what I do to stay looking so svelte. Oh wait, you can't actually see me. Rats...well, use your imagination, but remember that I've always wanted to be 5'7" and blonde, not 5'4" and brunette...

  1. 6 days a week get my heart rate into the "Fat Burning Zone" of 83 - 110 bpm for 20 minutes straight.
  2. stop eating processed carbohydrates (white bread, rolls, tortillas, cookies etc) after 11am
  3. stop eating things with added sugar (look for high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sucrose, sugar on labels)
  4. eat 10 - 15 g of protein at a time, 6 times per day
  5. cut out dairy as often as possible (I love me some cheese and yogurt, so this tough for me)
  6. portion control (half my plate full of veggies, 1/4 protein, 1/4 whole grains)
  7. fruit only til lunchtime
  8. eat in the bottom half of the glycemic index to regulate blood sugar levels.
Now, for those of you wondering where that 40 pound number came from, let me tell you that I have 2 parents with Diabetes. Mom is type 1, diagnosed when I was like 5. We've always been a "healthy" family - no soda, no store bought cookies, no sugary cereals, not a lot of desserts, but we've also been a typical American diet family - white bread, rolls, pasta, white rice, gravy, sauce, ketchup, fries with our greasy burgers, pizza. We were also a large family (5 kids) on a pretty tight budget, so we had lots of casseroles (cream soups mixed with cheese, noodles or white rice, ground beef, and corn, peas, and carrots), lots of ground beef, and an Italian family (lots of pasta with meat, cheese, bread and sauce). My Dad was diagnosed Type 2 when I was in my early 20's.

The frustrating thing for me is that I'm supposed to be watching my weight because of my genetic pre-disposition toward cholesterol and heart issues, plus the diabetes, oh and by the way I'm a mother of 3 that had 3 pregnancies "so close together" that were "taxing" to my body, plus the PCOS is caused by metabolic issues (glucose intolerance) as opposed to hormonal issues...

SO - feel free to ask me how I'm doing at random points of my journey. I will try to weigh-in weekly and provide some measurements (maybe a side-bar like Ang has), and let you know how I'm doing.

I just watched Rachael Ray while doing squats and lunges and jumping rope to get my heart rate going and it was the episode on weight loss and fitness and there's a new book out that I think I'm going to check out if my library has it. If they don't, I'm going to just buy it.

PS - if you haven't, pick up "Women, Food & God" and read it. It's a worthwhile read, makes you think a bit about why you make choices you do.

Toodles for now - I'm off to put on some make-up and get ready to get the kiddos from school and hit the Bulls-Eye for some baby food. Yee ha!

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