Health Coaching, part 4

See my response to Sarah below:

Hi again!

First of all, I have been thinking about all of these things for 10 months... so it is not overwhelming at all! In fact, it is refreshing to have someone willing to work with me and meet me where I am... so thank you! :)

In response to your questions, see blue text below:

Hi Steph,
It is nice to hear from you again! Great job on keeping up with the workouts! Thank you for taking the time to answer those additional questions!

That’s helpful that you have another reason to get up early so that you that you do have that little bit of added pressure. Briohny does have some amazing strength, doesn’t she? I suggest doing as much as you can when holding those yoga poses and with each little extra hold, you will gain strength as well as flexibility. I completely understand! I was unable to even get into a downward-facing dog position on the first day, but, after 6 days of routine exercise, I can hold Cody's downward-facing dog for almost the entire time! I can only hold Briohny's for about 10 seconds, but I have also only done her routine 1x... Today, I am really feeling two yoga workouts from yesterday, but it is a MUCH better pain than the pain I was in a week ago. That pain is nearly erased. I don't know how you guys come up with your programs, but, man!, do they work!

I am glad that you love the mobility workouts….Cody is great! The DailyBurn is great that the next workout pops up in your today page, however, keep in mind that the programs were designed with specific workouts to be done during the week for optimal mobility, muscle function and balance. A day missed here and there shouldn’t affect your results by much. I suggest that we work together to come up with a realistic workout schedule that you can commit to. Agreed. I have been doing some thinking. I am pretty sure that I can wake early (now that I've done it once and realize how amazing it is -- things I NEVER thought I'd say!!!) on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. I can do the Tuesday routine after work, because it's a short day and I am off work at 1:30pm. And Monday will just have to be my rest day. Except Cody's Restorative Yoga. That is now a part of my nightly bedtime routine :) This is my goal. If I am only able to wake up 1 day a week for a while, then I will commit to 3 mornings, 5 afternoons, and 7 nights, for now. That's including weekends. I do truly want/need to make mornings a priority, though, so my ideal is: 6 mornings, and 7 nights. Did this make sense?

Sometimes it is helpful for clients to email their coach after they have completed their workout for accountability. We will check in with you weekly otherwise.

• Do you think that will work for you? Absolutely! Done! I have not worked out this morning (Saturday) - drowning in chores & errands, but I will email you after my afternoon workout, for sure! :)

It sounds like you have been through the wringer with your weight loss efforts and your physicians. I am glad that you have finally found someone who is more helpful in that arena. That is excellent and yes…A HUGE win on maintaining your weight loss, especially through the holiday season. It sounds like spending time focusing on meal planning and execution.

Here are a couple of resources to help you get the wheels spinning.

- DailyBurn Recipes – any recipes that you find on here will be nutritious and help promote weight loss and you can filter your search with the menu bar at the top, which includes an option “time: less than 25 minutes”.

Also, check out this great article on 12 Brilliant Meal Prep Ideas to Free Up Your Time

Eating out can really be detrimental to any sort of weight loss efforts, however, it is unrealistic to say “never eat out again”. I think setting a goal of now more than 2 times a week is realistic and would make a huge difference in your weekly caloric intake. I don't think you can use the links without a Daily Burn account, but I'm leaving them in here, just in case...

• What do you think? I think that this is a realistic goal for when I'm home and in a routine. What do you suggest for avoiding eating out while traveling? (for example, I am driving 5 hours (one way) to visit my family for Easter, where I will not be in my kitchen. Is there a strategy for maintaining my routines while away? Or is it just all about planning? But I honestly don't know HOW to plan for that... please advise?

You are really on to something with your alarms reminding you to eat. Regular meals are important as they fuel the next couple of hours of activity (physical, mental and emotional) in your day. It is recommended not go much longer than 4 hours between eating something and you are already doing that – great! Thank you! It has worked for almost the entire week. Except this morning, when I didn't wake until 9am and immediately started putting clothes away & getting distracted with other tiny chores, so I didn't have breakfast until 11am... boo. 

Wow, I gave you a lot to process and think about. Take your time and think it through and get back to me when you can! I look forward to hearing your thoughts! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I do have one baby question: what is your opinion on, say, GNC leanshakes as a breakfast replacement?

Health Coaching, part 3

It took me a couple days to respond to Sarah's first post, so I submitted it at 4:30pm on Friday, 20 March. Sarah responded 9 hrs later with this:

Hi Steph,

It is nice to hear from you again! Great job on keeping up with the workouts! Thank you for taking the time to answer those additional questions!

That’s helpful that you have another reason to get up early so that you that you do have that little bit of added pressure. Briohny does have some amazing strength, doesn’t she? I suggest doing as much as you can when holding those yoga poses and with each little extra hold, you will gain strength as well as flexibility.

I am glad that you love the mobility workouts….Cody is great! The DailyBurn is great that the next workout pops up in your today page, however, keep in mind that the programs were designed with specific workouts to be done during the week for optimal mobility, muscle function and balance. A day missed here and there shouldn’t affect your results by much. I suggest that we work together to come up with a realistic workout schedule that you can commit to.

Sometimes it is helpful for clients to email their coach after they have completed their workout for accountability. We will check in with you weekly otherwise.

• Do you think that will work for you?

It sounds like you have been through the wringer with your weight loss efforts and your physicians. I am glad that you have finally found someone who is more helpful in that arena. That is excellent and yes…A HUGE win on maintaining your weight loss, especially through the holiday season. It sounds like spending time focusing on meal planning and execution.

Here are a couple of resources to help you get the wheels spinning.

- DailyBurn Recipes – any recipes that you find on here will be nutritious and help promote weight loss and you can filter your search with the menu bar at the top, which includes an option “time: less than 25 minutes”.

Also, check out this great article on 12 Brilliant Meal Prep Ideas to Free Up Your Time

Eating out can really be detrimental to any sort of weight loss efforts, however, it is unrealistic to say “never eat out again”. I think setting a goal of now more than 2 times a week is realistic and would make a huge difference in your weekly caloric intake.

• What do you think?

You are really on to something with your alarms reminding you to eat. Regular meals are important as they fuel the next couple of hours of activity (physical, mental and emotional) in your day. It is recommended not go much longer than 4 hours between eating something and you are already doing that – great!

Wow, I gave you a lot to process and think about. Take your time and think it through and get back to me when you can! I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Can I just say how very refreshing to, #1, know that I have a real life health coach who actually reads what I say, and #2 have our conversations in writing so that I can go back and remember what she says??? This is amazing!

Health Coaching, part 2

I'm trying to be as open and honest about my personal situation here on this blog, so here were my replies to Sarah's first email:

Nice to meet you, Sarah!

Here are my answers to your inquiries:

• You mentioned working out some mornings and every evening – is this a realistic schedule for you to continue to follow? At this present time, all I do is work & school, so yes. I need to take time to work on my body. I even managed to get up this morning for Yin Yoga, yes! (PS, it is really tough to do many of Briohny's yoga poses because they rely so heavily on the arms and I have so many neck & shoulder injuries that they just are not strong enough to hold the pose... yet.) Plus, I need a reason to wake early in the mornings and get some studying done, so it's like a double-duty accountability :)

• Have you considered following the Recover’s full workout schedule, including the mobility workouts? I love the mobility workouts. I have decided that Cody is my new best friend, lol. Because of my inability to wake early, I could not do Monday's workout at all, as I am going - literally nonstop - from 830am to 10pm every other Monday. And, because I was up so late on Monday and have an 830 course to teach the next morning, I also missed Tuesday's. I am conflicted about how I feel about the way they hold back my workouts, so that my workout is not the one on the schedule. I like that it is SO personalized and keeps me in a routine that will help keep me from hurting myself (more than usual)... but it's really annoying to see it on the schedule all wonky... I think my OCD will survive, though :)

• What do you expect from a coach in terms of holding you accountable for your workouts? If I know that someone is going to check in on me and ask if I actually worked out, I am more inclined to at least wake up and make it happen, out of some false sense of obligation. Not saying it's the healthiest mentality, but it's definitely something I am fairly certain will keep me from hitting snooze.

• You mentioned being under a physician’s care for weight loss – are you currently following a medical weight loss diet plan? I am not. I struggle from May 2014-Nov 2015 with 2 physicians in my small city. They shared a clinic. The first one told me to eat less. The next visit, I met with his colleague, who prescribed me Belviq. I lost 10 pounds over 3 months, and when I returned to him explaining that I had stalled out for the previous month, he prescribed me a gym membership with no restrictions, so the trainer pushed me way too hard & I was unable to move for nearly a week. On the 3rd visit, he told me that I needed to stop eating too much. So I now see a female PA a half an hour away who actually "hears" what I'm saying. She is trying a medication combo of Spironolactone and Metformin and treating it like PCOS. I maintained a total of 15lbs off since May through the holiday season (which I am counting as a HUGE win!), in January, I dropped another 15lbs using the meds. This past 1.5 months, I've been on a 10-lb roller coaster. Today, I weigh the exact same as I did in mid-January. It gets discouraging. My PA has just suggested that I find a meal plan that works for me. The only one I KNOW works for me is the DASH diet, and I am a terrible meal planner. When I was on it last, I had a roommate who was an EXCELLENT meal planner/grocery shopper, but now I am floundering.

• Would you be able to provide me an example of when and what you eat and drink on a typical day? This past week, I've been trying a new routine - and it seems to be working quite well, for the most part: I have alarms set with songs by my favorite singer (Jason Mraz, yes!). The song is about food: particularly going back to the earth to find nourishment, and promoting locally-grown foods - and I love it! I play it as I prepare my meals and I don't mind interrupting what I am working on to eat. My alarms are set for 830am, 1130am, 430pm, and a 7pm snack, and I have followed them quite closely all week long.

• If yesterday was fairly typical you could use that as an example since it is still fresh in your mind. Please be as specific as possible regarding the time of each meal as well as types and quantities of food consumed. Let me know any areas that you feel you particularly struggle with and any dietary restrictions you have. Okay. So, yesterday, is pretty typical of my challenging days: I ate a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich on plain bread with burnt bacon from the college's only cafe/grille at 830am. White bread & american cheese, neither of which I like, but I like deciding on - and making - breakfast MUCH less. Then I felt like I skipped lunch, because all I ate at 1130am was a cup of white cheddar popcorn and a fruit cup of peaches. So I was starving by the time I got off work at 4pm, so I ran through Burger King, where I ordered a whopper AND a whopper jr (both with cheese, no lettuce, no tomato, no onion) and a Satisfries. And I ATE THEM ALL. Okay, half of the fries. No snack, because I was so full from BK. --- LUNCH, lunch is the killer meal for me. When I eat lunch, my life is so much better. And, again: the planning... gah.

• Do you enjoy preparing and cooking meals? I definitely enjoy preparing and cooking meals on the weekends, but it feels nearly impossible to do it during the week. Some days, I can pull it off, some days I can't. I am good at it, and, if I had a housekeeper, then I would be much more inclined, but that is out of the realm of your abilities! :)

I hope this helps? I also hope it makes sense?

Basically, I am just lazy and indecisive, but I'm working on the lazy part!

Take care, 

ss

Health Coaching, Daily Burn style (a 4-part s

So I was originally assigned Beth as my health coach, but she was unavailable, so Sarah stepped in. Here are the conversations we've had over the past few days:

Hi Steph,

My name is Sarah and I will be filling in for your coach Beth until she returns in a couple of days. It is very nice to meet you. I appreciate all of the detail in your email. It helped me to have a great understanding of what your goals are and your current struggles are. It sounds like you and your body have been through quite a bit. I am so glad that the Recover workouts are comfortable for you and great job on being so consistent with your workouts! We would be happy to help you with accountability to continue to be so consistent with your activity and with your meal planning. In order to make realistic suggestions for you, I would like to learn a little bit more about your lifestyle, schedule, current eating habits and preferences.

• You mentioned working out some mornings and every evening – is this a realistic schedule for you to continue to follow?

• Have you considered following the Recover’s full workout schedule, including the mobility workouts?

• What do you expect from a coach in terms of holding you accountable for your workouts?

Let’s also discuss your eating habits:

• You mentioned being under a physician’s care for weight loss – are you currently following a medical weight loss diet plan?

• Would you be able to provide me an example of when and what you eat and drink on a typical day? If yesterday was fairly typical you could use that as an example since it is still fresh in your mind. Please be as specific as possible regarding the time of each meal as well as types and quantities of food consumed. Let me know any areas that you feel you particularly struggle with and any dietary restrictions you have.

• Do you enjoy preparing and cooking meals?

Congratulations for your most recent efforts – signing up for the DailyBurn, regular workouts, eliminating added sugar and making a plan to develop a new healthier lifestyle! I look forward to hearing back from you and getting you started on an awesome plan!

Mornings & Yoga (unrelated)

Hello!

Okay, so two things about mornings:

1. I hate them. I choose sleep over just about anything - except getting fired - in the mornings... but!
2. I found a way to use Jason Mraz songs for my phone alarm app and I now wake up to the joyous sounds of Jason's own struggle to wake up. He sounds way more accepting of mornings, but at least now - for the past 4 days - I have actually enjoyed waking up!

Which is great and all, when I'm setting my alarm to wake at my "usual" time. I wake up and I'm out the door in under 10 minutes! But when I want to get one Recover workout done in the mornings + one Restorative Yoga session in before bedtime... well, the morning routine ALWAYS loses. 

PRO: I have managed to SET my alarm for 6:30am every morning before I go to bed. And I have managed to do my 15-minute restorative yoga session before bed for 4 out of 5 nights. The 5th night, I had a migraine.

CON: I end up entirely RE-setting my alarm around the 6am hour in my sleep -- out of habit. BAD habit!!!

My baby goal is to get one tiny workout in every day. I have almost accomplished that (darn migraine!)... so, starting this weekend (21 March), I hope to become more faithful to my future self: next week's baby step will be to do my restorative yoga every night, plus at least 4 morning workouts. These morning workouts are "easy" to do on the weekend, when I don't have to be at work at 8:30... I am soooo not a morning person. But If I can get at least 2 mornings in next week, I am calling it a "WIN!".

_________________________________________________________________________________

Yoga!

Okay, so I already know that Yoga and Pilates are my best exercise bets, thanks to asthma & injuries. But I am so very tight and just plain incapable, after years without any kind of significant exercise, that I am unable to just jump right in. I have not exercised - or even walked for any length of time - since I herniated my C5-C6 disc in 2011. I am easing into this.

I explained 2 of the workouts in my program in my last post, so today I want to focus on Yoga. Because I took Monday & Tuesday off of the morning routine, I decided to at least get one "morning" exercise in this afternoon. Today's workout was Strength Recovery Yoga with Briohny Smyth (Bree-onnie Sm"eye"th). I was worried about the strength part. I had tried one of Briohny's regular yoga sessions a couple weeks ago & almost cried for 2 days. This was nothing like that! It was a short - 23min - workout where Briohny walked me through a Yoga routine. It allowed me to do exactly what my body would let me do, and it rocked!

Things I learned in this Yoga workout:

1. My arms are strong enough to plank for approximately 10 seconds. Which is WAY longer than I have ever tried.
2. I have a REALLY tough time in transitions, but once I learn the routine, I'm sure I'll be better :) and
3. I am exceptionally good at the folds. I've never even thought of trying to fold my body into tight poses, but Briohny told me exactly where to put my limbs, where my weight should be balanced, and even when to breathe. I felt like a rock star when I could still place my right foot behind my left hip and bend my left leg over my right leg to place my left foot beside my right hip. AND TWIST my spine so that my hands were nearly facing backwards! It was CRAZY!!!

There are places in my body where I can already tell it's gonna hurt in the morning, but it will be a good hurt, yes! And Daily Burn arranges the workouts so that I am not focusing too much on any one part of my body 2 days in a row...

I'm hoping to post about my first experience with my new health coach, Beth, in the next few days. She sent me a survey to complete and a questionnaire to answer, so I just got those to her this afternoon. (This service is also included in Daily Burn for $28usd/month - less than the cost of a gym membership around here.)

PS: Sugar-free for 13 days! End of tomorrow = TWO WEEKS! Man! I am so very glad I did that cleanse!

Take care all, 

xoxo

ss

Exercise! (part 2)

So yesterday (14 March), I signed up for Daily Burn. Maybe it's because it is marketed so well, but mostly it was because I HATE going to the gym. The traveling to & from + awkward shoering is such a waste of time, and I don't have time to waste. So I'm giving it a try! I found a program for me called "Restoration" that walks me through trigger points, joint mobility, range of motion, and baby-step yoga, which is about all I can handle.

I went through my very first 30-minute session yesterday afternoon and felt like I actually exercised without injuring myself -- for the first time in 8 years!!! Cody Storey is my new fave person! There were some exercises that I couldn't do physically, but Cody reminded me that that was okay. My goal is to work my way up to being able to perform these exercises pain-free, and did NOT make me feel guilty for not keeping up... he actually sounded like he cared - and that is rare. The last time I had that kind of encouragement was in Physio in Saskatchewan! It is a week-long cycle, but I will stick with this until I feel like I can push myself further.

I have also been looking into restorative yoga for a couple weeks now, and struggling to find a workout. Later yesterday afternoon, as I was scrolling through the individual workouts on the "easy" level, I actually found a Restorative Yoga workout! And guess who teaches it? Yep! Cody Storey. Seriously, I think we are going to be best friends :) Cody suggested that the Restorative Yoga workout be performed nightly, before bed to act as a sleep aid.

So, last night, before bed... I exercised AGAIN! WHAT?!? This workout was only 15 minutes long, and it was more stretching and relaxing than actual "working out", but I'm still calling it a win! I had one of the best, most restful sleeps I can ever recall. In. My. Life.

I woke this morning sore in lots of places, but it is a GOOD sore! So, the first thing I did after breakfast was turn on Daily Burn -- I feel like I am not talking about myself as I type this. I DO NOT exercise 2 times in one day, and then AGAIN the next morning. EVER. But I did this morning!

Today, I met Lindsey Miller, who walked me through trigger points using a tennis ball and a foam roller. Better than a massage, plus a lot less expensive! This was another 30-minute workout, and I was able to do all of the exercises except one - because it was at the end and I had to rely on my arms, which directly impact my neck, which is still in pain and quite ginger... but I will get there!

Last week, when my sister was here, we printed off photos of our thinner selves as motivation. And today, I plan to post them everywhere. I will share those in my next post...

If there are any questions, comments, or suggestions, please comment!
ss

Exercise! (a 2-part series)

Again, if you know me, you know that exercise is not my fave word... or action. I am lazy by nature and I like it that way, but I like the idea of losing weight more!

One looming adversary of Steph exercising, though, is the inevitable injury... lol. I have had a herniated disc at the C5-C6 vertebrae for 4 years now, and although there are flare ups after sitting at a desk for 12-15hrs (whose neck wouldn't be resistant after that???), for the past several years, I have managed to avoid any re-injury. No exercise was key (in my mind... I know better on a logical level, but wasn't willing to risk it).

Then, as I mentioned earlier, I fell. It was a clumsy, really dumb, freak-accident fall that only I could manage. I was taking out the garbage: 1 big bag + 1 big box. Any NORMAL person would break down the box and carry them both separately, but not me! My genius self decided that I should put the bag IN the box, because, well... lazy.

The box was both awkward & heavy. Perfect combo! I got to the dumpster, and the window on this one is a little higher than most, so I had to push the box up over my head to get it into the window. Then I realized that it would only fit one way (naturally) - I had to keep the box upright, hold the flaps on the top of the box flat, and leverage it with my weight. Simple enough, right? HAH!

By this point, I was on my "tippy toes" (now I know where THAT name comes from...) and leaned with all my weight into the box. What I lacked was applicable understanding of physics: when the box that was balancing my body dropped into the dumpster, I lost my balance... my left foot slid down a curb, and I did this weird pirouette thing to spin around and avoid falling into garbage mud. I landed on my hands and knees and slid about 2.5 feet across the parking lot pavement. And I INSTANTLY knew that I was in trouble.

That was 2 months ago. I am still heavily medicated and can usually sit at a desk for no longer than 4-5hrs at a time, which, as a student & a teacher, is not very productive. Now, I have this trip to Charlotte coming up in 3 weeks and I am dreading the 5-hr drive each way over a 3-day weekend.

SO! Instead of embracing my natural inclination toward laziness, I have decided to do what must be done. The cleanse, by the way, really IS pretty magical - my first inclination was to just take the train, but now, I want to work on getting rid of the pain. I should not be allowing pain & negativity control my life. I refuse.

A New Journey, part 5

I will admit - day one SUCKED. Not for the usual "cleansing" reasons, but because part of this program is detoxing using essential oils and we were both so very miserable. Headaches, vomiting, general "icky" feelings... and by day 2, we were pretty good. Day 3 was actually a decent day. And on Day 4, we ran into an unanticipated snag regarding the supplies (because I can't do math, *sigh*), so we didn't make it through the entire cleanse, but we definitely felt MUCH better. And I had broken my enormous dependency on sweet tea (aka the Devil's Brew, in my opinion!)!! I also have not had any added sugar in 8 days. For those of you who know me - you know that this is a BIG DEAL. Not because I've never done this before - but because I HAVE gone off sugar before, and I lost 65 lbs in 6 month, and maintained within 10lbs of that for over a year. Then I moved to Ireland. See my very first post on here.

So where do I go from here? My sister and I were both doing this cleanse for different reasons. Although we both wanted - NEEDED - to lose weight, her primary goal is to go entirely whole foods. And she can, where she lives. But that is not the most viable option for me in the food desert in which I reside. So I'm considering 2 options: the DASH diet (because it worked for me last time), and the Blood-Type diet (because what I'm eating now is obviously not helping me stay healthy - even if the food itself is healthy). I have signed up for Daily Burn and am working on the Restorative Program that helps with Joint Mobility and Range of Motion. They say it's a 1-week program, but I have a feeling I'll be working on these for a while... and I hope to do the Restorative Yoga class at least once a day.

But, as far as diet goes, I am stuck!

I want to do the DASH diet because it is easy to follow, but I have been trying for months and haven't been able to make it a routine. (I miss my Canadian roommate who supported me through this the first time around and did most of the grocery planning!) And the Blood Type Diet is declaring that, for my blood type (O), I should avoid dairy and gluten. I'm at a place, immediately after the cleanse where I think I could probably do that -- and actually make it work using the DASH diet, but I'm worried about being too restrictive. Ideas? Suggestions?

*This post will probably not be published for a while, because I don't want to bombard anyone with SO VERY MANY words... but still, if/when you read this, comment me any suggestions, okay?

And that is where I am now (14 March 2015). I hope to use this space as an accountability log-slash-progress tracker, so I'll try my best to check in regularly to update my ups and downs of this new journey. Take care :)

A New Journey, part 4

First of all: HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY, YES!!!!

The most recent step in my weight loss roller coaster has been a 5-day nutritive cleanse through an essential oil company that I love and promote and highly recommend: Young Living. My sister & I have gotten into essential oils pretty heavily since June 2014, and my sister even values them so much that she is no working toward a certification in holistic wellness and nutrition! Last October (2014), she & I went to the home of a Young Living distributor who has turned her life around because of YL Essential Oils. I had never met, or even heard of, this lady before our meeting, but I learned a LOT from her class... but my sister and she are Facebook friends and run in some of the same online social networking circles, so I didn't learn her story until my sister shared her testimonial FB post...

She posted about 8-10 photos of herself, starting from May 2013 to January 2015. The first 4 photos, I had no idea who this woman was... I was like, "great, another 'success story'"... and I then I got to photo 5!!! I did NOT know the lady in the early photos, but I KNEW THIS WOMAN!!! I had to go back, over and over to make sure I wasn't making things up and that this was, actually, the same woman! And I was motivated!

My sister & I spoke about this transformation, and decided that we'd both like to try and follow in her footsteps. The 1st thing K did was the Young Living 5-day Nutritive Cleanse. So we ordered one of those. Neither my sister nor myself had ever done a cleanse before, and we doubted we could do it alone, so my sister took 1 of her vacation weeks to drive up and visit me and survive this cleanse together... the first night she was in town, we watched a 30 minute testimonial video of K's experience. K explained everything she did, but reminded us that every body is different. After the nutritive cleanse, she spent the rest of the month re-balancing her minerals and nutrients using YL essential oils and supplements, but she didn't change much of her eating. And she didn't lose weight. The second month, she went off sugar. Month 3: white flour. Month 4: drive thru / fast food. I don't remember what Month 5 was, but it was another elimination... still no weight loss. But she wasn't doing this for weight loss - she was doing this to be healthy. In her words, "If I am supposed to be 399.6 lbs, then I'll be 399.6 lbs, but I'll be a healthy 399.6 lbs!"

During Month 5, her youngest daughter was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Her daughter, at 2.5 years old was the youngest of K's bajillion children, and the only one who was forced to eat gluten-free. So, K decided to go off of gluten as her Month 6 elimination, purely to support her daughter... and she lost FORTY-SIX POUNDS IN 1 MONTH. And the weight kept dropping. Between October 2014 and January 2015, K had gone from 399.6 to 195 lbs... our minds were blown! We made goals for our individual needs and started the cleanse the following morning.

A New Journey, part 3

Then, 2 weeks into the New Year, I fell. For the first time since I'd moved here, so that was a win!, but, still. Falling & I are the worst possible combination. I have spent the past 2 months struggling with pain of several varieties, in multiple locations, and both chronic & acute. I went 6 weeks maintaining my weight, even on pain killers & muscle relaxants. Then, I hit a low and the chocolate cravings won out. I gained 5 lbs in 2 weeks and got VERY frustrated. AND I'm still in pain. Gah!

About a month ago - 1 month after the fall - I was referred to an orthopedic surgeon by Sonya. I visited him and he took xrays. Nothing is broken (naturally). He took me off of the pain meds and put me on an anti-inflammatory that, if not taken immediately after eating, and, if I don't stay upright for at least 30-60 minutes after taking the pill, I risk ulcers in the esophagus. No pressure. But it helped the pain and I wasn't high, so I was still quite happy. I can see the light at the end of this tunnel! Or, I'll have to have surgery. I'll find out on 20 March.

A New Journey, part 2

A GYM MEMBERSHIP.

I can see things from his perspective, but this man also knew that I am dealing with a herniated disc, scar tissue throughout my left side from various injuries, and not a lot of free time. But I went to the gym. The doc had written that I had no restrictions, so the trainer dismissed my repeated reminders that I am inured and pushed me through a series of testing that ended up irritating my herniated disc for a week. Needless to say, I did not return. But I bought a Fitbit Flex and started making sure I had at least 5000-7500 steps in each day. That was more than I was doing before.

I lost the same 7 lbs for the next 4 months & returned to the physician, who shrugged and said, "well, you just aren't doing enough". And I walked out and found myself a new physician.

This new physician listened to me. And actually heard me. She was totally guessing, but wanted to try something: she wanted to know if, maybe it was my hormones that were wreaking havoc on my body and keeping me from losing the weight. So she diagnosed me with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and put me on Metformin (usually for diabetics, but used to lower insulin in those with PCOS -- I have no blood sugar issues, nor am I even pre-diabetic, but anything was worth a shot!) and Spironolactone (a diuretic). Sure! Why not? I dropped 10 more lbs immediately, and another couple pounds over the following 3 months, for a total of 30 lbs down since May, but still higher than my previous "highest weight" of 220.

I started seeing Sonya (the new physician) in November 2014. I started taking Metformin & Spironolactone, literally, the day before Thanksgiving. Over the holidays, I neither lost nor gained weight, which I am calling a success!

A New Journey: Becoming a Better, Healthier Steph (A 5-part series)

SO! I thought about starting an entirely new place to blog, but I already have so many wonderful words here that I want to give it another try - I know it has been forever. I have been so busy that I've forgotten how to write - or even think - about any one thing... but I am starting a new path and I want a place to track it, so... either "you're welcome!" or "beware!".

I was at my highest weight in my life last May, after less than 1 year in a food desert. I now live at the exact midpoint of the east coast states.Every traveling from upper Florida to NYC, Miami to Maine goes right through my city. And there are what appears to be more fast food restaurants than people here, as a result. I am pretty sure that the Starbucks sign is a beacon for an alien spaceship. So I lived here for 10 months and tried out every. single. place.

It was not my finest moment when I stepped on the scale and weighed a quarter of a ton. And I was determined to reverse the damage I'd done to myself, both emotionally & physically. So I went to my doctor who agreed that I needed to lose weight. BIG SURPRISE! He prescribed me Belviq for appetite suppressant. And, as an appetite suppressant, boy, is that a magic little pill! But Belviq did not help with my sugar addiction or my poor food choices. I lost 10 lbs the first month. Then I stalled out. After 2 months, I checked in with my physician, and he - literally - prescribed me a gym membership.

A GYM MEMBERSHIP.