Hi! Today is Sunday, March 28, 2010, and I'm starting a quest for a healthier me.
Over the past couple of months, I've been following a blog by a girl in Canada who has committed herself to losing 100 pounds in one year.
When she started her blog, she'd already lost quite a bit of weight, but decided to 'kick it up a notch' by committing herself to a huge goal, and by blogging it for accountability.
It sounded like a great idea, & I started following her posts, knowing that I should be doing something myself to get healthier (especially since I just lost a husband that had some of the same health issues I have plus more).
I've looked at my own family health history, and decided that, at least heredity-wise, I'm at risk for a number of serious health issues, and am already headed in that direction.
Both of my grandfathers died from heart attacks and my dad has had a number of operations and other hospitalizations related to his heart, and I don't want to go there.
In addition, I've looked at my own personal history. It's not a pretty legacy for my kids. In looking at my childhood pictures, it seems that I started moving into the 'fat zone' at about age 12 or 13 (not too long after going through puberty it seems). I remember being bigger than most of my friends and having a lot of them make fun of me. By my sophomore year in high school, I weighed almost 200 pounds (which now seems not so much because of how many kids are now well over that). I remember my mom & I losing weight together, and I managed to get down to 135, but struggled with a different kind of attention that I didn't know how to handle, and so started gaining weight back.
I married, had two children, and started really gaining.
By age 21 (1982) I weighed almost as much as I do now, but managed to unhealthily lose 100 pounds, getting into a size 10 for my dad's wedding to Bev (I also divorced at about the same time I started losing weight).
I remarried, had two more children and started gaining weight again, moving back up over 200 somewhere around 1991 or 1992.
I again lost some weight, but only about 50 pounds, but then sort of gave up, and after moving to KY in 1997, I really gained, moving to my current weight by 2002, and staying here since then (except for about 6 months when Randy & I started going to Weight Watchers).
At this point in time, I'm way overweight, have diabetes, high blood pressure, both osteo and rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia. As a result of the osteoarthritis, I have trouble with my right knee, and may be looking at a replacement in the future if I don't do something about the amount of pressure I put on it (i.e., I need to lose weight).
I also get very out of breath whenever I do anything (yes, anything), so even moderate activity is extremely uncomfortable.
My goal is to make healthy eating choices, start walking again (will be doing this inside on an elliptical machine for now), and try to get my numbers lower. Those numbers include, weight, BP, cholesterol (which isn't really too bad considering my current weight & eating habits), and sugar levels (both daily numbers and A1C, which is an average of levels over about 3 months).
In order to do that, I'm going to focus more on healthier choices than calories. That's not to say that I won't be reading labels, because I will. I won't necessarily be looking at the calorie content, though, because I'm going to be looking for lower levels of fat & sodium, higher levels of fiber, lower levels of sugars/carbs, no hydrolyzed fats or high fructose corn syrups, and little or no palm oils. That sounds like a huge task.
I'm also going to base my diet on the healthy things that I like and, above all, things that are easy & quick (if it takes a lot of time, it's not happenin').
So, much as I don't want to set a goal, I'm going to. My goal is 150. I'm going to break it up into smaller chunks, though, so that it doesn't seem like such a daunting task.
I'm not in a hurry, but I'd like to lose at least a pound or two a week. My first goal is 25 pounds by July 1, 2010.
My current weight is (oh, I really do not want to do this....): 273.0, wearing a t-shirt, shorts, underclothing, tennis shoes & glasses (can't see without them).
I'm going to try to get a full body picture taken to upload also, and will add others as I make this journey.
I really hope this works, because I'm not very disciplined when it comes to following through with things (start a lot, finish almost nothing).
I am going to weigh in once a week, and will post a new picture after every 10 pounds.
I'm also going to journal the foods that I eat, maybe a menu, and am even going to allow for splurges (read someone's blog that said they allow theirself one high calorie day per week - 2500 calories, & limit the other days to 1500-1800 to stay at their present weight).
I know that I have to cut 3500 calories per week to lose one pound per week, so that would mean 7000 for two (ouch). I think I can do that but, as I said before, the goal is healthier overall.
I'm not cutting out all fats, but will move to healthier; good EVOO in small amounts, vegetable oils rather than shortening, moving back to real butter in small amounts from margarine because of the hydrolized thing (vegetable oils are liquid in their natural state, so no matter what they say, if the vegetable oil is a solid margarine, there is hydrolized fat, which is not good).
Now for today's progress. Not much.....
I've written my first blog, weighed myself, purged the cupboards, fridge & freezer, but not much else.
Breakfast was not healthy; two cups of coffee with cream & sugar plus a sleeve of Thin Mints (the very last of the Girl Scout cookies because I didn't have the strength to throw those away).
It's almost 4pm, & I didn't eat lunch because breakfast wasn't until 1pm (couldn't sleep last night & was up 'til 5am) due to sleeping in.
I'm going to sign off for now to inventory what's left in the kitchen, make a menu & grocery list, and go shopping.
TTFN (for those of you that don't know, that stands for 'ta-ta for now')
Love you all, carol
No comments:
Post a Comment