Week 5

It's been a week since my last post......and the main reason for that is things are not progressing anywhere close to what I want! But, I refuse to throw in the towel and give up! So today I plan to look at the reasons for this week's failure and try to come up with some ideas to help me move forward in spite of the obstacles.

The main obstacle right now is the asthma! I breath just fine when I am inside, but when I am outside more than a few minutes I feel like my lungs suddenly forget how to work and I cough like a crazy woman! I miss walking, I miss working in my flower beds, I miss having my windows open in this beautiful Spring weather! So it is not just the lack of exercise getting to me, it is the aggravation of not being able to do what I want to do....ENJOY SPRING! Tomorrow I will be trying a new allergy medicine, and hopefully it will allow me more time outdoors!

The next obstacle is the prednisone......it makes my blood sugar rise and the craving are just off the charts!!! And yes, this week I have given in....not every time.....BUT too many times!! Thankfully I am now off the prednisone and only on an inhaled steroid for the asthma. Hopefully now things can get back to normal now that the prednisone is gone!

Another obstacle is the dresses! This is very busy time of year, and I am so thankful for the orders I am getting, BUT it also makes it hard to take time to eat when and what I should. I get so wrapped up in what I am doing, suddenly I am starving and just grab anything I can find instead of a healthier "planned" meal. I also find that I am skipping breakfast often, and I am seeing the evenings that are the worst are the ones where I did not eat breakfast. I am not really hungry in the morning, but if I don't eat breakfast, then by noon I am ready to chew my arm off I'm so hungry and it seems I can never fill up.....I want to snack all evening and night!

So my plan for this coming week is.......
1. Pray the new allergy meds work!
2. Start my day with breakfast(including some protein) everyday!!
3. Have a plan for meals for the whole day before I leave the house in the morning!
4. Always have a healthy snack available when working at the store(that evil Skip's calls my name....lol)
5. Get back to exercise class! Even if I start coughing, I have to at least try!!

The scale today says I am back up to 220...that is up 4 pounds since before I got sick! Time to get it moving in the right direction again!!

Day 29

Good Saturday morning everyone. It is a rainy, yucky morning so I was spending some time checking out the ABC News online and came across an article about the "Super Size Model" for a place call Heart Attack Grill. This man was 29 yrs old and weighed over 500 pounds and was pictured smiling and holding a HUGE burger while a sexy little chick in a nurse's costume hung all over him. Well the smiles are gone.....at age 29 he died for complications of the flu!! While reading the article, I saw that doctors said anyone with a Body Mass Index(BMI) of 40 or above is at much greater risk of dieing from complications of any illness than people with lower BMIs. So just out of curiosity, I typed in "BMI calculator" into my search engine. Turns out my current BMI is 39.5. Talk about SCARY!! I am currently categorized as "obese"...only 1/2 a point from being "morbidly obese". So I decided to see how much more weight I will have to loose to get down to simply being "over weight"......my answer is 55 more pounds! At the magic number of 162 I will transform from someone who is obese into someone who is over weight!! 55 pounds is just too large a number to wrap my head around! I am afraid if I set that goal I would feel to overwhelmed and simply give up! SO I am sticking with my current goal of 199....BELOW the 200 mark! That is 18 more pounds.....MUCH more doable for my mind!

Ever scarier....for me to be of a "normal" weight, I would have to get down to 130 pounds. I did not weigh 130 pounds in high school!!! I think my chances of ever being NORMAL are almost non existent....lol!!! But I think most of you already knew that....lol!!!

So today I think I will try to keep that picture in my head of the smiling young man holding a "heart attack" burger in his hand....and his grieving family who lost him WAY too soon. It's a wake-up call!!

The scale said down one pound today.....so one more to go before I loose the "being sick and eating too much comfort food" 2 pounds I gained!

Day 27

Well folks, it's been a rough week! I did not fall off the wagon....I was shoved off the wagon, and I think I rolled a few times when I hit the ground...lol!!! The nagging cough that I have had for about a week turned into bronchitis...AGAIN! Doc has decided that I now have asthma which was brought on by my RA.. The asthma is being aggravated by seasonal allergies as well as exercise. All this junk combined has caused the bronchitis. So with the current state of coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath my exercise routine has gone out the window for now :( And feeling like poo, and taking a butt load of steroids, does not bring out the best in me....it brings out the overwhelming urge for comfort foods! And yes, I gave in!! I have eaten chicken and dumplins, spaghetti, blueberry muffins...you name it, I ate it!! And this morning it showed on the scale...up ANOTHER pound to 218....YUCK!

But I am on the mend, feeling a bit better...but still coughing and not quite ready to hit the exercise trail again. Hopefully all these new meds will kick in soon and help with the whole breathing thing...lol! But until then, I am determined to at least get back on track with the food! Wish me luck as the adventure continues again!