Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

Life has gone to shit.

Anyone following my blog knows I have been dealing with health issues for many years now, the most recent issue having started after a very bad gallbladder attack April 30th of last year. I started to get this pain in my sternum area, and it would progress down to a squeezing burning type pain under my breasts. This pain mostly came from eating, and sometimes if I had not eaten for a long time.

I ended up in the hospital in the summer and they found an ulcer and gastritis. This was treated, and follow-ups showed no further issues. But yet the pain continued.

In October I had my gallbladder removed. This helped with the intense attacks I would sometimes get in the middle of the night that were so bad I could barely breathe and almost always cause me to vomit until relief finally came. But, this did not help with the pain I experienced after every meal.

The pain got so bad that even with liquid and soft meals it would come. It got so bad that it was constant. Yet no one can seem to figure out what it is. I wake up with a sore throat every morning. I get super nauseous when I lie down. Sometimes I wake up abruptly as what feels like hot acid comes up my throat and out, sometimes this even happens when I am sitting reclined in my chair relaxing! We have tried every stomach medicine and nothing works, often it makes matters worse.

I have another specialist appointment in August. This doctor specializes in the liver, pancreas, sphincter of oddi, etc. I really hope he can help me, but after already seeing so many doctors related to this issue, (at least 7), I am not holding my breath.

The pain is so bad currently that I can barely sit up in an office chair for more than a few minutes. If I recline it back I can at least get comfortable, but then I need to move my keyboard and mouse closer to me. I have a setup in my living room right now with a wireless keyboard and mouse with my laptop.

I had to leave my job. It was busy tax season and I obviously couldn't keep up, and they needed someone there that could. I might be able to return if I ever get better, but there is no guarantee.

I remembered a movie I saw once called Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, by Joe Cross. I searched on Netflix and it was there. I immediately watched it again. This was it, this could be the answer! A 30-day juice fast to "reboot" my system. I remember the first time I watched this I said to myself, I could never do that, that's crazy! This time when I watched it something Joe said hit a nerve, he said that people often say they can't do it, without even trying, but that all changes once you get to your breaking point. His breaking point was at age 41. I am also 41.

We already owned the book as well so I flipped through it, picked my plan, and prepared to start. I dug out the juicer and made sure it still worked. It's an oldie but a goodie!

The next thing I did was weight myself. The day before I started transitioning I weighed in at 183.5 pounds. I certainly wasn't happy about that!

I decided to transition in slowly since I had been eating pretty badly. After already trying soft foods, and liquids, and it not helping, I had pretty much given up caring what I ate. I was still gluten free so I didn't have to worry about transitioning that out. Day one I stopped chips. I had eaten the last I had and refused to but more. The second day I did the same with chocolate. The next day I went down to one tea with sugar. The next day no tea or sugar. The last day before my transition I was only drinking juice and eating fruit.

Today, Thursday, April 5th, 2018, is my first all juice-only day.

Let's hope this helps! And even if it doesn't, at least it will reboot my system and my taste buds and I will crave healthier food instead of junk. Joe said he sometimes feels lucky that he got sick, that a dramatic change was what he needed before he killed himself with his unhealthy lifestyle. Hopefully I will one day feel lucky that I got sick as well...

Seeking A Diagnosis

This might get long...I might break it up into two posts...

It's been almost two months since my last post. Since then not much has really been accomplished.

The specialist I was seeing at the time has greatly annoyed me, and I doubt I will be seeing him ever again.

The first time I saw him he seemed honestly concerned and I really liked that about him. He ordered a fresh ultrasound and I went for that right away.

A week later I went back to discuss the results of the ultrasound. There was a 8-9 cm cyst on my right ovary. Oddly most of my pain had been on the left side. We therefore agree that the pain is most likely not a result of the cyst. He prescribes me a low estrogen hormone birth control pill. Lolo, to hopefully help shrink the cyst and make my menstruation cycles more manageable. However, he decides we should monitor the cyst for two months to see what it does and go from there.

Say what? Again I say...we agree the pain is most likely not from the cyst. So why is it we decided to do nothing at all and just monitor the cyst and pretty much halt all other tests until then? I wasn't very happy about that, but I was in pain, pretty high on pain killers, and I agreed and left the office.

I went back a week later and begged for something more. The pain wasn't getting any better, in fact it was worse. The Naproxen wasn't doing anything at all and I couldn't function at work on Tylenol 3s and Percocets. He decides I should now take Toradol and take it 3 times a day whether I am in pain or not to keep it in my system. He then sends me for a CA 125 blood test. As I am leaving he tells me if the pain is still bad or anything else comes up I can call him and come back any time.

A few days later I am still in agony and things are worse. I am pretty sure I am having a bad reaction to the Toradol. I call his office to speak to him and find out my CA 125 came back and it was clear. Well this is fabulous news at least! Then I go on to say I am still in pain and that things are worse. He tells me that there is nothing else he can do for me until the second ultrasound is done. I am floored. This is very different from how I expected him to respond. I tell him I am having issues with breathing and cheat pains, most likely from the pain killers HE PRESCRIBE ME and he then tells me it's not his issue and I should call my family doctor. I am flabbergasted. I call my family doctor and she tells me to come in.

The family doctor immediately takes me off the Toradol (thank goodness) and gives me a prescription for Tylenol 3. I ask about any kind of middle pain killer that works but still allows me to function at work, but she can't think of any. We agree that specialist #1 as I now refer to him as is not a good fit for me and she personally refers me to her specialist of choice, a woman who works in the same building. I am relieved. I prefer a female anyhow.

The next day I get a call from specialist #2. She can see me the middle of May.

MAY??? That's almost 3 months away at this point! Are you kidding me? I politely ask to be placed on a cancellation list, hang up, and ball my eyes out.

The next day I am talking to a client of mine and she tells me about her specialist and how much she loves her. She speaks to her on my behalf and the specialist gives my client the name of a walk in clinic who has a doctor on staff that will refer me directly to her. I can't believe my good luck. I visit the walk in clinic the next day and just as easy as that he gives me the referral. I fax it to the specialist and she calls me the next day to book an appointment with her the very next week! Hold crap I cannot believe my luck!

The day of my appointment I am nervous and trying not to get my hopes up. The wait is long. I am sitting in the waiting room more than an hour past my scheduled appointment time. I am disappointed. Specialist #3 finally comes into the room and immediately apologizes for the delay but says she wanted to make sure she read my entire file history before she talked with me, and it was a large file. I am too shocked to say anything. I can't believe she took the time to be honest. Specialist #1 was actually reading every report for the first time as he sat in front of me, and was obviously very disorganized. She immediately takes me off some more medications she doesn't feel I need, and might actually be doing more damage then good (metformin) but also wants me to stop taking the harder pain killers and swap to stacking over the counter Advil and Tylenol. We talk about the possibilities of endometriosis and the treatment for this (more on this in my next post). She immediately tells me she is going to schedule me for a pelvic MRI (FINALLY!!!) and review my new ultrasound reports when they come in (I had just had the new updated one done that morning for Specialist #1). I will be going back next week to review the results of the ultrasound to see if (a) the cyst shrank and (b) if anything new is presenting itself. She also wants me to have a PAP because I have been so worried about abnormal pain etc. for so long that I haven't taken care of the "normal" procedures for quite some time.

Hopefully I will have some more news after next week's appointment. I also have another related post about the whole endometriosis and treatment subject.

So far, so (mostly) fabulous with specialist #3!

Health Regression

The past few months have been Hell...

I am the heaviest I have ever been, I am not sleeping, I am in constant pain and discomfort, I am basically being held in a wait and see pattern while the doctors keep me as numb as I can possibly be and still function at work at the same time...

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired...

Let's back up and start with a bit of history:

Ever since I was very young I always had very long, heavy and painful menstrual cycles. I didn't realize for a very long time that this was normal. Often I would stay home from school or work for 1-2 days when the really bad days hit me. I was prescribed birth control pills to help control my cycles.

I moved out on my own when I was 16 and started smoking. I quit taking the pill because I was advised not to continue taking them if I smoked.

I had my son with my first husband when I was 21. My cycles became even worse, so I went on Depo Provera (birth control injection shots) as I couldn't go back on the birth control pill because I was still smoking at that time.

During my second marriage we decided to try and have a child together. I went off the injections and nothing happened (no menstrual cycle). I was prescribed hormone pills to help re-start everything. They made me miserable, and I made everyone else around me miserable as well. After a few more months my cycles returned, but I was never able to have any more children. I began to discover then that my menstrual cycle troubles were a sign that things were not really all that well in the hormone and fertility department. The second marriage ended shortly after.

In 2010 my menstrual cycles were out of control. I was missing multiple days of work almost every month due to the extreme amounts of pain and bleeding. After multiple doctor visits and hospital emergencies a cyst was found that was causing the pain due to a twisted stalk. A laparoscopy was performed and the cyst was removed. It took me almost 2 weeks to recover from that surgery. I thought that was the end of that.

Less than six months later the pain returned and this time multiple cysts and fibroids were discovered and I was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). One of the fibroids was quite large and I agreed to have a myomectomy performed to remove the large fibroid and anything else they could during the surgery. Over eight pounds of cysts and fibroids were removed from that particular surgery. It took two months to recover from that surgery. I was hoping that would finally be the end.

My common law husband and I changed out diet and eating habits and researched what we could find out about PCOS. Things seemed pretty good for a while, although eventually the cycles went back to their normal (for me) horrid self.

Starting in September of 2014 I could take it any more. The pain was horrible again, I was missing too much work again, and I was at the end of my rope. I was given ultrasounds, pain killers, iron supplements, medication to slow down the bleeding, everything. But everything was all wait and see. I requested a specialist but was told I didn't need one.

Finally, in December, after going to the hospital on three separate occasions, the hospital emergency doctor referred me to a specialist that works out of the hospital.

I really like my specialist. The first ultrasound we did showed a large, almost 9 cm cyst in my right ovary. As most cysts tend to resolve themselves in 1-2 months, he decided to wait 2 months and get new images done and decide at that point what steps to take next. I am still on a wait and see regiment, but at least I feel like there is some information and some movement. My specialist also requested a CA 125 blood test (which was not covered by OHIP) so I am just waiting for those results back right now as well. I have been prescribed low dosage birth control (Lolo) to help prevent new cysts from forming as well as to (hopefully) regulate my cycle. I take Metformin to help control blood sugar levels and weight gain, and I now also have to take Toradol three scheduled times a day to keep the pain at bay.

I have little to no motivation. I am not really doing any courses lately, I am trying to stay on task at my full time job, trying to build a business of my own on the side, and mostly just chilling out in my comfy home office chair with a hot water bottle, some Netflix and some knitting.

Fun right?

Well that ran a little longer then intended....

Basically my thought was to revive this blog to help track all my symptoms, tests, results, etc. for medical purposes and also to provide the information for anyone else out there is having similar issues so you know you are not alone and maybe we can share what is/is not working for you/me.

I started tracking my symptoms on January 10th, 2015 as follows:

Saturday, January 10th, 2015

• lower back pain
• lower left pelvic pain
• nausea
• no appetite, full easily
• headache
• having to urinate frequently, but not a lot each time
• constipated
• Extra medications today: Naproxen for afternoon pain, Docusate for constipation, Gravol for nausea, Percocet for increased evening pain and to sleep.

Sunday, January 11th, 2015

• little to no sleep the previous night
• diarrhea
• upper and lower gas
• pelvic pain
• lack of appetite
• no energy
• passed out in the middle of the day for about 4 hours
• Extra medications today: Tylenol 3 for pain (barely numbed it)

Monday, January 12th, 2015

• lower left pelvic pain
• nausea
• extreme bloating and pressure
• Extra medications today: n/a

Tuesday, January 13th, 2015

• little to no sleep the previous night
• having to urinate frequently, but not a lot each time
• heartburn
• weak and shaky
• right leg glitches
• extreme bloating and pressure
• upper and lower gas
• dizzy
• heaviness of chest
• short walk to the bank almost made me pass out
• Extra medications today: n/a

Wednesday, January 14th, 2015

• little to no sleep the previous night
• had to get up to urinate in the middle of the night
• bad tasting and burning upper gas
• bad smelling and burning lower gas
• constant tummy rumbling
• sharp pains in the lower left pelvic area
• extreme nausea
• lower back pain
• Extra medications today: n/a

Thursday, January 15th, 2015

• little to no sleep the previous night
• running on empty
• extreme nausea
• extreme heartburn
• lower back pain
• stomach pain (above the belly button)
• lower right pelvic pain
• Extra medications today: Gravol for nausea and sleep

Friday, January 16th, 2015 (as at 1:00 pm EST)

• almost no sleep previous night, maybe 2 hours
• exhausted
• nausea
• heartburn

It's Been A While...

I'm not going to make a huge blog post today, but I wanted to at least address my whereabouts for the last little while since kind readers have been emailing me to see if everything is OK.
It wasn't...but it's better now.

I fell into a huge slump. I was feeling very ill, all the time again. I was at a loss what to do. I couldn't go to the gym because I felt so ill. I fell behind on diet as well because to be honest, I just didn't have the energy to care and put any effort into making healthy meals so we often purchased takeout or frozen foods that were easy to just warm up. I haven't weighed myself in months, but it can't be good.

Eventually the pain got so bad that I couldn't handle it any more. So I went back to the doctor. She sent me for a follow up ultrasound. It showed that the larger fibroid had grown. In 6 months. Not good. The doctor was slightly baffled because apparently fibroids usually don't cause pain unless they are in a bad spot. After talking between the doctor and the specialist that was finally appointed to me (the same one who did my previous surgery) we decided that it would be best to have the fibroid removed.

I went in for an abdominal myomectomy on November 15th. I had to live with the pain (prescribed heavy painkillers to help dull it) until that date. I missed a lot of work because of the pain. I hate missing work, so this made me miserable. To top it off I now have to take 6 week off to recover from the surgery before I can go back to work. The good news is they removed the large fibroid, plus 3 others, together with a cyst they found on my ovary. No wonder I was in agony. Man, I hope this worked.

Today marks the first day of my 3rd week of recovery. I am almost bored out of my skull. Luckily I have lots of books to read, homework to do, and crochet projects to finish. And of course my video game.

Hmmm...this post came out a little longer than I intended. Oh well...that's where I am at right now. I go back to work in January and I really hope I can slowly start back to the gym and change my eating habits so I never have to go through this again.

To end on a somewhat higher note, I wanted to share some pictures of the crochet squares I have been working on for the Bernat's Mystery Afghan Crochet Along project. Alas, the uploader doesn't work so well...so if you have Ravelry look up gwenythlove or if you are a Facebook friend I have an album there. I'll share one pic because that is all I can get to work right now. Enjoy!

Summer15 Update

I am sooooo close to being the lightest I have been in a long time. I am .2 pounds off my previous lightest weight of 158.5. I know I can do this!

So this puts me 9.3 pounds since January 1st, 3.9 pounds down since the start of Summer15 and 0.9 pounds down form last week. Rocking!

Some of the food choice changes I have been making are obviously working very well, as much as I grumble about them. I haven't done much exercise, and I have made some poor food choices this week, but overall I think I did really really good, and I guess it shows!

I have really started enjoying preparing some healthier meals ahead of time for work. My favourites are the breakfast grains from The Biggest Loser Simple Swaps: 100 Easy Changes to Start Living a Healthier Lifestyle and the Tabbouleh from The Low GI Handbook: The New Glucose Revolution Guide to the Long-Term Health Benefits of Low GI Eating (New Glucose Revolutions).

After having a week off from exercise due to illness I went super hardcore when I went back to the gym Tuesday (after having a long holiday weekend). I went a little too hard...not only did I raise my heart rate over the point where the treadmill could read it (it screamed at me 199%+) but I also damaged my knee. I should have known better. I really wrecked it back when I was 16 and doing parades with my Drum Corps. I was told since I refused surgery that it would always be sensitive and I would have to take care of it. And here I go jogging out super hard on a treadmill with about 50-60 extra pounds on me from when I originally hurt it (I was maybe a good 90 pounds soaking wet back when I was that age).

So yeah...duh...and hence the no further workouts for that week. I was in agony just walking up some stairs to get to work. Ugh.

I also sucked out at my goals. I had only 3 goals this weekend, and I didn't complete even one. But on the other side I did spend quite a few hours shopping with the other half to help him put together some nice new ensembles for work (more updates on that soon, just waiting for the official news). I'm telling you, men complain about shopping with women...but shopping with a picky man is no picnic either!

I also had a nice conversation with the other half about my education and am pleased he agreed to let me go back to taking two courses at once since I really only raid once a night now. There were of course some specifications:

1) No more costly extensions.

2) Course must be staggered so as not to have their finals close to one another.

3) Only one of the course may have both a final and a midtem, the complimentary course must be all assignments or assignments with a final only (so as to avoid overlapping of exams).

I am quite happy with this. I will be signing up for my next course (Computers and Management Information Systems) on Wednesday. It is an assignment only course. I can't wait! This will give me some brain breaks from the hideous Taxation course (which has to be completed my November - ugh).

Food Issues

I haven't blogged for a while. No duh right? I've been having issues. I have been frustrated by my weight gain (even with the addition of all the time I have been spending at the gym) and I have had some low feeling days where I barely wanted to get out of bed (both health and depression wise).

But I think I have finally realized what my main problem is. It has taken me a while to figure it out, but now I know.

I went to see my Naturopath who specializes in PCOS on Friday. She provided me with some supplements to help me out. First off she prescribed me something called Healthy Hormones (which hopefully will not give me the same nasty side effects the one from my Doctor gave me) and a Glucose Regulation supplement. She also created a food list for me outlining the things I should, and should not eat. There is a whole lot of should nots, let me tell you! I am really upset about a lot of the foods on the should not list, but I understand the reasoning behind them. I just don't know how I'm going to survive not eating the foods I am used to.

For example:

bananas
mangoes
wheat
balsamic vinegar
potatoes (of any kind)
rice (of any kind)
oats
caffeine
pork
scallops
fruit juices
butter (or any dairy really)
pumpkin seeds
etc...

I mean seriously? That was pretty much my diet right there! What the heck am I going to do for breakfast? I love my hot oatmeal! Man I feel like crying!

So that of course is issue number one. Obviously I have been eating all the wrong foods for my disorder. The second issue is that I can't seem to make myself NOT eat the not list even knowing now that I am not supposed to eat it! I seriously argue with myself at every meal time about what I want to eat, what I'm supposed to eat, and what I'm actually going to eat. And I am failing miserably here!

I have still had my oatmeal every day since the appointment. I can't seem to break myself of that habit. I don't know what to do. At dinner I have the best of intentions and then on the way home I tell myself "screw it" and I grab chili from Tim Horton's or something. I feel like a great big failure.

Oh and here is how the weight loss issue has been going:

Week 1: 159.9
Week 2: 162.0
Week 3: 160.8
Week 4: 161.8
Week 5: 162.4

I wouldn't feel so bad if at least my body fat percentage was going down...but it's not...it just stays at 30.5% mocking me. I am so close to just being done. Resigning myself to the fact that I have PCOS and eating what I want, when I want and coming to grips with the fact I will get larger.

But then I remember the pain that I had both before and after the surgery to remove one of the cysts. It was excruciating. I don't want to go through that again, not if I know I can do something to stop it from happening, and I can. I just have to stop being so damn lazy.

So my question is what do you do to help yourself stay on track with food? I have heard not to treat it as a diet, but as new eating for life...but honestly that makes me feel worse. I have started journaling because I was told that would help, and I can see how in a way because I feel very guilty every time I have to write something down I know shouldn't be in there. I bought this wonderful diet and fitness journal that is just perfect for what I need. I found it at Chapters.

I also heard some people take pictures of every meal and post them to their blog because it makes them more accountable to the people who read their blog. That might work...if I remembered to take a picture of everything I ate. Oh well, here's lunch:

Half a tuna sandwich on brown with a sweet orange pepper, 8 cocktail tomatoes, 6 green beans and Gardennay Asparagus soup (but I didn't eat the soup because it was nasty). The only thin in this picture on my NOT list would be the bread, so not too terrible.

Please share with me your techniques for staying on track with food. I am very interested in hearing them because if I can't find something that works soon I fear I might cave in...and that's not a good thing...

Summer15 Starts Today!

It's been a while again since I posted. There are some really traumatizing, I mean exciting reasons for that, but I will share them in a future post. Since the words pain, hospital, vomit, surgery and stitches are all included, I feel it deserves a post all on its own!

But this post is strictly for the Summer15. What is the Summer15 you ask? Basically it's a contest for Bloggers to try and lose 15 pounds over the summer. It goes from Tuesday June 15th (today) until Tuesday September 7th. I really hope this helps motivate me to get with the program now that I'm pretty much all healed (minus a few stitches).

So start off this contest with a bang, I have to post my starting weight today.

162.6...it's a bit more than I would like, given the weight I had lost previously...but due to circumstances (involving the traumatic words posted above) I can certainly understand how it happened. Being stuck on bed rest for almost a week certainly didn't help. Neither did my lack of wanting to do pretty much anything which led to me eating way too much takeout and went back to drinking coffee.  These past two days of trying to return to my healthier ways are killing me! (Can anyone say caffeine and sugar withdrawal???)

So yeah, that's what's going on with me right now. Look for more exciting news again soon! I hope I'm well enough soon to get back into some hardcore exercise programs because I really really want to achieve this 15 pound weight loss...not for the contest...but just for me.

M.I.A.

First of all, I want to thank all of you wonderful readers who have emailed me over the past week or so wondering if everything is OK with me. It means a lot to me that people are reading enough to realize when you have been gone to long and are genuinely curious as to why.

Since my last post I have gained exactly 5 pounds back. The very same 5 pounds I was so proud to have lost as it put me at the 10 pounds lost marker.

But I'm OK with it.  Why?

1) I have been eating like crap! (When I felt like eating at all that is.)

2) I have not been exercising AT ALL!

Why you ask again?

Because I have been sick.

I have been VERY sick.

I have been going through medical tests and doctor's appointments like crazy to find out why I am sick (and am in constant agony).

I was so stressed out, not just with the pain, but also because I was having trouble working, walking up and down stairs, sleeping, and doing just about anything really. I was so freaked out trying to figure out what it could be.

Luckily we pretty much have the answer now, also luckily it seems like something that should be easy to take care of without extensive surgeries and medications.

I have a few more tests that need to be run before the doctor can refer me to the specialist, and then they will be the ones to decide how to proceed.

Here is what we do know so far: (WARNING - This is very personal and involves women's cycles, etc and might be too much information for some people. Continue reading at your own risk!)

PCOS has pretty much been confirmed via ultrasounds, but we are still waiting on the final blood work to come back on that.

Two uterine fibroids have been discovered. One is about 2 cm and the other is around 5cm. The larger one is in the lower back area and the reason for most of the pain and the inability to sleep.

I have an excess of ovarian follicles which is also a symptom of PCOS and may be rupturing which can also be causing the pain in the abdominal areas.

Until we can get more test results back and speak to a specialist I have been placed on prescription painkillers to manage the pain so I can at least return to a somewhat normal lifestyle. I have also been placed on birth control pills for three months (starting with my next cycle) to manage the hormone levels and make the menstrual cycles more bearable as that is what is aggravating the fibroids.

Fun stuff right! At least I got in lots of reading and video game time! I even made a Shelfari account! Feel free to add me.

At least it's not cancerous...that's what I keep repeating to myself over and over again...

Next week I hope to get back to healthier eating and some exercise (pending how the painkillers work of course).  I have already been told I had to drop out of my dancing with ROTC for the season as well as drop out of my first 5K race I had planned.  I'm pretty bummed but I am hoping once my health gets back on track I can return to those things I enjoyed!

Weekly Weigh-in

This has been a pretty great week overall. After reading The Ultimate PCOS Handbook: Lose Weight, Boost Fertility, Clear Skin and Restore Self-Esteem I started feeling better about how to deal with my weight gain and other health issues in a natural way, without hated medications, surgeries, etc.

This week my boyfriend put us on a mostly raw fruit and vegetable diet with only eggs and fish being allowed. This was to not only help with my weight loss goals, but also my digestion issues.

Wow! Look at that! That's my new lowest weight achieved since this year started. I am so excited! This puts me at a total weight loss from the beginning of the year of 9.2 pounds! I am so close to that ten pound goal I can taste it! Last week's weigh-in was 161.7, so that's a loss of 2.9 pounds for the week. Amazing!

I actually took the time to weigh myself every day this week to see how things were going, and almost every day (with the exception of one) resulted in at least a minor loss from the day before. Here is how it looked:

Mon:  160.2
Tues:  159.8
Wed:  159.2
Thur:  160.0 (the only up day)
Fri:     158.8

How great is that? And this was all done strictly through diet. I haven't changed my exercise situation at all yet. But that of course is the next step now that I am feeling super motivated again!

Curious what I ate? Here is a sample:

Nomnomnomnomnom!

Wednesday Weigh-in

I'm up again, 0.9 pounds to be exact...but that's OK. It's OK for a few reasons, I'm not going to share them all, but here are a few:

a) My digestive system is completely nuts right now. I feel bloated and huge and tired and cranky. Thankfully I am going to see the doctor tomorrow so I can be assessed to see how we can rectify this again.

b) I haven't exercised much except for doing some extra walking to make my Gruve happy. Which as you saw in the last post has been sabotaged repeatedly by my need to complete schoolwork. But I hope that on top of talking to my doctor about digestive issues tomorrow I will also be able to get my clearance to start ChaLEAN. I know I could do some other things...but I want to do this SO BAD I have been kind of de-motivated to try anything else.

I still have been pretty good with food (except last night - it was Red Lobster - enough said). Mostly I have been binging on raw fruit, veggies and smoothies. Tonight we are having eggs and fruit, a favourite of mine.

So let's hope for a good checkup tomorrow and a clearance to start the new workout program.

Huzzah!

Blah...

That's how I have felt lately. First off I have been working very hard to finish my English class this past week. I had my final exam last Saturday, and one final essay that had to be handed in this week (and I just finished it last night). Can I say how much I hate essays? Especially on novels I didn't enjoy? /cough "The Stone Angel /cough...

I'm back up again, but only .5 pounds, so I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I have been very happy with my food choices lately. Of course mostly it's because I have been feeling so cruddy I've really only wanted to eat simple things like raw fruits and vegetables. Smoothies have been a lifesaver! I am so glad I have a really great blender and a freezer full of frozen fruit (thanks to a really awesome sale on Europe's Best Frozen Fruit at Metro this week!)

I have been having a lot of digestion issues again, which is probably why I am enjoying the smoothies and raw food so much. So much easier to digest! I am feeling bloated and cranky and just plain yucky. I am going to see my doctor soon to check on things and make sure we are still pretty good. She also wants to give me a "thumbs up" before I start my new exercise program. I guess that's cool. I really wanted to start by now, but she will yell at me if I do. (She's a really great doctor...I adore her to pieces.)

So yeah...that's me in a nutshell this week. I am down to having only one course active (Taxation) which is MUCH better for my stress levels. Trying to do two and sometimes three at a time is just insane. Maybe by only having one on the go it will actually make me more productive on that one course.. We shall see...

Let's hope I get the all clear and can get back to normal next week! It will be great to Blog my progress under my new workout program!

Weigh In And A Review

Well, I'm up again. I am kind of weirded out by it because I spent four days yacking my guts out and keeping down little to no food, but I also didn't eat very well or get any exercise in...so I guess it is still to be expected. Of course having a horrible flu for four days means I am not going to beat myself up over it either.

Next Saturday I write my final exam for my English Prose Forms class. Thank the goddess! I will be so glad this course is over with and I can focus more on Taxation. Also, that means I will have more time to focus on exercise and diet etc. I am really looking forward to starting ChaLEAN!

Have I told you all about my Gruve yet? I didn't? Must have been the flu!

I got this cute little baby in the mail last week.


There was a special promotion on Twitter and I got this new tool at 50% off! At first I was a little worried that even at half off it was a little too costly for what I thought it was going to do for me.

Well I was wrong!

This weird looking item makes me get up and go. I think it goes well with my competitive nature. Let me tell you what it does so you understand.

You wear it like a pedometer, except this has no digital screen, no numbers, no step counts. All it has is a light that changes colours. So what you ask? Big deal? Well the first week it lulls you into a false sense of security while staying green the whole time as it analyzes your fitness/movement level. Then it sets you a goal and you go from there.

For example, after my assessment week I was set a "green goal" as they call it of 372 calories per day. So what happens now is you clip this little thing onto your belt or waistband and off you go. It starts off red first thing in the morning and moves through orange, yellow, blue and green. That in itself is pretty motivating. I press the little button, check the colour, and decide it's time for a walk!

Oh and did I mention the best part! If you sit still too long (you can set the time, mine is set to 50 minutes) it vibrates to let you know so you can get up and get moving! What an awesome idea! Everything is tracked online. You plug this into your computer via a usb cable and it logs you into a site to check how you are doing. (You get a subscription for a year when you buy it.)

Here's how my week looks so far, and remember I was sick for four days!


This screenshot was taken first thing Thursday morning, so ignore the data for that day (I did end up making it to green Thursday). Not too shabby for a sick girl!

I also like how you can click on any day and get the specific details for that day. This allows you to see when you are the most active, and perhaps when you can add a little more activity in.


Here is a detailed view of my best day. Nice right? Needless to say I am really enjoying this little Gruve. Much more than I thought I would, and yes, well worth the money spent.

Of course it also helps that we have had some really nice days lately...and who doesn't mind a nice walk outside on a great day?