Update 7-31-2011

The nature of this blog is going to shift a bit in conjunction with a health issue I am working with, which is being addressed in this blog:  An Experiment in Healing. The short story is that the last few months, weight-wise, have been frustrating, not losing, even gaining a little (hovering around 205 lb), even though remaining active and watching most of what I eat, and even eliminating wheat from my diet these last two months.  Two things have been adding to the weight stabilization and/or gain, and those are the existence of growing fibroid tumors and taking progesterone (which I will be discontinuing with Dr. consent at the end of the week). 

With my new awareness of the fibroids, I plan to modify my diet even further, and I'll explain that soon, to aid with either helping with decreasing the size of the fibroids and the symptoms they are causing, and/or to aid in optimizing my health if surgery is still called for in mid-December, so that the procedure runs more smoothly and recovery is optimized.  Through the other blog I will be exploring the awareness on all levels I gain as I explore the different healing aspects specific to fibroid tumors and the healing modalities I choose to utilize during the next several months. 

I hope you will join me over there, too.
More details soon, but for now I must take my leave.

May 30, 2011: A new start on the DASH diet

It has been awhile since the last check in, and awhile since I last even thought about it.  The inspiration to check in comes from the fact that I've been experiencing some severe pain throughout all of the joints of my body, and increased heel pain.  I've also been experiencing lots of water retention which may be an effect of a medication I recently started to help with the worsening dysmenorrhea/menorrhagia I've been experiencing, and will hopefully even out after awhile.  

I recalled that one of my main original ideas, last summer and at the beginning of the year, for decreasing my overall body weight was to decrease the pain I'm experiencing.  I suspected with the increased pain that my weight was also increasing.  My wonderful hubby, Richard, also, very sweetly, reminded me that I had experienced much less pain when I eliminated wheat and refined sugar from my diet in February.  He is right and I am thankful for the reminder, and those items have made their way back into my diet on a regular basis.  More so the wheat than the sugar, but I've not been monitoring either.  School pretty much took over my life, so I stopped weighing, stopped recording everything in MyFoodDiary.com, and decreased, to an extent, the exercise. 

Here are my current stats:

Weight: 208.2lb (up 6 lb from 2 months ago, but down 3lb from the beginning of the year - and still down 11.8 lb from last August)

Percent body fat: 45.5% (which is down 1% from the beginning of the year - so perhaps all of the exercise has paid off in that area.  We remeasured my body parts, and almost all of them are back to the original size they were in January.

I feel a bit discouraged, and had hoped to have lost lots more by now, and certainly hoped Ihadn't gained but I really need to start again, taking it easy on myself (especially since some of the gain is this swollen puffiness of water retention), and continuing in a reasonable maintainable way.  

I had a recent conversation with one of my aunts who followed the DASH diet, lost all of her extra weight and was able to side-step taking the blood pressure medication the doctor had prescribed for her.  She is my inspiration for the DASH diet, as is the information I learned in my OTC class this past term.  I strongly recommend this eating plan to anyone who is at risk for, or is suffering from, hypertension.  I am choosing it for myself, not because I currently have high blood pressure, but because, with the family history on both sides, and my tendency to pre-hypertension and white coat syndrome, this choice makes the most sense to me to start eating this way now.

So, The DASH diet it is, in addition to eliminating refined sugars and wheat (for allergy/joint reasons).  

Aside from limiting daily calories, ensuring ample vegetables and fruits, and dairy like low- or no fat yogurt, the DASH diet helps to gain awareness of sodium consumption.  For more on the concepts and details of the DASH diet, visit: DASH Diet.

I've modified the Diet log given on the DASH site to accommodate 1600 calories, which is my goal.  

The food log looks like this:

 

This is where I will check off the items I eat.  I may still use MyFoodDiary to also track the specifics, if it's not too time-consuming.  My goal is to make it as natural as possible, where it doesn't consume my life.  It seems summer is a good time to start in again, with the goal of having the new way of eating as much of my being as breathing.  That way, when school starts again, it will be more natural, and less-time consuming.

My exercise goal is to be active at least 60 minutes each day, whether it is walking, utilizing the elliptical machine, or a combination (or even bicycling when I get a new bicycle...)  We also plan to incorporate tai chi back into our daily routine.

We will be at a family reunion next week, which can make eating a bit challenging, however, with a bit of planning and determination, I know that I will persevere and take the greatest care of myself.

Also, over the summer, I ought to have more time to implement the EFT aspect of my goals, which will likely help immensely.  I will keep you posted.  I won't be weighing in next week since we will be out of town, but for sure the Monday after that, and I know I will have splendid things to report.

Until then!  (Or before if something significant comes up before the weigh-in.)  I am greatly looking forward to easing the body pains with a lighter me.

Blessings!

A Successful Week

Check-in:  Weight: 202.8lb
Lost this week:  3.2lb -this is the most poundage lost in a week since I started in January and I think I finally figured out why it has taken so long.
Lost total this year: 8.4lb (lost since August: 17.2lb)

Two things were different this week.  One, I was still recovering from a bug I caught a couple weeks ago, and my appetite was very limited, so my portion sizes were kind of naturally limited.  If I ate anywhere near to too much (which was about half of what I'd normally eat), then I felt nauseous and my esophagus burned.  If I got too hungry, I would also feel nauseated.  That feeling has mostly subsided, however I decided that since my body was used to eating at this lower intake that I would go with it for the week and see what happened.  I didn't record anything into My Food Diary, just based my amount of healthy foods eaten by how my body felt.  Also, I made sure that I was on the elliptical each weekday for the full 45 minutes, plus I had several days where I had an additional number of miles walked since my son, Peter, was home from college and we walked into town a few times.

I have been reading more about the DASH diet used for reducing hypertension since we learned about it in my pharmacy school's Non-Prescription Therapeutics class.  I know that my tendency is toward high blood pressure, and I know that my maternal grandmother suffered greatly with trying to manage her blood pressure, and the end of her life was full of cardiovascular issues including multiple bypass surgery, amputation of one of her legs, etc.  As I understand it comes to me from both sides of the family and I definitely do not want to go that route if I can help it, and know that at some times in my life I have registered a blood pressure in the pre-hypertension level.   My blood pressure is pretty good right now, however I know I have a tendency to retain water and sodium causes discomfort.  

What I've decided to do is follow the DASH diet at the 1600 calorie/day level, still enter (as there's time) the things I eat in My Food Diary for comparison of the two plans, and, increase my elliptical workouts to 60 minutes per day.  I read last night in a DASH diet book, that 60 minutes is probably necessary to lose weight if the rest of one's life is mainly sedentary, which mine is, thanks to school.   I know I have a bit of a block to 60 minutes, it seems like SO much more time spent, however I will do some EFT to help clear the block with the hope that it will be at least somewhat enjoyable.

I'm super-psyched because once I lose 3 more pounds, I will be under 200 lb, which hasn't happened for a very long time.

This week will provide an extra challenge in that we are going out of town for four days, however I think if I use my smarts and common sense and have Richard back me up when it comes to making good food decisions, I will only be successful.  We aren't renting a car, and Seattle's considered a walking town, so I'm certain I will also get plenty of exercise.  I'm taking my pedometer to track and be able to report to the walking mile group I check into each week.

To Ever-Increasing Health and Life!