Weight Loss and Exercise #3

I’m still just maintaining. I’m 5’4 and I go between 172-176 pounds but I have a lot of muscle. I don’t look bad but I’d like to lose more. I’m just not sure how. I tried Noom which isn’t working very well. Today I had a couple Atkins shake and an RX bar, a grande iced coffee, and a bowl of wonton soup. I am very low on calories but I don’t feel good. I wonder if I incorporate the Atkins shakes and protein bars into my Noom stuff if that will work. I looked at myself without clothes on and besides the stuff the surgeon is fixing I was actually pretty pleased with how things are turning out even without a lot of weight loss.

I'm still in a lot of pain today from being overweight. I need my walker. I'm not able to do much around my house. I thought I ate well yesterday, but I didn't get enough fluids. So I'm sure I'm holding on to water weight. I wish I could take 2 water pills. I bet that would flush my system. But then I would have muscle aches.

I felt binge-y yesterday evening but i managed to resist! Better for promoting a good night's sleep. I slept from 9:00pm to 5:00am so a full eight hours which is the longest continuous sleep period i've had in many weeks.

I think it was the beautiful weather and the long hours of fresh air and sunshine when i threw a party in the dog-park to celebrate life. I served alcohol-free Chardonnay (low-cal Weight-Watchers approved), raspberries, Arrowroot cookies and grapes. I called that a (light) lunch.

So i'm pleased that i resisted bingeing and it was 50 / 50 for a few moments there but i managed to pull it off.

So yay for small victories!

Today I had half a giant soft pretzel at like midnight and then I had the other half around 6. I had my usual coffee and then I had an Atkins shake and a package of butternut squash noodles for lunch. For a snack I had some almonds and a little pack of Dippin Dots. Dinner will be quinoa and a piece of salmon. I’m surprised the scale didn’t move from yesterday. I was 174. I honestly think I broke my metabolism.

I have hardly had any carbs for the past couple of days and I've been eating plenty of vegetables, but I have not lost weight. I will try again today. I will also try to drink some extra water. I have to do something. I can barely get around. I'm relying on my walker to move around the house.

@Mountaindewed and all:

I feel you on the broken metabolism. I can't even bear to weigh myself anymore it's so upsetting. I'm just going by how my clothes feel. It's been four weeks and my jeans are looser!

I'm 54 tho and in menopause at last (apologies to @buddha1too!). It's typical for metabolism to slow down at this age. Muscle-wasting occurs too.

Growing old is not for cowards!!!

I've heard exercise will improve metabolism, so i'm trying to walk with my neighbors and our dogs every morning. Man, exercise is hard!

At the same time i have to keep up with my housework and shopping, so if i exhaust myself walking, everything slides. So it's a balancing act.

May we both rev up our metabolisms eventually!

@Deilla and all:

I feel you on the decrepitude. It's hard for me to turn over in bed and get up off the sofa. I only wear slip-on shoes and boots with no socks, it's such a joke trying to fool with footwear. I'm 54 and 5'3" and weigh 250 with a BMI of 43.4. Ghastly!

But all we can do is try. Are you sure you're getting enough protein? I drink a protein shake of skim milk with whey protein powder in it.

The whey protein powder has got 27g of protein for 130 cals. Can't beat that in animal flesh! I try and be as vegetarian as possible which is called being a "flexitarian."

It's expensive but animals are so beautiful i can't bear to eat them, especially since i got my dog eight years ago and she became the light of my life and i don't want anyone eating HER. So i'm adjusting to a vegetarian diet and i hope to go vegan one day.

I was 172 today. That’s the lowest I’ve been in awhile. I haven’t been feeling the greatest though these last 2 days But I did start drinking Atkins shakes again and I’ve been eating RX bars. So I don’t know. But my clothes are fitting better today then they had been before. So that’s good.

I finally got my AC installed, so housecleaning stress is over!

I think i need to start eating a LOT less. Or rather, a lot MORE veg. I think im overstuffing myself.

Hi Unaluna and all,

My doctor says i can have as much vegetables as i want.

@whatever2013, thank you! I try to get enough protein. Sometimes it's hard because I won't cook meat. I won't cook at all. I eat frozen meatballs, canned chicken and deli turkey. I don't eat it at every meal. Maybe two meals a day. That's a good idea with the protein shakes. I could try that next time I go shopping. Thanks again.

I dont have a refrigerator right now, so fresh veg is problematic. So is eating half-portions. I might get a teeny fridge to tide me over. I keep thinking, oh just one more week like this. If i dont have a new fridge by June 1, maybe i will make a move.

I saw an online doctor about being in so much pain lately. It may not be my weight at all. It could be my kidneys. He told me to go to the ER. I'm just waiting on my mom to come by and pick me up.

Im beginning to wonder about this myself. I hope things turn out alright for you.

@Deilla and all:

How did it go at the hospital? I tend to blame everything on my weight too. I think i'm more weak due to inactivity, but when the tasks of daily living are done, there is nothing left for exercise.

I know the perceived wisdom is that exercise makes you feel worse at first but it's just temporary and eventually you'll feel heaps better, but i can never get to that point.

If i exercise, my home becomes a health hazard and i start looking like an derelict and that's not sustainable. I'll still walk when i can, but only on days when i don't have to do laundry, etc.

Hope you got some good medical attention to your pain. I'm also waiting on an abdominal ultrasound for dull pain in my right-hand side torso towards the back.

What a pair we are!

@whatever2013, I waited an hour and they never triaged me. Other people had been waiting for over three hours. I reasoned that I need a second opinion and so left. I will call my GP on Monday. Today I am very tired and still in pain. But I lost 3 pounds.

Yes, I can understand not having energy to exercise after doing normal day-to-day duties. Sometimes just doing the very basics wears me out and I neglect self-care.

I hope things get better for us.

I actually became sick a lot more when I got smaller. I get a lot of frequent infections, and colds and vitamin deficiencies and other off blood work. When I was 236 pounds I never got sick and my blood work was always perfect. Your weight doesn’t have much to do with if you get sick or not. At least in my opinion. Smaller people can be unhealthy too. Doctors who say it’s just your weight can go shove it.

Also my cholesterol is getting worse despite my weight loss and I have high blood pressure. Neither was an issue 5 years ago. My kidney function also still hasn’t improved.

I’m only 28 too.

Today I was still 172. I got a couple soft beef tacos from Taco Bell for breakfast. I like that they only have 190 calories each. I had a coffee from Dunkin Donuts later and some almonds for a mid morning snack. I just now had an Atkins shake. I was going to have some quinoa in a bit. I have 394 calories left for the day. I don’t know what else I’ll be eating.

@Mountaindewed and all:

Mountaindewed, you and i are alike in that we eat and drink a lot of convenience foods. Perhaps there are others on the thread in the same boat.

I know this isn't the ideal. Fun, but not healthy or sustainable without long-term consequences. Home-prepared food is the ideal.

The problem with a lot of convenience foods, my doctor explained to me, is that the manufacturers strip out the natural taste and nutritional value in processing and replace it with sodium.

I developed high blood pressure about ten years ago and it may be a sodium-heavy-diet- and excess-weight-related condition as i have no genetic history of high blood pressure. I have to take meds for it. Ack, another pill! The expense, the bother, etc.

I know i'm doing my best to eat home-prepared food, but i'm just not much of a cook. It's a whole other lifestyle change and it's too overwhelming right away.

And perhaps it always will be. I'm 54. It's hard to see that i could morph into Betty Crocker at my age.

There's more hope for you tho because you're young. I know those tacos are yummy but a home-prepared kale salad and ground beef would be far superior.

Don't wait til you're my age to develop some skills in the kitchen. Keeping to a calorie limit will work -- it did for me 15 years ago. But a long-term goal for an ideal diet is a home-prepared one.

Perhaps i'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but i see you making mistakes i made and wound up 250 pounds with high blood pressure and i can't be silent. It wouldn't be honorable.

P.S.:

I had a home-prepared salad, raspberries and whey protein powder in skim milk for dinner! I also discovered that i can make scrambled eggs in a disposable bowl in the mic, so that's another triumph for Jane the Novice Cook.

I've eaten my way thru a whole carton of eggs when they usually rot before i get to them, i'm such a reluctant cook. They're yummy!

(I have a phobia about washing dishes -- another obstacle to tackle but not just right this second.)

Perhaps this is a project we can work on together, improving our diets by home-preparing.

Would you be into that?

We would just check-in on the main thread and share our victories and defeats in home-preparing our food.

Of course all are welcome to join in, it's just this seems an especially urgent problem for Mountaindewed and i.

Replacing pop, fancy coffee and other drinks with water could also be part of it. I see from your screen-name that you are probably a pop fiend like me. Am i right?

It's a hard habit to break, but our organs will thank us! @FluffyDinosaur drinks only water and they are at a healthy weight. @Soupe du jour actually LIKES cooking!

They can be our heros!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deilla @whatever2013I hope things get better for us.

@Deilla: Sorry that you didn't get any attention at the ER. I've done my share of waiting there too and left frustrated without being seen.

I've given up on going to the ER overnight as they never see me until 8:00am when the docs come on anyways and then i've spent hours languishing in an uncomfortable waiting room when i could be home on my leather sofa listening to soft music.

It'll be good to be seen by a GP tho. I personally find their care to be excellent and superior to other types of medical professionals, specialists and para-professionals. My GP spent AN HOUR on the phone with me this week!

Yeah, it's hard to manage life with limited physical resources. I try to do the most important stuff first, in case i run out of energy. That way i avoid crises.

Yesterday i put out coins for three loads of laundry. But i made sure i did the things that couldn't wait first and well i did because i DID run out of energy and wound up doing only the one load. But no problemo, tho, as the other things can wait.

Budgeting in recovery time is also something i try and do. I get really bad Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS).

This means i LIKE exercise and can actually do a lot of it at once, it's just after that the pain sets in, in the following days, with it getting worse before it starts to get better.

It really slows me down and is not ideal in a pet parent as my dog would like a regular walk i'm sure but some day it's all i can do to take her to the dog park and let her run loose (which she likes also).

Well, all we can do is stay the course and keep after our doctors and do our part to exercise and build strength as best we can.

@whatever2013 its like we read the same self-no-help book by the anti-jane-fonda in the 1970's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by unaluna @whatever2013 its like we read the same self-no-help book by the anti-jane-fonda in the 1970's.

Hi Unaluna,

I'm always happy to hear from you but in this case i don't know what you mean. Could you elaborate please?

Started the day with water instead of diet cola. Yay for small victories. We can do this! I need your help tho. Encouragement is appreciated!!!

Have a beautiful day!

Jane.

@whatever2013 We ended up at the same place with many of the same habits. Your posts are as if written by me - how to prioritize laundry. The tradeoff between housework and exercise. That we had a grasp for a while, but lost it. Yet we persevere.

Today I went to Dunkin’ Donuts. I got a purple dragonfruit coconut refresher instead of coffee. Then I took a walk to get a soda. I got a small fountain drink. I also got a couple Reese’s. I came home and I ate 2 of the 4 Reese’s in the king size pack. I gave the other 2 away. For lunch I had a small bag of Twix popcorn and a pack of Dunkaroo yogurts. I plan on having some pizza for dinner. I’m a little bit over my calorie budget at 1,582 calories but I feel better then I did yesterday. Rabbit food just doesn’t taste good or make me feel good. The avocado toast was healthy though. And only 250 calories. The 20 minute walk made me feel better emotionally even if I didn’t burn a ton of calories.