Edema-B-Gone

Whoa. 430 - wow ...

I used to think that large weight drops were a required and desired part of the dieting process. Now I fear them. I know that the likelihood is that I will go back up. So, I'm trying not to get too happy about this number.

I think the majority of the weight loss over the last two weeks has been in edema. Since I've been laying around with my feet up - my feet and ankles look great! My calves used to be hard, now they are spongy. I think I've lost a lot of fluid.

My ankles and feet are still hurting. But, not nearly as much. I still hate my feet and ankles.

On the real weight loss front, I had a fun discovery. I sat in my car, something I hadn't done for a while, and I noticed something different. My tummy wasn't brushing against the steering wheel. In fact, I could put my hand between the wheel and my tummy without touching. That was impressive to me!

So, we are making some progress. I'm just worried that I won't be able to hold onto this number. We'll see.

Hate my Ankles

So, a week ago Monday, that evening, my left ankle started bothering me.

From there, I have basically spent most of the following week in bed. Once the one ankle kicked in to killing me, the other one followed. At one point, my new housemate handed me a cane and looked at me like I was an idiot. The cane did indeed help. But, yeah, I really didn't leave my bed for a week.

I know what it is, it's my tendinitis. It just sucks. Okay, I know that I have gone well and above the designed weight for my ankles, but I'm losing the weight! If my body keeps putting me on the couch, I'm never going to be able to lose the weight!

I rarely ate this week. When I did, I ate whatever I could get. This shit really damages my health.

No weigh in this week. We'll see if I can get back on my diet and try to weigh in this coming Monday.

Fifty! Fifty! Fifty!

Woot!

I weighed in at 448 this morning. This makes me quite happy! As a certain vice president of the US recently said, this is a big fucking deal!

I'm still scary fat, so why does this number matter? Well, nearly six years ago, I started the Adkins diet. Just about four months later, I was down 50 pounds. By December of 2004, I was off the diet and really never successfully got back on. In September of 2006, I started having heart issues and from there lots of other issues showed up. My diabetes got worse and I got heavier and heavier. At my worst, I weighed 517, I had regained all I had lost and added nearly 50 more.

After the heart issues showed up, I started kicking myself for ending my diet. If I could have stayed on the diet, I may have prevented the heart issues altogether. When I started my current round of dieting at the beginning of 2009, which this site tracks, I had magically managed to get back down to 500, actually 490. Then it fluctuated all over the place, including back up to nearly 500 pounds.

In the last year and a half, I have lost my job of eight years, gotten divorced and moved twice - nothing stressful there, right? However, I've also gotten my meds changed to a combo that, when I watch what I'm doing, allows me to lose weight. Some mixed blessings there.

So, here I am, fifty pounds down. I have made the same accomplishment I made nearly six years ago. I have overcome all the crap and stress and U-turns I've made in that time. This is a big psychological deal to me. Next number is 425, which is the number I got to six years ago - also a big psychological goal for me. Then, at 400, I will finally make the goal I thought I was going to reach nearly six years ago, not to mention being 100 pounds down. Hope to be there by the end of the year.

Fifty pounds. I just like saying the words. I've been fat most of my life. I think I am finally in a place where I can get the weight off. One week at a time. One weigh-in at a time. You guys have helped me out a ton here. Thanks and wish me luck!

Off to eat some fruit salad and barbecue some chicken!

Too Chicken

I did okay last week.

I blew it this weekend - whoo-boy! Chinese food Friday night. Saturday night was the buffet at a casino and I ate the WHOLE buffet. It was so bad I woke up with a carb-hangover Sunday morning. (I had a head ache, body aches, dehydration and a sour stomach - what would you call it?) Sunday was hair-of-the-dog - more sugar. I ended the stupidity with a scary large Midnight run to McD's. It was not pretty.

I'm too chicken to get on the scale. I'll check it next week if I behave. I did check my blood sugar - 125. Thank goodness for Januvia!

I'm back on today - whatever that means. I've got bruises on my ass from falling off the wagon. We addicts are gluttons for punishment.

Wow. Okay. Time to get serious ...

The last few months have been kinda crazy for me.

As you can see from my last entry in February, I'm a bit stressed. The lack of a job thing is messing with my head a lot. We have now crossed the one year jobless mark.

To celebrate that year - I moved. That wouldn't stress me out further, would it? Of course it did! I hate moving! But, my apartment was kinda expensive. So, I moved in with a friend. Now all my stuff occupies a small bedroom and a Public Storage unit. It was hard. Moving is bad enough but deciding what to take, what to store and what to just throw away was really tough. Plus, in order to save money, I had to spend money - I had to buy a new bed because mine was too big and then I had to pay movers. In the end, it will be worth it, but it was stressful.

To top it all, I battled my feet and ankles for nearly a month. There were days I hobbled and days I couldn't even get off the couch. When you have to move your life but your body is preventing it, well, let's just say the stress got higher.

The bad news is that no, I didn't diet. I ate like crap. Had to at times - I couldn't drive to even go get Micky D's much less full groceries. Lots of delivery pizza was consumed. So, yeah, I'm sure I put my body on a serious diabetic roller coaster. I know I certainly didn't feel terribly well at times.

The good news is, well, kinda shocking and somehow not shocking. I got moved, magically, through all the stress and my feet healed up just enough, right on time. It was a scramble, but I'm in a new place and a storage space and I'm saving money.

That's not the shocking part. The shocking part is that my right foot, a.k.a. "The Football," has shrunk - it looks like a normal, albeit large (I wear a size 16 shoe) foot. The edema has drastically retreated. Why? Well, I guess I got some exercise while moving. All the up and down the six stairs in front of my place. All the lifting and toting. The foot has a bunch of loose skin, but the edema has vanished. Now, I still have it on my ankles and calves, but both of my feet look pretty good.

This was encouraging to me. It showed me I needed to get serious. So, last week, I got back on the horse. It's been a rough week. My housemate has no problem with carbs and the house is full of them. But, I managed to resist - today marks the beginning of week two. I didn't weigh in last week, but I weighed in today: 453. That is the lowest I have weighed, by two pounds, since I began this diet in 2009. It's the lowest I've weighed in years.

So, I am determined to continue. I want the weight off. I want to see 400 by the end of the year. It's a pound and a half a week. It means staying on the diet for more than three weeks at a time. It means getting some exercise. Luckily, I moved into a house and there is plenty of yard work to do. Did I just say luckily? Oh boy ...

I blew it.

No exercise.

Major cheating.

A month of progress gone.

I'm back on today. We'll see if that means anything.

No Pizza - but some Cheats ...

I didn't order the pizza. TeresaLynn was correct: had I ordered the pizza, I would have felt terrible the next day. I call it a carb-hangover - something no one needs.

I was good all week. No exercise to really speak of. However, I did have a VERY busy weekend. This resulted in some delayed meals and two trips to McDonalds. So, yeah, it was a cheat. If there is good news, it's the fact that both trips to Micky D's were portion control wins. When off my diet, a trip to the Golden Arches is a bag of full of food. Usually two big sandwiches or one big sandwich and two to four small sandwiches, plus fries & pies and a big soda. $12 to $17 dollars for one meal is no shocker. The last two meals were each under $9. A single sandwich (a quarter-pounder and a double quarter-pounder respectively,) large fries and a large drink. And, I was very full! Next trip to McD's I will try to get a smaller fries and a diet drink. Someday I would like to get to one of their Mini-Meals. But, for the moment, we will call it a cheat-win!

So, I took off another 2 pounds. I plan to get some exercise this week and keep chugging along! Woo-woo!!