My Weight Path in 2009

2009 started a whole new way of eating living for me my family.

My weight has always been an up and down source of frustration for my.  Highest after my pregnancies, of course, lowest after my divorce!

In 2002 when I met my husband I was at a low weight, felt great, and looked great too!

FabHubs loved to cook too!  He would make all sorts of wonderful meals for me.  One morning he surprised me at home with a cooler…and in the cooker was homemade sausage gravy and homemade biscuits…all from scratch too!  They were still warm from the oven at his house.

Over the course of the next four years, he began to do all of the cooking in the house, and I began to gain weight. 

By 2009 I was at my all-time high, and weighed more than 50 pounds higher than I was when I  first met FabHubs.

I weighed slightly more than I did in the ninth month of my first pregnancy!!!

Compound this with getting older as well as a form of muscular dystrophy that I have which makes my legs very weak, in 2009 I found myself in the worst shape of my life.

Even though I have never been able to do everything physically that everyone else could, I have always pushed myself to try to do as much as I can.  I have camped, hiked, spent a summer physically active in Israel, gone to the gym, and more…even when it was uncomfortable or I just couldn’t do it like everyone else could.

But I had let myself go…..and by spring 2009 I couldn’t do basic outdoor physical activities without assistance.  I have always prided myself on being independent…but this gradually came to a halt and more and more I was finding I had to depend on my husband for help.  This really frightened and upset me!

When camping, on the air mattress on the floor, I was unable to get up by myself.  FabHubs had to pick me up.   Same if I fell down…and because my legs were so weak, I fell easily.  If I stepped wrong and my foot didn’t land flat on the floor, if I bumped into something and it threw me off balance, or if someone ran into me…down I would go.  And once I fell down, I needed to be picked up…I couldn’t get up myself.  If I was alone I had to  struggle to get to a chair or couch or something…and then somehow get myself up…a total exertion, and an exhausting, frustrating, humiliating process.

Sometimes one of my legs would just buckle…and that was that…down I went!

Even though I wasn’t even over 200 pounds, my poor weak legs just couldn’t handle  what they had to carry around.

Between January and June 2009 I found that I was falling more and more frequently!!  And that frightened me.

I began to find more and more that I was unable to get up from many chairs…chairs without arms, low chairs and benches, even  folding camping chairs…FabHubs would have to pick me up from them.   Doctor’s office waiting rooms,  mall sofas, movie theater chairs, even restrooms….all became areas that most people sit down to rest without a second thought, but for me, many times I would just stand rather than sit down and take a chance I could not get up.  And that frightened me!

Stairs…daunting for people with this disease at a normal weight, became almost impossible.   You may as well have been asking me to tackle Mt. Everest.

Even walking was starting to get difficult.   I could make a mile on a walking course…but by two miles I would be concerned that my now tired legs would give out and I would fall.

This disease runs in the family….my mother and aunt both have it too.  And neither of them have taken care of themselves.   I could easily see where I would/could be in 25 years.  And that frightened me too!

By nature I love being active  and am a thrill-seeker.  After my divorce  I jumped out of an airplane, as a teen I hiked to the top of Mt. Masada and worked on a kibbutz, I loved being on the back of a racing rice rocket (those fast Japanese motorcycle!!!) and learned to drive them myself (the only reason I never got one was again the weakness….I worried about my legs, and that I didn’t have the strength to pick it up if I dropped the bike!)

I LOVE the outdoors…hiking…canoeing….the mountains.  I don’t mind roughing it at camp.  And while I have never been able to do everything I have wanted physically and have always needed some type of help….or was always the last one in….still, I had always been able to make it.

And now I finally realized that I may not be able to do any of these things anymore.

And that frightened me!!!!!

I did do not want to be some wheelchair-bound, dependent  old lady…especially at the young age of 50 or 60 (I am not there yet!!!!)

And the only one who would be able to prevent that is ME!!!

And so in June 2009 I finally decided to take matters into my own hands!!!

To Be Continued……

A Power Breakfast and Lunch For My Boys

Today my two sons, 18 yo Fabteen and 12 yo FabStepson, (along with a few hundred other Boy Scouts) walked 13 miles, from downtown to the southern portion of our county.

Getting off this morning was chaotic…we were given tickets last night to the NASCAR championship races at the Homestead Speedway and got in rather late…..then the boys had to leave the house by 6 a.m.

I got up at 5:45 (YUCK) and in 15 minutes worked like a maniac to make them a satisfying breakfast that would support walking, and get them a filling and healthy lunch.

I was pleased that I was able to draw on a lot of the good nutrition practices I have learned over the past few months to to help fuel them.

First came breakfast (no time for pictures this morning!).   Breakfast was 1/3 cup of oatmeal cooked with 1/3 cup almond milk and 1/3 cup water.  I also sliced up a banana, splitting it between the two bowls.  I micro’d the oatmeal (they loved the bananas cooked…I do too!) and put it in a to-go cup for each one of them.  I knew between the time they left the house and the time they started walking, they would have time to digest the oatmeal so it wouldn’t be sitting like a lump in their tummies….but at the same time it should stave off the hungries for a while.

To supplement the oatmeal, I also made them each an Amazing Grass Amazing Meal shake.  I have had two huge unopened tubs of the Amazing Meal, which has more protein than the Superfoods, which is what I normally use…but today I broke out the big guns and opened the tub thinking that the extra protein would help fuel their muscles. 

I made them each an Amazing Meal shake with one scoop Amazing Meal, one cup almond milk, half a banana, and a few huge handfuls of spinach.  The spinach also adds a lot of staying power to the shake….I know it keeps me full for a while!

They had to drink these on the go too!

Lunch and snacks were PB&J on Arnold Sandwich Thins (one for FabStepson, two for FabTeen).   Two little crimson apples for FabStepson and two large organic Honeycrisps apples for FabTeeen.   One of Oh She Glows Glo Bar for each as a healthy energizing snack.  And of course plenty of water.  Our troop had a water truck that met them at certain points along the way for refills.  I was so glad I packed them lunches…those that didn’t got the opportunity to buy hot dogs, hamburgers, and sodas. 

Both of them said the food carried them through the day very well and they were very happy with their lunches….I think the junk sold didn’t appeal to them at all. 

Both of them completed the whole walk and I am very proud of them.

Next year I want to do the hike with them!

I Am Running!

And I don’t mean for exercise either, although I wish I could.  Sure would be some great stress relief. 

This week has been nonstop. I dutifully took pix of all of my meals all week…but by the time I finished working/kids/dinner/fight everybody off the computer/etc. and sat down to blog I have been waaaayy too tired!  And even then I can’t seem to type a sentence without constant alternating interruptions from the other four people in the house!

And work was busy too so I couldn’t even steal away a few minutes this week from there to blog.  (I am self-employed and work from home so I am not really stealing from anybody from myself when I do this!)

Girl Scout Camping

Last weekend we camped with the Girl Scouts.  Isn’t this cabin cute?  We fit 12 girls and 4 leaders in that cute little cabin!  Girl Scouts are spoiled and don’t tent camp…we use cute cabins!  (Wait until my rustic Peace River trip next month with the Boy Scouts.  No cabins there! or even bathrooms for that matter.)

Meals were provided but I packed myself a whole bunch of my own goodies for just in case.  I packed fruit, salad, Almond milk, Amazing Grass, spinach, my magic bullet type blender (to make Green Monsters at camp!) chickpeas, an amazing salad, balsamic vinegar, soba noodles, Via coffee, feta cheese and some snacks.  I was a good scout…I was prepared!

….and just in case was on Saturday lunch when they served hot dogs.   I pulled out my beautiful salad with all sorts of crunchy veggies piled on, topped it with the chickpeas and feta cheese, and then added some of my soba noodles with peanut sauce.  It was sooo much better than hot dogs! 

And I am so proud that my daughter, on her own, told them while she liked hot dogs, she  would opt for the pizza because the hot dogs were not healthy.  PROGRESS!  I SEE PROGRESS!!!

Weighing In

When I snuck onto the scale Sunday night, in full clothes (I KNOW, I KNOW!) I was down one whole pound from last week.  I felt good and I figured I would be down for the “official weigh-in” Monday morning.

Of course that was before we  went to Olive Garden for my mom’s birthday dinner! 

The “official weigh-in” brought me back to the previous week’s weight.   But really I know it is less because I still carried the weight of the meal from the night before.  I am still quite pleased with my weight loss.

Produce Box

I also picked up our fresh organic veggies for the week….what a fantastic bounty!  This definitely makes us eat more produce in this house!

Yoga

Tomorrow I am going to try and fit in a chair yoga class that I found.  I haven’t really talked about it, and will probably elaborate more in a future post, but I have a mild form of a neuromuscular disease which causes my arm and leg muscles to be very weak, and at this point, at this weight, I cannot get up from the floor by myself.   I am hoping the weight loss will help that, but honestly I don’t know if my muscles have degenerated to the point where even with the weight off I will be unable to do that.  At this point I am still hopeful though.

So back to the yoga…I know I need to add exercise to my routine.  It is something that is hard for me physically…and I am envious of you runners, it sounds so freeing to throw on a pair of sneakers and go for a run, but I will probably never be able to do that.   Right now I can walk, and I can walk 2 miles (3 is pushing it!) and I am happy with that.  But I would like to do something to help the flexibility of my muscles and yoga sounds great.   But I cannot do regular floor yoga.  I am excited to try this chair yoga, which is supposed to stretch and work on all of your muscles including the legs.  Hopefully I can fit it into my schedule tomorrow.

And after this long-winded update, I will leave you with some photos of what I ate today:

Pear Oatmeal with cinnamon and almond butter:

Fresh made carrot/apple juice (not green!!! but oh so good!)

Finally finished off the soba noodles with veggies and peanut sauce

Dinner was:

Vinegar dressing:

Cukes and sweet onions waiting to be dressed:

Dressed salad:  

A surprise photo from a sneaky daughter:

Cauliflower stirfry….even the cauliflower-hating husband said this wasn’t bad!  Finally!  YAY!My complete dinner of Boca Burger/Balsamic roasted asparagus/stir fry cauliflower/Thai cucumber salad.  Oh this was good!  I started eating and forgot to snap pix at first!

WOW!  This ended up being a mega-post!

I could finish it up finally because everyone else is asleep!

And as I post I am enjoying a glass of Merlot…but I am too lazy right now to deal with taking the memory card out of the computer, putting it back into the camera, taking the picture, putting the memory card back into the computer, uploading the picture, and then posting it into this post,    Waaay too much work for me at this moment…so you will just have to use your imagination.   It pretty much looks like a glass of Merlot though.

And on that note….I am tired and Cookie and I are going to go off to bed as well.