Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes - Part 3

Here are my dieting truths:

Drink water. I always have a glass before each meal (helps with that full feeling) and usually one during it as well. Every so often I have a black tea, otherwise it’s water, water, water. I’m up to about 10 to 12 eight ounce glasses a day.

A 300 calorie bag of chips is not the same as a salad that’s also 300 calories. While that bag of chips may taste great, the thing about having one is that soon after you want another. Or you want ice cream or a chocolate bar. There’s a reason why they are called empty calories. After eating a good, healthy salad, you are so full that you don’t want to eat anything afterwards.

Diet colas are evil. Yes they have neither sugar nor calories but they do make you hungry and eat things you shouldn’t. I’m not sure if it’s the artificial sweeteners in them but I know that whenever I drank a Diet Coke, it wasn’t long after that I wanted to eat something. And it was usually something not very good for me. Matter-of-fact, anything that contains artificial sweeteners, avoid like the plague.

Drink water.

While changing my eating habits is great, exercise is a must. I cannot have one without the other. I need both cardio and strength training. I’m on the treadmill now five times a week because suddenly I have all this extra energy from not being weighed down by all those heavy carbs. And I’m using rubber bands for my strength training.

I have to eat regularly. I know for some that means dividing their meals from three large meals into six smaller ones, so that one is eating every couple of hours. It tricks your body into thinking that it won’t have to starve and will let go of the fat. For me though, trying to schedule 6 times a day to eat is so not going to happen. That’s okay though because I was just eating only one or two meals a day (we won’t mention the high-carb snacks that I’d eat because I was so hungry), so going from that to having a healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner and bedroom snack (which I usually have about 4 hours before bedtime) has been enough for my body to realize that I’m not ‘starving’ it and in turn has start to let go of the fat.

Drink water.

I must have a good night’s sleep. Even though the experts say I should have between seven to eight hours a sleep a night, it seems my natural sleep is closer to five to six hours, no matter how hard I try to sleep longer. Every so often I may sleep in a little but I’m pretty much awake after six hours. I figure as long as I feel rested, it’s all good.

Not everyone will approve of my new eating habits. Matter-of-fact there will be people that tell me that ‘just a little bit of ____’ (you fill in the blanks with ‘pasta’ ‘bread’ ‘candy’ etc) won’t hurt. Or they tell me almost defensively that ‘they won’t change their diet just because I have’. They don’t have to because it’s MY diet not theirs. I don’t begrudge them for eating carbs with their proteins; instead, I just have a nice side of vegetables or a salad. Or they’ll say things like how they could never go ‘no carb’ and how they would miss it etc. Again, that’s okay because this has nothing to do with them. This is what I want to do and as such it’s my responsibility to do what I need to stay on this route.

I find it very strange how some people are neither encouraging nor supportive, especially those that one would think would be. Or they’re very negative about what I’m doing. Again that’s okay because I’m getting quite a lot of encouragement from others. More than I thought, judging by the comments and notes from others I’ve received over the past couple of days. *smile*

On the other hand, even more annoying are those that ask me if, ‘I should be eating that?’ or ‘should I eat that much protein (or fruit or whatever)’? Yes I do know you’re looking out for me but please realize that I’m a grown woman and I really don’t need you policing me. Believe it or not, I know what I’m doing. When one changes their habits like this there’s a lot of research that goes into it. I’m not even close to craving refined sugars or starch/flour-laden carbs as I once had but it is my own doing if I did want and had some. *pause* However if you ever see me with a carton of ice cream or a bag of Cheetos, just grab them out of my hands, don’t even ask me ‘should I be eating that?’ *LOL*

So am I seeing any results now that I’m on this new diet/lifestyle change? Besides all this extra energy I have (which btw my long-distance Love is so missing out on. Yes I know TMI but seriously boy oh boy, if he were near me I wouldn’t be using my treadmill as much! LOL!), I feel so much better. My skin is clearer. While my blood sugars rarely ran high, they did have the tendency to run fairly low. Now? They’ve been great and at a constant level. I haven’t had a low sugar since I started this. Because my blood sugars have been on an even keel, that ‘always hungry’ feeling has disappeared. One of best things is that my insulin use has gone to less than half, sometimes a quarter of the doses I used to take. The less insulin I’m using the easier it’s been to lose the weight.

Have I mentioned to drink water?

Now what about my weight loss thus far? In these first three weeks I’ve lost ELEVEN POUNDS. YAY! I do know that I’m losing high numbers at the moment because I’m larger and have more fat to get rid from my body, eventually though it will taper to one to two pounds a week. And that’s great as well. I’m not in a race to lose weight. I also know that in the not so distance future that while I lose the body fat, I’ll start gaining muscle.

Do I have a goal weight and/or size? Yes I do: I’m aiming between 145 to 169 pounds and looking at probably a size 12 to 16. You know, when I thought that was ‘fat’. Some experts will say that at my height of 5’6 my goal should be a lot lower than that but you know what? I’ve been skinny and at that ‘ideal weight and size’ and I didn’t like it. I love having curves and a little something in my caboose. I enjoy that I can cradle the boyfriend within my hips and not have him worry that he’ll break bones *lol*.

My main goal, as I mentioned earlier, is to get rid of my belly fat. Again though, I don’t want to have a super flat stomach, I know I’ll feel a bit more feminine with just a little ‘pooch’. Being very fat everywhere is not good but it’s the unhealthiest in the abdomen area. I just no longer want to know the ‘muffin man’ ;)

You know for someone that thought she couldn’t talk about her weight, I seem to have a lot to say! I do want to leave you with these final thoughts:

Before embarking on any diet plan, please see your doctor first and foremost.

Do not feel that going ‘no carb/low carb’ is your only option to lose weight. This is the one plan that works for me and it may work for you as well; however, any plan that has you reducing your calorie-intake in a healthy manner is great. The idea is changing your eating habits for the better and for the long run, not just for six months.

Exercise. Get moving. Get those endorphins going. For some of you, your diet could be fine and all you need is to have regular exercise to get to your healthier you.

Oh yes...drink water.

But the last thing I want to say about my weight loss journey to become my healthier self and to those that are also on the same path is this: Be positive. Stay positive. Nothing is impossible when you’re in a great frame of mind.

Again, thank you to all for all your encouraging words of love and support. It really does help. If you all want, I can give regular updates on my progress, probably every two to three weeks? Let me know what you all think.

 

‘til next time,

Jacs :)

Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes - Part 2

A little more than three weeks ago I started on my new lifestyle path. However saying ‘lifestyle path’ is just too much of a mouthful so I’m going to use that dirty word: Diet. It’s just so much easier to say and write, but please know that I’m not thinking of my new eating habits as a ‘fad’.

But let me back up to several weeks ago when I had lunch with an acquaintance—you know those people that you meet up with once a year to catch up, never really getting into too much detail about each other’s lives? You just have pleasant conversation and a nice lunch and you’re happy not seeing them for another year.

However this year I completely passed her at the table because I didn’t recognize her. That’s because she lost about hundred pounds. She’s also a type 1 diabetic like I am. She looked great and of course I had to ask what her secret was. I could not believe the change.

She told me she’s been on a no carb/low carb diet for the past year. I was surprised because I was told from the time I was diagnosed that I must always have carbs with every meal for my insulin to work. She then pointed out that because we don’t produce any insulin at all that it wouldn’t matter what we eat, for us we need it to help our foods break down for energy, just without the carbs, we would just need less of it.

It was as if something just clicked in my head and I had one of those ‘Oprah aha’ moments. I got clarity and I have to say I also got pretty excited.

I wasn’t unfamiliar with the no carbohydrate lifestyle. My nephew has been on it for almost two years now—he started it when he started gaining weight and while he wasn’t close to being fat, if he kept on the way he was, he could very well be.

Anyway long story short is that he looks fantastic.  I just never considered the no carb diet an option for me. I only thought it could only be done with ‘healthy’ people or more to the point, those that didn’t need insulin.

Well until that lunch. She did advise that before I even thought about it that I needed to see my doctor to see if I could do this diet, not to mention trying to figure out with him how much insulin I would need on a no carb/low carb diet.

But I decided that if my doctor gave me the green light to go ahead with this diet then I would start the very next day. It’s funny how much I’m reminded of when I decided to quit smoking once and for all. After so many attempts of trying to quit, I knew without any doubt that January 1^st, 1997 that I had my very last cigarette. That I’d quit for good. And that’s the feeling I had about this change in my eating habits. I knew this would be what will put me on that road to weight loss.

When I told my doctor I wanted to go as no carb as possible, he looked at me and said, “Jacqui, I’ve been wanting you to do this for years but you kept telling me no.” Ummm guess I never heard him or ignored what he told me because those bowls of pasta and chips and Cheetos kept calling me.

But he was very happy that I wanted to do this and we talked about how much insulin I would need, depending on my blood sugar before each meal.

The next day I gave up rice, pasta, potatoes and bread. I also gave up all refined sugars, so no cakes, cookies and other sweets. All high salty snacks as well. Quit like I did when I gave up smoking. Cold turkey. I also gave up a very big crutch: Diet Coke or Coke Zero.

My meals these days consist mostly of protein, vegetables, fruits and nuts.

But let me tell you something. While I felt and still feel good and motivated, those first three/four days were horrible. My headaches were bad and I could feel myself going through that sugar withdrawal.

And yet it was almost a miracle that while I was getting those ‘sugar shakes’ I also discovered that my taste buds were opening up and for the first time in my life I discovered that I liked vegetables. Even those green ones. Yes for those that know me well, I’m sure you’re about to faint *lol*

Once I got over the sugar withdrawal and started to feel normal, it’s been fairly easy to follow this new diet. Especially as I’m not getting any cravings for sweets nor salty snacks.

I’m also drinking a lot more water and getting more fibre from both fruits/vegetables as well as supplements and that has made a big difference as well because when you feel full you don’t want to overeat.

I’ll stop there and tomorrow I’ll talk about my truths in dieting. Yes that is three blogs in a row!

‘Til next time,

Jacs

p.s. I'm trying to figure out why some folks can't seem to comment on this blog. I have it set so that anyone should be able to leave remarks without having a 'user id'. Very strange.  In the meantime please continue to email me direct or on Facebook. Your feedback and encouragement are appreciated.

Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes - Part 1

Over the next three days on my blog, I’m going to write about a topic that I find very difficult to talk about but I’m hoping it shows something that people may not know about me or how I feel about it.

I’m going to write about My Weight.

For those that don’t know me, I’m fat. You can say overweight or plus-sized but the fact of the matter is I’m fat. My friends will tell me that I’m not as bad as I think—and God love them—but it still doesn’t change that I am bigger than most.

I haven’t always been fat. Matter-of-fact, all through my childhood and up until I was about thirteen I was painfully skinny and pretty shy. I didn’t start gaining weight until I was about 16 but looking back I wish I could tell my former self that being a size 12 wasn’t fat. That all through my twenties that size 14 was not big either, even though there were many ‘well-meaning relatives’ that would tell me I needed to lose weight.

When I was 32, I decided to finally quit smoking (which is another blog in itself) but I also decided that I was going to defy those odds about people gaining weight after they quit and decided I wanted to lose about 50 pounds. Then I was about a size 18.

So I quit smoking and joined the gym. Even got a personal trainer to help me and very quickly I lost those fifty pounds. I was proud of myself.

But then I kept losing weight, another ten, twenty, until I was so skinny that one could actually see my bones sticking out of my back. And I wasn’t even trying. I went from about 180 pounds to about 101 in the span of 7 months.

I also developed a ravenous appetite and unquenchable thirst. Oh and I had to pee constantly, no word of a lie every ten minutes.

Yes I know something was going on but it wasn’t until I could not climb stairs, my muscles were so weak that it took everything to lift my feet that I had to admit something was going on.

What was going on was that I had type 1 diabetes or sometimes commonly known as juvenile diabetes (again another blog topic for another time)and quickly got onto insulin and started feeling better in no time.

I got to the weight I am now over time. For the first three years after my diagnosis, once I gained the weight so I was no longer looking like a skeleton, I maintained it fairly well.

But then I started gaining more and more and while I could blame my disease, that’s just a cop out. I just became lazy. About my food choices, about my activity level, about looking after myself.

It became easy just to take that extra insulin so I could have those sweets and especially those salty snacks and high carb foods, especially because year after year when I had my yearly physical all my tests—blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugars etc.,—were always excellent, which defied the odds about how my body was looking.

I just wanted to give a bit of background about my ‘weight gain journey’. But here’s the thing: I’m not an unhappy fat person. I never was and I never will be. I have never been ashamed about going out and trying new things and meeting new people.

I’m now at a point of my life that I want to become healthy again and lose weight, especially the fat around my belly. But why now? Why not earlier in my life? Because the truth is, one has to feel motivated to start and continue what will be a long journey.

My motivation is my Cameron. Before anyone even thinks he’s told me to lose weight, he hasn’t. Not even close. While a former lover would say something about how pretty I’d be if ‘I’d only lose weight’, Cameron tells me I’m beautiful. Period. Full stop. And I look at the truth in his eyes and can see that he means it. When I told him I was going to lose weight the first thing he made sure of was I wasn’t doing it for him because he loves me exactly as I am.

And that’s a big truth. I am motivated by him because I want us to have a long, happy and HEALTHY future together; however, if I don’t want it just for myself, then my weight loss journey isn’t going to work.

And while I have mentioned how every year my tests always come back with great results, I know I’m hedging my bets and that my lifestyle will be a detriment to my health and next thing I’ll know I won’t have that long future with my Love and that would really piss me off. So yes, while Cameron is not the reason why I want to lose weight, he gives me that extra support and encouragement that I need.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about what I’m doing to lose weight. Yes don’t faint, I did say tomorrow. *lol*

‘til next time,

Jacs