Saturday, August 27, 2011

Another Pound (or two) Bites the Dust!

Yes, yes, yes!!  For three weigh-ins in a row, I've been on the losing side.  And when you're trying to lose weight, being on the losing side is a good thing.  I've lost 8 lbs in 4 weeks (I skipped a weigh in because of that mean ol' Aunt Flo), and I'm super-duper happy with myself.

I am getting close to being in uncharted territory for me.  Uncharted territory is a weight that I have not been in during my adult life.  I'm within 15 pounds of being at my lowest weight (since I started paying attention to my weight when I graduated from college).  My lowest weight within my adult history is 232.  I remember the day that I reached that weight.  It was pre-Lily, while I was still living in Colorado Springs. After Weight Watchers I went to my friend Tracy's house for a Creative Memories scrapbook party.  I was so excited to be the lowest weight I'd ever been, and to be sporting the smallest size jeans I'd ever worn as an adult, size 18.

I'm not quite back into the size 18's yet.  I tried a pair of size 18 jeans this morning just to be sure.  I can get them on, and even buttoned, but they create quite the unattractive muffin top, and I'm not about to knowingly do that to myself.  Besides, just a few more weeks of continued dedication and I'll be able to wear them without the problem of looking like any sort of baked good.

This is really exciting for me.  I tried on those same pair of jeans this past winter, and I couldn't even get them over my big ol' booty, much less have any hope of getting them buttoned.  I love this kind of affirmation that I'm actually doing something right and making some progress.  When I tried on clothes a few weeks ago on a big ol' Back to School shopping spree, I was really surprised that I was buying pants that were 2 sizes smaller than I was wearing only a few months ago.  I honestly thought that clothes sizes were really getting larger, not that I was getting any smaller.  Being able to get those size 18's on today though, helped me to really see that progress is happening.

Yea for smaller clothes!!  Hopefully soon I won't have to shop in the chubby chicka stores anymore.  I will not be sad to say goodbye to the overpriced Lane Bryant, Catherine's, and CJ Banks.  I will, however, still continue to shop at Torrid, because they have extremely awesome clothes, even if they are a little pricy sometimes.  But I am INCREDIBLY excited by the prospect of someday, in the foreseeable future, being able to shop at a REGULAR sized clothing store.  Ahhh....wouldn't that be oh, so lovely!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Just When You Think I'm Gone...

Poof!  I'm back!!

Now, don't go and get all excited now and start breaking out the popcorn.  Who knows just how long this will last.  I just knew that I needed to get some things off my chest and into the vast wasteland of the internet.

So....there's some good news and then some bad news.
Let's start with the good news, shall we?

Over the course of the past 3 weeks I've managed to lose 6-ish pounds.  I'm sure this is most likely due to the overtaking physical demands of getting up off my lazy summer butt, putting my classroom back together and actually working again.  Luckily, my butt didn't have the opportunity to suffer from too much summeritis due to working for 5 weeks in the dark bowls of Hell summer school.  Then, I was so lucky to get incredibly sick for about 2 weeks, where I could barely eat, or even move other than to run to the restroom ever so quickly and delicately.  You know the diarrhea dance, don't you?  You can't break into an all-out run, because things can leak.  You have to do a quick little hopping movement, dancing on your toes, not unlike a ballet dancer en pointe suffering from acute dysentery.  What a beautiful moment I've just created for you in your head.  Aren't you lucky?  Luckier than I was for two weeks, I can tell you that.

The amazing thing about that experience was that I lost 15 pounds in two days.  That's right, two days!  And as soon as I started to feel better, and could actually eat again, I gained it all back in 5.  That was not to amazing, I guess.  But, it's okay.  I knew it wouldn't last.  It was just nice to see those numbers on the scale.  Numbers I hadn't seen in years.

So that gave me motivation, I guess, to actually get back on track.
And that brings me to my present loss.  Six pounds over the past few weeks has brought me down to losing 45.4 lbs. total so far.  Yea me!!  Getting awfully close to that 50 pound mark.

So that's the good news.

Here's the bad...

For the past 3 summers I've gone in for a yearly physical.  It took my brother passing away for me to start to do this, to be aware of what is going on with my body, and to try to take responsibility for keeping it healthy.

Well, this last time, some of my blood work came back funky.  Evidently some enzyme for some liver function is either too high, or too low, or something.  Whatever it is, it's not doing what it's supposed to do.  So, my doctor ordered a Hepatitis B test, as well as a sonogram of my liver.  Negative on the Hep B test.  Yea!  Not so great prognosis on the sonogram.

Evidently, the sonogram shows that my liver is fatty and enlarged.  Now my doc is sending me to a GI specialist to get more info.  I have yet to have that meeting, but from what I've learned from my research so far (thank you Internet, I love you!) is that if I start being more careful about the amount of fat that I eat, and lose weight gradually to a healthy weight, then my condition can be pretty much reversed.  If I don't make these attempts, then there is the possibility that I will contract cirrhosis of the liver, which can be fatal.

Bad, bad news.
And yet, there is a silver lining.

God knows that sometimes we need a 2x4 smack to the head before we'll move our stubborn selves to action.  I guess seeing the failing health of family members and the death of my brother due to obesity just wasn't enough to get me to do what I know needs to be done.  God had to scare me into action....and so far it's working.

I'm scared.  And I'm acting.  First week of school, and I've been going to the gym, and eating within my points.  I'm even using Weight Watchers "Simply Filling" technique, which is eating almost entirely from vegetables, fruits, lean meats, whole grains, legumes...all that healthy, natural crap that I've been trying hard to avoid dealing with for so long.

Turns out, it's not so bad to eat healthy crap.
And if it means that I'll actually be a thinner, healthier person who has a beautiful, healthy liver, then I'm happy to have the chance to change things around and do it.  Finally.