the un-wise diet

I had my wisdom teeth (all 4 plus an extra trouble-child of a tooth) removed last Thursday.  Not sure how healthy it's been, but I wanted to share my experience with my soft-foods diet over the past week...

I haven't been following the doc's plan, obviously-- as I don't think chicken noodle soup and ice cream fits in too well to the high protein/low carbohydrate diet he has encouraged me to follow.

So far, for the past few days-- I've eaten a combination of the following:
+ Chicken noodle soup
+ Chef Boyardee ABC's & 123's (a total guilty pleasure of mine... I love that stuff!! It's horrible, I know.. I mean anything that dyes tupperware can't be that good for you, but I love it.  Don't judge!)
+ Mashed potatoes
+ A few spoonfuls of RANK jello cheesecake pudding -- not sure what went wrong here, but it was dreadful.  The Man can attest to that, as I made him taste it.  (Sorry, love!)
+ Velveeta Shells & Cheese
+ LOTS of Apple Juice
+ Campbell's chunky potato soup
+++ and more than I should have ever eaten of Bryer's Natural Vanilla and Bryer's Natural Neopolitan ice cream (In my opinion, the BEST ice cream money can buy-- it even out-ranks Marble Slab, Dairy Queen, and all of the above.. sorry guys.)

I've got a follow up with the Oral Surgeon today, and he's probably going to tell me to start eating normal foods.. but I'm scared to.  I've heard so many horror stories about dry sockets and the whole oral surgery thing just creeps me out so much that I will probably resist normal foods for a while longer.  Still.. I'm certainly craving some of my favorite "real" foods like:
+ Chips and Salsa... ah.. I love these.  (Dear tortilla chips, why do you have to be so bad and soooo good at the same time? I miss you.  Love, Eva)
+ Steak
+ Buffalo chicken (the Man mentioned this the other night, and I can't wait for us to make some buffalo chicken wraps sometime soon!)
+ Roast (I've got one in the freezer just waiting for some quality crockpot time.. maybe sometime next week?)

I'm still not feeling my best, and I can't tell if it's a combination of recovery and medicine or the poor foods I've been eating. I'm thinking the food hasn't been helping...

Maybe I should get some frozen yogurt from Chill?  That's healthier than ice cream... right?? Cupcakes are soft too, right?

Just kidding. 


(I sound like such a fat kid.. oh well, embrace the truth.  This chunky girl loves food... true story.)

4 months in..

So here we are, 4 months in and I've been off plan and losing steam for about a month now.

However, somehow I've managed to not gain it all back.  Although my eating habits have slipped, my weight loss has stalled, and my exercise routine is slim to none-- I've managed to somewhat maintain.  To me this is a triumph because I know that I can lose the weight if I remain focused and motivated.

Right now, I'm down 47lbs from my starting weight.  My goal was to lose 50 by December, and if I can manage to get back on track-- I might actually be able to.

I have new motivation which will hopefully be enough to kick my ass back into gear...

I'm engaged.  My supportive, wonderful, and all-around-so-lucky-to-be-with-him boyfriend is now my fiance.  I'm glad to have this additional emotional motivation to help drive my physical motivation of getting healthy.. now I want to be healthy and fit not just for myself, but for him (which was a factor in the first place) and also for our wedding day!

I'm a bit discouraged about going dress shopping, but I also know how much progress has been made health-wise with me in a few short months.  Hopefully I can get back focused on my calorie counting, making smart choices, and rekindle my affair with a workout routine. 

We'll see.. for now, I'm enjoying the rest of the week off-plan since I'll be having my wisdom teeth out on Thursday.  I imagine after a few days of liquids only, I'll be ready for a nice crunchy salad, chewy steak, or some crisp apples to snack on. 

Plus, I'm hoping to renew my devotion to blogging.. it really is a great release for me and a perfect way to unwind in just a few minutes a day.  I guess the biggest thing for me is making time.

I need to:
+ make time to blog
+ make time to workout
+ make time to de-stress
+ make time to prepare healthy meals and meal plans
+ make time to sleep!

Here's to making more time..

update, 2 months(ish) in..

I haven't posted in a while, but some progress has been made.  I'm officially down 30lbs based on my last doctor visit. 

Honestly, I haven't been making much effort recently.  It has been a while since I worked out, and I haven't been regularly counting calories.  I think the stress of work and family life has really hampered my progress.  Still, I'm proud of how far I've come. 

I still have 100 or so to go, with a goal of 20 by December.  I know that doesn't sound like much over the next five months, but I need to focus more on actually working out and counting calories than actual loss.

One thing that has thrown me, the doc wants me to eat every 3-4 hours to prevent a hypoglycemic reaction.  Nothing too terrible, but he thinks that could be the root cause of some of my headaches.  Eating all the time seems to help, but I also feel like it's harder to keep track.

Oh well, progress has been made.  I am feeling better, and hopefully we get recharged and refocused for another round and drop some more.

:)

week three update

So I was a total slacker this week...

I mean, I still tried to eat healthy and count calories.  I rarely went over my goal of 1200/day.  And I could make excuses all day for why I got off track:

• Work was extra-stressful
• I was tired
• I needed my B-12 shot
• I didn't prep to pack my lunches

But, all excuses aside-- I didn't work out like I should have.  Although I stayed under 1200 calories, I probably did not eat enough veggies and too many carbohydrates.  I also went out to eat last night.. to Red Lobster.. and have two (yes, two) cheddar biscuits. 

It was amazing.

And then I got icecream.  BAD!!! (Not really.. we went to Chill which serves frozen yogurt.  I had a decent serving of my favorite strawberry and chocolate with a little whipped cream.  Based on my calculations it was around 265 calories.  Too much for a treat-- but better than a lot of other things.)

Still, expecting to gain... I weighed myself this morning.  I promised myself before looking at the scale to try and do the following things next week to get back in the right frame of mind:

• Be more mindful of the types/combinations of food I'm eating
• Calories are important, but so are the right types of calories-- nutrients are key!
• Go to bed as early as possible (at least by 11!)
• Aim for workouts every morning, and a few in the afternoons.. it really does help with energy levels
• Try and manage stress more positively

So, after reaffirming that even if I gained, I would still be able to keep a positive mindset I checked the numbers on the scale...

....down 5 more lbs!!!!

Now imagine what that number would have been if I had kept on track!  Time to get motivated!!!

two week progress update

As of my unofficial weigh in this morning.. I am down twelve pounds. Unofficial because I am using a standard home scale and not the serious slidey block scale at the doctor's office. Still....

that's twelve pounds in two weeks...

Impressive, but I'm a little concerned I'm doing something wrong.  My goal is to be healthy.. and this just seems a bit too fast.

Still, I'm just following doc's orders, so maybe this is just a jumpstart for the rest of my life of healthy living..


Only 108 more to go!

i heart pita

I had a student ask me at lunch over this past week what the "heck-all" I was eating.  Apparently, she had not yet been introduced to my latest friend-- whole wheat pita bread.

image found over at SlashFood

Part of the doc's meal plan is that all breads must be whole wheat/whole grains.  I picked up a pack of pitas (try saying that five times fast!) because I thought it would be a good solution for fairly no-fuss lunches. 

 No-fuss being key. 

It's hard to get into the habit of food prep for the next day. Granted, I'm used to planning meals.  I've been meal-planning our dinners for the past few months now in an effort to save on grocery bills.  However, it's taken another level of planning to figure out breakfasts, lunches, and dinners (and sometimes seperate meals for the Man) while keeping up with everything else going on. 

Our grocery bills have grown considerably, but I'm hoping that will drop once I have a bit more of a stockpile to pull from of doc approved foods. Thankfully the pitas are pretty inexpensive, at only about 50 cents each...

and they are worth it! 



my new pal

I knew that in order to be successful with this whole "get healthy" thing, I'd need a way to track my calories.  My initial thought was to pick up a cute mini-notebook and a few pens in fun colors (cute school supplies do wonders to motivate me).  I thought I'd just keep my notebook with me and manually log everything....

thankfully the Man recently convinced me that we needed smartphones.  I felt it was a HUGE indulgence (and still do) but I am using mine for everything!  When I finally thought to check the AppMarket for calorie apps, I was overwhelmed by the number of options available. 

After reading a few reviews, I decided to go with the myfitnesspal app.  It seemed pretty easy to use, ranked high in reviews, and was free!

I've only been using it a week, but I love the simplicity of the calorie counter.  It's great because I can search for the foods I'm eating and it automatically totals the calories

(as well as other detailed nutrition information.) 

image from cnet reviews

I also love the fact that the app syncs with the website, so information can be added through either method.  I haven't really explored the site very much, but it seems to have a lot of fun features. 

 I'll be sure to post more when I have time to check it out.

the early bird gets the ... workout?

I've never really been able to stick to a regular exercise routine.   I've kept one up for a few months at a time.. then slacked off... picked it back up again, but never enough to be considered a legit routine. I always felt I needed to exercise after work. One main reason being, I'm not a morning person, to say the least. 

 Usually in the morning, I resemble this:

Notice the head buried against the arm of the couch-- begging to be left alone and returned to his kitty dreamland. 

But instead, as part of this whole "really being committed thing" I've asked the Man to bear my grumpiness and wake me up when he gets up (at around 6:30ET) so I can sweat it out a little while before I need to start getting ready for work. 

It's only been two days, and I still feel like I'm going to die a little bit each morning, but the concept is working.  It does start my day off right, and I hope to exercise in the evenings too... but if I can't due to dinner plans/working late/grocery shopping/etc. it doesn't eliminate my much needed workout time. 

I still have my mini-morning session, and though I may still be half asleep-- it counts.  Right?

and so it begins...

To give you a few basics-- I am 26 years old, 4'11" and weigh around 265lbs.  I've managed to gain around 60+ lbs in the past two years.  That's about a five-year old child a year! This is my highest weight ever. I'm wearing a size 24, and the smallest size I've worn since 6th grade was a women's 14 (and then I remember my pants being tight!). 

Health, and a little bit of vanity have prompted me to seriously lose the weight.  In the past two years, I've had issues with recurring headaches, back pain, swelling feet and hands, joint pain, and fatigue. Recently, I've been working with an endocrinologist and I have an unofficial 

goal to lose about 120 lbs. 

That's about the size of the average chubby highschool cheerleader. I know it will take time, but more importantly it will take a LOT of changes.

My doctor, after taking enough blood to equal a sacrifical goat, determined that I am "insulin resistant" but not diabetic.  I'm grateful that insulin injections will not be in my future.  He said that the insulin resistance is most likely attributed to PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome) which I have a number of qualifying symptoms.  He put me on two medications and a strict diet.  I'll start off the first two weeks trying to maintain no more than 1500 calories a day.  Then I'll drop down and remain at a 1200 calorie a day intake.

This along with excercise should not be that complicated.  However, it's one thing to drastically change my meals and my daily routine--- it's something entirely different to change the Man's. 

He's supportive, but due to negative experiences before with his womenfolk dieting--I think he's a little apprehensive about me going whole-hog to not be such a porker (haha, punny). My biggest worry is that me making this change in my lifestyle could make our life together more difficult. I spent some time yesterday mapping out meals that wouldn't require too much extra prep to make them both Eva and Man friendly. We'll see...

So, today I finish my preparations which include:

• Cleaning out the kitchen cabinets
• Purging the freezer and fridge
• Setting up the scales (one to weigh me, the other for my food)
• Prep meals for the work week
• Do a little secondary grocery shopping for "low fat" rule-abiding food

I know this is a positive life-change for me, but I am super anxious about everything-- meeting my goals, keeping our grocery budget down, more work in my daily routine, failure, new medicines... I could go on.  I just hope I can tame my emotions a bit, get focused, and do what I need to do. 

Here's to the start of something good, which will become something great, and possibly even amazing.

Holy shit, I'm scared!