Some Health Changes

Hey Ladies,

Just wanted to do a general health update for those you who are interested.  I've been really motivated lately to not only lose weight, but to clean up my diet and lifestyle in general.  If you look at my health track record and family history, you can see why this might concern me.  Let's take a look:

Father's Family                                                                                  Mother's Family
Grandmother--Heart disease, type 2 diabetes                                    Grandmother--pancreatic cancer
Grandfather--Heart disease                                                               Grandfather--Heart disease                                                
Uncle-type 2 diabetes                                                                       Aunt--Ovarian Cancer
                                                                                                        Mother--High blood pressure, high
                                                                                                                      cholesterol


My husband jokes that I use our insurance enough for the both of us.  I've had 2 knee surgeries, Shingles, been diagnosed with IBS.....He's right, I have issues that bring me to my GP's office at least once per month.  In fact, I met my deductible MONTHS ago.

A lot of my friends don't understand why I'm so driven to loose weight and be healthy.  They tease me for knowing how many calories are in everything.  I told my one friend I wanted to lose 15-20 more lbs and she said "From where!?"    I know what a healthy weight is for me and I think my approach is a healthy, rational approach to losing weight and being healthy.

The most logical approach to losing weight is to expend more calories then you take it.  If you do this, you WILL lose weight.  So if you eat only icecream, but you keep your total calories of icecream under 1200 a day, you will lose weight.  Is that healthy--I would have to say probably not....

Think of food as fuel for your body.  When you're trying to lose weight, fuel with body with calories that are choc full of fiber, vitamins, water, nutrients, etc., not diet products that are made of chemicals, filler, and artificial sweeteners.  Way back in the day when I tried weight-watchers, I was really turned off by all the diet products they push.  Yes, they teach you to stay below a calorie intake (ie your points), but they advocate not only their diet products, but a heep of others.  So I guess my point is that I not only want to reduce my calorie intake to lose weight, but I want to fuel my body with foods that are less (or not even) processed, and not full of artificial sweeteners and fillers.  I'm been dabbling with the idea of going 60% Raw.  What he the heck as am talking about? The raw food diet is a diet based on unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, nuts, dried fruit, and seaweed.  I say 60% raw because it's unrealistic (to me) to think that I could eat 100% raw and get the nutrients I need, and enjoy meals with my family (who would not be eating raw).  I want to attempt to have a raw breakfast, snacks, and lunch whenever possible.  I don't think a 100% raw diet would be healthy for me either because it is not recommended for people who are anemic, pregnant, or nursing.  I'm not pregnant or nursing now obviously, but I want to be in the next year, so why adopt a lifestyle change that doesn't fit with those parts of my life?  I also tend to be anemic due to my reduced meat consumption (I only eat 1-2 servings of meat weekly).  

The other big step I'm taking to be a healthier me is going off of hormone-based birth control.  I have not been off my hornmone-based birthcontrol for 3 weeks and I already feel healthier.  The birth control made me feel "not like myself" in so many ways.  I know I know, I should try different pills, blah blah blah. I have.  I'm done with them.  I have starting tracking my ovulation based on my basal body temperature and my bodies natural cues (along with the use of condoms), I feel like this is the best approach for me.

So I think I've hit my new plateau weight, lol.  I had been hovering at 185/186 for weeks, now I'm hovering at 183.  Here's something I haven't addressed in awhile--My Self-Imposed Christmas Challenge--how am I doing?

Well...

Question for you all...Do I need to re-evaluate my goal again?  I originally had my goal set to 160, after talking with my doctor, he feels like 170 is a more realistic goal for me.  I do want to eventually get to 160-165, but would 170 be a more realistic goal for me for this challenge?

   So this is what my new goals would look like.  I feel like "re-evaluating" my goals is a nice way so saying "let's make it easier for me" but I truly think sometimes we can set unrealistic goals in the first place, or we encounter issues along the way which hinder our expected results.

I think I also need to take into account the muscle mass I may be building running 12 miles a week.  We all know "muscle weighs more than fat..."

Well this was a long drawn-out post all about my diet and weightloss.  Sorry If I bored you all.

Tomorrow I am starting a new running program to improve my 5K time. It's a 6 week program designed to help you sheer minutes off your 5K time.  I don't know if my goal right now is to get faster, or run farther.  But this new program will keep me running strong (haha PUN) through Christmas, maybe even helping me reach my "re-evaluated" goal!

I wish you all the best on your goals!

I want to send out a special virtually hug to someone--you know who you are..:-)