Half The Woman I Used To Be

Doing great...except for the part when I'm not

2011-12-30T15:54:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling sorry for myself at the moment. I have a wicked head cold. Or allergies. Or both, I can't really tell. It comes and goes. At the moment it's here. I've been sneezing all day. I tried to exercise, but whenever I bend over to touch my toes or try to do a planky sort of thing, I start sneezing again. And then sometimes I cough. I'll spare you the details on what all this is doing to my

I might need to unfriend you...

2011-10-19T08:24:00.000-07:00

...but it's not you! It's me! I just figured out last week that I am a social-eating/drinking enabler. A few of my really good friends and supporters helped me figure it all out (Molly, Sheri, Lori and Beth - love you!!!!) "What are you going to eat? I kinda want an appetizer, but not the whole thing. Will you split it with me, Georgia?" "Okay. Order whichever one you want." "Geo, I wanna have

I really love eating well

2011-08-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

I've been avoiding eating out as much as possible for months. But sometimes, I throw caution to the wind because I just want to go out and have a nice meal with special people. Tonight, the special people were my boys. I love them so much. We don't get to spend a lot of time together because we've all got our stuff to do. But tonight, it was Farmer's Market downtown, the weather was perfect

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

2011-08-19T00:49:00.000-07:00

This video is looooooong, like an hour and a half, but if you're a sciency/mathy sort of person, you'll find this very interesting...or rather, eye-opening and shocking. Made me rethink about how much I was doing to help protect myself and my sons. Sugar wasn't all that important to me, but I was indulging my kids. As of now, we're done with sugar at my house! And we're totally ramping up the

Check out my home gym!

2011-08-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

My older son and I spent a few days cleaning and rearranging things in the garage. I finally have a dedicated gym for us to use! No more fighting cobwebs to get to the treadmill. In the garage I've got the treadmill, elliptical cross-trainer, weight bench with bar and weight set, step bench and risers, Pilates mats, a kettle bell and hand weights. My youngest uses the punching bag to

I get bored so easily!!! Time for another personal challenge, I think

2011-08-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

I'm starting a Ramadan-style fast tomorrow morning. I've been struggling the last few weeks. With everything! My weight loss is at a standstill, I've been letting my appetite rule my decision-making process, and I've been letting my mother hijack my life so much so that my exercise schedule is gone. So I've decided to get back on track using a vehicle...Ramadan. Ramadan is the Muslim holy fasting

Spent the morning prepping veggies

2011-07-31T12:51:00.000-07:00

I picked up another big shipment of vegetables from the CSA farm yesterday. More chard, beets (and their tops), summer squash, tomatoes, oak leaf lettuces (two big heads!), jalapenos, corn, onions, basil...OMG! There's even more stuff! I've worked all morning to get it all washed and put away. We've been eating really well at our house since I joined the CSA. Plenty of veggies, but they were

Very low calorie snacking

2011-07-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

I tried avoiding the in-between snacks. There are no snack foods in my house. Just ask my kids. I don't really do the snack thing. But, I have no issue with putting together an entire meal when I'm feeling noshy. I can really eat a lot if left unsupervised and emotionally compromised, which is practically all the time during menopause. (Really, who wants to be around a menopausal woman? Are there

Off-track with the supplements - bad

2011-07-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, so while I was fully on all my supplements, I guess I wasn't just peeing expensive water. I laid off the vitamins and supplements since I went on vacation, just to see what would happen to me. It's been over a month since I took anything and I feel like crap! I don't remember feeling like this before I started taking them all. It was a slow build of supplements and now I don't really

I'm having one of those weeks...

2011-07-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

The food plan, not feelin' it. The fitness plan, not feelin' it either. Hoping going to Pilates will get me out of my funk. I don't have anything mind-blowing to share, nothing new to report really. I weighed in at 297 a couple days ago, but it's not impressing me much. I think this is the summer doldrums. I get reverse S.A.D., and I'm much crabbier in the summer than I am in the winter. (And

299 and holding

2011-07-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

I had a self-indulgent holiday weekend, so I knew better than to step on the scale on Tuesday morning. I spent a couple days getting back on track with lower calories, upped water intake, sleep patterns. I don't do well during the summer. I have that S.A.D. that happens when there's too much sunlight, heat and humidity. I need an air conditioner for my bedroom, because the house's a/c doesn't

Oh happy day!

2011-06-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

299!!!!!!!

Didn't gain, didn't lose...

2011-06-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

Others are telling me that I did good by having maintained my weight while on vacation. I'm trying to talk myself into being happy with that. But I am happy that I went, and I feel pretty damn good right now. Creativity is back (yeah!), enthusiasm for life is flowing again...I'm even motivated about getting right back into the weight loss routine. On Facebook, someone posted my high school

Should I blog while on vacation?

2011-06-10T11:07:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving for L.A. soon. With regards to staying on my optimum wellness track, I'm going to have fun! Hanging out with people I truly enjoy. Lots of laughter. And my mother is not coming along! In any way! (By the way, if she calls you to find out where I am, tell her I told you I'm at UCLA at a writer's conference...) (Plausible deniability.) So, while traveling, I can easily stick to the

Tweaking, tweaking, just keep tweaking

2011-06-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

I've had some solid period of time where I've consistently kept my calories below 1600. I actually averaged 1580. I exercised consistently as well, but only Pilates. I kept my nutrients closer to what the CDC suggests, proteins at around 50 gm, carbs at a minimum of 130 gm, and I tended to fill in with healthy fats like avocado and olive oil. I kept fiber at 30+ gm. by eating lots and lots of

Weight-loss related things are happening

2011-05-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

This morning I put on some shorts to go to Pilates. Normally I wear Pilates or Yoga pants, but they were all in the hamper, so I pulled out one of my pairs of Danskin shorts. I don't like to wear shorts. Not because my legs are too chunky to wear shorts. I have nicely shaped calves and now my ankles are slim. (No more cankles!) However, between the bottom of my calves and just above my ankles,

Hunger, it's not so bad!

2011-05-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

My calories per day are averaging below 1515, finally. So, I'm not starving myself, I'm just concentrating my calories later in the day and it's working out fine! Last night I went to bed after having gone out to dinner with my younger son. We went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 and then went to a local brew-pub for an early dinner. Hadn't eaten anything up to that point, because I knew I'd be okay and I

Experiments with hunger

2011-05-25T19:08:00.000-07:00

It's not an evil thing, you know...getting hungry. Bad things won't happen to me if I get hungry. I can easily keep from eating on the front end of the meal, easily not eat for 15- 18 hours at a time. But the backside of a meal, that's the tough one for me. If I can become the queen of not eating after my meal... That's what I'm working on tonight. I went to Pilates this morning, then had a

I'm feeling MUCH better

2011-05-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Pilates and I feel wonderful again. I was having a really tough time sleeping, and then woke up lethargic and achy. Monday, I decided to fast until 3:30 pm, then kept calories and carbs under control and quit eating at 9:30 pm. Took a supplement with valerian root and hops and finally fell asleep by 11 pm. Had a really good night's sleep, for the first time in over a week, and

About last night...

2011-05-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

I continued to eat after I wrote my blog entry last night, until I got uncomfortably full. And then I watched episodes of Numb3rs on Netflix on my computer till 3 a.m. That's an old behavior. It's something I used to do to avoid some pain that came up when I went to bed every night. I was numbing myself and emotionally checking out. I think it's about missing my little dog, still. Chloe used to

The mother of all refeeds

2011-05-21T21:15:00.000-07:00

Been keeping control over my daily caloric intake pretty well this week. Didn't seem to matter, however. I have popped back up to 304 lbs today. I know it's water retention. The minute the temps start to pop up, my ankles swell up. Other contributing factors are a desk job, and I haven't gone to Pilates or done any exercise all week. I promise to be back on track by Monday, and tomorrow I will

I'm about to say good-bye to weighing 300+ lbs

2011-05-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

I got on the scale before having my first meal of the day...300 lbs. Today I weighed in at 300 lbs. And after today, I never, ever have to say that again! I wish I could feel some joy in this, but not just yet. I lost my little dog this week. She was hit by a car and died on the way to the veterinary emergency clinic. I'm really heartbroken about this. I didn't eat for two days. Nor did I

It's all about the calories

2011-05-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

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The big picture

2011-05-11T16:23:00.000-07:00

Been doing a lot of reading lately, reading and exercising and eating less and doing emotional house cleaning. And I'm feeling good! Today I feel so good! On top of the world! I'm feeling obnoxiously good. I think I get it. I think I get it all - this weight loss, health and overall wellness thing. And I feel very free and at peace about it all. I know what works for me and knowing this feels

Stupid, STUPID HIDDEN SOY!!!!!!!

2011-05-05T15:49:00.000-07:00

Those exclamation marks in the title of today's post are about all I the energy I can muster. My soy sensitivity has been engaged and I'm pretty worthless for the rest of the day. I can barely keep my eyes open right now. I had a can of tuna, labeled "yellow fin tuna in olive oil", so I bought it and thought it was safe. But the back of the label says the tuna was processed with soy, so I'm