Weigh-in Wednesday

Ok, well I have been having weigh-in Wednesday for a little over a month. I didn't want to write about it until it was really working. It, isn't a diet. It is a medically monitored wellness plan. Ee gads that sounds like an old persons diet, its not.

My doc recommended this place, actually he wrote a prescription for it last August, but it conveniently kept getting put from stack to stack when I sorted and got lost for a while. I had great weight loss success with the assistance of phentarimine (no, no phen-phen) which simply helped curb my appetite so I could focus on eating healthy. But I didn't understand the nutrition part of the eating healthy so after two months off, and maintaining, I hit a crisis mode and lost all my marbles and fell off the wagon, and like so many other diets, I gained it all back and more.

Phenteramine did its job properly. It is medically used for 3 months, because your stomach is going to shrink all its going to within three months. My problem was not getting the appropriate education to sustain the loss...too bad...imagine how much further I would be right now...but...it is what it is. Doc allowed me to have a short supply again months ago to kick start myself, if I promised to go to this Wellness place. I didn't follow through on the promise and I didn't want to start the med again without being able to follow through....so I did nothing.

When my doc suggested the "Wellness Restoration Centers" here in Colorado Springs, my inner petulant child crossed her arms and remained in the defensive posture. I did not want to go to some place that was going to make me work, or sing kume by ya. So even though he wrote the perscription, I exhibited my control and said no. (::::rolling eyes::::)

Well....nothing like a trip to Scotland and thinking about the transatlantic flight and how uncomfortable that would be at my weight, to motivate me to go check this place out. I walked in, seemed normal enough, saw the "Restore you HEalth, Restore your Life" slogans, crossed my arms again. I saw they had prepackaged food, and I mentally checked out. Yep...its just like a Jenny Craig, i have to be dependent on THEIR food to loose weight....go figure.

She called my name. Fine.... I will go, and listen to the speel, but I am not signing up for a hundred years of food contracts. Sadly I went in defensive, but gladly the lady saw right through me. Saw right through me daring her to help me.... I am so transparent. The idea behind the place is tailoring your dietary/nutrition needs to what your body and you need. How the heck did I KNOW what I needed. So we talked. She talked I listened. I hate that she made sense....I was being sucked in, dammit! She told me I could do the same thing I did with Phentaramine, in less time, and with results I could sustain.

Of course I can if I buy your food! What's that she said?? I can do this with my own food??? Its like my ears instantly  burst their locks and sprang open. My OWN food? Isn't their whole mojo to get people to buy their food? No its just another option. Ok....I'm listening...I don't want to go to my daughters, or camping and worry that I didn't pick up my "food" before I left. I needed to be able to walk into ANY store and buy my food. Yes, I can do that? So I made my inner child unfold her pertulant arms, and we listened.

This is the only medically monitored wellness program like it in the state of CO. They want to get you to your healthy weight, teach you to maintain it, and then set you out on your own. Its not a gimmick to get you back in because you fail, they don't WANT to see you back when you are on your own. If you come back its because the counselors failed to do their job, and they don't like that. So each week you are weighed and measured, your blood pressure taken, your BMI and body fat percentage taken, every 10 pounds they send an update to your doctor, so if you are on medications that need adjusting he is able to monitor you and do so. I am not.

So I am on an "ideal" protein diet. Similar to the Atkins, but not with all the bad fats, and with some carbs thrown in appropriately. I have to drink at least 64 oz of water a day. The vitamins I take (with specific meals) multi vit, Calcium-Magnesium, Potassium, Calcium, and Seal Salt. I have unlimited veggies and salad and the rest is tailored to me. There is a ton of normal food to eat!! The first couple weeks I was exhausted of eating so much food! Its a simple one page instruction plan, super simple. Anyone who knows me knows I hate cooking, so I am constantly picking my counselors brains for ways to combine my food combinations. She is great at this.

Until I reach 90% of my goal way I remain on this plan, and it keeps me in ketoacidosis, but not in an unhealthy way (which is why your doc has to write a prescription and follow you on the plan). They are letting my pancreas rest. When I reach 90% of my goal weight, they will slowing reintroduce the healthy carbs, and slowly wake my pancreas back up, and teach it how its supposed to work again. Only once have I experience a headache and looking back over the food journal, it was when I allowed myself to dehydrate.

For the very first time in many years I actually got to hear my stomach growl because it was actually HUNGRY! It was weird. Because I have a goal in mind I am able to negotiate around the temptations, and remain on course. I am actually enjoying some cooking now. I feel like I am in control. Yes, I have slipped, I had alcohol. And it threw me out of ketoacidosis, and I had to buckle down and really focus for a few days to get back in. I'm not counting calories (that would drive me to drink!), I am just eating incredible normal and well. How I should have been eating all along.

With my new discovery of hunger pangs, my counselor and I altered my plan and put my snack around 2-3, instead of before bed. This way I won't hit the 4-5 hour and be starving. She indicated that this was a sign that my body was beginning to regulate itself, and using the stored fats for its energy.  So they tell me the norm these days is a weight loss of 3-5 lbs a week is healthy, and I am doing things right. An average weight loss for the month is about 15lbs, 12lbs for the paramenapausal woman (that should be me).

So without telling you what my weight and actual stats are, I want to share with you my progress (really all the weigh-in posts won't be this long, but I had to tell you about the process). I have been at this, just a few days over a month, to date I have lost

19.8 lbs

32.0 inches

BMI down by 2.4 points

% of body fat decreased by 1.5%

4.5" in my chest

4.5" in my waist

3" in my hips

1" in my arms

3" in my thighs

There were a couple more measurements (Neck, shoulders, under carriage, and ankles) by they aren't tracked on my sheet, but in the health record.

The hump at the back of my neck is gone, I have cheek bones and facial lines again, I am seeing the outline of my deltoids, I actually see the normal curve of my neck along my shoulders and not the Tom Cruise straight slant from neck to shoulders. I am one size smaller in my scrub top. My largest pants are feeling looser.

When I first started this I used my stairs at work to start some kind of real physical activitiy. There is 7 flights. I have been making it up 3 and totally winded, after catching my breath I make it to 5, stop for a short breather and then on up to 7. I try to do that 3 times a week. This past week I started the Turbo Jam workout (w/ Chalene Johnson) from the Beach body series. I also have Tony Hortons 10 minute work out (also from the Beach Body series) and I have a Swiss Ball workout. Once I figure out what I want to do on what days I will be working in 2 days of the Namaste yoga (for you CH hospital folks that is the ones that they did downstairs there for a while) right here in Woodland Park on Mondays and Wednesdays. I loved how I felt and how flexible I became when I was doing yoga before, so I look forward to enhancing my workouts with this again. I got new walking shoes, because I have the loveliest scenery to walk in up her in the mountains, and I have a bike. I need to get used to the walking because we will be doing alot in Scotland.

So...there you have it....this is part of my Phoenix Rising. This is MY year. I will find my carpenter man (that is a whole other posting), and I will feel good about me.

Thanks for enduring the long post...now you can just get the updates on .....Weigh-in Wednesday!!!!