Confessions of a Sugarholic

Hello there! It's been six months since my last blog post, so I suppose it's time to let you all know what I've been up to. My goals I set for myself are still steady, and I hope by the end of the year that I've accomplished them. I'm pretty confident that I can reach them although I've been sidelined for a bit, and I haven't had the opportunity to work out as I'd like. Let me explain. As most of you know, I've been on a weight loss journey of the ages. My highest recorded weight was 361 pound circa 2006 - around the time I was in grad school. Things were quite bleak, stressful and lonely. Not to mention all the health issues I had. So I lost weight on a doctor supervised Protein Sparing Modified Fast - now popularly called Ketogenetic diet - it worked, and I got down to 220's, but it didn't stick unfortunately. At that point, I pursued weight loss surgery, and my insurance approved me for a gastric by-pass, but I wasn't sure a...

Greetings! I hope you had a decent Monday. This week was quite interesting and a lot happened. So, strap in because I hope you won't mind a longer post since I have quite a bit to report. First off, I had my second post-surgery check in with my Physician's Assistant today. It was a good check up. I got my "report card," which is just a summary of weight loss since I started the program in January. I'm down 61.5 pounds since January 2017. I've lost almost 37% of my excess body weight. One thing I wasn't expecting was a high blood pressure reading - 132/93. I'm pretty bummed about that, but I hope it's an anomaly because I haven't had a reading that high in a long time. Plus, I hate that the office uses a machine. I also just ran up two flights of stairs so maybe that was the problem. I will see my PCP on Friday, and I'll speak about it with him. I'm more concerned about his reading and evaluation. They don't use a machine at my...

Hello my lovely readers, and Happy Labor Day for those of you who reside in the United States. I hope you take advantage of the time off to do something you enjoy. For those of us who live in northwest Pennsylvania/northeast Ohio, it's a lovely day. I started my day with some activity.  I did some weight training - I bought 2 ten pound dumbbells and some resistance bands and put those to good use. I also swung my 20 pound kettlebell - single arm swings, snatches, squats and full American swings. I'll admit I was curious/concerned how my incision sites would react. I have one incision that goes quite deep and there were some internal stitches that may take 8-10 weeks to fully heal, but I was given the green light to start weights at 6 weeks.  It's been 7 weeks now, and no pain anywhere. I'm quite pleased with that so I'll make sure to incorporate more weights 3x a week for about 30 minutes along with my other cardio. So, how is Matilda doing? She's great. ...

It's been a very long time, well over two years, and  and a lot has happened in that time.  First, the most amazing thing...I got married to the most wonderful man on 2/3/2016. We are still going strong. He is my best friend, my biggest support and my rock. My life is so much better with him. We got married in Las Vegas, which was perfect for us since that was the first trip we took together as a couple. Happiest day of my life! As you can also see in this picture, I gained a significant amount of weight that I lost over 5+ years ago when I started this blog. It's definitely disappointing. If you have ever gone through significant weight loss only to regain, it's very difficult and demoralizing, and I've gone through this TWICE! I was so ready to get rid of all those "BIG CLOTHES" in my closet when I shed weight. Then, when I started gaining, I couldn't fit anything. So, I ran back to those stores I swore I'd never shop at again just to buy just...

Well, I broke that New Year's Resolution pretty quick, didn't I?  I said I would try to blog weekly, and I haven't looked at this blog in quite some time.  I'm sorry about that.  Sometimes, I just don't have much to share or talk about.  Rest assured that I haven't stopped doing what I need to do to maintain.  I will say that since January I have been going through quite a bit of self-reflection, and I going to share with you some of my conclusions. For those of you that have been with me since day one on my journey, you know I had two specific goals in mind.  Let me restate those: Weigh 160 pounds. Get off of all of my medications I knew it was easier said than done, and I planned on tracking my calories - creating that all-mighty calorie deficit so I could lose 1.2 pounds a week and get there in three years time.  My first year was highly successful, and I was running way ahead of schedule.  My second year started with me feel...

 It feels good to let my finger do the talking once again.  Hey readers.  I sure did take a leave of absence, didn't I?  I also feel I lost myself in the process.  After my mid-week meltdown, I've been doing a lot of self-reflection thinking about where I derailed.  It wasn't any event or circumstance that caused it.  It's really just plain old complacency and laziness, with a dash of arrogance.   Complacent. Webster defines complacent as "satisfied with how things are and not wanting to change them."  I'd say that was true.  I remember saying to myself over the last few months, "I'd be happy if I stay just how I am right now."  I don't think I truly believed that, but that was what I was telling myself.   Lazy, defined as "disinclined to activity or exertion : not energetic or vigorous."  I'd agree with that.  Sure, I still worked out more days during the week than not, but sometimes I wasn't feeling ...

Hey readers!  Sorry for not posting last week.  Nothing was wrong.  I just didn't have anything profound to share, and I'm thinking that's not a bad thing.  I feel like my new lifestyle is taking hold and cementing into place, and sometimes I don't have much to report.  Or it could have been because I did my longest, long run as part of my 14 week training program for the Cleveland Half Marathon (TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY! YIKES!), and it completely tired me out.  10 miles.  I think it went well.  I felt like it would have been better if I had water available to drink though out.  I was quite dehydrated after finishing so I talked up on water to rehydrate. The half marathon has many water breaks so I feel I'll be okay.  Plus, when I finished I felt like I could still continue, and at that distance, I would only have 3 more miles left. I definitely feeling better about the Half. This past Saturday, I ran my first 5K and I finished in ...

Good day to all my readers and followers out there.  I hope you are all doing well.  I'm doing really good.  Another week down, and I'm still going strong.  It was a pretty productive week, and I finally feel like I've hit my stride.  Literally!  I've finally found my running pace. I've been paying a lot of attention over the past few weeks of how I've been feeling during my runs.  When I'm on the treadmill, the run is very short so I'm able to run short intervals at 5 mph and above (3-4 minute intervals).  I walk for 1-2 minutes.  I usually don't run for more than 55 minutes during the week. My long runs are on the weekend.  When I attempt the same pace (5 mph), I have a much harder time going the distance, and I think it's because I'm running for distance and not minutes, so I fizzle out pretty quick. This week, I tried something different. I took my run pace down to 4.7-4.8 mph and did a 3/2 interval (3 min run/2 min walk)....

Hey Folks.  I hope you all had a good week.  Mine was quite terrific, and a hell of a lot easier than last week. Yes, I am still in the thick of my Whole30 program.  I'm at the half-way point now, and I'm amazed at how quickly it's passing.  I haven't had any slip ups as far as I know, and although I still have cravings for sugar/artificial sweetener, it hasn't been too hard to get over it.  In the end, it's best that I really leave those things alone. As I mentioned above, I had a pretty awesome week.  Energy is up.  Sleep is beyond amazing and really restful.  Everything is ticking along like clockwork.  I've started to notice some physical changes too. When I was heavier, I had a lot problems with fluid pooling in my ankles.  Fluid retention is a very serious medical condition, and mine was brought on by high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes.  My left ankle would swell so badly that I would have trouble walking as...

Hey everyone.  Week one of the Whole30 Program is done, and I'm still alive.  I didn't die by eliminating added sugars, alcohol, grains, beans and whatnot from my diet.  But I will tell you one thing, this week was not easy.  Let me elaborate.The creators of the Whole9 state on their website that, "Whole9’s original program designed to change your life in 30 days. Think of it as a short-term nutritional reset, designed to help you restore a healthy metabolism, heal your digestive tract, calm systemic inflammation and put an end to unhealthy cravings, habits, and relationships with food."  In reading their book, I realized that I wasn't making the best choices for optimal mental and physical performance so I decided to give it a try.  I'm going to give you an idea of how my week went - feel free to skip through the days if you aren't interested. Sunday... I started.  It was fun playing in the kitchen and making some new dishes that were very health...

Hey Readers!  I hope you guys don't mind that I took a break last week.  I wasn't taking a vacation.  I had homework, research, and decisions to make.  Let me explain. I knew that losing weight by using calorie restriction would only get me so far.  Our bodies are very smart, and they adapt very quickly.  In my case, I have a tremendous amount of weight to lose.  So at the beginning, eating less and moving more was a no brainer.  The weight fell off quickly and steadily.  In that time, my body was most likely in shock thinking, "WTF does she think she's doing?  I can't keep up with what she's doing!"  But, eventually, it did. When your body adapts, the weight loss tends to taper off and stabilize - the dreaded plateaus.  I'm sure I would still be able to lose weight, but it would be slow-going and frustrating.  When this happens to a lot of people in my situation, they become despondent and start falling into da...