Confessions of a Sugarholic

Hello Readers! I'm sorry for the late post. This last week did not go as I hoped. That's what happens in life. Murphy's Law does exist, and my personal motto has already been "Life is how you handle Plan B." I definitely feel like I'm in Plan B mode, and I'm going to handle it like a boss. I'm finally in week six, and this week I'm allowed to go back to the gym and I can start with light weights. Sadly, I only worked out one day, and I did Zumba. I did great, but I didn't have the opportunity to do more than the one day. I'm a bit disappointed in myself that I didn't make more of an effort to go, and based on what happened later in the week and yesterday, I think I have bigger fish to fry than getting 3-5 days of activity in at this point. My 41st birthday was Sunday, and overall I had a good birthday. I spent time with family and friends, which is how I like to celebrate. I didn't eat much. Had the opportunity to eat cake, ha...

Hello Readers!  I feel like I've done a complete 180 from last week.  It's amazing what a week of horrible eating and reflection can do for you. Last week I felt like I was standing on the edge of a precipice.  Directionless.  I wondered how did I get so distracted...so far off track.  I allowed these distraction to take control and move in a direction that I knew wasn't good for me.  I knew this.  I even asked myself while I was stuffing numerous hot tamales in my mouth, "What on earth are you doing to yourself?"  I used to ask myself this questions when I would binge.  I'd never answer the question though because I don't think I knew the answer to be quite honest. The difference this time around was that I stopped it.  I stopped the behavior.  I thought about why I was doing it.  I also thought about if the result of eating all that candy made me feel better.  It didn't.  It never made me feel better. Back then...

Hi everyone.  I was busy entertaining a high level VIP in my life so I wasn't able to post last week (wink).  I'm sure you guys missed me (yeah, right), so I'll get right down to it. My Whole 30 is over.  Monday, March 18th was my official last day.  Funny that I also had my physical that day at the doctor.  I had a fasting blood test, and I tried to get the results before posting, but I wasn't able to swing by the office and pick them up.  I'll make sure to include them next week. I'll admit I'm a bit anxious to find out what those results say about my diet changes.  I did notice a significant drop in my blood pressure.  I'm starting to keep track of it so I can provide my doctor with historical data.  That's probably the only way I'll be able to convince him that I'm ready to be weaned off.  Sadly, once you are on maintenance medication, you just can't stop it cold turkey.  It can dangerous, and I want to get rid of all t...

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 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...

Hey!  How's it going out there?  Another week has come and gone.  I swear time is moving super fast.  I blink and Saturday is here again.  This week went well.  I don't know if I've mentioned this earlier, but I decided to give up diet carbonated drinks.  I feel I need to focus on getting more water in me so I decided to remove diet pop and replace it with water.  I've been doing this for over two weeks now, and I thought it would be really hard, but it wasn't.  I wondered if my body would go through some weird adjustment phase, but I was fine, and I feel fine now.  I still crave them from time to time, but it isn't bad.  YUM YUM! Just as good as a real burger. I'm also dabbling a bit in vegetarianism.  I haven't made any decisions yet.  If anything, I will incorporate more veggie items and less meat. I've never been a big steak or chicken person.  I do enjoy eating ground beef and turkey.  I sampled the Veg...

Hey bloggers!  Another week has come and gone.  It seems that time is just flying by.   I can't believe that it's almost been a year since I started my new life.  I've had some hiccups - ups and downs.  I'm just happy that I made the conscious decision to stick with this and not deviate.  It used to be easy to give up and say, "I don't want to do this anymore."  But, I'm not that person anymore.  I don't want to be obese and unhealthy.  I'm living a full, active life, accomplishing goals, and doing things I though I never could, and I'm much happier for it. This week was...interesting to say the least.  I decided to do something this week that I haven't done in a very long time.  I didn't know what would happen, but what the hell, right?  You only live once.  So, what did I do?  I CHEATED . Cheated?  What do you mean you cheated?  Well, I don't really like the word "cheat."  Cheating signifies ...

Happy Saturday Readers!  I started off my Saturday with a very long and vigorous 6.5 mile walk.  I'm working on getting my time down for that 10K next year so I've pledged to walk and eventually walk/run every Saturday on the The Western Reserve Greenway Trail in Ashtabula.  It's a very lovely trail and a peaceful walk.  I never considered myself much of a walker, but if you have the right tunes and scenery, it's an amazing form of exercise.  My mom and niece joined me today so it was nice to have them...and I smoked them both.  That felt pretty good since my niece is 15 and very healthy.  HAHA! I had a couple of good weeks since I've been back from vacation.  I have tweaked my LiveStrong App and increased my daily calorie intake.  I'm glad I did that because I'm really increasing my exercise intensity, and I will need more energy to make sure I can continue to lose weight and be healthy.  I'm not one to starve myself either since ...

Good Saturday Blog Readers!  It's a beautiful morning in Northeastern Ohio...just in case you didn't know what I was located.  We've had a relatively mild winter - which has been lovely let me tell you.  I am hoping that Spring is right around the corner, and considering that we will have temps in the lower 60's this week, maybe we've turned the corner.  That would be great because better weather means more opportunities for outside activities. I've had an awesome week folks.  D.T. wasn't dogging my step this week.  He was amazingly absent.  Perhaps he took a long deserved vacation because he was working overtime last week.  I hope he enjoys his vaca and stays even longer.  The longer he languishes out of my sight, the better. I felt completely different this week as well.  I had amazing energy.  I pushed myself to exercise a little bit harder everyday.  I'm hoping to work my body harder each day so muscle memory won't deve...

Week #4 has come and gone.  One month into my quest for better health and a better quality of life, and I already feel different.  I definitely have more energy.  I have a pep in my step - where before I used to dread leaving my desk to go to the bathroom or even warm up my lunch.  Let me tell you I used to find reasons not to move before.  It's amazing what a little exercise will do your body mentally and physically. Week #4 also find me down two more pounds for a total weight loss of 13 LBS. IN FOUR WEEKS!   That's pretty awesome, so right now I'm mentally patting myself on my back.  I feel quite good about what I've been able to do so far.  I've been able to go out to eat and make some good choices, and some not so good choices.  For example, I ate at Red Robin twice in a weeks period.  That's not the best decision I ever made, but I made sure that if I ate a cheeseburger and steak fries, I was going to earn them.  An...