Confessions of a Sugarholic

Hello everyone! I'm heading into week 16... Wow! I'm still trying to wrap my head around how quickly the time is passing. When I was in the pre-surgical program, I was grateful for the time I had to prepare myself for life after surgery. Now that I'm in the thick of it, I'm happy with my progress so far. Matilda and I are getting along great. Sure, she makes weird noises often, but I appreciate every noise, every twitch, every warning. I listen to her when she's telling me she's had enough or she doesn't like something... And especially when she loves something. It's hard to stop eating when you're enjoying your food, but I do. I do stop. I think that's what make me so content. I feel like I am doing well managing my portions and impulses. This past week, I had another NSV or Non-scale Victory. On Friday, I checked in with my Primary Doctor for a blood pressure check. My blood pressure has been on the low side, and I told him that I've be...

Happy Monday, Readers. It's definitely been a week of developments. All week, my stall has been in the back of my mind nagging slightly, but not discouraging me. If anything, it was nagging me to work harder and not quit. I was very determined this week, and I also started my new weight training plan for the next five weeks.  There was some hella sweat and pain this week. I was tired, and I was suffering from muscle fatigue - which can be a good thing. Muscles break down when stressed, and repair themselves, which makes you stronger. Friday, my leg day, incorporated and additional set of squats and lunges. So now I do wide stance and close stance on squats and walking lunges and side lunges. I thought nothing of the side lunges since they appeared to be quite innocent. My butt and legs are still sore...three days later! My interval running has also improved. I notice that my heart rate isn't as high as it was when running intervals at 4 mph - which means my endurance is i...

Hey readers!  I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far.  Mine has been pretty awesome.  As you know, today was the American Diabetes Association Step Out.  I had a great time with my friends, who also happen to be my co-workers and work out buddies.  We killed that 4 mile walk - which actually ended up being 3.59 miles.  We even took the healthy detour, which took us down into the flats in Cleveland.  That also means a hefty downhill and uphill walk, and I smoked them both.  Considering that we were walking with hundreds of people, we were able to make good time and got done under an hour.     We even made a pit stop at the Cleveland Cavaliers Team Shop.  I needed some new slim gear to wear to the games this year.  It felt great to be able to buy a ladies jersey with my favorite player's name and number.  I've never had that experience before.  I'm even happy to be able to go to the games t...

Happy Fall Everyone!  I have to admit I'm supercharged this morning, and there are several reasons why.  First, we are entering my favorite season of the year. I love Fall.  I love the colors.  My favorite holidays are in fall (Halloween and Thanksgiving).  I love the cool temperatures and the clothes.  I love all the fun activities.  Fall is just a time for getting comfy.  To celebrate fall, I've decided to have a spot of tea while writing the blog.  I'm all in the spirit today.  Got London on the mind hence the tea.  It's not Earl Grey or Twinnings, but it'll do. As for the other reason... I've hit a rather important milestone today.  It's been on my heals teasing me for well over a month, and we've been dancing around each other like we're partners in the Tango.  Well, I finally tackled it this week, and believe me, it was a pain-infested, brutal, no-holds bared battle to the finish, and I won!  That's right....

Hey Readers!  I hope everyone had a productive week.  Sometimes I find that short work weeks are more challenging than regular ones because your schedule is a bit out of wack.  Considering that I was at war with my body, I was a bit apprehensive about this week.  I just wanted to get myself back to "normal."  Get my schedule back on track.  I admit that I haven't felt like "myself" lately.  I don't know if it due to me adjusting to being in a relationship again.  Maybe I was totally too pumped up for my birthday, and we all know how that ended.  I just know that I was tired not "moving."  I felt I was stagnant, and that plateau was just weighing on me.  More so than Doubting Thomas and his sidekick ever could. Plateaus are tough.  And this one was even worse because I'm so close to the century club.  It seemed like I hit 90 pounds, and my body refused to budge.  Back and forth I went.  I was up. I was ...

Hey blog readers. Sorry for the late posting. This past weekend was crazy busy. I had two family dinners and caught up with my bestie. I was able to get an interval walk/run in on Saturday morning. I haven’t run outside in over a month. I figured that since I hadn’t run in a while, I’d have a poor time, but I still finished with my best time yet. Each time I get faster which is what I’m aiming for. I think I’m going to pick up intervals again during the week too. Give myself a chance to do it two times a week – once on a treadmill and once outside. Hopefully, the extra day will give me more opportunities to trim my time. Well, regarding my weigh in on Saturday… I’m trying to not let it bother me too much. I gained 0.6 pounds. Nothing like what happened a few weeks ago. I steadily tracked all week and exercised 6 out of 7 days. So based on that information, one of two things happened. 1. I’m gaining muscle. Muscle is denser and weighs more than fat. However, it takes up way l...

Hey readers!  It was one hell of a week let me tell you.  It was challenging, but I muddled through.  I also felt inspired because I knew I was completing my 26th week.  Six months into my new life...  I never thought I'd be where I am right now.  I'm on the cusp of entering the Century Club.  I've lost 87.2 pounds in 6 months.  It's still hard for me to put my mind around that, especially since I was able to do it without any serious restrictions.  I'm still eating carbs. I'm still eating fats. I'm still eating protein.  If there is one thing that I've learned so far is that a diet that restricts either of those three items won't work for me.  I needed to learn how to eat and make tradeoffs.  I was able to lose this weight eating an occasional cheeseburger and piece of dessert or candy.  I'm much happier for it.  When I see myself in the mirror, it's still a bit surreal.  I guess because it happene...

One down...Two to go! Good evening everyone!  As you can see by my entry title, I reached my first milestone.  At the end of my 20th week into my new lifestyle, I have lost 63.4 pounds.  That's an average of 3.17 pounds a week.  Considering I was only hoping to lose about 1.2/week, that's pretty substantial...and a full 32 weeks ahead of schedule! And believe me, I did have to prove that I reached my first goal.  My sister did witness the weigh in and happily handed over my prize.  It was such a pretty box that I didn't want to open it.  I just gazed at it this morning, happily smiling, as I ate my breakfast.  I didn't even take today off to celebrate.  I did a 4 mile interval walk/jog.  I'm getting my body used to running on asphalt.  It's quite a difference from the treadmill. I feel a great sense of accomplishment.  I'm glad the first hurdle has been jumped.  It wasn't easy.  There were many day...

Good Saturday everyone!  I hope you are enjoying your weekend.  It's another lovely weekend here.  I'm lookig forward to the activities planned.  Hanging out with friends today and family tomorrow...good times :) I had a really good week.  I'm still kicking up my workouts each week...always aiming for higher intensity workouts.  If you follow me on Facebook, you also saw that on Tuesday I was inspired and rocked my best elliptical workout to date.  Of course, I had a lovely view during that time.  There is this really nice looking guy in the gym that I was scoping out.  Wow!  That was fun and fantastic. I also reconnected with a really good friend of mine.  She's my riding buddy.  For those of you who don't know, I happen to own a motorcycle that I like to ride from time to time.  I haven't ridden it much over the last year.  To be honest, being as heavy as I was made for a poor experience on the bike, and I was...

 Good day Blog Readers!  I'm happy to say that week 10 went a hell of a lot better than week 9.  Work is still very busy, but I like it that way.  It keeps me busy, and it makes the day past quickly.  This week resulted in my fastest 3K walk-run.  I'm made it up to 3.3 miles in 60 minutes so each week I'm going to push for a 0.1 mile increase in an hour.  So, by the end of next week I should be at 3.4 miles.  I was also able to run for 2 minutes straight.  I also feel that my running posture is getting better.  I'm paying attention to how I place my feet when I walk and run, making sure that I lead with my heel and keep my head elevated.  It really makes a difference and harbors less stress on the body.  So, have you noticed my moodies?  They are pretty good at visually describing how I've been feeling.  My mood for this week is very optimistic.  In fact, I'd say my glass is over ...

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...

So, now that I've made the conscious choice to change my life and improve my health for the better, I need to set my goals.  I do have an idea of what I would like my weight to be, but I don't want that to be my ultimate goal.  I have a two goals in mind.  My first goal is accomplished when my physicians says, "You don't need to take these diabetes and high blood pressure meds anymore."  I know the reason why I'm on both is because of the weight.  I also know that type two diabetes can virtually disappear with weight loss because it's happened to me before (see previous blog post). My second goal - get my weight down to 160 lbs.  Why 160 lbs. you ask?  Well, I'm being realistic.  I'm never going to be 135 lbs.  I've been overweight my entire life, and my body has made allowance for carrying all that weight around.  This will definitely be a work-in-progress, and I'll talk to my doctor about healthy weights.  But for me, t...