Some thoughts and milestones on my weight loss journey...m

I'm long overdue for an update.

Drum roll please...

I am down about 45 pounds now. I say “about” because weight loss for me is not a straight line. (Also, my scale gives me 5 different readings when I step on it 10 times. I try to average what I think is correct.) 

So far this year, I have lost 27 pounds, which is about .6 pounds a week, or about 2.25 pounds per month. That amount of weight loss can be hard to see when our bodies change so much from day to day. A late meal, or even my state of hydration, can overshadow .6 pounds per week weight loss.

But the amount of loss is better than my previous two years combined: just 11 pounds for all of 2013, and only 7 pounds for all of 2012.

And even better, my weight loss has been cumulative, and 27 + 11 + 7 still adds up to 45 pounds lost, whether I did it in one year or three.

So how did I do it? Well, I've changed a lot since my last weight report. I started by making a lot of little changes:

1. I have learned to be patient with myself.
I record just the lower numbers as I lose weight. I look at these numbers as stepping stones and milestones. I do not stress that the scale goes up again the next day: it will continue to go down.

2. I've been changing the way I look at food.
Food is fuel for my body. Of course we all know that at some level. But reminding myself of that makes me make better choices.
Food is not comfort, nor is it a reward. Those two ideas are harder to accept, but accepting those ideas helps me to avoid temptations.

When I have a treat, I try to limit it to one serving. I don't accept giveaways. I went to choir last week, and one of the nuns offered me a donut. In the past, I would have had one (or two). Many places have a bowl of candy available, I have been really trying to just pass it by.

3. I've been changing the way I eat.
I put smaller portions on my plate; I take smaller bites; I eat more slowly.

4. I've been changing what I eat.
I make better choices. I've been eating lots more fresh fruit and veggies. I've been eating a lot less carbs.
Breakfast is yogurt and fruit, rather than a bowl of cereal.
When there are choices, I avoid bread, pasta, rice, and pizza, by having a very small serving or no serving.

5. I've been changing the way I cook meals.
I try to serve meals with protein plus lots of veggies. I try not to serve carbs at all.

However, my family still loves their carbs. So if supper is carb-heavy, I make adjustments for myself. Pasta & sausages for them becomes just a small serving of pasta, a sausage, but a large salad or lots of cherry tomatoes. Veggie subs, becomes just the veggies (similar to Subway's "sub in a tub"). On pizza nights, I'll eat just one slice, or even better, just one half slice of pizza, and fill up on cherry tomatoes.

6. I've been changing the way I buy groceries.
I have been buying so much more fresh fruit and veggies, and simple proteins.
I buy less food at a time but shop more often so that the perishable foods stay fresh. I'll get just 1 gallon milk, and one container each of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Then I'll get more of the same later in the week.
I buy much less prepared foods, and I don't buy junk food.
I stopped buying our favorite treats: ice cream, cookies, chocolate, and butter cookies. I didn't go back to the stores on November 1 to buy candy on sale. I find that all of us eat less junk food when it's not in the house.

7. I changed the way I looked at exercising.
Exercising is not a chore. Exercising makes me stronger. Every time I exercise, I am a winner. I have been using step counters, and my daily steps have been increasing steadily for the last 3 years. I've been walking the dog more often, and for longer walks.

8. I started a training program.
I'm doing Couch to 5K by RunDouble. Theoretically, a person can go from being a couch potato to running a 5K race in just 9 weeks. I took me close to a year to run the distance of 5K.

I was doing well with the running. I got up to 3.5 miles in a run, and I was running 3 to 6 times a week. But we had some illnesses, I had the craft fair, and it has gotten real cold. I jog while I walk the dog, and he tries to keep up. I also jog in place when he stops. Maybe I can interest my girls in doing some "just Dance" on the Wii with me. I need to figure how to incorporate exercise when the weather is bad, or someone is sick, or I'm too busy.

I am happy to see that 45 pounds lost is getting some more milestones for me. I have achieved more than 68% of my weight loss goal, and I am more than 23% lighter overall than when I started. I started at a BMI of 34%, which is in the middle of Obese, I now have a BMI of 29%, which is the lower end of Overweight. Just 10 more pounds will get me to 24%, and the upper range of Healthy. My goal is another 10 pounds down from there, at 22%.

My clothes are all loose. I look better. I feel much better. The other day, I took Pink Ballerina shopping for a dress for a formal. While we were there, I bought myself some two new concert black dresses (from the clearance section, each dress was only $14.99). They both are classic styles and they look great on me.

I also have more energy. On our way out of the mall, we passed a Toys R Us with a floor piano on display. Lots of people were walking on it, but just hitting random notes. I went on it, jumped around, and played Chop Sticks. Pink Ballerina was embarrassed, but a woman came up to me and said it sounded great. All the way home I kept saying, “I played Chop Sticks, on a floor piano!” (For Whovians, I used the voice of the 11^th Doctor, when he said “Dinosaurs, on a space ship!”)

Many people are noticing either that I look great or that I’ve lost a lot of weight. A man from church stopped me in the grocery. He couldn’t place me. I told him we go to the same church. “Oh, you’ve lost a lot of weight!” Debbie from choir says “you look smaller and smaller, even smaller than you did last week.” I said “that’s because I’m still losing weight.” Liz just calls me “the incredible shrinking woman.” Hubby keeps saying how beautiful I am. With encouragement like that, I want to keep going.

Ashes

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent. For many, "ashes to ashes, and dust to dust" begins their Lenten journey. Actually, what the priest or minister says during the distribution of ashes is "Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

I find the whole ashes and dust thing very depressing. Jesus calls us to love and follow him.

Many people don't realize that there is another option: "Repent, and believe in the Gospel." In fact, in many missals, the order has changed. The repent is now listed first, the ashes is second.

I served for Ash Wednesday. While giving out ashes at Mass, I used "Repent, and believe in the Gospel." One person responded "I do." Another said "thank you."

May you find peace in Christ's Light this Lenten season.

Call to Mom's cell phone, Friday night, 9:08 PM

Mom: Hello Honey.
Teen: Where are you?
Mom: Home.
Teen: (slightly disappointed) Aren't you coming to pick me up?
Mom: I would, once I know the end time of your dance.
Teen: (a beat) Oh. It just ended.

Some (very belated) exciting news on Bumblebee

He spent 7 days of pre-vocation assessment at our county's Career Center. (Sorry, this was in Sept 2012.) Their goal: to help students achieve a safe, self-directed and independent future based upon realistic life choices and training.

During the assessment, students spend times at the different learning stations which represent the offerings of the Career Center. Student's interests, abilities, and aptitudes are identified for vocational direction.

Bumblebee really liked the bakery and culinary/food service. Bumblebee also said he liked building skills, and "driving the forklift," which is part of materials handling. We think he felt pressure to name four areas. Considering his aptitudes, his choices were narrowed to bakery and culinary/food service.

He is now in their Skills Discovery/Skills Training program. This program develops job readiness skills as well as life skills. He will be in a supportive learning environment. In other words, they will help Bumblebee get ready, both for a job and for life.

As he improves in skills, he can move up to Mainstreaming, and then Assisted Employment.

Bottom line: we found a safe place for Bumblebee to learn job and life skills.

Bumblebee enjoyed his year at the Career Center and will be going back there this year.

My music has been picking up again lately...m

It is amazing how cyclical the arts can be, or at least, appreciation for the arts. In in the Post-9/11 world, people initially were very strong in the appreciation of the arts, most specifically in the hiring of artists. In those month, many bridal couples told me how much they weren't going to let the terrorist win: not by being afraid of what's to come, nor by cutting back on the wedding they've always dreamed of having.

Still, the war dragged on, and those resolutions were tested. In 2002 and 2003, we started to see a decline in the arts, weddings were less elaborate. But then, I saw increases in 2004, 2007, and 2008. Unfortunately, from 2009 through this year it has been a long, steady decline.

So I was very pleased when in early July, I played at a new (for me) church, a Methodist church just about 1 mile from my house. The congregation is small, maybe 50-60 people, but I knew many of them.

Early August, I was in the recording session for our church's wedding musicians.

Mid-August, I was back at the Episcopal Church that calls me 2 or 3 times a year (I'm considered a "friend" of that church).

I will be playing a wedding next weekend: flute, violin, piano, and voice. The pianist, the Lady, has given us free reign for the prelude, and it will be all duets for flute and violin. I've had two rehearsals with the violinist, and many phone calls and emails, working out which arrangements of which pieces. Although that is a lot of time to spend on one wedding, I consider the time an investment. I really like the violinist and I hope that we can work together more.

So imagine my surprise when I just got a call for another wedding on the following weekend: also flute, violin, organ, and voice. The bride called because the singer and organist recommended me. The bride had two names of violinists from the singer. I recommended my violinist, especially since we will be doing the wedding a week before this one, and she was hired. We will be working with the Man, the other organist for our parish. The Man does most of the weddings and funerals for our parish. Since we have two churches in our parish, each organist is busy on Sunday.

Hubby sometimes considers my flute playing a hobby. Now he is starting to appreciate the income more.

What does Angelina Jolie's announcement mean to all of us?

Today, Angelina Jolie surprised us all by announcing she had a preventive double mastectomy. Jolie recently learned that she carries a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, which sharply increases her risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Her mother died of ovarian cancer in 2007 at the age of 56.

"My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman," Jolie declared in her New York Times op-ed article. "Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy."

All of which got me thinking about my own family history.

My maternal grandmother was in her mid-40's when she died of ovarian cancer.
My mother was 62 when an annual mammogram revealed a lump of 1 cm. She is now a 16-year breast cancer survivor.
[My sister was about 50 when she had half of her thyroid removed, the cancerous half. I know that's not in the same category as breast and ovarian cancers, but it is still cancer.]

I just had an all-clear at my annual mammogram and physical exams.

I haven't been tested for BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene status. My mother said hers was negative. My next question for my doctors will be, should I get tested?

I know many women who have battled breast cancer, certainly well within the 1 in 8 women. I remember so many of those women having to decide whether to have a lumpectomy or a mastectomy. My mother, and many others, survived breast cancer with a lumpectomy. Others had mastectomies. My dear friend Laurel had a mastectomy when they discovered a very aggressive cancer in her breast. She then had a preventative mastectomy for the other breast. She still died of breast cancer. So did Mary my neighbor, and so many more.

I found this excellent link regarding the pros and cons of preventative mastectomies. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/preventive-mastectomy

There is a lot to learn, and many factors to take into consideration. Jolie's announcement will have a lot of women asking themselves important questions. I hope they take all the facts into consideration before they consider a double mastectomy. I wonder if preventive double mastectomies will become as standardized as mammograms? That is, will doctors recommend them and will insurance companies pay for them?

Not a very good Mother's Day

My knee started getting sore Sunday, Mother's Day, after lunch, and continued getting stiff and sore throughout the afternoon. I took puppy for a slow walk, thinking maybe that would help ease the joint. I lasted 30 minutes at a very slow pace, so slow that my pedometer didn't register the middle 10 minutes!

By evening, I couldn't bear any weight on my left leg, and some movements had me gasping in pain. I took some Tylenol for the pain. I barely made it up the stairs at night.

I saw my PCP this morning. He was able to move the joint in its full range of motion (but I was in tears from the pain), and declared that all the parts seem to be in their proper place and working. He believes there is inflammation in the knee, although why is a mystery.

He has me on an anti-inflammatory and rest for 10 days. If that cures it, wonderful. If the pain comes back, we will begin "the cascade of radiological testing." (Insurance companies will insist on starting with an X-ray, although the X-ray will not show us what we need to know.)

I was enjoying my walks with puppy, and the weather was just getting nice. I was 12 for 12, exercising every day so far in May and I was even dropping a few pounds again. Phooey to be sidelined.