Making Wise Choices

I cannot stress the importance of making wise decisions. Especially when you are in a situation you cannot control. In most cases, you can plan ahead. I have learned that except for exercise, this is the most important thing when working on a weight loss goal. I could go to the gym all day long, but if I eat my old lifestyle, it would do me no good toward losing weight. Last Saturday I did a 4,000 calorie workout. Five hours. That is what I used to eat during the day. I don't know about you, but I don't have 5 hours a day to workout to just MAINTAIN my current weight at which I am miserable! If I were eating my old lifestyle, it would literally take more than five hours of workout to put me in the negative calories from what I used to eat. 

This week has been a little difficult for me since I've been in the hospital. Now, when I first got here I didn't get to pick the first day worth of food. So...needless to say, it was horrible. Breakfast consisted of biscuits, eggs with cheese, hash browns and bacon. After that, I asked for the heart healthy diet, thinking I would get healthier options. Well, that has worked for me...until today. Today's options - BBQ beef on a crusty roll or Mac & cheese. Totally healthy, huh? Thankfully my friend Cynthia and my friend Trent brought me some stuff. Hopefully, I will be satisfied. It's a long time between meals around here. 

I miss the gym. I miss working out. I almost feel lost. Nope. I do feel lost. It has become such a part of who I am on this journey for a healthier lifestyle. I can't wait til I can go back, even if on a limited basis. 

While I'm on the subject of exercising, DO IT.  Don't question it...think about it...get in the zone and just do it. Today's motivational quote is, "do what you can, where you are, with what you have. No excuses. "

For me that means my sit-ups and crunches and leg lifts.  I have no ability to bend my arm since there is an IV in it...but otherwise I would be planking too. It means walking the wing of the hospital throughout the day. 

 Don't let an excuse stop you from reaching your goals. 

Take Control of Your Life

This post is raw and to the point. Take control of your life. Do not wait. I cannot beg and plead with you enough. I wish I would have listened through the years. I didn't. Now, I am paying for it. 

If you've read my blog since the beginning, you know my weight topped out around 459 pounds. And, I was miserable. I put on a good show for people, but I truly was miserable. And, unknown to me, I was causing lots of health problems for myself. Ones that would creep up years later and plague me when I least expected it. 

In 2011, I developed cellulitis in my left leg. Sometime prior to that I developed lymphedema in both legs. There is no cure for lymphedema. It may reduce as I get smaller, but it is something I will struggle with for the rest of my life. I don't even remember when I developed the lymphedema, that's how long I've had it. Lymphedema causes my legs to swell up and become very right and painful. If I push my finger on my leg, an infection will appear and stay there for awhile. 

Anyway, I digress. So 2011 rolls around. The cellulitis required surgery on the front and back of my leg. I was hospitalized for two weeks. Then home bound for another four weeks. Not four weeks after I came home, I developed it again in my right arm. Also required surgery and a week's hospitalization. Then, homebound for another week. After that, I went about 9 months with no problems. Last October, it came out of nowhere, and I was hospitalized for about a week or so. No surgery. Now, this time. 

My point in all this is TAKE CONTROL. I had no idea all the damage I was doing to my body. I thought health wise, except for being uncomfortable, that I was fine. I did not struggle with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. No symptoms presented themselves until it was too late. The damage was done. And now I will have to live with this chronic problem for the rest of my life. 

Please, I beg of you. Do not wait. Take control. Don't let unforeseen health problems kick you to the curb because you didn't take care of your body. Take it from someone who has been there. It's not a fun place to be. I realize there are things that are worse, but the bottom line is that all of this could've been avoided. 

Please. Do something. 

Triple Digits, Baby!

It has been a couple weeks since I blogged. Too many weeks. After my last post, I had to focus on getting myself back on track. I'm not saying I didn't slip up. I'm not saying I was perfect. I wasn't. But, I did improve.

On Saturday, August 24th, I weighed myself. I was still a little down emotionally, after all,....I had still had about 7 pounds to go to reach 100 pounds. And, I had 7 days to do it if I was going to meet my goal. So I just determined that I was going to stay at the gym as long as I could physically muster it on Saturday. Five Hours. Four Thousand Calorie Workout. I. Did. It. I was so exhausted, I'm not going to lie. My friend Cynthia and I did our training sessions together on Saturday morning, so we met Danny at the gym at 6:30 a.m. There, he proceeded to give us one heck of a workout....wanna know what it was? Okay, I'll tell you. Fifty Chest Presses. One Hundred Lat Pulldowns. One Hundred Fifty Squats...while holding a 25 pound plate. It took us literally 45 minutes to complete that craziness. Man, we were sore, too! After that, we took a half-mile stroll/jog around the shopping center. The goal was to come in under 8 minutes (a record for me - my fastest is around 11). We made it in 9. So, then, we had to do sit-ups, since we didn't make it back in time. Oh well...we did 40 sit-ups, and then I continued to keep going to finish out my ab challenge. After that was complete, I worked out with another girl at the gym, Ally. That was a crazy workout. It was more of the chest and back (I think....it's all kinda blurry, honestly) with cardio intervals in between. But, we finished it. After that was over, I still had to do some cardio, so off to the elliptical I went. Grudgingly. I'm really not a fan of that machine. At. All. But, it gets the job done. When I was officially done with my cardio time, I was at 3,970 calories. That's just a weird number. I needed to finish out 4,000 calories as a personal best for me. So, I did. And you know what, I lived to tell the story. I could hardly walk on Sunday, but I lived.

Sunday was definitely a rest day for me. Sort of. I had my 3 year old nephew, so however much of a rest that turns out to be, well, you understand. I did not go to the gym.

Monday was supposed to be Small Group Training (SGT). We had to cancel last night, but I just searched online to find a workout that did not involve cardio (since the girls I did it with did the Spartan race on Saturday and messed up their feet). It consisted of (we only made it through 2 rounds before it was time for my training session):

Sounds fairly simple, right? NOPE. At any rate, long story short, I went on to training. For training, Danny had us do the lovely stairmaster, bicep curls with 20 lb. dumbbells, elliptical, 15 lb. preacher curls, repeat. After that, we finished up the remainder of my cardio. After that, we headed to the scale. I simply couldn't believe it. The scale showed I had lost not just 100 pounds, but 105! I was so shocked I think I literally almost sunk through the floor. 

So since I started this post on Tuesday at lunch, I've been admitted as a patient at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center. I got bitten by a mosquito or other insect and my cellulitis flared up. I started feeling achy around 3:00ish Tuesday afternoon, and by the time I got home around 6:00, I was shivering from head to toe. At one point, I was laying in my bed in sweatpants, a tshirt, track jacket, bathrobe and had a comforter pulled up over my head. After not being able to be warm, I decided to go to the hospital and see if they'd give me a prescription since in times past, the cellulitis spread rapidly. Well, that turned into IV antibiotics. And a hospital admission. Not exactly what I was planning to do with my week. Anyway, they gave me Vancomyacin, which is a very strong antibiotic. It caused me to develop Red Man's Syndrome...basically, your face turns blood red and gets really hot. Then, you start to itch. For at least an hour. It finally subsided. Thankfully, the doctor switched my antibiotic and I've had my first dose since then with no reaction. 

Had lots of visitors today...thank you to all who came. It really does get lonesome in here and a girl can only watch so much HGTV!