Doc check up and blood work up date

I have lost 60lbs since starting this but the biggest thing was getting the numbers under control

and here is the verdict

todays blood work

fasting BS 112
A1c 6.0

BP 138/68

I have put myself into a prediabetic state

I am still at risk for diabetes
I always will be
but this is much better

Doctors appointment in the morning

Tomorrow morning I have to have my fasting blood work done
for my 3 month check up
I am also getting felt up (checked for my lump)
and weighed
Im nervous about the blood work
Im nervous about the blood pressure
I nervous about the lump
I'll update when I know more

60lbs gone now pics included

As of today I have lost 60lbs
Spring has sprung here in the northwoods (finally)
so this means no more big heavy coats
I have had people asking me
what are you doing?
How are you doing it?
Weight watchers?  Atkins?
and the list goes on

now for some I cannot say
it is simple
I cut the crap
so I'll be polite and explain what cut the crap means and my favorite tools to do it

USE a website to log your food
I use MyFitnessPal because it has the largest already entered food database that gets confirmed by members who are also tracking their food

If you struggle with understanding it they have boards for posting questions
BE WARNED like anywhere in the world they are nice people and there are snarky people and there are jerks everyone has an opinion about what is the "best" way to lose weight and get healthy
it is overwhelming
Here is the best way
the way you can  stick to

that is it
that is the secret
find something to do that YOU can and will stick to
be that Paleo
or fasting
or atkins
or gallons of green tea
or bacon sandwiches every 10lbs lost
whatever

WHAT I DO
is I watch my sugar intake
and my sodium intake
by doing that the rest falls into place

LOG ACCURATELY
weigh and measure your food
buy a digital food scale or even a cheapo analog one
I got a digital scale for $15
I had an analog one or $5(it broke)
Get measuring cups and spoons
USE THEM every meal
KNOW what a portion size is
DO NOT LIE
the only one you are hurting when you lie in your logging is yourself
no one else gives a shit

READ FOOD LABELS
be an educated consumer
we put more thought into buying a TV than we do the food we put in our mouths
sure we would all love to eat beautiful gourmet meals with fresh organically grown ingredients
and free range grass fed meat or no meat whatever
I like crackers and no I am NOT grinding almonds into my nut thins
but read those labels make the choices that are best for YOU
for myself I need food with the lowest sodium content and lowest possible sugar content

I cannot believe Im saying this one
EAT VEGETABLES
I sneak them in I'm not a fan so I chose a few nutrient dense vegetables that I can tolerate

those are mashed cauliflower disguised as alfredo sauce
Spinach
tomatoes
avacadoes
onions
garlic
cucumbers (only diced super small and mixed with onions and Greek yogurt to top a sandwich)

yeah do not argue with me about what is a veggie those that know me are shocked Im eating those *shudder*

drink water
yes yes diet soda this diet food that tea this tea blah blah blah whatever
drink water
suck it up
drinks lots
dont like it plain?
add lemon juice

MOVE MORE
just do it
get up walk around the house
pace while on the phone
go for a walk after dinner
park far away from where you are going and walk in
take the stairs halfway up to your office or something
just get off your ass and move
you do not have to beat ANYONE just do more today than you did yesterday
and tomorrow do more than you did today

don't let some little thing derail you
by little thing I mean something outside YOU
are you physically injured or too sick to eat or move?

no?
then do it
I do not care if work is stressful
I do not care if you kid came home with a D
or if your house is messy
or you are having a bad hair day
or whatever

my mothers advice would work here
shit or get off the pot

AND
if something does derail you DO NOT let one day or two days or a week or month completely fuck you
brush yourself off and move on today is not yesterday !

YOU ARE NOT TOO BUSY to eat healthy
there are a LOT of tricks you can do to make healthy meals ahead of time
YOU are not too broke to eat better
you just have to be creative
and be a better shopper
this takes planning just like anything else you do in life

GO TO YOUR DOCTOR
know your stuff
know your numbers
you get one body
life is too short to be sick

MOST OF ALL
make it fun
find something YOU love and do it I love walking and dancing badly
I put on 80s pop music and walk on the treadmill like I am the lead singer of my own airband(if you are an 80s child you know what this is)
my goal is to be able to do this on my treadmill:

ASK QUESTIONS
keep looking for answers
do not settle

Those are todays pictures

Fitbit and why I love it

I have always loved pedometers
Dave laughs at me when I would grab the cheapo 2$ ones from the grocery store end caps but I love them
those are horribly inaccurate
but not bad for a cheapy

For Christmas my MIL gave me a 100$ gift card and I was thrilled
I used it to buy myself a present
I bought
my fitbit

If you do not know what they are go to google
I will give you the basics
a fitbit is a very fancy pedometer
I wear it all the time except when in the shower
and when it is charging
it is a rubber like bracelet that tracks my steps
and it tracks my sleep

The fitbit syncs with the fitbit website and I get to see how Im doing through the day and in relation to my fitbit friends

It also syncs with other sites like My fitness pal so my calories burned through walking count and I can eat a wee bit more ( my biggest problem is getting enough calories and balance sodium intake since I try to eat 1500mg or less of sodium a day)

Other sites it syncs with?
Pact
I love the Pact app I get paid money for stuff Im already doing
not much I mean last week I make something like 1.60 but HEY that is 1.60 I did not have before!

I have a fitbit flex
The neat thing about it it is so motivating
especially for a competitive person like me
I have some young dude in my friend list
he keeps topping me
I WILL NOT be topped by some kid
so I hop on my treadmill and blow his punk ass out of the water

NOW for the cost
over $100.00 (tax shipping and what if you want more than one color bracelet?)
is it worth it?

HELL YES
those that know me know I am the cheapest person around
I am cheap and often broke
BUT I attribute much of my success and motivation to this little bracelet
I check the site several times a day
I go for more walks to meet my step goal(which I set myself my current step goal is 15000 steps per day)

I walk all over town
I walk on my treadmill for 45 minutes a day
and if the treadmill is not working I pace my kitchen
there are tons of things I do to get more steps
why?
because I like to see the little lights dance on it and feel it vibrate when I have gotten all my steps
I like seeing that I am number 1 in my friends feed
I can tell you this
BEFORE my fitbit I was not getting a full 10,000 steps a day
not even with doing the Leslie Sansone videos
because those videos while great (and yes they are awesome)
are not enough steps
the video says it is going 4 miles BUT you are not stepping that much
she counts the miles based on the beats per minute of the music
you are not stepping on each beat
It is roughly half the amount of steps

I look at my fitbit like my sports bra
I need something good to give me more support
It is a tool
a fun fun tool

Moderation

If you are looking to get healthy or lose a few pounds or transform your life whatever
you will go looking for something to help
and get an overwhelming amount of information
remember I am old
OK not THAT old but I have been around diets and dieting people all my life
I remember my mother bemoaning her middle aged body
upset that she was not as thin as she was when she was young
and she would go on a diet
remember the Grapefruit diet?
my mom was a huge fan
remember Tab?
she drank TONS of that
Rice cakes were new ish when I was a kid
mom would crunch on those things like crazy
she would drop about 10lbs feel great and give up
why?
she would get hungry
she would get bored

fast forward 15 years
my mother in law and father in law went on a diet together
at this time Atkins and South Beach diets were HUGE
MIL chose South Beach for them
FIL started working out
MIL cooked
after a while
they got bored
good news on that one they did not get hungry just bored

NOW if you read stuff on diets the "fads" are Paleo eat like a caveman diet and of course all things gluten free
I see various friends eating plates full of food no grains no potatoes locally grown veggies (which where I live means no veggies because very little grows well here)

all I can think when I see this is
where is your portion size?
if you do not pay attention to portions you can indeed get fat eating ANYTHING even grass fed beef
I think it would take more spinach than anyone could ever tolerate before they got fat on it however the sodium content of spinach is pretty high for a veggie so I guess you would retain a lot of water

THIS is where moderation comes in
those that know me will be shocked to hear ANYTHING moderate coming from me
I am an all or nothing kind of gal
jump in both feet
damn the torpedoes etc etc

but moderate eating
foods YOU like
ones YOU can eat for the rest of your life
even the occasional treat
by occasional I do not meant once a week for ME occasional is once a month

So yes
I will have bread
YES I will eat some pasta
but remember 2ozs of pasta is a lot less than most people thing

THIS is where the food scale comes in
THIS is where knowing your portions comes in
THIS is where logging food comes in

if you are not keeping track of it how will you know?
will I have to track my food forever?
NO eventually I will be able to stop
eventually I will be in maintenance
I will be able to eat more than I am now that I am in weight loss mode
but for now because I am still working on this
I will be obsessive about it
I will be a slave to those numbers
is it hard?
yes
but it is becoming habit
the reinforcement I get from my results has been fantastic
55lbs gone
inches in the last month alone I have lost 8.5 from my body
wearing a size 14 for the first time in 25 years
feeling GREAT

THAT makes the work worth it it only takes a few minutes each meal
I can handle that

my addiction

yes
I am addicted
luckily this stuff is not so bad

low sodium
gluten free for those following that
low carb
almost no sugar
low fat
AND best of all
I can have 17 of them

 

the carbs on it are not great BUT most things are higher 

I eat these for lunch with cashew butter and some of this 

This is the lowest sugar fruit spread I have found it has 6grams of sugar per 1TBS serving
and it does not taste like ass!!

oh and it has fiber and all kinds of other good stuff

those are my product recs for this week
if you follow me on My Fitness Pal and look at my food diary you will see I tend to eat the same thing over and over again I am a creature of habit
I just had to change my habits to something I like that is also good for me

 

Why I weigh myself every day

Changing my attitude about everything has not been easy
and one of the biggest attitudes I had to change was my relationship with the scale
many of us have this
a love hate relationship with
a tool
that is all it is
it is a tool
it has no control
having a digital scale makes it a slightly more accurate tool than my old scale
but it is still a tool
weight fluxuates
it depends on so many things
especially for a woman
water , sodium intake, hormones, clothing , exercise causing water retention, time of day, time of month, the moon etc

so what am I doing weighing myself daily
sounds like torture
I am looking for trends
so long as my weight is trending downwards over the course of a week
then I am doing well

remember this is not about weight 
this is about health

here is an example of a trend
I weighed 185.5 last week
then it "went up" to 187.2
well the day before I had eaten a lot and had walked a lot and had a lot of salt
I KNEW it would go up
so I adjusted
cut back on sodium
watched my snacky tendencies (Almond nut thins are addicting)
today it is 185.2
I weigh myself at the same time daily
and only the downward trend gets recorded

most of all I do not beat myself up over one day
I do not kick the scale or throw it
The scale did nothing to me
this is long term
I will not be derailed by something simple

The difficulty would come if I had gone months at a plateau
I would not be as happy then
but there are other measurements to consider then
the tape measure
how do I feel
how is my blood work