Prime and Shit

Took me a while to get back here as I was buying tons of stuff on Amazon Prime today. My big splurge was an under desk walking pad because, duh, getting more steps in is always the goal. I currently do Garmin cut throat competitions challenges with two of my best pals and one of them seems to have nothing better to do than walk all day every day. So, here's hoping I can win more consistently! I did a quick Google search for best walking pad, read two articles, and then bought one that was in both articles and am having it shipped directly to my office so I have the least amount of work to do as possible. See? Smart. Didn't become a doctor on looks alone ;-) I also opened my order history and anything that was marked as a Prime Day deal was bought in a quantity of 2. And I bought some Christmas and/or birthday stuff for the kiddos. I handed my kids the Amazon toy finder catalog and had them circle things they wanted, searched all of them, and then bought all the things that were age appropriate and were Prime Day deals. Spent a stupid amount of money on that. But, hey, less December spending!

Alas, today I packed food for work and had some watermelon, berries (straw and blue types), a meat + cheese stick, and a protein drink. I also ate a fiber bar, which my colleagues probably don't love as it causes me to be horrifically gassy. Silently. I will never own up to it. But they've gotta know it's me.

Today's weigh-in as it's relevant for continued ramblings:

So, I've got about 10 pounds to lose before the end of the year. There are 12 weeks until the end of the year. Which means I need to lose about 1 pound a week. We shall see. That doesn't sound hard, but add holidays in there and IT'S GOING TO BE VERY HARD.

And because the internet is always listening, I have a plan for toe touching goals. Stay tuned. 

Tonight's toothbrush photos for entertainment whilst you anxiously await my potential future posts:

Goals and Shit

Because I'm really good at consistency, here I am almost a year later, but whatever. Also, because I'm a real journaler, I'm going to write down some goals and we'll see what happens

• By Dec 31, 2024, I want my BMI to be <35 (a.k.a. just obese; a.k.a. no longer morbidly obese, a.k.a. a tiny step closer to being in onederland)
• For my height, this means I need to weigh in at <237 pounds. Which means I need to stop self sabotaging. Which also means I need to stop eating absolute trash while on call. Which also means I need to pack food. I hate packing food. Like probably on my top 10 list of things I loathe type of deal.
• From now until the end of the year, I'd like to get 10k steps a day. I'm currently on day 113 of a streak of 10k steps a day, so I can do this
• I'd like my Garmin to think I'm actually 37 by my fitness age (it currently says I'm 39 - rude. But also, I started at 44, soooo...). To do this, I need to be consistent with my higher intensity work outs
• I'd like to be able to touch my toes without stretching first. I've still go to think about how to do this

Per my calculations/google search, there are 85 days until the end of the year. So, I'm going to have to think about how I'm going to work on the ability to touch my toes and then crack down on my eating and up my exercise intensity. I know I can do this because I've literally done it before.

Weight photos tomorrow because that is the shit part of the 'Goals and Shit' my title refers to. Here are some recent-ish photos so you will be tempted to return.

Breckenridge trip

Undergrad pal reunion

Field trip photo

Field trip photo with a Mom friend

Halloween nails

 

Morbidly obese no longer

Adoring fans! Sorry for my absence. My mom is here and I'm soaking up some Nana time before she leaves on Saturday.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with my life insurance folks. I was gathering Nasur's health information and calculated his BMI - 22.8. I don't think this is an accurate reflection because the man has lots of muscle mass, but it's a good BMI nonetheless. Then I calculated my BMI. It's obviously a larger number. It's 39.0. But you know what? I'm no longer in the morbidly obese range (which is a BMI >40). So, now I'm just plain old obese and not morbidly obese. Obviously there's room for improvement, but it's still something! When I restarted my weight loss journey, my BMI was ~44. So, I'm going to take my 39 and work on making it a smaller number, but also be happy with the fact that it's no longer 44.

Day 1/365: The Year I Rock Out

Today was the first day of 2017, a.k.a. the year I rock out, a.k.a. the year I pay off my credit card debt, a.k.a. the year I study consistently, a.k.a. the year I lose the fucking weight, a.k.a. the year that's gonna kick butt. 

I started the year watching the ball drop with the nurses, writing some progress notes and getting some interrupted sleep. My husband also came to work so we could ring in the new year together. He's the best. 

Labor and delivery

Husband and me

After I got home, I slept, weighed in, and then did my couponing online while eating a quick meal before hitting the gym.

Oof.

My BMI is 38.9 and fat % is 42.0

Quick breakfast

The gym oddly wasn't very crowded despite the new year

Then, two dear friends of ours came to hang out/grab a meal to celebrate the new year together. I showered and got ready as fast as I could and timed it to their arrival pretty well. We sat and chatted and then hit up Twisted Rooster, a local restaurant featuring locally-sourced foods. It was delicious and I completely forgot about snapping pictures. Grr. We came home and played some Phase 10 and then parted ways when Nasur had to work. While Nasur was at work, I went to the grocery store.

While at the grocery store, I tried to stock up on some really healthy stuff. I've been reading a lot about how to do this the right way without hating life and one of the articles I read was about quitting sugar. In short, the recommended amount of added sugar (like not from fresh fruits) is 25g. So, when I was looking at protein bars and yogurts, there were a lot of options that I just had to put back. A majority of yogurts have more than 25g of sugar in their one serving. Crazy pants. 

One of the other things I was also looking for was a healthy salad dressing. I'm a pretty big proponent of creamy dressings, which are pretty much super delicious the least healthy kind of dressing. I bought a yogurt-based Ranch dressing that I've had before that's pretty low on the calorie front. 

I also searched for a healthy-ish bread. I like my breads pretty crusty and am not so into soft breads. I picked up some flat bread sandwich things and anticipate making some paninis with them. 

When I got home, I cleaned out the fridge and cut up my produce and washed everything so it's easier to grab. There is definitely an inverse relationship between prep time and the likelihood that I'm going to eat whatever that thing is. I also tried to use the rule of seeing things - all the carbs are at the bottom of the fridge (I refrigerate my bread despite reading an article telling me that was a big no, no) and the fresh fruits and veggies are in the front and near the top. 

That's about it for me for today. I'm trying this thing where I set a 20 minute limit on blogging so that it seems like an easier thing to do - cuz really, I can spare 20 minutes a day, so I'm off! 

Today's selfie

I'll be weighing in on Monday next week (I just wanted to be able to start the year with a weigh-in) and I'm setting my goal as a lofty one - 3 pounds!

Return to blogging + weight loss

So it's been a while since I blogged for a few reasons. First and foremost is that the ER is ruining my life. I. Hate. It. I can't really go more into it without turning into a majorly Negative Nancy, but second, the hours are also stupid and I get home around 8:30/9:00 every night, so the last thing I really feel like doing is cracking open the laptop to blog. Buuuut, I promised a friend of mine I'd blog and I'll try to start up again, even if it is a bit late by the time I get home.

In other news, I had personal training yesterday and we finally did a weigh-in and some measurements (just BMI and body fat percentage). I'm glad we did that because it majorly adds some motivation. He likes to check every 2 weeks and I feel as though that's nice in case I have a bad week. However, we never really set a weight goal for my next weigh-in. So, I guess I'll just try to lose reasonably? Also, we weighed in after a workout, which is silly, in my opinion, cuz I'm typically covered in sweat. So, here were my measurements:

• Weight: 239
• BMI: 35.3
• Body fat: 38.6%

Also, my weight was way different than my scale on Friday, so let's go with the lower number ;-)

I'm also still fasting twice a week. I've been doing Mondays and Wednesdays rather than Mondays and Thursdays. It's pretty easy to do in the ER because the patients just keep on coming, no matter what the time.

I'm also still going to the chiropractor. Last Friday I threw my back out about a half hour before I saw my chiropractor. It was majorly painful and it felt slightly better after he adjusted me (he said I threw out my sacroiliac joint), but it took another 3-4 hours for the pain to go away. I also had a surgery scheduled with one of my clinic patients and standing throughout that was terrrrrrible. I cried right before we started and cried right after. The pain was overwhelming. So, I learned one thing: labor is going to be the worrrrrst (I'm not pregnant). Fortunately, the pain didn't return. Usually when I throw out my back, the pain lasts for a week. I'm going to go ahead and assume that it's because of going to the chiropractor that things got better so quickly.

That's all I've got right about now. I'm pretty boring since I work all the time. Anything exciting in any of your lives?

Personally Trained

So today I had my free fitness consultation at L.A. Fitness. I got up early enough to shower (I needed to shave - I know showering before working out is stupid) and eat some breakfast. I grabbed a towel and water bottle and then headed to the gym where I met with Brandon. 

We started out the session setting some basic goals. I said I wanted to lose weight, increase my energy, and feel more confident. We went more in depth of previous work out experiences I've had and talked about what made me successful and what barriers I had to overcome. Then we set some number goals and established our starting point. I already did all my weights and measurements this week, so we just did the body fat percentage thingy that looks like this:

If you've never used one of these, it's not rocket science. You input your age, weight, and height and then hold this thing straight out from your body. I couldn't tell you the exact science of it without googling and regurgitating, but when I saw my body fat percentage, i was bummed: 40.8%. I knew it wasn't great, but I was hoping I had a bit more muscle tucked in that fat. 

We headed to do a work out after the numbers game and let me tell you - I remember why I like personal trainers so much. Back in the day, I had a personal trainer (Mark for readers of old), and it was great! I had some accountability, was able to learn how to exercise properly, and I had someone rooting for me in my corner. Plus, it's nice to just go and do something instead of having to figure things out for yourself.

Anywho, the workout was great, though it was only about 20 minutes. We kinda did a few things to see where I was at. We started with push ups. Yikes. I could do 20 girl push ups, but I plopped down at the end of every push up, so I wouldn't really count that. Then we did planks and I was able to hold it for about 30 seconds. Next up was the wall squat. I could've held that longer, but he told me that obviously my legs were strong and I was pretty well set in that area. Then we did a few exercises just for funsies: medicine ball throws, sit ups, things where I hopped on and off a step, a bunch of arm and back exercises, and some other goodies I'm probably forgetting. By the end, I'd sweat quite a bit, but I was glad. Brandon was super encouraging.

Then we went back to this desk where he tried to sell me some personal training packages. I signed up for the 3x/month package. I would've loved to sign up for more, but it was pretty expensive. They promised that even if you only saw your trainer once a week or so that they would write up personalized work outs for you throughout the week if you wanted them. So, let's say I met with the trainer Monday and I said to him, "Give me 3 strength training workouts until I see you again." Between sets and reps, the trainer would write up something for me and then I'd just follow that on my own. Additionally, the trainer I'll be working with is a registered dietician, so hopefully he'll be able to help me on that part too.

I signed up for a year of training and hope to really make some positive changes. I can't wait to get going, feel stronger, and feel more confident!

Have any of you ever had a personal trainer? What are your thoughts?

Let's get real.

Okay. Let's get real for a bit. 

No, morning workouts did not happen. I know that I could do it if I really wanted to, but I'd really rather sleep. So, workouts will continue to be after work. It kind of sucks because it's hard to get room in the weights area when you go after work, but I can look intimidating enough to get a bench when I need to. That, and I can rearrange my workout if necessary as well. So, yeah. Not going to happen.

On Friday, I had two moles removed...from my groin. One of which was rather large, dark, and had irregular borders (which are, you know, all bad things...) and the other that was just bothersome. It was probably dumb to have them both done at once considering they were on opposite thighs so both thighs hurt, but I'm all about efficiency. I'm anxiously awaiting the pathology report because once upon a time, I went tanning, which has, you know, been linked to increased incidences of skin cancer like a bajillion times. YOLO...?

Also, let's keep being real since I'm all into this oversharing thing right now. Today I read this article on SparkPeople. It's all about how to placate your sweet tooth without overdoing it. Essentially, it suggests 12 sweet snacks. But since we're being real with each other right now, I've gotta say, this is just stupid. Is anyone going to stop at half a cup of ice cream? Do you even know how little half a cup of ice cream is? Like, children typically have portion sizes larger than that when it comes to ice cream. It's just not realistic. And, okay, let's say you have the willpower of a superhuman and you do eat just 1/2 cup of ice cream. Are you feeling full and satisfied? No. Why? Because all you ate was 1/2 cup of ice cream. Okay. Perhaps you chose the 1/2 cup of grapes and 1 oz of walnuts. Do you know how much food that is? Not very much. I mean at least the walnuts have some protein, but c'mon. None of these snacks would satisfy me or my sweet tooth. So, though I appreciate the sentiment, I think this article is silly.

And since we're on this topic, while waiting for my doctor's appointment on Friday, I sat and read some magazine article about losing like 10 pounds in 2 weeks or something like that. It gave both workouts as well as meal plans. You were supposed to work out twice a day for about two hours in total and your meals were typically something like this: breakfast - smoothie. Morning snack - half an apple and a tiny bit of fat-free yogurt. Lunch - salad. Afternoon snack - one ounce of nuts. Dinner - chicken or lean turkey with some kind of green. First of all: riiiiight. Like I'm going to work out twice in one day. Second of all: the most important meal of the day is breakfast and I'm just supposed to have a smoothie? That's supposed to last me 4 hours until I can have half an apple with like a spoonful of yogurt? Um, no. That's not going to work. And let's just say [again] that you have superhuman willpower and you follow this. Then when you go back and eat like a normal person, you've regained that 10 pounds in like 10 seconds. It's just dumb. You're supposed to do something that's sustainable. And maybe I'm the crazy one because I can't see how a meal plan and workout plan like that would work, but I doubt it.

Moving on to a different topic: in the family practice office I'm at, I've been working with a doctor who mentions weight and BMI with almost every single patient. I'm not saying that's a bad thing - I mean, it stops some patients from being blissfully ignorant when they're told flat out, "Your BMI puts you in the obese category," but it's a bit disheartening when the patients are like 30 pounds lighter than me (and okay, a few inches shorter too) and someone makes a comment about how their weight is out of control. Um, excuse me, but my BMI is higher than theirs. Is my weight out of control? I would have said no. And then we had a patient who gained 30 pounds and was taking a short-acting appetite suppressant to help lose weight. Granted, they were also watching what they ate and exercising, but that brought up all types of weird feelings. Like, I'm kind of against using a drug and putting something in your system when you could technically do without. But then I'm all, maybe I would get better results if I tried something like that. But then I'm all, WHAT ABOUT SIDE EFFECTS?! I'LL GET CANCER! Well, I'm not usually that bad, but I did meet someone years ago who lost like 250 pounds with diet pills and then got cancer because of them...which you know, also helped with the weight loss, but probably not in the way he was anticipating. He beat it, by the way...

Apparently, I've been very triggered by weight things recently. I just think that as a society, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as well as others when their weight isn't what it should be. We make judgements right off the bat when we see someone who's overweight or obese. I don't think we should be defined by a number. That being said, I understand how weight can cause all types of health problems, so I'm glad that some of the doctors I'm working with are counseling people on how to be healthier, but until you've lived it, I have a hard time listening to what they're saying.

Moving on...here are some pics of some recent eats. Not pictured is the stupid pizza I ate last night. I had a groupon that cost me $10 and allowed me to have $20 of pizza, which is a lot of pizza for one person, but I figured I could freeze it or save it for later. So, I ordered two medium pizzas and went to pick it up and was told my groupon was for dine-in only. I was like "Oh. I didn't realize that. Can you tell me where it says that?" The cashier said, "Well, the groupon says at, not from." Oh. Now that's crystal clear. Ughs. So, basically I ended up paying full price for pizza that I wouldn't have ordered had I known I was going to be paying for in total. Duuuumb. But anywho, I didn't take a picture of it and as it's in the freezer right now, you won't be getting a picture of it until I take it out to eat again.

My standard breakfast from last week

Tacos - such an easy meal. And I'm lazy. So I ate them like 3 times last week...

My go to breakfast when I want to sleep in for 15-20 minutes

Today's lunch after I botched making clam chowder...

Today's dinner: crab and dill shrimp (made by meijer, cooked by me) with some beans and potatoes

Fruit protein smoothie for dessert because dinner didn't fill me up

And for good measure, here's a picture of Bailers. He's 9 now. I'm not sure exactly when his birthday is since I adopted/inherited him when he was 6, but he got some wet cat food to celebrate. He has no idea why. It's mostly because it was on sale. And because occasionally I have a soft spot for the little guy.

So pensive

I'm doing a weigh-in tomorrow. My goal was 3 pounds this week. Not too sure I made it. But, we'll see!