Ozempic and food

Oof. Didn't realize I'd taken such a long time between posts. My deepest apologies, millions of fans!

This weekend was busy on call and sleep was hard to come by. Despite that, I have survived. Only to be on call again on Wednesday. Major facepalm on that one. 

Over the weekend, I didn't do much advanced planning in terms of meals, but I can tell the ozempic is definitely helping. Ordered a sandwich on Friday and only ate half and didn't obsess about the other half - I save it for my Sunday night call. I got breakfast for us on my way home on Saturday. I only ate half of that too and had the other half for lunch. And, again, no overly obsessing about it or feeling compelled to finish it. Saturday night, we watched Mulan (again). I made popcorn for the kids and stopped at one small bowl for myself rather than finishing off the bag. These changes are certainly helping with my weight loss. And you know what, at first I kind of felt like a failure in that I needed to be on a medication to lose weight, but now I'm glad I reached out and started the medication. It is really helping me.

In other news, I went to the gym today. I just walked for an hour on the treadmill again. Last time I did an hour on the treadmill was Thursday and I wore my brace because, without it, my knee really gives me trouble. But my brace just would not stay in the right spot and I was adjusting it every 2-5 minutes, which was highly annoying. Today, I pulled my old knee brace out and it was a way better fit. I only had to stope to adjust it at the beginning. Also, despite some advance planning, my Netflix episodes apparently didn't download, so I read my kindle and listened to music and really enjoyed my walk. I know walking isn't much, but I'm really happy with what I'm doing so far.

Tomorrow's an OR day. Hoping I get out at a reasonable hour so that I can do another walk tomorrow. 

My panini from the cafeteria that left a lot to be desired on Friday

Reyah excited about wearing a Halloween shirt

Going Halfsies

Today we made a trip to Denver because one of our friends flew in for a wedding so we picked her up and spent some time with her. First, we had some brunch at Snooze. We had been to their Fort Collins location and it was delicious so we headed there for another delicious experience. The wait was about an hour, so we went to a chocolate shop nearby and had some hot chocolate and a few chocolates as a snack. It was a good choice. And our meal afterwards was also a good choice.

Now, for those of you loyal readers, you'll know that I have a difficult time with portion control. If you set it in front of me, it'll most likely be eaten in entirety. I've been a member of the clean plate club as long as I can remember. But, not today. My breakfast burrito was massive and the menu said it was about 1230 calories. So, I stopped myself at half.

Additionally, when it got a bit later and I wanted a snack, Nasur and I stopped by a grocery store and I ran in and grabbed an apple and granola bar. I only ate the granola bar - but look at that! Two good choices in a day!

For dinner, Nasur was craving some Which Wich. So we stopped there once we got home and I opted to eat just half of my sandwich since Mary's Mountain Cookies is next door and is amazing and I knew I was going to get a cookie. Once we got to Mary's Mountain Cookies, I surprised even myself by getting the small cookie instead of the ginormous cookie. So many wins today.

Reyah's selfie at brunch

My Reyah photo at brunch

Walking at the lake

Happy beebz

Fun afternoon

Portion control

I almost didn't go to the gym this morning. I didn't get out of bed until a bit after 8 and I really needed to do a lot of work on my personal statement today. But when I was getting up from my desk to make some breakfast, I had some low back pain and I knew I needed to go work it out. I did most of my strength training routine, minus the core work so that the muscles could relax a bit. It was a pretty decent workout, but I didn't go until after 10 and the gym proved to be rather crowded. That will help motivate me to get to the gym early, I guess.

In other news, I finished my personal statement. And I studied. A lot. I also went to Zumba and ate a lot of good stuff.

Today's weigh-in

Breakfast

Protein smoothie

Lunch

I could only eat half because it's pretty hefty in the calorie department

Snack

Snack

Kitty in a window!

Today's positive: only eating half the mac and cheese despite wanting all of it.

Sick Day

Yesterday, I was pretty sure I had a fever and was super nauseated. I didn't go to work until the afternoon and when I did, I was sent home. But, as we had class in the afternoon, I ended up just going to school to study and then went to class. I felt pretty nauseated the whole time. Today, my nausea is mostly gone and I think the fever is too, but my sore throat was worse. I've been hydrating and all that good stuff to feel better, but I didn't go to the hospital so as not infect the kiddos. Also because I'm pretty sure being around the sick kiddos is what did me in in the first place.

I've been trying to study and eat well today, but my brain just isn't feeling it. Also, can we talk about serving sizes? Some of them are ridiculous. Like tonight I made some mediocre Buitoni pasta thing, but the serving size was 110 grams. That was like less than half a bowl, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it wasn't very good, but still.

In other news, I tried to really spice up my diet and eat something new every night. Lunches are obviously less exciting, but I think trying to add variety will help me eat a bit healthier and be happier about it - like I needn't eat the same boring "healthy" things.

Here are some food pics from the last two days:

Chicken noodle soup for the upset tummy 

Salty snacks also for the tummy

Not such a good idea for a bad tummy, but I was feeling better...

Breakfast this morning once the nausea kicked back in

Snack

Dumplings for lunch

Afternoon snack

Buitoni is gross and it broke my spoon

This is one serving size. Pathetic.

So I doused it with tomato sauce

Tomorrow I have a date with one of my close medical school friends to go do some zumba and study. Hopefully I'm feeling up to it. Right now I'm feeling like 50%, but I'll go as long as I'm feeling about 75%. It'll be my first outing for exercise all week. Don't blame me - I was all sick and shiz.

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!

A History of my Eating Habits

So though I've shared some of my story of how I got so fat, I wanted to talk a bit more about what makes losing weight such a difficult thing for me.


I've been overweight for as long as I can remember. Yes, I do have pictures when I was skinny, but that was so long ago that I'm not sure it counts.

My brother Tristan, sister Malena, our dog Tessa, and (skinny) me

So where does it begin? Well, in addition to living a pretty sedentary life, I don't remember a time when I ate healthily. I was pretty young when I was able to tuck away entire quarter pounder meals from McDonald's. I could easily eat an entire bag of popcorn as a snack before bed in elementary school. And polishing off a bowl of ice cream would only make me want more.


As the pound crept on, I began to hate anything that required physical activity because I simply couldn't compete. I remember being mortified when we had to run a timed mile in middle school. And in the eighth grade, I clearly recall not being able to do one sit-up during a fitness test. So, instead of trying to do a sit-up, I probably just ate more.


I think I picked up all my bad eating habits in my youth. Growing up, my dad was always sick with migraines, and so we couldn't have chocolate in the house (chocolate has caffeine in it, which exacerbates headaches). But, when he was gone on business trips, my mom got us oreos - a delicious and simple pleasure for a kid. My sister, brother, and I would instantly turn into vultures the second the oreo packaging was open - we needed to eat as many oreos as possible because soon they would be gone. So, I never learned portion size.


At dinner time, my mom was always the first to finish her dinner. She said she picked up eating quickly when she was in college because she was always on the go. Well, because I was a somewhat competitive child (I blame it on middle child syndrome), I used to eat as fast as possible to beat her. So, I never learned to eat slowly.


On top of that, dinner was typically always at 6:00 p.m. And if you didn't eat then, you typically didn't eat at all. It didn't matter if you were hungry or not. So, I never learned to eat only when I was hungry.


Now, I'm not trying to blame this on my parents (especially because I know my mom reads this - love you, Mom!). Really, their eating habits were quite healthy, but I guess I just picked up some bad habits along the way, and they stuck.


But my eating habits are what make this whole journey to health a lot harder. It's difficult trying to undo 23 years of damage. I still have a hard time eating just one cookie. I still have to put a lot of effort in my portion sizes. I still have to really think about how hungry I am. But I'm making a little bit of progress everyday, and I credit a lot of it to SparkPeople.


SparkPeople.com is the website I use to track my calories - both eaten and burned off. They help me shoot for healthy ranges in terms of what I need to eat and in terms of how many calories I should be burning everyday. In fact, they'll even set up meals and exercise plans for you if you want them to. However, I like to have a little more freedom than that.

My SparkPeople home page - click to make it bigger

Another thing I'm trying to do is eat less more often during the day. Mark (my personal trainer) has really encouraged me to eat every 2-3 hours so that my blood sugar stays up and so that my body doesn't try to store what I'm eating for fear of not getting fed again. I also drink a lot of water during the day so as to shed some of that water weight.


Anyway, back to today. I don't have many pics of my food, but here are some of my portion-controlled and calorie-logged meals!

And now I must go to bed so I can be up early for the gym!


How are your eating habits? Do you struggle with anything?