A great topic for today, particularly since I was apparently TOO SLOW to get my diary up too! Folks, I'm a professional consultant. I do occasionally go on business trips. I do also occasionally have to do life-interfering things like move house, buy furniture and clothes, shop for and cook food, and try to keep my professional publishing business alive by writing and editing and etc, which is why I staked out a weekly diary spot on Sunday morning... when I could take my time, and think things through.
And all of those things hit this past weekend, which is why I completely flaked last week's diary until about 12 hours later - because it was moving weekend. But dammit this is my spot and I'm diarying in it. HOWEVER SLOWLY I DO IT.
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
There was never a more apt fable to apply to my circumstances as the Turtle and the Hare. I went to the doctor last week, who was mildly pleased and cautiously optimistic that I am now no longer hypertensive following 6 weeks of strict dieting and regular cardio exercise, and when I complained to him that I had "only" lost 6 pounds, he said "That is perfectly scientific!" and chided me for wanting more dramatic results. I DESERVE RESULTS, because of how squeaky clean I've been, how disciplined I've been with the exercise. I won't lose 25 pounds in 6 weeks with Nutri-Quick (TM) or the Fat Burner Herb because... well, I just won't. I got my results, he said to me. The scale is going down. In glacial increments. But it is going down. He nudged me to reduce the NSAID arthritis medication, without which it is difficult to bend my knees, and has been for 15 years and said "You are probably retaining lots of water." Well, TRUE... so I immediately cut the dose in half and the next day, after standing around at the Richfield Farmer's Market with some local Organizing for America activists getting signatures on petitions for the health care act for 3 hours, I was losing my ability to actually move my knees, a bad choice for the weekend I was moving, carrying, lifting, bending, loading and unloading cars... but I never function well making sudden sweeping changes; got sick Sunday, was running a nice hefty fever by Monday, most likely a sinus infection, didn't sleep Monday night at all, and got on a plane Tuesday morning, surreptitiously dabbing my face with ice so that I wouldn't look feverish and get bounced off the flight.
I was much too sick to contemplate exercise at all during the trip, and staggered to my room, just barely able to order and choke down dinner before collapsing, and finally getting a night's sleep. I got through the intense and frustrating meetings with the customer, taking massive amounts of antihistamines and asthma spray, coughed for most of a day, bashed my knee stumbling out of bed (great bruise there), and managed to get home about 11 p.m. Thursday night. I needed a day off and didn't get one, but I did get to the dietician, who cheerfully examined my food logs and pronounced them good, even though she would recommend that I eat 45% to 50% carbs and no more than 30% fat, get more Omega 3's! try sardines, bump up the fiber a smidge, and cautioned me that those gluten-free grains that I have in my diet are on the Celiac avoid list. Well the Celiac Avoid list is for commercially produced grains, not the ones I get from certified GF sources. Minor quibbles. Her studied conclusion from my food diaries? Either I'm not measuring my oil (I am), not including something (not a chance sweetie) or add in another 45 minutes of cardio, and maybe I am just not getting enough carbs. I did not expect to walk out of a dietician's office at my weight with the recommendation to EAT MORE CARBS. We'll see how that works, shall we? So that was it. Keep it up. The weight isn't important; my health is important, exercise is important. 1900 calories is FINE. Being a turtle is JUST DANDY except for the fact that do you have any idea how much turtles WEIGH?
Her scale, however, reported 2 pounds less than the doctor's had the week before. I hadn't lost two pounds - the balance scale at work still says the same, last week and this week. My tentative conclusion is that I'm losing fat in the fat places and building muscle to replace the fat. Which isn't such a bad outcome... if I had ambitions as a body-builder.
But you know what they say: SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE. And turtles weigh A WHOLE LOT. But their blood pressure is normal now!
Housekeeping!
Apparently there've been some missed diaries in my absence, so everyone who likes or benefits from this series, please take a spot! My own preference is that you do what I do, of course, and stake out a weekly slot and commit to it, sort of like weekly shopping for food, and that way with at least 7 dedicated spots once a day there will be at least one WHEE diary a day to keep the momentum going. I'll have to go back and catch up on previous diaries but I have not had the time as yet. And I do have to work tomorrow so no long weekend for me.
Upcoming WHEE Diaries
September 6
Sun PM - JiffyKeen
September 7
Mon AM - NC Dem
Mon PM - ashowboat (welcome!)
September 8
Tues AM - Clio2
Tues PM - ???
September 9
Wed AM - Edward Spurlock
Wed PM - ???
September 10
Thurs AM - ED G
Thurs PM - st minutia
September 11
Fri AM - ???
Fro PM - ???
September 12
Sat AM - Edward Spurlock
Sat PM - ???
September 13
Sun AM - louisev (Turtle Diary)
Sun PM - ???