Friday, December 19, 2014

Feed it or fight it...

Hello, world!

How on Earth is Christmas next week?!

Most of this last month has been a total blur to me. As of last Wednesday I had lost 38 pounds since Labor Day, officially losing everything I had gained back plus a pound. This morning I'm down another four pounds...which is kind of amazing after eating out for basically every meal for four days while in Cincinnati this week, having no juice and not going to the gym at all. 42 pounds in 3 1/2 months.

I will say that after three weeks now without Prevacid, something I had been on for more than a decade, I have noticed how much of an intolerance I have to carbs (derived from grains), dairy and foods with a high level of acidity. How did I never notice it before? Well, I had at least one medication regulating my digestion system for me. It sounds strange to say that at 29 I don't think I've ever really "heard" my body talk to me before. I had so many medications for SO long making it function (but not really) in a way to just sort of get me through each day. Having the only medication I take daily now being for allergies has made such a huge impact on my life.



I feel as though I am able to make food choices now in a completely different way. Until probably two weeks ago, I obviously knew what I "should" eat yet in many ways I still wasn't feeling how I should. Then one day it's like my body just started processing everything in a way it hadn't since I was probably 13. If I don't eat something that would normally be really tempting for me, I don't feel as though I am depriving myself. I don't sit there and think "man, I really wish I could eat that!" Instead I'm not tempted because I know if I took even one bite it would make me feel less than optimal. For instance, at dinner the other night a plate of biscuits was placed onto the table. I didn't even think about eating one. I knew if I did the dairy and grains in it would almost instantly give me a headache and make my stomach feel blah. I've also noticed that with the way my body is processing food these days, I get fuller much faster, too.



Someone asked me earlier this week why chiropractic has anything to do with digestion. I explained to her what I had learned about it thus far from having adjustments, the other things I've read about it and the physical changes I've felt since. If anyone is proof that chiropractic works it's me!

These few articles talk a little bit about why it helps, too:

Digestion problems?
Helps digestive disorders
Chiro Journal: Digestion



Thursday, December 18, 2014

What's in a picture...

Short and simple post (but a bigger one coming tomorrow!)...

Last night on my way out, I caught a glimpse of myself and (with a picture from four weeks ago in my head) thought "how bout that?!"...I could suddenly tell a noticeable difference in the last several weeks so I snapped a picture. This morning when I put my coat on I noticed that it needed to be buttoned like two inches to the left of where the buttons actually are and how much fabric gathers now when I pull the ties enough to fit.

I think this picture speaks for itself...

xoxo


Wednesday, December 10, 2014

105...

You know those weeks where you should feel really good about yourself and the progress you're making but you don't necessarily? Yeah.

As you know about a year and a half ago I had gotten down to 104lbs from my heaviest weight. I plateaued for about five or six months and then gained a total of 37lbs back between November of last year and August of this year. Starting in the beginning of September, I woke up one day and was mentally and emotionally in such a good place (somewhere I don't think I had ever been before)...and the weight I had gained back started coming off again. Last week I made it to the 35lb mark. I haven't been to the gym since Sunday and have been icky since but as of this morning I'm down 38lbs since Labor day...which means what? It means I'm now down 105 from my heaviest, surpassing the 104 I hit last year!


Chiro...

Hello, world!

So I meant to do this post a week ago. Literally, it's been sitting in my draft folder for a week. Sigh.


Chiropractic. How many of you see a chiropractor? Why did you first start going? How has it helped you? When I started seeing mine about 2 1/2 months ago, I'm not sure that I expected the changes that I've seen would come as quickly as they have.

Guess what... In the 2 1/2 months since I started going I've had significantly less pain, I feel less stressed out than I normally am (which has been incredibly surprising as of late), I have been sleeping better (longer through the night, falling asleep more easily, not waking up with my hips feeling like they are on fire, etc...), my anxiety level is less, my weight has started coming off a lot faster, and as of today I have been off of Prevacid for 12 days (which is huge considering I had been taking it daily since I was roughly 15), no pain killers in two months, and no ibuprofen (which I used to live on) for probably six weeks. I'm down to one OTC, Claritin, and in time I will try to get off of that, too.

I'm able to think about things much more clearly, I've been a lot more active (worked out four times last week and took two classes), I feel like I've been able to look at how I've thought about things for years and really have begun to change parts of myself that I had struggled with for years. My digestion system is clearly improving by the fact that I'm at 12 days without Prevacid now. I feel stronger and flexible.

All of that is AMAZING, especially for me after more than 15 years of illness and pain.



Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Perfection...


I like to be right. Apparently all the time. Even about things that don't matter at all. The sad thing is that I don't even realize (most of the time)that's what I'm doing. More than being right I try to make everything be perfect...all the time. Guess what... it's a really dumb thing to do.

I think for SO long now I've always wanted to have the right answers to every question. I've always wanted to do things the way other people would expect me to do them, or the way I've been told they should be done in order to make others happy. I am a people pleaser. I want them happy. I wrap things in really pretty packages and put glitter all over it because somehow in my mind I think that is what people expect of me or want from me.

I. Am. Ridiculous. Truly. It's really okay to admit that. As much as I like to be right (about everything) I also can admit when I am wrong. In the last several months of soul searching I've realized how long I've put everyone else before myself. I've worried for so long about making other people happy. I think for many years I tried to make as many situations appear as perfect as I could because of how unhappy I was with myself. That's not okay. Because guess what... when you do things a certain way for so long (no matter the reason), eventually it becomes an automatic response. Worse than that, people really do come to expect certain things from you because it what you've always done. Even worse than that, you wind up fighting yourself because of it. What's the point in any of that?


Once in a very great while, God puts someone in our lives to show us things that somehow we just keep missing. Maybe we've been told things over and over again before but the manner in which we are told isn't received very well. Then one day someone can say something in such a sincere way and it's like hearing the words for the first time. I don't have to be perfect. I don't have to be right all of the time about everything. The world will go on, and maybe, just maybe you'll find more peace.



Progress...

Hello, world!

Happy December! This is absolutely my favorite time of the year. I love the holidays. This year they are even sweeter for me than they have been in recent years. Last week was my first Thanksgiving with any of my family in FIVE years. In a few weeks I will get to spend Christmas with my family for the first time in THREE years. This year there are new people in my life and I'm excited to get to share this season with them, too.

Here's what I'm leery about though...the food. Anybody else?

I feel like I've finally gotten into a place where I am consistently losing again and it feels amazing. It's been three months exactly since I really started to embrace juicing, smoothies and eating mostly Primal/Paleo. I haven't even gone gung ho about it yet. I decided that at this point for me the only way to make it about wellness and not just losing weight is to focus on myself as a whole. That being said, in three months I have lost 35 of 37 pounds I had gained back. Yay!

Monday morning when I stepped on the scale after being away for the better part of the week for Thanksgiving, I found myself thinking "Well, it could have been worse!" I gained a pound and a half which isn't a big deal and as of today that is gone. But I found myself thinking this morning how different this holiday season is. I love to cook and I love to bake. I'm good at it and it's a stress reliever. I love baking yummy things for Christmas and spending far too long obsessing over decorating cookies with frosting that isn't so easy to make. I know, I know...I'm a little OCD and tend to want everything to be perfect (we'll get into that one in the next post!). I'm thinking that even though I'm "home" now and will be spending Christmas with family, maybe I should skip the baking this year or at least not do what I would normally do. I don't want New Years to hit and see that instead of losing or maintaining through Christmas that I gained back however much. Maybe it's silly but it's a mental thing for me. Deprivation doesn't work for me. Setting limits for myself does though.

I really tried to limit myself with what I ate last week while I was at home and feel like I did a relatively good job. I tried to limit the grains and the sugar as much as possible. I had no juice, no smoothies and I can always tell a difference when there is none included in my diet through the week. I'm more tired, more irritable. I've also seen the difference in my mood and how I physically feel when I eat grains and dairy. Those have to go. It's just not worth it.

For those of you trying to lose weight right now, how are you dealing with avoiding certain things you might normally eat during the holidays?





I finally get that there is a drive and a desire inside of me to be better. Period. To feel better. To do better. To be the very best me that I can be and not for anyone else other than myself because it's what I deserve. Progress.