Monday, January 25, 2010

January 25, 2010
Weight 207
B/P: 138/83


No triazide today.

I started doing the Kathy Smith yoga DVD that Christine bought me this morning but I found it too complicated and gave up in frustration. I was afraid I wasn’t doing the exercises properly and they felt too difficult for me to do with my fat belly in the way. I hate giving up on anything though so rather that walk away completely, I switched to an easier yoga DVD that Christine gave me – Yoga, You Can Do by Leslie Sansone. I was much more comfortable with the exercises in that DVD and did the full workout. I don’t have very good balance, some of the exercises made me a little shaky and my belly was still in the way – but I did it!

I have a couple healthy meals cooking in crock pots for the upcoming week - chili and a turkey breast/bean dish. I'll put some of each in the freezer as well. And I'm planning to make the Aloo Gobi Masala again today. This way I won't have to do much cooking to do after work this week - and it won't take any effort to eat healthy.

Eating healthy has also made me aware of preservatives and additives in our food in a way that I never have been before. Food Inc., the documentary my cousin sent me a couple weeks ago was probably the beginning of my eyes being opened to the dangers of fast food and processed food in a whole new way. Ken and I watched Fast Food Nation on Friday night as well. I would highly recommend both movies. So my quest to eating superfoods and eating healthier is evolving into a desire to eat more organic and CLEAN foods.

Christine phoned to tell me yesterday that she bought a book called The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno. I want to get a copy of the book as well and maybe buy one for Travis too. I want all my kids and grandkids to get off fast food and processed garbage and will do whatever I can to help make them aware of the dangers.

My stomach is calling for lunch so I'm off to stuff a pita bread with hummus and a variety of veggies. mmmmmmmmm
January 24, 2010
Weight 206
B/P: 124/83


No triazide today.
I ate my usual oatmeal breakfast (oatmeal, raisins, cinnamon, oat bran, ground flaxseed, 1% milk and raw cane sugar) but Ken and I went with a cousin of mine to Bonanza for a buffet lunch. I made some healthier choices than I normally would have at a buffet - ate some of the salads, beets, fish and mussels. I had some unhealthy things as well, such as the eggs benedict, some Chinese meat dish, and noodles but I didn’t leave stuffed as I would have in my "past" life. I didn't get hungry until about 10:00 p.m. but by then I thought it was too late to eat so I didn't have anything except 2 cups of green tea and water for the rest of the day after lunch.

I am so ready to see the scale budge from the 205 - 209 mark!

Saturday, January 23, 2010
Weight 206
B/P: 119/77


½ triazide today.
Rode my bike for 30 minutes, 6.8 kms. 436.8 cals.

January 22, 2010
Weight 206
B/P: 116/80

No triazide today.
Rode my bike for 43:01 minutes, 9.0 kms, 581.5 cals.

January 21, 2010
Weight 205
B/P: 118/80


No triazide today.

January 20, 2010
Weight 207
B/P: 133/84


I took a triazide today but I continue to wean myself off. I woke up at 3:44 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep this morning because I started thinking – about superfoods, eating cleaner healthier food and about coming off the triazide…all that kind of stuff. When I couldn’t get back to sleep, I just got up at 4:45. Hope I’m not too tired today.

January 19, 2010
B/P: 139/89


No triazide today. This is the first time I’ve done two days in a row without triazide.
I rode my bike for 40 minutes, 8.6 kms and burned 536.4 calories.

I'm eating very healthy but today I thought I would record what I ate. Supper was a wild/brown rice blend that was absolutely delicious with some plain baked salmon. I wanted to have an avocado with supper but the ones I have aren’t ripe yet so I had 2 raw carrots with it. I ate a small piece of dark chocolate today, nuts, leftover aloo gobi masala and a yogurt for lunch, oatmeal with cinnamon, flax and oat bran (and raw brown cane sugar) and milk for breakfast, also during the day I had a banana, an orange and glass of red wine. I don't normally drink wine but I bought a couple bottles just to have an occasional glass every now and again. I drink beer on weekends though and in my attempt to get healthier, I have cut down to about half of what I used to drink - and would like to cut down even more as I continue on with my new healthier lifestyle.

January 18, 2010
Weight 208
B/P: 125/77


No triazide today.
I rode my bike for 33 minutes, 7.5 kms and burned 442.3 calories.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

January 17, 2010
Weight: 209
B/P: 118/73


A setback with my weight this morning but considering that I didn’t take a triazide (water pill) yesterday and ate garbage processed high-sodium foods with our movie last night, I can’t say that I’m surprised. I’ll just pick myself back up and keep on keeping on – beginning with my oatmeal breakfast this morning. When I saw my doctor on December 11th, she recommended I add oatmeal to my diet in an attempt to lower my cholesterol. I go back to have it retested in April and I really want my numbers to come down. I’ve even been getting up earlier on work days to make myself oatmeal. I add a handful of raisins to the water before it even begins to boil and after the oatmeal is ready, I add a heaping tablespoon of ground flax seeds, a heaping tablespoon of oat bran, a generous few shakes of cinnamon, brown sugar and 1% milk. I don’t like the taste of milk otherwise so that’s basically the only time I have milk. I bought some raw cane sugar from Walmart when Darlene and I stopped there on Friday though so I’ll try that in my oatmeal this morning. I think it’s better for a person than brown sugar is but I’ll have to do some research on that to find out whether that’s true or not.

Last night I dreamed that I stopped at a family gathering/party along the road. Several of the family members were selling B.C. fruit and although they began packing up for the day, I was able to buy some. I vividly remember the beautifully ripe and large blueberries, plums, peaches and blackberries. I think there were vegetables on the stands as well but I don’t remember the veggies as vividly as the fruit. I wanted to buy huge amounts but I knew they’d go bad before we got a chance to eat them.

It was 9 days ago that I started weaning myself off the triazide. My plan is to take one today then start skipping two days between taking them. So I’ll skip Monday and Tuesday but I will continue to keep a close eye on my blood pressure.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Weight 205
B/P: 123/77


Down 11 pounds! No triazide today. I’ve been eating very well (many more than 5 superfoods each day) but I ate fattening, processed, high-sodium snacks and drank beer with our movies tonight. I think that's the last of that awfully unhealthy food from the deepfreeze though and I don't plan to buy more of the same. I want to come up with healthier snacks so I can stay in control on our movie nights.

I rode my bike for 40 minutes: 9.0 kms and burned 516.8 calories today.

Friday, January 15, 2010
Weight: 206
B/P: 126/82

Took a triazide today – feels like putting poison in me and I really hate taking them anymore…can’t wait to be off completely.

I rode my bike for 37 minutes: 8.5 kms and 516.1 calories burned. Feels wonderful!

Thursday, January 14, 2010
Weight: 207
B/P: 117/80

no triazide today

Wednesday, January 13, 2010
B/P: 121/87

I took a traizide pill today.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Weight: 209
B/P: 122/72

My blood pressure is good this morning (thankfully). I took a water pill (triazide) yesterday but I was also careful about what I ate. I didn’t take a traizide pill today.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Monday, January 11th

January 11, 2010
Weight 210
B/P: 141/82; 135/89

I took two readings of my blood pressure this morning because it's up a bit - and so is my weight from the 206 I was down to. It looks like my body is having a bit of a hard time adjusting to being without triazide every second day; b/p isn’t out of control though so I’ll keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully my body is going to learn how to adjust to not having to take that pill everyday. I know I need to be aware of my salt intake too and especially now that I want to get off the triazide. It feels like I’ll never get off and get healthier or lose weight but it’s worth a try.

Sunday, January 10th

January 10, 2010
Weight 210
B/P: 119/80

I took my triazide yesterday but not today. This is the second day I haven’t taken it (Friday was the first day). I ate lots of junk snacks with our movie last night. There was a lot of salt in the foods I ate and that was a stupid thing to do when I'm trying to go off my triazide. I need to be conscious and aware of my salt intake. I won’t have dramatic results for my doctor at the end of April if I continue like this.

On a positive note though, I have been adding many more than 5 superfoods to my diet each day and most days, the majority of the food I’m eating is superfoods. I just have to control my portions and be careful of pitfalls like our movie night. I need to find some recipes for healthy snacks.

I rode my bike for 45 minutes: 10.0 kms and burned 520.5 calories today.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Food Inc.

Ken went snowboarding today and since I don't know how to work the DVD player or my laptop (which is connected to the TV since our DVD player doesn't always work), I had him put on a movie for me before he left. Food Inc., a documentary that I received in the mail on Thursday from my cousin Claudette. It was about 6:50 a.m. when I started watching - it was a fascinating, shocking, disgusting - but an incredibly powerful account of some of the things that happen to the animals, and to our food before it reaches the grocery store - and makes me even more determined to make healthier food choices! I am going to start buying organic fruits and vegetables more often, pay attention to the ingredients that are in the food I buy, and will try to find local Farmer's Markets or perhaps a Hutterite Colony to buy meat and produce from

After watching the film, I wanted to find more of the same kind of information and did a youtube search. I watched a few video clips and through one of them I was led to this scary body scan of a 250 lb woman versus a 120 lb woman: http://www.eatsmartagesmart.com/body-scan-of-a-250-lbs-woman-vs-a-120-lbs-woman/#more-4996 Dear God - I can't wait to be closer to the 120 lb scan than I am to the 250 lb scan!

I have a hard time staying off the scale and weigh myself pretty much every day. I know it's not a good idea but it's just what I do. I was 208 pounds this morning, up two from yesterday but that could be in part because I didn't take my water pill yesterday. My blood pressure was fine this morning though: 115/64 - one of the best readings since I've been keeping track again on September 14th.

I rode my bike for 40 minutes, 8.9 kms and burned 459.9 calories this afternoon.

I may not continue to write down the superfoods I eat each day. I'm finding it incredibly easy to eat many more than the 5 superfoods I've committed to per day and writing down every superfood I eat is becoming a chore even after 8 days of doing so. That is especially true when I make a casserole or salad that contains several superfoods. Perhaps I'll only record the first 5 I eat in a day, or maybe I won't record any unless I'm having a hard time incorporating 5 into my diet on any given day. As you can tell, I haven't fully decided which way I want to do this part of Superfoods 365.

Friday, January 8, 2010

More Fun and More Busy

I wrote in this blog once already today but I was in a mood for taking pictures so I took a few to post - just for fun. I've been doing Project 365 (a picture a day/every day of the year) since January 1st, 2009 and have been restricting myself to posting (on Facebook and my Project 365 blog) one picture a day for the project. Some days I'd like to be able to post more pictures and I thought this general blog would be a great place to do so without breaking the P365 "rules".

After I wrote in here this morning, I rode my bike - for 35 minutes. I went 7.9 kms (although I'm not really sure if this bike measures kms or miles) and burned 474.8 calories.
Then I made lunch. I had a pita pocket filled with hummus, cucumbers, broccoli sprouts, tomatoes, avocado and baby spinach leaves along with an orange and green tea. It was yummy.


This is the Women's Cookbook Christine bought me during the holidays:

and the Slow Cooker Mediterranean Minestrone Casserole I'm making from it as we "speak".
And now I think I'll turn my attention to printing out more of my Project 365 - 2009 project. I spent some time on it last weekend and would like to have it caught up sooner than later so I don't get too far behind with the 2010 P365 album. I have finished printing the photos to the end of September and journalling to July 11th.







Having Fun and Keeping Busy

I rolled out of bed shortly after 6:00 this morning. It's 10:37 as I begin to write and my day has been fun so far. After brushing my teeth, getting dressed and checking my blood pressure, I left a few comments on others' Project 365 pictures and took my turns on the Lexulous (Scrabble) games I am playing on Facebook. There were about 10 games to play of the 15 I have going with a variety of people. Most of them are with my sister Cathy. We have 7 games on the go. I love word games.

I also have a "Slow Cooker Mediterannean Minestrone Casserole" simmering away in the crock pot for supper tonight. It's another recipe from the Women's Cookbook that Christine bought me over the Christmas holiday. Neither Ken or I cared for the Barley Risotto that I made from the cookbook on Monday so it's not one I'll make again. The biggest thing for me was the amount of basil, I think it was too much and overpowered the taste of everything else in the dish. I'm hoping this recipe is going to be a hit though. It has all sorts of superfoods in it, such as: chickpeas, tomatoes, onion, garlic, carrots, green beans, black pepper and oregano. I thought I had Italian Seasoning on hand but discovered I didn't so I found a recipe on the Internet and made my own from scratch. It wasn't hard - just combine equal amounts of oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme and rosemary.

I have thoroughly enjoyed some of the meals I've had with superfoods this week - and love knowing that I'm putting things into my body that are going to have positive results! It's been a fun week in the lunchroom at work as the few of us that are doing Superfoods 365 see what each other is eating, share food ideas and enthusiasm about getting healthier.

I weighed 206 this morning so I'm back to the ten pound loss that I achieved before Christmas! I weighed 205 yesterday but I also ate a lot yesterday. Mostly all superfoods but it was still too much. My blood pressure is good - it was 121/81 this morning. One of the things I have decided is that I really want to do is go off the triazide I'm taking. It's a water pill and I've been on it for many years. If I had to guess just how many years, I'd say probably 16 and I've heard recently that if you're on it for too long it can damage to your liver. My doctor has me on it to help keep my blood pressure in a normal range but since my b/p is good, I'm going to try to wean myself off it. I wouldn't normally do something like this without my doctor's supervision but when I was eating healthy in 2004, and my blood pressure was good, she told me I could begin to wean myself off by taking one pill every second day. That's what I'll do again this time but I'll also keep a close eye on my readings and if I think I need to continue taking the triazide everyday until I get myself a little more healthy, then I'll do so. Today is the first day I haven't taken a pill.

One of my goals this year is to declutter as much as possible. The Cerebral Palsy Association will be in the neighbourhood today to pick up donations and I managed to find 4 boxes of things around the house that I can live without. The boxes are sitting on the front deck waiting to be picked up as I write. It feels great to get rid of things I don't need and don't use!

It's been so cold this week (in the -20C's) but supposed to warm up beginning today. I'm looking forward to that. The sun is shining this morning and I have lots of energy. I feel good and next on my list is to ride my bike then take a shower.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Small Steps Forward

I've had a very busy day today, getting ready to return to work tomorrow and don't have the luxury of writing much tonight because I have to go to bed soon.

Although it wasn't so easy to get back into healthy eating on January 1st, I'm right back into it now - and very excited about it! I went to Save On Foods today to stock up on superfoods (fruit, veggies, beans, canned tomatoes, yogurt, salmon) and a few other things. I made a healthy new recipe tonight: Barley Risotto from a new cookbook Christine bought me while they were visiting over the Christmas holiday. I love the cookbook and there are more recipes in it that I want to try. I also made a spinach salad (quick and easy): baby spinach leaves, halved grape tomatoes, chopped avocado, chopped fresh mushrooms and crumbled feta cheese. I ate mine with Vindali Onion dressing and I loved it! I also bought a fresh loaf of Russian Rye bread that we ate with supper. I didn't add butter to mine and it was delicous. The supper reminded me of an "Old World" meal.

I got a few things done on my virtual list that I mentioned yesterday. One of the things I feel especially good about is that I rode my bike yesterday: 32 minutes, 6.9 kms, and burned 365.3 calories and rode again today: 32:01 minutes today; 7.2 kms, and burned 365 calories. I started reading the book that Christine loaned me (Redeeming Love) while I rode my bike and it has me captivated so it will be easy to continue to read it as I have free time. I'll take it to work with me to work tomorrow to read on the bus.

I have leftover chili and one slice of the rye bread packed for lunch tomorrow. I'll eat breakfast there as well and will take a banana, an orange, a small container of yogurt and a small handful of almonds to choose from.

Goodnight.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Cold Hard Facts

One thing I am really good at is procrastinating. I don't remember being this bad before the invention of the personal computer but I can always find just one more thing to check or one more game to play before prying my sticky fingers off the keyboard and applying them to task. I have a whole list of things that I would have liked to get done during this week I've had off work but I've spent more time relaxing and playing on the computer than actually working on projects.

Today I want to get back to riding my bike; I haven't been riding it at all over the holidays. I want to finish up the laundry, clean off my kitchen table (papers and things to organize and put away), find a new healthy recipe to try, go out and get some fresh superfoods (fruit and veggies), make my bed, shower, work on printing my Project 365 pictures and journalling of 2009, start reading a book Christine loaned me and take my Project 365 picture for today. That's all I can think of for now but I'm sure there's more. I haven't transferred my list to the physical world (other than writing it down here) so it's just floating around in my head. I do write my lists down once in a while though and that seems to make the tasks more real and it's rewarding to be able to cross things off when I do buckle down and work through the things that need to be done.

The house is mostly clean though because Ken and I got the last of the Christmas decorations cleaned up and put away yesterday. Ken vacuumed the house after we finished and I made a large pot of chili, filled with a whole lot of yummy superfoods. I love Christmas and all the celebrating but I also enjoy the fresh new start of a new year.

Ken was laid off on December 18th so we've been home together all week. I love him and love spending time with him but 24/7 is a little too much time together. I didn't matter when I had a houseful of company and was busy having fun over the holidays but now that we're mostly back to routine, I'm finding that I miss my alone time. I'm usually alone every Monday and Friday during the day (because I don't work those days) and for a few hours when he's snowboarding on Saturday. The weather has been too cold for him to go snowboarding this week but today it's "only" -15C and going up to -11C so he took advantage of the "warm" weather and went snowboarding this morning! I finally get to be alone for a few hours!

One of the reasons I started this blog was to have a place to be brutally honest with myself with regard to my health and to also have a place to record my progess as I attempt to make some positive changes in that area of my life this year. And with that in mind, I am recording the following cold hard facts. If you haven't stayed with me this far, that's just fine. :-)

At my annual physical exam on December 11th, 2009, I measured 5' tall. I've measured 5' 1 1/2" and perhaps even 5' 3/4" tall in the past, but this time I was exactly 5' tall. That's not very tall, especially when you have to spread 214 pounds over that frame! That's what I weighed on my doctor's scale on December 11th. The most I've ever weighed was 220 pounds, both when I was at full-term with my youngest two children and again without being pregant. I don't know when I first allowed myself to get that heavy but ten pounds melted off when my doctor discoved my thyroid was sluggish and put me on synthroid two years ago. I started taking 0.075 mg of synthroid on my 48th birthday: November 21, 2007.

However, even being on synthroid, I managed to sneak back up to 216 pounds. That's what I weighed when I began to pay attention early November '09. I wanted to prepare for my annual physical and hoped that a few weeks of crash-healthy eating and exercise would lower my weight and improve my blood and urine tests! But my doctor says you need about 3 months of making healthier choices for the results to show up so I doubt my few weeks made any difference on my tests.

My cholesterol hasn't been checked since 2006 but my doctor requested it be checked again this year. And it's up. These are my numbers from the tests I had done on December 4th:

Triglyceride 2.08 [should be less than 2.30] (mine is okay)
HDL Cholesterol 1.16 [should be greater than 0.90] (mine is okay)
LDL Cholesterol 5.61 [should be less than 3.40] (mine is too high)
Total Chol/HDL Ratio 6.7 (Average is 4.5; less that 3.3 is low risk and greater than 7 is high risk)

In comparison, here are my numbers from November 4, 2006:

TG 2.59
HDL 1.31
LDL 3.91
Ratio 4.9
Total 6.41

At my visit on December 11th, my doctor told me an interesting thing that I didn't know prior. She said if I'm looking at U.S. data on cholesterol, that I need to multiply my numbers by 38.6 to understand their numbers.

It's mainly my LDL (or bad cholesterol) that I need to bring down. I told my doctor about my superfoods project and she was happy, I would even say excited, with the project. She's giving me three months to make improvements and wants me to come back in April to be retested. I'm hoping to have a significant improvement in my numbers by then!

After taking the Christmas/New Year season "off", I reintroduced healthy food and began my superfoods 365 project on January 1st. My breakfast and early morning snacks were great on January 1st but I didn't do so well for the remainder of the day.

I ate a lot of superfoods yesterday though (* items are superfoods), but probably too much chili! I had oatmeal*, mixed with oat bran*, cinnamon*, raisins, brown sugar and milk for breakfast, a banana* for a morning snack and an orange* in the afternoon. I drank a few cups of green tea* throughout the day, one mixed with about a tablespoon of honey* just to get some honey in. I nibbled on the carrots* as I was preparing them for chili for supper and also picked at some almonds* that I have sitting on the counter.

The chili I ate at supper time was made with the following ingredients: olive oil*, black pepper*, chili powder, crushed red pepper flakes, ground beef, garlic*, green pepper*, onion*, celery*, mushrooms*, grated carrots*, kidney beans*, lentils*, brown beans*, canned tomato paste* and canned tomatoes*. I ate a large bowl with pita bread but ate more of the chili after supper. It tasted so good and even though I overate, I'm not feeling bloated or weighed down by it this morning.

I also ate a few things yesterday that I shouldn't have but I didn't make as many poor choices as I had the previous evening. The main thing I could have lived without and not have even noticed were the three almond roca candies I ate. I stayed away from the Bits 'n Bites that Ken enjoyed as a snack with our movie though. I knew that if I got started, it would be hard to stop - so I didn't start. That's one small victory I suppose.

The other thing I want to record here is the medication and vitamins I take daily. They are:

Prescription Drugs:
1 Synthroid 0.075 mg
1 Triazide 25 mg
1 Ativan (as needed) but thankfully I haven't been needing them often

Vitamins/Herbs:
2 Platinum super easy multi plus vitamin (formulated for women ages 45+)
2 odourless garlic 1250 mg
3 100% Wild Alaskan Salmon & Fish oil blend 1000 mg
2 Vitamin C (500 mg each)
2 Calcium (600 mg each)
2 Estrosense

Today I weight 210 pounds and my blood pressure is 134/82.

I wish there was a home test for cholesterol.

I didn't know I could be so long-winded. I won't have so much time to spend on my blog once I go back to work on Tuesday but - I think I love writing!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year!

I've spent my day doing a bit of this and that but the most productive thing I've done today was take down, and put away, most of the Christmas decorations. Ken helped by bringing up all the empty boxes and taking them back down to the basement to store away after I had filled them up. He also helped me take the tinsel off the tree. The main thing left to undecorate is the tree and the garland that's wrapped around the staircase handrails.

When I'm busy taking down the decorations, it always amazes me how fast the weeks have flown by since I put the decorations up - and every year it feels like I only put the decorations up days ago and here it is time to take them down already!

I'm excited about starting a new year and starting my new projects (P365 with the daily picture and Superfoods 365).

It seemed like no effort whatsoever to incorporate my 5 superfoods into my diet today. I ate oatmeal for breakfast, sprinkled oat bran and cinnamon into it, drank 2 glasses of water (far from enough I'm sure), had 2 cups of green tea, one with about a tablespoon of honey and ate a banana. I had milk, raisins and brown sugar in my oatmeal as well but I want to focus on the superfoods.

I won't be eating so well this evening because we have leftover snacks from last night that I don't want to go to waste so I'll help Ken finish them up. Once we get rid of the junk food, I do hope to make the majority of my diet superfoods.

I started eating healthier about 2 months ago and riding my bike about 6 weeks ago and lost 10 pounds. I haven't been eating healthy at all over the Christmas break (for about ten days) and can notice the difference already. I've gained back 5 of the 10 pounds I lost and my blood pressure is up. On December 21st my blood pressure was 127/87 and today it was 140/91. I was feeling better when eating healthier everyday and I'm excited to get that feeling back, take off this 5 pounds I put on over the holiday - and keep going with my journey to be healthier!

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