Update: Weight Loss, etc.

Well, lately I’ve been too busy to update, but I’m in a good place right now, work-wise, so what the hell. I was gonna do a long update in one post, but I think instead, I’ll split it up into different subjects since it’s been so long and there’s a lot I could go into.

Anyway, weight loss … uh … it actually hasn’t been going that well. Before I went Primal, I was around 220-230. I eventually got down to around 180, which was great. I’d actually been 200+ for pretty much my whole adult life, so getting well below that was a huge accomplishment for me.

Unfortunately, the move to Sacramento (much as I’m glad we’re here) meant lots of stress and changes and … I kind of just said “fuck it” to dieting for awhile. Next thing I know, I’m back up to 200.

Once it got up to 209, I freaked out a bit and decided it was time to go back to trying to lose weight again.

I am kind of half-assing Primal some days, but I still keep all the rules in mind. For example, I don’t eat bread every day, and I eat my burgers with no buns, but I’ll make grilled cheese sandwiches 1-2 times per week. I also drink flavored sparkling water with artificial sweetener in it. Yah, not Primal, but not that bad.

Unfortunately, I am having to cut down on fat. When I first went Primal, I could have all the “good” fat I wanted and the pounds dropped off effortlessly. Now it seems that excess fat of any kind stalls my weight loss. I’m still technically doing HFLC, but I’m watching the fat.

I’m also trying to keep my calories around 1000. I don’t know if that’s healthy, but I feel okay doing it and it’s not that hard if I just have a couple cups of coffee for breakfast. ie: I don’t feel like I’m starving myself.

As I kind of indicated above, I’ve had to start looking at the numbers again. I can’t just magically lose weight on Primal anymore. I have to look at calories, carbs, and fat. It’s kind of a drag, but I’ve gotten used to it.

Anyway, all that seems to be helping because I’m below 200 again (if barely–I’m in the 199 range as I type this).

I think I’ll just leave it at that for now. My thoughts were already kinda scattered, but I think they’re getting worse  =P  Hopefully I’ll post more in a few days or so.

Things I’ve Noticed While Sick

Firstly, yeah, I’m seriously sick (well, “seriously” in my little world of being a mostly-healthy person). Mostly congestion, but I also felt just generally crappy yesterday and ended up being light-headed shortly after getting home from work. My husband has it worse–he has a full-blown flu with nausea and fever and such–but I’m pretty sure what I have is different, tho I guess it’s possible that my body is just fighting it off somewhat better.

Anyway, more rambling about sickness in a bit–the stuff I’m noticing:

• I’m sure that by the time this is over, I will have drunk my weight in tea. I don’t quite consider myself “a tea drinker”, but it’s one of those things I keep around for when I am in the mood for it. It’s also good for when I’m trying to avoid desert–that single spoonful of honey is nowhere near as bad as eating cake or something like that. It’s also–big shock here, I’m sure–something I like to have when I’m sick. My sick “diet” used to consist of almost nothing but orange juice and chicken broth. Now that I no longer drink orange juice (too much fructose–it’s more sensible to just eat an orange), I guess I’ve more or less replaced it with tea. I do find hot tea to be kind of comforting. Not a tea snob, by any stretch–I usually get Celestial Seasonings’ herbal tea, usually in the sampler box–no caffeine, since I normally drink it in the evenings, when I do. I usually like it with about a spoonful each of honey, lemon juice, and Truvia.
• I really like the smell of menthol–I find it oddly comforting. I think it’s because … well, as I said, I’ve generally been a pretty healthy person, but at one point I started getting a really bad flu-like cold about once per year (usually around the holidays–fun!). The upside to improving my eating habits is that that seemed to stop shortly afterward and, up until a few days ago, I haven’t been sick since–so this is the first time I’ve been sick for something like 3 years? Not a bad track record. But anyway, as I said, I used to get sick at least once per year, mostly during the time when my husband and I lived with his parents. What they always did when one of the kids got sick is that they’d set up a vaporizer. I had never used one before, but I came to really like it. Which is weird–shouldn’t the smell of menthol bring up memories of feeling crappy? I guess, instead, it reminds me of staying home from work and napping. The fact that my job was REALLY stressful and I was doing tons of overtime around that period probably has something to do with it too.
• Possibly craving fruit more than usual (?) Not sure, tho. I have been really enjoying the strawberries and blueberries I had left over from July 4th. Maybe it’s because they’re another substitute for orange juice? Or maybe it’s just because they’re strawberries and blueberries  XD

Well, I guess that about wraps up my sickness ramble. Taking today and Friday off of work in hopes that I’ll be up to going back on Monday.

Entering the home stretch

Yesterday marked one week until the trip home.

Lately, I’ve been fixated on how much there is to do before the move (all the packing, etc.), but something about Lee taking our cat to the vet yesterday to have her checked out and getting a certificate stating that she’s fit to travel, and seeing the printed-out itinerary for the flight for the first time … suddenly it clicked that I’m finally about to go home.

Hard to explain how that makes me feel, other than overwhelmed–it’s kind of a combination of things: stress (haven’t exactly forgotten about the packing, etc.), worry, excitement. It’s kind of scary in that it’s not under the best circumstances–we’ve got SOME money saved up, but it’s gonna be tight for a while. We’re moving into an Extended Stay hotel which is gonna be overly expensive, but it’s our only option right now. We’ll both be unemployed at first.

But on the upside, no screaming toddlers and yelping (not to mention huge and hyper-active) dog to deal with. No more living in a house where I feel like I have to hide all the time just to avoid criticism.

Not to mention that I’ll have my own kitchen (well, kitchenette, I guess, but I’ll actually be able to use it) so I’ll be able to go back to cooking on a regular basis. Lee keeps trying to tell me that we’ll be living on ramen* to save money–uhh, I don’t think so. I can’t wait to try making bone broth. I figure I can make that, and maybe add some gluten-free rice noodles, some spices, and maybe come up with something similar to ramen–other than the noodles (because gluten-free anything is usually overpriced), it should be pretty cheap to make. I’m also bringing the Cuisinart (shipping it to my mom along with some other things I can’t live without for a few months) so I can make my own nut butter and stuff like that. So I’m definitely looking forward to that stuff.

*We both actually love ramen. I used to drizzle a couple of slightly-beaten eggs into the boiling water during the last minute while the noodles were cooking, then I’d drain out nearly all the water before adding the packets of seasoning–tasted awesome. Obviously, it’s not healthy, tho, so I try to avoid it now.

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Okay, my co-workers just surprised me with a going-away party–that was awesome. I didn’t mention here yet that tomorrow is my last day at this company. Yes, I’m typing this at work–too busy packing at home to update, and there’s pretty much nothing better to do around here anyway  =P

Oh, speaking of co-workers … I was throwing all my knickknacks into a box and one of my co-workers, who is really tiny, went “Take me witchoo, I’ll fit in the box!”

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To wrap up, not doing too great on the weight-loss front. Still eating too much chocolate and peanut butter (due to stress–not to mention that I just had pizza and cake XD). I also stopped exercising, other than my daily 25-minute walk (which is really more about escapism than health at this point, anyway). But I haven’t gained more than maybe 2-3 lbs., and I’m hovering around that number. So, could be worse. Definitely going to step it up again after the move.

I guess that’s about all I can think of as far as updates, for now. Next time I do an entry, it might be from Sacramento.

I keep thinking about the last line from the Red Dwarf pilot: Lister puts one arm around Cat (who is looking at him like he’s nuts) and doing a fist-pump with the other while saying: “Look out, Earth! The slime’s comin’ home!”

Wow, it’s been awhile

I haven’t forgotten about this place, it’s just a combination of there not being much to report, and I’ve been busy.

Again, don’t know how many follow my videos, but I’ve mostly been cranking away at the Game Den’s coverage of Silent Hill Downpour–I’m finally at a point where I can slow down a bit and breathe. Filming will be this weekend, and the videos will start going up on October 11th (it’s a 3-parter this year).

Anyway, regarding health and such, I did have a couple of landmarks. One is that I hit the 40-lb mark, so yay. The other is that I’ve discovered that my new size is 16–it used to be 20. Finally got some new loungewear, new jeans and a new hoodie, all of which fit (well, they’re a little tighter than I’d usually go with, but I’m still working on losing weight, so hopefully that means that I’ll get more wear out of them). Was getting pretty tired of slogging around in oversize clothes–I definitely feel better about how I look now. There’s also this weird psychological thing where I used to hold up an article of clothing and think, “THIS is really my size? It looks huge >.<“, but now it’s “THIS is really my size? It looks tiny o.O” which is funny because I’ve only gone down 1-2 sizes, but there ya go  XD

Oh, also moving time is approaching–probably about exactly in a month. Packing is another thing I’ve been working on that’s taken up a lot of time lately. Maybe I’ll try to talk more about that in another post.

I haven’t been doing fantastic on the diet and exercise front–I’ve been eating too much dark chocolate and pork rinds with Pepsi Throwback (it’s kind of depressing being in the “editing dungeon” so I need comfort food), and I haven’t been doing the Primal Blueprint exercises, just my usual walking. And as a result, the weight loss is slowing down, plus I’ve had headaches and stomach aches for the last couple days (off-and-on, not constantly or anything).

So I think I need to buckle back down soon. But at the same time, I’ve got a lot to deal with right now, so I am kind of just letting myself slack off.

I think that’s about it for now–mainly just wanted to post an update. Hopefully I can get back to updating on a more consistant basis soon.

Setback

Yeah … turns out I was being too presumptuous in my last post.

We were given an “extension” and allowed to live here until the end of October … and we pretty much have to take it.

Technically a good thing because the hotel was going to be way too expensive.

But otherwise, all my plans are put on hold for probably two more months. Ugh.