Just a little advice

I’m no expert but...

It absolutely astonishes me when I see people on social media say that they’re on this or that diet but they’re not exercising, so they’re surprised when the weight is either not coming off or they’re losing very little. Really? I wonder why?

You have to exercise. You have to burn the calories and fat.

And just being on a plan isn’t the final solution. Yes, I’m on Weight Watchers, but it’s only a tool for guidance. Weight loss takes more than just a plan to make the pounds and inches disappear. I’ve said it many times and I’ll probably say it many more times: there is no magic to weight loss. (Even people who have weight loss surgery have to watch what they eat and exercise.)

So, put one foot in front of the other and work that body.

Giving This Another Shot

Over the weekend my daughter and son in law had a house warming party at their new house, so once I was all dolled up, I thought I’d get my son to take a full length picture of me. I immediately deleted it.

I’m disgusted at myself for gaining any weight back. 

So on Sunday I decided to join Weight Watchers. Before I was never one to do programs but I’ve gotten to the point of not being able to do this weight loss journey without a map. I’m doing the freestyle points program that they’re advertising now and it’s super easy.

Watching those points add up (or not) really helps. You see where the big points really are and with me, I don’t want those points going over so I avoid high point foods.

I’ve started walking again and racking up the Fitbit steps.

Anyway, I’m back on the weight loss journey and this time I’m more determined than ever to get to my goal!

I had my son take another picture so I can save it for progress.

Just a quick weigh in post

Finally a new weigh in

Summer and the boys being out of school has got my schedule and routine way out of wack! For several Saturday (okay, like a month of Saturdays) I've forgotten to weigh in. I've remembered to weigh in later in the day but I'm kinda anal about weighing in after my morning whiz so I keep saying it's okay, you can do it next Saturday, and then next Saturday rolls around and I forget again. Well, this morning I finally remembered and I was a happy mama!

When that posted to MFP this morning I got several comments and one of them had a doubtful tone (and maybe I was reading too deep into it) but like I said, I haven't weighed in a month of Saturdays but I'm proud of that weigh in and I'm proud of that "lost 135 lbs so far". Looks like I've gotten my eating under control.

Now I've just gotta get my behind working out again. And I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I have been doing a 30 day challenge though. (although, I am a few days behind) It's an app on my phone that's pretty cool. It's the 30 Day Fit Challenge Workout by North Park.Android. It offers a full body workout, which is what I'm doing, and it has specific body part workouts. Give it a try!

Time for me to go to bed.

Sweet dreams y'all.

Happy (?) Six Year Anniversary To Reinventing Andrea

Wednesday  marked six years that I started this journey to become healthy. I really thought that I'd be at my goal by now. I didn't think that six years in I'd still be fighting the battle. I thought I'd be in maintenance mode by now.

The picture above (and it's funny to me to see me before I had all of my tattoos) is my before picture. I was 375 pounds then and I can only imagine the damage that my organs have suffered. I did suffer a mild stroke in September 2015 so my former bad eating habits and complex migraines contributed to that. 

I wish I had never let myself get to that weight and honestly it seemed to sneak up on me over night. And the thing about being a big person is, when you look down at your body, you don't see yourself as big. What opened my eyes to my size is that my niece was playing with my phone one day before this journey began and took a few pictures. One of the pictures was of me sitting on my sisters couch. When I saw the picture, I cried because that's when I realized how big I had became. I immediately deleted the picture, and I wish that had deleted my weight problem. Too bad that it doesn't work that way.

I never had a weight issue growing up. All through my childhood and teenage years my weight was normal. I was never chunky or anything. Like I said, it just seemed to happen overnight. 

Anyway, as you probably remember, I had a dream soon after my niece had taken that picture of me, and in that dream I liked how I saw. I was a nice healthy size and that was the inspiration for the original Reinventing Andrea. The official start date for my journey was July 6, 2010.

I've had quite a few setbacks over the years, but one thing is for sure, I come back swinging. I've managed to sprain both ankles within 3 months of each other. I had the flu twice in one flu season. Had countless sinus infections, stomach bugs, and I've lost my inspiration and motivation many times. But according to my ticker on My Fitness Pal says I've lost 118.2 pounds.

Yeah, I still look fat in the progress picture above but I can tell I'm making progress.

The last think I want to share is that I've made a deal with myself. When summer vacation for the kids started, I printed this and  hung it on the wall:

So I've decided that I can't sit down and knit or crochet (unless I'm behind on orders) until I've worked out. So far, so good lol.

Happy weekend!

Weigh In June 4 2016

I'm a little behind posting this, it's been a busy weekend of being lazy. I was a little surprised when I got on the scales Saturday morning. I really expected to see a gain. I've been eating all the good healthy stuff, drinking water, too, but because of excruciating pain in my right knee (which I believe is from an injury that didn't heal properly two years ago) and swelling in my right ankle (the one that I sprained in the cemetery a year ago) I just thought letting my body rest was something that I needed to do. And I told myself all week that even if I gained a little weight from lack of exercise, it was okay because my body needed some downtime. I stepped on the scales and this was what I saw:

It's very encouraging to see the numbers on the scale going down. It's even more encouraging to see that total lost going up. I've lost the equivalent of a teenager!

It's officially Monday, so I'm going to say have a happy week!

Weigh In Day!

I got back to it this week and it really paid off!

I honestly didn't expect such a big loss when I stepped on the scales this morning, but the scales don't lie.

I hope you all have a happy Memorial Day Weekend!

No Weigh In This Week

Due to mother nature stomping through my uterus and bringing massive bloating with her and also causing uncontrollable cravings, I decided not to step on the scales this morning.

Why? Because I'm very sensitive right now and I don't feel like having a two year old meltdown. That's why.

Have a great weekend

Due to mother nature stomping through my uterus and bringing massive bloating with her and also causing uncontrollable cravings, I decided not to step on the scales this morning.

Why? Because I'm very sensitive right now and I don't feel like having a two year old meltdown. That's why.

Have a great weekend.

Sweet & Spicy Catfish

Ingredients:
¤ 1 tablespoon raw honey
¤ 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
¤ 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
¤ juice from one medium orange
¤ 1 four oz catfish fillet

Mix the first four ingredients together then add the catfish fillet. Turn the fish to coat both sides. Cover and let sit in the refrigerator for two hours before cooking.

Broil in oven for eight minutes on each side.

Also tasty on salmon.

Weigh In Day

So it's Saturday again and it's my weigh in day. I'm pleased to say that I lost 4.4 pounds this week!

This is a short post but I'll be back tomorrow with a yummy recipe to share.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Weigh In Day

Warning: TMI ahead. Last week, if you'll remember, I posted that Aunt Flo was very late. Well, around Monday or Tuesday of this week I also realized that my bathroom habits had became somewhat irregular and I'm one that normally can go on command. So, I changed up some of my foods because I do not like taking laxatives because they tend to overwork me and cause horrible cramps. I'm glad to say that problem os resolved and after being 27 days late for Aunt Flo,  that is resolved to.

With those situations resolved, I'm glad to say, I lost 3.4 pounds this week!

There are so many things with the human body that can throw off weight loss, and that's why, like I said on Wednesday's post, I only weigh in once a week.

Have a great weekend!

In the Beginning

In the beginning,  this blog's predecessor was known as just "Reinventing Andrea".

In those early days of my weight loss journey,  somewhere around July 6, 2010 (that was when my I weighed go my starting weight, but we'll get to that later)I had no idea that in 2016, six years later, I still wouldn't be at my goal weight of 144 pounds.

There are several reasons for that. Not excuses, and I'm not blaming anyone but myself even a few of those, like my stroke back in September. I'm also really bad about hearing "you look fine the way you are, sweetheart," when I'm in a relationship and even though I've always put my health at the top of my list of reasons for getting healthy, I'd abandon ship and swim for the buffet bar.

So, why do I have to blog, post about it and share all of my posts from My Fitness Pal? It's not to brag. It's called accountability. As much as I'm the heavily tattooed black sheep of the family, I also have a small voice in my head that says I have to please people. I know that totally makes no sense. Also, if just one person readingthis blog decides to join me on the fight of obesity,  I very well may have helped saved their life. And while I'm on that subject. I see a lot of memes on Facebook complaining about people posting every time they go to the gym. It takes just as much "energy" to be supportive and click like on their gym posts as it does to share the anti-gym posts. Just sayin'.

Why do I only weigh in once a week? We all know how much a woman's weight fluctuates from day to day because of hormones, ghosts, Satan, etc. However, I can't handle the stress of gaining just .2 pounds in just one day. I'd rather keep up with it from one Saturday to the next.

What was my starting weight? My starting weight was 375 pounds. I can't believe I ever let myself get that big. (Remember on "Whats's Eating Gilber Grape" when the mom said, "I havent always been this way.") It really did seem to creep up on me over night. The weight thing is you don't realize how big you've became by just looking down at your body. Even looking in the mirror  day in and day out you don't realize your size. (I had unconsciously avoided full-length mirrors and only used the medicine cabinet mirror) The big wake up call was when my niece was playing with my phone and took a picture of me. I deleted it as soon as I saw it. Now I wish I had saved it as a before picture.

What do I eat now? I eat normal foods you can buy in a grocery store. I've learned to cook them in a healthy way. My favorite is broiled fish. For side dishes, I like brown rice, carrots, zucchini,   and pretty much any vegetable. In the brown rice I like to sprinkle in a little dried cranberries and the Oscar Meyer Real Bacon Bits (in the yellow bag). For breakfast I have 1/3 cup of Great Value (Walmart) egg whites and either a chocolate zucchini or regular zucchini muffin. I make enough of both muffins to last the month and I use egg whites instead of whole eggs. I have a cup of decaf coffee with a little French vanilla creamer. And I'm back to drinking water all day. It helps to flush out the excess sodium. At dinner I have decaf sweet tea with lemon.

For workouts I do 40 to 45 minute light impact aerobics in the morning and a 30 to 40 minute high impact aerobics either in the afternoon or evening.

Okay, that's it for Hump Day. I hope I've inspired someone to make some life changing choices!

Weigh In Day

So today wasn't great at all. I was so excited when I woke up, but that excitement quickly faded.

After taking care of my morning bathroom business, I stripped out of my pajamas and stepped onto the scales. The numbers made me mad; I had went up by 1.8 pounds. Not a big gain, I know, but I think I know why.

The following is about to be TMI and if you want to stop reading now I'll understand.

I'm not making excuses, but since I started working out again my period has taken a leave of absence. As of right now, Aunt Flow is 21 days late BUT a cramp of child birth contractions proportions woke me up in the middle of the night. Right now I'm pretty crampy. And I've notice over the past few days I don't have much patience with the boys. So maybe water weight gain is the reason for my gain this week. I guess we'll see next week when I weigh in.

I have no idea what to title this lol

So we survived the weekend!

If you remember back when this blog was Reinventing Andrea, every Saturday I would post my weigh in results. I plan to do that again but this past weekend I watched my precious grandson while his parents were in Myrtle Beach for a cosmetology competition, so having my hands full, posting my weigh in results slipped my mind.

Now that things have calmed down (or as calm as they'll ever be in this house) I'm pleased to say that I lost two pounds last week.

I'm even more pleased to say that I've lost a grand total of 113 pounds. I'm definitely on the right track again.

I think it's safe to say

That this one pound loss is enough to keep me going.

BUT....even if I had only lost .1 when I stepped on the scale or if I had gained when I stepped on the scale this morning, you know what? I'd keep on keeping on because I've survived so much - from shitty relationships that could've killed me to a mild stroke. Ain't no keeping me down.

And I'm Back

Yep, I've posted similar blog posts before about how I'm making my comeback and blah, blah, blah, but I had a lot of toxic negativity going on and it took me having a mild stroke to realize how bad the relationship I was in to end it.

All of that is behind me now and two weeks ago I started religiously logging my foods on My Fitness Pal and I've started working out again too. I'm not doing anything too strenuous because between the fibro, bulging disks, and torn rotator cuff I'm in some pain most of the time.

I'm eating healthier than I was but that's a work in progress. I'm gonna eat the foods and do what I was doing before because it was working for me - it was me that stopped working for it.

Happy weekend!

Ugh

I'm a little worried that depression is setting in. I'm discouraged more than ever.

Many times before I've said that when I started this journey in July of 2010, I knew that weight loss is more successful and has longer lasting results if Donne slowly but I didn't think that it would take this long. Yet here it is,  almost 5 years later and I'm still 96 pounds from my healthy goal weight of 144 pounds.

To be honest, when I weighed 375 pounds I didn't have near the health problems that I have now. I'm on 10 mg of Zestril daily for high blood pressure. Five years ago my blood pressure was always 120/80. Now that I'm 135 pounds lighter, I'm lucky if that bottom number is under 100. Wheb I went to the ER for my most recent ankle injury, the bottom number was 124! (I do know that pain can make your blood pressure higher.)

And that leads me to my next issue. When I was at my highest weight, I never had accidents. Now, I'm on a first name basis with the staff at the local ER. In the past year I've had two sprained ankles  (and those were within less than three months of each other), torn cartilage in my right knee that still hurts often, my back hurts 99 % of the time, and so many other aches, pains and injuries that it's ridiculous.

Then there's all the random illnesses. I've had everything from a tick bite that still itches after the tick was completely removed nine months ago, sinus infections, bronchitis,  two rounds of the flu, and now my period.

Aunt Flow came for a visit on Halloween and is still here. Yes, the bitch is still here. I have an appointment with a new gynecologist on the 23rd of this month to have that looked into. Oh geez, no pun intended. Ew.

Through all of this a lot of my willpower has left. I was winning this battle. I was cooking and eating healthy. Now I honestly can't get enough of Pete's on 25's bacon cheeseburgers and macaroni and cheese. And the thing that's so stupid about that is that I'm lactose intolerant so cheese is a bad idea. And you woukd think the cramps and diarrhea and hours on the toilet would be enough motivation to keep me from eating it, but it's not.

I've lost "it". And the fact that it bothers me makes me believe that maybe, just maybe, all hope is not gone.

Everyday that I'm not able to workout because of my current injury, I feel guilty that I'm not walking or doing an aerobics dvd. I want to workout,  I really do. I want to feel those endorphins kick in. I want to feel proud of myself for getting off of my ass and burning those calories.

I want to not think about bacon cheeseburgers or macaroni and cheese. I want to get back to eating the broiled catfish, brown rice with cranberries, and baked sweet potato fries that I so dearly loved.

I honestly don't like me right now. But I love me enough to know that something has got to change, but I don't know how. It's not like I'm using my ankle as an excuse to not workout.

I went back to the doctor Friday and he explained how seriously injured my ankle is and it's gonna take a while for it to heal.

But I'm scared. I'm truly scared that when I do start working out again, it's just a matter of time until I get another injury. And as bad as the ligaments in my ankle are damaged, it's only gonna take me turning my ankle again for my ankle bone to break because it's not being protected right now. I'm terrified.

This post isn't meant to be a pity party. I'm just being honest.

Falling with style...the sequel

This story starts out just like the other falling with style post.

This past Thursday,  Mark and I drove to Clemson,  SC to check out the Old Stone Church Cemetery. It's a beautifully preserved part of SC's history. The man who Pickens County was named after is buried there. Many graves date back to the late 1700s, maybe even back further than that. I don't know because I only got to spend about 30 minutes there.

We were just taking our time, viewing the old headstones. Mark had went on ahead of me to check out some graves in a brick fenced in area.

The area that is fenced in is probably 20 feet by 15 feet. On one end there is an opening with a step down into the area. I caught up with Mark, attempted to step down and the next thing I knew was I was grasping at the brick wall and then I heard a loud snap. Yay.

Mark helped me up and to the car which was only about 100 feet from where I fell. Mark drove me to the ER in Anderson. They say it's a sprain. Im not convinced. This doesn't feel like any sprain I've ever had and the swelling is only getting worse. Kinda looks like a grapefruit on the side of my foot.

Why do I post this? Am I seeking attention? No. I'm posting this only to say that although I've had my fair share of injuries and illnesses over the past year, I'm not giving up.

I'm not sure what is keeping me from throwing in the towel. But my towel is still right here with me.

And besides,  I'd probably hurt myself while throwing in my towel! 😂

PS - this picture was taken yesterday.  It's worse today and I don't want to gross you out too much!

Falling with style...

My fiancé and I love visiting old cemeteries. Yeah, we're kinda creepy like that but we've seen a lot of interesting graves during our adventures.

Yesterday Mark and I went exploring at a cemetery that I had no clue exists even though it's only about 5 miles from where I grew up. We hiked through briar patches and other rough terrain for what seemed like forever. After 1.25 miles we finally found the old cemetery. Very interesting little spot.

On the walk back we decided to bypass the briars and go a tiny bit further into the woods. The walking was a lot easier since we weren't having to work ourbwaybtheough a lot of undergrowth. And then this monster of a hill came into view. 

I was already tired and sweaty (even on a cold January day) so the thought of my clumsy butt having to climb it made me want to lay down and have a temper tantrum. I wanted to kick and scream and cry. 

But you know what? I did it. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.

So why am I blogging this at 6 am? Because what comes us must eventually come down.

When we reached the top of the hill I realized that in order to get to the car, there was one last obstacle: the other side of the hill. I'm not so clumsy going up a hill but going down the hill is another story. There were pine needles and lots of fallen leaves which we're hiding some pretty big rocks.

Now this next part happened so fast that I'm not really sure how it happened. I remember that Mark was a few feet ahead of me saying how I should kinda come down sideways to keep from sliding so much on the pine needles. And then I figured out my own way down. 

As I was about to start my descent down the hill, I basically sat down (not meaning to) and slid. It was almost like sledding in the snow. It was fun and I laughed all the way down the hill, even as I slid under a fallen pine tree. At one point I was afraid I was going to knock Mark down but he cleared the path pretty quick.

Oh, but why am I blogging at 6 am on a Sunday morning? Because every inch of my body is in some sort of pain. My ankles are swollen which is nothing new. My left wrist got all silly yesterday thinking it could save the day and catch me as I sat down. Pretty sure it's sprained. And there's lots of other random aches and pains.

But Mark said the look on my face was priceless. The feeling that you have as a kid, sledding in the snow was brought back for a few minutes, and I burned calories. So it's all good. I'll survive, let my boo boos heal and do it all again soon. 

Five years ago when I started this journey I never would have imagined surviving the adventures that the new body and better health would allow me to survive. And it's only going to get better.