One Pickle @ a Time - my journey

Epi1

Epi1

New member
Well I wrote a really long newbie introduction, so I wont repost everything there - maybe try to summarize it up. FYI - pickles are one of my free foods on my plan - love em. CRUNCH CRUNCH ...

Basics: 25, 5'6, starting weight for my LAST weight loss plan 314lbs.

Health: Weight loss and food plan regulated/monitored by a bariatics doctor. Weekly visits. Routine blood work and EKG to monitor my health. At start of the plan was boarderline diabetic and much pain in my knee joints, recent low back muscle pull, muscle spasms - put on many lovely pain killers and muscle relaxers. Heel spurs - put on lodocaine strips and anti-inflamatory. Recent development of pain on left side of head/temple - doctor wasn't sure if it was temple artierial (or something) migraines or issue with pituitary gland. Had an MRI and bloodwork. Everything came back okay. Put me on relpax and lortab for the migraine. I plan to see a chiropractor to look at the cervical (neck) area - maybe something is messed up there to cause these all of a sudden migraine attacks.

Past 'lifestyle changes': Atkins, south beach, low fat, low calorie, no food, pretty much everything on the market including pills.

Current Plan: Seeing a bariatics doctor/nurse/nutritionist/PT each week. 800 calories, 115g portein, >50g carbs, <20g fiber, >30g fat per day. Maintain a food and exercise journal - which includes my binges or cheats.

Relationships: I work in politics. I love my job. It's high stress. I've been dating a wonderful man for over 2 years. We travel back and forth between NYC and the midwest on the weekends. Which is getting old. Plans are for him to move to the midwest, but I'm not opposed to moving to NYC or a suburb there. My family all live in another state. I have some friends here, but most of my life-long best friends are in my home state. My mom recently announced she is gay and I recently met her partner. Which was, difficult and interesting and odd all that same time. I learned this the same weekend I went home for my best friend's wedding. I'm proud of myself for only gaining back 3-4lbs during that time period and then re-losing it plus some. My binge eating/emotional eating was kicking into over-drive.

As for my daily post ... I woke up this morning, hoping for relief from the migraine as I started to take a couple of medicines yesterday. It came back, I just took another lortab. For breakfast I had 1/2c of egg beaters, for lunch I had 1 chicken breast and 1/2c cottage cheese (a bit more than I normally would have for a lunch - but weekends are my hardest time, I want to really binge on weekends). I'm snacking on some pickles now. Pickles .. pickles .. pickles ... My plan for today was to go into the office - yes, on a saturday, I lost so much productivity this week because of these stupid migraines or whatever it is. But now having taken the lortab - I may not be much for driving or going out. Might be a good thing, when I take a drive to some place with no real 'appointment time' - I tend to make bad decisions ... like, let's go through the mcdonalds drive through .. or let's stop by DQ and get some ice cream. In the mornings to work, I am always RIGHT on time - so no time to stop for a bad meal, at night, it's too hot and I don't put the AC on - so I dont feel like stopping through a drive-thru.

I bought some running shoes, for walking. Because of the heel spurs - which hopefully are HEALING. I have to use a shoe with a higher heel. I thought maybe if i started walking - I would speed up some weight loss. But then the migraines hit. I think my body is constantly looking for an excuse to not exercise.

Okay so that's my news for now ... i'm fat, my cat is a brat, my mom's gay, my back aches, and my head's going to explode :) :rolleyes:
 
Hi And Welcome to the forum!!

I've had some debilitating headaches that knocks me on my butt - I can only imagine how much pain you go through :( I wouldn't want to excercise either!

It sounds like you have a good plan in place (does a doctor really recommend 800 calorie diets?) that seems so low to me, how does it keep the body from going into starvation mode and storing fat?

Anyway, starting a journal and having your goals in place is a teriffic way to start! You CAN do this!

And for the record, all cats are brats, they're entitled ;)
 
I don't know the science behind calories vs. protein vs. carbs vs. fat - all I know is that my doctor is well respected in this state. All of my regular doctors recommended his approach to me. I honestly thought - how in the heck can I do this few calories.

I am not really hungry - I suppose it is the protein and carbs that help. I am emotionally/mentally hungry. Which is the difference. No belly hunger but head hungry. So I have to keep my emotional eating in check.

I'm not sure how metabolism really works, but what I know is that this is the first time in my life that I am actually losing weight - I can't wait0 to see how my body reacts when I add some real exercise to the day.

With almost 20lbs lost - I am not noticing it too much - which is disappointing - so hopefully soon, I will start seeing some physical results.

Thanks for the encouragement.
 
Epi, Wow your doing great. 800 calories a day, you have some kind of will power. I thought my 1,200 to 1,700 calories a day was hard. Keep up the good work.

Chip
 
Well having doctor's supervision is a great thing! It sounds like you're really working together as a team :D

And you WILL see the results!! We both had similar goals (I wanted to lose 102 lbs, and you 114). At 27 lbs lost, I can see the difference, my size 20's are loose and baggy, but I just put on a size 18 skort left over from 1996 and it fits, buttons, zips - but is still too tight. Three months ago there was NO way I could have even gotten them zipped, five months ago they didn't go over the hips!

It's such a long process, but we WILL succeed :)

You're doing great!
 
I'm with m2m about the 800 calories but if your doctor says it's OK then hey? Who am I? :) Welcome to the forum. You are off to a great start, now just more of the same!
 
Welcome Epi!! Good call on going to see a doctor. It takes so much guess work out of changing your diet, and they can keep a regular check on you to make sure that the plan is the right one for you.

And when that little voice in your head says, go get a bite to eat, even when your not hungry, come on here and have a chat. Its amazing how quickly you forget that little voice :)
 
I think I realized that I wouldn't be able to do this on my own, and having a reputable baratrics doctor here in town made it easier. I just finally decided this was it. So I decided to give up fast food, give up/reduce eating out, give up cable tv, give up that extra pair of shoes or wardrobe addition during the month, give up getting my nails done, lol ...and invest all of that money into my health.

If there wasn't a team of encouraging specialists there for me each week, I think I wouldn't be able to do it. Every time I have failed, they have found a way to get me through that hurdle. When I first started I so hated many of the protein supplements, so they found some real world foods that I could replace the supplements with such as carbsmart yogurt or low fat swiss string cheese or egg beaters.

The food restrictions are probably not the hardest thing, it's probably the financial aspect. Between weekly visits, and routine blood work, weekly foods -I figure I'm averaging $40 per pound. Though, as I get to my first target weight, I wont have weekly visits but rather bi-weekly visits. And, the EKGs wont be every 30lbs but every 6-12 months. So the quicker I get to that first goal LOL the better my pocket book will be.

As I loose weight, I guess the next concern becomes several things ... like having clothing that fits. This I imagine is a problem for a lot of ppl. I don't have many smaller sizes in my closet. I've always thrown them out or donated them when I moved up to a bigger size.
 
Well I've done well for the day. Usually weekends are the hardest for me -

Breakfast: 1/2 c ham & cheese egg beaters |70 cal| |10 protein|

Snack: none

Lunch: 1 ck breast, 1/2c cottage cheese |240 cal| |30 protein|

Snack: 1 light swiss cheese string |70 cal| |9 protein|

Snack: 1 portion beef jerky |70 cal| |15 protein|

Dinner: 1 ck breast, 1/4 c cottage cheese, jello cup |180 cal| |21 protein|

Snack: 1/2c chives & cheese egg beaters |70 cal| |12 protein|
1 light swiss string cheese |70 cal| |9 protein|

Total calories: 770
Total protein: 106
Fat & carbs: Under
Fiber: Could use more

I might have a bit of cottage cheese to bring up my protein total for a bedtime snack. Should still come in right at my meal plan goal for the day. Will also probably have another jello cup and some pickles (free foods). Didn't feel hungry at all today, and when I did - I ate something.

It was a great day despite fighting my migraine. Lortab seems to work, but it makes me a bit dizzy and my tummy gets upset (not enough to make me not want to eat however). I cleaned today - picked up, vacuumed, swept floor, mopped, changed linens. Fairly productive despite being on a narcotic lol. I hope for no migraine tomorrow, which means no meds, which might mean going into the office and doing a bit of catch up work and go for a walk.

Epi
 
You're doing great! Obviously protein really helps to keep you full, I just think I would stay in bed all day eating under 800 calories, so good for you! Thanks for the advice in my journal, I just can't get away from the carbs no matter how hard I try. I'm going to switch to oatmeal I think. I will definately try harder everyday. thanks alot and keep it up :)
 
I think it is definitely the protein. I have more energy on 800 calories than I did on 2500-4000 calories a day. Combined with hundreds of grams of carbs and fat.

I love my carbs too, I found bagels at - it is very reasonably priced too and have a good deal of protein in them for being what they are.
 
Hello Epi,

Congrats on the weight loss so far! I think that 40.00 per lb will probably save your life in the long run, so it is worth it!! Right? Good Luck to you. I know your struggle all to well. Your doing great!
 
Great going, Epi. I am always so impressed when people follow a weight loss regime despite obstacles in their way. Keep up the good work ;)
 
Okay, so after 4am. I awoke as the migraine pain has returned with full force, accompanying it is neck pain on the same side and very tender placed along the back of the ear down to the neck. All in all I'm not sure the lortabs are really working but just masking the pain, so as soon as they wear off the pain is back. I wonder if the migraine is not being caused by something else - ie: something in the neck.

These migraines started on the left side on Tuesday. I went and saw the doctor on Wednesday. On Thursday I had an MRI of the brain and some emphasis on the pituitary. Came back negative. Friday prescribed lortab and relpax. The only thing I can think of that I might have done to my neck was over that weekend, I went on a mini-road trip , rented a car and the head rest was shapped weird and made my head bounce back and forth. Maybe that did something. The pains didn't really start in my neck though, they started in the form of the worst headache i've ever had.

ugh.
 
Oh Epi!
I hope you find pain relief fast!

I know how unbearable these headaches are!
 
Okay I think it is definitely my neck. I can hardly move it. There is sharp pain when touching where my neck and about an inch above my hairline under my ear are. Pain in the middle of the back. Continued 'migraine' type pain in my temple. Something is definitely off in my neck or back. I'm seeing my doctor in the morning. Oy vey!
 
Breakfast: 1/2c ham & cheese egg beaters | 70cal | |10 pro|

Lunch: 1 grilled ck breast |120 cal | |16 pro|
1/2c cottage cheese |130 cal | |12 pro|
Jello

Snack: UGGG 1 grilled ck breast |120 cal| |16 pro|

FYI - if you over cook the egg beater, you get this crispy egg thing. It's actually, perhaps sadly, not bad. lol
 
|440 cal| |54 pro|

Bad bad bad snacking afternoon.

ANOTHER ck breast |120 cal| |16 pro|

:mad: BP south beach cookies |200 cal| |4 pro|

Total before dinner: |760 cal| |74 pro|

Dinner: egg beaters |100 cal| |18 pro|

blah I always screw up the day before weigh in at the doctor's office.
 
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Hi epi,
Just take it one meal at a time, what little you go over in the next meal won't ruin all the hard work since your last doctor's visit.
 
I just wanted to jump on and let you know your doing great. Keep it up. Don't worry about that little bit you went over, once in awhile is not going to ruin the whole process.
 
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