Week 24 Summary Operation Get Fit No Excuses

Week 24 of Operation Get Fit No Excuses is officially done and I’m on to Week 25!

This past week has been a challenge for me physically, mentally, and emotionally because I’ve been dealing with Epilepsy related issues on and off all week. I have no idea what triggered this round of seizures, but I think I finally am over it for now! (Crossing my fingers anyway).

There were many days I had difficulty walking, talking, balancing, seeing clearly, or just having energy. I managed to get a workout in every day except for one, despite these difficulties. For this, I’m extremely proud of myself. I actually didn’t workout today because my body told me that I needed more rest, so that’s exactly what I did. I slept about 9 hours before I woke up the first time. I ate and prepared myself to exercise. Even though I wasn’t feeling like it and was still sleepy, I was determined to stick with my motto Get Fit No Excuses. But, after setting there for 30 minutes, I decided that my body needed more sleep to recover from the week of seizure activity and I slept 2 more hours. I honestly feel really good and better than I have all week.

So, now for the fun part! This week is my weigh-in and measurement day! I’m excited to report better than expected results. Here they are:

28 June 2018

Weight: 72.7 kg (160 lbs)
Hips: 107.8 cm (42.4 inches)
Waist: 81.5 cm (32 inches)
Bicep: 33.5 cm (13.18 inches)
Thigh: 61.0 cm (24 inches)

I have to say that even after all these months of weight loss, I get surprised looking at my body when I least expect it. You have to be wondering what I mean. Let me give you some examples.

1) The other night, I was laying sideways on an armchair reading. Before I lost weight, I took up the entire depth of the chair. I had no room for my arm to rest comfortably and it would just hang in midair. Now, in that same position, both of my arms have ample room to rest on either side of my body.
2) I can cross my legs with no trouble and they stay there! Before losing weight, it was virtually impossible to cross my legs because my thighs were so big. Now, no matter what I’m wearing or the type of chair I’m sitting on, I can stay for hours with my thighs comfortably crossed.
3) Riding in the passenger seat of our car. Before, my butt was wider than the seat and the sides of the seat dug into my hips. It was also difficult to lock the seat belt. Now, I have plenty of room and no problems at all reaching the seat belt.

When you have been overweight pretty much your entire life, you have a set body image in your head and it’s extremely difficult to change that, even as you lose weight gradually. That’s why I still get surprised many times when I look in the mirror, when I realize how my body fits in seats or other places, or even how I can squeeze between cars to get in ours when we’re parallel parked.

In my head, I’m still 200 pounds even though my rational mind understands that I’ve lost over 40 pounds. I don’t really dwell on my body image and how my size affects my everyday life, but I know many of you do so wanted to share that you are not alone.

Now, on to good news about my Padrone’s weight loss! He has continued to lose weight and his Diabetes doctor told him that they were not only extremely surprised at how much he’s lost since 8 March, but very happy with his progress! He’s lost 12 kgs (26 pounds)!

Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement from us both!

Week 15 Summary Operation Get Fit No Excuses

Well, this week is time for me to do a measurement and weight checkin. It’s the end of Week 15 and I’m still going strong keeping up my plant based diet and exercise routine. Over the weeks, I’ve seen a steady progress of weight loss and my body slimming down. I’ve made sure not to check my weight and measurements constantly because I think that would have a negative impact on my progress.

One thing I did this past week is to finally go and buy clothes that fit. I was able to shop in the ‘normal’ sized section for the first time in over 20 years! It was an exciting and very cool moment for me. I have strived not to think about the physical changes as much as I have concentrated on the positive health changes I’ve experienced. I think one of the main factors that have kept me focused and on track is how much better I feel overall.

So, now to get down to business! Here are my current measurements and and weight as of this afternoon:

Weight 78.7 kg (173.5 lbs)
Hips 114.5 cm (45 inches)
Waist 86.5 cm (34 inches)
Bicep 35 cm (13.78 inches)
Thigh 62.2 cm (24.48 inches)

Below are my progress stats from the program I use to track my measurements:

If you have been following me over the past months, you know that I have problems with my blood sugar levels staying high because I have low blood sugar. I’ve had to add more complex carbs back into my diet in an effort to keep my sugar levels steady. I think that my exercising has changed my metabolism and now my body is compensating for less carbs. Other than this, my diet has not changed.

 I want to encourage you to continue on with your own health journey and don’t think about weight or clothes sizes. Keep your physical health as your number 1 motivation. If you have any questions for me, please feel free to write to me. Thanks for your continued support!

Week 7 Summary Operation Get Fit No Excuses

This week’s summary is going to be brief because there really hasn’t been many things happening. 

Week 7 has finished with a frozen tundra outside our door! This past week, Europe has been covered in a polar vortex which made the temperatures go below freezing with extremely high winds. For the past two days, snow and ice have blanketed the entire county! Some places in the south haven’t seen snow since the 1950s, yet they received more than 5 inches.

Now that you know the weather has been horrendous, let’s talk about the good news. Thanks to technology, I’ve been able to still get great cardio and toning workouts everyday utilizing many different training videos online. The internet is a marvelous tool to find a routine for any fitness level.

This week, I’ve mixed it up using Walk at Home, Toning, HIIT, and Yoga videos. I personally like using videos that are 20 minutes or less because I never get bored this way, nor does my body get used to the same moves so that the exercise becomes ineffective. Using different trainers and techniques allows my body to workout many different areas with varying results. It also helps me figure out what types of exercises I like and which ones I don’t. 

Week 8 is probably going to be more in home only workouts as the weather isn’t looking much better. As soon as I get a halfway decent day, I’m going back out walking. I really miss it!

If you have been following my Get Fit journey, you know that I have changed the what I eat. I don’t eat regular bread or pasta, anything with sugar, sweets, sodas, or red meat. What I have been eating is all soy based foods and I’ve been experimenting with making low carb breads using different recipes. The first one I tried tasted great but had too many eggs in it and ended up tasting too ‘eggy’. I have found others that use almond or coconut flour and less eggs so will let you know how they come out. 

I’m still taking my vitamins and supplements daily and drinking herbal teas, sweetened with Stevia. Green and black teas are excellent in antioxidants and give me a boost of energy. I did make a couple of drinks with Tumeric called Golden Milk after my workouts and found they helped reduce any discomfort or swelling I was experiencing. 

Overall, I feel much better than I did when I started. I’ve stuck to my workouts, even on days when I wasn’t feeling like doing them. I am getting into a routine that is helping exercise just become a habit and I feel guilty if I don’t do it. I know everyone is busy with daily life, but it’s worth finding 30 minutes a day in your hectic schedule for exercise. 

I have also noticed that the longer I am not eating sweets and other things I’ve given up in my daily nutrition, the less I crave them. I feel like I’m training my mind and my body to be feel better, get better, and be better in general.

Thank you for taking the time out to come along with me on my journey and we shall see you next week. 

Operation Get Fit No Excuses: Week 2 Summary

As the second week of Operation Get Fit No Excuses closes, I have learned many things. The main thing is that I am definitely committed and determined to continue my new healthier lifestyle. As many times as I’ve started and stopped exercising and diets, I completely surprised myself so far. (Even Padrone is surprised but proud of me sticking with it.) I did have a couple of days this week in which my determination was flagging, but I repeated to myself a couple of times and got up and went.

My biggest accomplishment was finishing 6 kilometers in under an hour but then the next day I barely made it 2 kilometers. I have stretched every single day before and after both walks, but it felt like I just couldn’t recover completely.

I started looking for advice and suggestions on time/length/pace for walking beginners and many of their suggestions were completely impossible to obtain. The parts I do agree with is that you try to walk 30 minuets a day. Until you get used to it, don’t worry to much about pace (how fast you walk) or length. Just concentrate on time. If you can’t make it for 30 minutes, break it up into 3 10 minutes intervals. Do what you can while pushing yourself a little but remember to listen to your body.

I have been using the natural sweetener called Stevia and it’s taken some getting used to. But, now after a week, I’m loving it. My blood sugar has been almost textbook perfect between the exercise and watching my sugar and carbohydrate intake.

Now, I haven’t stopped eating mostly what I want to. I’ve cut out sweets, refined sugars and most breads. When I want a sandwich, I use a tortilla to make a chicken and cheese wrap versus 2 pieces of white bread. All of these little changes have made huge differences.

Today, after my walk, I came home and stretched for about 10 minutes then did a 20 minutes Beginners Yoga class. I was thinking I would be doing really weird poses and stretches, but surprisingly, I didn’t. It really was a video for basically anyone that’s mobile, no matter your age or body stiffness. Afterwards, I felt so relaxed and my leg and butt muscles finally stopped hurting! I had heard so many good things about Yoga for many years but haven’t ever gotten off my lazy butt to actually try it. I did today and am so happy. I don’t have the fancy mats or anything. It was just me on my living room rug and my computer watching the Yoga video.

So remember this:

1. Listen to your body and go at your own pace, but do push yourself a little.
2. Keep things fresh by choosing different walking routes and scenery so you don’t get bored.
3. Watch what you eat but don’t go completely crazy on some crash diet. Make small changes in your food choices and stick with those.
4. Take vitamins, especially if you don’t eat enough vegetables or fruits.
5. Try Yoga to help you stretch stiff muscles. I will swear by it now!
6. Don’t let a scale be your guide! Measurements are a better way to judge your progress than numbers on a scale.

If you want to watch me daily, I post videos on my YouTube channel. You can subscribe and watch at https://youtube.com/channel/UCLjTpeHjOIqlsU1S6yxfaJA  . Thank you all for the encouragement and staying with me on this journey!

Week 3, here I come!

Operation Get Fit No Excuses: Week 1 Summary

Well, if you follow me on Facebook or Google+, you have seen that I started a new lifestyle change. And by Lifestyle, I don’t mean BDSM this time. I have been very sedentary for the past several years and have not walked or done basically any form of exercise. My body started to let me know it didn’t like this a few months ago. Here’s the breakdown of what started me on this journey to get in better shape.

First, my sugar level went crazy. Normally I have low blood sugar, but it decided to go from one extreme to another several times a day. I would develop dizzy spells, have trouble balancing, and get headaches. My eyes wouldn’t focus, even with my glasses on. At first, I chalked it up to some weird Epilepsy symptoms because I do tend to get weird side affects, other than seizures, with my type of epilepsy. I then developed cobweb or shadowy lines in my left eye. That scared me. Padrone wanted me to go to the doctor, but being stubborn, I wanted to try to resolve the issue myself. So we’re waiting to see if my eye gets better with the changes I’m making.

I had my gallbladder taken out over 10 years ago, so I don’t eat spicy food or very greasy food. I also try to avoid tons of caffeine and most fried foods. During the past couple of years, my reflux and heartburn would literally activate at all times of the day and night, no matter if I ate anything or not. Water could give me heartburn. We tried prescription medicine and found out that most of them wouldn’t work on me and the ones that did work broke me out in a rash. Talk about aggravating!

A few weeks ago, I developed eczema on my face. I have never had any form of this before in my life, and I’m 44 years old now. I found a treatment to get it under control, but am afraid it will come back.

I’ve dealt with all these things while having to deal with seizures and all the stuff that goes along with them. It hasn’t been fun. I know that there are many people with much worse and more debilitating conditions than I have, but for me, all of it together was the last straw. It felt like I could almost literally see and feel my body crying out to me to start living better. I like to think my body was giving me a preview of what would happen if I didn’t start to make a change.

So, now you know the back story as to why I got motivated to start exercising, here are some rules I’ve set up for myself.

1. Numbers don’t matter! I don’t weigh myself nor do I care if I actually loose weight or not.
2. No more refined sugar. I did a lot of research and found that many sweetners make the body act the same or worse when used. I need my glucose numbers to be somewhat stable. I found out the best and least harmful sweetner to use is called Stevia.
3. No more normal white bread. I am actually using flour tortillas to make sandwich wraps versus a normal bread sandwich. They have less carbs.
4. I really don’t eat fruits or vegetables so I started taking a multivitamin that actually gives me a large amount of the recommended daily allowance. I also take Vitamins C and D in 1000 mg capsules a day. (Note: just because I take these doesn’t mean I’m recommending you do the same. Listen to your own body’s needs and maybe see a doctor or nutritionist.)
5. Do not make any excuses for not going out and walking. If I have a seizure but am able to walk later that day, I will. I even got waterproof shoes and a jacket to ensure I really don’t have excuses now.

So, that’s why first weekly recap. I do a daily video on my YouTube channel also. Please take a look and subscribe!

Thanks for following!