Week 34 Summary: Operation Get Fit No Excuses

So, you might have noticed I haven’t posted in about a month. We have been on vacation since the second week of August and before that, I was preparing for a couple of friends visiting from the USA and the UK. But now, I’m back and have a lot to tell you!

First, let me say thank you if you have stuck around and followed me through this Get Fit / Weight loss journey I have undertaken since 10 January, 2018. This is Week 34 of Operation Get Fit No Excuses! 

While on vacation, I gave myself permission to eat anything I wanted and boy did I! We ate at some fabulous restaurants, most of which Padrone and I had never been to. I can’t even tell you all the pasta dishes, chicken entrees, desserts and ice cream that I ate! But, it was vacation and I knew that once we returned to our normal routine, we would start eating healthier again. I am officially back to a no meat, plant-based (tofu, mopur, quinoa, etc) diet. 

As far as exercising, I have been pretty lax on keeping up with that also. I’ve worked out probably an average of every other day for at least 30 minutes or more. I can tell that my body is not used to me not moving and exercising because I’ve been sore the past week especially. My muscles have gotten used to their exercise routine and want me to go back to it! I am starting tomorrow. 

I can definitely tell the change in my energy levels from eating whatever I wanted instead of my usual plant-based only diet. The past two weeks, I’ve felt more sluggish and tired throughout the day. I’ve had to sleep more than usual also. On my regular diet, I have lots of energy and sleep much less on average per day. I also started experiencing heartburn and reflux a couple of times during vacation. I haven’t had to deal with these problems since February when I switched to a vegetarian diet. 

Although I throughly loved the variety of foods we ate for the past two weeks and don’t feel any quilt or regret at all, I can really understand now what a difference diet and exercise make in our daily lives. I feel like I conducted an experiment without meaning to. I can say I really appreciate what I’ve been able to accomplish over the past months with hard work and determination. 

Fortunately, even though we did eat a lot of not-so-good-for-us food, I didn’t gain any weight! I actually lost some weight and a few centimeters as well! Here are my measurements from July and August: 

While I am returning to my normal exercise regimen, I am easing back into it so I don’t stress my body out or hurt myself. This is very important, especially if you have been inactive for a period of time. While it’s normal to feel a little sore after a workout, you should not feel pain! That’s a huge sign you overdid it! 

This leads me to a completely new topic: clothes! Now, many women love to shop for clothes. I am not one of those women. I hate clothes shopping. But since I literally had nothing to wear for fall or winter, I had to buy an entirely new wardrobe. While I hate shopping, I love finding bargain basement prices! I do most of my shopping online at a site called Bonprix. I have searched high and low and found many things on sale that I actually like and in my new size for under €8 a piece on average! Even though I had to spend money on new clothes, I was able to do it for a very cheap price. 

That’s all the new from me now. We had a fabulous vacation and time off. But, today marks our return to work and reality! Visit me next week for a new blog post. You can also visit my YouTube channel to see me talk about a variety of topics, not just exercise and diet related. See you next week!

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 16 Operation Get Fit No Excuses Summary

I can’t believe week 16 has finally come and gone! It seems like just yesterday I started my journey to get fit and get healthier. Thinking about all the things that I’ve been through and all the changes that I’ve made in the past four months, 16 weeks, I amaze myself that I have continued on this road. There have been challenges along the way. It definitely has not been an easy path to follow.

This past week I’ve had mental and emotional challenges that I didn’t expect to pop up. I should’ve expected it because everybody goes through it, but I didn’t think that it would happen to me. Padrone‘s birthday was 30 April, and it was a cheat day for both of us. I had a tiny tiramisu and some pasta. I was all happy about it. The next day, I got out and did about a 6 km fast walk to help work off what I had eaten the night before. A few days after that, I woke up with absolutely no motivation whatsoever. It was extremely weird for me. I didn’t say anything to Padrone at first and kept it to myself. I still got out every day and did some form of exercise, either a walk with Padrone,  a faster walk by myself, or some type of indoor exercise. But I wasn’t putting 100% effort into it. I was only half way pushing myself when normally I push myself to go further, go faster, and do a little bit better than I had the day or week before.

It honestly was a little bit of a struggle for me to make myself get up and exercise. Every day for the past 15 weeks, before I’ve enjoyed it and felt guilty when I did not actually get out and do something. But for some reason, my mental motivation, mojo if you will,  just left. I was feeling down and a little depressed. I felt like everything around me was just pressing in on me and that I didn’t know what to do or how to get out from feeling this way.

After a few days, I finally came to a point where it is all spilled out and I told Padrone how I was feeling mentally and emotionally. At first, I didn’t feel any better. I thought I was going a little crazy. I wondered if I was developing some form of depression because of hormones, epilepsy, or some other reason. But then, after finally talking about my feelings openly, I stayed home and I slept for about six or seven hours. I had not been sleeping very well for the past two days. I woke up and I feel like me again.

I don’t know if it was talking to Padrone about how bad I was feeling, actually sleeping really well for the first time in a few days, or just some chemical change my brain, that actually made me feel better, but whatever it is, I feel like I’m back on track now. That’s one reason why I haven’t posted a weekly summary, because I honestly didn’t feel like it and I could not.

When you are going through a down time, a funk, a small depression, or what ever other name you want to give it, you have to realize that it will change over time. Things will look better and will get better, if you just keep going. For me it’s easier to say that than do it, because I’ve been through it and I am not clinically depressed. And for me, it only lasted about four days.

If you feel bad or down longer than that, definitely seek professional help! Don’t be afraid to tell your partner, your family, your friends, someone how you are feeling, because talking about it and getting it off your chest and not carrying that entire burden or weight on your shoulders, will help you. If you’re unable to talk to someone face to face, find somebody online that you trust and say hey can I talk to you for minute? And then explain how you’re feeling. Who knows? They might have an answer that you never thought of to help bring you out of your depression.

Well now that you understand what I’ve been going through, you know you’re not alone. Many of you probably think that I only post the good things that happened to me in life, I post a lot of the bad things too. I write this blog as a way to help myself stay motivated, in an effort to help others that might be going through the same things that I have been, and hopefully, it’s an inspiration to other people to get healthier on their own and take their life back. We are all getting older and we all need to take the necessary steps to live longer, live healthier, and be the best that we can be mentally, physically and emotionally for ourselves, our family, and our friends. I know in 20 years when I’m 65, I want to be the most fabulous, physically abled, mentally abled person I can be and not be a burden on anyone.

I’ve actually found that my epilepsy symptoms improved with the change in my diet along with exercising. Obviously, it’s not a complete cure. But since the type of epilepsy I have is resistant to all current medications, I’ll take any improvement at this point. As I’ve gotten older, my seizures and the other things that happened to me because the epilepsy, have gotten worse. Of course, environment and attitude play a significant role in how your body reacts when you have epilepsy, but exercise and diet also have a role as well.

Other health improvements that I’ve seen for me in the past four months, 16 weeks, have been less reflux, less heartburn, and virtually no nausea. Before, since I had my gall bladder removed over 10 years ago, I had many symptoms of GERDS. But now that I have changed to an all plant-based diet, combined with my exercising, I’m much better. If I’m feeling this many improvements in just four months, I can’t wait to see how good I’m feeling after another four months.

Although I don’t have a specific weight goal in mind, I’m just going to continue on the path that I’m on with my exercising and eating, and see where it goes. I’m very happy so far with the results and I feel much more confident in myself and how I dress, but also on the inside. Sticking with the diet and a new way of life, because let’s be honest, it is a way of life, not a diet, and continuing on is one of the hardest things anyone can do, especially when you were so used to eating all kinds of junk food, fast food, and generally things that are not good for you.

So my goal for this week and the continuing weeks, is just to continue on improving my health, pushing myself for exercise, and maybe changing it up a little by adding some small weights for strength training. I’m not exactly sure where I’ll go from here but I’m continuing on. I know that I’m going to have other times where motivation is lacking or I just don’t feel like doing anything. But I’m going to continue because I know and experienced the results, that this is the best path for me.

Thank you so much for following me and staying with me all this time. If you have any questions, or just want to comment on something, please make a comment on the bottom. Will be back next week for week 17 summary.

If you have any exercise tips, I would love to hear from you. Thanks for reading!  

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!

Weeks 11 and 12 Summary Operation Get Fit No Excuses

Can you believe that Week 13 of my Operation Get Fit No Excuses is here? Three months have passed extremely fast, but the last few weeks have been very eventful for me. If you have been following my blog, you will know that at the beginning of March, my Padrone was admitted into the hospital for eight days. After he returned home, there was a long period of adjustment with new medications a completely new eating and exercise regimen having to gradually get built up so he can lose weight. On top of all that, he stopped smoking after 45 years. He just stopped cold turkey.

Having to deal with all these adjustments and the stresses that they can put on life and relationships, I was lucky I did not have any seizures. I don’t just have seizures, I have many other things that happen due to misfirings in my brain. So on that note, here’s what has happened in weeks 11 and 12 in my ongoing lifestyle change to get fit and healthier.

Week 11 started out great. It was normal. I exercised every day and kept my normal new way of eating (which now is all plant, vegetable, and soy based products). About midway into week 11, I started exhibiting symptoms of an ongoing epilepsy attack. Over the next 3 to 4 days, I slept 10 to 14 hours. Another few days where I was awake and only slept about two or three hours. There were days where my balance was so bad that I needed help just walking anywhere, including just to the bathroom and back. I didn’t have any actual seizures during this time. Those came later at the beginning of week 12. So during this entire 6 to 7 day cycle, I was unable to exercise for two days. I kept up with my exercise when I could. This includes doing workouts in the house when I was too afraid to go outside to walk because of my health problems.

I did keep a constant watch over my measurements and my actual weight and they did not go up, thankfully. They have remained constant or actually gone down some. Throughout my week long epilepsy flair-up, there were a lot of moments in which I felt guilty. I did status posts to my fans and followers who are with me on my journey to get healthier and get fit, about my problems and my feelings, and the actual days that I did or did not exercise. 

I have to say, when I told them that I felt guilty when I wasn’t able to actually workout, they helped me realize it was not my fault and I should not feel guilty. It’s definitely easier to say that after those wonderful words and comments, I realized that I should not feel guilty or scared about gaining weight or getting even a centimeter larger during this period. I also realized it was my mind and my emotions wreaking havoc with me.

So let me tell all of you, those on diets and working out, that are struggling with emotions, especially negative feelings towards yourself and your progress: DO NOT ALLOW YOUR MIND TO TRICK YOU! Again, I understand that this is easier said than done oftentimes, because we can’t help how we feel and a lot of times we can’t help the negative thoughts towards ourselves that come from our subconsciousness. But, you do have the ability inside you to tell yourself that sometimes you are not going to lose that extra pound every single week, or an extra inch or centimeter when you measure parts of your body. There are going to be days in which you don’t want to exercise or you mentally or physically just are unable to. These are the days that you have to realize you are doing your best, but sometimes you have to take a day off.

When you have these feelings or days in which you can’t exercise, and I’m not talking about the days in which you just want to be lazy, think about all the days that you have exercised, and that you do continue to eat in a healthy way that’s good for you and your body type. Remind yourself that as soon as you are able, you will get out there and return to your exercise routine. I had to do it for myself during my long cycle of epilepsy related issues and I want you to do it also. We cannot control chronic health problems anymore then we can control the weather. The only thing we can control is how we choose to react to the problem. 

Now, week 13 is here and today is day 1. For me, it started off great because I did a brisk walk with Padrone this morning for about 15 minutes, then slept a little bit and did my own normal routine this afternoon. The weather forecast is supposed to be nice for the next few days, so I am going to try and get out for long and brisk walks. I don’t know if I will walk outside every day for the next few days or if I will mix it up using various online videos I found for cardio and toning workouts from home. Every day is new and I take it as that. I actually never know from day to day how my workout routine will go until that actual day arrives.

So now you know some of my own struggles that I deal with or have been dealing with for the past two weeks and the reason I did not do a summary for week 11 and had to do another combination summary. Thank you so much for your continued support and for following me with my struggles. If you ever need a cheerleader someone in your corner, let me know and I would be happy to be your cheerleader.