Day 3, still going strong

Well I am on day 3 of my Advocare 24 day weight loss challenge.  So far so good.  I'm drinking enough water I could drown, I'm eating right and every few hours to ensure I don't get starving and binge, and I'm taking all my supplements like a good little girl :)  I've got a diet buddy from church and with our Advocare coach we're staying on track. 

I've made some good stuff this week - had some grilled chicken salads and some chicken in the crockpot with some asparagus yesterday.  Today we had a un-stuffed cabbage roll recipe (basically chopped up cabbage instead of smushing stuff in a roll) that was pretty good.  I'm still working on  finding good stuff to eat for snacks.  So far I've got fruit with nuts or nut butters, occasionally a Greek yogurt, veggies with hummus, and popcorn.  I've recently started to get back on Pinterest so I've been hoarding recipes there to find some new ones. 

I almost forgot I have had a slight "injury", and it is quite sad if I do say so myself.  I pulled a hamstring hoisting myself off the couch so many times because of how much water I drank and how many times I had to get up to pee.  Yes, I hurt myself getting up to pee.  I feel like a 90 yr old lol.  Try not to laugh.  :)

I weighed in on Monday - ugh.   I'm lighter than my last doc appt but that's because I gave up diet coke about a week and a half ago.  I love diet coke :(, but it was needed.  I took my before pics and did all my measurements and stuff, and being the spreadsheet crazy lady that I am, I have it all organized so that I can keep track of how many inches I lose all over - from my neck to my fat roll above my waist lol.  I also have my goals listed, some concrete, some more of a gray area.  My ultimate goal is to be down to 165 lbs - and I have a LOOOOOONG way to go.  Here is a snippet of my other goals in case you're curious:

To be able to shop in normal stores, not Lane Bryant, Avenue or Torrid

To be able to wear a tank top in public without looking like someone from people of Walmart videos

To not need the a/c and/or fan all year long in the car/at work

To be able to go on a long walk with my kids without being in pain afterwards

To manage and possibly get rid of my diabetes

To be able to dress up without looking frumpy

Now, as for my medical issues....

Since my last post I have done a home sleep study - that was interesting - weird blue machine strapped to my head and suction-cupped to my forehead and I had to keep it on all night long 2 nights in a row.  I was supposed to get my results yesterday but doc was called into surgery, so tomorrow afternoon as long as they don't close due to snow, I'll know then.

It's sad when you are in GA and everything shuts down for snow but there aren't enough plows here to take care of the roads properly so probably better that way.  I heard on the news that there were 20 plows in the metro area ready and waiting to clear the highway and just had to laugh.  I come from up north where there are 3-4 plows on any given section of the highway at a time during a storm.  they drive at an angle, one diagonally behind the other so they make a giant diagonal line across the highway to clear it all at once and the best and safest spot you can possibly drive in (if you don't mind rocks flying at your car) is right behind them.  And here we have 20, total lol.

This is what today looked like :)  My kid had fun, as did Daddy :)  (The snowman is his lol).

And school is already cancelled tomorrow, no idea how the roads will be, so either I'll be at the office while hubby is home, or I'll have a fun filled day of children screaming and playing while I try and work at home.   Fun times :). 

Playing catch up

OK so I've been a slacker.  So much has happened since my last post - let me try and catch you up.  This will take a bit, so don't mind the length :).

My husband got a new job (yay!), in the daytime (another yay!), although it's an hour away (not so yay!)

On the first day of this new job, that junky car that kept dying and that we fixed - yea it died for good.  That was a fun day of playing tetris with cars and kids.

Day 2 of his new job we got a new to us car, a much nicer car with less miles and more reliable.  Of course he won't drive it because it's so small so we switched :).

Because of his new job I have to get my daughter from ASP and occasionally from son from daycare, so there goes my gym time, so cancelled that membership.

Thankfully my office has since moved about 20 mins closer to my house so that does help with traffic and timing.  My commute is now about 10 mins (another yay!).

My daughter's doing great in school, she's very much like her Mama where she always forgets to study for tests and still passes anyway.  We kinda need to get better at helping her remember to study because it won't always be so easy for her.  She was actually selected to be tested for the gifted program at her school but she was a couple points shy of qualifying.  Oh well, she's got enough on her plate for now.

She was going to equine assisted psychotherapy for a few months to help with some behavior issues, but as soon as we started to get to the good part with us interacting with her and the horses, her therapist got pregnant and can't do it anymore.   So much for that :)

My son is now talking!!!!!  He isn't up to age level yet but he's doing so great.  He is imitating everything people say near him and actually responds now sometimes when you ask him to do something.  He generally will only respond to direct instructions or either/or questions though, so if I say "Give me your cup" he will, or do you want water or milk, he's finally answering the question!! But if I ask him something like "Did you have fun at daycare?"  He just ignores me and walks away lol.   He's also chewing on everything in sight, not teething, just a sensory issue I think.  He has all sorts of chew toys but what did I just catch him eating?  A paper towel lol. 

He's still got speech every week and PT once every month or 2.  He got SureStep SMOs a few months ago thanks to Easter Seals' Champions for Kids program helping with our copay.  He can now walk straight and run and play like other kids so we're just working on building up core strength (his belly muscles).

His lazy eye hasn't gotten any better so this Thursday he's going in for surgery to fix it - he's getting it done on both eyes whereas I only had it done on 1 eye. Recovery should be the same for him, just a few days.  He'll be home with me for a week though just to be safe.  

Now as for me - I also have anew job but in the same company.  I now handle compliance tasks for the company to keep our business and trades licenses where they should be.  Boring legal stuff but I like it and I finally get to use my paralegal training that I well overpaid for so many years ago.

I stopped seeing my PCP for diabetes care because the actual doctor was never there and I kept getting stuck with Nurse Practitioners who didn't quite get it.  I discovered I'm allergic to metformin - I break out all over in pimples and gross zits and I looked like a teenager.  The NP's solution?  To give me another medicine (that expired in 2 days) that was a combination of metformin and another drug.  Ummm no.   So I referred myself to an endocrinologist and she is freaking awesome.

I'm on a new medicine now, it's called Victoza.  It's a shot I shot into my belly every night and so far my A1C is doing great - it's down to 5.2. Of course my endocrinologist doesn't want the fact that my blood sugar is good to make it so I get comfortable and start eating bad.  But sadly, that's exactly what I've been doing.

She wants me exercising, I even got a fitbit, but yea I don't really do anything.

I have been having a problem lately of being so overtired that I'm not really able to function.  I fall asleep everywhere.  I lay down, I'm asleep, I sit at my desk at home eating breakfast, I fall asleep.  Eat dinner, fall asleep.  It's crazy, I have a book I've been trying to read for a month but I just keep rereading the introduction because I fall asleep before the actual 1st chapter starts.

Definitely not normal, so I asked my endo to run some tests to see if I'm "hey I have a toddler" tired, or if there is something wrong with me.   Unfortunately the second case was true.  My Vitamin D is definitely low so I need to supplement, but also my hemoglobin and hematocrit (red blood cells) were oddly high.  She retested to be sure and they are still high, so I asked her what it usually means and she said lung disease.  yikes!!!!   She referred me to a hematologist, who happens to also be an oncologist.

I of course resorted to google, even though I know better because we all know that no matter the symptom, some website somewhere is going to say you are dying.  But regardless I found some possible causes and the least scary one is sleep apnea.  My sister thinks I have this because apparently she's heard me stop breathing while snoring when she visited.  I asked my husband if he heard this and he had no idea :).  I've always known I was a snorer but not that I stop breathing.

So next up in addition to the hematologist - also the ENT to diagnose and treat the potential sleep apnea.  Sleep apnea would explain all my symptoms so hoping it was that.

I saw the hematologist and he doesn't think I have any of the cancer-like causes of polycythemia (the official fancy name for high red blood cells) but he believes its a combination of sleep apnea and my weird.  He is doing blood tests and a chest xray to rule out other issues. He wanted to refer me to my PCP's weight loss clinic too, but I'm not taking diet pills and shots, and thankfully my Endo agrees, I just have to find another way.  Either way whatever is causing it can cause lots of other scary problems so I need to do something quickly to get this stuff under control so I don't wind up with a blood clot or a stroke or anything else scarier.

My ENT is working on scheduling me for a sleep study, hopefully soon because that seems to be one big piece of the puzzle.  If I get treatment for it then I'll have energy to actually cook, and even exercise again. 

I go for a follow up with each specialist soon.  Just what I needed, more specialists :)

So that brings you just about up to speed. I have been researching so many different diets and meal plans and ways to get this weight off of me.  I am 100 lbs overweight.  It's a scary sight when you see on every doctor's printout "Morbidly obese" as one of my "conditions".  I have an extra person inside of me and it's apparently causing my body to fight back in a major way. So many diets though, it's hard to figure them all out, but I need to find something that will encourage me to learn to eat properly, ensure I exercise, and won't cause me to gain everything back the second I stop their program.

I've decided on doing the Advocare 24 day trim challenge (http://www.choosethechallenge.com/).  I have a friend from NH who has used their products for a few years and lost and kept off lots of weight.  The company itself has been in business quite some time and has a good reputation.  They don't force you to replace all your meals with fake foods.  They encourage a lower carb diet that is "clean", ie: non-processed.  My friend is going to coach me to help me get on track and a friend from church is going to be my diet buddy during the challenge so we have some accountability.   So I'll be starting that in a couple weeks once I order the products.

I'm going to try and be better about updating this so I don't have to write such long posts in the future :).

But now you know what's been going on here. And as usual, I'm exhausted, so I'm off to bed!