The AMAZING Start Over

During the month of August, I went in for a medical appointment and my blood pressure was 177/124. My Physician became very concerned and suggested that I meet with a Primary Care Physician ASAP. I was embarrassed and sad at the same time. I was embarrassed because my doctor was asking me what was going on and I thought that all was well with me. I was sad because I knew that I was about to be placed on medications. I have never been an individual that takes medications, in fact my kids and I have not had any medications at this entire year. We are Young Living Oil users and that has really been a blessing in and through our home. Towards the end of this appointment I was scheduled to see a Primary Care who diagnosed me with Hypertension and prescribed medications. :(

During the follow-up appointment with my OB physician, he shared with me that I was overweight. He mentioned that he has a weight loss program and for me to think about being apart of it. He used my height and age to determine the size that I should be. During my appointment, I learned that I was fifty pounds overweight. I was so sad and I wanted to walk out of the office with a big jacket to cover my body. My Physician provided me advice on the importance of portion control. I heard him, but I was really bummed out during this visit so it really did not stick. I committed to starting his weight loss program and had to go back and see him in two weeks.

As of September 1st, I started feeling horrible about myself. I started gorging on sweets, I lacked motivation to workout and my life was really becoming unmanageable in the area of health. I knew that I had an appointment to see my physician again, so I worked out the week before. Then, the week before the appointment I made sure to workout as well. As soon as I arrived to the office, the nurse took me in the back to weigh in. I had gone from 222 at the first visit to 223 at the second one. I was so bummed out and I really felt like making an excuse as to why I needed to leave. Then, his nurse took my blood pressure and it was 176/118. So, here we are again, overweight and another horrible blood pressure reading. The doctor was very calm and possibly because he knew that I had was seeing another doctor (across the hall) and I had been prescribed meds that I was taking. He told his nurse that he would like for her to take it again later on in the appointment. She did and it had gone down significant, it was 134/103.

During this meeting, he discussed that we were going to get me down under 200 pounds by the end of this year. Then, he shared techniques that could help to get me there. He mentioned the importance of portion control and how I don't need to clean my plate each time that I eat. He encouraged kids meals for the smaller portions, lots of water and he shared that weight loss is more about foods going into the body rather than working out. he explained that he was not against me working out, but he strongly suggested that I work on my diet for now. I received his information really well and I left his office feeling very motivated. He told me that his expectation was for me to lose about two pounds at the most, but he feels that I will lose more than that. I was glad that he had faith in me, but I knew that I had to change my eating habits.

I got on the scale and this is what I saw, I was unhappy but I wanted to start documenting this journey. As you can tell on previous posts, I've been a lot smaller than I am now. However, this is where I am and I don't like it...I won't began to discuss my frustration with taking the medications every day. Not only did I get on the scale, but I started moving towards meal planning. Usually, I am in a rush in the mornings but since August my mornings are pretty slow. Therefore, I have time to prepare for my day/week without distractions.

Here is a photo from my meal planing while starting the #21dayfix. I started this on September 1st, by the second week I was so tired of carrying all of these items in bags etc to my job. So, I started thinking about how I could modify this plan and ensure that I was getting all that I need in my body as well.  So, I decided to take three containers to work and having my breakfast prior to leaving in the mornings. While being intentional about my meals and really trying to focus on eating half of things and drinking lots of water, I am starting to shed a little.

I have gone from 223 down to 218, this is by not gorging on so many sweets. When I ran out of my favorite Jalapeno chips, I did not buy another bag. Also, for the entire month of September, I have only had water to drink aside from a few Shakeology/Smoothies to replace meals. Although, I am no where near I want to be it feels like the goal of getting under 200 is attainable. So, I was trying to think about how I could modify things for next week. My goal is to try to do away with all bad sugars (if there is a such thing), I plan to try to only eat natural sugars, For instance, I plan to fill the house with fruit for the up coming week so that I can snack on them and try to stay away from things that are bad for me and stopping me from getting my healthy life back.

So, on Sunday evening I will return with a posts that should contain photos and a break down of my feelings about this week. This will be difficult for me because I love sweets/sugars and I get it from my family. The norm in my house while growing up as a child was to eat lots and lots of sweets. To this day my grandparents enjoy cakes, pies and more. I do as well, but I also want to live a long & healthy life with my children.

Did I mentioned that I restarted my gym membership on today, well I did and I am ecstatic about that. I have wanted to re-join for quite some time but, financially I had to wait until the right time. The time has arrived and I will be back in the gym on Sunday or Monday...or both days. I am not going on tomorrow because, I plan to participate in a Zumbathon from 10a-1p. That is so exciting for me, so I get to dance until I can't dance anymore on tomorrow and I am so excited about the sweat, the energy and excitement coming my way.

Wishing everyone a super weekend, thanks for allowing me to share where I have been and what has been going on in my life over the last few months. While things have not been great, I am looking forward to finishing this year strong. CHEERS~