Tag Archives: weight loss

Ketogenic Diet Witness

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keto diet blog pic

Here is the blog post I’ve wanted to write for months. I wrote about Intermittent Fasting (IF), giving up artificial sweeteners, gut health, and how effective those things were for me. What I hadn’t written about to-date, is my first experience with the Ketogenic Diet, and now my return to it.

Back in May 2018, after I competed in a shawl dance competition for the first time for an entire powwow, I decided to give the keto diet a whirl. I was getting ready to begin another wellness challenge, and I noticed the benefits of IF and giving up the Splenda on my joints and eliminating my sugar cravings. I follow Dr. Jason Fung and Dr. Eric Berg on social media, and I read Dr. Fung’s book, as well as the book pictured above. What intrigued me the most was not the weight loss, but the anti-inflammatory benefits of the diet, and being pre-diabetic still, the positive impact it would have on my labs/bloodwork. I got my labs done and found my A1c had come down another point from a high of 6.1 to 5.9. I have yet to check it again, but I have plans to in May 2019.

When I started keto in May 2018, I experienced what people call the “keto flu”, which is actually withdrawal symptoms from carbohydrates. I made a homemade electrolyte drink that my sister-friend Makyla sent to me and that helped alleviate the flu-like symptoms. Once I got through that, prepping my  lunches was fairly easy because I was lowering my carb intake for a few months prior. I did not do the high fat thing very well….I didn’t use it as an excuse to eat fatty meat and bacon, etc. But I did lost about 5 lbs in my first week. I checked my ketones regularly and knew I was in ketosis. Overall, the keto diet contributed to me losing 22 lbs from my highest weight at the beginning of 2018. The biggest benefits for me were that it gave me good energy all day long, and I didn’t have many food cravings. It also reduced the inflammation in my bad hip enough to where I ran my first 5K in years one month in. I danced jingle dress all summer and even got to the point where I was able to compete in fancy shawl and a few more powwows. I was feeling like my old self. It was very difficult to maintain at powwows, but it is difficult to maintain any healthy way of eating when you are on the road and away from your own kitchen, so that’s not really an excuse.

But I fell off over the summer, and I fell off further in the fall and early winter of 2018. I gained all my weight back because I wasn’t managing my work stress. I was very sporadic with my workouts with Travis and I felt tired all the time. The plus side is I got my crafting mojo back and that felt great!!! I made some beautiful things for my husband and kids and other close friends. I volunteered in my community and continued to attend my Al-Anon meetings and do my step-work with my sponsor. So it definitely wasn’t all bad. I look at it now as a time where I deepened my learning and deepened my work on my personal healing, and how that will help me balance and manage the stress from the challenges that will always be a part of life.

I wrote about joining the wellness challenge the beginning of January. And I started back on keto January 6. I was able to get back into ketosis within 3 days with no sleep issues and no keto flu. And I lost 5.8 lbs my first week back. I haven’t missed a day of training with Travis and I’m working my 5K training plan. We have had some really yucky weather here in KS for the past few weeks, but being in ketosis and reducing the inflammation has made it to where my joints don’t ache at all when the barometric pressure drops. I have so much energy, which is amazing because I’ve had alot of demands on my schedule and personal resources. I’ve been able to meet the demands on my time and energy and feel good about it.

The biggest difference for me is my approach and mindset. I truly believe that keto is working for me because I’ve embraced this Way of Eating (WOE). I’m committed to eating non-starchy vegetables, healthy fats, and good sources of protein. I’ve read over Whole 30 blogs and articles and one thing that struck me was how the Whole 30 diet does not have any recipes for “whole 30 brownies” or any other substitutes for the sweet and crunchy foods we have a type of dependence on. They said that trying to find substitutes for sweets and starchy goodness while on Whole 30 was like “sex with your pants on”. Lol. That’s where I was on the wrong track before. I wanted the benefits of keto without giving up the foods that were making me sick in the first place. My sister tried to explain this very thing to me a few years ago, but it didn’t click with me then. It has clicked with me now with resonance. I no longer look for recipes for fake sweets like muffins or cakes that use almond flour and a lot of artificial sweetener. Same with coffee drinks and other sources of sugar that I craved before. This time around, the ketogenic WOE is a complete mind-shift. I’m not focused on weight-loss, I’m focused on pain-management and energy. I don’t weigh myself with any regularity because I’m focused on managing the day to day things I want to do to treat my body with respect and reverence. I feel stronger, I can see the definition in my legs returning. And I did a fancy shawl dance practice yesterday and my legs felt great!!!!!

So there’s my keto testament. It’s not for everybody, so I won’t be a member of the “keto-police”, but I am happy to share what it’s done for me.

 

 

 

Intermittent Fasting

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It’s been awhile, I know….and I’ve had sooooo many topics I’ve wanted to write about. But the end of the year chaos as a middle school therapist is real….my energy was pulled in several different directions and I did not find the time to write. So there will most likely be several blog entries today. 🙂

As you all know from a previous blog post, I gave up artificial sweeteners in February. That is still very much in effect!!! There have been 2 times where a Diet Pepsi has sounded really good, but I just remembered how good my hip joints felt after giving up diet soda, so it has been fairly easy to avoid. It does feel a little strange when we travel to powwows now and we get snacks or drinks at a gas station. Since not all gas stations sell a LaCroix type of carbonated water, I find myself wandering the aisles before getting a bottle of plain water. It’s not bad though. The reduced inflammation in my hip and successful pain management is worth it.

Since giving up artificial sweeteners worked out so well, I decided on March 1 to give Intermittent Fasting (IF) a whirl. I became interested in it when I read a blog post on the KU Medical Center website about the benefits of IF. Intermittent Fasting is giving your body a temporary break from eating. Your body gets a break from the insulin response that occurs every time you eat something with calories, specifically carbohydrates. When I taught Diabetes and the Native Americans at Haskell, we went through what “insulin response” is, and which nutrients triggered a strong or mild response. Carbohydrates trigger a strong insulin response, protein a mild response depending on the amount you eat, and fat almost no response.

“When insulin blood sugar (from eating frequent meals or snacks, eg. every 90 minutes) dominates other hormones, proper gene expressions for longevity, healing and recovery won’t occur very much or very well. A temporary break from eating can give those healing hormones time to do their job. It’s actually very anti-inflammatory and can be corrective to hormone and metabolic issues, just to stop the food. It’s counter to everything we have been taught” (Randy Evans quote, KUMC Integrative Medicine Blog).

Hearing “anti-inflammatory” and “gut healing” was what really caught my attention. And IF as defined in the article I read wasn’t about extended fasts, it was about spacing out your meals and eating on a schedule. And the blog article talked about how traditionally, we used to have to fast at least overnight because we did not have access to food 24/7 like we do now. Grocery stores were not open 24 hours, nor were restaurants or fast food places, and convenience stores didn’t sell cooked food as they do now. When you stop eating at 6pm and don’t eat again until breakfast the next day, that is a 12-hour fast. Intermittent Fasting is not a new thing….it’s an old thing that the medical field is now realizing as beneficial.

I decided to try a 16:8 fast, where I stop eating around 8pm, then I don’t eat again until noon the next day. That gives me a 16 hour break from food, and then I have an 8-hour window to get my calories in for the day. What it meant for me was skipping breakfast, drinking my black coffee or green tea, and water until noon. It was not hard for me to do this. I read several articles and ordered books from Dr. Jason Fung and Dr. Eric Berg. It is suggested to put coconut oil in your coffee if you struggle with hunger pangs until lunch. The fat in the coconut oil will give a sense of satiety without generating an insulin response. I do this sometimes, I find that after a couple cups of coffee I don’t feel hungry anyway.

I also discovered that how I start my fast and how I break my fast are very important to how I feel doing IF. I break my fast with a low-carb lunch. I have been posting pictures of my lunches on my Wozani Waste’ Instagram blog page. That keeps my energy consistent after my  lunch and doesn’t create a strong insulin response. I continued to drink my kombucha for the gut healing properties. Sometimes I break my fast with a cup of homemade bone broth, sometimes I break my fast with 2 scoops of collagen protein powder mixed with unsweetened almond milk. The couple of times I broke my fast with a higher carb meal, my energy tanked and I didn’t feel as good I normally do coming off a 16 hour fast.

The results from Intermittent Fasting:

  1. I lost 10 pounds
  2. My hip feels GREAT!!
  3. My energy is better, no more mid-afternoon slumps
  4. I have a spring in my step
  5. It is very easy to maintain

Here are some links to the blog article and another blogger who had success with IF. I don’t think it’s an active blog, but it gives really good information and real-world experiences.

https://www.kansashealthsystem.com/InternalMedicine/integrative-medicine/blog-posts/intermittent-fasting

http://foodcanwait.com/home/my-weight-loss-journey-intermittent-fasting/

I told my friends what I was doing and they were very interested. I needed to write this a few months ago, but to be honest, I wanted to make sure it worked and that it was something I could maintain before I posted it in my blog. It works for me. Joe B started doing it too, he does a 12:12 fast. The nice thing about Intermittent Fasting is that YOU configure it to how it will work best for YOU. 16:8 works for me….I tried a 18:6 but I struggled a bit. I am so very thankful I found this information and tried it. The pain management, reducing the inflammation, has been the biggest benefit of this process.

 

Restaurants, Cookies and Ticks – Day 3

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Eating out is a wonderful excuse for me to throw myself off the wellness wagon. The rationale is always “well, I don’t eat out much so I’m going to just order what I really want.” Today that didn’t happen (yay!). I met my sister, 2 of my sister-in-laws and husband-in-law, for lunch and I made a very healthy choice (tri-athlete omelet from First Watch). It does help greatly to go out to eat with like-minded, health-conscious people. (Tip: always order first…and order healthy. The person who orders first sets the tone for the whole group’s food choices). If no one is ordering junk then you don’t feel like you’re missing out. 

Day 3 brought better time management and food prep. When I got home from work I got my daughters and our dog Mickey out for a nice long walk. I worried it was going to rain and we had an orchestra concert to go to this evening. I’m glad I got our exercise in and we ended up walking over 3 miles. Mickey sure loves our walks and we had a pretty view today. What I didn’t love was pulling a tick off his neck this evening. Yuck. My poor Mickey. I checked him all over for ticks and he looked kinda sad at the thought of having more on him. Lol. Now I’m going to go to bed wondering if I have any on me….

Then the orchestra concert was the last one of the school year and we were asked to bring cookies for a reception following the concert. Hy-Vee has thee best chocolate chip cookies and M&M cookies. I ate one M&M cookie and thought I was good. Then my husband very thoughtfully brought me a cup of coffee and another cookie. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Usually eating one cookie sets me off and I’ll eat 4 or 5. Not today, you tempting cookies…not today. I was good at 2 and logged them (the bar code to give nutrition info WORKED on the box!). 

I had enough leftover chicken to make another delicious spinach, fruit and chicken salad. So even though I went over my carb count, I ate several servings of fruit and veggies and I stayed within my calorie goal for the day. #winning 

I’m calling today a success because it was fraught with peril. Lol. Seriously…there were so many points during the day where I would have willingly thrown myself off the wagon. But I didn’t. I think that having it on my mind that I’m going to report on my day here in this blog helps as well. Accountability. Better find you some. It helps. 

#NoExcuses 

Day 2 (of No Excuses)

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Day 2: Coulda been better…coulda been worse. 

I found myself extra busy and stressed around the time that is supposed to be when I can eat lunch. Nothing major, just had a lot of things that needed to get done. So I found myself munching on some tortilla chips after eating my protein bar because my bag of raw veggies was not close by. Then the pint of blackberries I had packed weren’t very good….like they were overripe or something. I ate 2 of them and no more. 

After work wasn’t any less busy. I had to pick up my daughter, take her to buy a shirt for her orchestra concert tomorrow, drop her off at home, go get my hair cut, change clothes and go coach 2 youth softball practices back-to-back. 

The not-so-good stuff today: I didn’t eat as many veggies or fruit as I had planned, and I ate about 2-3 servings of tortilla chips. I felt like eating a big bowl of popcorn when I got home from practices. And I got home too late to get my 3 miles in with Mickey. 

The awesome, no-excuses stuff today: I did not let my slight chip-binge derail the rest of the day, as I usually tend to do. So I didn’t cave to homemade popcorn and laying on the couch. When I looked at my food log, I ended up eating a total of 6 carb servings today, which is not bad at all! And when I got home from practice I took Mickey for a short walk. Something is better than nothing. 

So here is me and Mickey…my legs are very sore and all dusty from practice, and Mickey had an adventurous day going to the vet. We are tired. But we made it through Day 2 with NO EXCUSES!!

  

Day 1

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This morning I overslept (too much Mother’s Day celebrating), and almost made an excuse to postpone Day 1 until Tuesday. However, I persevered and accomplished what I wanted to do for my 1st day with no excuses. I made my smoothie for breakfast, lunch was a hodgepodge of raw non-starchy veggies, a protein bar, water, and half a cup of raspberries. I made myself a taco salad after work, with no tortilla chips (we didn’t have any in the house or I might have gone off).

I treated myself at dinner and made this beautiful chicken, romaine, spinach, strawberry, grape, and candied pecan salad with balsamic vinaigrette. I’ve determined that I’m a binge vegetable eater. Sometimes they sound and taste so good that I eat several servings of them every day. Other days I can’t even look at them. 😑

After I ate I sat on the couch relaxing with my big puppy and we both almost fell asleep. I managed to get us up and out for our walk. 3 miles, with some easy jogging here and there. 

I drank 10 glasses of water today. I stayed within my carb-counting limit…1 carb serving for breakfast, lunch, snack, and 2 carb servings for dinner. I have plenty of calories left for a slice of peanut butter toast and a cup of a hot almond milk drink that I make with cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, vanilla, and Stevia. That should send me right off to sleep. 

I did it. I made it through today with no excuses. Lol. Day 1 DONE!! #noexcuses #day1 #fitmom #letsdoodistomorrow 

No More Excuses

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I’ll be honest. I am an awesome, one of the best really, “excuse-makers”.

I can find a reason (read: excuse) for anything. I believe I honed this skill in my early college years where I earned a plethora of “W” (withdraw) and “I” (Incomplete) grades that still show on all my transcripts. I’ve used this skill to account for slacking on schoolwork, graduate papers, studying, housework, balancing my checkbook, sewing, beading, doctor’s visits (such as my annual mammogram), eating healthy, and working out. I’ve gotten by because I can usually pull something together at the last minute. I know my life is much simpler when I force myself out of my excuse-making tendencies, but that doesn’t keep me from making excuses consistently in order to enable my mindset. 🙂

This is a wellness blog. Yet my blogging is sporadic because I’ve come up with some of the best excuses for either not blogging consistently, or not practicing wellness habits consistently. Some of them were very valid at the time….I’ve had good honest reasons why I’ve fallen off the wellness wagon time and time again. But once those reasons or issues have been addressed and I still am not back on the wagon again…then they become an excuse.

So…in an effort to be brutally honest with myself….here are my best “reasons” for the past few years for not feeling like I was capable of practicing healthy habits. 2012 I remember as my last best year for wellness….I was running 5K races consistently and I felt great about myself. So let’s start there.

  1. Hip Osteoarthritis – this was a biggie. The OA diagnosis and the inevitable total hip replacement was huge. Mentally and emotionally it was tough…having to face the prospect on never shawl dancing again or running again. Then the actual hip pain made it hard to workout, and even harder to want to work out.
  2. Depression – this stemmed from the OA diagnosis, the unknown of total hip replacement surgery, not finding a good coping mechanism besides running, surgery recovery, marital issues, a pre-diabetes diagnosis, and job dissatisfaction. I often felt alone and lonely in my depression, which made motivation scarce and just about non-existent.
  3. Career Change – I wanted to get out of community health administration, and out of the 100 mile round-trip daily commute, and go back into clinical social work at a local agency. I needed to job search, study for my licensure exam, and get out of my comfort zone to follow my passion. That was all extremely stressful and daunting and I didn’t know if I could do it.

Those are the major ones. Every single one of them I allowed to take precious time away from me and what I wanted to do take care of me and my family. I was able to find a million excuses for not treating my body and my spirit well out of all of those 3 big categories. All 3 categories all fed off each other as well and just made things seem bigger and bigger and bigger, until I was overwhelmed on the regular.

So here is where I’m at now and where the excuses end.

  1. Hip OA – I’ve had one hip replaced and know exactly what to expect with my 2nd surgery. My recover was, upon reflection, fairly easy due to my age and my physical strength prior to surgery. My right hip has no more pain and normal range of motion. I got clearance to begin training to shawl dance last June, and I actually danced in a fancy shawl special at KU powwow last month. My left hip is still bad but I know with weight loss and supplements, and possibly a cortisone shot, I can put off surgery for another year or so. My arches hurt from the excess weight, but I have good shoes with arch supports for work and working out.
  2. Depression – I’ve been managing the symptoms with anti-depressant meds. I feel much more positive and self-sufficient than last year at this time. I am getting ready to start tapering off my meds now that things that overwhelmed me have settled down. We got a dog and he is the best thing for mental health. He is awesome and brings so much joy to us. My marriage is much better due to praying together daily. I am finding walking very enjoyable, especially with my big puppy. My sleep has improved and I don’t feel the food cravings often associated with a depressed mood. I went on a social media fast and that was an eye-opener…how the negativity on social media can permeate your brain and your mood. My now-elevated mood helps me feel motivated. I downloaded “The Secret Daily Teachings” app on my phone and it always has good positive words that I read every morning.
  3. Career Change – I successfully passed my master social worker licensure exam. I found an awesome job as a therapist at a local community mental health center. I work in a middle school so I work school hours. My job is 3.5 miles from my home. I love this work…the kids are awesome and so are the staff here. I worked through any internal difficulties I was having at my old job and I was able to leave on good terms….which felt amazing.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and my husband and kids gave me gifts all designed to get me healthy and strong again….new runners, new running tops, phone armband. I can’t use time as an excuse because I am home shortly after my kids get home. So I have time to cook earlier, time to get housework done, and time to walk or do something with my kids. I truly have no more excuses. I’m sure I can find some, since I’ve gotten so good at it over the years. I need to use my powers for good and not idleness. Lol. I should turn it around and make excuses TO BE HEALTHY for once.


So TODAY is the day of “No More Excuses”. It’s Day 1. I got my baseline info for Day 1 in the form of weighing myself and taking a picture. 🙂 I overslept this morning and ALMOST caved and said “Day 1 can start tomorrow.” Hahahaha. But I didn’t. That’s a good sign. See, I could have easily used that as an excuse to delay Day 1 but I did not.

I made myself take a few minutes for breakfast instead of running out the door since I was running late. My vanilla strawberry smoothie with cashew milk, vanilla Weight Watchers smoothie mix and 1 cup of fresh strawberries was only 1 carbohydrate serving.  My plan today is either to walk Mickey or ride the new bike my dad got me for my birthday (lack of a bike was a prior excuse to not exercise when my joints were hurting). I have a place to workout at the Sports Pavilion if the weather is bad. They have a nice indoor track and good cardio equipment.

I need to make myself accountable, so I will do my best to jot something here each day. I want to document this new journey. This is more for me than for you, but if you get something positive out of it as well, then that’s a bonus.

Here we go. Day 1. I’ll write later how it goes. #Letsdoodis

 

8-Week Wellness Challenge

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First of all, I want to say right off the bat that I have succeeded at losing 17 lbs since my highest weight post-total hip replacement surgery!! That means I lost the 15 lbs I gained post-surgery, plus an additional 2 lbs. I have 5 more lbs to go to hit my 1st major goal. My youngest told me today, “Mom, you’re getting skinny.” Lol. Even though “skinny” isn’t my goal, regaining my health is, it was still nice to hear that someone noticed some progress.

My eating and workouts kind of went up and down over the summer, as those who powwow understand the disruption of routines, driving for hours, dancing all weekend, not always having access to the healthiest of foods, packing a cooler, etc. The healthy habits could have been better, they could have been much worse. I concentrated this summer on not beating myself up over slip-ups and just trying to get back on as soon as I can.

My sister got me in the habit of walking for 45 minutes every morning at work. When she isn’t at work, she texts me to ask me if I went out for my walk yet. Lol. That got me going on the consistent activity. But today I want to write about a wellness challenge that has really motivated me.

Tracy is a woman I went to graduate school with and we both earned our MSWs at the same time. Our kids go to the same school, have played on the same teams, and she is friends with one of my nieces. She encouraged me after learning about my hip osteoarthritis back in 2012 to take her cycling class (which, by the way, was a killer workout) to give my joints a break from running, and she has conquered her own health challenges and surgeries. She is inspiring.

My sister-in-law invited me to participate in an 8-week wellness challenge that Tracy was organizing. She had participated the 1st time Tracy did the challenge and encouraged me and my sister to join. The details of the challenge and the structure really intrigued me, which are explained below.

For 8-weeks, each person can earn a point per day in the following areas: 1) Journaling/tracking food intake and following a safe, healthy and nutritious eating plan of our choice, 2) drinking half your body weight in ounces of water, 3) exercising (and she leaves it to us to determine what we think is a workout, there is no minimum number of minutes required to earn this point) – and with exercise one can only earn a maximum of 5 points per week to encourage rest days, 4) getting at least 7 hours of sleep per night. We all took a picture of our scale with our starting weight and sent it to Tracy, and at the end of the 8 weeks we will take a picture of our scale with our ending weight. We can earn 1 point for each percentage of total body weight we lose. For example, if someone starts out weighing 200 lbs, they would earn 1 point for every 2 lbs they lost by the end of the challenge. We have sheets were we can record our points daily. One can earn a maximum of 26 points each week, and then additional points at the end with our final weigh-in. The people who did this challenge the first time don’t mess around. The previous winner didn’t miss ANY of their weekly points and lost weight. There is a $25 buy-in which is given to the winners at the end of 8 weeks. And she set up a FaceBook page for the members of the challenge so we always get little reminders, or encouragement, or ideas for meals and snacks.

I am used to keeping a food journal, and when properly motivated I can exercise 5 days per week. I was really intrigued with the sleep requirement. My sleep routine has been non-existent for almost a year and I’ve never given it much deliberate thought. I go to bed early when I am exhausted or I push myself and don’t get rest. There is no consistency.

We just finished up Week 2 of the challenge. I think I’ve missed only 1 sleep point each week so far when my schedule was a little off on that day. I have been tracking my food faithfully and paying attention to my calorie goals. I even track my “free days” or free meals. There is nothing like seeing that you ate a DQ Blizzard, or 4 slices of pizza from Rudy’s to make you more conscious of your food choices. I make my water intake daily. I’ve earned 5 exercise points per week. I started using MapMyWalk and synched it to my MyFitnessPal so it automatically posts my workouts and calorie expenditure to my food log. Although I began the challenge intending to do the Metabolism Miracle, my actual eating has turned into more of a carb counting routine. I keep my breakfasts and lunches to anywhere between 5-15 grams of carbs or less, I eat many vegetables, take my vitamins, and if I feel like eating some popcorn or a small handful of chips, or 2 soft tortillas in the evenings, I do it. I usually keep dinners to 2 carb servings or less. And guess what…..my weight seems to be just dropping off!! I believe it’s because the structure of this challenge encourages several healthy habits, not just food and exercise. I think it’s the sleep requirement that’s made the difference with me as well as being mindful of my carb intake and not restricting myself as much as before. My energy is evening out more each day…I don’t have as many dips and my energy lasts longer. And I feel smaller already.

So if you haven’t guessed it at this point, Tracy is amazing!!! This was so needed at this point and time and I’m having fun AND improving my health. Thank you again for organizing this!!

My first experience with weight loss and RUNNING

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I’m a shawl dancer. I’m friends with shawl dancers. Joe B likes to say that shawl dancers remind him of race horses….that we are kind of high strung, anxious, but fast. A lot of fast-twitch muscles. Lol. So we shawl dancers tend to obsess about being in shape, bringing new outfits out, and trying to maintain a healthy weight. Not so easy at times, especially after “life” kicks in and you start having kids or working full-time. One time I had a shawl dance friend relay her frustrations with trying to get in shape. And she got mad at me for trying to share my story with her and she said, “You don’t know what it’s like to be out of shape because you’ve never had a weight problem.” Ohhhhh, I beg to differ…..

I was a chubby kid in grade school, starting about 2nd grade. I was heavier than most of my peers throughout grade school and high school. Looking back, I wasn’t as big as I felt I was. I was athletic and played sports. But I was bigger than my non-Native peers in the parochial school system I was in and I always felt different. My mom, even though she always worked, cooked at home. We rarely ate fast food when I was in grade school. My dad was a runner. Both my parents played softball during the summer, so we had active role models. We played outside in our neighborhood. Basically, I was in good health growing up, just a little heavier than most. I remember trying different things to “get in shape”…like running with my dad at the track. Or rather, running a few yards, then feeling like it was too hot in my little sweatsuit with the stripes down the sides of the sleeves and legs and deciding to sit down until he was done running his laps. Ever see “The Royal Tenenbaum’s”? I think I dressed like those little boys when “working out”.

My first experience with successfully losing weight was when I was in 9th grade. I played basketball my Freshman year and stayed busy every day after school with practices or games. When basketball season ended, most of my teammates tried out for the volleyball team. My only experience with volleyball was in PE that semester. Our PE teacher was one of JV coaches I believe and she spiked a ball at me during a game in gym class. Instead of trying to return or block the ball, I just got the hell out of the way….like anyone with sense would do. She looked so disgusted with me it was almost comical. And I discovered that it really stung the forearms and my bony wrists to “bump” the ball. Needless to say, that killed any inkling I may have had about trying out for volleyball team. So instead of going to more practices every day after school, I went home.

It took about 2 days to become bored out of my skull being at home every day. And I had a lot of energy because I was used to practicing every day after school. I remember organizing the hall closet, and then doing every single piece of laundry in the house. That took up the first week post-basketball season. Then I needed to find something else to do. So….out of pure boredom, I put on my high-top Adidas basketball shoes and decided to go for a run around the neighborhood.

I kind of liked that….running after school. So I started running more and exploring nearby neighborhoods. I have no idea how far I ran, I think I was out running for maybe 30 minutes at a time. But I did it consistently. I had nothing else to do.

One day when my dad was home from work, he stopped me and asked me, “Shelley, are you losing weight??” He kind of had what you would call an incredulous look on his face. Hard to explain but if you have ever had my dad look at you like that, you would know what I’m talking about. My answer was “Yes, I think so,” Followed by me asking him, “How can you tell?” He said he could see new laugh lines near the sides of my mouth that weren’t there before and that I just looked thinner. Still wearing that same look he asked me, “Well….what are you doing to lose weight?” My answer: “I’m running.”

I can still see the shocked look on my dad’s face. The memory is crystal clear. Remember, I would get too hot and sweaty after part of lap a few years ago. So he repeats and asks,”You’re running. Where are you running? How far?” I tried to explain my route to him. He gave me a piece of paper and said, “Show me.” So I drew out my route.

Still looking like he is having a hard time grasping this new knowledge of his oldest, formerly-chubby daughter, he asked me, “What are you running in?” My answer: “My high tops.” A nice stretch of silence for a few moments, then he said again, “Show me.” So I brought him my basketball shoes that I had been running in. He held them and looked at them for a few moments and asked me, “You are running in these?” Yeppers. The rest of the conversation is a little fuzzy…I just remember that he took me out and bought me a pair of running shoes that weekend.

I think I dropped 2 clothes sizes during that time. That felt great to a high school freshman. I would like to say that I became a dedicated runner after that, but I would be lying. I continued with running, on and off, serious or frivolous, for years. But I always remember my freshman year where I made the connection that consistent running led to weight loss.

My weight continued to go up and down over the years. I have topped out at being 36 pounds overweight (not including when I was pregnant with my Swirlies), and I actually feel blessed that it hasn’t been more than that. There have been 2 more times in my life where I’ve had to lose 32-36 pounds to be healthy and to be able to dance how I would like to dance. Where it’s not hard and I don’t give my weight an opportunity to cause an injury. So yes, I’ve had my experiences with having a “weight problem” and losing the weight. And running was always a part of me losing weight.

I like where I am at now in my life…where my focus isn’t so much on weight as it is on my health and well-being. I know now that weight isn’t the only determinate, or even the most important determinant, of my overall health. That it’s more important for me to know my numbers (blood glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol panel), and to do good things for myself consistently throughout the year, rather than just “getting ready for pow-wow season”. Running has become far more to me over the years than just a means to drop some pounds. More on that in a future post. And I think it’s important to my Swirlies that I have a healthy approach to my appearance and that I continue to stress “health” over weight. I have to go pick them up now, so I’ll try to think of better stuff to write about tonight. 🙂