WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
My diary last Sunday was titled "A Turtle's Story" and if you missed it, here it is:
And due to the overwhelming response, I am turning my Sunday diary into a regular feature, particularly for those who, like me, had become so sedentary and inactive that the concept of fitness and moving around is something akin to climbing Mt. Everest. In fact, that set of stairs is like Mt. Everest. Crawl or shuffle over the fold with me to see the progress I made in three short weeks, while holding down a full time job and working on a novel.
Since Wee Mama's poll shows that personal stories seem to be in high demand here, I will continue on despite my sense of cough mild embarrassment at dwelling on myself. I am not the only person on DKos who is mentally taking trips all over the planet, being responsible and showing up for work each day, flitting here there and everywhere IN MY HEAD, but not getting up to stretch until nature calls or until hunger strikes. And being a very very busy writer, it still requires sitting in front of a keyboard to do it (I finally gave up notebooks when I stopped flying full time.) But living in a human body, particularly one that is wracked by degenerative joint disease, partly due to my lifelong undiagnosed sensitivity to wheat proteins that leads to a whole pack of problems, one of the most obvious is joint degeneration and swollen knees, I had plenty of encouragements and excuses not to walk through the pain, loosen up and strengthen the undamaged muscles around those joints to help encourage me to move.
The secret, I have learned in three weeks of variously painful and exciting lessons: is in moderation. The Turtle Plan, as it got dubbed, is to do a small and possible amount, then rest. Then do some more. Then a longer rest until there's a sign of physical recovery. And so, my first week, I walked less than a tenth of a mile, and for those who aren't moving around, a tenth of a mile is about three minutes of walking at 2 mph, or 6 minutes at 1 mph (and that is pretty darn slow!!), before my back tightened up to the point of a painful cramp, forcing me to stretch to relieve it. And carrying something, like a bag of groceries makes the pressure on that tight lower back even WORSE! Never mind the damn knees, my back wouldn't let me lift my legs! And so I meandered from park bench to park bench, sitting down and bending over to try to get the muscle cramping to ease, so I could go on.
Park Bench at the .3 mile mark - salvation!!!
But I went on. That first day, I walked a half a mile, turned around at the half mile mark, caught my breath, and walked back a half a mile.. I was trying to solve the problem that plagued me day to day going to stores or walking around in an office, or parking my car and walking through the parking garage. I would have to stop, stretch, and twist to try to make it all the way to my desk, and my seat, where I could ease the cramp. This, just as much as losing weight - was my goal. And my hidden fear was that it would NOT go away, that I would NOT be able to build up any endurance, and that I was already too far gone to ever walk any distance ever again. And I did it again the next day.
Ye olde hollow log - one of my many rest stops
After the first week, on a diet of 1400 calories and faithful adherence, keeping a daily diary of my progress (and lack thereof) I was flushed with a sense of victory, but completely exhausted, and my entire body hurt. Especially my back. And I felt like I was made of rubber. And a friend who has gone to far more doctors and had far more discussions with experts than I (I tend to avoid doctors - but she can't, she is diabetic), said that when you are VERY HEAVY (in the red zone on morbid obesity with a BMI of mumblemumble in the 50's) then it is necessary to have recovery/rest days. I have been resting, faithfully on rest days. And on my last outing, yesterday morning, I walked 1.4 miles with three short rests, and only one serious cramp in my back. And took the stairs up to the parking lot instead of the long disabled ramp. So I went from 15 stops in 1.0 miles to 3 stops in 1.4 miles. And it took me 35 minutes to go that 1.4 miles, so I am doing a much better speed, almost 2 MPH on average.
And something else has happened. On the active days AND on the rest days. Not only am I no longer exhausted... but I am also MORE ACTIVE. Now that I'm not made of rubber anymore, I actually move around much more readily, I go up and down the stairs twice as often, and I get up and move around at work. I have a spring my step. I no longer shuffle or walk like the penguin I resemble, especially when I wear a black suit. And the two $250 suits I bought in February to make me corporate for my interviews, no longer fit, and I am giving them away to anyone on WHEE who is coming down to a 4x (30-32) (Women's) and losing weight.
I never thought I would end up in that size! My cutoff size for my heightest weight was always 24, but after I went gluten-free, I began to depend on white rice ingredients which are very high calorie, and packed on the pounds without eating cake or cookies or chips or twinkies or ANYTHING! Just rice. Don't let the Chinese restaurants fool you into thinking you can have as much rice as you like without consequences! I only eat a half a cup at a time now, because it's a lot more carbohydrates than it looks!
And so I am now officially a full size down, I just bought a bunch of used clothes from a woman who is in waist 38's (she, like I, buys men's clothes for fit). I lost 3 inches on my waist, 12 pounds, and already feel like I have shed the first layer of the carapace that I have been shuffling around with.
Yes, I am dieting. For those who are volume eaters, please don't be misled that you too can lose 12 pounds in 3 short weeks by simply walking a half an hour every other day and doing nothing about food. But I have no trouble cutting down on my food, and so I do not believe it is the critical essential for my success. I have cut down on food before - and stayed hungry, and I couldn't sustain it for more than a few weeks at a time without exercising. And with the energy I now have, I don't feel hungry, because I am moving, and I am burning fat instead of sitting in my room writing, not moving enough to burn fat. Fat produces energy, and by moving around, I am burning fat, and it causes my hunger to cease.
This morning is dedicated to the Turtles among us who, whether you have weight to lose or just trying to regain your fitness, stamina and endurance, are facing the challenge to get up and move with that carapace! Because if I can do it, I know you can do it.
Aug 9:
Sun AM - louisev
Sun PM Edward Spurlock
Aug 10:
Mon AM- NC Dem
Mon PM 1864 House
Aug 11:
Tues AM ???
Tues PM ???
Aug 12:
Wed AM - Edward Spurlock
Wed PM mommyof3
Aug 13:
Thur AM - ???
Thur PM - ???
Aug 14:
Fri AM - ???
Fri PM - ???