Last day at 44

Wednesday:

I couldn't use my CPAP last night due to nasal congestion, but I feel much better today. Hopefully I've washed away those germs with all the water I drank yesterday.

My daughter had a little expo at school this morning, her class was showing off a recent project they did on animal biomes. Jasmine and her friend Jedda did a diorama and poster about the polar bear.

 

The black pellets are apparently representing polar bear poo. I didn't ask whether the polar bears were supposed to have built the snowman themselves, and if so where did they get the scarf and hat?

Tim and the kids rode their bikes up to the school and I walked. It was so cold, and very foggy. This is the school oval with the school in the background but you can't see it at all.

Tears seemed to freeze on my cheeks which was very painful, and my glasses fogged up. I could have driven there, but it is less than a kilometre away and I'm trying to get more activity in. And the kids do it every day, and Tim rides to work in every weather. I am just not used to it, safe in my warm cocoon of a home.

Back home, I spent several hours cooking. A healthy lunch, and soup, and casserole for tonight. I was really clumsy today, spilling things badly several times and also nearly tripping over myself. I'm sure it's the result of this flu or whatever messing with my inner ear. Probably not a good day to take up tightrope walking over Niagara Falls.

I did a meditation in the afternoon which of course segued into another brief nap. The program wakes me up at the end (when I count to five you will wake up -- it works); I really should turn that option off! That way I might get more than 20 minutes sleep.

With just two days of healthy eating plus drinking lots and lots of water, I have lost 1.5 kg, nearly all the extra weight I gained in the past few weeks. The problem will be keeping it off -- it's my birthday tomorrow! Tim and I are going out to lunch and I will have dessert, but I will try not to go overboard. 45 years on this earth, that is something to think about.

Report card:
Diet: Excellent.
          Breakfast: High fibre oats with linseed and Nutella, only half an "instant" serve as I was in a hurry. Cup of tea an hour later after I got back from the school.
          Morning snack: Cheese and crackers. Apple.
          Lunch: Quinoa "fried rice" with chicken and vegetables. One piece of chocolate.
          Afternoon snack: Two bowls of homemade spicy roast tomato soup. Cashews. Tea.
          Dinner: Chicken and olive casserole.
Exercise: Ok. Only did the walk to the school and back.
Water: Excellent. Ten glasses.
Sleep: Ok. No CPAP.
Mental health: Ok.

A little cold can't stop me

Tuesday:

I went to bed last night feeling ok, but during the night developed a throat tickle and blocked nose. In the morning I felt pretty awful. Cold or flu, we've all been there. This often happens when I make changes towards health, although this time there was no over-strenuous exercise and I didn't try to cut out caffeine or sugar so I don't know why. Probably all psychological - I just resist healthy efforts by saying "I can't diet/exercise, I'm sick!" Not this time.

By mid-morning I felt well enough to go out and do the grocery shopping. It was freezing! I don't know how my husband rides his bike to work every day, and he goes much earlier than I was out. My hands hurt from the cold. I bought lots of healthy food, no junk. Later in the day the tiler came to fix the roof, and then I remembered I needed to exercise so I went out for a walk. Now the warmest part of the day, it was still so cold and I didn't feel well so I cut the time down to 15 minutes. Saw some pretty Sulphur Crested cockatoos, hanging out with pigeons and one Major Mitchell cockatoo (the pink and grey one). There was a rainbow lorikeet too but it flew away before I got close enough to take a picture.

Came home for some hot vegetable soup.

The hardest part of the day was when a friend came over so our kids could play. I had some of the cheese and crackers, and strawberries, that I provided but there were also yummy biscuits that I didn't feel were healthy for me at this time. I managed to resist, and the others polished them off before I could give in to cravings. It was my friend who is a nutritionist, and we talked about my Vitamin B12 deficiency and looked at my results from earlier tests and how they hadn't tested for that (even though I've complained of being always tired for several years), so she thinks I could have had this problem for a while. She thinks I should forget the tablets and ask for the injections straight away! But I'll stick with my doctor's advice, if the tablets work then I won't need monthly injections for the rest of my life.

When Tim got home he said he isn't feeling well either, although he refuses to get sick. I hope we can both shake it off quickly.

Report card:
Diet: Excellent.
          Breakfast: Two poached eggs, one toast with butter. Fresh tomato. Tea.
          Morning snack: Banana.
          Lunch: Two lamb chops. Lebanese cucumber. Vegetable soup.
          Afternoon snack: Camembert cheese and crackers. Strawberries. Vegetable soup. Tea. Peppermint tea.
          Dinner: Peanut beef with Asian vegetables. Quinoa.
I feel like I'm getting a good balance including lots of fruit and vegetables.
Exercise: Good, considering I'm not feeling well.
Water: Excellent. Eleven glasses.
Sleep: Ok.
Mental health: Ok.

Strong day

later Monday:

I've done well today. I went for a 30 minute walk in the afternoon and kept within my calorie limits (around 1400--1600, my Fitbit allowance varies depending on exercise). No junk, all healthy food. I had two afternoon snacks because I got really hungry. Or stressed? But kept it to real food, and tracked everything. And I have some vegetable soup simmering on the stove for if I start to panic about not being allowed any more food today or feel deprived that I only had two tacos.

Report card:
Diet: Excellent.
          Breakfast: One slice of toast with peanut butter. Fresh orange. Tea.
          Lunch: Chicken breast. Salad. Tea.
          Afternoon tea: Fresh strawberries and Greek yoghurt. Tea.
          Second afternoon tea: Small apple and some cheese.
          Dinner: Two beef tacos with lots of salad.
Exercise: Good. 30 minute walk in the sun (also good for Vitamin D).
Water: Excellent. Ten glasses.
Sleep: Ok, and I used the CPAP. I've got my own CPAP brain back tonight, slightly adjusted, with continuous air pressure rather than varying, so that is good. But as discussed in the last post, lack of sleep may not actually be my problem. I've taken my Vitamin B12 tablet. A note on B12, because it comes from animal products I get plenty of it in my diet (vegetarians and especially vegans can have problems getting enough but I am most definitely a carnivore). Absorbing it is the problem, I may have something called pernicious anaemia -- the doctor mentioned this, I didn't just get it from the internet -- we'll see.
Mental health: Surprisingly good. While all these medical issues are scary, there is always a certain exhilaration to the start of a new diet when you feel like you have the motivation to tackle all your problems. Well, I find it so, anyway.

Health issues - the results

Monday:

I saw my doctor and the sleep clinic today and got a lot of results back, good and bad. I'm going to list them all here, mainly for my own records.

Firstly I saw the technician at the sleep clinic. I'd had the borrowed CPAP brain for two weeks to get some more readings on how I'm sleeping. The result is that my tiredness doesn't seem to have anything to do with my sleep apnoea. The machine is working well, I'm using it correctly, I'm having a sleep apnoea "event" on average 0.1 times per hour (that is about once every second night), which is negligible. They have now increased the air pressure to eliminate even that occasional event, but it's not really going to make any difference. So, that was not the problem.

Then I saw my GP (general practitioner, my family doctor) to get the results of my glucose tolerance (diabetes) test and all the other blood readings. That was interesting and a bit scary.

Four years ago, when I was first flagged as having pre-diabetes / glucose intolerance, my blood glucose was 10.0 mmol/L. Normal is 7.7, diabetes is 11.0. So it wasn't good. I worked on it. Two years ago it was down to 8.2, nearly normal. Great work Natalie. Today it was up to 10.8 mmol/L. That is not good at all. It's 0.2 from a diagnosis of diabetes. Doubly bad, with my father recently dying of (probably) diabetes complications. I have gained weight back over the past couple of years, I was down to 78 kg for a while, I desperately need to lose it again, and more. This morning I was at my highest for a long time: 84.8 kg. That is a couple of kilograms (5 pounds) in less than two weeks. I was hoping the weight gain was partly a monthly fluctuation, but apparently not.

Obviously it's time, way past time, to get really really serious about my health.

That wasn't the only result. The next most important was my level of B12, which are very low. It seems I'm not absorbing B12 from food. And guess what, low levels of B12 make you very tired. We may well have a solution to my constant fatigue. I'm now on Vitamin B12 supplements for 2 or 3 months, then will be retested. If I still can't absorb the vitamin from the tablets, as is quite likely, I will need regular injections of it. This was completely unexpected news! Lucky I'm not scared of needles. In a way I am excited about this result, because it means I might finally get a resolution to my constant tiredness. An injection every month or so in return for normal levels of energy? Bring it on! Or maybe the pills will help, which is even better.

My cholesterol is too high. I've always had high cholesterol, but last test it was down to almost normal. This time is was up again, to 6.2. Should be 3.5--5.5. Probably tied to my obesity, and another reason to lose weight.

My blood platelets are up a little bit. High enough for my doctor to point it out, but not high enough to worry, she said. They can go up due to an infection, so if I had a cold or something (and I have had a sore throat) that can cause the reading. When I got home I looked it up and the other thing that causes increased blood platelets is cancer. Ah, the internet, so comforting. I'm trying not to worry about that at this stage. I was only a little above normal. But another thing to keep an eye on.

And finally my Vitamin D levels are low. I was put on tablets for this before, but stopped taking them (without consulting my doctor) when I started walking regularly and was getting plenty of sunlight. That fizzed out a while ago. So now I'm back on the pills.

I'll be tracking food, counting calories and carbohydrates. And exercising every day.

Brunch

Sunday:

We went to a friend's house for lunch today, at least it was lunchtime but the food was bacon and eggs. Is it still brunch if it's after noon? And if you've already had breakfast? Anyway it was great company with I think nine adults and eight kids, our kids were the eldest. It was a nice summer day so the kids were outside most of the time while the grown-ups sat around and enjoyed adult conversation - like the worst toilets we've encountered in various countries around the world. And the worst flat-mates people had back in their younger days.

Then at home in the afternoon we played our family Dungeons and Dragons game. They followed the rumour of a scary ghost and found he was a noble knight guarding his master's tomb and not a threat unless you were a grave robber.

The only bad thing today was a very disappointing cut of meat for our Sunday roast. I'm not at all confident that I got the expensive cut I paid for.

My thighs are so sore from all those stairs yesterday! I can hardly get up out of a low chair. But I don't mind that, makes me feel like I got some good exercise in yesterday.

Report card:
Diet: Mostly good, and no food after 8.
Exercise: As I was about to write this post I realised I didn't want to have to say I broke my promise about exercise, so I got up and marched around the lounge room for five minutes. Not much, but it was something. Otherwise a very sedentary day.
Water: Good.
Sleep: Tick for CPAP. Seeing the technician tomorrow. Ok sleep. I slept in an extra hour this morning, which was lovely.
Mental health: Good. I listened to my meditation while dinner was cooking. Didn't hear most of it, of course, as I drifted off. But it still counts.

(Edit: I broke my no food after 8 quite late this evening, picking at leftovers then toast. I should have eaten more at dinner, but I was very unhappy with the meat.) (Further edit: that is just an excuse. I ate when I shouldn't have.)

I've decided it's time to step things up a bit. I think maybe each Monday I'll increase one or more of my promises. So from tomorrow I will start tracking my food, without a requirement yet for keeping within any calorie limit. I just have to track it. Also, with exercise I still have a requirement to do something, no matter how small, every day, but this week I will do at least half an hour on five of those days.

Dancesport

Saturday (written Sunday):

I spent the entirety of Saturday watching Dancesport. That is competition ballroom dance, everything from pretty waltzes to energetic jive. But nothing modern like hip hop or contemporary dance. They have a big competition here every year and we have been going for a while, in fact Tim's cousin used to compete. Tim took the kids out to shop for birthday presents for me for a while, and we all went out for dinner then came back for the evening finals and professional exhibition dance, but I was sitting in that seat for eight and a half hours!

I took quite a few pictures, but apparently an iPhone 4S wasn't really up to the task of taking clear pictures of swiftly moving objects!

Despite spending most of the day sitting, I got in nearly 9,000 steps and 22 flights of stairs. We were down in the second row and had to climb frighteningly steep stairs to the top to get to the toilets and food outlets (you can see the start of the steep stairs in that second photo). My thighs got really sore from the climbing, and this morning I feel like I spent yesterday doing too many squats. I had some unhealthy snacks, and fried fish for lunch, but I also took along fruit and water and we went out for a proper dinner so I didn't do terribly. And I really enjoyed the day.

Report card:
Diet: Tick, nothing after 8. Otherwise poor.
Exercise: Not sure if I get a tick for this one as I didn't do any "deliberate exercise" but I climbed all those stairs! So good exercise overall.
Water: Tick, I think. It was hard to keep track, with the kids sharing my water bottles. But I think I did.
Sleep: Tick, and ok.
Mental health: Good. But I am running out of time to do my meditations. Let feel some extra stress over that, shall we?

We return to our normal programming

Friday:

I've been talking a lot about other stuff going on in my life (which I don't apologise for, it's my blog!) but I am going to try to talk more about the health stuff. This is primarily supposed to be a weight loss blog, and I need to work on losing some weight, so that is probably what I should talk about.

I'm feeling very out of control with food at the moment. Indulging in whatever, whenever; giving in to impulses. I'm not sure how to halt this free-fall.

On the up side, I went for another walk today. Another nice sunny day, I didn't even need a jumper. Much. Only wished for one when I was in the shade.

We got our TV back today, which means Foxtel but also Xbox games. With my shoulder better, I can try dance again. Sometime. At the moment even getting out for a walk is a big effort.

I hate being all grim and gloomy and whiney but that is how I feel a lot of the time just now. Still struggling to get enough sleep, to fuel myself with healthy food, to get my body moving. I'm tired and have a sore throat. No wonder I feel sluggish and sad. I'm relying on calories and caffeine to keep going. But at least I am keeping my little promises.

Report card:
Diet: Tick, no food after 8. Otherwise poor.
Exercise: Tick. Ok.
Water: Tick. Good.
Sleep: Tick. But poor.
Mental health: Poor. I need to get onto my promise of doing two meditations in this week.