Archive for July, 2009

Good news: the palpitations have stopped.

The doc’s office called on Wednesday to provide an update on the test results, and my bun/creatine ratio was abnormal. Also, my sodium levels were low. I still have an appointment on Monday morning. They are going to take more blood to test thyroid levels.

I was relieved to hear that my results were okay except for the few issues. They said I didn’t have anything to worry about.

I weighed today, and it appears I will gain a couple of pounds for the next weigh in. This heart stuff scared me into toning things down a little on the weight loss side. Aside from the Mexican food on Tuesday, I have been eating fine. Walking was skipped this morning because of the rain, and I won’t walk tomorrow morning because of the rain. I plan on getting back on track after we get this heart thing cleared up.

Thank you everyone for your kind comments.

Have a great Friday.

I haven’t been posting regularly like I should because I’ve been busy at work.

Things are still going well except for two things.

First, a minor issue: I ate at a mexican restaurant for lunch, and went off the path. Sometimes you must have a treat, and today’s treat was not too terrible. I had a chicken taco salad (no sour cream) plus lots of salsa and chips. Also, I had an unsweetened tea to drink. I will hit my marks the rest of the week, and drink tons of water. Hopefully the sodium won’t kill my weigh in.

Now the scary part: My heart has been racing today. I can feel it beating in my chest. I guess it’s called palpitations. I went to the doc. (My bp was up, temp normal, and pulse normal) She said that my heart sounds fine, and I told her about reducing my sodium, and I told her about losing 19 pounds last week. They took blood, and she thinks that it’s an imbalance of electrolytes. She recommends that I drink a powerade every day because of my reduced sodium and sweating during exercise. So I will try that and wait for the test results, which will be Monday. By the way, I found a no calorie, low sodium powerade, which I’m very pleased about.

I read about what causes palpitations, and I have three areas that could be causing this: caffeine consumption, not consuming enough sodium or potassium, and too much thyroid being produced. We’ll find out from the blood work whats causing this, and yes, I will worry about this until Monday, of course, unless the palpitations stop.

Have you ever had palpitations? What was the cause? What was done to stop them?

I’ll post the results as soon as I know something.

If you are considering reducing your sodium intake, please consult with your physician.

I’m learning that I have to be careful with how I do this weight loss thing.

Have a great Wednesday!

Weekly weigh-in: 536 lbs.
Loss: 19 lb.
Total loss: 96 lbs.
Emotion: happy

All that work last week paid off. I kept my sodium at 1700 mg per day or less (or I tried to keep it as close to that as I could.)

I’m ready to knock out another good week.

Next week I should be at the 100+ pound loss milestone. I am excited.

Have a great week.

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View my food diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/svinson6

View my exercise diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/diary/svinson6

Started the day with a walk with my Mom. The hills by my house are awful, but I will get used to them eventually.

I forgot to mention that last night we tried vinegar and extra light olive oil on our iceberg lettuce. It was very good. I was impressed.

I have a bad habit of sitting on my ass on weekends instead of being active and productive. I’m coming up with ideas on what I can do instead of watching TV and farting around on the computer. Do you have anything special that’s affordable and a big person can do. (I still can’t fit into chairs with arms.) Here’s the start of my list:

• Actually do the house work that I need to do, ie. vaccum, dust, organize my stuff, etc.
• Go fishing – This is one of the things that I keep wanting to do, but procrastinate on it.
• Volunteer work – I signed up to volunteer in the Oct 2 5k for the Make A Wish Foundation – I was thinking that I could also volunteer for the Humane Society (A local animal shelter.)
• Take pictures – This is another item that has been on my list for a long time.

Hopefully, with my added energy, I’ll actually want to be active on the weekend. Right now my energy levels still go up and down throughout the day. Sometimes I think it may be a blood sugar spike after I eat something sweet like yogurt. I’ve noticed that water helps a lot.

I think it might just take time for my body to adjust. This is the first week that I have really tracked all the stats behind my food (calories, carbs, sugar, protein, etc.), and I can tell a difference in my energy levels. I am already in the double-digit weight loss, and I still have 3 days until weigh-in. I know a lot of the loss is retained fluid from all of the sodium that I was consuming, but according to myfitnesspal.com, just eating 1500 calories a day (and following the other levels for fat, sugar, etc), I should lose 5 pounds per week. This doesn’t include exercise. – But, as I my weight gets lower, my weekly loss will go down, and I believe this is when I will really have to kick the exercise into high gear.

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View my food diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/svinson6

View my exercise diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/diary/svinson6

Wednesday: I was really busy at work today. As a result, I didn’t get to goof off much. We did get a little bit of testing done using Skype video conferencing. It work really well and its free.

Food wise, I had a good day. I went over a little bit on calories, fat, carbs, etc. I have got to get some measuring cups!

Also, mom and I walked this morning. We’re doing good on our morning walks.

I took a peek at one medical journal, and I’ve got to dig up my info on statistics from college because they talk about clinical trials. They provide the formulas or methods on how they test a random portion of a population. Anyway, I didn’t spend much time on it because I was tired. I’ll find that info on statistics and research more this weekend.

Have a good Thursday.

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View my food diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/svinson6

View my exercise diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/diary/svinson6

Tuesday was another great day.

First, my Mom and I walked together, which we haven’t done in a long time. We walked a mile by walking the streets at our house. It’s a tough workout because there are a lot of hills. We knocked this out first thing in the morning, which is what I prefer because I don’t have worry about getting my walk in at a certain time. Also, the weather is nice at 5:00am.

My first call of the day at work was at Changing Spaces Moving Inc. (CSMI). They are a great group of people. They have been supportive of my efforts and have been supportive of my business. I am thankful. I’ve even got a little office there. It’s also known as a closet. We love to joke around about it.

A few months back, Joe with CSMI ordered a company polo in my size, which I though was really cool. The only problem was that it was too small. I think he got me a 5x. Well, I can’t wait to be able to wear that shirt one day. Then I can officially be considered a professional mover. My moves will have to be priced by the job, not by the hour because it will be a slow process with me moving your stuff. Estimated move time for me moving a one bedroom apartment: 2-3 weeks. Ha!

I had lunch today at The Fish Market downtown with a nice lady that is a fellow blogger. Also, she’s a professional writer. I’m not mentioning her name because I didn’t ask her if I could, but she writes a lot about weight loss, and I learned so much from talking with her. What I liked the most about talking with her is that she bases her writings and opinions on facts and studies from qualified experts. Whenever I think of weight loss or dieting, I just go by what I’ve heard from other people, and I never bother to do any research. So, I am going to try to start reading medical journals and other documentation to learn about weight loss and other health topics. I’ve never read a medical journal, and don’t know what I will encounter. I’m sure they are lengthy and contain a lot of terminology that I will not understand, but it won’t hurt to take a peek at them.

By the way, I had grilled rainbow trout for lunch at The Fish Markett, and I asked them to not use any seasonings. That was the best meal I’ve had at The Fish Market. It was very tasty. I guess because the fish is so fresh, and they did a great job on cooking the fish.

Well, I got my exercise in today and I went over just a little bit on my calories, carbs, and fat. Today was another good day, and I sneaked a weigh-in, and next Monday the numbers are gonna be good.

Have a good Wednesday.

Shameless Plug: Changing Spaces Moving Inc. http://www.changingspacesmoving.com/

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View my food diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/svinson6

View my exercise diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/diary/svinson6

Wow, today was a good day. Above is a pic after my mile walk.

I started with a mile walk and some leg exercises. Then, this afternoon I walked an additional 10 minutes.

Also, today was a good food day. The only item to I went over on was sodium, and it was over by 41mg. I drank over a gallon of water, and I also only had 3 cups of coffee.

I will do the other six days just like today. I’m thinking I might have a double-digit weight loss next Monday. It’s overdue!

P.S. Jack Sh*t: I accept your offer. Thank you. I don’t know what to say.

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View my food diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/svinson6

View my exercise diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/diary/svinson6

Weekly weigh-in: 555
Loss: gained 1 lb.
Total loss: 77 lbs.
Emotion: okay

(Jack Sh*t, I liked the way you formatted your weigh-in post, so I copied it. I hope you don’t give a sh*t.)

Gained another pound last week, but it was expected. Next week there should be a good loss because I am following my new plan.

I hope you have a killer week!

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View my food diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/svinson6

View my exercise diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/diary/svinson6

I was so busy at work last week that every night when I sat down to post, I was so tired that I chose to go to bed instead of posting.

I ate okay last week, but I did splurge Friday night, eating Chinese for supper.

However, I managed to walk a mile on Tuesday and Wednesday. I can tell a major difference in how I feel on days that I walk. I feel much better when I walk in the morning.

I finally managed to record my food on myfitnesspal.com on Saturday, and learned that I am eating way too much sodium. I read that someone with high blood pressure (like me) should eat around 1700 mg of sodium per day. The max sodium that someone with normal blood pressure should eat is 2500 mg. Well, on Saturday I ate 4,819 mgs of sodium, which is what I’ve been eating every day. Folks have mentioned on my blog about not eating processed foods because they contain a lot of sodium. For example, I didn’t realize that fat-free cottage cheese contains 430mg of sodium per half cup serving. This info was right there on the label, but I didn’t bother to look at it.

RTFFL: Read the Fu**ing Food Label instead of RTFM: Read the Fu**ing Manual. Being a PC tech, I have seen RTFM many, many times, and I too catch myself not figuring out how to operate new products because I don’t read the manual. Well, in this particular instance, I didn’t read the food label. Which, basically was sabotaging my weight loss plan.

Well, from now on I am going to enter my food and exercise on myfitnesspal.com, and there’s a link at the bottom of this post for both the exercise and food diary. Take a look at my new and improved food, exercise, and emotion plan, which lays out all of the changes that I plan on implementing. I believe that I can still meet the 300 pound challenge, but once I meet that target, I do plan on gradually slowing down the weight loss. Because I’ve read in multiple places that for long-term results, one should lose approximately 2 pounds per week. So, losing the initial 300 will hopefully completely change my life, and then I can lose the rest slowly to keep the weight off forever.

I do plan on eating sensibly the rest of my life. I don’t look at my weight loss as a one time event, and then go back to eating whatever I want. I have a lot of plans for the future including possibly a triathlon.

So, tomorrow I will continue chipping away at the 300lb goal. My challenge right now is finding foods to eat that are low in sodium and meet my other calorie, fat, etc measurements. Oh, this week I am skipping the salads, and I’ve got to buy some Worcestershire sauce.

One final note, I want to start drinking green tea because I am drinking way too much caffeine by drinking a lot of coffee. I plan on drinking coffee at home in the morning, but then drinking green tea instead of coffee at work. Green tea has a lot less caffeine, and it has a lot of good stuff that aids in weight loss.

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View my food diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/svinson6

View my exercise diary at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/diary/svinson6

Why do I let my emotions get the best of me? Why do I let the number on the scale determine how I feel? All day Monday I pouted because I gained one pound. When I discovered the gain I instantly started having these irrational thoughts that I’ve had many times before: I must be doing something wrong and I might as well give up. But, I didn’t do anything wrong, and it would be insane to give up.

Can my food plan use some tweaks? Yes

Here’s what I really want to pay attention to:

• salad dressings – Right now I don’t measure how much dressing I pour over salads, and I’m not using low fat dressings.
• sauces and toppings – I want to find alternatives to A1 steak sauce and blue cheese dressing. Currently I use A1 for sirloin patties and the blue cheese for broccoli and salads.
• salt/sodium – I want to track the sodium in my foods and find good salt substitutes
• food planning – I know that I keep mentioning this, but I believe that pre-planning my meals, snacks, and drinks will allow me to know exactly how much I will be consuming.

I hope you have a great Wednesday!

Monday July 13, 2009

B:
oatmeal + apple + protein powder
2 eggs boiled no yolks
2 turkey sausage

S1:
protein bar

L:
whole wheat tortilla + ground turkey + taco seasoning + salsa
cottage cheese + yogurt

S2:
whole wheat tortilla + ground turkey + taco seasoning + salsa

D:
1 small slice of Turkey meat loaf
salad + tomato + dressing
green beans + succotash

W:
4 cups

Other Fluids:
coffee

E:
none

Tuesday July 14, 2009

B:
oatmeal + apple + protein powder
2 eggs boiled no yolks
2 turkey sausage

S1:
protein bar

L:
whole wheat tortilla + seafood salad
cottage cheese + yogurt

S2:
whole wheat tortilla + ground turkey + taco seasoning + salsa

D:
2 sirloin patties
salad + tomato + dressing
broccoli and cauliflower + ranch

W:
3/4 gallon

Other Fluids:
coffee

E:
walk one mile