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Saturday, October 6, 2012

Two Months And Counting With My Nutritionist

My last appointment with my nutritionist was on Friday, October 5th and the results were not what I had come to expect. But before I give all the details on this appointment let me back up a bit and fill you in on the last few weeks of this new adventure on my journey to a new me.

My life has been a whirlwind of sorts in the last three or four weeks because I again committed to work a christian retreat weekend and spent three weeks in preparation, planning and participating in a three and a half day retreat where I worked in a kitchen with 11 other women and we set up, took down, decorated and served 110 women during a wonderful time of spiritual renewal.

When I returned home it took me over a week to unload, unpack, and replace all of my decorating stuff back in it's proper place. The time and energy that I expended packing up the stuff and then unpacking everything was actually harder than the work done on the weekend, but the joy of the rewards of seeing all the miraculous things done during the weekend were well worth it.

I said all of that to say that I do not have a real excuse for not writing in my blog but I have been running a little low on time to fit it in, and for that I am very sorry. Many of you have asked me to start posting again and I promise, this will be the first of many new post to come.

Now back to my update with my nutritionist. My weekly meetings have become one of the highlights of my week. Not only because I enjoy seeing the fruit of my labor and all of my hard work bringing about results on the scale and the tape measure but also because of the friendship that is developing with my nutritionist, Stacy. She is a very special person who really cares about me and wants the best for me and my health. I have now reached 21.5 pounds of weight loss since starting this adventure with her and the inches are a close second place with 19 1/2 inches lost.

I look and feel better than I have in years. When I look in a mirror I can actually see a smaller me and this is not something that is easy for me to do. If you have read previous blog post you know that whether I was "As big as a barn" or not, I did not see how big that I was. It was like I had on "rose colored glasses" when it came to my overall physical appearance.

Well this Friday was not a good day for me when I went to meet with my nutritionist. The day before I had felt like I was doing well and decided to weigh in on my home scale and it showed a two pound weight loss for the week. Whoo Hoo! That was exciting, maybe by the next day I could be down even more for my official weigh in with her. Well that was not the case. You see, the night before my meeting I worked late, and we ate a late dinner. This is pretty normal for me because I tend to put in late hours. The problem was that I made some bad choices. We decided to grab a "quick bite" but not fast food quick, we went to one of our local BBQ places, Stonewalls BBQ, and instead of ordering the chicken breast like I ususally do, I ordered a "Stuffed Potato". What is a "Stuffed Potato" you ask? Well normally it is a very large baked (actually smoked) potato that is stuffed with butter, sour cream, BBQ sauce, and some of the best pulled pork you have ever put in your mouth. I can almost taste it as I am typing this blog post.

Well after getting to our table with our food, I saw that the old saying was true, "My eyes were bigger than my stomach" and I cut the "Stuffed Potato" in half and put the larger of the two halves in a To Go box. I felt like I had not only made a wise choice but a healthy choice as well. Because when I ordered my potato I asked them to leave off the butter, sour cream and the BBQ sauce. Again, I thought to myself, "Wow, you have made a few healthy choices tonight and you don't feel deprived. Way to go Kathy!" And as we were finishing up our meal I looked at the front door and guess who I saw popping their head into the restaurant to grab a quick chicken breast on their way home? You guessed it, my nutritionist, Stacy. She saw us immediately and came over to our table. She cautiously asked how we were doing and I knew she was wondering what I had eaten, so I rather bravely exclaimed, "Look I ordered the stuffed potato but I only ate half of it, see?" and I lifted the lid of my To Go box and showed her the large half of stuffed potato sitting in the box.

She didn't say anything immediately but when she did she asked "Did you put BBQ sauce on there?" and I proudly stated "actually no, I ordered it without the BBQ sauce, butter or sour cream". I did not realize it at the time but she had a questioniong or quizzical look on her face that said "Really?"

Any way the following morning was D-Day and I had an appointment to weigh in and get measured. She started her routine of measuring me from head to toe and I noticed that she was frowning alot and not really saying anything. When she was finished we started to move over to the scale and she said "I am not happy with this weeks results. We may need to change something." And I then told her that I had weighed the day before and on my scale I was showing a two pound weight loss. And her comment was "All right, I hope so." I got on the scale with no fear and trembling, but when the scale stopped on the same weight as the week before I felt like a huge weight had just hit me upside my head. What? That couldn't be right! I had worked so hard all week to stay on my food program and drink my protein shakes and even got more rest than I normally did and my scale had showed that two pound weight loss the day before. So what happened?

We walked over to the table and she could see immediately that I was struggling with the results of not just the scale but of the measurements staying the same and she said, "Look I know this is hard but I saw what you ate last night and even though you thought that it was good that you only ate half of the stuffed potato, it really was not the best food choice. Pork is a difficult food choice on your weight loss program because of the sodium and it will make you feel blotted for one to three days, in addition to the BBQ Sauce that the meat was cooked in. It was full of sodium and sugar and those two things alone can make you gain weight."

So there it was, even though on www.myfitnesspal.com I had stayed under my "legal limit of 1400 calories" for the day the food choices that I had eaten had sabotaged my efforts. She explained that I don't have as many fat cells as I did previously and that I could not eat like this and continue to lose the weight that I wanted to lose. She said that especially the day before my weigh in. When I left her office that day I felt a sudden since of defeat and depression. In my previous life before I began my journey to a new me the first thing that I would do when defeat and depression hit was to eat. Not just a little but I would "Super medicate myself with food" Not just any food but the foods that I craved the most. The ones that were the worst choices!

But just as those thoughts came to me a still small voice said "Now why would you want to give in to the old things that got you to the morbidly obese place that you came from? What true happiness and fullfillment would that bring?" And just as quickly a new thought came to me, "Why don't you send a few text messages to your husband and other loved ones and explain to them that you are down and blue regarding the weekly weigh in results so that they can help "Talk you down off the ledge" so to speak. And guess what? It worked, within a few minutes the text and words of encouragement began to come to my cell phone and I no longer was having a pity partly but I was being built back up to a place of confidence that I can do this. I have done this, and I will continue to be successful in my journey to a new me.

So this is a new day for me. After eight weeks of working with my nutritionist, drinking my protein drinks, and working out regularly, I believe with all of my heart that my 50 pound weight loss goal for this year, 2012, is obtainable! I make a committment to myself that I will do everything in my power to hit this goal. As always, I will keep you posted along the way. And remember if I can do it so can you! It just takes a mind set and a little determination and you will see the results that you long for too! If you should get a little depressed or low try what I did and reach out to those who love you and tell them that you could use their words of encouragement and support and you know what? They will probably do just that!

1 comment:

Dorris said...

So glad you reached out for encouragement. During our down moments we all need those that love us to also encourage us.