Diet History 2005-2007

In August, 2005, I started my weight loss odyssey. It was when I first thought, “OMG, I have to get in shape.”

Back then, my brain wasn’t working so well: my memory was declining and I couldn’t remember words as easily. I do not think it was obvious to anyone but me, but I was very aware that something wasn’t right. Oh, and I would get a bit winded taking groceries from the car up one flight.

I was getting very frustrated. I was 35 and weighed 170 pounds. I had just spent a week in France with my mother and my aunt/godmother and I did not recognize myself in any of the photos we took. I didn’t feel “ugly” . . . I just didn’t look like me.

My first diet was just trying to eat under 1200 calories and do aerobics 45 minutes a day. Failure. I am looking back at my journal and I went from 170 to 166.8 the first full week. I was drinking body for life shakes, eating zone bars, ravioli, etc. By the 9th day, I figured out I needed to keep net calories (food – exercise) at 860. It took me months to drop the first 10 pounds.

By then, I had switched to Perricone, which I loved, but it was higher in calories and I was drinking superfood and pomegranate juice and  kefir.  My love of exercise, which had never existed before, started to kick in and I was really enjoying walking the Trail, listening to audio books, while wearing my heart rate monitor. Over the months, I was tracking everything on myfooddiary, and aiming for 1000 cal net, which was not what they recommended. Still I never got below 158.

I started again in my journal on February 4, 2006 when I weighed 161.8. I was just back from an international business trip. I decided to “refine my workout and eating. I am going to eat more protein and stop eating bread, starch, etc. I have noticed I feel better when I eat protein.” Duh, but I had not yet accepted it. Over the next two months, I refined my diet, but I really didn’t see any progress. I bounced between 158 (lowest weight 157.4 — for one day) and 161.6.

In fact, by April 1, 2006, I still weighed 161.4 and had 43.8% body fat. I had started working out with H, who I absolutely adore, twice a week for and hour a session. Over the months she trained me, I got stronger and stronger, but I really didn’t see much weight progress. By July 4th, I weighed 162.4. Still, I continued working out because I felt better. My brain worked better. My posture had improved and I felt strong. I had definitely lost body fat.

I started traveling more and I had to quit training (it was more $400/month, plus $80/month gym membership . . . yikes). I kept exercising and walking the trail with my heart rate monitor.

Still I was not making much progress, so I started over on March 8, 2007 by doing Atkins.

Obviously that was the right move: I lost 6 pounds the first week, and 3.5 pounds of body fat (according to the Tanita scale which is a bit inaccurate taken in the morning). In the first month, I lost 10 pounds. I was beginning to exercise regularly.

I hit a major problem on Day 34:

I experienced the second worst pain of my life. It was in my kidney. It started off feeling like a slight muscle tweak in my lower back. Then it started to radiate. By the time I stood up, it hurt to breathe.

I knew it was my kidney before I called [the ex] at work. I think that’s why I called him, but I was in serious distress. I laid down on the bed and tried to get comfortable. Sympathetic pains kicked in, causing my fibroids to kick up.

I actually thought I was going to die. I was making plans to go to the emergency room, but I didn’t want to.

The extreme pain passed after a couple of hours and I was just left an injury type pain.

Since then, I have been drinking a ton of water (or as much as I can handle, which isn’t that much), and trying to take it easy. Now, a couple of days hence, I feel pretty much back to normal.

Not going to abandon the diet yet, but I am carefully monitoring it.

At three months, I was on the trail 5 days/week and I had lost 15 pounds and 9.5 pounds of body fat. I had been nervous about putting on weight with exercise, but that did not happen. I felt great. I was in a new set of clothes and my brain was fully working.

At four months, I was at 147.8, down 19.6 pounds and 13.4 pounds of fat. I was starting to get some exercise related injuries to my arch, but I was still on the trail, though most of it was closed due to our flooding.

At the end of month 5, I had lost 2 pounds. I was extremely busy and stressed out. It was a very bad month. I wasn’t exercising regularly, if at all (my journal just recorded my weight with very few notes). My hormones were out of whack, I was fighting with a business associate, the ex, who was then still the current, was starting to cycle out of control after the situation with his mother.

In month 6, I continued to lose weight, and then, he broke up with me and I was a mess. I wrote about it on my tracking page and then I was too sad to look at it.

From August t0 October, I gained 5 pounds. I wasn’t exercising at all because I broke my foot. I could barely stand long enough to cook food so I spent much of September making calcium-laden blue-cran kefir smoothies. I restarted my diet, but stopped tracking it every day, which was a mistake. I was not eating poorly — I just was not exercising.

I continued to weigh myself every day, but my weight stayed relatively stable bouncing between 150.6 and 148. Really, I was just trying to survive.

Somehow, I put on 7 pounds between October and December 27: Thanksgiving, Christmas, parties, eating Home Slice pizza every couple of weeks, and cookies made by the ex, with still no exercise. Really, it’s a mystery.