Getting out - Keep Moving

Hey there - Happy Friday!

Today is good - I am wearing jeans that I'd recently put in the "too-small" pile which demonstrates to me (once again) that healthy eating and exercise get results! My simple formula for success. 

Teresa Marie - Circa 1975

I have been working out 3-4/week and maintaining 1200 cal diet. For breakfast I have abandoned tofu (shock!) and now having a protein shake. It's much faster to make and so easy to do with apple juice or frozen fruit. Salads for lunch every day. Whatever protein and veg for dinner. That's the plan.

Tonight I'm going out to a Disco party! Local band/bar - should be fun. Disco is my main play-list when I'm biking. So energizing! When disco was hot and Travolta was dancing in the films I was living in Mexico; hitting the dance clubs practically every night. Wow - that was a L-O-N-G time ago! Very fun times and great memories.

This photo is approximately from that period. Throw-Back! Check out the bell-bottoms and the platform shoes (which I'm not wearing because that made me too tall compared to my Grandmother who was 4'9") 

Happy Day!

Teresa Marie

Together We Make A Normal Person

I've been thinking a great deal lately about family, genetics and fate. 

Apropos of my subject line, my sister "Little Linda" and I together make a normal person. 

She and I are just two years apart in age. We were dressed as twins until we were nearly teenagers. We shared a bedroom through high school. We went to the same college. We both have brown hair and brown eyes. We are both under 5'4" tall. We both like getting outdoors - canoeing, hiking. That's the end of similarities.

So here we are as kids - Little Linda in a dress even though we are all out fishing :) I'm in the photo on the right - plump little girl taking care of my baby sister.  

Health Benefits - from the inside out!

With a focus on getting fit this year - I had a check-up with my doctor before starting my nutrition and exercise plan. Part of this was full set of blood work. Not surprising there were two measures that my Doctor was not pleased with - my cholesterol level (and particle size) and my Vitamin D level. 

30% reduction in LDL via Diet and Exercise!

My Cholesterol level and mix was way off - honestly it has been all of my adult life as far as I know.  It is common, maybe even inevitable that LDL, my bad cholesterol, would be in unhealthily high. I would say it's familial hypercholesterolemia, but whatever the reason, I have to get it under control. I would routinely see total cholesterol levels in the 300's - where the target is 200 or less. I have not wanted to take daily medication and I wasn't sure what I could achieve with diet and exercise alone.  

It was interesting that my cholesterol levels in January were the lowest I'd seen in a long time. That was 240 total - less than 300!. Then amazingly, the results from March were even lower. I was able to reduce the bad cholesterol by 30% - my total cholesterol was just 221! So close to "normal" range. Why is that?  

Food Choices - Old Favorites and New Habits

Source: http://www.afeastfortheeyes.net/

The other day I was mall-walking and the aroma from the Cinnabon was so overwhelming. It took me back to my childhood and a rich sugary-cinnamon breakfast treat. I recall some childhood foods which I would never dream of eating today nor ever serving to my kids.  One of these was a summertime treat from my Grandmother. She would place a generous portion of rich vanilla ice cream onto Rice Crispies for our breakfast! The other was a treat breakfast my  mother would prepare which centered around brown sugar/butter broiled onto white toast. A fast homemade Cinnabon! This would be 1/4" thick sugary sweetness. You can find the recipe here. My mom must not have been alone in preparing this rich treat - plus she always put a few eggs on the side, for balance :)

Injured - but OK to Workout

Over the past two years I've had two serious accidents that have greatly impacted my mobility and perspective. 

Distal radial fracture

Two years ago I stepped outside and heard a loud pop. I ended up on the ground. I hobbled back inside and within the hour I was in the emergency room.  I had broken my right ankle. I didn't need any surgery.  The recovery was long but unremarkable. Today I have chronic pain and pretty much full mobility.  The lingering issue is an enhanced fear of falling and hyper sensitivity to walking surface conditions :) 

Then last spring, in May,  I was walking in my own back yard, just coming back from a long walk, when I stepped onto a manhole cover which must have somehow come ajar. The top flipped up and my right leg and body fell in. Being a big girl, I didn't fall all the way through but became wedged in the opening between the edge and the flipped up cover. My first concern was that I had broken my leg or back. I called for help unsuccessfully. I then pushed myself up out of the drain, the sharp pain highlighting that the real issue was my wrist. My hand was at a peculiar angle and movement was extremely difficult. I got inside, grabbed an ice bag and drove myself to the emergency room.  I had a distal fracture to radius and ulna.  A week later I had surgery with insertion of permanent bling you can see in the photo! 

The Back Story....

Sometimes I wake up in the morning and think to myself, how did I get here? I mentally trace the connections and points though time.

So how did I end up middle aged and morbidly obese? When did that happen?

I was, at the onset, underweight. I was born premature and weighed only 4.3 pounds. I bet that was super scary for my parents. I spent many weeks in the hospital and as recounted to me - if I was awake, somebody was feeding me. Seems a bit prophetic looking back.

Teresa Marie - 5 yrs old

I have been overweight as long as I can remember.  My parents put me on a "diet" when I was around five years old. I remember my father asking me to put on my bathing suit and then taking this picture of me in the backyard.  It was then pasted up on the refrigerator with a bit sign that said "stop."  When I started in school, my mother sent me with a sack lunch of a hot dog or baloney, carrots/celery, and cottage cheese. It was the same almost everyday. Not only was it embarrassing, but the lack of diversity resulted in not only me eating lunch at school but also grazing when I came home. I recall grabbing food from the kitchen and sneaking into the basement to eat.  So it went throughout my school years until I graduated from high school standing 5'2" and weighing 140 pounds. By today's health calculators I was just overweight with a BMI at 25.6.

Turning Over a New Leaf

Happy December day!

The term "turning over a new leaf," in it's origins, meant turning to a new page. The term leaf was synonymous with page.  Over time the phrase has come to mean a new beginning. This is the context in which I use the term to name my this blog. 

I'm turning over a new leaf. For one - it's keeping public blog about my journey. And the second trick - will be the journey itself. I am going to get strong, fit, and active again.

F-I-T

As the dictionary says:
fit –adjective
1. adapted or suited; appropriate:
2. proper or becoming: fit
3. qualified or competent: a fit candidate
4. prepared or ready
5. in good physical condition; in good health