New Year, New Challenge

It has been quite awhile. I have been busy with so much in my life and have neglected a few things. My eating healthy and watching my weight being one of them.
I have a new commitment that I have started. It is called the Body by Vi Challenge. I love it. It is not just for those that want to lose weight but it is for those that want to gain lean muscle, tone up, or just start getting healthy. For me I'm on it to lose weight. I want to lose 60 pounds in 90 days. I have been on the challenge for 4 days and have lost 5 pounds. I feel great. I admit the first few days were hard. Adjusting to a shake for two meals was hard at first and I did not have a blender so I could mix fruits and veggies into my shake. The shakes were not full of the calories I needed. I would get sick and light headed. The first day I made the mistake of taking all my vitamins and then drinking a shake. I felt so sick. Two days into it I borrowed  a blender from my mom, got a copy of 100 visalus shake recipes and started making better more fulfilling shakes. I can not believe how much energy I have and how great I feel. I'm sure there will be ups and down days and trying to stay committed but I am determined to be wearing a bathing suit by summer. I have not worn one comfortably since probably middle school 20 years ago. I was 160 in high school never had good self esteem. I hated my legs and would never and still never wear shorts or skirts that are higher than my ankles. So far I have only worked out two days out of the four. I hope to get more into working out but that has never been something that motivates me. But I'm sure as I start losing weight I will get more motivated.

Back to Reality

I have lost a total of 17 pounds so far. It is awesome having baggy pants and being able to wear most of my clothes again. I went on vacation last week and had to go off of my candida diet. I now know that the candida diet works and helps my symptoms. I had told my mom before we on vacation that I had not taken any headache medication for two weeks. I even was being complimented on how I looked more happy and relaxed. The diet is really bland and boring. When I was sick. The thought of meat and a salad was so gross to me. I cannot tell you how much I missed eating sugar. Now I know it is my enemy. I still want it though. Why do we eat things when we know it will make us feel rotten. While on vacation I ate sugar, breads, pizza, pasta... every thing I am not supposed to. I gained 5 pound back of my 17 I lost. I felt sick with a headache every day. I was bloated and moody. I got back on the diet a day after I got back. I lost the 5 pounds instantly. The headaches are still here. But I'm sure it will take a few days to get all the crap out of my system. Yes, it was nice being on vacation and not having to worry about what i was going to eat at each meal and if I would have to make a separate meal for myself. But now back to reality and meat and salads.

I lost 5 pounds

Well I have survived this diet for two weeks. It has been tough finding foods that are diary free, soy free, sugar free and gluten free. I spend a lot of time reading labels. It has also been tough coming up with creative ways to make these foods taste good and not seem like I am eating the same thing every single day. I think trying to cut out caffeine is my only weakness. Having three kids and working can be exhausting. Especially when most of the kids end up in my bed at night.

My headaches have so far still been pretty frequent. Seems like they are worse when I am at work. The stomach aches have decreased and my allergies and sensitivity to smells seems to be about the same. I did not expect instant results. I am just glad to be trying to figure out the root of the problem and not be giving a prescription.

A few things that we have discovered as I go in for my weekly acupuncture treatments is that my body cannot digest raw foods and that sensitivity to smells can be caused by to many toxins in the liver. I also took a questionaire to see if I might have a candida infection. A few years ago it was discovered while I was doing an endoscopy that I had a yeast infection in my esophagus. They were concerned that I might have HIV or AIDS because usually this shows up in patients with those diseases. What I do have is a severely weakened immune system so I get sick easily and my body cannot fight of the infection.  It was interesting because the symptoms are:

• Frequent stomach pains and digestion problems
• Skin problems (skin infections, eczema, psoriasis, acne)
• Foggy brain / Trouble concentrating
• Constant tiredness and exhaustion
• Anxiety
• Mood swings
• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Anger outbursts
• Irritability
• Headaches
• Intense cravings for sugars, sweets, and breads
• Itchy skin

I can say yes to pretty much each thing on the list. So in a few weeks I will be on a stricter diet to kill off the candida and see if that helps. I am willing to try anything that will help my suffering and help me have a happier family life.

Oh and on a positive not I have lost five pounds in the past two weeks.

HEALTHY LIFESTYLE ALTERNATIVES

Does anybody really care?

So I have been to three doctors about my constant headaches and stomach pains. Each of them just rights me a prescription. It really gets frustrating when they do not try to find the root of the problem. All they want to do is give me a prescription and send me on my way. By the way every prescription pretty much causes difficulty concentrating,  tiredness, dizziness, and nauseousness. I am a mom of three. My husband and I work opposite schedules so we can take care of them. So when I get home from work I am on mommy duty. I cannot be tired and dizzy.

So someone mentioned seeing an acupuncturist I figured, why not? When I went in then did a case history and asked a whole bunch of questions about my lifestyle, medications, pregnancies and so forth. More than the doctors and specialists asked. The two acupuncturist's there reviewed my case and said that I am the worst case they have ever seen. Lots of my symptoms could be toxic overload. So I am on a new diet. I feel hungry all the time because I have not figured out exactly what I can eat and how to be creative with these foods. Mainly I cannot have gluten, dairy or sugar. And everything I eat has to be organic. I went to the few stores I have here where I live and there organic, gluten, dairy and sugar free products are so expensive. I spent nearly $90 for a few items. I got rice crackers, beans, lettuce, carrots, rice milk, almond milk, waffles and bread. My first night I had lettuce and beans for dinner. Ewe! If anyone has any tips they can offer I am open. I just do not know what to by or how to cook these kinds of things. I wasn't much of a cook before. I just hope this all helps. Maybe now I will lose some weight. One of the symptoms of toxic overload is the inability to lose weight. I had my baby 9 months ago and I am still at the weight I weighed 9 months ago after giving birth. I have had stomach problems and I barely eat. Sometimes I get sick after eating, so I never understood why I wasn't losing weight. So fingers crossed this new diet helps me with headaches, stomach aches and weight loss.


WORK FROM HOME  

Seriously Losing It

Summer is pretty much here and can I say dieting has pretty much gone down the drain. I am not going to wallow in self-pity. Ok maybe just a little. I finally got in to see the neurologist. He feels the same as the Gastroenterologist. I had to quit breastfeeding. I need to take care of my body. I'm not happy about all the meds. I started the topamax. It has not produced the same results as the first time I started them. The first time I started them I lost 20 pounds in 3 weeks without even trying. These past 2 and half weeks have been pure hell. I have been so sick. I have had body aches from head to toe. I have been extremely exhausted. I have been dizzy. My head has hurt so badly and I have had the worst stomachaches. I have been throwing up. I have been unable to eat and have been living on a diet of pepto bismal and pepsi. And can you believe it throw all this torture I was hoping for the benefit of weight loss. No my stomach looks like I am pregnant and I have gained a pound. WTF. I have to be a mom too. I have three kids to take care of, work to go to and a job. At least I was able to get out of jury duty. It was going to be a 6-8 weeks criminal case. So to sum it up, breastfeeding did not help me lose weight, dieting did not help me lose weight, meds did not help me lose weight, and being sick is not helping me lose weight. I’M LOSEING IT!!!

Warm Weather Sunshine

Warm weather makes me happy and sad at the same time.

I love being able to go outside and enjoy the sunshine. I love the birds chirping. I love being able to send the kids out without having to bundle them up and then have to dry everything when they come in. I love  not being cold. What I do not love are the allergies from the spring pollens that make me feel completely crappy and non functional.  I do not love is the being fat and not being comfortable in warm weather clothes. Feeling completely pale with alot of white skin blinding everybody else. My goal now that it is nice weather is to become more active. Hopefully the feeling fat and pale will kick my butt into motivation and help me to lose more weight. I plan to get out more and play with the kids, get out more and go for walks, get out more and play hide in seek. Maybe hide some fat for GOOD! Happy Spring.

The Big Decision

So I am trying to make the decision to quit breast feeding or not. My reasons are completely selfish. I WANT TO LOSE WEIGT. Breast feeding this time has not been a weight loss benefit. After this pregnancy I am really struggling losing weight. Sometimes I lose and then gain it back. I have been sick with stomach issues which you would think would help me lose weight, but NOPE. I know breast feeding is super good for the baby. She has yet to get sick and is growing and developing great. Breast Feeding is free and I have ZERO money. I just feeel like a fat blob of yuckiness all the time. I have been debating if when I stop feeding if I will try diet pills. I have been looking at two LIPO 6 and  HGH Energizer. The HGH Energizer interests me because it has other benefits besides weight loss. It advertises get more energy, better muscle tone, healthy immune system, cognitive function support and much more. Sounds all things I need. LIPO 6 says it is a highly effective fat burner and makes you muscles more tone.  Besides igniting a strong thermogenic effect that leads to a rapid loss of overall body fat, LIPO-6 also assists in controlling your appetite. During a diet LIPO-6 gives women the extra energy they need to stay highly active and productive. I will have to research more and decide on what I want to do. The health of my baby is of course the most important thing to me. Meanwhile I will continue to live a healthy lifestyle and do what I can to lose weight.