2004 Story Set
| Date: December 22, 2004
http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/Articles/a2004-11-18-mag-sofat.html There is a lot of advice out there for the over 50s who woke up one day and wonder where their formerly svelte figures went. Read the article. Read the discussion list on the AARP website. In an age when one must be beautiful, dress well, and wear interesting jewelry, one must also look 10-20 years younger. My first time in seeing a doctor's summary of my health that included the words "obese female" had started out "an attractive" ----- it was the ending that killed me. I was, at that time, only 155 pounds and fighting it. I hit 165 and freaked out. I did Medifast when Oprah did Optifast, and lost weight down to 132. But they fired my doctor at the center (who knows why) so when I started eating, I had not been given any guidelines and most important, no one had yet told me that when you start real food, you gain 8-10 lbs immediately because your previously empty intestinal tract fills up. Lovely. So you should loose 10 lbs more than your goal weight if you are doing a liquid diet. But Medifast, idiot people, put an appetite suppressant in their mix so now, when it wears off, you eat anything that is not nailed to the proverbial floor. That's nice of them. You have raging headaches if you don't! Cute. Too much sugar too. I am looking for someone, anyone, who can connect me to the new UCLA liquid diet --- because it sounds right. Of course, if Jack LaLanne would stop selling juicers for a few minutes and bring back "Reduce" - which I lived on for some years..... I started that when at 30 I saw I had a pot belly. I only weighed in at 135. (I bought his juicer. I am not planning on towing rowboats in my teeth.) My weight gain came while I was exercising, treadmill and weights, and lifting 100 lbs (arms) and 305 lbs (legs). I wore out sneakers walking. It was not keeping the pounds off. I left the gym when I couldn't fasten my fav necklace around my bull neck! (which exercise did that!) I have now de-bulked. My doctor had lowered my thyroid and taken me off estrogen (oh no!) and I had bulked. I let myself lose tone (who had time anyway) and did not go back to the gym, and gradually stopped working out at home. The low thyroid was making me tired by 3PM. I had gained belly fat while working out. I then had the thyroid raised (but not back to the .2) and the estrogen reintroduced (but not the patch) and now my body is simulating conditions of pregnancy. I am 200 lbs, and look and feel like I am due any minute. I was this big once before and had a baby to show for it. (The other child was a preemie. I only hit 180.) My face has fallen. It can't get up. Of course, when my second one was 7 months old, someone at the grocery store came up to me and said "oh, you're not having another one so soon!" I was nice. I did not hit her. Just scowled at her. I have a good scowl. You develop that after 40. Frown lines. The "11" in the center of your forehead that laser treatment will only take away temporarily. (My doctor offered to cut the muscle - that would stop it. Or Botox - that's another one.) Now I would have a hard time justifying the scowl. I have looked in the mirror. I never got back under 145 with the second child until I did Medifast. And then I never got under 132. I still had the pot belly Turns out, it was a hernia. Now that they put staples and titanium mesh in my abdomen, they refuse to do liposuction. I am pissed. I can't do sit-ups because the muscles didn't quite meet. The hernia went 17 years undetected. The muscles had atrophied. Tissue-paper they said. I am not socking the food in. I eat the occasional chip (when I am craving salt). I make corn bread not biscuits. I do not bake cookies unless Christmas and then only two kinds. Not 130 varieties and fudge like I grew up with. I bake two pies - one child eats the pumpkin and one eats the apple. I may get a slice of each. And this is only at Thanksgiving and Christmas. (not this year - I had 1/2 of the apple and froze the rest - and the pumpkin - I sat down with a fork a week later and ate until I could throw up. I will not make another one until my son is recovered and can do his duty and eat it for me.) I no longer make coffee cakes, cupcakes or cakes, and when I did, we skipped icing. I no longer make home-made loaves of white bread. (Except Christmas bread.) I had reduced white stuff, potatoes, rice, noodles and replaced them with whole wheat. At the moment, my sick child requires the white stuff (will not eat the tougher wheat stuff). I think I am allergic to wheat. I like rye bread which is better for you. I drink diet sodas and decaf coffee with Sweet and Low. I also indulge in Starbuck's coffee (bottled Lite Mocha at 14 carbs and caf? mocha made with nonfat and use Sweet and Low). If we spent less time in the hospital with my younger son, I will drink less caf? mochas. And I would not be near donuts (which I try to share with my underweight child). I see my doctor today to discuss this state of affairs. I want my hair to stop falling out, my belly fat to go away, my cholesterol to behave (fish oil, olive oil and Canola are all I use). I want to go back to gym without regaining muscles like one of those muscle-bound cover boys. I want the fat off. It does no good to tell me to eat less. I am watching what I eat every day. I only rebel on occasion. Don't tell me to eat the right things - I am. Don't tell me to get more sleep - I can't. Don't tell me to exercise every day unless I can stop passing out from exhaustion when I find I have to sit down "for a minute" while fixing dinner and end up setting my kitchen on fire. Even the nurses at the hospital tell me I am doing too much. Don't tell me to reduce stress in my life until my son has beaten AML (Leukemia) and is eating again. It's enough that I was laughing as the firemen left. My doctor said -- my BMI is 32 - if it hits 36 - I am to have liproscopy - stomach surgery I am sending for another protein drink thing - low sugar he said to try it all my levels good --- except - I prob have sleep apnia (explains the exhaustion) I am to be tested and I need an echo stress echo my chloresterol is fine since I started Lipotor |
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