Not Diabetic - May 31, 2010 Day 3 of Year long Journey

I decided to not buy the cognac at Costco yesterday. I am working on what to replace my overeating with. I did bring home a box of skinny cow ice cream sandwiches. I have a morning high from it being morning and my coffee.

Yesterday I kept to my 1300 calories plus 140 calories because I walked three and a half miles which gives me an extra 350 calories to eat. Lately, I have not had the urge to eat processed, cheetos, hostess and other junk food. My precious beautiful daughter encouraged not to drink too much cognac with me being unemployed. I am keeping myself busy.

I will retake the Illinois Certified Teacher test for physics in July 2010. I am watching the greatest physics lectures on MIT’s open courseware site.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-02-electricity-and-magnetism-spring-2002/

It is the best site I have found in years. The instructor is entertaining. Best of all, I don’t have to take the mid-term or final. MIT is the number one engineering school in the US. It is amazing that one can get an education online from MIT from that site.
I volunteered at a couple of sixth grade classrooms in Chicago for career day last Friday. I told them what it is like to be an automotive electrical engineer. I would like to see more young inner city kids choose physics as a college major.

I now weigh two hundred and twenty five pounds. I have sixty five pounds to lose in three hundred and sixty two days to make my goal. I weight myself each morning. I know the body may fluctuate between five pounds. I am happy with the weight going down instead of up.
I use dietpower software as a diabetic checks their body each day by checking their blood. I check what I have put or about to put into my body. Yesterday my nutritional score was a D. Before I ate the second skinny cow, it was a B. I cannot uneat it now. Perhaps I will put it in before I eat it and notice my nutritional score. This is how I plan to diet for life. I have to be honest with myself by keeping track of what I put in my mouth.



My brother-in-law told me “when you are fifty, I guarantee you will have diabetes”. I believe it has been my exercise and desiring whole grain foods that keeps my sugar well below the pre-diabetic sugar range. I know he meant good when he told me that while I was in my forties.


Thank you, for your time in reading this.

May 30, 2010 Day 2 of Year long Journey

I am so fortunate to have mostly good health, two college educated children and living on their own. This morning I do not have the urge to overeat. I ate half of the size of the spinach frittata I had for lunch yesterday, only 250 calories. I am satisfied. I remember when I felt I could not live unless I had a giant sweet roll from Dunkin Donuts that had me hungry two to three hours later. Now my weight is based on my plan to live longer. I look forward to not carrying these extra seventy pounds on my body. I love mornings. To see the sunrise, I am inspired that I am alive and I can do anything.

When it gets dark, it is time to get in bed and watch scary TV, like Law and Order. I took my teenage nieces to see “Nightmare on Elm Street”. I asked the girls later, “Why don’t those kids move off of Elm street?” My answer is, “kids would have to invent their own horror drama.” The great think of being 50-something, Mary J. Blidge said it perfectly, “no more drama in my life”.

I did great sticking to my 1300 calories and working out yesterday. Today I will do a three or four hour walk with my iphone. Now is the perfect time for me. It is 7:30 a.m. and perfect weather. The best time of the day.

Good thing I have been doing is exercising even though I was not losing weight. My body fat is 49%. If I keep up my strength training I should not lose muscle but only fat.

Thank you, for your time in reading this.

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Revelation In Eating Breakfast Today

Those that claim, ‘Diets do not work’ are fools or liars. Diets do work. That is how we get to the size we are. Calories in = calories out + fat/muscle. Diets are unique for everybody since bodies are unique. The many ‘diets" I have tried did not work in the long run, liquid protein diet, twelve hundred daily calorie diet because I could not stick to it. I did not work. The diet did. Sure the diets worked while I was on them. After the liquid protein diet with a weight loss of seventy pounds, I tasted popcorn and it was nirvana. I did not stop eating until I gained the seventy pounds I had lost, plus ten more pounds. I got sad and remained obese for many years.

Once my precious, beautiful, intelligent eleven year old told me I was having problems on the job because of the way I look. She had never said anything similar to that again and she is twenty-something now. Her honesty is another reason to lose the weight and go from obese to at least overweight and stretch goal to normal size.

My mission is to get my two hundred and twenty five pound body to a normal size in three hundred and sixty five days. For me, normal will be one hundred and fifty eight pounds. My stretch goal is to get my weight to one hundred and thirty five pounds in a year. I am using dietpower software to track my daily goal of 1300 calories with all the necessary nutrients. Usually a big salad with grilled chicken breast and two tablespoons of salad dressing gives me an A in nutrients. When I exercised three times a week, I did not lose a pound. Now I am exercising five times a week for ninety minutes. I plan to get up to one hundred and twenty minutes of exercise six days a week.

I did not get overweight until I was in high school, around the time puberty started for me. As many obese people, I was sexually abused. Fat helps protect the inside you. It took a lot to get from 120 pounds as a freshman to 160 pounds as a five month pregnant high school graduate.


Today, I lifted heavy leg weights for about 20 minutes:
Machine Weight Set 1 Set 2

Seated Leg Press 135 12 12
Seated Leg Curl 85 12 12
Leg Extension 85 12 11
Hip Abductor 145 12 12
Hip Adductor 160 12 12
Seated Row 55 12 12

Then I took a sixty minute Les Mills body pump class : http://www.lesmills.com/global/bodypump/bodypump-group-fitness-class.aspx


Before the gym I ate almond butter on a slice of 8 whole grains bread. I had a revelation when I had no desire to eat the second almond butter toast. I was no more hungry for lunch than wen I automatically ate two slices of almond butter toast for breakfast.

After class, had a spinach frittata , 500 calories with the cheeses.

I am on track. I have this desire to drink cognac for my dinner. I will not do that for the main reason, there is none in the house.

Have a happy holiday to those that celebrate Memorial Day.