cookie diet, day 6

six pounds to go to my first goal!  I worked out yesterday and oh my gosh, I am ridiculously sore today - even brushing my teeth this morning educated me that perhaps I did too much on the triceps machine ;)

Last night, I ended up skipping a cookie because we were out in the evening before dinner, and this morning I missed one again while we were out.  Surprisingly, I've remember to bring a cookie with me if it's just me and child, but when my husband's with us, I keep forgetting!  Doh.  These flippin' cookies are so expensive so I'm definitely not throwing out the cookies!  So today's an oatmeal cookie day but I did swap one with yesterday's leftover chocolate chip cookie.  So wild. ;)  I'm probably going to have two leftover then from today (since I missed the mid-morning one), so I think things are going to get mixed up soon. :D

I think I handled a potentially "dangerous" situation well today.  I've been craving sushi - and my son LOVES sushi and asks for it all the time.  So today, I decided we could get some.  I ordered take-out, so we wouldn't be tempted to get more than originally ordered.  Our favorite sushi place does incredible bento boxes, so we got two, to-go.  One was chicken teriyaki (sauce on the side), salmon shioyaki (no sauce, it's just grilled) and sashimi (which is just raw fish, no rice).  The second was more chicken teriyaki, more sashimi and chicken katsu (fried - husband's favorite).  Each box comes with a salad, miso soup, rice, and four pieces of California roll.  It's a ton of food.  Awesome. :)  So I ate my salad (no dressing), three pieces of tuna sashimi and five pieces of salmon sashimi, and one piece of California roll.  No soy sauce.  I had a sip of miso but it was very salty to me so I skipped the rest.  I smeared a tiny bit wasabi on each piece of fish, and I did have a couple bites of the chicken teriyaki without sauce.  I saved the salmon shioyaki for dinner.

So... overall, pretty good.  I would've preferred nigiri (raw fish over rice), and rolls (usually I like spicy tuna - which has some mayo in there - and the shrimp tempura!), but man, that's a lot of damn calories.  So I think this met some of my sushi craving and hopefully didn't completely derail my diet.  I did make some "sushi" for my son (sashimi over rice, pseudo-nigiri-style!)

Still losing weight and that's really, really motivating.  Wish I could fast forward a month or two though!  Can't I just wake up 30 pounds lighter and promise that I'll still diet? ;)  I know, I know... it took 5 years to gain this weight, it's going to take more than a few weeks to lose it...

Goals, revisited

So.  Goals.  I'm frankly embarrassed and disheartened because I've set so many goals over the past decade and have failed 'em all by this point (even if I did meet them at that time).  But I need to let go of that guilt and move forward.  So here we go:

Goal 1: 16 pounds gone - weight 1 week after delivering baby 
Goal 2: 31 pounds gone - weight before getting pregnant 
Goal 3: 40 pounds gone 
Goal 4: 50 pounds gone 
Goal 5: 60 pounds gone 
Goal 6: 70 pounds gone 
Goal 7: 80 pounds gone 
Goal 8: 90 pounds gone 
Goal 9: 100 pounds gone 
Goal 10: 103 pounds gone 

As of right now, I'm halfway to goal #1.  I'm also going to revise the sidebar on here where I was roughly keeping track of my weight loss.  Yes, I had lost 90 pounds... but dammit, I gained 70 of that back (including during the pregnancy).  So, now I'm starting with that weight right before I gave birth (well, after my water broke!).  Surprisingly, I lost 16 pounds within a week of giving birth, and I remember thinking "oh thank goodness, I'm going to lose this pregnancy weight without years of struggles...".  Well, sadly, that didn't happen.  My pelvis/hip issue that arose during pregnancy (and worsened during delivery) really put a damper on things, and...

ok enough excuses.  Let's lose the damn weight already! ;)

cookie diet, day four

Still chugging along... second day of the oatmeal raisin cookies.  The shine is definitely wearing off, but I'm getting results to chugging along I go!  Oy ;)  I did have some intense abdominal cramps this morning two hours before my alarm went off, but not sure if it's related to the cookies.  I'm hungry almost all the damn time, but I need to get the weight off and frankly, I've been indulging way too much the past 3 years.  I need to get in more exercise too, but... baby steps! ;)

cookie diet, day two

In the midst of day two on the cookie diet and doing okay, but I'm not following it to the letter unfortunately.  It's nearly impossible to do this strictly while raising a toddler.  I have to feed him 3 meals and a snack (plus at least one meal for my husband!), and it's too hard.  So last night, I made ground turkey in tomato sauce with whole wheat pasta.  I gave myself a double portion of the sauce (which was sugar-free no-salt-added) and none of the pasta.  But I did have a couple of grapes and a strawberry at lunch.  And today I had an ounce of cheese with lunch too.  I'm so wild. ;)  

Today I'm eating the oatmeal raisin cookies for the first time.  They're not bad... not as good as the chocolate chip cookies, but still edible.  I was out when I needed to eat one of them, but had brought it with me and ate it in the car while driving to some errands.  Nice that it's portable!

Oh, and today I did start off with a small protein shake (70 calories for 13 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar) before I ate my first cookie.  Not sure if it helped a lot, but right now I'm not rocking a huge headache so that's good (yesterday I did get a headache after I posted here).  

So the dinners seem like a challenge - how to prepare proteins that the whole family will enjoy with me not adding in any carbs for myself. ;)  I bought pork loin and a turkey breast and more ground turkey today, not sure which I'm cooking for dinner tonight yet.  None of them are particularly exciting, especially on their own! ;)  

I'm not going to focus extensively on the numbers on the scale, but instead look at the trend.  Yes, I had a nice weight loss this morning, but I'm still above where I was a week ago (before my birthday...) and Sunday night I overate at an Oscars party, so a weight loss this morning was to be expected. ;)  Hopefully the scale will continue to nudge down!

Cookie diet, day one

Ahhhh, here we go again.  Weight is way up, and I'm just struggling so hard to lose the weight and finding it difficult to get into it.

So, I feel like I need to do something "drastic" - and I'm going on the "cookie diet".  I bought a bunch of the Smart For Life cookies from Costco and today, it begins!

(first pet peeve: that photo is from their web site, and shows seven cookies in that pack, but there are only six!)

Basically, you're supposed to eat one cookie every two hours, skipping breakfast and lunch, and then eat 10-12 ounces of lean protein and 5 cups of veggies for dinner.  And drink a ton of water with each cookie.

Here are the stats for the chocolate chip cookies that I'm eating today:

Nutrition Facts for 1 cookie
Calories 100
Total Fat 3.5 g
Saturated Fat 1.5 g
Trans Fat 0
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 135 mg
Carb 9 g
Fiber 2 g
Sugars 3 g
Protein 6 g

OK, so multiply that times six, and you're eating 600 calories, 12 grams of fiber and 36 grams of protein. Not enough!  The diet guidelines do say that you can eat some of the 10-12 ounces of protein at lunch if you wish, so I did have 2 ounces at lunch.  Should've had more.  I think I also need to start off with a protein shake as well - I'm used to more protein during the day, and I think not having as much is definitely having an impact on me (hello, headache!).  So I'll adjust for that tomorrow (and eat maybe 3-4 ounces of protein at lunch).  I am concerned about the fiber too - the guidelines explicitly forbid beans, which is a typical great source of fiber (and protein).  I usually get a bunch from fruit, and that too is forbidden because of the sugar content.  I see much spinach in my future.

My initial review of the chocolate chip cookie is that it isn't too bad.  There are just a couple of chips in each cookie (I only found one in my last cookie, sadly) - but these aren't bad at all.  I wouldn't go out of my way to eat these normally, and I wouldn't serve them to a guest at a party, but I'm not stabbing myself yet at having to eat these.  I've read that they're better if you warm them up for 10 seconds in the microwave, but I haven't tried that yet.  Honestly, since they're okay at room temp for me right now, I'm saving the warming-up-trick for when I inevitably get tired of them. ;)

So here we go.  Wish me luck, and willpower ;)

Why is there tilapia in my Muller fruitup yogurt?

Eating yogurt for a snack tonight, I looked at the ingredients and nearly spit it out.

Why on earth is there TILAPIA in my yogurt?!

I searched on their site and they do have a FAQ about it:

Why is there tilapia in FrütUp?
We use kosher gelatin from tilapia to maintain the light and airy texture of the fruit mousse.

Seriously, weird.  This is what I get for trying something different (and it wasn't very tasty either!)

up and down, mostly up

So, I have made it to the gym a couple times a week this month, which is good.  It's not having a major impact on my weight yet, but I have to hope that eventually it will.

But my weight is really depressing me these days, especially since I'm coming up on a couple of milestones on my calendar - 10 years since I got married, and 5 years since my lowest weight.

I was curious, so I went through and found my weight over the past 15 years or so, and whipped up a little graph:

The horizontal lines mark every 20 pounds.  First arrow is my wedding.  Approximately 5 years later, I was at my lowest weight (and yes, I gained about 20 pounds in the first two years of wedded bliss).  Second arrow is when I got pregnant.  Third arrow is when I gave birth.  It's a little hard to tell from this graph, but I'm about 5 pounds less now than when I got married.  And I *hate* how I look in my wedding photos.  

So, that's a pretty sobering graph.  

I also got another set of numbers crunched - after a 4 hour food and water (?!) fast on Sunday, I got measured on one of the "in body" body composition machines.  (FYI: 4 hour food fast, no problems - but 4 hours without water was hell and I had a terrible headache all day, even after I rehydrated.)  The results were really miserable.  I tried to convince myself it's just the "before" picture, but damn, it's hard to swallow.

But I did work out after that, doing a full set on the weights circuit plus some kettle bell work, and on Tuesday I did 45 min on a bike (even though my legs were still mad after that kettle bell work!), and yesterday I did an aqua aerobics class (which was great for the stretching actually - plus I did get my heart rate up a few times).  Tomorrow is another aqua class.  Will do the weights again Saturday or Sunday.  And I'm trying to eat healthier, but it's an on-going struggle.  

sore

Sorry for the radio silence yet again.  Amazingly, my weight is staying roughly the same, despite the lack of dieting and exercise.  It's still much higher than it should be, but at least it's not getting worse?

I joined a gym on Friday, mostly for activities for my son, but I'm really hoping that I'll actually get to go work out on my own as well.  Did a water aerobics class and it was great.  I also did a short circuit on a few of the weight machines, so I'm sore today. ;)  It's a good sore though, and one that I haven't had in several years.  I'm going to meet with one of the trainers again on Sunday to get set up on all of the weight machines to do full circuits.

Baby steps, so to speak ;)

Veggie pancakes

I'm not a fan of most vegetables - especially green veggies like broccoli and spinach.  But I am trying to broaden my horizons so my son can try more of these things too.  I've been reading a ton of blogs and am intrigued by many of the things I've found on weelicious.com :)

Last night, I tried her green veggie pancakes recipe, with some modifications (of course!) - and it was great!  Naturally, I forgot to take photos... but I did like this recipe so much that I made two more batches of it immediately.  Here's what I did:

Shannon's Veggie Pancakes
(inspired by weelicious.com's green veggie pancakes)

Ingredients

• 1 cup zucchini, broccoli, and/or cauliflower (I used 3/4 broccoli to 1/4 carrots - see note)
• 1/4 cup flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 
• 1 large egg 
• 1 teaspoon dried basil 
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder 
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• canola or vegetable oil 

Preparation

1. Place the vegetables in a food processor and pulse to chop fine. (I measured the 1 cup of veggies after this step.)
2. Add the chopped vegetables into a bowl along with the flour, salt, egg, basil, garlic powder and onion powder. Mix to combine. 
3. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and place 1 tbsp of the batter into the pan for each pancake. 
4. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. (First batch cooked 4-5 minutes each side)

Notes:

• I measured the 1 cup of veggies after pulsing them in the food processor.  I don't know how much it was pre-processed.
• I used a nonstick skillet and only had oil in for the first batch - I would skip this entirely next time given this skillet.
• As a special treat, for the last batch to go in the skillet, I mixed in 2 tablespoons of grated Asiago cheese -- added a wonderful depth to the flavor!
• I used all-purpose flour this time but would definitely try whole wheat next time, maybe even toss in a tablespoon of ground flax in there as well.
• This recipe easily doubles ;)  
• My two-year-old DEVOURED these and kept asking for more!
• I plan to pop the leftovers in the toaster oven for lunch tomorrow :)

Woah! Five months!

Woah, time really, really is flying by these days.  I can't believe I haven't posted in five months! Oops.

So... yeah, nothing much new, honestly.  I'm not losing weight.  Did carb cycling for two weeks a few months ago and lost approximately nothing.  I got frustrated with my bathroom scale in April and kept meaning to replace it and I still haven't - so I went well over a month without weighing in.  This morning, I weighed myself, stepped off the scale and picked up a bottle of shampoo, weighed myself, stepped off the scale and put down the bottle, and weighed myself again... gaining 0.8 pounds.  What the heck!?  I really hate unreliable measurements.  I did similar tests with scales at Costco and Bed Bath and Beyond this past month and all those scales reacted similarly. Very frustrating. :(  I am the type who is definitely motivated by seeing the scale go down, and it's maddening if that scale isn't working reliably.  Any suggestions? ;)

I need to refocus on the weight loss by moving more and eating less.  Moving more is a big problem as I am still dealing with the pelvic separation and hip issues from pregnancy (and my son is two years old now...).  I hurt my back on Mother's Day but thankfully it is mostly recovered by now.  I am pondering joining the YMCA but haven't had the chance to go visit it yet to see their facilities in person.  It's more expensive than 24 Hour Fitness (where I had a membership for 2 years from a Costco deal, but that ended a year ago), but they include child care while you're working out, and have a kids' tumbling class that would potentially be great for my son.  Hopefully I can check it out sometime over the next week.

I'm hoping to hold myself accountable more with this blog - and if you're reading this, feel free to say hi so I know I'm not doing this alone. :)

still hanging in

Still around the same point on the scale - not particularly losing weight though, so that's not pleasant. ;)  I feel like a broken record, saying that "this time, it's going to work!" and then not losing more than a pound or two.  But I really, really do want to lose the weight - just need to get a few things straightened out in my life and then hopefully things will actually fall into place and I can kiss a few pounds goodbye.  Even right now, I'm hungry and craving chocolate and/or something salty - but I'm going to just sip some cold water and hope that the craving passes.  I know, I should get up and exercise instead, but frankly, I'm going to celebrate not giving into the craving as a victory and worry about the exercise when my body feels better. ;)

slow going

So... here it is.  I'm not particularly losing weight at the moment. ;)  It's the holidays, and frankly, doing the gluten free thing over Thanksgiving and Hanukkah meant that I missed out on a lot of fun (and feasts).  So I'm not beating myself up about enjoying the rest of the month.  I even went and baked a crapload of cookies with some other new moms on Saturday - and though I sent a bunch with my husband to work today, we're still enjoying some here at home.

I had hoped to reach a small milestone by the end of the year, but it's not bloody likely.  I'm down still that same five pounds since I "restarted" last month, and I'm okay with that.  I'm doing a lot of traveling over the next month, so I know that will be a weighty challenge.  I still have my ambitious goal of being back to my pre-baby weight by my son's second birthday - four months from now.  It's about 20 pounds from where I am now.  I should be able to do it, but I think it's going to be closer to "20 pounds in 3 months" instead of "20 pounds in 4 months" - hopefully I can maintain this current weight through the holidays and travels, and then refocus and get back on the diet train. ;)

almost done with the gluten free

Sorry for the radio silence on the gluten free diet (and my weight loss overall).  I am almost done with this month-long trial of the gluten free lifestyle, and honestly, I don't feel one bit better.  I'll meet with my doctor on Tuesday morning, but I can't see any reason that I'd stay GF after this.  Hopefully I can get some allergy testing done to see if there is something that I actually should eliminate. ;)

My weight continues to bounce up or down a pound or two each day. ;)  I'm down around 5 pounds or so for the month, so that's better than nothing.  I'm really hoping to keep losing weight, obviously - wish I had lost more last month, but something is better than nothing. :)

Biggest Loser's unrealistic expectations

"Biggest Loser" is airing again right now, and this season has frustrated me like all the past seasons. ;)  I truly hate that the show sets unrealistic expectations for weight loss.  If someone "only" loses 4 pounds in one week, they're considered a failure.  It's awful.  The first week of each season, people lose 20+ pounds, and that just plain doesn't happen.  The producers totally manipulate everything - a "week" on the show is often more than 7 days, and I've always wondered about supplement use on the show.  I wrote a post back in 2009 about a weight loss supplement that one of the trainers, Jillian Michaels, was selling - it was an insane amount of caffeine, amongst other things.

So this week's episode ends with Jillian's team getting a penalty for using unapproved caffeine supplements the prior week.  Interesting!  Caffeine is a great way to speed up your heart rate, but honestly, I've found it can have terrible effects on the rest of your body.  It makes me sad to realize that these contestants are being encouraged to use supplements like that (or, as Jillian claims of the other teams, they're drinking lots of coffee to get that caffeine instead).

Anyone who loses weight should be applauded.  A mere four pound weight loss in a week is HUGE, and should be celebrated.  I wish this show would come clean and be true - actually do the weigh ins every 7 days, show that they are drinking a ton of coffee, explain that they're working out 6 hours a day... it's hard enough to lose weight without having all these unrealistic expectations set on national television.

I much prefer the Chris Powell show "Extreme Weight Loss" - it's about one person over the course of a year.  And they work their asses off - often losing 90 pounds (or more!) in the first 90 days.  And if they've met their various weight loss goals, they get skin removal surgery before their big "reveal" at the end of the year.  I like that this show acknowledges the body changes that happen - and also shows the hard work that goes into this.  Also, almost every person on the show misses one of their goals, so you get to see the realistic side of weight loss - it's not all as simple as "Biggest Loser" makes it seem.  I also really like how supportive Chris Powell is to each of these people (and their families).  There's no berating them (ahem, Jillian!)

and yes, there is an element of jealousy about all of these shows - gee, if only I could take 3 months to focus only on my weight loss, I would TOTALLY lose the pounds!  But that's not going to happen (and happily, I don't qualify for the "Extreme Weight Loss" show as I don't have to lose more than 50% of my body weight).  ;)

Review: Trader Joe's Macarons Varies

Ahhh, I love macarons.  Seriously, love love love.  When I was in Paris a few years ago, I went to a half-dozen macaron shops in one day to do a taste test. ;)  So yes, I know and love the macaron.

Bonus for my gluten free diet: macarons are gluten free!  There are few ingredients in macarons - the shells are made out of almond flour, sugar, egg whites and cream of tartar.  The filling varies, of course, but is usually a ganache or buttercream or curd - gluten free.

So when I was at Trader Joe's yesterday, I saw this rainbow box of macarons in the freezer section and had to try it.

There are six flavors in here, and I'll run them down now:

• fig: eh, it's okay.  The filling is more like a fruit gel, and reminds me of a Fig Newton ;)
• lemon: yum.  My favorite of the batch.  The filling is also a fruit gel but good lemon flavor.
• apricot: okay.  Not much apricot flavor in the shells but very present in the filling (also fruit gel).
• coconut: good.  Coconut flavor is present in the shells and the filling, which is a white chocolate concoction (based on the ingredients).
• pistachio: horrible!  I usually love pistachio pastries, and this was awful.  The shells were bad, but the filling tasted like vomit to me.  It was so terrible.  Ugh.
• salted caramel: okay.  The filling was a decent salted caramel, and the shells had a light caramel taste to them.

Overall, it's a hard one for me to rate - I think I have to lean towards not recommending, because I only really liked the lemon, I detested the pistachio, and the others were only okay.  For $4.99 for the box of 12 - each macaron was about 1 1/2" in diameter - it's a great price, but overall it was a let down.  I am glad there were no coffee flavored macs in here - seems like they always throw that flavor in an assortment! ;)

Review: Canyon Bakehouse Cinnamon Raisin Gluten Free Bread

Today's tasty gluten free item is Canyon Bakehouse Cinnamon Raisin Gluten Free Bread.  I found this at Whole Foods and had to give it a try.  First impression, before even opening the package, was that this bread is *soft* - definitely not as firm as the Udi's bread next to it.

I got home and dove into it, and yes, I like it!  Definitely a softer bread, I honestly can't say that it's much different than other cinnamon raisin breads I've had with gluten in them.  It's not overpoweringly sweet, which I appreciate.

For me, the other nice bonus is that each slice has 2 grams of fiber in it.  I'm really missing the fiber I was used to from my former whole wheat days. ;)  However, the calories on this bread are higher than the Udi's breads - the nutritional information below is for ONE slice, not the two that the Udi's bread computes.  I would buy this bread again and am curious if I'll like other breads from Canyon Bakehouse in the future.

Nutrition Facts for 1 slice / 2 slices
Calories 90 / 180
Total Fat 1.5 / 3 g
Saturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0
Cholesterol 5 / 10 mg
Sodium 85 / 170 mg
Carb 19 / 38 g
Fiber 2 / 4 g
Sugars 5 / 10 g
Protein 2 /4 g

Week 1 progress report

So, I've survived the first week of gluten free.  I still feel like crap. ;)  I knew it wouldn't be an overnight cure, but for me, it's not dramatically improving my quality of life yet.  I still am exhausted and have lots of pain and headaches.  Good times!

However, this also marks the end of my first week back to tracking everything I eat.  It's no fun, but I am happy that the free myfitnesspal.com app makes it so easy (especially with the bar code scanning feature).

I lost 4.8 pounds this first week.  It should've been higher but I went to an all-you-can-eat sushi place last night and had way too much nigiri (no soy sauce or other sauces or tempura either!).  I foolishly skipped breakfast both Saturday and Sunday, and that always leads to overeating later in the day.  Doh.  I'm 6 pounds from my first mini-goal, so hopefully I can accomplish that in the next few weeks!

Review: Udi's Gluten Free Whole Grain bread

My doctor has told me to give the gluten free diet a try for four weeks and to see if it helps with how I feel.  (Ironically, as I write this on day 5, my "face of fire" is flaring up... ugh!)

Naturally, I will post reviews of the various gluten free foods I try in this adventure!  Up first - Udi's Gluten Free Whole Grain bread.

I was curious how long I would go before buying a gluten free bread, and that was three days. ;)  I picked this up at my local Trader Joe's and tried it yesterday.  First thing you notice is the size of the bread - it's small!  Each slice is less than an ounce and about the size of my palm.

I chose the whole grain version because each serving of two slices includes 2 grams of fiber.  Not surprisingly, going gluten free means most of my sources of fiber are gone!  Yes yes, I know I need to eat more fruits and veggies... ;)

I tried my first slice of this bread straight out of the package.  It's a bit denser than I expected - but I like dense bread so this is a good thing for me.  I just didn't really like it all that much.  I'm sorry that I'm not finding the right way to describe it, but it definitely isn't the ol' satisfying glutenriffic bread I enjoy. ;)

I put my second slice in the toaster oven and I enjoyed it much more (and not just because I added some homemade jam!).  For me, it improved with the toasted texture.

I give this a vote of recommended, but with hesitation - it's better than other alternative breads I tried when on my elimination diet a few years ago, but it's not as good as regular bread.

Nutrition Facts for 2 slices
Calories 130
Total Fat 4 g
Saturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 260 mg
Carb 22 g
Fiber 2 g
Sugars 3 g
Protein 4 g

Happy sixth birthday, blog! ...and how we got here

WOAH.  Six years (with varying degrees of posting frequency) I've been blogging here - and woah, that's an eye opener.

I've always been overweight.  I don't know the numbers, but I'd guess I put on 100 pounds during college and the first few years after graduation.  Looking back, I bounced around in a 20 pound range since 1999 until late 2006 when I finally bunkered down and realized I needed to lose the weight.

In November 2006, I lost about 5 pounds before Thanksgiving.  Then we started a Weight Watchers at Work group, and I also joined SparkPeople.com.  Over the next year, I lost 80 pounds.  Awesome!  That's when I started this blog - 80 pounds down, 50 pounds to go.  Woo!

I plateaued in 2008 and most of 2009 - despite walking 10,000 steps a day!  Ugh, it was so frustrating.  I finally lost another 10 pounds in late 2009... and then I had surgery, changed jobs and bought a house - all in the same week.  Aie.  Unfortunately, the weight came right back on.  When I got pregnant, I was basically 40 pounds up from my lowest weight.  I was nervous about the gestational diabetes and thankfully did not develop it - but I gained 30 pounds during pregnancy.  Honestly, I was proud I was able to keep it to 30 - I only gained 10 in the first two trimesters!!  I really tried to keep it under control, but I was on near bed rest for that last trimester and that's when I gained (as did the baby, as planned!).  My son was born at 7 pounds and 13 ounces (yes, I had feared that I was going to have a massive baby and thankfully he was average in weight).

Unfortunately, I had some pelvic separation during pregnancy and despite trying many things, I still have a lot of pain in that area (and my hips now), which makes walking a long time quite painful.  As someone who did the 10,000 steps a day thing for hundreds of days, you can imagine how the lack of walking has stifled my weight loss.

Six years ago, when I started this blog, I weighed 53 pounds less than I do today.  That's quite a kick in the stomach.  Six years ago, I was all excited about my 80 pound loss and figured the final 50 would come with continued effort.  Plateau from hell and life interference showed me this isn't easy. ;)  So now I start over, yet again.  Today's my first day gluten-free - and I'm back to tracking my food.  Now I'm using myfitnesspal.com and their awesome (and free!) app.  Here we go!

Hopefully my seventh-blog-birthday post will be a much happier one! ;)

Starting over, yet again... ;)

Woah, sorry about the radio silence for the past few months!  Chasing a toddler around keeps blogging at bay apparently.

So here's where we are right now.  I need to lose a lot of weight.  I have fibromyalgia.  I am exhausted most of the time, hungry almost always too, and in varying levels of pain constantly.  Awesome, non?

My doctor tested me for celiac disease and thyroid disease and some other things, and all of those came back negative (yay!).  However, some of the other bloodwork showed that I have lots of inflammation going on (which we've seen increased over the past few years).  Also, low vitamin D (which is pretty common).

My doctor suggested that I go gluten-free for four weeks and see how it goes.  I start tomorrow!  Wish me luck ;)