Motivation...

Motivation is a funny thing.  I have felt motivated to get this weight loss journey started before, but just the smallest thing could throw me off course...change in medicine, bad day at work, not enough sleep, etc.  I have always been able to talk myself out of staying on course, but I am really working on it now!  Today would have been a great day to skip the gym and pick up food on the way home...it was just an annoying day today and then it had started to snow right when I left work (I am one of the few people in the world that just doesn't love snow!)

I sucked it up and made myself go to the gym...I knew I would feel better afterwards (and I do!)  I even came home and cooked supper instead of picking something yummy up.  I have worked out every day except Sunday since last Monday.  i hear you form a new habit in 21 days, so hopefully I am 1/3 of the way there!  Before I got sick, I so enjoyed exercising, I went to the gym before and after work!  I felt cruddy when I didn't go to the gym.  I can't wait to get back to that point...not there yet! 

So anyway...I know that I can do this, but today was one of the tougher days to maintain motivation.  I powered through it, and hopefully tomorrow will be better :) 

Thanks for reading :)  Have a great night!

Let's talk food...

Food.  It's the hardest part of a lifestyle change (I really dislike the word diet).  Before I got sick, I was on a roll.  I was eating the healthiest I ever had in my life.  While I was having chemo and my transplant, most days I could eat anything I wanted (when I wasn't nauseated) and I didn't gain any weight. It was like the most awesome side effect ever ;)  My body shifted though...all the muscle I had built up in my workouts just disappeared.  Between the chemo and steroids, I lost all of my strength. Do you know how frustrating it is to have people tell you "Oh your muscles will come back..."  Umm no...they won't (and haven't) just ome back...it took a LOT of work to get them in the first place, so it will take a lot of work again!

Anyway...I got off track. I do not love very many veggies.  I am working very hard to change that, but it's not easy.  Maybe I need to try smoothies or something to incorporate more.  Fruit is much easier for me...I have SUCH a sweet tooth!  Another thing I have to work on is leftovers...I don't love them, but I am trying hard to eat them.  I am not one to cook something on Sunday and it the same thing every night.  For some reason, I can eat the same breakfast and lunch every day and it doesn't bother me, but I have to switch up supper and do different things.

As of right now, I have a small bowl of Special K either Cinnamon Pecan or Vanilla Almond cereal and orange juice for breakfast, a banana midmorning and a salad at lunch time. I try to stick with romaine lettuce and green/red leaf lettuce (I hear the darker the leaves, the better for you they are), croutons, red onion, just a touch of cheese and salad dressing.  This is what I am hooked on these days...it's REALLY good!

 

Add a few grapes and some jello with lite cool whip and that's lunch :)  I usually have an apple or orange mid afternoon (I found little honey crisp apples at the grocery store that are delicious!)  Supper is the challenging meal for me.  I am usually starving by the time I get home after the gym after work, so I don't want to wait too long for supper to cook.  Another challenge I face is cooking for just one person.  It's tricky to not end up with a ton of leftovers.  I have no desire to give up meat at this point, so I usually have some sort of chicken, pork, or seafood and one or two veggies.  I am trying to cut out pasta and potatoes for the most part.  I love them more than just about anything, so it's definitely not easy!

The very bad habit mom and I got into while we were in Houston was dessert.  We had some sort of yummy dessert every night!  I have a terrible sweet tooth that is hard to ignore.  When I came home from Houston, I sort of felt like everything I had gone through, I had earned the right to eat dessert every night :) Which is very much the truth, but i just have to keep it in moderation. This is what I am having these days... chocolate grahamwiches.  They are delicious!  And only 112 calories :)  In addition to the food changes, I have cut out all soft drinks...I have orange juice in the morning with breakfast and then I drink almost a gallon of water every day.

The most important meal of the week for me is my cheat meal!  I would go nuts if I didn't chat every now and then :)  The important thing to remember is to not get sucked into the cheat mode!

Ok...I have rambled on long enough for tonight.  I hope you have a great week!  I'll beback soon with a weight loss update :)

~Jodi

Here we go...again!

You guys will just have to excuse this plain boring blog...one day maybe I will have a fancy one, but for now...this is it!  I just need a spot to chat :)


People tell me all the time that I should write a book about this long journey I have been on, but for now I think I will just stick with a blog.  My life has just been one long saga in the quest to get healthy.  I played softball in high school, but wasn't ever much of an exerciser.  Then I got to college and I REALLY didn't take care of my body through all those rollercoaster years.  The worst idea I EVER had was picking up a cigarette.  I was in Paris...too bad it didn't stay in Paris! Oh well...nothing I can do about that now...no sense in having regrets!  They just take up too much valuable space, in my opinion.  I wouldn't be the person I am today (who I kinda like!) if it weren't for the choices (stupid or not so stupid) I've made throughout my life. After my rough early 20s (even with cancer involved, my 3s are WAY better than my 20s!!), I started getting my life together.  Mom and dad helped me buy The Beaded Tiger...I finally had a purpose in life.

Step 1 of getting healthy: no more cigarettes!  I had my last one on September 7, 2007.  At that point, I thought that was the hardest thing I would ever do (I was sadly mistaken!).  I took Chantix to help me, and it made me a little nuts, but it definitely help!  I don't even think about the anniversary of my quit date anymore...which is a good sign that it is way in the past.

Quitting smoking is AWESOME but boy did I gain some weight when I quit!  In March of 2010, something finally clicked and I drove to the gym that I had joined 2 months before and walked through the door.  From March to December, I worked my ass off (literally!) and lost 120 lbs.  I was the healthiest I have ever been...for about 2 months anyway!  I was walking 4-5 miles a day and doing all kinds of weights and TRX and crazy stuff that wears me out just thinking about it now.  I had about 50 pounds left to reach my goal weight, but I felt FANTASTIC!  Check this out...it still trips me out to look at before and after pictures:

See what I mean??  Nuts!  I enjoyed this sassy version of myself for about 2 months before I noticed a rash on my legs...and that little rash totally changed my life!  If you are reading this, you probably know about my cancer/stem cell transplant journey, but if you want to play catch up, you can go play catch up on my Caring Bridge journals from my Houston days here.

It has been 2 and a half years since my transplant and let me tell you I do not wish that on ANYBODY!!  That is by far the hardest thing I have ever done and hope to ever do!  The whole time I was having chemo and after my transplant, I was able to eat just about anything and I didn't gain any weight...it was awesome :)  That changed a little while after the transplant unfortunately and I put a little of my weight back on.  I was maintaining that for awhile and then I had to go back on steroids in August 2013.  since then, I have gained 30 lbs...steroids are just awful!  They do good things, but good lord do they have awful side effects.  And when you take lots of them, you lose a little of your immune system, which causes you to be on other preventive medicines.  So anyway...the past few months, I have just felt cruddy.  My clothes don't fit, I'm tired, bogged down by medicines and just blah and I am tired of it!  I am the only one who can fix it.

I hope you will follow my next journey...I have much more success when I know I have a good support system.  I started back officially this past Monday and have lost 3.4 lbs this week!  I know I won't keep up that pace, but it sure does help to jump start the motivation :) I will update as much as I can...with my exercise, recipes, and whatever else I may feel like telling you.

Thanks for reading!

Jodi :)