Your tour guide

I realize now that it has been over a month since my last blog post. time keeps on slippin slippin slippin into to the future. a ton of things have happened. I think that most of you follow me on Facebook or other social media but I will recap. I am not always going to post how many pounds I have lost because I want this journey to be about wellness. I may have lost a couple more pounds in the last few weeks but I feel great and people are noticing. I have another appointment on July 10 & 28 & 31. I continue to do my best to eat a balanced diet, smaller portions, less processed foods, and I am committed to increasing my exercise from a minimum 5 miles a day to a minimum 6 miles a day plus light weights at home. my mother's shoulder surgery went very well. she now has something like 10 pins in her shoulder and the last time we spoke she was no longer using the sling and she could type with both hands. she signed by birthday card (I turned 39 on June 26) and she started phy...

summer is under way. i have lost another 2 lbs. for a running total of 13. I had another meeting with a dietician last week (my third one) where we talked about what I am eating and how much of it and so on. The breakthrough moment this time is something I think we all learned in the second grade: eating a balanced diet will help you maintain good health. I felt like an idiot when I said my brain work in numbers and spreadsheets she pulled out a picture of a plate -color coded, with the words DAIRY GRAINS FRUIT VEGETABLE and PROTEIN printed around it . She said my breakfast everyday must consist of d-g-f-p, my lunch must consist of d-g-f-p-v, and my dinner must consist of d-g-f-p-v. We she actually did the math for me: she said if I go grocery shopping once per week and there are 2 adults in my home and we should each have 3 fruits everyday 2 X 3 X 7 = 42 servings of fruit I should buy at the store every week! Then I asked her a billion dollar question- what about diet soda? she sa...

this will be sort of comprehensive and haphazard. today is the third anniversary of the death of my friend Michelle Carter who died in the delivery room giving birth to her second child so I think about living life to the fullest and seizing the day as our time together is too short. It is in part because of Michelle that I went back to school (nearly finished with my 6th semester back after a very long hiatus) and that I gave medical weight management a try. someone I work with but i don't know very well suddenly lost her mother in an accident just yesterday. I still feel like I am doing the right thing and the best thing for me. I watched a TV show last night called This is Life LIVE on TLC that I had DVRd featuring a woman named Monique who forgave a drunk driver 20 years after he killed her 1 year old daughter and adult sisters. I sobbed and I wondered, "What I am I holding onto that I can not let go of?" Compared to this amazi...

this will be fairly short and sweet. i am home from my followup appointment after 5 weeks to see how i would react to changing my anxiety medication. having lost 11 lbs i am off to a great start but i told the doctor i am not ready to celebrate as i have more than 100 lbs to go and i have gained and lost 11 lbs many many many times. she did ask me about my level of interest in trying Topamax for weight loss and i said i would be happy to try it. she said she has seen patients steadily lose unwanted pounds when they take on just before a meal. it makes you feel full faster and not want to go back for more food. she said it makes carbonated beverages taste bad and it might make you feel absent-minded like a poor short term memory but that goes away the longer that you take it. i meet with a dietician/nutritionist for the second time this wednesday morning and then i meet with a psychologist for the first time next monday. maybe we will get the root of my emotional eating issues or find ...

I have a few things to say. i want to preserve them for me so i don't forget them but i want to share them with you as they could have a profound effect. first i just read this statistic in a book (copyright 2014) i am studying for a class: 96% of U.S. Senators are white, 90% of governors are white, and 89% of all judges in America are white. just let that roll around in your head. it really has no correlation with the bulk of this diatribe. second it is Sunday and i have got share the gist of today's sermon. i just can't stop thinking about it. We had a guest pastor which i think most people would be annoyed by. you get used to a preacher and then he takes a Sunday off. he only has to work one day a week! i am only joking. Maybe you came just to hear this man speak and he is out of town. But I walk into church every Sunday not knowing exactly why i came. when i leave then i understand. This guest pastor is a white man who appears to be about 60 years old give or take a...

greetings, the good news is I lost another 4 lbs. and that is a grand total of 9 lbs. in 22 days since I have been on this new medication. Zoloft has given me very few noticeable side effects. I have only dabbled with drinking alcohol on it. a couple beers with a meal. I just want to get this level of the drug up to a constant in my bloodstream. I just don't want it to affect  my sleep. The only thing I have felt is very hot for no reason just for a few minutes, and once or twice I was really crabby at work late in the day but that also passed. I go back to the weight management doctor in about 2 weeks. I will soon begin the therapy and counseling component of the treatment where we begin to unravel all my unhealthy food related habits. "The Clean Plate Club" or using food as rewards and self sabotage are some of the things I hope to discuss. I had blood drawn a few days and ago the doctor has reviewed the results and commented that I am "PRE-PRE Diabetic". we...

a quick update for those of you following the continuing saga. I have been on Zoloft for anxiety for 1 week and I have lost exactly 5 pounds. I tried having 2 beers with a meal Friday night and suffered no ill effects. Saturday night I had 1 glass of wine with a meal. while 5 lbs in one week may not be typical it is still encouraging. I have made very few changes other than never having seconds at dinner time and measuring my snack of the week-pretzels with hummus. I continue to exercise as much as I always did. on a personal level I went to Saloon Friday night for the premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race season 9 but went home early. Saturday I went to see the movie Beauty and the Beast with friends. Sunday I watched the movie Edge of Seventeen on blu ray at home. I finished the series (or I should say caught up on) Transparent which is remarkable. Not since Six Feet Under have I felt this way about an ensemble cast playing members of a family full of misfits. So...