Saturday, July 12, 2014

2 years, 5 months weight maintenance update


I'm over due for my July 2014 weight maintenance update.

For you Paleo-sphere people who just don't like this sort of thing.. move along and skip this post. I weigh in monthly with an update. Daily weighing works great for me.

Highest Weight: 187.4
Current weight : 118.2
Weight Range: 113-118
Years in Maintenance: 2 years, 5 months
Height: 5'1"
Age 48
Menopause: two full years this month.

Weight: I think I've settled in at the 117 to 118 range long term.

Strength training: I've been increasing free weights and the weight on the machines (row, chest, shoulders). I'm the strongest I've ever been in my upper body.  I can move file boxes at work around like a BOSS!

I pick up those 5 gallon water cooler bottle and scare the be-jeebers out of everyone at work. It's both funny (and a little sad) that people expect you to NOT be able to do every day sorts of strength things. "We'll have to call someone to move those boxes!"  "Oh wait til _____ (name of a man) arrives to refill the water cooler".  "Don't hurt yourself".

I get it. I don't want a back injury, and I'm cautious myself.  I do want to be able to do the majority of regular day-to-day tasks until my last days. I need to lift heavy to keep my bone strength.

I have a family history of osteoarthritis, lumbar stenosis, and many of my relatives being physically disabled due to metabolic bone diseases in the second half of life. I've decided that I don't have to follow this pathway and that strength training in my upper body, a diet that allows good absorption of the right vitamins and minerals- calcium, K2, D3, magnesium, etc.

It's all about absorption, in my opinion. My relatives were all champion milk drinkers. From what I can assume, that calcium wasn't absorbed. Absorption, strength training, low inflammation. I'll be asking for a baseline dexa scan from my doc later this fall.

Bone broth: YES! I've been making a batch of chicken broth and adding to the bones in my freezer. I have a cup at lunch and a cup while I make dinner. I try to off set my thyroid meds in the morning so I stopped drinking bone broth in the morning. I'll do a separate post on that later...

My Fitness Pal food tracking: Switched up one vegetable serving at lunch and I'm less hungry through out the day. One serving of bell peppers!  I'll do a separate post on that, too. I have been tracking my food for carb range data. 

Emotional eating and binge eating: No big urges to do that. Probably the longest I've gone. I attribute it to long term remission, abstaining of trigger foods, eating almost no processed foods, cooking 98% of all my meals at home.  Best choice ever to transition from weight loss to weight maintenance by "opting out" of grains and processed sugar.

My 2 cents: No grains, no processed sugars- underused in the world of weight maintainers who would do well on low inflammatory diets for long term health. Yes, I know it's not for everyone. That's okay.  Glad I experimented with an n=1 for myself this time around.

#NSNG... No sugars No grains... Just saying..


What's working now:
1. Strength training 2X per week
2. Bone broth 2X per day
3. Daily weighing
4. Abstaining from grains and processed sugars

What did not work in the past:
1. Not doing upper body strength training
2. Drinking skim milk thinking I was protecting myself from bone disease.
3. Avoiding the scale and expecting great outcomes
4. Moderating all foods so I could line myself up with the majority of popular diet opinion and not binge eat. (Ha, Ha... gotta laugh, otherwise I will cry on this one... )

Hope you are all well and enjoying your summer ( for my Kiwi and Down Under Friends- your Winter)

7 comments:

  1. I still like semi-daily weighing- keeps me on track, too!! Once I removed the emotional aspect from it, it's a great tool.

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    1. I'm telling you, once I boiled it all down to hop on the scale, hop off the scale, record, move on... it just became a daily task. But very, very important. I so would have re-gained a lot of weight. Thanks for stopping by Jeanette. I think a lot of people find different weigh in frequencies that work. Glad you found that for yourself.

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  2. Hi, Karen. You know from Vickie's blog that I read you all the time--and I always find great nuggets of wisdom here. I love these weigh in posts. I could never be someone who does not weigh in daily. So I am with you on that! Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I read (and learn lots from you) regularly!

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  3. Congratulations! I find weighing in daily definitely keeps me on track

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  4. My line to people who question what I carry - I could carry all this and a baby too. My youngest is 16, but still remember those days well.

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  5. Menopause two years at 48? I'm jealous! Lol I guess I shouldn't say that until I find out what, if any, symptoms I'll have but at nearly 51 I'm starting to think I won't find out for awhile yet. My mom was 55 when she went through it but I'm ready to be done with the monthly weight roller coaster now! Lol congrats on your maintenance, I hope to be so fortunate.

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