Saturday, February 4, 2017

5 years of Weight Maintenance- a day to celebrate!!!!

Feb 2012 and Feb 2017



















Feb 2012 to Feb 2017




May 2011 to Feb 2017




May 2011 to Feb 2017
























Starting weight 187.4 lbs
Goal Range 115-125  lbs
Current Weight 114.0 lbs
Keeping off       73.4   lbs

Time in weight maintenance 5 years

Age 50
Menopause 3+years
Height 5'1"
BMI 21.5
BMI ave this month 21.7
BMI ave last month 22.1
Ave glucose- new glucose meter, need to run controls, but Ave = mid to high 80's
Ave glucose (fasting & 2 hr post last month = 73 mg/dL)

Food Template:  Ketosis and/or LCHF, NSNG, Daily carbs 27-42 grams total 20-30 grams net carbs
Abstain from all grains, sugars*, dairy. Nut free, artificial sweetner free **
* 85% chocolate 1X per day
** Tiny bit of stevia in my Natural Calm

Food Timing or Time Restricted Eating Window or Intermittent Fasting 17:7 or 15:9

17 hours fasting (water only)
7 hours eating, 3 meals per day works best, early in the day.
6am to 1 pm daily for my eating window


Auto-Immune Hashimotos 1997, 100 ug Synthroid daily
Food Addict in Recovery: 5+ years
High Risk, but never diagnosed Type 2 diabetes


Walking 12,000 to 13,000 per day steps per day
Weight lifting 1-2 days per week, some weeks 1 day a week due to schedule change

Sprints on the rowing machine 1 days per week , took a break this week due to procedure

Stair Ave/day for the month 17 stairs (Apple Health Kit)

Pushups at home, modified 10+ per day, most days

Headspace Meditation 10 mins per day, most days


What can I say???  5 years is awesome. Seems like a few weeks ago I was taking my goal weight photos. 

Why? Why me? Why not me? I was a yo-yo dieter for 40 years. Next 40 years are mine!!!  

What's working now?

1. ABSTAINING for the WIN. Gretchen Rubin, abstaining in one short Youtube video.   I needed to be an abstainer in 1971, so 2011 was not too late for me. Thank you Higher Power for storing my extra glucose in my body and not wrecking my liver, kidneys, eye sight, and I have my toes and fingers. I'm lucky, so fortunate.

2.  Paleo/Low Carb/ Keto Taking what worked for other people, trying it on for size for myself.  Keeping whatever worked. Paleo, Low Carb High Natural Fat, Keto.   Intermittent fasting 17 hours, with a 7 hour eating window, 3 meals a day.

Truck loads of support groups compared to 2011. No excuses to not getting help with a transition if grain free living or cutting the sugar is needed for your health or your life. So many more connected, supportive communities these days.

And it if Paleo/Primal/Low Carb/Keto doesn't work, keep going to find what does. Or try again, with modifications.

3. Customizing  my food choices and my environment to keep obesity in remission

FTO obesity and Type 2 Diabetes genes, I have a very high genetic risk, but I'm in remission

I was at super high risk of both obesity and type 2 diabetes. I locked those two diseases up and put them away. Just because I have the geneotype for two very predominant, high rate diseases in the US, doesn't mean for me that I can't put them into remission for  long, long time.  Will it be life long? Time will tell.

But hey, genetic testing really helped me speed up my long term success.

Genetic testing, along with the Promethease SNPedia for the WIN.

In expensive now, relatively, knowing my full risk factors really help me pick and choose expensive screening, or when to screen less often.

4. Home glucose testing

Yeah, home testing is key to me knowing what foods are going to to get me diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic. I was a few months away at getting a diagnosis before I got wise and used my glucose meter to keep glucose spikes away. I still get higher glucose readings from time-to-time, but overall, I've removed the foods that keep my glucose high for hours on end.  Intermittent fasting helps with that, too.

5. Daily scale weigh-ins and recording at My Fitness Pal

My calorie intake along with my Low Carb/Paleo/Keto food choices are key. YES, for me both amount of food and the type of foods I choose - grain free, almost sugar free, dairy , free nut free,  and fruit free except for berries.

If I overeat on Paleo food, I get my fat pants back. My truth. Your milage may vary.

Also, my hungry and full signals do not work all the time the way they should. Rather than being a BAD PERSON with BAD HABITS, I have a crap "extra ghrelin gene" that still puts out extra hunger hormone. Tough, but not a barrier that keeps me overweight, obese, or morbidly obese.

Daily weighing and tracking at My Fitness Pal  help me to know what foods work for me, like a poor man's allergy test. Certain foods really spike up the scale. If I can repeat the spike 3-4 times, I usually know that food may be a food that I only have once and a while, like bacon. Maybe once a year or so now. Pork just isn't in my frequent foods.

Some people dislike the idea of daily weighing.  Hey now!  I'm the only person paying my health insurance and my medical bills. Glad I got the heck over people pleasing. It's the best adult thing I've done in a long while.

My health bills are staggering, and I'm well. If I can opt out of diseases and high medical bills using a simple tool, well, I owe it to my family finances to rock my weight data.

Here are 2 examples that are non-weight related.
 I wouldn't tape over a new teen  drivers gas gauge on her car and say, well just drive intuitively, you'll be able get gas when you FEEL like it. LOL!!!  Same thing with a teen and finances, don't look at your money inflow and out flow, you'll feel intuitively it when you need to earn money babysitting, like before you run out of gas.... LOL  All the nopes here. Tracking income and outflow for money is going to be a good habit for adulting.

 Weighing in and food tracking are inexpensive and personal finance tools. I understand that intuitive eating works for some. That's awesome, but it's not the right tool for me.

6. Modeling after other people who were and are successful and who use the same tools.

My bloggy friends and my MFP friends who rock weight maintenance. Thank you!!! I'll do a big shout out to you in a separate post. If I leave a comment on your blog, it's because I somehow found enough time and I can see the old me or the new me in you. Thank you.

Onward and staying away from what didn't work in the past.

1. Moderately eating all WW and low fat junk foods had me diabetic and sick and morbidly obese with high blood pressure and high hs-CRP. Oh, and the non-stop binge eating. Frozen diet dinners were the worst carby mess, along with most processed foods.

2-3  Eating low fat, grains, dairy, and canola oil really caused me a lot of joint pain and migraines. Sugar dependent and eating every 2-3 hours from 6am until 10 pm. That wasn't real hunger that was hormonal signals on WW 2 point bars.

4. Watching my glucose go higher and higher, and my HA1c go higher, too. Thinking that a low fat diet would fix it all and only testing glucose 1X per year.

5. Only weighing in 1X per 3 months or so, watching the scale go higher and higher. And not watching my total food intake, even while Paleo. I just didn't want to admit that I was going to have to find new habits and foods and amounts to make a permanent change.

6. I liked to model after the moderators and I kept myself stuck for decades. Me, I was in my own way for 40 freaking years. E-gads. Glad I got out of my own way.


Onward and here's to getting out of your own way. Never easy, always worth it. Thank you for all of your great comments over the 5 years.

GRAPHS, I've got them.
























8 comments:

  1. You are just such a solid model of maintenance! Thanks so much for sharing what works for you. I just constantly learn from you! Something that has helped me lately is having someone take pictures of me. Pictures don't lie! I can see what my body looks like when someone else takes the picture. I am working hard to drop dairy except for the occasional indulgence so I hope it gets me closer to my goals. I'm the same height as you but I'm medium boned. I'm at about 136-138 now. I'm shooting for 132-135 (maybe lower but I don't want my face to look too wrinkled and gaunt). Thanks for your continued posting and knowledge.

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    1. Thanks, Ali!!! It's fun to see your photos. You look happy and strong and well. That's it. That's what weight maintenance is all about. You've got it. You'll know on the dairy, if it's working or not. My poor kid almost called 911 when I reintroduced. The mucus drain was horrific and I started choking. I knew what it was and saved a trip to the ER. LOL

      Yes, bone size does matter. There's a cut off for me where one range is great, the other is okay over 119, and my hormonal system tries to gain weight again - hard to lose, then there's a weight where it's super easy to GAIN and forget about even maintain (125 or so).

      I've got some ideas about that... more blogging soon as the rain is coming back to So.Cal.

      My face looks wrinkled and my neck looks like chicken skin sometimes. But I'll take that over diabetes any day. I've got less loose skin on Keto/LCHF, so that's nice. Or it appears less.:)

      Thanks for all your great comments. I like my comment section BETTER than my blog posts many days. Like the AFTER party. LOL. Take care Ali and I know you'll find your happy place. Taking the time is worth it. We have lots of life to live, might as well live it well.

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  2. Well done, Karen. The pictures alone are amazing and the detailed report of action taken seals the deal. Well done.

    Deb

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    1. Thank you Deb! It's a multi discipline approach. Food types, food amounts, sleep, stress, monitoring health conditions, my Hashimotos disease. Toss in Genetics and diabetes risk.

      One nice thing is that it narrowed what I needed to do and that helped me solidify my habits. Fewer choices were good- and I find my food is delish. I'm so lucky. I can pick and choose from the many strategies and take only what I need, like Indiana Jones swinging through on a vine, just grab what you need and get the heck out of there.

      Onward and thank you for stopping by the blog.

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  3. So good to read this post and see your photo's.
    Well done ...

    All the best Jan

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    1. Thanks, Jan. I'm encouraged at the number of people trying and liking and getting better health with LCHF. I think in the next 5 years, the folks who will benefit will have the info they need. Giving my best to you and Eddie. Thanks for the comments. Karen P

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  4. Well done on five years! Looking great too.. also the new door colour and door mat :)

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    1. Lynda, thank you again for your kind comments. I would have been soooooo disappointed if someone didn't mention the door (painted by home owners) the door mat, from Costco. :) Karen P>

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