The World According to Jennyfur

Friday is weigh in day and I’m not expecting to have shed any pounds as of yet, henceforth why I am posting the weekly recap tonight.  I did pretty well at sticking to my 24 points per day, but did burn through all 35 of my bonus points, plus a few activity points. That said, I managed to accumulate 40.5 fitness points. I think I was correct in correlating the increase in appetite to the increase in activity levels.

I’ve been diligently tracking my activity and I am on par to walk about 100 miles this month, which is about equivalent of walking from Philadelphia to New York City.  I wish I had more time to do yoga, but I fit it in when I can.

All in all, I think I did fairly well on my points consumption considering we went out to eat more often than not.

September marks my one year mark on living as a pescetarian. I can’t say I’ve missed eating meat at all. Plus it makes living with a vegetarian much easier to deal with in meal planning and shopping.

I’m closing in on the one year mark of my journey into health, fitness and vegetarianism. I started Weight Watchers a week after New Years. Its been an interesting journey to say the least — one which I wish I had embarked on much much sooner.

The journey has not come without its challenges. Modifying my diet and cutting out all meats except for fish and seafood were the easy part. I’ve never once this year felt deprived of the foods I love and enjoy. I don’t feel like I am dieting to the point of not enjoying eating. All that said I’ve managed to make it through the hardest time of the year when it comes to dieting — the dreaded holidays.  My weight has been relatively stable fluctuating throughout the low 160′s.

The majority of my challenges are overcoming my physical limitations and recovering from the damage that being overweight caused to my physical being. I’ve had to spend a lot of time focusing on strengthening target areas. When I first started doing yoga I had to build up my upper body and arm strength because even the simplest of poses left me quavering upon collapse.  Those areas leveled out over time and then I had to work on building up my core muscles, which has been a work in progress. Since I carried a lot of my weight in my abdomen, it has been very hard tightening up the loose skin and rebuilding muscle mass. This also started to help improving my balance issues. I’ve always been somewhat flexible and that wasn’t ever an issue — it all comes down to strength and balance.

My biggest physical issue to date is in my hips — while they are flexible they lack strength, which contributes to balance issues among other things. Basically, the problem I am having is that the bones in my hip joints seem to be grinding together, which is terribly uncomfortable. It used to only bother me when I was working out specifically doing hip flexibility exercises, but it has gotten worse over the past month. I probably am going to make an appointment with an orthopaedist who specializes in sports medicine. I would never consider myself an athelete, but I want to make sure that doing yoga is not aggravating the problem more.

I realized recently that my inability to do yoga inversions (headstands, handstands and forearm balances) stems from these hip issues. I understand the mechanism of the poses and how to do them — its just getting my hips to work right and to do the right things. Hopefully, like the other physical issues I’ve had that this will resolve itself over time.

Aside from the hip issues, I feel great — I feel healthy — I feel younger and I’m in the best shape I’ve been in since highschool. I do have my regrets. I wish I hadn’t waited so long to address these issues. I wish I had the courage to change sooner than later. The moral of the story is that its never too late to start the journey.

Since my last update, I have survived my first month as a pescetarian and have officially hit the 40 pounds lost mark weighing in this morning at 160 pounds.

Its kind of interesting to note some of the physiological changes that occur when becoming a vegetarian. My husband told me that  I would notice some changes with my hair and nails since vegetarians often get more protein than they actually need and apparently unused protein causes hair and nails to thicken and/or grow faster. Its been awhile since I’ve had biology classes and whatnot, but I can definitely say that after a month my fingernails have never been so strong in my entire life. I normally kept them short because they were really thin and bendy and would snag and split no matter what I did with them.  Also, seeing as I dye my hair, which is an easy way to actually measure your hair growth, that my hair has been growing insanely fast this month. I dyed my hair one week and the following week I looked in the mirror and said to myself  “What the hell? I need to touch up my roots already? There’s no way I could have missed that much area???” I was hoping to hold off on getting my hair shaped up until next month, but had to make an appointment for today. What my hair lacks in volume it makes up for in weight, which makes it hard to deal with sometimes.

I often joke that I snack on vitamins and supplements like some people snack on candy during their work day.  I even have a small bowl I keep them in on my desk so I remember to take them. I revamped my vitamin regiment a little bit over the past couple months and I have to say I absolutely adore GNC’s new line of  wellBEing vitamins and supplements for women. I’m usually fairly ambivalent to marketing, branding, product packaging and other gimmicky things. But, I have to say, as a creative minded person their vitamins and supplements are so pretty. Its hard to get excited about sucking down a pile of yellow, white and beige pills on a daily basis… but with the wellBEing line, the pills are in bright colors with opalescent or shiny finishes, which makes them more visually appealing.  I haven’t tried out the entire line as of yet and doubt that I will, but as far as my daily regiment goes… I take the be-Whole multivitamin. I have had a hard time finding a multivitamin that I can tolerate, most make me feel sick or upset my stomach. I haven’t had any problems with this one regardless of when I take it or what I have eaten.  I also take the be-Restored Antioxidant Stress Formula (I think this is only available in stores and not on the website), which I like a lot despite the fact that it makes my pee kind of a neon goldenrod color. I take a few additional supplements to support my fitness endeavors. The only one I don’t like is the be-Energized, any type of  “energy” pill  like this tends to make me feel kind of cracked out. They are great on days where you have low energy and even then I only take one instead of the recommended two per day. I think I am just sensitive to something that is in these types of pills. The three supplements I really like are be-Flexible, be-Defined and be-Enhanced. be-Flexible is great if you have stiff joints. While I don’t have any major flexibility issues, I do, however have some hip joint issues and my right side is definitely less flexible than my left side. I’m hoping that I will start to see some improvements over time. I just started taking this supplement last week, so its hard to tell. be-Defined is a toning and sculpting supplement that supports lean muscle and be-Enhanced complements weight loss programs.  Since I’ve been focusing more on toning and sculpting my abs/core and other problem areas I welcome a little supplemental help in the interim.

I have to say that I have been missing my daily yoga ritual while focusing on my abs/core work. I still close out an hour long work out with some restorative and yin poses. I’ve become an avid fan of always doing a 5 minute shoulder stand on a daily basis. I’m starting to see more definition in my abdominal region, but the skin is still loose.  I am probably going to be working on that for quite some time. I picked up one of the Skinny Bitch workout DVD’s from Netflix this week. Aerobic workouts are weird. I find I lack coordination to do moves with multiple sequences where one leg is kicking one way, one arm is raised in one direction, you twist this way, and then punch the sky twice and then squat and then recite Ayn Ran’d Atlas Shrugged from memory… I like the work out all in all, its broken down into 20 minute segments focusing on different areas of the body. I’ll have to give it another whirl. Its so different from the yoga dvds I have and love.  Although, I do like the brunette, she reminds me a bit of Eliza Dushku. I really enjoyed the Skinny Bitch book. Its a little over the top, but it gets the point across and hey it helped forge my decision to become a pescetarian.

Since my blog posts get dumped into Facebook notes automatically I am adding a link to the original blog post: http://www.jennifervatza.com/2009/10/milestones/

Most people don’t consider or even know about the down sides to losing weight. Two big problems people tackle when losing more than just a few pounds are stretch marks and loose excess skin.

As I hover just above the 40 pounds lost mark, I am on a daily battle with stretch marks.  Most of mine are on my hips, upper/inner  thighs and chest. I have a couple on my stomach, which I find to be odd since I carried the bulk of my weight below my chest and above my hips. I’ve been trying out various combination’s of products to help with these pesky stretch marks. Its somewhat annoying that 90% of all stretch mark related creams are marketed towards prenatal and postnatal women. It can be embarrassing to purchase such items if you are not pregnant or even worse a man! I’ve learned to love my Belly Balm from Whole Foods with pride. I haven’t found one sure fire solution yet, but have tried varying combination’s of vitamin e oil, belly balm, cocoa butter, shea butter, and other non-specific stretch mark blends. I suspect its one of those things that will work out over time. I’ve had stretch marks before and they’ve always faded. If all else fails, they can be removed via laser surgery.

Weight loss can also cause issues with skin elasticity. While my abdomen has been spared from stretch marks, I suspect this is because I still have a lot of loose skin. Even as the muscle tone develops beneath the skin, you can still be plagued by loose bits of skin that hover over it.  The loose skin on my abdomen isn’t noticeable until I bend forward, the sides cave in and there is a loose glob of flesh below my belly button.  I guess it will take a lot of pilates and abs & core workouts to get it more manageable. There are also a wide array of skin firming skin care products available, which may not be 100% solution, but may help aid in the process.

I recently read an article on Second Helping about different types of surgery for loose skin post-drastic weight loss. I think plastic surgery always should be a last resort. I still wouldn’t consider any surgical procedures until a year or two out, that is if I could afford them, since my weight is still fluctuating.  I still hope to end up in the 145-155 range. I weighed in yesterday at 161, so I don’t have that far to go yet.  I want to be in the middle range of the average weight for my height and build. Its hard to believe that I am only 6 pounds away from my original “here’s to hoping” goal and 16 away from my “pie in the sky” goal.

Once again my weight is fluctuating. Fridays, weight has  me down to 162, with fluctuations up to 164 over the weekend. I’m getting close to the 40 pounds lost milestone.  One of the things that I have come to realize is that my metabolism has changed. This is why I am losing weight when I am on the Weight Watchers Maintenance Plan. I still haven’t found the balance of daily points and exercise. I don’t mind losing a few more pounds and what not, but I would like to eventually level out a bit. When I started on the maintenance plan. I’d lose many a pound a month, now I’m losing upwards of three a month.

I feel like I’ve been on a bit of a fitness slump. I’m probably being too hard on myself, seeing as its not like I haven’t been working out at all. I’ve just not been working out every single day. This is also not to say that I am wholly inactive either. I tend to ebb and flow through the cycles of the month. Most of the time, I stick to my daily points with small overages that come out of my flex points. At least one week a month, I want to eat everything in sight that isn’t nailed down, which is usually followed by a week of having a low appetite. My daily fitness follows suit, normally I work out to some extent every day, then I go through some doldrums and either decrease the duration of the work out or don’t work out at all. I guess in the grand scheme of things 20 minutes of exercise is better than nothing.

In better news, I had to buy a dress for my sister-in-laws wedding at the end of the month, much to my shock, I now fit into a Size 10 or Medium sized dress without effort. I can’t remember the last time I was a size 10. I almost always was a size 12 and after the weight gain a size 14. It is definitely a nice feeling knowing that I can now buy clothing pretty much anywhere and have it fit. I was pretty limited for awhile since most places carry very little about a size 12. Suffice it to say, I can’t wait to go jeans shopping this fall since my size 14s and 12s will no longer fit… in a good way.

I managed to drop two pounds this week. I had been hovering in around 167 for awhile and then was steady at 166 all week, then dropped to 165. I find it kind of funny since I am on the Weight Watcher’s maintenance plan that when I lose weight, I get these funny little messages saying things like: on the maintanence plan your weight should at best fluctuate two pounds in either direction of your target weight. If you are continuing to lose weight try using ALL of your daily points, your 35 flex points and activity points.  I actually balked at the idea of having to actually consume all those extra points during a week. I’ve never depleted the full 35 flex points, let alone delve into the 40+ activity points I get per week.

I’m actually quite happy losing  1-2 pounds a month even while on the maintenance plan. I’d like to maybe get down another 10 pounds, which would put me at the mid-range of the healthy weight range for my height (5’9″), which is 135-169. I’d like to be somewhere in the middle. In other news, my BMI (Body Mass Index) dropped from 25 to 24 since I lost an additional few pounds. I’m happy to have purchased and totally rocking out in two medium size t-shirts that fit nicely.

This week has been a little off as far as my exercise routine goes, mostly due to monthly girl problems… but I had the second part of the Abs & Core yoga workshop that I’ve been taking at Dhyana Yoga in West Philly.  I still have no idea how people do hot yoga or bikram. It was 85 degrees in the room and I sweat through every layer of clothing and then some. It has been a challenging class and a lot of fun.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about weight loss and exercise since embarking on the journey to health and wellness in January. It is now June, which takes me through a full six months of the journey. I’ve slowed down the weight loss (31 pounds to date) for the time being and am maintaining my current weight nicely. I still plan on losing another 10-15 pounds, but figured I’d give myself a break and work the fitness angle a little more intensely.

The first step in the chain of progress was joining Weight Watcher’s after seeing the success one of my closest friends had on the program I decided to give it a whirl. I highly recommend the online version of the Momentum Plan. It has worked well for me seeing as I lack the motivation and general interest in attending local public meetings and it also works well with my Web 2.0 geekery given the set of online tracking tools and their overall performance. I can easily look up various foods, recipes and figure out the points, chart my food intake, activity levels, weight loss & measurements. I wish I had done the measurements early on because I am curious to see how they have changed in the past six months.

As far as diet goes, I’ve learned to modify and balance my eating habits for the most part.

- While I love breakfast food, I’ve never been a big breakfast eater, which always led to snacking throughout the day. I usually have something from the grain family whether it be a fat free or low fat muffin, cereal bar, granola bar etc. Weight Watcher’s has delicious Blueberry and Double Chocolate Muffins. I really like the Special K Strawberry Cereal Bars. If you happen to live near a Genuardi’s, they carry a brand called Eating Right and they have awesome Cranberry Citrus Bars. Kashi also makes a yummy pumpkin pie granola bar. Odwalla makes some decent “superfood” bars, which are quite tasty and replete with omega fatty acids and are all natural.

- I had never been a big fan of diet soda and always loved my dark carbonated beverages like Dr. Pepper. I still limit my intake, because I don’t want to overdo it on aspartame. I wish more sodas would be made with Splenda or other natural sweeteners. For the most part, I drink Coke Zero (or Cherry Coke Zero). I like other diet sodas now Diet Sunkist, Diet Dr. Pepper and Diet Pepsi, however Diet Coke is just gross. I also drink about 2-4 cups of tea per day. I tend to prefer herbal blends, florals and fruity ones. Other than that I drink a lot of water. Thank the foods gods and goddesses for Crystal Light on the go packets. I was also happy to see that Ocean Spray makes some on the go packets as well. I really love the White-Cran-Peach. If you can find them the Mixed Berry Water Sensations are pretty good. The grape one is okay, but the lemon and orange ones are surprisingly gross.

- The next big food modification was bringing my lunch to work. I realized I had fooled myself into thinking I was eating relatively healthy getting fresh sandwiches, salads and whatnot from local eateries and the cafeteria at work. I love Italian Hoagies, but for all intents and purposes I may well have been scrafing down a McDonald’s Big Mac and French Fries. There really isn’t much difference when you breal down the caloric intake and fat content. That is setting aside processed foods versus unprocessed foods. Granted I have slipped a little bit away from the organic/natural foods in the process, but losing weight came first. Anyways, normally I pick up something I can easily reheat in the microwave, which tend to be frozen lunches from Smart Ones, Eating Right, Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice. I tend to balance out the lunch with random combination’s fresh fruit, yogurt, cottage cheese with pineapples, rice cakes, dried fruit, carrots, rice cakes, pretzel sticks and some sort of low fat dessert. Weight Watcher’s desserts are awesome. I love their cookies and cakes. Also, No Pudge brand makes an awesome fat free organic brownie mix. You just add fat free yogurt instead of eggs, oil and water.

- While on the subject of work. I have a desk drawer totally dedicated to healthy snacks. I highly recommend this because it prevents me from heading down to a vending machine and getting unhealthy stuff. I usually keep the kind of stuff I would crave that would also be filling. So I have an array of 100 calorie snack packs and candy, the aforementioned granola and cereal bars, raisins, and sometimes rice cakes.

- Vitamins are also helpful. I usually stick to a regiment during the week, sometimes I forget though. I find having a healthy dose of vitamins reduces the appetite and gives you energy. In general I take, a multivitamin, Vitamin D, Vitamin C (sometimes I up the dosage with Emergen-C if I am under the weather), Fish Oil, Flax Seed Oil and Alphalipoic Acid (its good for hair and nails). I only take Iron as needed, same with things like Ginseng, Mothers Wort and some dietary aids.

- I used to be really bad about making dinner and would almost always stop and pick something up along the way (or having Tim do so) thus falling into the same patten I did with lunch. I tend to be somewhat lazy when it comes to cooking after working 9-5 and commuting. I’ve learned to keep things on hand that can be combined and prepared quickly and easily. The George Foreman Grill is your friend. I prepare most of my meats on it unless for some reason they need to be baked another way. I find having various marinades and sauces on hand to be an easy solution and most (when used in correct proportions are not bad at all calorie/fat wise. Sometimes I cheat and make a frozen pizza or something from my lunch stache. I’m not a big fan of frozen food, but I have grown to love frozen french fries. Normal french fries are pretty unhealthy given the whole fried in oil scenario, but baked french fries are less than half the amount of points for a decent sized serving.

Stay Tuned for the Fitness & Exercise Installment….

My weight is still in flux this week in the low 170s. I can’t tell If I’ve plateaued or if its just being wonky because my fibroids are acting up. I’m thinking its the latter, though I suppose all the muscle conversion through exercise is probably contributing to it.

Anyways, everything else is still in check diet wise. I’m hanging in there. I dread lowering my points becase 23 is fairly low as it is. I’ve been managing ok, but dipping into my flex points more.  I’m wondering if I should switch over to the maintenance plan for awhile until my fibroids settle down. I just don’t want to gain the weight I lost back or get complacent. Though once I am back to normal, I think getting through the final 10-15 pounds should be a breeze.

I think my weight fluctuations were due in part to my fibroids acting up. Last weekend I settled in around 174. Today, settled in at 171, which is awesome. I weighed myself yesterday morning and was hanging around 176. I’ll keep an eye on it, but I think I am making progress.

I picked up some small at home fitness items including one of those tension cords doo-dads. It came with a 30 minutes dvd workout, which kicked my ass up and down and all around. I should’ve bought a light tension cord, but opted for the medium. Ay well, I’m building my upper body strength up gradually so its a handy addition to throw into the mix. I also got one of those tension exercisers for your hands and fingers too. I started with light tension. I also picked up a new sports bra and a proper yoga top to solve my “motorboating” problem lol.

My weight has been fluctuating around this week in similar patterns to my moodiness. I’ve either gained a pound or lost two. I’ll keep an eye on it over the weekend to see where I level out. I haven’t been as focused on the weight loss aspect so some of the fluctuation is probably coming from losing body mass and toning muscles.

In other news, I have been getting better with the yoga workouts and am able to do some poses more smoothly. The warrior and triangle poses don’t leave me teetering on falling over as badly as they once did. I can even improvise variations of the sun salutations without using a dvd. I can *almost* attempt a chaturanga without bellyflopping on the floor. I still have problems with one of the poses on the Jennifer Kries DVD, she calls it the boat pose, but its not what the boat pose looks like in pilates, it looks like a combination of locust and bow to be honest.