Medifast Day 2

Yesterday was rough. I ate my first meal and then I went to Whole Foods to do my shopping for the week. I did not prepare. I thought I would be back by 2:30pm when I needed to eat but I didn't get home until 4pm. At 2pm I was in the store and felt like I was going to pass out so my husband convinced me to eat some samples. I had one corn chip with guacamole and he bought me some electrolyte water. I also had a diarrhea attack. I'm so glad he drove me so I didn't have to drive home. It is so difficult shopping for things I don't normally buy. But we got it done. I had to go to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy a kitchen scale because they didn't sell the meat in the exact portions I needed. I also had to go to Smith's for a couple of dressings that they didn't carry at Whole Foods.

This is a picture of yesterday's meal. It was delicious. I actually had a hard time eating everything.

Me today. I will be so glad when I don't look pregnant anymore.

Weight 187.2 lbs
Glucose 132

Medifast Day 1

So, my health has actually gotten worse instead of better. :( So sad. August has been a rough month health wise. I was at my doctor 2 weeks ago and she said that my diabetes was bad and that I needed to get my sugar down. She didn't want to give me more medication because I'm already taking so much. She said to eat absolutely no sugar. Do you know how hard that is? Believe me I've been trying since 2008. She also told me to eat Oatmeal, Apples, Pears and Beans. I can do everything except the pears. They are gross. I feel like I am eating sand when I eat a pear. I don't like the texture. But I said I would do what she said. A few days later I went to the eye doctor which should not be a big deal, right?! It ended up freaking me out!!! First I got progressive lenses so I can focus on different distances. He told me there is a freckle inside my eye we have to watch to make sure it doesn't turn into cancer. But the scary part was he found that I have diabetic retinopathy!!! That is what makes diabetics go blind. I am only 44 years old! He explained the sugar in my blood is so high that it is leaking from the blood vessels in my eyes. The good news is that it is not near my optic nerves. It is in the outer parts of my eye and he says it may be reversible.

I had lots of people at work giving me advice. One said that I should only eat protein, like meat and cheese. Since I have been trying to go vegan ever since I first saw Forks over Knives I thought that would be a pretty extreme shift. Another person I was introduced to by my manager had been doing Medifast. He got off all of his medications in 2 weeks and lost 45 pounds in 3 1/2 months. I was reluctant because the food did not look healthy or tasty and it is very expensive. But given all the bad news I had and that I hadn't been successful with Weight Watchers, PureTrim, Juice Fasts or a Vegan lifestyle I decided that this is my next effort.

Today is day 1.

This picture brings up some other issues. I have been in this house for over a year and my mirror is right where I keep all of my unpacked boxes. Maybe during this journey I will get my house in order.

Today is one of my best days since I became diabetic. I weigh 189.4 lbs. 38.7% body fat and My glucose is only 144.

Tummy 42.5"

Neck 16"

Chest 41"

R Arm 16"

L Arm 15"

Rib Cage 38.5"

Waist 38"

Hips 41"

R Thigh 24"

L Thigh 24"

Energy Profiling? Type 1? What is all this crazy talk????!!!!

I quit my job on July 1st and life has been a whirlwind ever since! Part of that is because my daughter called me one day and told me that she had been learning about energy types and thought I was a type 2.  (see www.myenergyprofile.com ) I said ok. I was in the process of moving to Utah so I told her I would learn more about it after I arrived. Several weeks later, before I left to catch a plane to visit my son she gave me a copy of Dressing Your Truth and told me to read it on the plane. I did. (see www.dressingyourtruth.com ) By the time  I returned I was sure I was a type 3. She showed me a video on you tube that explained that many type 1s with a secondary 4 and vice versa confuse themselves with type 3. I was thoroughly confused. I would tell myself I was a 1/4 but I didn't like it. My facial profiling was definitely much more type 1 than 3. I didn't see any 3 in my face. I sort of accepted it until we went to a club night. By the end of club night I was sure I was a type 2. Then in casual conversation with both Carol and Ann they said, "So, you're a type 1." (They assumed that I had already come to that conclusion myself. Carol told us not to ask what our type was. We need to figure it out ourselves.) I left very conflicted thinking that they know what they are talking about and that they were wrong at the same time. I decided to embrace it or at least try to. I get why it is a 30 day challenge it is a process. Here is a picture of me, Carol and my daughter at club night:

 On September 2nd I went to get my hair done. It was such an emotional experience. Here is my before picture:

Here is my after picture:

I don't know if you can tell in my face but I was not happy. I hated the hair color. I had her go much darker before I went home. I have to say that everyone at the salon and the store is so nice. Melissa stayed there to get my hair right until 7:30pm. They close at 6. She told me how since type 1s want everyone to be happy we sometimes have a hard time knowing what we want. 

This is me the next day trying to do it on my own:

I later realized that this shirt was type 3. Grrr. It just really weighed me down. By the end of the day I couldn't wait to take it off. But I like this hair color. I think I need my hair cut again to make my bangs shorter and to get more layers. I also wish I hadn't gone so short. But that is the way I learn. I have to see it on my head before I know if it will work or not.

It's been over a year since my last post. A lot has changed. Not healthwise though. I'm still struggling with most of my health problems. Yesterday I went to a seminar about eating vegan and I have decided to try that again. I first tried this a couple of years ago. I was recovering from surgery and had watched Forks over Knives for the first time. It was great while I was home on short term disability but as soon as I returned to work and school it was too much. I'm ready to try again.
My husband and I have moved to Utah. That means I am no longer attending ASU. I did successfully complete one year though. I am so proud of myself. My biology is done. I am now attending UVU and looking for work in the medical field.

Becoming a Doctor

Ok. So I want to be a doctor when I grow up. I am attending ASU as a Spanish Linguistics major and I am taking my pre med classes. I plan to graduate in May 2018 and then to attend the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara School of Medicine. I'm super excited. I will do my residency in the US and then work in a low income community so the government will pay off my student loans. I plan to specialize in internal medicine and use my background in customer service to be a first class doctor that helps her patients to cure themselves of all the nasty diseases that are becoming an epidemic in our society. It is going to be tough because I am working full time and because I don't know how I will pay for it. I no longer qualify for student loans or grants because I reached my lifetime maximum by taking 20 years to get my associate degree and getting PLUS loans to help my kids go to Southern Virginia University. Both of those things were important so I don't regret them it just makes it more difficult now. I won't let that get me down.

Day One

We had our first shake Friday night before dinner. I used coconut milk, fresh strawberries and oat bran. It was way too thick.

Saturday was our first real day on the plan. I still had a migraine and I was freaked out about grocery shopping so I called my mom and asked her to go with me. Thankfully she agreed. I told her I'd be over after I ate and got ready. She needed to do the same.

For our breakfast shake I just used milk. The good news is that the shake doesn't taste bad. I was worried about that. I have had lots of shake powders in the past that taste so bad there is no way I can stay on the plan. Then I had my 2 slices of toast. I don't like to cook so I decided to skip the whatever I want part.

Mom & I went to Walgreens because I needed to get vitamins. I thought the supplement replaced the vitamins but it doesn't. The doctor recommended taking a multivitamin and CoQ10. My mom is a distributor for Awareness Life products. She said I should just take their multivitamin. I agreed. Her site is http://www.excellenthealthpast100.awarenesslife.com/ They are about the same price as the Alive vitamins. Then we went to Whole Foods. I was so glad my mom was with me. I was also so glad that I had tried Forks over Knives and the whole vegan thing first. Otherwise this would just have been too much. I walked in and looked at the vegetables and panicked. I said lets just go where my mind is going. We are going to do a lot of walking. I saw the cereal aisle. My husband loves the Nature's Path Organic Flax Plus Multigrain Flakes. It's good. What I love about it is that it doesn't settle in shipping. When you open the box it is filled to the top with cereal so I feel like I'm getting my money's worth. Then we went to look for Chia seeds. They are so expensive! The best deal I found there was 8 ounces for $7. That is nuts! I'm going to have to shop around. 1 by 1 we found almost everything on my list. There are some things I just can't buy organic. Like refried beans. $3 at whole foods vs. 10 for $10 for Rosarita brand at Fry's. I won't buy my produce at a regular grocery store though. There is just too big a difference in quality. We were almost done and I said that I needed mint. My mom asked, "What kind?" I looked at her and said, "That is just mean! There should only be one kind of mint, mom!" She laughed at me and went to look for it. She told me, "Fortunately Whole Foods agrees with you and they only have one kind of fresh mint." That is what I bought.

Later that day I finished my shopping at Fry's, Wal-Mart, Food City and Carniceria Sonora.

For lunch we had a shake with Simply orange/tangerine juice, fiber powder, frozen strawberries, banana and chia. 2 slices of whole grain bread. For our salad I used the one recipe I remembered from the class. I took a slice of tomato and put a slice of goat cheese on top and some mint leaves on top of that and some sea salt. Tasty. 2 of those was enough for me.

Then we took my son, Alex, to the movies for his birthday. We saw Grown Ups 2. It was funny.

For dinner we had the same shake as lunch, 1 slice of bread, a small salad made of spinach, mushroom and artichoke hearts topped with a dressing made of olive oil, lemon juice and apple cider vinegar. A cup of sweet potato soup. Then we had 2 tamales with crema and Tostitos salsa. I could only eat one. I gave the other one to Alex. Then we had a single scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Ok. I was stuffed but it was tasty.

My migraine just kept getting worse so around 10:30 pm I cheated. I had a bowl of 2 scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream and a slice of cinnamon bread. I felt guilty but satisfied.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Oh! That hair! I have got to figure out a hair style that looks good on me. Bah! This is May 20, 2013. The day after my youngest daughter's wedding.
Let's talk about Friday, July 12, 2013.
This is what the plan was.....
Wake up at 5am. Get ready and go to the doctor with my husband for a class to learn how to cure diabetes. Arrive at 7:30am. The class was to start at 8am and last for 5 hours. We would then go to lunch and my husband would take me to work. I knew I would probably be late but I had planned for that. I would work until 10pm. I had a couple of meetings scheduled at work that day as well. I would go home, relax and go to sleep.
What really happened....
I hardly slept. When my alarm went off at 5 I felt like I had just gotten into a deep sleep. It took me 45 minutes to peel myself out of the bed. It was my son's 22nd birthday. He is the only one left at home and not married. So, after I got ready my husband and I went to his door and sang Las Mañanitas to him. We did leave on time. We got there and there were so many people. It was a little overwhelming. I weighed in at 200 pounds! We had to sign non disclosure statements. I thought..."What about my blog?!" 5 hours is a long time to sit in a chair and listen. I was worried about understanding everything because it was in Spanish but that wasn't the problem. It was that there was so much information. He talked about why diabetes is so bad. Something that surprised me was that Mexico has passed the US as the fattest country in this hemisphere. Most people in Mexico die of diabetes because they don't get medical care. That was upsetting.
Then he talked about all of the good foods we should eat. Most of them I had never heard of! And that wasn't because it was in Spanish. There were pictures too. That's where I started to freak out. How am I supposed to eat food I've never heard of and who is supposed to teach me how to prepare it?
Then he really got into the plan. He says it's not a diet and that we can eat whatever we want but there is a special way to do it.
First I have to check my blood when I first wake up.
Breakfast -
I have a shake with a scoop of fiber powder and a tablespoon of chia seeds. I like to make mine with tangerine juice, 2 frozen strawberries and 1/2 banana.
10 minutes later I have 1-2 slices of whole grain bread or cereal.
I take my morning medications and my supplement with my bread.
Then I can eat whatever I want.
30 minutes after my last bite I walk for 10 minutes.
2 hours after my last bite I check my blood again.
Lunch -
I have the same shake.
10 minutes later I have 1-2 slices of whole grain bread and my supplement.
I also have a small salad. It can be fruits or vegetables, raw or cooked.
Then I can eat whatever I want.
30 minutes after my last bite I walk for 10 minutes.
2 hours after my last bite I check my blood again.
Dinner -
I have the same shake.
10 minutes later I have 1-2 slices of whole grain bread, my supplement and my evening medications.
I also have a small salad. It can be fruits or vegetables, raw or cooked.
I also have a cup of vegetable soup with no meat or noodles.
Then I can eat whatever I want.
30 minutes after my last bite I walk for 10 minutes.
2 hours after my last bite I check my blood again.

No more food after that and no food between meals. It's the late night snacking that gets me. My husband is doing it too because he found out on Wednesday that he is prediabetic. He doesn't want to be like me so he is following the plan. The difference is that he doesn't have to take the supplement or all the medication. I can only eat until I'm full not stuffed.

So, after the class we met with him individually. That's when I freaked out. I wanted to know who was going to teach me how to cook? He told me to go to the local health food store. I didn't think that was very helpful. He told me to focus on the shake and come back in a week to talk some more. I didn't like that answer either. I was just grumpy. I was hungry, tired and overwhelmed. My husband and I left. We got gas for the car and went to lunch. We were so hungry we went to the closest restaurant to the gas station and I had a big cheeseburger and fries and fresh squeezed lemonade. We went to the bread store the doctor recommended and bought some bread. We went to an oriental market the doctor recommended and walked for 10 minutes and left. That store was so unfamiliar we didn't know what to do there. By then I had a full blown migraine. I'm no longer allowed to use caffeine so I had no idea what to do. We stopped for stamps because we needed to mail the car payment. My husband was driving me to work and I decided I just couldn't do it. I came home and went to bed.