Midnight Walk Series: Week 4

I went online the other day and saw on Yahoo's homepage that Snooki, the orange colored cast member of tv's reality series Jersey Shore, has "slimmed down" after losing 10lbs. I saw that and wanted to spit! (Quite unladylike, I know) She's "slimmed down" after losing 10lbs and I'm almost 11lbs down and I'm still very much a fat cow! Of course, I only have myself to blame for ballooning to twice my size. I'd put the complete blame on prednisone but I've been down that road ("Blame It On the Pr-eh-eh-eh-eh-ednisone!") and at some point I have to take responsibility and be accountable for the type and amount of food I've shoved into my mouth over the years.

So, how did I do this week?

Well, my sister and I didn't make it out for a Midnight Walk even once this week! Instead, I tried to replace the walks with vigorous preparations for the 3 day District Convention happening at the end of the week. So on Monday I washed and dried all of mom and I's laundry, going up and down two short flights of stairs to get to the laundry room in  my sisters apartment building.

Tuesday, I took my niece to the mall, just the two of us, for the first time ever, and we had a ball! At 5 years old, she loves to shop and has a strong design sense and isn't shy to express her opinions whatever they are!

    "Aunt LaLa, how about these?" my niece asked as she handed me a pair of white strappy sandals.
    "I don't have any white sandals and I like the flower." She said in her cutest Minnie Mouse voice.
    "MiMi, summer is just about over." I replied.
    "That's okay. I'll wear them and they're easy to get on. See?" And she went about trying them on.
    "MiMi, it'll be too cold to wear those. I really think you should look for a pair of closed toe shoes."
    "Closed toe? I would wear socks with these and I wouldn't be cold and I wouldn't wear them in the snow." She explained as she struggled to get the sandals onto her feet.
     "Socks with sandals is a huge fashion faux pas, MiMi!" I exclaimed. "Don't be like your momma. Have better fashion taste than that." I said as I laughed at my own joke.
     "Faux pas?" My niece asked squinting up at me.
     Chuckling, I told her, "Ask your mom when we get home. Now go look for some shoes that aren't sandals."

So we walked through the mall and went from store to store and I found that I had worked up quite a sweat. I was convinced that this bit of exercise would be enough to replace a Midnight Walk. Was I right? I don't know.

Another thing I introduced into my exercise regime this week was playing tennis on Wii! I bought myself a Wii a few years ago and had gotten so good that my score in the game became high enough for me to be considered a Pro! WooHoo! Venus and Serena Williams have absolutely nothing to worry about but I was getting good and proud of it! Pain and fatigue prevented me from playing for awhile, so when I went back to it this week I was more than excited to get my Pro game on! As it stands at this moment, I am no longer a Pro anymore (bummer) but the exercise burned some calories and I felt it worked on reducing the small walruses I have for upper arms and that it also would be something that could replace my Midnight Walks. Was I right? I hoped so.

The weekend came and it was time for the District Convention, a yearly Bible convention where a specific biblical theme is discussed. Here in Alaska, it's held at the Sullivan Sports Arena and I made every single day only missing the morning session on Saturday! The lunch break is a time not only for eating but for chatting and catching up with friends you haven't seen in a long time. So I took a walk around the stadium with my niece and nephew, visiting with different ones, and then went up and down the stairs to talk to others I hadn't seen in a long time. I felt the burn in my thighs, ya'll! I felt the burn! I was convinced that this increase in activity and done in 1.5 inch heels would definitely do the job of a Midnight Walk! Did it? Maybe so.

This week my meals consisted of salads, one pb&j, water, unsalted peanuts, egg & cheese on one slice of toast and tea. On the weekend, my sister made a macaroni & cheese casserole with spinach and Kielbasa sausage and that was my dinner (in larger portions than I probably should have) for two nights straight and boy was it GOOD!! And I felt this diet would contribute to some weight loss especially in addition to the sweat equity I'd collected by walking the mall, playing Wii and walking the Sullivan Arena for three days. Was I right? Fo Sho!

Well, this morning, when I stepped on the scale after my usual preparations (emptying my bladder and removing bulky clothing) to make sure that I didn't add any extra ounces to the number that would appear on the scale, I found that...

 I had GAINED 2 ounces!!!!!

WHAT!?!? Blasted macaroni and cheese casserole!! That's what I've chosen to blame it on. I mean, it's either that or I'm gaining muscle, right? I don't know. So, in 4 weeks, I've lost a total of 10.4 lbs! Which is still good and ground breaking for me - the queen of procrastination and self-motivationlessness.

It seems that Midnight Walks, or walks at anytime of the day, are apparently the way to go for me! It seems that the weeks I do go for a walk, I drop weight. So, while I still plan to find different ways to get exercise I am realizing that I have to get my Midnight Walks in!

After this post, I will update you on the progress of project "Get That Fat Off Your Behind" with the "Midnight Walk Series" on a monthly basis instead of weekly. Until then, I'll follow Dory's sage advice from the cartoon movie "Finding Nemo" and...

 "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming."

~Today is a Gift - Live Thankfully~

Midnight Walk Series: Week 3

I made it to Week 3? Wow! This the longest I've ever gone in an attempt to lose weight. Up until now, 2 weeks was the longest I'd lasted and that was doing the Atkins Diet with my ex-husband years ago.
I lost 20lbs eating all the eggs, cheese and meat that I could swallow and it was the easiest diet I'd ever tried!

The stupidest diet I ever tried was another one I did with my ex called the Tuna Diet. You ever hear of that one? You eat a whole bunch of tuna, and I don't remember what else, in an effort to lose 10lbs in something crazy like 3 days! By the second day, Travis caught me in the kitchen trying to stuff a peanut butter and jelly sandwich down my gullet while he had been in the shower. I've never been caught so red-handed (or should I say sticky handed) in my entire life! So, for me to complete THREE weeks of a change in diet and still feel motivated to keep going is pleasantly uncharacteristic of me!

This week was much better than last week, by far! I went for a walk with my niece and nephew up the block, encompassing a nice hill, and then back again. I had to bride them however, with a trip to the park in order to get them to come with me.

     "Hey guys, wanna go to the park with Aunt LaLa?" I asked them, weirdly referring to myself in the third person.
     "YEAH!" was their excited reply.
     "Can we ride our bikes?" They asked.
     "Sure!" I replied. "But you have to take a walk with me up the street first."
They looked at me with puzzled expressions and then said, "A walk?"
     "Yes, a walk! It'll be fun!" I tried to sound excited.
My nephew slumped over dramatically and sighed, "I hate walks."
     "Look," I said "You take a walk with me and then we'll go to the park."
I spent a few minutes explaining to them the concept of you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours and then they finally relented.

The walk was fun. My niece insisted on holding my hand, which gave me a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling and the both of them chatted like magpies, saying completely different things, at the exact same time, expecting me to keep up and even answer their questions! I did the best I could to answer the correct childs' question and not get too confused as we marched up the hill bypassing puddles and bugs and enjoying ourselves.

The next night, my sister and I went for one of our Midnight Walks up the street and back and took 30 minutes to do it. Usually, we took no more than 10-12 minutes at the most to complete our walks in an effort to not over do things and hurt ourselves. So, 30 minutes was like an eternity! What did we talk about for all that time?

Well, there wasn't much talking really. More like singing and dancing. Yes, you read that right. We looked like fools out there Midnight Walking to Rhianna, Kanye West, Drake, Lil Wayne, Keisha Cole and whomever else was on my sisters iPod. When she turned it on as we stepped out the front door, I thought she was nuts!
     "Jemilah, that's loud." I said in a hushed tone as we were descending the stairs in her apartment complex.
     "No it's not." She retorted and then continued singing and bobbing her head to the music.
As we got to the street, I looked around hoping no one could see her acting like she was stuck in the 80's when "hip cats" (I might be confusing my genres here) would walk the street with a huge boom box on their shoulder blasting music that only they thought was cool. Granted, she didn't have a boom box attached to her shoulder but she may as well have had!

A short while later, my embarrassment died down especially after a song I recognized came on. Then, there was no stopping me from dancing and singing to it as we walked up the street. I was walking and doing all of the dance moves I could think of - past and present. It was my sisters turn to be embarrassed by ME! So, I indulged in a bit of the Running Man, the Sprinkler, the Motorcycle (my invention) and the Wop! I hadn't had so much fun on a Midnight Walk til that evening!

The rest of the week went well, I found different ways to be active: cleaning, doing laundry, even fidgeting on purpose. I did all that I could in an effort to keep moving in some way; burning as many calories as my body would allow. I believe the Lupus was playing nice and allowing me more flexibility to do all that I was doing without knocking me completely on my back. I had a couple days where I had to take it easy. It's the nature of the beast. But I had more active days than I did non-active ones and this helped contribute to my weight loss goals.
At the weigh-in this morning, after my usual ritual of making sure I didn't add any extra ounces to the scale, I stepped on and...

Drum roll please!

I am down 4.6lbs! For a grand total of 10.8 lbs in 3 weeks!

(And the crowd goes wild!)



Now, since I'm a woulda, coulda, shoulda type of person, I couldn't help but to think that I could have lost more were it not for the lack of weight loss the week before. Stupid week. But really, the progress I've made has been a good one and I'm proud of what I've done! Victoria Secret model, here I come!! Ok, maybe not, but a reduction in the hump on my back and a decrease in the capacity my chipmunk cheeks have for storing food, is more of a reward than anything else I can think of!

Next up is to work on the small walruses I have for arms! LoL

~Today is a Gift - Live Thankfully~

Midnight Walk Series: Week 2

You know, I'm starting to think that I should rename the "Midnight Walk Series" to "This Midnight Walk Thing Isn't Going to Work Series."

My sister and I didn't go Midnight Walking even once last week!

Between her fatigue and my joint pain, we were two halves of a train wreck; and I couldn't begin to tell you who was which half! I was determined though to stick to eating small, low calorie, low carb meals throughout the day and lose weight by eating less calories than I was burning. Good plan, right?

Well, at the same time, I was tapering down on the Prednisone and mid-week my pain was worse. So instead of riding it out, I went back up a few milligrams of the steroid thinking I had come down on it too fast. And do you know what returned? The gnawing hunger pains that come after I should've finished eating for the day somewhere around 2AM!

A peanut butter and jelly sandwich quieted the pains on two different nights and I really hoped that by scarfing them down I hadn't caused too much damage on my journey to "Get That Fat Off Your Behind."

Annoyed that the week was slipping away, and I hadn't done anything in the way of exercise, I became the food police and mercilessly harped on my sister about almost everything she put in her mouth.

     "THREE pop tarts, Jemilah?" I said in the most nagging tone I could muster.
     "Yes Falanya, three." She replied visibly annoyed.
     "Do you know how much sugar and carbs are in those?" I continued to nag.
     "Nick, do you hear something?" She said to my brother-in-law, ignoring me.
     "What's the serving size for those?" I began again.
     "Why do you even bring them in the house?" I continued.
     "You know this undermines everything you've done so far, don't you?"

I just couldn't stop myself from talking! I don't know how she didn't swing around and pop me one but she displayed great self-control, ignored me, and kept right on eating the pop tarts in front of her.

She doesn't call me "Naggatha" for nothing and I lived up to that name this past week! I was only looking out for her well-being is what I told myself, but I was annoyed that the week wasn't going how I wanted it to go. I planned to lose at least 5lbs but it wasn't looking as if that was going to be a reality. So I nagged at her to make me feel better about not being able to exercise. Now that's sisterly love for ya!

So what happened at the weigh-in this morning?

Well after I emptied my bladder so as not to add any extra ounces to the scale, I stepped on and...

I hadn't lost a pound!! In fact, I'd gained an ounce!!

     "Daggnabbit!" I exclaimed.
     "Watch your mouth." Mom said.
Grumbles uttered under my breath was my reply. Jemilah alighted the scale next and she hadn't lost anything either. What a bummer for both of us! The one eensy weensy silver lining was that we hadn't gained much of anything.

Although I'm disappointed, I'm still motivated more than ever to do better next week! It may mean that I'll take a few walks by myself in the mid-afternoon instead of waiting for my sister to be awake enough to go with me, but I have to do what I have to do when my body gives me the green light to do it! Right? Oh and not eating PB&J's at 2AM would be helpful too.

So, with my shoulders pushed back, my chest puffed out, and my belly button pulled into my spine, I quote from one of my favorite movies of all time, Galaxy Quest, and say:

"By Grabthar's hammer...by the Sons of Warvan...I shall be avenged! Never give up! Never surrender!"

LoL!

~Today is a Gift - Live Thankfully~

Blame It On the Pr-eh-eh-eh-eh-ednisone!

I don't know if you're familiar with Jamie Fox's song, "Blame it on the Alcohol" but it's the refrain to that song from which I take the title of this blog post. Now, I do not condone over-indulgence in alcohol, but in my strange sense of humor, this title popped into my head one day and it made me laugh - a valuable commodity these days.

So, just what am I blaming on Prednisone? Well...so many things! But I will only mention a few and to start, this:

See it? See THEM? Don't look at me like that! You know exactly what I'm talking about!

My newly formed chipmunk cheeks and the Hunchback of Notre Dame's hump I've got going on. Where did they come from? Those lovely additions would be the result of my being on Prednisone, a steroid, for 3 years.

Here's briefly how that came about:

I was sitting on the examination table in front of my rheumatologist after a painful routine examination. She would press on all of my tender joints, and other painful points, to the point where I wanted to kick that woman! However, my Christian principles always prevented me from indulging in that potentially satisfying reaction.

She was about to write me a prescription for a biologic to go along with the Methotrexate I was already taking, in an effort to reduce the level of inflammation in my body, when I informed her that this would be my last visit.

     "Why," she asked.

     "I won't have insurance after this visit." I replied.

Confused, she asked why and I told her how my husband had quit his job and was moving to another state without me. In disbelief, she kept repeating the same question a few times,

     "He left?"

     "Yes", I replied.

Shaking her head, she repeated,

     "He left?"

     "Yes," I replied again. "He left."

When she asked that very same question yet again, I finally caught on that this was apparently a rhetorical question. I can be slow sometimes.

So she crumpled up the sheet on the prescription pad that she was writing on and started writing a new prescription.
     "I didn't want to start you on this just yet. You're young to be getting started on steroids but it's effective and cheap."

And my journey with Steroids began!

Well, sort of, but not really. She actually prescribed Prednisone for me the year before, on a trial basis, to see how I would respond to it, and boy did I respond! I felt so much better after the first few doses that I called up my boss/friend and told her I was coming back to work! My legs no longer felt as if I were dragging extremely obese children from each limb and I could walk with my head held high on shoulders pushed back - a stance I hadn't been able to attain in months! I loved Prednisone!

After 2 weeks, the trial was over and my rheumatologist had the information that she needed. My body responded positively to steroids. Instead of prescribing me more, she increased the dosages of my anti-inflammatory medications.

Blast! I wanted Prednisone! Little did I know what I was asking for.

Prednisones side effects are nothing to sneeze at! If you take a glance at the long list of things that it can do to you body, you'd no doubt wonder why it's prescribed even at all! As one of my mother's rheumatologists told her many years ago, "There's nothing else out there like it."

You see, Prednisone squashes your immune system in such a way that when my Lupus is flaring, to simply take 2.5 milligrams more reduces swelling and gives me blessed pain relief. At the same time, if I remain at too high of a level for too long I increase my chances of something bad happening.

So far, I have exhibited the following things that I blame on the Pr-eh-eh-eh-eh-ednisone:

Please Note: I've highlighted a few of my favorites to prevent you from reading on into eternity.

1. Heightend Aggression. I don't back down easily in a discussion, heated debate or argument anymore. It's like my cut-off switch has been disabled and the fail-safe mechanism that would signal to me that it's time to shut up, is no longer operational. I will argue a point, no matter how small, until I feel in my mind that everyone in the room understands where I am coming from and why. This creates some pretty "interesting" discussions between my mother and I, since she is usually the only other person in the room.

     "No, Falanya, I did NOT say that."
     "Yes, you DID!" is my usual excited reply.
     "I'm not crazy mom! You said Barney was grape colored!"
     "I did not and I will not continue this conversation with you." Is her usual reply.
     "He's purple, mom. PURPLE!!" I almost scream.
But not too loud, because although I might be under the influence of steroids, I'm no dummy! That woman, while laid up, sick in her bed, will still manage to slap the fluffiness right out of my chipmunk cheeks with lightening speed.

2. Gnawing Hunger. Have you ever felt your stomach writhe and cramp in pain as a result of hunger? Now, let me ask you, have you ever felt this gnawing sensation in your gut with the presence of food? Let's say you have just eaten a full course meal with an appetizer and full dessert included. How do you usually feel? I'm willing to wager that you can barely breathe let alone still be hungry! Enter Prednisone. Not only are you still hungry, but you are ravenously hungry and like a caveman you scavenge through the refrigerator for a small wildebeast to devour! I may exaggerate a little, but I lie to you not!

3. Weird Fat Placement. This side effect goes hand in hand with the gnawing hunger. Eat like an insatiable animal, sleep hours on end like you're the King of the forest, and you will gain a fat pocket or two and in some interesting places. My cheeks have puffed up a little but I don't have the distinctive moon face that so many steroid users exhibit (unless I am in some serious denial here) but I do exhibit the Hunchback of Notre Dame's hump at the base of my neck and across my shoulders. Mom has had this hump for years and I used to love teasing her about it. So the moral of the story little boys and girls is that if you laugh at someone else's deformity, the same deformity will be bestowed upon you.

This is as far as I will go for now, but as you can see, Prednisone is both a blessing and a curse as far as I am concerned. I can most definitely attest to the fact that it has helped me to be much more active than I once was but I can't help but to think, at what cost?

For now though, as new and weird side effects continue to pop up, causing me to become more of a freak of nature, I won't blame it on the Goose, blame it on the Vodka, blame it on the Henney or blame it on the 'Tron. I will look at my pill case and blame it on the Prednisone.

~Today is a Gift - Live Thankfully~

The Midnight Walk Series: Week 1

So, in response to mom telling me and my sister to "Get that fat off your behind" we started taking midnight walks around the neighborhood in an effort to ease the pain of Lupus and Fibromyalgia by losing weight.

"Why midnight, you numskulls," you ask?

Well, for a few reasons:

1. We found that we both tended to have more pain relief at that time of the day.

2. We could dress like anything and not scare the wildlife.

~Actually, let me clarify, we'd prefer to scare the wildlife because it can get pretty wild up here with the moose and the bears roaming the streets at any given moment.~

3. We figured we'd sleep even better after the physical exertion.

And, 4. We are numskulls!



Midnight Walk #2

 Our first night, we walked for 10 minutes and after returning breathless, we were amazed that we weren't sloppy puddles on the floor! We felt energized and after showers, we went to bed.

I was tired enough that I didn't have to take my usual Tylenol PM before bed and I actually slept the entire night without waking up!

What!? Could mom be right? A little excercise would help reduce my Lupus and Fibro symptoms? I was starting to think so!

So, in additon  to walking, we changed our eating patterns by eating small meals more often and drinking at least the daily recommended dose of water. Our initial findings were that we felt more rested, we could think more clearly and our pain wasn't as bad. We still took naps during the day but we got more accomplished, and didn't end up sleeping the day completely away!

It should also be noted that I kept taking my usual meds except for the Tylenol PM and Jemilah continued to take Advil twice daily.

As the week progressed, we found other ways to get exercise. Now, don't laugh! It has become quite a challenge to complete common household chores because of the pain and fatigue that come standard with both Lupus and Fibro.

So, when I say I completed mom and I's laundry in a matter of hours instead of weeks and considered that my exercise for the day, I'm not exaggerating! It even involved traipsing up and down a couple of small flights of stairs!

Another night, instead of our Midnight Walk, we went power grocery shopping. Weird concept, huh?

Well, when the usual trip to the grocery store involves using "the chair," that the store provides its less than capable customers, it's equivalent to an Olympic feat to go up and down EVERY isle getting our groceries without it! But we did it! Two carts full, loaded onto the belt, put back into the cart, loaded into the car, dragged into the house and thrown into the refrigerator! I burned some serious calories that night!

As a result of all this activity, our bodies screamed in pain! I was down for the count with painful spasms and sharp-shooting pain imminating from my weight bearing joints and I was a little disappointed. My sister experienced a lot of pain as well, and we were both back to sleeping the days away and hobbling around the apartment like two old biddies. (No offense to old biddies everywhere who can literally run circles around us in their SLEEP!)

But we kept to our eating plan! I ate small meals more often with a reasonable amount of carbs in the morning, lean protein with plenty of vegetables in the evening, fruit and nuts for snacks during the day and water became my preferred drink of choice. So I wasn't hungry in the least!

So, what has been the overall effect of the "Get That Fat Off Your Behind" movement and the results from our Midnight Walk Series: Week 1?

As of this mornings weigh-in:

My sister is down 1.6lbs and I am down 6.2lbs!!!

*confetti and noise makers for everyone*

And then a huge tempation reared it's ugly head:

I won a contest on Facebook where I received a FREE baker's dozen of donuts from a local donut shop that makes some of the freshest donuts in town! When mom and I found out almost a year ago that these folks delivered luscious donuts to our doorstep, we were in heaven and our fluffy behinds bore this fact out!

So, was I tempted? Did I partake of the forbidden sugary starch?

Why, yes! Yes, I did! But I only had one and it had a huge hole in the middle and I proceeded to wash it down with water!

I'm changing my life, and the shape of my behind, one small step, and bite, at a time!

~Today is a Gift - Live Thankfully~

"Get That Fat Off Your Behind"

Mother has such a lovely way of getting her point across! The other day, she gave my sister and I the above stated command. Why her sudden outburst?

My sisters' health has been declining in the last year as she has been exhibiting the all too familiar signs of Fibromyalgia. She has the painful points and so many of the other symptoms for Fibro.

So as she's been sleeping most of the day away and limping around in pain, mom advised that we push past the pain and get some light excercise.

 

 

I must admit that my initial reaction was not a positive one and my sister just stood there looking as if she'd just been smacked with a rubber chicken.

 

 

I have been told by doctors to get exercise and that it would help ease the pain of Fibro but when I hurt so bad, the thought of moving more than is necessary seems like self-induced torture!

 

 

After having a few words with mother about her advice, I understood better her meaning. I mean, "push past the pain"? That's been my motto for years!

 

 

But, I must admit, there are times when I baby myself. When the pain isn't too severe, I'll continue to rest in the fear of creating even more pain in the future.

 

 

So my sister and I got out the scale that had I don't know how many months (years?) of dust built up on it and we weighed ourselves. As the numbers ticked by, I felt like I was on the Biggest Loser, praying that the highest number that kept flashing past, wasn't going to be my final weight...and then...*drum roll, please*...it was.

 

 

I'm not completely blind! I've noticed the second chin that's been forming for months now. I see the dents my glasses leave on my temples as my face outgrows them. I notice that although my hands still appear small and dainty that my arms are blowing up around them! I see all these transformations taking place but in my mind, I'm not that big and now the scale has confirmed it!

 

 

So, needless to say, the weigh-in opened my sister and I's eyes and our Midnight Walks were born!

 

 

Why midnight?

 

 

Well, we find that we feel our best late in the evening. Speaking for myself, my medicine has had a chance to build up in my system and I am finally reaping their full benefit.

 

 

Now, this may be the land of the Midnight Sun but summer's waning and it's dark at midnight again. Although my sister still leaves her front door unlocked, we're not so naive to think that walking the streets at midnight in Anchorage Alaska is the safest thing to do. We have moose and black bears to worry about!

 

 

Our Midnight Walking Series has hit it's 2nd day in a row and we are proud to report that we don't feel as bad as we thought we would. We are also changing our eating patterns, reducing our portions, and drinking more water to aid in our weight loss.

 

 

I think I will keep you posted about our progress in weekly blog posts called: "The Midnight Walking Series" about our insane venture to "Get that fat off your behinds" and reduce some of the pain we live with as a result of Fibromyalgia, one walk at a time!