Work It

I need to lose weight.

Unlike a lot of doctors I read about online, the doctors and nurses here are largely sensitive to…well, the sensitive nature of weight. I’ve not once been told I need to lose weight by a doctor, and when I mention it, my comments are either brushed aside or they tell me I “look fine” and shouldn’t worry about it.

In any case, just because I wear it well, doesn’t mean I’m comfortable, and that is why I need to lose weight. At least ten pounds, though I’d feel fantastic if I lost twenty. I think twenty might be unrealistic given my age and menopausal status, so I’d be happy enough with losing 10.

I’m not uncomfortable with how I look, but rather in how I feel. My clothes are tight, my varicose veins are painful, and the parts of my body storing the extra fat are always in the way and getting pinched. Walking is harder. Tying my shoes is harder. Doing stairs is harder.

I’ve read that it’s harder to lose weight after 50 or so, and in my case, that’s very true. I am using some “lightweight” over-the-counter hormone replacements (estriol & progesterone), but the lack of estradiol makes it difficult to lose. My metabolism is slower, my digestion sucks (working on that too), and I will fully admit to not working out like I should.

But I know what I felt like when I was lighter, and I also know that some of my current problems would be lessened if I just lost that 10-20lbs (my fat pressing into my hernia repair and incision scarring and causing pain occasionally, for instance, not to mention my varicose veins).

Now that most of my routines have been revamped to work in treadmill/dictation time (yay multi-tasking in a healthy way!), I’m going to go through them again to see where I can add in some weight lifting. I used to lift weights in college and for several years after, and I know it’s one of the best ways to tone up and loose extra weight. I think I can work in a session a couple mornings before work, which means I’ll have to quit the intermittent fasting (gotta fuel the muscles right after you use ’em!), but IF isn’t doing anything for me anyways (or not that I can tell).

Normally to build muscle, you’d workout, and then have a high-protein snack of some sort. My breakfast is generally Overnight Oats (with added protein) soaked in whole lactose-free milk, so that fits the bill just fine. I just need to get the results back from the blood test I had earlier this week so I know if I’m pre-diabetic (again) or not, and then I can decide whether to have my oats before the workout (better for glucose control) or after. I already do a 5 minute yoga session before work, so I think I can work in a 10-15 minute lifting session two days per week as well.

I *will* work in a lifting session, rather than try. 🙂

Recovery days, I’ll use my Aeroski for those 10 minutes for a little extra boost first thing in the morning. The weather’s been perfect for walking the dogs at night, and I just need to get a bit more…dedicated with the treadmill/dictation time.

I think in 6 months or so, this routine should yield some decent results. But I am going to do a few other things to support the workout routines as well (not just climbing six flights of stairs twice a day in the building we’re moving to for work in November).

I have a doctor’s appointment next month, with a new doc, and I’m going to ask her about bioidentical hormones. There’s a lot of “good” they can do for the body, and a lot less “bad” than the earlier versions had, so I think it’s worth a try to support my weight loss goals as well as my digestive issues.

And finally, I’m trying out a whole bunch of digestive enzymes to see if anything will help with the digestion. I will mention that to my doc as well, but I’m guessing it stems from back when I had my surgeries, and lost my gallbladder & appendix (after several nasty rounds of antibiotics when they thought my hernia was my appendix, a colonoscopy, and a bad reaction to a vaccine all in the course of a couple very long years). I don’t think my digestive flora and fauna survived all that trauma, so I’m doing what I can to support it and build that back up.

So, I’m putting it here, for all the world to see. Accountability and all that. I will do everything I can to lose 10lbs by Christmas, and keep it off into the new year.

While I was thinking about all of that, I was thinking about a couple of the characters in the drafts I’ll be working on soon (as soon as I finish the Halloween story I’ve been working on). They’re both a bit on the “fluffy” side, and dealing with it differently. I think my own dedicated efforts at weight loss will be handy in adding some depth to those parts of the character.

Now I just have to…work it!

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