Yay! It all paid off!

I finally got the results from my blood work today and there was definite improvement. My potassium level went from 3.3 (below normal) to 3.8 (lower end of normal range). Glucose went from 102 or 89. HDL went from 23 to 36. Still low, but almost at the low end of normal. The big winner, though, was triglycerides. I went from 205 in January to 114! Get out!

So even though the weight loss isn't AS dramatic (27 lbs now), those numbers show the real benefit of making the changes that I've made this year. I'm pretty excited about it. And I am happy with the weight loss too. Thank God what I'm doing is all stuff that I can keep doing. I'm already on my maintenance plan and now I know this is good enough.

So I keep doing what I'm doing. I'm delighted that the Moringa powder has done so well for my potassium level. I don't mind having a banana every now and then, but having them every day wasn't something I thought I could maintain over the long haul. Who knows what else it helped with. It's main job for me was potassium.

As for the cough. I'm still using the inhaler twice a day. I tried cutting back and I started coughing up mucous. I'm not coughing constantly or anything. I expected that I might cough a little more, but was pretty disappointed that I started coughing up mucous again. I'm hoping that it's largely because of the time of year -- pollen is really heavy around here right now. So I'll try again in a couple of months.

So, in a little over a month, I turn 58. Ugh. But I am clearly in better shape than I've been in a while, so maybe I won't notice. OK, ok, hopefully it won't bother me as much. OK, ok, I'll think about the grandchild that is due in November and try to block out the birthday. Yea. That will work.

So has all this made a difference?

Tomorrow morning I go in to have blood drawn for a follow-up workup to blood tests that were done in January. My Triglycerides were high and my potassium levels were way low. Those blood tests were taken pretty early in the process of trying to rev up my metabolism. I've been eating better and less and working out more since then. I have lost 25 pounds and am feeling better.

Though the weight loss has tapered off, I am still enjoying the fact that my old clothes are back in use. I am disappointed that working out in the morning, a 20-30 minute brisk walk at lunch and a 50 minute bike ride with my husband after work plus the change in eating habits would have kept the weight loss going, but oh well. I guess you can only push an older metabolism so far.

I have also been taking a powder made from the moringa oleifera plant for the last few weeks. Everything I've read says that this is an excellent source of potassium. I guess this will be an interesting test of that fact.

So, I've got my fingers crossed for tomorrow.

A busy weekend

It was a busy and pleasant weekend. The first order of business was to go to my daughter's house and help her with a big project that she's working on for her home business. She's making 42 table runners for someone's wedding. They are beautiful. The customer chose a lovely combination of pattern and color. You can see the project at

http://www.homesweetbyhand.com/blog

My mother-in-law (and friend), Jo, was there too. We were in charge of turning the table runners right side out and pressing them so that Jen could do the top stitching. We got them all done and left her with a stack to finish off this week. It felt good to help and it was a really pleasant day. It was like an old fashioned quilting bee where we talked about everything all day as we worked. It was really pleasant.

Then we went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Ocean City -- Adolfo's. Great food. We just ate light, but yummmmm. Their garlic bread is the bomb. And we go so often that they've become friends, and it's always good to see them.

http://www.oc-adolfos.com/

Today was my normal chores and I went to a nearby woods and dug up a load of rocks to use as borders in a new flower bed I want to get done this spring. I hate to see the weekend end. Sunday nights are always difficult because I dread the beginning of the work week. I usually take an ambien on Sunday nights to help me sleep.

The cough is doing better. So much so that I think I'm going to try to start eliminating the inhaler. I'll do it gradually. But I think it's time to start the process and see how it goes.

I'm still sticking to my new eating plan. I hadn't lost any more weight for a while, but I knocked off another pound last week. As long as I'm not gaining. I guess I'm about where I'm going to be weight-wise since the weight loss has tapered off. And that's ok. I'm back into a lot of clothes that I wasn't able to wear and I'm feeling pretty good. I think that's pretty good for 58.

Almost back to normal!

The cough has improved greatly over the past few weeks ... thank heavens! I don't think the homeopathic remedies could have done it alone any more than all the pharmaceuticals did. But the remedies definitely improved the healing process because after 6 months of miserable coughing I appear to finally be on the mend. I love homeopathy.

I'm still following my new eating routine. I seem to have plateaued on my weight loss, but I'm ok with that because I have managed to loose enough weight to get back into a lot of clothes. Yay! I was hoping for more, but I feel better having lost even this much -- 23 lbs.

We visited the kids this past weekend. Jay was helping Dan with a 198? Ninja motorcycle that he is restoring while I "helped" Jen with a big fabric order she is working on. I really just kept her company while she worked. But the fabric is turning out awesome. She'll be turning it into table runners soon. Check it out at http://www.homesweetbyhand.com/blog
I'm so proud of her.

And that's the update!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I went to visit my mom this weekend. I try to visit once a month and this month I timed the visit to coincide with mom's birthday weekend. It was really nice. Mom turned 84 and she doesn't like being 84, but I think she enjoyed her 84th birthday in spite of that. A couple of other sisters came over on Saturday too and we all brought a dish -- my brother-in-law made the cake. It was pretty perfect. It was a good visit.

Jen couldn't make it because she has a big order that she's working on. www.homesweetbyhand.com that's my girl! I love her stuff and apparently so does someone else. :-)

Of course, that was the first day of snacking/munching that I've had since the beginning of the year. What can I say ... mmmmmmm. And I was hungry today. It's amazing. I've been sticking to my new routine so well, but one day off the wagon and I'm back to my old cravings. Hopefully it will pass quickly. On the bright side, I didn't gain weight from it so I guess I didn't go too crazy. Back squarely on the wagon and hoping I have a way to go before my calorie intake = my output.

Today was a really rainy day, so Jay and I couldn't ride bikes after work. Tomorrow will be iffy, but after that, we should be able to ride the rest of the week. That's an activity that we enjoy doing together. For some reason, we chat more while riding than we do when we're doing other things, so it's really pleasant. And we both have very sedentary jobs, and we work out very differently, so having a physical activity that we both enjoy and share is really nice. We look forward to the nice weather.

I think I'll play a little Wii tennis before bed. :-)

Improving ... knock wood

I continue to cough, but I've noticed a change since adding homeopathy to my treatment with my sister's help. She has been studying homeopathy for years and has helped all of us in the family over the course of time. What I noticed is that I don't cough or cough hardly at all until late in the afternoon ... as I approach the time for my evening inhaler dose.

I've been on inhalers since November and have continued to cough a lot, but I found out that it's definitely better with the inhaler than without, but still not really good. I don't want to jinx it, but it's been greatly improved in the last few weeks. So maybe there's hope after all.

On the eating front, I'm still sticking to my new eating plan without much difficulty. I don't find myself craving snacks much any more -- like entire bags of popcorn. :-) And not snacking at night is finally getting easier. I do make sugar free frozen yogurt for my husband and I sometimes -- it's really good. But I'm not snacking constantly and I'm doing ok with that. That's been the most difficult change for me. I think it was harder than cutting back on how much bread I eat, which surprised me. I guess I really was snacking way more than I thought ... if I missed it that much.

But I've lost 22 pounds which is awesome. I think a lot of that is my workouts and my effort to boost my metabolism in general. Since I sit all day at my job, I needed to figure out ways to keep moving periodically. So I walk at lunch (walk fast and include stairs) and I do Wii tennis and whatever in the evenings. But the biggest workout change was the Denise Austin Bootcamp Workout DVD. That workout seems to work for me as well as jogging used to. So, everything combined adds up to 22 pounds! Woo hoo! And all this stuff is a maintenance plan, so the weight should stay off. Woo hoo!

I'm back into pants that I haven't been able to wear for a few years. I can get into my skinnier jeans, but I don't think they're a good idea yet. They are really tight and I don't like really tight, so they'll stay on the shelf. I'm still feeling so much better even at this not-so-thin size. I have to try and not let myself get into that kind of slump again. I won't be 20 again. I won't have young skin again. I will continue to acquire new aches and pains and problems. But that's no reason to give up on myself.

I hope I can actually do it when the going gets tough.

More coughing, more rain, Calgon ... take me away

I tried a couple of different homeopathic remedies during the last week. They caused my coughing to change, but not really go away. Then my sister thought of causticum. I read the Materia Medica and it struck a nerve on a lot of fronts, so I went looking for it. I couldn't find it in local stores, so I ordered it. Thank goodness for "Homeopathy Works". I've been using their online store for several years. I think they filled the order in record time.

I took a dose of causticum this past Thursday night and started coughing more again. I was moving in the wrong direction! It didn't keep me from sleeping, but I started coughing again when I woke up Friday morning and all day long. I ended up needing cough medicine so I could sleep last night, which I know wasn't good for the homeopathic meds, but I really couldn't sleep. I didn't take any more causticum because I had such a strong reaction.

But I woke up this morning feeling pretty good. I don't want to jinx it, but I coughed very little today. I'm thinking I'll hold off on the next dose of causticum until Monday morning. I'm doing pretty well today, so I'll see where this first dose takes me. Boy, I hope this works. 6 months of coughing ... enough already.

Also, I had a cup of regular coffee this morning and have been jittery all day. I'm wondering if it was partly the causticum too since one cup of coffee doesn't usually affect me like that. I just started feeling "normal" a little after dinner. That causticum is potent stuff -- at least it is for me.

And, of course, it's raining buckets today. Which is better than snow, but I'm sick of gray, dreary days and blizzards and crappy weather in general. We did have nice weather last weekend. I even got out to the driving range to hit a bucket of balls. But I'm thinking that all this snow and rain is going to make for a very bug-infested spring. At this point, I just want spring. My feet are tired of being in shoes. I want my flip flops back.

I'm still hanging in there with my new exercise routines and eating habits. It has definitely paid off and I've been happy with my energy level and how I feel. I'm a lot less sluggish. I find that I get up right away when the alarm goes off and I don't dawdle as much. All good things. I'm actually getting to work earlier. And I'm into some jeans that I had to stop wearing. Granted, they WERE my fat jeans as my girth grew, but NOW they are my skinny jeans. It's all a matter of perspective. There's another pair that are a better size. I don't know if I'll ever get back into those. I'm just happy having gotten this far. But this isn't a diet -- it's my new routine, so we'll see where it takes me.

So life on this side of the hill has been a little better lately. I know that I'm still on the bad side of the hill and that this feeling that I'm improving is kind of an illusion, but what the hell. I'll take it. If it feels good, it feels good. Don't look that gift horse in the mouth.