Weigh-in, and it just happens to be Wednesday

Tough month this past month and the scale shows it. Although I thought I had my emotional eating under control, I still make mistakes. Scale shows 175.9 lbs. So a jump up of about 10 lbs. 

Now that I'm back home and back to my routine, I know the weight will come off soon enough. However, the reality is that I've been in the high 160s for a long time now. And it's just not a healthy weight for me. If only I were a taller woman... :)

My mother survived her heart attack, my grandfather and father both died from heart attacks, some family members have naturally high cholesterol despite perfect diets and healthy lifestyles... for my health now and for the future, I know I've got to make changes before it's too late. There have been small signs that the universe has been trying to tell me something, this latest sign was a biggie. I can't just ignore it and pretend everything is the same.

The plan is to get back to what works for me. For the next month, I'll be on a strict Paleo template with calories of 1600 to 1800 per day and tracking everything. Add in at least 30 minutes of walking per day, and to start back with cardio five days a week, along with T'ai Chi or yoga. That gets me to Christmas.

This year, since my mother's still recovering, I'll be cooking most of the Christmas Eve supper, which for us is the important meal of the holidays, and is called the Réveillon. I'm likely going to prepare a baked salmon or a trout almandine with roasted vegetables. I haven't planned the rest but there's still lots of time. We're going to a hotel buffet for Christmas supper (my mother's choice), so there will be all traditional fixings.

In honour of American Thanksgiving, I'll be watching Home for the Holidays with Holly Hunter. Love their supper with competing birds, one organic the other not. Although the movie is funny and touching in places, it makes me value my own family all the more !!!

When the Sh!t Hits the Fan

A series of unfortunate events have plagued my family for the past while. Most importantly, my mother suffering a heart attack. She is doing better and is taking things slowly. She qualified for some of the classic risk factors: Obese (190 lbs at 5'1) and hypertensive (blood pressure always over 140/90). 

She'd been having lots of difficulty breathing in the past six months and it was attributed (mistakenly) to asthma. Dizziness and blurry vision attributed (mistakenly again!) to migraines. Surgery has helped enormously improve the blood flow not only through her heart but to her lungs and head. She is breathing so much better, and her brain-fog is clearing. She'll soon be able to get back into her routine without any assistance from me for her daily tasks. However she has lost a lot of strength and that will hopefully come back in due course with rehabilitation and changing her lifestyle. Also hoping the side-effects from the medications she now needs to take won't affect her progress. Since she got back home, the neighbours in the small community where she lives have been so very kind and offered to do "anything anytime" for her.

 

I've been at her side through all this, helping her in and out of the hospital, and it has been stressful and an eye-opener in many ways. All this came just before the third anniversary of my father's death from a heart attack. You'll never know how relieved I am to still have her here. 

 

Since I've not been at work or in my own home, I feel the pounds have been piling on in the last month or so. Food choices were limited at the hospital, and I wasn't able to make the best choices due to physical or emotional fatigue. Didn't succumb to fast food or fries, but overate generally like sandwiches which I'm not used to eating regularly.  Exercise has been less than minimal. Stayed away from sugary stuff.

 

Now that things are settling down with my mother well on her way through recovery, I'll be back at my own place soon and able to exercise regularly again. I know any pounds gained will be flying off. I'll weigh-in when I get back.