Starting to notice a pattern

A couple of weeks ago I had drinks with an old friend I hadn’t seen in years. She had been unhappy with her weight and was working on it, and had lost about 25 lbs. 

Suddenly, she didn’t need to take pain meds anymore! She had been taking Aleve twice a day because her hip hurt and stairs were murder, but the pain has gone away since she lost the weight.

As she said, “Diet and exercise! Who knew?”

Who indeed.

I saw someone else make a similar comment recently. They had been in the obese category of BMI (yes I know it’s discredited, but that’s the stat available to me), had lost weight due to various changes in diet and nutrition that were mainly lifestyle-related (changing work location, social things, etc.). They had been perfectly healthy according to all of the bloodwork measures of metabolic wellbeing (sugars, cholesterol, etc.) but needed painkillers every night because of joint pain. And after losing 30 lbs just by living differently, their chronic joint pain went away.

It’s probably due to the exercise more than the diet, I would guess, which is a double-edged sword. How do you get the motivation to move when you’re hurting? Even knowing that it will help in the long run isn’t very motivating, because it’s not a quick fix. You have to wait to feel the results.

But if ever there was inspiration to eat right and get moving, freedom from pain is it! I wonder how many other people have these stories?

Ooh I like it

Ususally I use the app, so I didn’t know this was a thing, but look at this neat feature of the Cronometer website:

Hover over the nutrient and get all this info!

In the app, for fibre, it just tells you what percent of the RDI you’re at. I sometimes want to know grams. Love that this shows percent of RDI and grams, and all this info about where you got the nutrient from! This is hovering over the grey progress bar; hovering over the word “fibre” gives you info on what fibre is and food sources where you can get it.

I’m such a nerd I love having the info. 

Especially since I am dealing with all of these stomach woes. Now Liquid Iron made me a bit uncomfortable (and it tastes disgusting). I also ordered Ferosom, which I believe is in my mailbox this exact minute. The person who recommended it warned me that “you need to up your fibre intake” to avoid issues, so I am extra keen to get as much as possible.

Also I am happy to see that the sweetmeal digestive biscuits I’ve been stuffing my face with are a good source of fibre and iron. I may be slightly addicted.

Stumbling along

Got some decaf coffee to trick myself, or try to. Hoping my stomach will accept it caffeine if I try to reintroduce it gradually. 

Yesterday I decided to throw caution to the wind a bit, and decided if I was going to feel awful anyway, I might as well eat something tasty. I got a Too Good to Go bag from Nadege, with all sorts of mousse-y desserts. Dairy schmairy! And I didn't feel any worse after! Maybe I even felt better due to the healing qualities of caramel, cheesecake, and chantilly cream! So maybe I can start reintroducing dairy, just not at the same time as caffeine. We’ll see!

Restless

Restless leg, that is.

The good thing about restless leg syndrome (RLS) is that it’s an easy to spot early sign of iron deficiency. 

The bad thing is that it makes it really difficult to sleep. 

I haven’t taken any supplements since my gastro bug started last week, especially the iron which is famously hard on the stomach. And my diet has been straight bland carbs, for the most part. So right now I’m experiencing a kind of malnutrition hangover. 

So, I’m trying to gently reintroduce normal food. Boiled eggs for breakfast on Friday made me feel almost human again. Coffee on Saturday put me back in the loo for much of the day. Last night after a day of mainly crackers I tried our usual Sunday stir fry (chicken, broccoli, yellow pepper) and it seemed to be okay. Today I tried my usual Monday breakfast (fried egg, blood pudding, toast, coffee) and I am writing from the toilet. 

I can’t wait to be normal again!

By the numbers

Clothing sizes are awful, we all know that. They’re random and inconsistent but it’s hard to escape the messages (sometimes subliminal sometimes overt) that some are good and some are bad. This compounds the problem in multiple ways. It makes people focus on clothing size instead of health, and also leads clothing manufacturers to play games with sizing in hopes that people will spend more if they can buy the size they like—not gonna lie, I have succumbed to this one—but it just makes everything more inconsistent and frustrating. 

I can’t remember if I blogged already about an experience years ago looking for a swimsuit. 

I just wanted a plain one-piece, ideally “tall” sized (I’m not tall, but I have a long torso). It was the wrong season and everything on the rack was hideous or expensive or both. Finally I found a plain black maillot that looked about right. Size 12 though! Well at least it would probably be long enough. I took it to the change room and was shocked at how small it seemed. Had I gained a bunch of weight and not noticed? I struggled to get the damn thing on, refusing to be conquered by a size 12. I finally did it, looked at my squashed and hunched self in the mirror for about 5 seconds, and took it off.

Then I looked at the tag again and saw it was from the children’s department. 

All that unnecessary torture because I was hung up on a number. 

It happened again earlier in the pandemic. I ordered a skirt online, from a fancy designer, but deeply discounted because it was a sample sale. I checked the measurements on their size chart about a million times, because I wouldn’t be able to return it, and finally bit the bullet and got the size 6. I was disappointed when it arrived that the seams were serged, because it’s a cheap construction method and you can't do alterations easily. Then I tried it on. Or tried to. It would not. No stretch in the fabric, and even though it was a more forgiving A-line cut, way too tight through the hips. And no way tolet out the seams, due to that cheap construction. My fun pick-me-up treat during pandemic times just made me feel worse. Periodically over the pandemic I’d try again, wearing control-top nylons, or when I was “feeling thin,” and I got close, but never quite there.

Then one day I noticed that there was a second tag. The brand tag at the waistband didn't have any info beyond the designer’s name. But in a side seam, closer to the hem, was another tag, with fibre content, washing instructions, and size—zero! It never fit because they sent me the wrong size, and I chose to blame myself for being fat.

I admit I couldn’t resist trying it on this week after being sick and not eating. It fits! It fits as long as I’m too sick to go anywhere. 

One thing after another

I almost forgot I had shingles a couple weeks ago until I came to post here!

This week, it’s viral gastroenteritis.

The weeks in between were fairly busy—nights out with three different out-of-town friends (Chicago, Winnipeg, Montreal), an opera, a couple of plays, a reading, a group dinner out, bicycle club social, work  lunch/bridal shower, tennis lessons, the kid’s big Coming of Age event, a protest march. I feel like I’m forgetting stuff.

I did end up having a drink four days in one week, when normally I go weeks without any alcohol, so I thought maybe that was the problem. 

Nope, it’s going around. 

I have lost 6 lbs in four days and it does not feel good. You can easily see where my body wants to be—hovering around 138-140 (previous high was during the dental self-pity era, but dropped off when I got back to normal). Presumably I’ll bounce back once I can eat again. 

Weight change—or rather, maintenance—over 8 weeks 

Meanwhile, here’s a typical meal: half a cup of applesauce, chamomile tea, and saltines. 

Bland and digestible 

Gearing up to have a cup-a-soup later. Have to go slow; food does no good if it doesn’t stay down! I shudder to think of my iron levels though. 

Meanwhile, it’s a good time to stay indoors with the wildfires making outdoor exercise unhealthy if not impossible. I was supposed to do a group run last night and cancelled due to illness (obviously), but maybe that’s for the best? I’d likely be back to needing an inhaler if I tried a bootcamp run in the smog.

At this point, just hoping for a quiet weekend.