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An update from Alyssa and April: A fresh start in 2016!

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APRIL_ALYSSA_HOLLY

Well hey there! How are ya? Lots has happened  in the past year… mainly that I had a baby! Holly was born on 11.09.15 and is an amazing, sweet, happy little baby. My life has changed dramatically in just two months, and as I suspected, I’m finding that my attitude towards my body and weight loss is changing. The desire to get healthy is even stronger than ever now because it’s no longer just about me – being a healthy Alyssa is being a healthy mom for my daughter. April and I decided over Christmas this year that we wanted to come back to the Double Chin Diary.

Managing a full-time job, marriage, baby, and writing on my blog is going to be a bit difficult, so this year I’m not giving myself any “goals”. It’s simply trying to move to a frame of mind for feeling good. Pregnancy and the post-partum time period does a doozy on the body, so for now, I’m ready to get started with a few simple things; 1) Getting back to gentle exercise, like walking, yoga, and riding my bike, 2) Moving away from sugar, and 3) focusing on self-care like sleep, gardening, and eating nutritious things. That’s all. No goals of “I must lose this much weight by so and so,” because that stuff has never worked for me. I just need to try to do and be better.

A blogger friend of mine has been experiencing some health issues, and she posted this on her Facebook: “To all of you youngsters on my friend list who are carrying extra weight, PLEASE heed my warning and lose the weight … sooner rather than later! We only get one shot at this life, so please don’t waste/throw away years of it being overweight like I’ve done.”

It really resonated with me, and as I approach the ripe old age of 31, no day or time is ever promised. Why wouldn’t I want to spend it feeling great? I’m thrilled that so far mommyhood has been wonderful; I feel happy mentally, and now it’s time to start feeling better physically. My back in particular has been aching a lot since late pregnancy and labor (more details about that later: the chiropractor is my new best friend), so I’m ready to shed some weight to see if that helps.

Feels good to be back… I’ll check in soon with more details about my body during pregnancy and after.  2016: let’s do this! (PS: You can also find me on my other blog, LaLaLyssa.com sharing more lifestyle related things like tales from motherhood, random posts about cats, and other stuff.)

XOXO

The Double Chin Diary Siggy

 

 

The Double Chin Diary Divider

From April:

It has been a year since I stopped writing on the Double Chin Diary. This past year went by quickly as I didn’t have much time to rest with my usual chaotic schedule. I spent 2015 working an assortment of positions at a local humane society, babysitting, and being a full time student. I am proud to say that I’m just one class away from completing an advanced certificate in Environmental Resource Management and Pollution Prevention!

Even though my life was on the constant move, I managed to gain 45 pounds. I know why I gained the weight. I ate for convenience and not health. My idea of exercise was walking from the farthest parking spot in the lot at work. I stopped hiking, playing tennis, and going for walks around the town. I hit my ultimate level of exhaustion and my body took the impact of it.

This year I can’t continue to act the same way. My body just can’t handle any more weight. My legs get all twitchy when I’m tired, just like they used to do 8 years ago before I had lost 50 pounds. I eat Tums like they are the only thing that keeps me alive. I spend my weekends sleeping and cleaning because I’m too tired from the week to do anything productive after work. I need to start making the changes necessary for me to lose weight and regain my health. Plus, with my niece Holly around now, I have even more motivation to get fit.

Alyssa and I have been talking how we need to start writing again on the Double Chin Diary. I never had an extraordinary amount of weight loss while writing here but a major benefit I found was the accountability for myself to do well. I felt like I wanted to have positive things to write about so I was motivated to try harder.

Now that it is a new year and my crazy schedule should be calming down, it is time to start again. I plan to write at least once a week about my adventures of being back at the gym, eating well, and regaining my health. I’ll be using Myfitnesspal.com to track my weight and maybe my food and exercise, if I can be disciplined enough. I need to start COMPLETELY avoiding the foods I’m allergic to (wheat, rice, oats, apples, oranges, and bananas) as I do think my denial of my food allergies over the past four months definitely attributes to my weight gain.

Like so many at the beginning of the year, I am full of great intentions. I hope I can actually fulfill them this year.

Happy 2016 everyone!

Cheers,
AprilSignatur

Crash n’ Burn: Navigating Highs and Lows of PCOS Insulin Resistance

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All last week, I did a commendable job staying on my low-carb eating plan. My lunches were things like turkey breast, string cheese and crunchy persian cucumbers. I had raspberries with a drizzle of cream for dessert. I stuck to perrier and water (ok, fine, the occasional Diet Coke) and even managed to stay away from the yummy cookies at work. I could feel this eating plan working. Slowly, the “wheat belly” that I so often have, de-puffed, and I could feel my jeans getting a little looser. I was feelin’ good. Then, I got busy. Really busy. Busy enough that I didn’t notice yesterday that I had only eaten two egg whites, some chorizo, and a few persian cucumbers. It was 6:00 pm, but I knew I was heading to a party where I could eat there, so I held out on eating. I felt kind of shaky, but knew I was just hungry. I got to the party and there weren’t many low-carb options, so I had tortilla chips, a piece of chocolate cake, a few chocolate raspberry sticks. Towards the end of the party, my stomach started doing that rumbling that only makes you think “Uh-oh… I need to go home!”. Sure enough, I got home and immediately regretted my lack of planning. Not fun. But I forgave myself, went to sleep and moved on, knowing that tomorrow would be a new day to plan better.

Lofthouse Sugar Cookies — Image from TriadCouponing.com

You’d think I’d learn after all that. But apparently I didn’t, because I started my day today with scrambled eggs and bacon. A few hours passed. I kept working on freelance projects. I didn’t eat. We stopped to go to an open house, and there they were, on the table: my crack. Other than movie theater popcorn, there’s something about these disgusting, fake, sugar-y cookies that rocks my world. Before I knew what was doing, my hand was wrapped around one, and the first powdery bite was in my mouth. Mmmm. mmmm. nom nom nom. The house wasn’t a good fit for us, but that cookie felt like a sugar vacation. The texture alone was carb-tastic, enough to rock my world into a hypoglycemic rush of sugar and glucose. I felt fine, as we made the not so smart decision to get frozen yogurt. We got frozen yogurt; my favorite, coconut yogurt with dark chocolate chips. I made it through half when I started getting the heebie-jeebies. I felt nauseous, tired, warm and just GROSS. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on. I was crashing. My body has adjusted in the past week to being a lean, mean fat burning machine. Very few carbs have passed my lips. All of a sudden I went from practically carb-free to carb-overload. I can’t do this to my body anymore. I need to plan. I need to focus on being prepared for the weekends, when all bets are off, when sometimes, yep, I sleep till 11 AM and skip breakfast. My how the times have changed, when weekends used to be binge-fests. Now I’m not eating enough, and not often enough.

I think this year has been an interesting one in terms of learning why my body does what it does. A large part of that is realizing and recognizing that I have insulin resistance, a happy little side effect of PCOS. There’s a reason my doc put me on metformin; to help me process sugar the way a normal person would. If I’m eating a low carb diet, my body doesn’t have to deal with the huge blood sugar highs and lows that my usual diet causes. Now, I keep the blood sugars happily in the middle with a low or reduced carb plan. By eating the party food and cookie, I basically shocked my system. It wasn’t fun. This week, I need to take better care of myself. My deadlines and projects will only be excellent if the person working on them is also feeling excellent. Who’da thunk that a few little carbs could so drastically affect my blood sugar balance? Beyond sugar and carbs affecting the way I feel, I need to be more mindful of this, as my insulin resistance puts me on the fast track towards diabetes. While my fasting blood sugar tests are all still great, as I’ve seen this year, my body is a fickle, delicate little (or not so little) thing. I need to take better care of myself by taking better care of my food.

Do you find that when you eat really sugary things, you get either a “crash”, or feelings of hyperness? Which is it? I think I can now confirm I’m definitely the “Crash n’ burn” type of gal!

 

A triple surprise in Phoenix

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Aunt Karolyn, Kathy and Uncle Keith, the birthday triplets!

Hello, bloggies! How is everyone doing? This weekend was a whirlwind for Matt and I, as we jetted off to Phoenix for 24 hours to attend our aunt’s and uncle’s 60th surprise birthday party! Karolyn, Kathy and Keith were the first triplets born in Phoenix, and to celebrate, the family decided to give them a very big surprise.

The party was held at a country club, and once people walked down the stairs they were greeted by this banner giving a little hint to what was to come. The banner says… “A lap full of joy, two girls and a boy. The triplets were born September 5, 1952 and grew up as Children of the 60s.”

Matt’s awesome aunt Gina arranged all of the decoration and concept, going for a groovy psychedelic 60’s bash with a little bit of Alice in Wonderland flair.There were balloon center pieces at every table made up of daisy balloons, and each table had a jar full of vintage candy like Zots, buttons, candy cigarettes, chocostix, necco wafers and lemonheads. I picked out all of the zots and now my teeth are suffering! There were also vintage records and album posters placed around the room. It was a blast from the past!

There was a very nice buffet of fruit, salad, cookies and cold cuts – a nice light and yummy dinner.

I got the lucky task of decorating the cakes… with food coloring gel. Not my usual supplies, but hey, I made it work! Does any one get the reference to Alice on here? Name that band and song. Matt had to explain it to me. I’m not quite up to date on my 60’s references.

When Karolyn, Kathy and Keith walked in, I think it was safe to say they were pretty surprised- here they are right when they walked in!

It was really cool because Matt and I haven’t seen them since our wedding two years ago, so were also a big part of the surprise! It was so fun to be around that side of the family and celebrate with them. Here I am with Matt and my awesome in-laws, having a blast.

We had so much fun in hot hot Arizona, but sadly we only got to stay for one night. After the party, we dragged our butts out of bed and flew back to Los Angeles to change eras once again. Sunday night we were guests at a 1920’s themed bash! Stay tuned for the next post to see how Matt and I got Hollywood Glam!

(I know these posts aren’t weight loss related, but they’re fun! They’ll also show why my posts are going to be a little light this month. This weekend we were in Arizona and then went to a wedding. Next week I’ll be working on site in San Francisco for four days then flying directly to Baltimore for Fitbloggin’. After that we come home for a few more days and then it’s back up to Northern California for Matt’s birthday. We are busy beyond belief! Add in a thesis in its final stages and a full-time job and it’s true that life is what happens when you’re busy making plans 🙂 How lucky we are though to get to do all these exciting things! )

 

 

Making Time for Exercise

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Hey everybody! How you doin’ out there? I feel a little distant this week… because school is in FULL BLOWN “GO” mode, and life is just moving along at a crazy pace. Here’s what my schedule was like yesterday: Work from 8 AM – 3:30 PM. Class from 4:00 – 7: 00. Participate in Social Media Panel from 7:00 – 9:00 PM. Eat Dinner at 9:30 PM. Work on homework from 9:30 – 11:00 PM. 11:00 Go to bed.

Thankfully not everyday is as crazy as that, but today was not much better with working from 9:00 – 5:00 PM and then heading right to the hospital for allergy shots from 5:30 – 6:30 PM and then the rest of the evening being spent doing homework. It’s exhausting, right? It’s exhausting and I’ve been slacking about fitness because of it.

Fitness is fun with Richard Simmons! Why can't it be like this every time?!

I work with a wonderful and very funny friend named Jenny. She’s become a Weight Watchers buddy for me, and tonight, a reality check. We were texting back and forth about a Zumba class for $5 that’s offered at my workplace at 7 PM. I normally leave work at 5 PM, so I’ve been hesitant to stay for Zumba because that’s two hours of “home” time I get to have. After I hemmed and hawed and explained why I didn’t want to stay for Zumba, she hit me with this one: “You know you’re going to go home and veg and not exercise! If there’s no time to exercise then you won’t lose weight as fast as you like.”

She’s right. I’m the mayor of excuses village. When it comes to weight loss, I transform into a flubbery, blubbering “But this is why this happened! It’s genetics! It’s because I’m bloated! It’s because my jeans weigh a pound and a half! It’s because I ate that salty soup!”

The reality is that I need to be accountable for the mistakes I make in regards to weight loss, just like I am at work. If I screw up on something at work, I fess up, because usually just admitting your mistake is going to make it better. Like when I got busted in a meeting this week by my colleague as I was doodling hearts and stars all over my legal pad .”Did you get that, Alyssa?” she said, with a bit of sarcasm in her voice. With a straight face, I looked up and said, “Nope. I wasn’t listening. I’m sorry, can you repeat it?” There’s no need to lie because I’m transparent about my actions at work. I’m not perfect. I will never be. I have no problem admitting it. Perfection isn’t the problem, its commitment. It’s willpower. How bad do I want this?

I’m struggling because I am genuinely, honestly busy. I don’t have a lot of free time. But I need to make this a priority, just like I make work and grad school and my husband and my friends and family a priority. How do you fit it all in? We’re all busy, so I can’t keep using it as an excuse. Life is busy. As John Lennon once said, life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.

Do you find lack of time can screw up your eating or fitness habits? What do you do to be prepared? Any hints for a gal like me – short on time but big on hope?

Homework.

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Today’s lack of a blog is brought to you by HOMEWORK!

Today I chose to walk for an hour with a friend (earning 7 activity points AND catching up with my gal Kelly), buy my cake decorating supplies, stop by whole foods to buy olives, re-pot 7 outdoor pots with new flowers, clip coupons, start my seeds in a greenhouse tray, grocery shop, buy a new patio set off of Craigslist and watch the Oscars instead of doing homework.

So now? It’s homework time. If y’all wanna see what my homework looks like, head over over to http://www.heardio.wordpress.com. Regularly scheduled programming will be back up tomorrow :o)

(But – isn’t it better to see SOMETHING rather than nothing?)

Grad School Diet

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  • Banana
  • Greek Yogurt
  • 2 hot dogs, no bun
  • 2 chicken soft tacos, 1 side salad
  • 5 pretzel sticks
  • 1 piece pecan pie

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  • Naked Juice Mighty Mango Smoothie
  • Cheese burger, french fries
  • 1 Slimfast Shake
  • 1 bag of popchips

See above? That’s what I ate yesterday and today. I’m not proud about it, but it’s reality. It’s what working 9 hour days and then going to class for three hours will do to you. I’ve been averaging one large meal a day, and when I look at days like today, I’m not eating enough. Even a fatty fat bomb meal like a cheeseburger and fries is not enough… to sustain my body to get through a long, taxing day.

My body runs best on lean proteins, whole grains and fresh vegetables – and I bet yours does too. I have two more weeks of crazy stress coming – including one 40-poem, 20-page poetry anthology to write, and one 20-page theory on Mass Communication theory in regards to the Tunisian uprising. Then, I will have a glorious month off, in which I will get back to the gym, cook yummy meals, blog more, practice relaxing, and spend time with my sweet husband who is often a grad school widow.

My dinner tonight. Sigh!

I need to find a way to incorporate healthy eating into my busy day to day life, wether it’s grabbing more fruit or stocking up on fiber-rich bars. My first priorities lately have been work and school and not my health, and that bothers me. I need to take care of me to do the best I can at both work and school. So for the next two weeks, I’ll work hard, but also work hard on taking care of me. And that means less Slim Fast and pop chips, and more veggies, water and gym time.

When you get crazy busy – what’s the first thing that suffers?