Surviving the holidays

It has been a busy fall/winter.

I had a follow-up visit with my doctor in late October. He was very pleased with my progress! There has been a huge discrepancy between his scales and mine. Since mine is the one I have to weigh myself on every day I like to go with that one. Besides mine was weighing about 10 pound lighter and everyone wants to weigh less. Less than a week later, I stepped on my scale and the plastic housing broke. A new scale was in order and the new one and the doctor's office agreed. :( My new weight was  196.

Today, after struggling with all the yummy foods associated with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's I weighed 187 pounds. I think that is pretty good considering all the temptation. I was determined to enjoy the holidays and the traditional foods. I amy working on a lifestyle change not a an unsustainable diet! The weight is starting drop again.

As summer ends

I realize that my last post was in March. C'est la vie. Summer, especially for a teacher, gets in the way of getting anything done, except the diet.

The first few weeks went well. I struggled with the immediate availability of food in my kitchen. I loved the early morning walks while the temperatures were still cool. I increased my walking time to 30 minutes at a pretty brisk pace and dropped several pounds before we left on vacation.

Again, I struggled with restaurant food for three meals a day. It is impossible to eat economically with out eating carbs. I was just happy to have not gained any weight. I didn't lose any either. A week of houseguests didn't help in the weight loss category, but still I didn't gain anything either. So August began at 186 pounds.

Today, after settling into the new school year I weigh 180.5. Five pounds in six weeks is not setting any records but it is weight loss after all. We joined Anytime Fitness so weather will not affect my walking. All the evening activities do affect it though and some days it is just impossible to get in any exercise. I have increase my walk to 45 minutes on a treadmill and I am working on greater speed and incline. I just have to kick start the weight loss process somehow!

The diet begins...

So, back to the beginning. In March, I began keeping a food diary. I knew I was overweight and everything I have ever read about dieting said you have to keep a food diary. I also knew I was lousy at keeping a diary so I had never tried it. I found My Fitness Pal online. It was easy and FREE. So I started keeping track of everything I ate (no, I didn't cheat, even a little). By the time I saw Dr. Gahl the first time I had a pretty good idea of where I was going wrong. Most days I was pretty good, but at least once per day I made some pretty horrible choices. So how much did I weigh....It depends on who you ask. That first doctor's visit I weighed 226 pounds. A week later I weighed 223 -- little loss just from keeping the food diary. I started weighing myself everyday -- same time, same clothes and the bathroom scale told a different story. On the morning of my first visit with the dietician I weighed 208 at home, but 218 at the doctor's office. I just didn't believe I had on 10 pounds worth of clothes. I decided to check the bathroom scales for accuracy. Larry weighed a 50 pound weight from the basement and the bathroom scale weighed it in at 50.5. No too far off for a home scale. Using that formula I figured I weighed 216 at the beginning of this journey. This morning I weighed 198. That's 18 pounds in my book. The diabetes drug, metformin, was controlling my appetite.

I have found a nifty walking workout for FREE on the internet. I was now exercising at least 5 times a week for 16 minutes of walking. I have even moved from the beginner walk to the advanced version. This program came from Prevention magazine and I liked its philosophy. Slow or fast, you need to get moving for at least 16 minutes a day. This program has you walking at a slower pace for 3 minutes and then a faster pace for one minute and back to the slower pace again. You raise your heart rate, feel a little burn and then rest. I always come back a little sweaty and out of breath for a minute or so. No copious amounts of sweat or lengthy recovery. I am not so tired at the end that I cannot do something more. The hospital next door to school has also mapped out a 1/2 mile walking course that I can do on my prep time so if the evening is busy or stormy I can always sneak in a walk during the day.

I have also come to embrace hunger. Now that being hungry doesn't give me a headache I can talk myself into believing that when my stomach is empty I am burning fat.

This story really begins last November. I went to the dentist for a regular cleaning and Dr. Stahley discovered a cavity that needed to be filled and a blood pressure reading that was a bit too high. I scheduled an appointment for the Thursday before Christmas in order to have the work done while I was on break from school and again my blood pressure was not where it should be. All went well, but Dr. Stahley was concerned about the need for a crown in the next 10 years and that I should be monitoring my blood pressure. Less than a week later I had cold sensitivity at the cavity site and it didn't go away. I went back to the dentist on January 23; a root canal with an endodontist was ordered. That didn't go well. My tooth never got numb enough so we tried again a couple of days later with more sedation. The temporary filling broke off; back to the dentist. The temporary cap went on; and promptly fell off. The permanent cap finally finished up the job in late March.

End of the tale right? What I haven't shared are the headaches I experienced most of the time. I blamed them on stress, I blamed them on my seventh graders, I blamed them on the toothache, I blamed them on the root canal but I knew they were something different. I have suffered migraines off and on since I was a teenager. These headaches were different. I would wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning with a headache which would last until about noon. I hoped they would let up after the dental work was done. I had started taking my blood pressure at home and it was consistently higher than it should be. Was this the cause?

I made an appointment with Dr. Gahl. He didn't like my blood pressure either, nor did he like the results of my fasting blood test. He ordered  blood pressure medication that is often prescribed for migraine too -- metaprolol. I had a headache the next morning. (I haven't had one since! Well, except for sinus pressure and pain which is normal for me in the spring.) I had a glucose tolerance blood test the following Saturday. I knew what he was looking for -- diabetes.

The results were in on Monday, but my appointment wasn't until Tuesday. Dr. Gahl and his nursing staff decided to wait to tell me the bad news. I was pre-diabetic. I didn't tolerate the glucose at all. Dr. Gahl, according to his nurse practitioner and dietician, treats pre-diabetes very agressively. I was put on metformin and told to meet with the dietician in a few days. Well, in the meantime I have done a lot of research on my own.

I will continue to blog about my journey from April 9 on; the date of my first doctor's appointment when I weighed in at 226 pounds.

English Muffins a la Alton Brown

English Muffins

12 ounces of all-purpose flour

1/4 ounce dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 ounces powdered dry milk

Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer, combine these ingredients for 10 seconds.

10 ounces water

1 tablespoon vegetable shortening

Warm the water and shortening for 1-2 minutes on high in the microwave or until the water is 120 to 130 degrees.

Add the water to the flour mixture and mix for three minutes. Scrape the sides and cover and refrigerate overnight. Beat for three more minutes on medium speed. Put 2 ounces of batter/dough into each ring.

I didn't think to start taking pictures until I got to this point in the process. The "batter" is a very moist bread dough that is started the night before and allowed to rise overnight in the refrigerator. I sprayed the baking rings with a non-stick spray and set them on parchment on a baking sheet. I sprinkled the bottom with cornmeal. Alton suggests oatmeal but I wanted these to be very traditional looking. I use a large ice cream scoop to measure out the dough evenly and then sprinkled the tops with cornmeal. Let rest for 60 minutes. I followed the instructions and place another sheet of parchment on the top and covered it with another baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment and top baking sheet and continue to bake about 5 minutes more. My oven needed 21 minutes. A thermometer should read 210 degrees internal temperature.



Cool for 10 minutes before removing the baking rings. They are now golden brown and delicious, just like Alton said. Butter and rhubarb jam were delicious on them.

This is a relatively simple recipe, it is the method that is different. If you follow the directions you are rewarded with a tall, finely crumbed bread.