Weight Watchers and Health Update

Hello everyone!

I wanted to give you all an update on how weight watchers is going and some other health news. I am officially down 12 pounds!! It feels so nice to continue seeing the scale go down and just feeling better about myself. While eating better has been hard, especially since I moved to an apartment June 1st and trying to cook while unpacking is so difficult when you are down the street from fast food! There are days, or sometimes a stretch of days, where eating is more of a battle. For example, we had a coffee truck today at my work and I got an iced mocha and it was so good! Also a resident brought in chocolate for us and it's just sitting there behind me... 

Anyways, I have another health update that has been a long time coming. The 2 years I was off at college I gained over 60 pounds. I knew something wasn't right, I just didn't know what. I was so tired I could take a 4 hour nap and sleep all night and still be exhausted. People would tell me I was just sleeping too much so I would stay up late and watch Netflix or try not to nap and be just as exhausted, if not more so. It got to the point where I was falling asleep in classes. I couldn't do any clubs or activities since I was already having a hard enough time just trying to stay up for classes. I constantly slept through meals and had little to no appetite. I struggled with pain on top of this, not extreme pain but enough that it bothered me. Anywhere on my upper body that I pressed on felt like I had a bruise. So much so that I was convinced on my 19th birthday when I pressed on my back that I had another kidney infection I went to urgent care (happy birthday to me). 

Exhaustion ruled my life and I was tired of it. At the end of my first year of college I started being tested for hormone issues. I thought I had cushing's disease, something that made you gain weight from too much cortisone. After months of tests nothing came of it, and the doctor told me to repeat the expensive tests in 6 months if I still had the same symptoms. I came home for the summer feeling defeated. I had tried to get an ESA but Central told me that the dog would not be allowed in classes, where I needed the support. I was lonely, tired, and just plain miserable. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life or if I would even be able to do anything. Sure I was a good student, but what if that was all I was good at? Studying for tests and writing essays, that was what I knew I was good at. 

Starting my last year of college I continued to gain weight and sleep all day. I ended up dropping out of a class my last quarter because I simply lacked the energy it required to do the leadership class, something I have enjoyed and participated in since elementary school in student government. I thought that since I didn't have a job that was why I was so tired, not having a purpose and just sleeping because it was something to do. However, after graduating and starting my job leasing apartments, my energy has continued to decline. I have continued to get tested for all sorts of things, most recently hemochromatosis (too much iron) and thyroid issues again. As of yesterday, I think I finally have an answer, though it was not the answer I was hoping for. After seeing a naturopath starting a few months ago, a doctor who finally took me seriously, I am starting treatment for fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disorder that causes exhaustion and pain. 

I wanted to share my story because it took years for me to get some sort of diagnosis, lots of anxiety and for a doctor to take me seriously and not just run tests and then give up on me. I have struggled, and will likely continue to struggle with energy and mild pain that has limited my life and am so happy I was persistent and didn't take no for an answer. I am hoping that my energy improves in the next few months and I am able to stay longer at the dog park on Sundays and just enjoy life more. 

~MG

Weight Watchers Day 1

I have always battled with self esteem and loving my body. This has only become harder as when I went off to college the stress, a foot problem, and overall lack of good food (partially my own fault), caused me to gain a lot of weight. Not just the freshman 15, honestly it's hard for me to admit how much I gained. However, if you have seen me in person it is pretty obvious I'm not even close to the size I was in high school. Having battled anxiety and won for the most part, I wanted to move on to my next challenge, my weight and diet. 

I thought getting Luna would help me a lot. While it has helped since I am going on more walks, she is reactive so we cannot be out too long before both of us just break down. This is getting better, but just throwing the ball in the meantime isn't getting me much exercise. 

Energy has always been a huge issue for me. Once I got into college it became easy to take multiple naps a day, which of course did not help with .y anxiety and depression. However, with no energy it seemed like my only option. While I continue to struggle with lack of energy, I am seeing a naturopath at the moment and am on a few supplements that should hopefully help some pathways in my brain work better and be less stressed and exhausted from that stress. 

Yesterday evening my parents and I signed up for weight watchers. I was on a similar program through United Healthcare but found the video meetings just weren't doing it for me and I was hoping having my parents do this with me would make it easier. After entering most of my food from yesterday I was already well over my allotted points (in weight watchers each food is worth so many points and you only have so many points in a day) and made me feel very discouraged. Yes, I had a bag of popcorn for lunch and an entire Costco poppyseed muffin for breakfast, but dang those were we're all worth a lot of points! 

So this morning I woke up and had half a muffin. No apple juice since that was quite a few points as well. This was at 6:30 AM when I wake up to feed Luna and let her out. By 10:30 AM I was already hungry. I decided to have a small bowl of Chex mix. By 12:30 PM I was hungry again and had 5 chicken nuggets and a small amount of ketchup. This left me very few points for the rest of the day. By 3:00 PM I was hungry again and had no points left if I also wanted dinner. I figured it was day 1 and if I went a little over then it was fine. So I had a cheese stick. Obviously that didn't help much so I asked my mom to teach me how to make scrambled eggs since those are no points. Not my favorite, but better then nothing. Right now it's almost 5 and it will be interesting to see how dinner goes. 

As someone who is a very picky eater and has failed to lose weight eating what I like, I thought I would try to document my journey. I'm hoping day 2 goes better. For now, I am just hoping that I can resist snacking! 

Check out my Pinterest for weight watchers recipes I hope to try! I plan to post if I do try them and if they are any good. 

~MG