Homepathy Treatment Plan / Update

Helen, my homeopathic practitioner, provided me with my first prescription last week: 2 tiny little balls of silicea.  The instructions were to take one tiny ball, dissolve it in about half a cup of water, and sip it throughout the day.  Ok, done.

It's hard to believe that such a tiny little ball of something could make any sort of a difference to a 150 lb (ok, 153.5 lb as of this morning) body, and to be honest, I haven't detected anything as yet, but I'm anxious for the second dose next Thursday.

As I mentioned before I have an actual goal this year, which is to complete the Toronto Tough Mudder event in September, so I'm tightening the belt, so to speak, and hauling my lazy ass back onto the proverbial wagon.  Over the past month I was enjoying way too much sugar and grain products.  (Dearest Hubby: if you come home with another apple pie I'm gonna wring your neck!)

I weighed myself on January 9th and was semi-shocked (more disappointed, really) to see 155 on the scale.  This morning, after a decent BM it read 153.5.  Good.  It's moving at least.

Oh!  I also mentioned before that I used some heavy-duty corn removal pads on my foot and finally I am seeing something happen.  Those things basically kill the layers of skin by drying them out so that they peel off.  That's what I have happening; a disc of now-dead skin that is slowly coming off, hopefully bringing the corn with it.  About half of the disc has come up, which I've clipped off using my nail clippers, so hopefully the rest will come loose by mid-next week.

Welp, that's it...I'm fucked.

My sugar addiction has started to kick in again and I've been weak.  I'm back to having 18% cream in my 3 coffees a day and *shock* I just noticed that the bastards added dextrose to the cream.  Bugger.

Last week both of us were off and we decided to go see The Hunger Games.  Fearing I would pig out on movie theatre nachos and cheese (my fave snack when there...no pop!), we went to the grocery store to get "healthy" snack to sneak into the theatre.  These healthy snacks morphed into cookies and brownie squares.  Fack.  We snuck a bottle of water each in, hidden in my purse.

This week my skin feels like it's CRAWLING it's SO itchy.  Last night I had to pee at 2:30am and while I was doing so I was ripping away at my legs and it felt soooo good and yet so gawd-awful at the same time.  When I went back to bed the skin was all red and throbbing with heat.  Ugh.  This insane rash (which always seems to start in an arm pit for some reason) is making its way across my body and my taste buds better fuck off with the constant whining for sweet things!!

My mild rosacea  has returned as well.

I've also noticed that there is a lot more mucous in my nasal passages, to the point where I have to snork it back so I don't sound like I'm sick with a cold.  It's real pleasant to have to do this near co-workers while I'm on the phone with a client!  (Thankfully I have a mute button, which has served me well and prevented my firing on a daily basis.)

So, today I will start the changes to reverse this once again.  Coffee is bad when you have a yeast overgrowth problem, so I will reduce my intake (I hate caffeine withdrawal headaches!!!), will gradually revert back to using almond milk in coffee when I do have one, and will not partake in the very-sweet-looking cake we bought as dessert for tonight's dinner (his mummy's coming over).  I will hear about it from her, but I will ignore it.

Guess I won't be having bacon with our usual Sunday breakfast, either.  Grrr.

Oh wait, I do have something positive to report -- I weighed myself this morning, and after all this sugar-binging, the scale still reads 145.3.  Yay!!

Today was a good day...

...to be working from home, as the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  I was blessed with a quality movement this morning and my weight afterward was 145.0.  Yippee!!!

My work day wasn't as great; a PITA (that's PAIN IN THE ASS, for those who don't know :)) client that I've been dealing with for about a year REALLY got my blood boiling right before lunchtime.

See, I'm an implementation specialist by title, which means, once we've completed implementing the product for you and you "go live", we're supposed to hand your account over to the support team.  Well, this client has been "live" since bloody November and keeps trying to find ways to prevent this hand-over from happening.  It's REALLY getting on my nerves (and they're not pleasant to deal with, either, so that exacerbates MY problem).  In January we put together an "issues log" and told them that we would hang onto them until the listed issues are resolved, and then they're being handed over to support.  They resisted, but my boss absolutely rocks and she told them how it's gonna be!

Today, during a conversation with one of "them", they realized a new "problem" and they wrote an email, cc-ing everybody that's ever been involved in this project, saying that they felt this needed to be added to the motherfucking "issue log".   I.  LOST.  IT.  I asked my manager if she heard my screams all the way at the office, which is about 33 kms away from my house.  This new "problem" is a result of this client NOT LISTENING while I explained things throughout this project, and there were also many times where I would hear them whispering and giggling (on speakerphone) while I was talking.  Now they act like this "problem" is fucking NEWS to them (hence, the LOST IT part).  There's no fucking way they're adding another item to this issue log for ME to work on, and I wrote an email to my manager to say so (in a much nicer way).  After clicking Send I had to take some ME time and get these idiots out of my head. So, I went for a walk.

I did my normal lunchtime route around the block, stopped back at home to drop my sweater off, and went for another lap.  Except this time I incorporated some primal jogging into it - getting my feet/legs used to landing on my toes.  I tell ya, it felt pretty good!  By the time I was almost home I sped things up a bit too, almost running full throttle.  Anyway, this helped me get my brain calmed down and the stupid went away.  Yay!

When I got back to my laptop I read the response from my manager to the client's email.  She supported me by telling the client that, as previously discussed, no further issues would be added to the current issue log, and this new issue will need to be addressed by support.  YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!  I love her to bits. :)

Enough about work...  Mom came by after work to go for a walk with me in the warm sunshine - I put my froggy feet on for this outing - and we did two laps at a pretty slow stride.  Now my feet hurt in different ways than before!  Ah well, I'm sure it'll get better.  No running for me tomorrow...on Thursday my sweetie took the wheels off my Honda 599 and brought them to the shop, along with my new tires, to get the rubber swapped.  Well, today he put the wheels back on the bike and I'm betting the bike and I will get reacquainted nicely tomorrow!

FTW, we're goin' RIDING!!!  Here's my OTHER sweetheart:

That's alright...I'm okay...

I guess I'll be lost again for one more day...

Not really - it's just lyrics to a song that's in my head right now:

Love Big Wreck...anyhow, just thought I'd check in with a few random tidbits for those who want to know.

- My weight today is 145.2.  I'm happy about that, and a bit surprised since I have been inhaling a whole bag of these every day this week!  (Can you say WEAKNESSSSSSS?)

- Last night I cooked up a couple of strip loin steaks using the method that previously set off the smoke alarm and threw me into a migraine headache.  This time I was better prepared and also had the assistance of hubby.  The steaks were a little over-cooked but were still quite good.  I love how flavourful the fat turns out using this method.  Next time I'll just take them out of the oven sooner and we should be good.

- I'm finding that I really don't like the taste of coffee lately, especially with the chocolate-flavoured almond milk in it.  When I use cream (preferably 18%) it's at least a little bit more drinkable, but if it weren't a caffeine addiction I wouldn't bother with the stuff.  I do like having something warm to drink, though, which helps my stupid mouse voice become audible.

- My new desk at work is working out great - I love it to bits!  I found that I actually had it a bit too high when standing and it was causing some tingling/numbness/cold feeling in my right elbow.  Things are better now, but I really have to do something about my home computer desk, sooo...

- I ordered a GeekDesk electric height-adjustable desk base for home and it's on it's way!!  It should arrive this week (YAY!), so I really need to get my butt to Ikea to grab a table top to complete it.  My current computer chair creaks with almost every movement so that will likely be my next purchase.

- We've recently gotten into watching Sons of Anarchy (a friend gave it to us on DVD) and I can't believe how addicted I am to this show.  It's absolutely fantastic and the acting is top-notch.  We've come very close to tears on a couple of occasions already and last night I was caught off-guard with a stunner of an ending.  Christ, I hate it when major characters you like a lot are suddenly killed off.  I was traumatized!!  Ugh...  Anyway, this is just testament to how good the whole series is so far.  Next up is the second episode of the third season.  Thank GROK Monday is a holiday!!  :)

- My dad is recovering from a really bad cold and is still eating crap food.  Can't say anything about diet because my step-mom is a nutritionist.  *sigh*

It's Saturday...here's what the scale says!

145.8 is the reading today after a small bowel movement, wearing only my socks (damn scale is glass and it's winter, so...).  I'm happy with that.

I've cut down to using cream in only one of my coffees per day, with almond milk in the others.  I kind of feel like a recovering alcoholic, wherein even the sight of a picture of cakes or cookies makes me very afraid.  Afraid I'll cave and be back to my old ways.  Sugarholic.  That's what I am.

There has been some discussion regarding exactly this; how evil sugar really is, though the general public still refuses to accept it.  Whatever - they can have it.  It amazes me how people plug their ears and go "LALALALALALALA" when they hear how bad their daily indulgences are.  Then they complain that they're fat and sick and want stomach surgery so they can't eat so much.  Ridiculous!!

Where do we go from here?

My mom stopped by last evening for a visit, and of course the usual subject of how good I look in my jeans/top came up...she asked what my goal weight is.  I said 140 lbs.  She knows I'm currently in the 144 range, so she then asked me what my next goal will be once I reach 140.

I didn't know what to say, because I hadn't considered that, but after a moment I said that I guess I won't really need a new goal, because my body will continue to lose the fat until it's done.  It's not like I'm starving myself, so I won't whither away completely; my body will just become optimized, I suppose.

I like that idea.

This afternoon at work I was a bit peckish (my lunch was two sausages and the leftover veggies from dinner) so I went to see if there was anything decent enough to buy from the vending machine.  Silly tit!!  Of course there wasn't anything good in there...but my eyes locked on my old nemesis Coffee Crisp for a fleeting moment.  I thought for sure I'd give in (always did before) but I didn't.  And it didn't bother me one bit.

I went back to my desk and promptly forgot about eating until I got home.  Success!

Today's post is brought to you by the number...

144.3!  Back down again from last week's reading, which I'm obviously happy about.  I've been a good girl this weekend.  I've also been using the pull-up bar to stretch against and attempt more chins/pulls a few times each day.

I'm not anxious to go back to work tomorrow (somebody please, make the stupid go away!), but I am VERY anxious to get back to my wonderful new height-adjustable desk!!  I can't wait!!

Boring Sunday post...

I decided last week to wean myself off the YeastBuster program because I felt I was ready and I was really sick and tired of having that damn drink first thing every morning.

I'm happy to be off it, but I left all the bottles in the same spot on the counter as a bit of a reminder; if you fall off the wagon you'll be back on this wagon!!  Yucky.

So far, so good.  I've not gorged myself on cakes yet, which is a good sign of me actually kicking this yeast problem/sugar addiction.  There are sweets in the cupboard (such as semi-sweet chocolate chips and my dad's homemade rum-soaked fruitcake) that are not interesting to me at all.  What a revelation!

Last night we went to our friends' house for dinner.  They didn't know what to make us for dinner so they made tacos.  Well, sounds good to me - I haven't had tacos in eons!  I looooooooove eating a hard-shell taco loaded with ground beef, tomatoes, lettuce and shredded cheese.  Yum!  I had two hard-shell and one soft-shell and I was pretty full.  Oh yeah, I drank two rum 'n Cokes.  Only two.

I brought a container of blueberries and strawberries plus a small container of coconut milk because I knew they would have crap for dessert (and I was right).  My friend busted out the chocolate cream pie from the fridge shortly after we went downstairs to play darts.  She also had a really gross-looking bag of no-name cheese crunch things.  Blech.  I had a sliver of the pie.  Normally I would have told everyone to get their own damn pie while I ate mine...okay, I'm exaggerating.  A little.  After my sliver of pie I got myself a nice bowl of fruit in coconut milk.  My friends commented on how good it looked so of course I offered them some.  After all, I brought enough for everyone;  I'm a good friend. :)

Today I had bacon with my eggs for the first time in, like, two months (because of being on the YB program - delicious bacon is NOT allowed on the program).  It's a boring day and I'm supposed to be reading for my latest course (Fire Protection) in the Occupational Safety and Health program I'm working through, but I'm finding that my mind keeps wandering to the kitchen for some munchies.  A couple of plantain chips and a few spoonfuls of vanilla-flavoured, 9% MF yogurt did the trick.  For now.  I'll continue reading after posting this entry.

Weighed myself yesterday and the scale read 145.4 lbs, but since we've started working with weights and the pull-up bar I can't worry too much about weight anymore.  I wore my size 7 pants last night!  W00t!!

Chicken thighs for dinner.  Can't wait!!

Mmmm, chicken. And motorcycles. Ooh! And a weight update!

That humungous free-run bird you saw in yesterday's post is now resting comfortably in the slow cooker on a bed of onion, carrot, garlic and celery, bathed in sea salt, freshly-cracked pepper, Italian seasonings, "roasted garlic and pepper" seasoning, and seasoned salt (guilty pleasure of ours).  Actually, I'm starting the cooker on high for a bit, so perhaps the poor dear isn't so comfy...good thing it's not feeling anything at all!  :)

Yesterday after work we headed over to the motorcycle show, which happens (almost always) on the first weekend of the year.  We had previously arranged to pick up a set of tires for my bike (Honda 599 - aka Hornet) and we also grabbed a pair of boots each (my toes were constantly scraping the front of my old ones), a set of custom-made ear plugs (I wish we could try them out on the bikes, but it's only 6C here and we don't have any heated gear!), a couple of bike covers (to keep the sawdust off them while in the garage), and I also bought myself a new helmet.

Since we were at the show for over 4 hours were a bit hungry so we ate....ugh...a pizza slice each.  Gross!!!  Actually, it tasted pretty good, but it sure felt icky.  I have a headache this morning, too...wonder if I'm that stressed about eating it or if I just over-slept this morning.

My weight this morning was 144.6!  Yahoo!!

Come onnnnnnn, SPRING!!!  Mama's got some ridin' to do...

Pleased as punch!

As today is Saturday, the day I weigh in for the week to gauge my progress, I'm super-pleased to report that, even though I indulged somewhat during Christmas, my weight today was 145.0!!! I actually lost 0.6 of a pound!! Fuckin' YEAH!!!!

The Good, Bad, and the Ugly

The Good: I got on the scale this morning and (WOOHOO!) it read my new lowest weight in years; 145.6! YES!! Yesterday was a very productive day in the washroom (thank you, Greens+???) so I hoped that it would make a difference on the scale today. Yay!

My mom and nephew stopped by this evening for some Christmas cheer and to open up ONE gift each. I wasn't making a dinner so we had a veggie platter, hummus, some shrimp with seafood sauce, and pumpernickel bread with spinach dip.

The Bad: I was hoping it would go away after awhile; that tell-tale dryness I had in the back of my throat yesterday. This morning when I woke up it was dry AND sore. Great. Just in time for family gatherings at Christmas.

The Ugly: I ate some of the pumpernickel bread, some of the delicious homemade shortbread cookies Mom made for us, aaaand, she made some baking powder biscuits (tea buscuits) from a Fanny Farmer recipe. OMG they were so good...

For background music I had a Christmas channel from Iceberg Radio on. I'm done with Christmas music for this year now. Especially those damn chipmunks.

Merry Christmas, everyone!!

Just for the hell of it...

I weighed myself again this morning upon rising, after emptying my bladder. 146.6! Awesome!

No, I'm not going to be weighing myself every day going forward - just thought I'd see after all the bowel movements I had yesterday hehehehe. :)

...aaaaaaaand I'll now introduce a new label (tag) at this point: TMI! :D

After Two Weeks on the YeastBusters Program...

I'm holding steady at 147.9 lbs and although there were a couple of days where I couldn't drink as much water as I should have, I'm still regular.

Last night I started taking Greens+; one spoonful mixed in a cup of water (today I used unsweetened apple juice instead). It tastes like oddly-fruity green hell if you keep it in your mouth too long. The juice helped but made it way too sweet overall, so tomorrow I'll try it with more water than juice.

Slept like a log last night and went for a walk with my mom today. I made a huge bowl of popcorn for my hunnybun with a generous amount of melted butter drizzled over it (OMFG) and I resisted having even one kernel. Wow. One of my (now, former?) weaknesses.

I tell you, once I am finished the 8-or so weeks of this program I will be treating myself with something decadent and sinfully chocolatey! (I just hope that by that time I will be able to eat one thing as a treat and not need to eat 8 of them or every day, etc.)

Update

Thought I'd post an update since I have now been on the YeastBuster program for a week.

Day one (Monday):
- Mixed the drink together using just water. OMFG - NARSTY!! Got a few gulps down before the taste hit me. Couldn't touch any more so the rest went down the drain.

- Went to grocery store to get some unsweetened fruit juice to mix into the next one.

- Forgot to take the DDS Acidophilus pills before bed. Oops.

Day two:
- Mixed half water and half unsweetened pineapple juice in the drink. MUCH better! Downed the whole cup and then realized I was only supposed to use 2oz of juice with the rest being water. Oops.

- Remembered the damn DDS Acidophilus pills at bedtime. Yay!

Day three:
- Drink tasted just fine with the 2oz of juice. Yay! Finally doing it right.

Day four:
- Had my drink in the morning. After work I met up with my BFF to see Breaking Dawn. Picked up some dinner from Loblaw's (grocery store); salmon and sweet potato fries (sweet potatoes are on the 'reduce' list during the YB program). Had no problem walking by all the junk food in the store. I was hoping to grab a bag of plantain chips to munch on during the movie but they didn't have any. At the theatre I had nachos and cheese (hey look, another weakness!). BFF bought the nacho combo for me, which came with a gargantuan pop (that I didn't drink...the sweetie was thoughtful enough to get me Coke Zero lol).

- Experienced strange tummy grumblings after eating, unrelated to what was going on in the movie (heh).

Day five:
- Drink in the morning. Today I noticed how perfect my poops are this week. Stealth! :)

- Forgot to take one of the two DDS Acidophilus pills at bedtime. Oops.

Day six:
- Drink in the morning. Ate pork roast leftovers for breakfast. Awesome bowel movement shortly thereafter. Got on the scale for the hell of it, expecting to see ~150 again. Nope!! 147.8!!! WOOHOOO!!!


Part of this daily drink is a spoonful of psyllium powder, so I have to drink lots and lots of water...which means constantly having to pee like a racehorse, but it's important so that I don't get stopped up.

I'll weigh myself again next Saturday to see how things are going, and then I'll also begin taking Greens+ as directed.

I'm also poo-free again, using only ACV as a rinse in every shower. While it's in my hair I use my scalp massager brush to loosen up any dandruff. Next week I finally have a hair appointment and am going back to short and flippy hair. Can't wait!!

Thennnnnnn, right after my haircut, we're off to see The Tea Party in Toronto!! I hope they play this song....it's my favourite:

Getting back on track

I'm managing to change some of my bad habits again and eat better food. In just a couple of days I'm back down to 152.2 (the other day I was 154.5) and feeling a little better.

We've made a couple of stir fry dinners this week and unfortunately rice made a reappearance on our plate. At the very least, it wasn't instant rice! Usual ingredients in our stir fry include large chunks of zucchini, bell peppers, garlic, and sweet onion. These are fried up in hot bacon fat and then we usually add some sort of leftover protein (last night it was hamburger). Hot damn, it was delicious. It got eaten so quickly there wasn't any time for photos.

Tonight we're going to our friends' house for dinner and drinks, so I will try to be good under the circumstances.

*Happy Dance*

This morning when I got on the scale (twice, to be sure) it read:

147.7!!!!!!!!!!

That bring my total weight loss to just over 18 pounds! YES!!!!!!!!! Last October I had reached 148.2 but then with xmas and all that I had gone up just a couple pounds, always hovering between 149-151. This is the lowest I've weighed in YEARS. Seeing as I'm not really working out a whole lot at this point, I'm not building muscle weight so the weigh scale does matter to me. Just for now.

Today's Eats

Breakfast: Roughly 1/2 cup strawberry yogourt

Lunch: 1/2 left over steak (*DROOL*)

Dinner: Will be roasted pork shoulder, onions, bell peppers, and bacon-wrapped asparagus. YUM!

Weighed myself this morning (no BM, unfortunately) and I'm 149.3! Now that all the evil shortbread cookies are out of the house (and into my belly :(), I can get my carbs down to a better level again. Damn those cookies all to hell!!! (YUM lol)

I don't want to put too much onus on weight, but...

...this morning after a BM my scale read 148.7. YES!!!!

Been working on the wall push-ups and squats, so I expect to gain a bit of muscle weight...I should look into how to measure BF% someday.

For now, I'm happy with my progress so far. Since I've been recording my weigh-ins, the trend shows a loss of approx. 10 lbs over a 6-month period, so I hope to have lost 20 lbs by the end of the year. That would be sweet.

Happy Birthday to Me!

So today is my 36th and I just realized that my entire family knows not to call me before noon just in case I'm sleeping in. Hah!

Hubby and I are catching up on our internet fix while slowly sipping our teas; mine Red Rose with milk (lactose-free) and his Chamomile with a bit of brown sugar.

Yesterday morning I weighed myself and was happy to see 149.5 on the scale. I knew it would only be temporary since our friends were coming over to celebrate my b-day a day early, but it was nice to see anyway. It proved that I could get there after all! I can also feel some muscles on my arms after working with the sledgehammer on Friday!

Dinner was BBQd hamburgers (ground beef and ground pork with onions inside...mmm) and roasted bell peppers and zucchini. YUM! My BFF made me an awesome angel food cake with a pineapple whipped cream icing and OMFG was it good! I think I had 4 squares of it. We were also drinking, of course, so this weekend is pretty much a bust, diet-wise, though how can you not deviate when it's your birthday??! :)

A few reference pics from today...

WOOT!

Weighed myself this morning after (finally) a BM and my weight was....................................149.9!!!!!!!!!!! YEEHAWWW!

I worked from home today, so while on conference calls I put my gloves on and did some swinging of the sledgehammer. I completed two sets, three exercises of eight reps per arm. I can feel it!

For dinner tonight I used the last of the boneless, skinless chicken pieces and made a chicken soup that fuckin' ROCKED. My mom came over and we went for a 45-minute walk while the soup was simmering. When we got back and caught whiff of the soup we had to drop everything and start devouring it. She even said that never in a million years did she think I'd ever cook something that good. Hah! Take that!

The ingredients were as follows:

- 1 can chicken broth (using up the misc. stuff in the cupboard to get rid of it)
- 1 can cream of chicken soup (same as above - getting rid of it)
- several pieces of boneless, skinless chicken, cut up into approx. square inch bits
- 1 can of coconut milk (the magic ingredient!)
- carrot chunks
- vidalia onions (unfortunately, the last of what we had in the freezer), quartered or smaller
- dash of Montreal steak spice
- dash of roasted garlic and peppers spice