A Look Back at 2008: Moving & Medication

On January 19 Brad and I participated in the Walk For Life (short video), a pro-life event held in San Francisco every year. The walk itself was only 2.5 miles, but moved slowly. This was it's fourth year and the first time for Brad and I. I had a great time (though it was very cold, and want to go back next year.

On April 29 I received the standard letter from the owners that they would be raising my rent starting June 1. It was going up to $780. I decided to move. I put in my 30 days notice in May and started shopping around. Most places wanted people right away so I had to give up until June.

May 18th was the annual Bay To Breakers race. I bested last years best time by about 4 1/2 minutes and came in at 1:19:54. I again ran the whole race except for the hill.

I looked at three more apartments in early June, but ended up moving into one I had looked at back on May 4th! It is a little more expensive at $725 per month plus water, and is very small. But it was completely refurbished and quite cozy. Brad and I were able to move most stuff over ahead of time, so the actual move was mostly just furniture and went very quickly. Brad and I each took two days off work to move, unpack, and run numerous errands. I officially moved on June 30th when we took the furniture and bed over.

June 10th I had most of a complete physical at my newest doctor out in Castro Valley. They did complete bloodwork, urine and fecal testing, an EKG, and a chest x-ray.

July 11 Brad and I saw Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D, my first 3 D movie since I was a kid. :) The movie itself was only okay, but the 3D made it worth it.

When the bloodwork results from my physical came back I noticed that my TSH was toward the high end and my Free T4 was barely in range on the low end. These are thyroid markers so at my next appointment on July 25 I asked for further testing - Free T3, ferritin, Vitamins B-12 and D, and thyroid antibodies.

I also asked for a 5 hour glucose tolerance test at this appointment. I went in for that test on August 1 (video), and when I got the results back I found out I was hypoglycemic and my blood sugar went as low at 30 at one point. No wonder I felt like crap during the test!

My DSL kit arrived August 1 and I got hooked up to high speed Internet. Zoom zoom! No more having to bring my computer to work to upload videos. :)

At my next doctor's appointment on August 8 we went over the further tests that were ordered - my Free T3 was in the basement, my ferritin on the low end, great Vitamin B levels, slightly low Vitamin D (though not worrisome), and no thyroid antibodies. I was officially diagnosed as hypothyroid and put on 50mcg levothyroxine (T4 hormone), as well as an iron supplement to get my ferritin up.

I wasn't able to go to General Conference in early August due to skyrocketing costs - I simply didn't have the money - so I tried to take just one day off and have a little fun locally by playing tourist for a day in San Francisco. Unfortunately, my fill-in at work flaked on me and since I hadn't totally covered my butt, her screw up was blamed on me and I was told to come in.

I finally got my much needed vacation on September 25, coincidentally enough the day that the fill-in girl had originally written down incorrectly. I also took the last half of the 24th off so I could get everything ready and be well-rested so I could better enjoy my day off.

On September 2 I took the deposit money from my old apartment and signed up for a 3 year pre-paid membership at my gym, so no more monthly dues for me!

I had another doctor appointment on September 19. The doctor bumped me up to 75mcg of levothyroxine. I asked him for adrenal tests to rule that in or out and he sent me for them. According to the people at About.com's thyroid forum my results were good so I am going to drop that line of inquiry.

My TSH came down a bit, my Free T4 went up a teeny bit, but my Free T3 took a 130 point jump and was finally in normal range for the first time in God only knows how long! :) My ferritin went down. I had given blood September 5 and thought the intervening time (three weeks) would be enough to get my levels back up, but it wasn't. I started eating Cream of Wheat every day, at first one serving and then two. Cream of Wheat has 50% of the RDA of iron in every serving.

Since the levothyroxine made me edgy and I would cry easily the doc bumped me up to 60mg of my anti-depressant (Celexa). I started the higher dose that very day, but didn't begin the 75mcg of thyroid meds until September 27, the day after my blood tests. I wanted to see how 50mcg effected my numbers before going up to 75.

After a while I tried to go down on the Celexa dose back to 40mg, and while it wasn't as bad as it had been, I still got weepy and edgy so I went back up to 60mg.

75mcg of thyroid meds made me very hungry. I am always hungry anyway from my Celexa, but this was much worse! Thankfully it seemed to calm down after several weeks and slowly return to my "normal" level of hunger.

October 31 the doctor bumped me up to 100mcg of thyroid meds. I also gave blood at the Red Cross (video). When I gave blood September 5 my hemoglobin level was 12.5% - the minimum required to be able to donate. On October 31 my level was 13.8%, so I guess the Cream of Wheat is helping. Of course, after the donation it will be much lower! I'm not going to give blood as often now. My low ferritin is the reason for my tiredness and I take two steps back in my treatment every time I give blood.

My next doctor appointment is the end of January and I will get blood tests done a couple weeks before.

It has been a hard year financially. When the economy went to pot, food prices soared. I'm now paying nearly double for some items I use every day (like salad), and can't afford anything better than iceberg lettuce. Before I could occasionally buy something healthier if it was on sale. Now I can't even afford the sale price.

So it's been a rough year just trying to survive from paycheck to paycheck, and if I didn't have the $200 a month from my Dad and the $200 a month from the Oregon property I wouldn't be able to make it.

Prepaid three years at my gym! :)

Calories eaten yesterday: 1223
Fat: 22g (17%)
Carbs: 112g (38%)
Protein: 132g (45%)
Weight this morning: 132.6 (One week ago: 131.2)
Calories burned in exercise today: 170

Only a short workout today because the bus didn't come and I had to wait for the next one. I got in 35 minutes of weight training and the 30 minute walk to work.

I got a good deal on my prepaid membership at the gym. The breakdown was funky, but in the end I got a three year prepaid membership with four 50 minute personal training sessions for $650. After the 3 years are up I can sign up at the rate of $99 a year ($8.25 per month). So I'm pretty happy with this. I used my security deposit from my old apartment and still had money left for Alli pills at WalMart and gave Brad some money to buy me cat litter at Costco.

Breakdown of fees:
Initiation fee: $210.11
Prepaid dues: $239.88 (for 12 months with 24 "bonus" months)
Personal training: $200
Total: $649.99

All three come as a package so you can't pick and choose what you want or don't want. Still, $650 for three years works out to about $18.06 per month. I was paying $31.99 a month so this is a great deal. And the prepaid is an all-club membership. At $31.99 a month I had only a one club membership; before that I paid $41.99 a month for an all club membership.

Technorati tagged: diet, low fat, weight loss, health, exercise, fitness, weight,health club, fat, overweight

Health club membership, and some thoughts on pets

Calories eaten yesterday: 1128
Fat: 22g (18%)
Carbs: 111g (40%)
Protein: 118g (42%)
Weight this morning: 135 (One week ago: 133.6)
Calories burned in exercise today: 167

My weight was barely down today so I did gain a lot from my off plan days and I was seriously dehydrated yesterday morning. As you can see, I am way above where I was this time last week.

Got a call this morning from the guy at 24 Hour Fitness. My membership doesn't run out until the 10th, but he swears that if I prepay three years tomorrow that I can get a great deal. The deal sound good, but I'm trying to get ahold of him to ask about initiation fees, whether I have to pay for the personal training, processing fees, etc. In other words, how much more will I have to pay over the quoted price? Anyway, I have an appointment with him at 1:15 tomorrow and hopefully I can do some weight training before that.

I'm still wiped out. I was totally overcome with tiredness by 1:30 this morning and I'm usually still quite awake then. This was after about 10 hours of sleep the night before and only light exercise. I was even so far out of it that I missed my bus stop and had to walk back. :-p

Boss "J" isn't here today because it's a holiday, but I will have to deal with him tomorrow. :( I'm still too far out of it to care about eating very much. It's part 4 pm and I haven't even had breakfast. I'll eat some green beans soon.

A co-worker in my department "Y" made me really angry last night with his comments about cats. He mentioned he finally got his cat spayed (and when they did it they found she was pregnant again) and we talked about prices. I mentioned that Xena's pain meds cost $12. "Y" doesn't believe in pain meds because, in his words, "It's just a cat. It doesn't have a soul."

Excuuuuse me? First, the Bible doesn't say if animals have souls. Second, why should it even matter? It's a living, breathing creature. God set us as caretakers of the earth and all it's creatures. We should do our best to take care of the ones we adopt. Cats feel pain just like people. Cats need the see the doctor just like people. Cats need dental care just like people. Why should the fact that it is a "lesser" creature matter one whit?

I just don't get people like that, especially a Christian. I've seen the same with my pastor's family's pets. I don't feel they take nearly as good care of them as they should. As Christians we should care more than anybody else as we have to answer to a higher power.

Technorati tagged: diet, low fat, weight loss, health club, exercise, fitness, weight,NutriSystem, cats, pets

Dropping my health club membership

Calories eaten yesterday: 1171
Fat: 28g (21%)
Carbs: 83g (28%)
Protein: 152g (51%)
Weight this morning: 135.4 (One week ago: 135.6)
Calories burned in exercise today: 323

I forgot to write this yesterday: I dropped my health club membership yesterday. No, I'm not quitting. ;) I want to get a pre-paid membership, but those are only available for new members. So I have to drop my membership, wait for the last month to run out (I paid first and last when I signed up), and then rejoin with the pre-paid membership. I'll use the money Helena owes me from my security deposit and set it aside for this. Hopefully I won't have to miss any workouts.

Today was leg day. I did one hour of mostly leg work with a teeny bit of core. For cardio I set the treadmill at a 15% grade and just walked, mostly at 2.5 mph. I finally ended with walking to work from BART.

One thing I bought last weekend was an OTC thyroid supplement. I started taking it yesterday. Hopefully it can help a little and more hopefully I can get some thyroid medication from the doctor to help me.

Technorati tagged: diet, low fat, weight loss, health, exercise, fitness, weight,NutriSystem, fat, overweight, cats

My workout anniversary!

Calories eaten yesterday: 1348
Fat: 24g (16%)
Carbs: 140g (42%)
Protein: 139g (42%)
Weight this morning: 130.8 (One week ago: 131.6)
Calories burned in exercise today: 313

Today is my four year anniversary of my very first workout at Curves! That was also 70 pounds ago! :D Yay me!

The best way to celebrate my workout anniversary is, of course, to workout! So I went to the gym and did lower body today and some core. Like yesterday, every exercise was strained. I'm not back in my groove yet and every exercise feels like the first time.

I tried jogging very slowly on the treadmill, but I only lasted 5 minutes before slowing down to a walk for the remaining 25 minutes - 1.9 miles total. I proceeded to have a coughing attack on the train on the way to work. I guess that's my body's way of telling me not to run yet. Deep breathing=coughing, which hinders both weights and cardio.

I walked to work from BART - another 30 minutes and 1.5 miles.

I'm hoping to go to the gym tomorrow and do upper body again. My neck and shoulders are still hurting from my coughing. I need to see the chiropractor when I get the money.

I've hit a groove with breakfast. (Ok, this was a while ago, but it needs to be written down.) I was doing eggs and cottage cheese every day (for the protein), but I have found a couple other high protein breakfasts - cottage cheese or Greek yogurt with whey powder. I still have a bunch of NS eggs I ordered that I'll go through slowly.

I also found a low-carb pancake mix made with wheat gluten instead of soy flour. Soy flour does not play well with my digestive system, but wheat gluten is no problem for me, so I have an alternative to NS pancakes. :) I feel I have a pretty good grip on doing all my meals "on my own" and not having to order NS foods anymore. :)

Technorati tagged: diet, low fat, weight loss, health, exercise, fitness, obese, overweight, NutriSystem

My Workout Anniversary!

Today marks two years since I did my first workout! Yay me! I'm celebrating by going for a run on the treadmill at the gym.

A little more detail about today. I was really tired last night. I accidentally reset my clock while trying to set the alarm, so I ended up getting up at 7 a.m. Saturday morning instead of 8. Bleh. Anyway, I went to bed really early on Saturday night and slept a good 10-11 hours. I feel much better today. I forced Xena to sleep on my bed and instead of sleeping at the bottom of the bed or in her box on the bed, she curled up right next to me, so close that it was hard to turn over. :)

Got up at 9, so I could have extra time at the gym. I went to the Bayfair 24 Hour Fitness that has the lap pool. I did 20 minutes on the pedal stairmaster. I still had some spare time so I did 10 minutes on the treadmill at 3.5 mph (a nice fast walking pace, but not too fast). Gotta burn those calories from the ice cream yesterday. I sweated so much.

Then I stripped off my workout clothes and my swimsuit was beneath. I went into the pool. Swam around for about 25 minutes, then got in the whirlpool for 10 minutes, then back to the pool for another 10 minutes. I was only going to do 30 total, but I went for 35 because, again, I need to burn the calories from the ice cream. By this point I could feel myself getting tired. The whole thing is more cardio than I am used to. Back in the whirlpool for another 10 minutes, then step on the scale in the women's dressing room, then strip down and get dressed in my civilian clothes. ;) I had an Atkins shake for the protein content while I walked back to the BART station.

A great day at the gym. I love swimming, even if it's boring lap swimming, and then I get to end the workout with the whirlpool. :) I can't swim, but I can dog paddle and float on my back and the pool is so shallow I can walk from end to end.

Anniversary of working out

I figured what better way to celebrate the anniversary of beginning to exercise than by exercising (2/19/04)! So I jumped on my really old, rusted stationary bike at home. Everything was going find until about 15 minutes in it started making so much noise I couldn't hear the TV, and I was trying to catch up on some stuff I taped. So I hopped off and just jogged in place and from one end of the apartment to the other for another 15 minutes. I'd intended to bike for a half hour so I figured that would make up for it.

My orange tabby, Abby, the feral one, was perched at the top of the cat tree looking at me real weird. lol They freak out any time I act different from normal. They've gotten used to the bike, but I rarely run in place for exercise.

San Leandro 24 Hour Fitness, take 2

Went swimming at the San Leandro 24 Hour Fitness this morning. Just boring lap swimming, but I liked the tight feeling of the swimsuit on my body and the feeling of the water on my arms and legs. Did that for about a half hour total.

Weighed myself before going in the pool in my shower shoes and my bathing suit (less clothes than I usually wear to weigh). I came out to about 160, so I haven't really gained from indulging the last 3 days! :) Maybe a teeny bit, but only a teeny difference. I'm back on the wagon today and keeping a closer eye on my calories.

As weird as it sounds, I can't wait for TOM so I can break this 160 mark and get into the 150s.

One Year Ago Today

One year ago yesterday I decided I weighed too much and signed up at Curves. One year ago today I did my first workout. :) One year ago today I began to change my life. One year ago today I started to do something about my weight. I didn't begin Atkins until later. This is just the anniversary of beginning to excercise.

Yea me!

San Leandro 24 Hour Fitness

Went swimming at the San Leandro 24 Hour Fitness. They have a small lap pool, but it was just nice to wear my new suit and get in the water. I was in and out of the pool a few times, but I think the total time in came to around 40 minutes.

This facility is bigger with more machines (of all kinds), but I like my home club. At least I know where everything is. But hey - now I can go swimming anytime I want! :) I rinsed off afterward, but I still smell like chlorine.

Bought a bunch of cool low carb foods at Target. It's so close to the BART station. I could go shopping there anytime I want. I join 24 Hour and my world starts getting larger. :) Anyway, I even found sugar free Almond Roca! Finally! I kept looking at the boxes hoping against hope they'd come out with one.

San Leandro 24 Hour Fitness

Went swimming at the San Leandro 24 Hour Fitness. They have a small lap pool, but it was just nice to wear my new suit and get in the water. I was in and out of the pool a few times, but I think the total time in came to around 40 minutes.

This facility is bigger with more machines (of all kinds), but I like my home club. At least I know where everything is. But hey - now I can go swimming anytime I want! :) I rinsed off afterward, but I still smell like chlorine.

Bought a bunch of cool low carb foods at Target. It's so close to the BART station. I could go shopping there anytime I want. I join 24 Hour and my world starts getting larger. :) Anyway, I even found sugar free Almond Roca! Finally! I kept looking at the boxes hoping against hope they'd come out with one.

Workouts, and calories

Crazy day. Worked out at 24 Hour Fitness. I'm really tired so I couldn't push myself very hard. It's the end of the week and I'm at the end of my energy. My dad sent me $1000 for my b-day, so I went to Safeway and bought $93 worth of groceries, then came to work and used my VitamineShoppe.com coupons and bought $200 worth of stuff - both herbal supplements and low carb food.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to go into Curves for one last weigh and measure before my contract is up.

My weight hasn't bounced around much this week, but I guess that's because I've been so far under my calories most of the week. Check my journal. It's insane. Today I'll probably go over, but I need to seriously adjust my planned menu. At any rate, not much bouncing this week, and under calories most of the time.

Well, after the first card disappearing in the mail, my 24 Hour Fitness membership card finally arrived. Good grief! I've been a member for how long using a bar code printed on a sheet of paper because I didn't have my card?!?

The "My Soldier" stuff also arrived. I need to get my butt in gear and write and send that letter. I've been procrastinating for months now.

Went into the City and bought a holder for my iPod. It gets scratched in my gym bag or purse and needed something to protect it. Also hit Old Navy for a second pair of size 10 jeans. While there I saw the cutest tunic that would look fantabulous on me, and it was on sale for $16. It needed a spaghetti strap halter under it, and that was another $8.50. Total damage: about $56. The halter I could fit into a large, but the tunic I needed XL. The L was tight under the arms. Why? Because of my overly large boobs! See what is bad about a big chest? Nothing fits!

Hit GNC and bought a box of Atkins candy bars and some other little candy thing. I like to try new things. Also 2 bottles of Atkins salad dressing that was on sale. They also had 28 little cans of Diet RockStar energy drink on sale for...get this...25 cents each! I think I freaked the ladies out by buying all 28 cans, lol. They are just soooo good and soooo expensive. No way was I passing it up for that price! They are just the 8.4 oz cans, but the regular price is $1.99 PER CAN!

Back to the gym tomorrow. I hope I don't bounce up more, but I'm sure I will. My body seems to really enjoy retaining water and pissing me off.

24 Hour Fitness; I signed up!

Ok, I signed up at 24 Hour Fitness today. It ended up costing a bit more than I expected because the special quoted sign-up price that *included* 4 sessions with a personal trainer was only if you signed up for all club membership (meaning I can work out at any club - something that's nice but I would rarely use), and that's $4 extra a month. Still I would want personal training in the future so I decided to go with that. It's $2 over the max I was willing to pay for monthly dues, so I hope I can swing it. All together it came to $11 more for the initial signup than I was quoted two days ago :-p but I took everything out of savings and depostited what I could into checking today, so I just had them use my Visa debit for the extra $11. The rest ($356) I had in cash (also taken out of saving this morning). The $367 dollars includes the processing fee, 4 sessions with a personal trainer, and 1st and last month's workout fees. (It's like rent - meaning that when I decide to cancel, I don't pay the last month.)

I know I'm babbling. I'm sorry. I'm tired. Neighborhood dogs were STILL barking at 2 a.m. so I didn't get enough sleep.

Started on the Celexa today, another of those wonderful anti-depressants that cause weight gain. :-p I hope I can keep myself from gaining this time. A regular starting dose is 20mg, but I still remember how a starting dose of Zoloft had me climbing the walls the first 3 days (and crashing down on the 4th before I adjusted to the med on the 5th day). So I decided to quarter the first pill and only take about 10mg this morning. At least for now, I won't be going up to a "regular" dose of 40mg; I'll stay on 20mg if it works for me and only add more if I need to. I will also be taking a very small dose of Wellbutrin still (100mg a day). I'll remain at 200mg for now and go down to 100mg once the Celexa has a chance to kick in.

Money, Meds, and Metabolism

Ok, today I am supposed to sign up for 24 Hour Fitness. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, my bank account stood at -$200 last week. Therefore, the money that Mom sent only put my back to 0, and now that the rest of the low carb stuff I ordered from the Vitamin Shoppe has been shipped, I'll be back into negative numbers again, and get dinged with yet ANOTHER overdraft charge. *sigh* I'm withdrawing all most everything from my savings tomorrow to 1) pay for the health club ($356 for all the setup and first and last month's dues), and 2) to deposit into my checking account to get the balance around 0 again. I'm a bit stressed. I am eating only what is in the house (no cash), and that will last about a week I guess, maybe longer. I'm trusting God to take care of me, and there is something on the horizon that might help.

Today is the last day I can join 24 Hour and get the special that includes the personal training. After today, it'll cost $20 more and include no personal training. And January they won't be hurting for new members (New Year's Resolutions and all), so there won't be all the cool specials they have now when they DO need members. So I have to get up early and run into the City to both my banks, then back over here with the money to join. It's going to be a busy morning.

My medication arrived Friday, so I found it in my box Sunday. I dug out my pill cutter from the closet and decided to start on a VERY small dose for the first four days. Instead of cutting the pills in half (a regular starter dose and also the dose I will remain on for now), I cut the first pill into something approximating quarters.

This is where the rubber meets the road and my theory on cravings gets put to the test. If all the SSRIs do is make me crave carbs, then staying on Atkins and journaling my food should prevent any gain. In I'm wrong and it effects metabolism, I'm screwed.

Thinking out loud...

Ok, I have 2 1/2 months left at Curves. My contract there ends mid-February. I rather doubt she will let me out. She's too desperate for money to be nice. At the same time, I am bored out of my mind.

I want to join 24 Hour Fitness. I've called several gyms and checked out two that were in my price range. 24 Hour is by far the best. I was thinking of joining the end of December before the annual flock of people with New Year's Resolutions decends. BUT...they said if I join the first week of December I can get a few sessions with a personal trainer (something I think would really help), and get my BMR tested, something else I really want. This special is only good for the first week (well, actually, the 6th) and I was told to come in by this Sunday if I wanted to sign up for that. So I'm torn.

Now, Curves is roughly $40 a month, so 3 months forfeited is roughly $120. However, if I had not signed the contact I would have paid roughly $50 a month. 9 months (where we are now) at $10 a month more comes to $90. So really, it's pretty even steven either way. The only difference is $30 and when the money is paid. If I can get out of the contract with a penalty I would in a heartbeat. I just doubt she'll allow that. She'll most likely hold to me every last penny, and have every legal right to do so. Not sure how to pay for two memberships at once except to raid my savings. It's only until next February, not forever.

So I'm just trying to decide to leave now and start at my new gym, or wait until January or February and somehow deal with the intense bordom I feel.

Just thinking out loud...

YMCA

Called the YMCA here - they have a pool and everything - and asked them their prices. Let's just say that I don't even have to go down to look; I'll defintely be joining 24 Hour Fitness. The "Y" was more than $20 a month more that 24 Hour, and way more than the max I'm willing to pay.

Decisions

Well, I called the YMCA today to find out their prices. That cost more than $20 more than 24 Hour Fitness, and about that same amount over the max I'm willing to pay. They really do look nice - pool, more classes than 24 Hour, etc. Oh well, the decision has been made for me. 24 Hour is the best club within my price range. I will be joining it.

I'm afraid to weigh myself tomorrow. Still don't know if I will or if I will wait until next week and give myself a chance to lose some of this water weight. I think I also gained a couple more pounds of fat and am probably around 180. After seeing 177 before Thanksgiving, I can't bear to see anything higher after two additional days of bingeing. *sigh*

Quick Update

Not spending a lot of time online from home. Been SO busy. I have a 13 day pass to 24 Hour Fitness and I have to get up extra early to make it there and have any time to work out. I can now run 2 miles without stopping! Curves has gotten me in really good shape. I want out because I'm just bored there, which is why I am looking at 24 Hour. I really do love it there. My Curves contract isn't up until mid-February; I don't yet know how that will play out. If I can't get out of my contract I may very well end up paying two memberships at once.

Making progress on my poems pages. I have all the poems up and am now just proofreading and fixing the html. I want it to be perfect.

Weight issues are no fun. I got down to 167 without clothes or shoes, then a gained a pound and a half out of nowhere. Then I binged for a day and a half and gained 9 pounds in 2 days! It must be water weight, but I know that once I do lose it, I'll lose less. I know I gained fat from all the binging (Monday-Tuesday), which was followed by Thanksgiving on Thursday. And tomorrow is the potluck at church - I'll just give in and eat the carbs - and then my high school reunion tomorrow night, where I will have no control over the food put in front of me. Sunday I will start over with very low levels of carbs, and get into ketosis. I finally got to 170 with clothes and shoes, and, as I promised myself, I'd start weighing in just lightweight workout clothes and socks once I got there. And now even wearing only that I'm up to 177! :(

Hope your Thanksgiving was good. I had to work, but Brad (on the shift before mine) and I had a big ol' feast. Very nice. :) And pure high-calorie carbs. :(