felicula | (no subject)

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Today, as with many winter days, I went to put lotion on my abominably dry elbows only to discover that they were not abominably dry. In fact, all the little dry bumps that would prickle my fingers when I put on lotion or otherwise touch my arms were smooth and supple.

Well, in September I started seeing a therapist for an eating disorder. About the same time, I also found a link to SparkPeople, which I used sporadically.

Let me back up a bit. In high school, I spent about a year losing 40 pounds as a bulemic. I got down to 140 and was damn proud of it. I thought I was over the bulemia when I went to college. My weight crept up to 160, 170, and finally 180. I got pregnant and was 240 before my son was born. After I had my son, I got down to 220, up to 240, yo-yo'd for years until a year of depo-provera shot me up 40+ pounds from the 230 I'd been the year before. At my worst last summer, that I can remember, I weighed in at 279. Purging was looking mighty attractive again. When I started therapy, I weighed 272 pounds.

A lot of what my therapist said made sense. Then again, I'd been on the diet rollercoaster for so long that I did not believe any of that could help me.

Over the summer I'd had an emotional crash which had fueled my acceptance of therapy in the first place. I had another after a family reunion in November. This time when my therapist suggested trying medication for my depression and anxiety, I realized that it was worth a try.

Hello Prozac.

At the same time I started taking Prozac (20mg a day), I started seeing a nutritionist, and finally got the hang of drinking at least 8 cups of water a day. I stopped drinking pop. Instead of snacks by the computer, I had a water bottle. In fact, 12 cups a day became comfortable. I started tracking my water intake on SparkPeople. By the end of December, my water weight had dropped, the Prozac was making definite progress, and I was really ready to commit to getting better.

I began exercising as many days a week as I could get myself motivated to. Since I had more energy and less anxiety, I found it pretty easy to at least walk or dance indoors for a length of time most days of the week, setting a timer and just keeping myself moving until it went off. I started getting on the old nordic trak in the back room once in a while. With exercise, my thirst went up, and I was getting 16 cups of water in an exercise day. I started tracking my exercise time, then what I ate on SparkPeople.

Friday night, I noticed I was coming down with a cold. Whereas I used to spend the entire winter sick with something, this was the first that was really bogging me down since December started. After a dream about being parched Friday night, I had 18 cups of water on Saturday. I kept my bottle by my bedside. Yesterday, I had a day of rest. I kept a water bottle by my side at all times. By the time I went to bed, I'd had 28 cups of water. It is about 10 A.M. here, and I've already had 12 cups today.

OK. I get it. I used to be so damn dehydrated. Those dry bumps were my body's way of saying it didn't have enough moisture to provide for less vital things than, say, my blood and my brain.

I am certain that my thirst will go down once I kick this cold on its butt. I am feeling so much better today already. However, I am learning how to listen to my body. If I keep this up, perhaps I can keep my newly smooth elbows and forearms for good.

In case you're wondering, at my last weigh-in, I was 252 pounds. That was almost a week ago. Slow and steady wins the race, as my memory likes to remind me now. Maybe by the end of June I'll be below 210. Maybe by my birthday in September I'll be below 200 even if I get a hysterectomy in early July and take eight weeks to recover fully. Also, SparkPeople is free. It offers trackers for many goals, excellent advice on nutrition, motivation, and exercise. It has recipes available but allows you to track your own foods as well. It includes message boards and other motivational incentives. In fact, since I told my eating disorder therapist (recovering from binge disorder herself) about it, she has been using SparkPeople and recommending it to other patients.

Getting treatment for my eating disorder, anxiety, and depression was a turning point for me, but SparkPeople is going to help me keep going until I find a healthy weight to settle down at.

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I have a big issue with water, myself. I never drink enough. When I do, I feel great, but when I'm dehydrated, I almost have a water aversion. Makes no sense, but there ya go. In fact, right now, I've had almost nothing to drink today, know I should, and am really avoiding it.

Wah. Thanks for the re-motivation, though! Congrats on finding things that are working for you!

I used to have that aversion too. I'd stare at one four cup bottle and wonder how in seven worlds I could get that in my system in a day, let alone another one to make eight. Everything liquid other than water would look so appealing, and I'd feel hungry even when I was really thirsty.

I figured out that I preferred my water refrigerated. Then it took having more than one bottle so that one could be cooling while I nursed the other one. Then I started tracking how much I had in a day. Once I was able to consistently have 8 cups or above, I started to feel thirsty not just hungry.

I realize different folks find different ways to get into drinking more water, but it's definitely worth it! I wish you luck, motivation, willpower, and progress!

Thanks for the congrats!

I really should get a second bottle. My first bottle only holds something like 20oz, which is part of the problem, because I need to refill it so often, and it just falls by the wayside.

Maybe if I JUST focus on water for a month, and drop all the other foodie stuff for a while ... I've definitely noticed I eat more when I'm thirsty, almost mindlessly. Really weird and pointless!

Wegmans sells sugar-free sparkling water in 33.8 fluid ounce bottles, so -cheapskate that I am- I get those, drink their contents, then use tap water to refill as necessary.

I think it took me about a month of focusing primarily on water to get it down. FlyLady was right about new habits taking at least a month to really become ingrained.

I'm the same way about eating when I'm thirsty. Looking back on it, it is hard to believe just how many calories I was putting into my body when I was avoiding water!

My Goodness Dear.
That is wonderful. Thank you for sharing. My mood and my bad habits have been hurtng my health. It is nice to see someone 'making it'.

I'll check out sparkpeople, maybe I can cut out my Weightwatchers online subscription.

I was just saying this weekend, how I should get this info to you. :)

Yep. Then after I saw the skin benefits, I was too bubbly not to post about it. :)

It can be stunning just how much mood can influence habits. Struggling to find energy and motivation when in a deep funk can feel like a losing battle. Thankfully the Prozac was enough of a leg up in many ways.

I can't recommend SparkPeople enough. Could be the fact that it's free. Could be that my therapist got so enthusiastic about it after she checked it out. The tools are pretty straightforward. I've gotten in the swing of inputing nutritional info for just about everything I know it for.

My mom does Weightwatchers, and a lot of the advice sounds similar. Sparkpeople doesn't really have a point system, but if you log your foods, it will count up calories, carbs, fat, and protein, and tell you where you are in your recommended ranges. The focus on healthy habits and lifestyle rather than diet.

I just signed up for it today (though I think I gave them the wrong referral name) :(

I think my only problem with it is that it does include /only/ water as a beverage. Other things (tea, specifically) should count, too, in my opinion. When I do my tracking for myself, I put all drinks in together. I can see the reason to separate out thinks like soda, or even juice, since they contain calories and sugars... but tea is calorie-free.

Personally, my beverages have been water, tea, and fruit juice (but only if it's 100%, and not daily by any means) for the past couple of years. It's rare that I drink soda or anything at all other than those listed. I've been drinking LOTS of water for so long now that it just seems second nature, but I certainly didn't always. After my confirmed kidney stone episode (and 2 which were unconfirmed, but had the exact same symptoms as that last one which was diagnosed), I started drinking a lot more water. I, also, never thought it would be possible, but the health scare was enough to make me do it. Now it's just habit. :)

If I use milk, or some other beverage, I usually track it under foods. I think they isolate water so that people who don't have the habit can really focus on how much they're taking in without caffeine, sugar, or any other ingredients. Tracking them under foods also helps keep the calories in one place so I can see them all. Some people track caffeine intake in addition to calories, so that is another reason even drinks like tea are put under foods.

My login there is HeronSinger. It's OK if you didn't refer to me. I get a ton of sparkpoints daily just from reading articals, reading emails, and tracking all the stuff I track.

Yeah, I put you in as BlackFelicula.

I guess I see your point, re: tea. Most of my own teas are decaf, but that's not necessarily true for everyone. It's going to take some transitioning, if I decide to switch to their tracking rather than my own, since I'm used to also keeping track of medicines, health-related stuff, bodily habits, etc. But I like the calorie-tracking idea, so I can see what's best in order to shed these 5 pounds or so I've been fighting with since the holidays (and keep from gaining more). I'm sure I'll figure out a system, sooner or later. :)

In other news, I'm feeling crappy now. :( I have the scratchy throat, sore/itchy ears, and tired/achy limbs going on. I'd hoped that taking yesterday as a downtime day would fight it off, but no such luck, apparently. Ah well.

***hugs*** Oof re: getting sicker. I still have the sinus pressure and headache, but the bulk of the bog-down is heading off.

I hope you find a system that works for you! If sparkpeople helps, awesome. If not, that's OK too. ***hugs more*** Good luck fighting those 5 or so pounds!

Weight watchers is the same, but they make points to help with the tracking process and they tell you what your range is and the like and it is a healthy lifestyle change instead of something you can just do for a while.

Okie. I hadn't experienced Weightwatchers firsthand, so I wasn't quite sure how that worked. The more I hear, though, the more similar it sounds.

My bud

sarbah77 lost 30lbs with the help of Sparkpeople and WeightWatchers. And exercise.

The thing to remember is that it's got to be a permanent change, even once you hit a goal...

Exactly.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. :)

Huh. I had horribly dry elbows and knees when I was on a weight-loss diet, which then went away when I started eating to maintain weight. I'd guess it has something to do with nutrient balance, but I dunno really.

Nutrient balance makes sense too, since that's been something I've been working on as well. Then again, it's most likely a cumulative effect of many of the changes I've been working on. I don't know for certain, myself.

Thing is, I've had these dry elbows, arms, knees, and ankles for years of yo-yoing. That's why it was so shocking to find my elbows smooth today. My goal at the moment is healthy weight loss to below 200 pounds, then find a healthy weight to settle at, then get into a pattern of maintaining. :)

I am glad to hear you got to a weight you're comfortable with. I should ask my therapist or my nutritionist next time I see them whether they know what caused the dry skin to clear up.

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