I have a meeting shortly, but it's been a while and there are a few things I need to get out. First of all, apart from one desperate "cheat" on Monday when I was starving and on my way to the grocery store (went to a Mexican restaurant and had a small handful of chips and some beans), my diet has been pretty excellent to the extent that I can control it. I've had to eat out a couple of times due to lack of groceries and time, but I've had grilled fish and steamed vegetables when I have. My hunger level is comfortable (I usually start getting hungry about an hour earlier than I am ready to eat, but I can manage), and my weight is down but stabilized at the moment, probably because of PMS. While I was at my parents' house last week, I lost about 4.5, I think. As of this morning I was down to 207.2, which is a total loss of 12 pounds since June 19th. My current waist measurement is 38, down from 41, and my bust and hips are at 46, down from 48 and 48.5, respectively. Getting below 210 again is a small victory for me, but not a huge one because I hadn't been above it for very long. But my "fat" jeans fit comfortably, and that makes me happy. I think I am a solid size 16 now instead of a snug 18. 16 is a size I can live with (though hopefully I won't have to for long!). Basically I am where I was about a year ago, which is pretty awesome. Four weeks to erase a year of damage? Hell yeah! My two weight loss goals for the next month: getting my waist circumference under 35 and weight under 200. A more important goal: eating out no more than once a week. That's a toughie on my schedule!
My parents are struggling on without me. I've been calling my mother every day to check on her diet and so far she's doing pretty well. She's not adhering strictly to the program I had her on, or to Wheat Belly, but she's still using her Bulletproof coffee, avoiding grains, and limiting her carbs. I think for her the key is going to be eating a lot of veggies cooked in fat and salad with an olive oil-based, homemade salad dressing. She's getting bloodwork done by her endocrinologist sometime this week and I hope that her cholesterol readings don't scare her off of the diet, because they might be high. But I know that she is encouraged. By the time I left on Sunday, her weight was down lower than it has been since her forties (she and I are actually neck-and-neck), and her attitude was mostly much better, apart from a breakdown Sunday morning because she didn't want me to leave.
On my way back to Tennessee, I stopped for coffee with my sister to discuss my findings for the week. She lives about three hours closer to them and tries to get down every two or three weeks to spend a couple of days, and is on a similar (but less regimented) nutritional program. We discussed our parents' situation at length, and concluded that our mother is exhibiting signs of early stage Alzheimer's. Depression, personality changes, asking the same questions and telling the same stories repeatedly - we've seen it all before. My mother's mother was diagnosed at 75. At the time they told us she wouldn't live five years. Instead she lived on for ten as a shell of herself. I do not want to watch that happen to my mother. Neither my sister or myself are prepared to take in my parents, and I don't want to see them go to a home.
My father is is own can of worms. His blood sugar is out of control, and he is starting to have foot problems. If he loses his feet, especially before turning 65, we are all going to be in a lot of trouble. I think he is FINALLY starting to come to terms with his situation, and expressed genuine interest in what I am doing, even buying a copy of Wheat Belly. I think if he can follow the WB plan, which is far less restrictive than what I had Mom on last week, they could both benefit tremendously.
And then there's my boyfriend. He's in his mid-forties, is a heavy smoker, and lives on processed food. I've known six year olds with more sophisticated palates. However, his father was recently diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer, and I think it has really given him pause. When I started doing all of the research that has led me to my current way of life, I encouraged him to talk to his dad and his stepmother about making dietary changes to see if it would help. But his father is of the attitude that if he ain't got much longer he's going to eat as he pleases. It's totally understandable. His doctors gave him a death sentence and the only hope they would offer was chemotherapy which, predictably, is killing him. This is a man who has had six heart attacks and four open heart surgeries; if he were a cat, he'd be just about out of lives. We found out a few days ago that he has congestive heart failure and his heart is only functioning at 20%. Yet his doctors insist on keeping him in chemo. They don't know what else to do, I guess. The chemo has reduced the cancer growths in his liver, so by that token it is "working," but what else is it killing? My boyfriend is starting to see what I mean about doctors, at least. They have a very limited toolbox that is focused more on treatment and intervention than cures and prevention.
Last night my boyfriend let me weigh him and do a body fat analysis (our stats are almost identical, oddly enough), and he sat and looked at information about nutrition with me for about an hour. That is a HUGE step. In just a couple of weeks he has gone from totally dismissive to genuinely curious. I think if he would give it a chance, he could really enjoy it. On top of that he has a pre-teen daughter who could REALLY use a good nutritional influence in her life. She is at a critical age right now and her mother feeds her ice cream and donuts and soda and popcorn like it's going out of style. When she comes to visit him, she'll easily go through two bags of movie butter popcorn in one night, and he is on the budget of an adjunt professor paying child support, so if they go "out" to eat it's usually McDonald's. He also has a seventeen year old son who needs $23k worth of dental work because his mother has fed him junk food and Mountain Dew all of his life (my boyfriend only sees him once a year because they live farther away) and never taken him to the dentist. All but four of his teeth are completely rotted. At seventeen. Someone in their lives needs to take the reigns and show them that healthy eating can be awesome. And it so so so so can!
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