Wasting Away

Mlore cartoons where this came from
http://www.johnisfit.com/weight-loss-cartoons-page-3/

Last December, before I knew anything other than a sore knee was wrong with me, I had my first physical under Medicare when I turned 65.  At that time I set a goal to lose 25 pounds during 2012.    As my knee was not functioning too well, and I had a knee replacement coming, I knew I would have to do that by eating less rather than exercising more, especially during the recovery time for the knee replacement.

My weight had crept up after the fall damaging my knee almost 3 years ago making my favorite activity of walking briskly any and everywhere difficult.  If you eat for an active live and then don't do the activity, the body's intelligent design starts packing it away for the 7 years of famine surely to come.

Well, it is 6 months later and to be on schedule, I have to be 50% there.  I weighed in this morning and am 14 lbs lighter than in December!   I am on schedule!  It has been hard and promises to become harder in the next 6 months.  At the end of the year, if I have lost the 25 lbs, I promised myself a reward of spending $1000 on anything that I wanted, but normally would be too cheap, thrifty, or sensible to buy.

The next 6 months will be difficult.  The new meds I take for Myasthenia Gravis include side effects of weight gain and appetite gain.  They also include stomach upset and other digestive problems that are improved by eating each time a take a pill and eating more so my stomach has food in it.

The new medications have raised my blood pressure from normal to about 190/95, my at rest heart rate has dropped about 15 beats to the 50s, and my blood sugar has crept up into the almost diabetic level (prednisone does most of this).   So it will be a challenge with the last 11 lbs in the next 6 months.  

The good part is that my knee is wonderfully repaired so I can exercise by walking very well.  The bad part is the MG makes me walk at about half speed for much of the time, tire quickly and in general limit my exercise ability.  Even typing on the computer becomes a strain at times.

Anyway, I am celebrating thsi morning by having a big breakfast!   I fried some of my frozen morels from this spring in a coated skillet that lets me add just a touch of butter for flavor; added an egg from a free range chicken and some diced peppers, the crumbles of a strip of bacon zapped in the microwave until the fat all left, and a few shreddings of 6-year old cheddar from Burnett Dairy into an omlet.  I added a piece of wheat toast, thinly spread with last fall's wild grape jelly and with a cup of special dark Arabian coffee blend had a great breakfast.

The only difficult part was that I really wanted about three times as much!  It is quite nice to find that some of my clothes are fitting again.