My Healthy Journey – What I Eat

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To me this is probably the most boring mundane part, but when I first started my journey I loved knowing what people had to eat.

Now, am I trying to get healthy? Yes. Am I perfect? No.

I don’t follow any diet plan except for Weight Watchers. I get 33 points a day currently. Here is a plan review.

Here is basically what I eat on a given day when sticking directly to plan.
Breakfast -

Snack -

  • A piece of fruit (0pp)
  • A FiberOne bar (2pp)

Lunch -

  • A Lean Cuisine (4-6pp) I realize this isn’t really healthy, but I’m terrible at packing lunches and it’s better than fast food. When I cook the night before I bring leftovers.

Snack -

  • A piece of fruit (0pp)

Dinner –

  • Often varies. We cook grilled chicken, brown rice & veggies at least once a week (9pp).
  • I make recipes from Skinny Taste more lately and everything I have made has been delicious.
  • If we go out to eat I use the charts on Exercise 4 Weight Loss.

Dessert - (I’m a sweets addict so I don’t skip this part.)

  • Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwich (4pp) or another 4-6 point treat.
  • If I used more points that day I’ll do a piece of fruit and hot tea.

Hope that helps! Feel free to ask any questions if you have them.

My Healthy Journey – Part One

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Hello Lovelies!

This is me in 2009. I think I’m about 250lbs and a size 20.

I know people are interested in my journey and often ask for details and even though I have a lot of love for the health/fitness community I find it’s hard to navigate while still being anti-diet and body positive.

I did not begin my weight loss journey in a place of self disgust. Sure I was overweight. I was medically classified as morbidly obese, which generally did little more for me than made me want to give the BMI chart a big, “fuck you”!

I’ve been overweight from the time I was in third grade forward. I love healthy food, but I love unhealthy food just as much. So I pretty much ate a mix. I never felt like I was overly indulgent and since from age 16 on my weight didn’t really fluctuate I just figured that was the size I was supposed to be and let it at that. I was always around 240 and a size 18/20.

I started dating Kace in 2007 (I’ll talk more about that in another entry) and extreme happiness mixed with often extremely stressful life circumstances led to a little more indulgence and I put on an extra 20lbs early on that wouldn’t budge.

Kalani & I at a wedding. I’m 260lbs and a size 22.

For whatever reason that extra 20lbs and being one size up really dampened my perception of myself. It was the first time I really felt big & unhealthy. The biggest change came the summer of 2011 when I went to a gastroenterologist.

Now, I’ve suffered from stomach pain most of my life. I’ve gone through various tests and none of them showed anything. I was even taken to the hospital for it when I was around 15. I went through various tests and even got a colonoscopy.

 

The end result was pretty surprising. It turned out I am intolerant to something called Sorbitol. I was given a long list of foods to avoid that contain it. The list includes, but is not limited to: Red wines, red grapes, most berries, honey and sugar free gum. Now I absolutely love berries and honey. Whenever I’m on a health kick my breakfast would always be Greek yogurt with berries and honey. It explained why I never felt better when I stopped eating unhealthy foods. I also often suffered from extremely itchy legs. That completely went away!

So removing those items from my diet helped me in many ways. However, with those items removed I started eating a worse diet than ever. Instead of the berries and honey I would grab a breakfast sandwich. Instead of strawberry sorbet I would choose chocolate ice cream. (You get the idea.)

I didn’t gain weight, but by January 2012 I was considering a trip to the doctor for my extreme fatigue. I would go to sleep at 7pm and then wake up at 7am completely exhausted.

Me on New Years Eve.

It was also the new year, Weight Watchers commercials were everywhere and I started to think about giving it a try. I made up my mind when I stumbled upon Bitchcakes Blog. She really changed my perception of the kind of person who does Weight Watchers.

I talked it over with Kace and we agreed I would try eating healthy and see how I felt in a month. If I didn’t feel better I would go see a doctor.

You guys, after that first month detoxing my body and focusing on eating healthy consistently every day I felt amazing! I was down 15lbs. I was on my way!

Me in February 2012. Down 15lbs in a size 18 jacket!

Thanks for reading! I’ll be continuing this series & also starting one on fashion.

I’m back!

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I’m pretty sure when you stop blogging for 3 entire years people pretty much forget about you and you’re permanently off of their radar.

Let’s do my history. I began blogging in 2003 at sparkliesunshine.net. I always hated the .net part and in (I think) 2007 I switched to lostinplendor.com. I had just ended a long term relationship and a change felt right.

Unfortunately for me and my blog I lost my office job in 2008. This led to me spending absolutely no time online for days at a time and I just couldn’t blog anymore.

When I got working again I had two part time jobs that both equaled out to 50-70 hours a week (for very little money). It was such a difficult time for me. My girlfriend KC and I had also moved into a house with 3 college aged girls who were often throwing parties…let’s just say it wasn’t a fun time.

Here is where it gets a bit confusing…

During that time I interviewed for a job that was a little over an hour away. The main office however, was 2 and a half hours away and that’s where I needed to go for the interview. I decided to make the trip and go for it.

I got the job! I was elated. I got training and everything was set in motion. I soon found out that the company had lost funding for the program I was hired for. They offered me another position, but it was at their

KC and I did a lot of talking and we decided I should accept. This led to 7 months of my life commuting a total of 5 hours every day. I got through a lot of audiobooks including all of Roots. Funding returned for the other position and with a bit of a raise I couldn’t say no to more money and less driving.

You guys, I ended up hating the other position. I was completely miserable. I stayed for 6 months and was at my breaking point. I was about to quit when I found out the person who used to supervise my old position was no longer with the company.

I jumped at the chance to apply! I got the interview and soon learned that I got the job!!! The only downside was since I was transferring I was locked into my old position until they filled it. This led to one of the most miserable months I can remember. Finally by January 2011 I was set in my new position.

Everything was looking up except for one huge issue, KC. KC had been at her position at a university for 2 years. It was a union position with good benefits. Not something you just throw away. She had been looking since I got hired, but now that I was back on the long commute it was more crucial than ever.

We both started applying as much as we possibly could to every university within an hour drive from my job. Amazingly we got a call back from a university that was 15 minutes from my job. By March 2011 she was in a new job at a new university right next to my job.

I thought things would be rosy and bright from that point on, but we just got the commute out of the way. With no savings and plenty of regular bills already we weren’t able to get an apartment right away.

We still commuted for a while, but soon realized with the waste of money and 3:45am wake up calls we couldn’t keep going like that.

Eventually we worked out a way to leave my parent’s house on Monday and return on Friday staying in our car for the nights in between. We learned important lessons like set an alarm to turn the car on in the night so you don’t wake up freezing and free gym trials are a great way to take a shower.

I’m not ashamed of that time because I know it made us stronger.

Finally by JUNE we were able to get our apartment. Yes we did many, many happy dances. (mostly to the Tarzan soundtrack*)

Slowly, but surely we’ve been getting furniture and supplies for our little home. Most recently a bed! (We’ve been sharing an air mattress for well over a year now).

At this very moment in my life I am feeling so blessed and thankful for the life I have right now. I have a job I absolutely love. I have a place to call home. I have a bed to sleep on at night. I have a girlfriend who supports me. That’s why I decided it was the right time to start blogging again because right now? At this point in my life?

I am splendid.

*The Broadway one, not the movie one.