Day 1

Lose 22 in 2022

Day 1

2^nd Jan 2022

Weight 100

I am yet again going on a diet, but this time it had better be for real (again) , if I want it to stick.  My friend sent me a photo out of the blue taken about 25 years ago – when I “thought I was fat” (that’s what happens when you have very skinny friends).   Looking at a photo of me taken today, well I have achieved that status.

This is not my first try at losing weight – at around 1995 I lost wight – down to 63 kgs (having twins will do that being up and down), then picked up weight again with having next child, up to 110kg, then back on diet, end exercise )religiously went to gym, and lost about 12 kg, then out it all back on slowly, (changed jobs, lots of stress and KFC)  then became diabetic, then kept being at 95-97kg for about 10 years, then in 2019 I went on my self-styled NFC diet, where I lost 12 kgs in 4 months, and in March 2020, was at 84 kg. 

That is a specific date – start of lock down.  I carried on with this weight, started eating a bit more, then hell happened. I should backtrack, I have had asthma my whole life, and in my teenage- and twenties had a lot of cortisone tables, weight went up and down, but I was very active – horse riding every day, going to clubs dancing for hours, and what I ate got burned up.  But then came pregnancy – licence to eat, drink all the coke (coca cola) you want, chips, pies) and the weight did not come off.  In hind site this was start of diabetes, but this was not diagnosed until 10 years later.  Then on top of this I got epilepsy.  We think it stems from having a massive asthma attack when I was 21, where I nearly died.  Anyway, I have 3 chronic ailments – asthma, diabetes, epilepsy.  The combination of medication does make me hungry – great excuse too.  OH, add to this, in 2009, I slipped and broke my back – clean break spine collapsed) lucky no surgery, but still, it adds to it all (yes still have sore back at times). Of course, being 30 kg overweight does not help.

So we are in March 2020, lockdown begins.  Sorry, some more backtracking, I have been bleeding badly on and off for around 5 years, putting it down to heavy periods. This heavy bleeding affected exercise, as overtime I tried anything, walking etc, I would bleed.  This put me off exercise.  Whets worse, I would get very short of breath, and this also made exercising feel awful.  In Feb 2020, I got a new gynae, who took a look, and said “there is something there, but she cannot see as there is too much blood”.  OK, get some iron and stuff to help, but wait until blood clears.  But then there is lockdown.  No going to doctors for anything. But in August, I was really feeling bad, literally could hardly walk, and Doctor GP agreed to see me.  He said I was basically OK I just needed to get some exercise and go back on diet.  I then mentioned that if I exercise, I bleed badly.  Then he looked in my eyes, and closely at my face and skin, and said, coming to think of it, he observed that I was very pale. He sent me for a blood test, and then called me later, basically telling my husband to get me to hospital immediately – my blood level was around 6, when a normal person should be 11.  (I had nearly half of actual blood in me than a normal person).

So, I was put immediately onto getting blood, and the GP mentioned to Gynae and my Physician, that the blood thing had to be sorted out.  Ok that was cool, as at last something was going to happen to sort me out.

So, while I was in hospital getting new blood, the Gynae wanted the Physical to clear me for a biopsy, to be sure I could handle the anaesthesia.  So, a CT scan was done.  Oh, fun, the Physician found that I had 3 blocked arteries.  This was a surprise to both of us, as I regularly went to him for check-ups, and every time he did an ECG, and I got an all clear.  (Interestingly I must add that throughout my life so far, I regularly get tests for blood pressure, and it’s always been OK – maybe it’s because I don’t smoke, but that is just an aside).  Anyway, the ECG’s that I always got at the check-ups were when I was sitting down (can you believe it).  The physician now did an ECG while walking, and lo, that ECG clearly showed something was wrong.  (Annoyed is not the word).

So, Physician sends me to the cardiologist (I was still in hospital getting blood note) so at least no cue waiting.  I felt really important being wheeled in on a hospital bed.  Anyway, Cardiologist does the scans, and says calmly that I need a stent as I have narrowing of the arteries.  Oh wow, I nearly fell out of the bed literally, I was shocked.  But he said its an easy op these days, they would insert it in an artery in my wrist and take up the arm and settle it in the artery around my heart – he says it like I would do a quick excel sheet to prepare a budget. 

By the way, at this stage I should mention, I am a Chartered Accountant, been either CFO or Finance Exec most of my life, so work all around the clock.  I wanted to improve my degrees, so I got an Honours Degree in IT when the twins were 2yrs old, and as I thought I needed to improve my International Tax knowledge, I would get a degree (Master of Commerce International Tax) when I was 50. Some people get Ferraris or motorbikes, I get a Masters, go figure. 

Anyway, my lifestyle has led me to needing a stent.  At this stage I was at home, as blood levels were back at decent level.  I go to a different hospital to get the stent, its a quick procedure, but you have to stay the night for observation.  I get placed in a recovery ward which was very full.

Anyway, as part of treatment for heart/artery thing, I need blood thinning medicine so clots don’t develop, as that could kill me, they say.  So, I get a lot of this medication to get things going.  2 Days later, I am at home, and in the middle of the night I have an episode.  Literally litres of blood are pouring out “down there” – hubby takes me to hospital.  They put me in a ward by myself, while waiting for a COVID test.  The test comes through. I am COVID positive.  This is it this is the end, I just wailed.  I have heard everywhere that people with co-morbidities and overweight, (read obese), are likely to die.  I phone hubby, I can barely speak, and he is calming me down.  I then get moved to COVID ICU ward, which means the doctor thinks I am going to die, or at least need a ventilator, although he does not say so.  He just says, not everyone with these co-morbidities dies, it’s just a higher chance.

Anyway, In the COVID ICU, everyone around me is on ventilator, or in a very bad way, me, I just feel a bit sick. A well-meaning old nurse tells me she is the one who sets up videos with family, and keeps family up to date. But for the first day I am past caring. Its now around day 3, and I am counting days from when I first think I got COVID (yes, we work it back, I got it from when I had the stent operation – go figure). So COVID wise, I have the sore throat, but only that, oxygen levels are OK, chest is not too bad.  (A theory of mine is a) my blood was being replaced regularly as I was losing blood as quick as they can infuse it, and B, I have a lot of Asthma medication which surely would keep my chest in a better condition, anyway I am not a doctor, but either I just was not badly affected, or these other things helped be along the way) At this stage, no vaccine available in SA.  All I got was a bucket-load of vitamins. 

Anyway, COVID was going well so to speak, but I was not feeling great. Remember, I was still losing litres of blood, and this does not stop.  A quick as they get blood in me, so I bleed it out. This happens for several days. I think the ICU sister tells doctor that this amount of blood loss is not good (you would think).  Anyway, I was moved out of the ICU COVID ward to a general COVID ward.  This was good news to me, as I was getting better, now just to sort the blood thing out.  So, finally the doctors agree that I must get the biopsy, so see what’s happening.  So, I get the operation done on a Monday, and the Gynae says she is going on leave for a week, but her stand-in would bring the results.

On the Thursday, the Gynae herself, not the stand-in comes to see me.  I know then what this is, as why would she stop her leave to see me?  Yes, it’s the Big C – its cancer in the uterus wall lining. Ans yes, this type of cancer is very aggressive. There is a massive tumour in my uterus. By this time, I just say why – why this all happening to me? Anyway, I am sent home to wait a while until I get an operation.  Yes, I need a full hysterectomy.  Actually, I am OK with it, just get it done.

Remarkably, the operation was a success, and a huge relief. This was done in Sept 2020.  By this stage, I had spent around a month in hospital, if you add up the days.  I was missing family. (I don’t mind being in hospital. No matter how sick I was throughout this I never lost my appetite, and I was getting 3 square meals.  I must be the only person on earth who actually likes hospital food.  (As an aside when the twins were babies, they were quite ill with fragile lungs, whatever food they did not eat, I did, say no more).  Anyway, the hysterectomy was a success, the cancer-tumour was removed, and it looks like that no other area was affected. So, the bleeding has finally stopped, can you imagine, 5 years of wearing pads every day has passed.  Side effect is that immediate menopause sets in, but because of the type of cancer, they cannot at this stage give me hormone replacements, so I have aggressive menopause.  Hot flushes in the extreme.  This is how 2021 starts.  Gained a bit of weight, now at 92 kg, but we say its manageable.

New fresh hell of 2021.  (On Family side this is not the case, as my one twin son gets a great job, and gets married, my other twin also gets a job and moves out, and daughter is doing well in her last year of BA degree.)  But for me, after our company radically cuts salaries, I am retrenched, when I thought I was not on that list.  It was a massive shock as I really thought I would be one to stay till the end.  But I was not wanted, the person I hired to help me (a colleague at other companies) was, so I had to go.  I went out on my own, and I have a good contract, but it’s still only a contract.  I have tried getting a full-time job, but no-one wants a 53-year-old in South Africa, no matter how experienced you are.  Anyway, now this is new stress, and I start working like mad, on the new contract, I put in huge hours, even though I am on a fixed monthly rate, and I take on small projects, which I cannot charge much for, but it takes up my time). 

Anyway, all through this stress, I do not have the time, and I fall back into bad habits – eat late in order to keep up energy to work; eat a lot of carbs, and get no exercise.

This brings me to a sad fact.  I am now 100.  I should get a card from the Queen, but I am not British, nor am I 100 in years, but in kilograms. 

So as a birthday present (I was born on New Year’s Day) I have decided enough is enough. It is now ship up or shape out – really if I don’t get it together this year, then all of the doctors’ work in 2020 was for nothing.

So, thing brings me to why – WHY do I want to lose weight

1. to look better – I look really not great now. 
2. Health – this will lower blood sugar, improve all my ailments, and get me better.
3. Longer life
4. Improve knees and hips – these poor joints are really struggling carrying a heavy load.
5. Buy clothes in a normal shop
6. Go places with kids where I can walk
7. Get hired (If I lose weight I will look better and more presentable)
8. Maybe what I do can motivate others??

Mindset

For a long time, I have had the worst mindset and excuses

1. I am too busy – need to earn money, I am not working not getting money, If I am not working, I may get fired. I have had this constant fear for 25 years that I am going to lose my job.  Well, this is probably partly reasonable, as every other job the company I worked at folded or changed, so I was affected.  I think that whatever job I have I must just prove that I am a hard worker, which means I work very late hours, have little sleep, and eat to support energy.  Has this toxic regimen helped, no, to the contrary, it has led to toe 2020 downfall in my health, and spiral in 2021?
2. Ill health- for 5 years I had terrible bleeding, so it was a proper excuse, any movement, (even walking in the mall) would worsen the situation. But that’s been fixed now, no more bleeding.
3. Medication makes me hungry – while this is true, the epilepsy medication does makes me hungry, but then I must do something about it – look for medication, but meanwhile, being hungry does not mean I have to eat cake, or fried chips.
4. Asthma – cannot run – yes, true, bloody Asthma, although well controlled, does bother me when I exercise.  But more and more I have been reading you don’t have to do long distance running, or things like that, short bursts are fine.
5. Overweight – it sounds really silly, but imagine carrying a 20-30kg luggage bag everywhere, all the time, it gets very exhausting very quickly.  But again, just doing a small bit will help.

Why I do not need to lose weight

To be sure, everyone knows why they need to lose weight, but its good to see that my life is a good one, generally people would think I am OK. So

1. I don’t need to lose weight for love – my husband and kids love me.
2. I don’t need to lose weight for work really – I am a very experienced international tax person, and have a contract, and a few leads, and people say I will get work in this area.
3. I am comfortable how I look (Not the ecstatic happy) but I am OK to go places.
4. I am a fun person; I don’t need people’s acceptance.

GOALS for 2022

OK. We have the goals, we have sorted out the events that led to this, we have examined the excuses. Now for the plan. Like in business, you have to have goals.  It’s not NEW YEAR resolution, because those I break on 2^nd of January (yes, I had a packet of crisps – adult size) early this morning.  Logic being, that a day only ends on minute before you should get up, so eating at 3 AM still counts as eating on 1^st of January.  So, I am going all business like.  Put all those years of management training to proper use.  Good rule of goals – SMART. I have put this:

S = Specific                       I have an exact weight in mind

M = Measurable              I can measure this on a scale and my dress size, and track the measurement,

A = Achievable                 Yes, it is achievable if I work at it.

R = Realistic                      22 kgs is realistic, its around 2kg a month, so a safe way to lose weight. Unrealistic would have been to say lose 44 kg.

T = Time related              My end target date is set.

GOAL 1

Lose 22 KG by 31 Dec 2022 (Motto Lose 22 in 2022) S (22kg) M (kg) A (plan) R (yes) T (31 Dec 2022).

Goal 1 is the main goal; rest are supplementary goals which will help me achieve the main goal.

GOAL 2

Implement my NFC diet.  I invented this diet in 2019, and I lost 12-14kg very quickly.  It was very effective until 2020 happened).  I explain later.

GOAL 3

Movement – I attribute this to CNN’s Dr Sanjay Gupta – I vastly prefer MOVEMENT to EXERCISE.  Exercise has a negative connotation; I have hated exercise since school.  I like movement, sounds like something I can actually do.

GOAL 4

Sleep more – get 7 hours .  This means do not work late. Do not tweet or play games at 2 am.  (I love silly mindless games I play on mobile).  Games keep your brain active, but it does not help if you play between 2-4 in the morning.

GOAL 5

Track, track, track.  I am doing this by writing a blog, which generally will track weight and such.  This blog, plus a food diary, and exercise tracker.

DIET PLAN – THE NFC DIET

NFC diet means “No Fu*#ing Carbs diet. I made this up as I am an huge fan (pun intended) of KFC.  I mean I really, really love KFC. Don’t get me wrong, I love SPUR, Wimpy, MacDonalds, Steers, Fish and Chip shop in Fish Hoek and Salty Sea Dog in Simon’s Town, but I think overall KFC takes the prize. 

So I thought it’s a clever switch – cut the carbs, cut the KFC and similar, and do the NFC.

I have tried most of the diets under the sun, from Scarsdale, to Keto, to Prof Tim Noakes diet, to actual dieticians’ proper diets. I have even been to that Doctor in Durbanville who gave injections. Everything works for a short time, then I fall off the wagon.  I am far worse than an AA member.  (As an aside I have a firm conviction that sugar and carbs is similar to an alcohol addiction, as you do have massive cravings, just once you have eaten 10 packets of chips and 3 cakes, you don’t crash your car into someone, you just crash your own system. What gets me a bit down, is that people have all sorts of sympathy for recovering alcoholics, but for recovering over-eaters it is just derision and scorn all around.

Anyway, I digress, the NFC is my own invention.  Its all of the above diets – but with a twist.  Its my plan.  All of these diets are rules, and rules are made to be broken.  In my job, tax is a huge aspect, and people (companies / clients) want me to break, or skirt the rules. Also, I am a rebel at heart, so I will always do something to rebel.  But I cannot smoke, I do not really drink, so food is my way of rebelling.  As an example, I know that as a diabetic I should not over-eat carbs, but I have this burning desire to rebel against this, and hate other people for doing well in their own diets.

So, I made up this diet,  it follows rules to a degree, I do allow myself treats.  What is life when you cannot have treats, you end up with a bloody miserable face (look at all old models skinny and miserable).  Anyway. This NFC diet, I am going to experiment as I go.

I have wonderful cookbooks and health books, that I am going to share each day as I go, and share a treat also, as I go.

The basic rule of my diet for NFC 2022

1. Reduced CARBS – stick to 65g or less per day.  (The Tim Noakes and Keto diets will have you reduce CARBS to below 45g a day but this for me is not sustainable – I have proven this over and over).
2. Drink water – something I really struggle with. At the moment, well all my life I like coke. I managed to switch from the proper Coke to Coke Lite / Coke Zero in 2005, when I was diagnosed diabetic.  But I have gone overboard, I drink about 2 litres a day, which I am told cannot be good.  So, I am introducing water to my daily routine now.  (Yay I have drunk two glasses today, and believe me this is huge).
3. Cut the snacks (I snack like they are going out of fashion) and rather have a shake.
4. 3). Eat more salad and veg (which means I must learn to cook them).
5. Treat once a week (build a treat box and lucky dip)
6. Reward.  Not food but build a reward.

MOVEMENT PLAN 2022

No, this is not Sheldon (Big Bang Theory bath room schedule) but a plan for movement (not exercise).

I have no excuse not to move about – I have a treadmill and exercise bike, and walking sticks – professional walking not old age walking, and  I have small weights to do some strength training.  (I actually enjoy the idea of exercising, I used to love going to gym, but then work and kids took over, – my excuse was that I work late, so I cannot then also spend time at gym. Also, I look at people who run a lot and say, hah, I am at least spending time with kids.  Now I have all the equipment (bought over the years, not in one go) and I can make time as I work from home now, I can so some exercise.

PLAN:

Starting

1) At least 10 minutes a day arm movement – with small weights (these range from 0,5kg – 2 kg. For 5 days a week.

2) At least 10 mins on bicycle or treadmill 5 days a week.

As I get fitter, I will adapt this, lets see what happens at the end of February.

MEASURE/TRACK

These are the things I am using to track my performance (Oh dear heaven I promised at work I will never use these again, but this time, it is not being used to track my performance or lack thereof but a record of my achievements, and my slip-ups so I can see how I am doing.  Plus its for my benfit not for a manager who is judging me

1) Daily or near as blog which must show weight.

2) Food tracker (I have a google sheet and a website that tracks foods / carbs / calories) which I will share for who asks for it)

3) Exercise Tracker – once I build a routine I will share

4) personal observations like blood sugar / blood pressure

5) Stomach / and hips measurements.

BLOG DAY 1

Well, I am half way through the day.  Its been a lot to get this all down. So far so good, had a small breakfast (Boiled Eggs and coffee).  Now I am going to have a sandwich (wholewheat bread).  I have not had coke lite yet, (it will be snowing in Cape Town by now)  but I am going to have one for lunch.

I did 10 minutes of arms (doing various mini exercises with the weights – huge fun), and did 9 mins on the walker, but my heart rate went to 180, so I stopped. 

I did small weights – around 13 mins in one go, and  a few extra during the day. 

Food wise, I was fine for lunch, (Beef sandwich w/wheat bread with mayo and lettuce). Fantastic.  Then an early supper of Ham, coleslaw, beetroot and pickle onion.  Snacks of roasted peanuts.  All good.

Then watching movie, Hubby is hungry so he has some chips (in SA chips = crisps), so I had a handful or two, and then everyone wanted chicken strips, so of course I had some too. Ended up eating overall calories of 2071. I am trying to stick to 1600, calories a day for weight loss.  As an aside some diets will put you at 1000-1200 calories, but then I cannot function at that amount.  I also see that its OK to eat 2000-2500 calories for a non-active female, so for a start its not bad. Where I get my calorie recommendation is from www.fatsecret.co.za which I also use to track what I eat, its awesome it gives carbs, proteins calories etc of what you ate.  I also know that UnderArmour also has a nice tracker.

 However, for the carbs, I want to keep it at below 65g per day. This is because I am diabetic, and of all the advice  I have received from Doctors, the best advice was – don’t eat carbs, then the weight will fall off.  That’s how I thought of the NFC diet. But, carbs I ate today totalled 105. Terrible.

Oh well, at least I started. This is a new rule – do not get bogged down – usually what happens of I don’t stick to the diet on first day or 2, I give up entirely. I must not let this happen again.