Mountain Physical Therapy

2010-06-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

Good Evening,

It has been a while since my last blog because it seems that life (as usual) has decided that I needed to dice things up a bit lately. I have hit a bit of a wall commitment wise to my weight loss. I have maintained the weight I lost but haven't been losing any more. I have been having to work quite a bit more lately and I have allowed different things to come between me and my work outs. I got really sick this week with a bad bronchial cough and am still battling it. I don't have energy for much of the basics let alone trying to get up and out the door to work out. We have been playing Wii more lately with the work out games and dance games which gives me activity but I know I am needing to get back into the gym. I hope to be feeling better sooner rather than later so that I can work out. Weight loss is such a roller coaster because so many people don't realize how difficult it can be to find a grove that you can stay committed to. To be able to change your eating habits and step up the exercise, it is difficult because sometimes life just gets a little hectic and it is easier to get the faster thing to eat, to put off the workout till tomorrow (which honestly becomes many tomorrows). Others may say "you are giving the answer right now, since you know the problem just fix it", it takes a great deal more than knowing what the problem is (though that is half the battle) and just being able to fix it. I am referring to knowing you are over weight, knowing what the barriers are and then doing something about it. No one wants me to be successful more than I do, and I know I am the only one who can make it happen. I hope that the next blog will be full of progress and constructive feed back on what is working and what isn't quite. Thank you.

2010-05-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

Okay,

Long week, and hopefully a restful weekend coming up here. I worked out on Tuesday and ran through a circuit, that is a series of exercises that you perform back to back with no rest in between that is supposed to keep your heart rate up and make you sweat... yeah and kicked my bum... I again am pretty muscular but after having had a baby, and having a fairly stagnate last couple of years without much activity and several medical issues (when they diagnosed the mass in my chest, they caught my lung and I suffered a pneumothorax and was hospitalized), I have not been moving, and certainly have not been pushing my physical limits. The circuit went well, I felt iffy afterward so instead of just allowing myself to settle in and relax I wrapped up my work out with a round in the pool, not just to cool off the aches, but to actually keep up the activity and did some resistance training. I have set the goal to get in and work out every morning this week, and it didn't happen. My son has been waking up at 4 am almost every morning wanting me and no one else. It is humbling, touching and exhausting. So in other words the best I have done since Tuesday was walk, but at least I did that.

I am finding it easier and easier to remind myself that I need to eat healthy and keep my calorie intake down, which is why it was a great idea that Katherine had to keep the food journal. I am not religious with it, by recording everyday, but I have similar foods enough throughout the week that I have trained myself to know what is the right amount, and what foods have higher caloric content. Not an expert by any means, but learning and that is what a lot of this process of losing weight is about, live and learn. I am eager to see the next milestones that I am realizing are within my reach, I just have to reach out and seize them. By milestones I am referencing to getting all of the eating aspects under control, "I don't need the 2nd helping, cause I can eat in two hours." "I don't need the pasta I can substitute with rice"... It's about educating myself with nutrition labels and again writing it down, so that it becomes practiced behavior. I need to figure out a better schedule and stick to it, be in bed by a certain time and get up at a certain time so that I am making time for my workouts. It doesn't have to be strict in regards to you not having fudge it days, but fairly routine so that your body can rev up and boost the metabolism and you make your health a part of your lifestyle and not just a passing fad.

Many people may wonder why I am doing this, why am I blogging my weight loss journey? Well my whole life I have said I would do something about my health, and take care of myself, but it hasn't happened. I put everyone else first and well, that is why I am over 300 pounds, I lucked out and I am almost 6 foot so I hold my weight well, but regardless I am big and always have been. I guess this is a way for me to be accountable not only to myself (per we are our own worst enemy, and let ourselves fudge and have that second piece, or get off easy and not work out) but this way I have to keep it up and make it happen because the world knows. I quite smoking well over a month ago, just cold turkey and I think one of the biggest aides was I just started telling people I quite. Anybody and everybody that would ask why I wasn't going outside anymore, or asked why I seemed to have more time on my breaks and such, and I told them "I quite, and am not starting again". I quite smoking when I was pregnant and didn't smoke the entire time until my son was probably about 3 months old and got back into smoking again when I was at work. I never smoked at home, and it was a rule that no-one smoked around my son. I just decided (after everyone kept asking and bugging too) that it was time to quite, and that went hand in hand with my working with Katherine and her desires to help guide me to a healthier future. So far so good, and hey at least any and every step forward is a step in the right direction.

One piece of advise I can give... is visualization, visualize what you want to look like, what do you want to feel like? Do you want to feel those aches and pains when you walk up and down stairs? Be honest with yourself... it's even hard to roll over in bed... I know it is for me, you haul so much weight around that the simplest tasks are truly arduous. I have lost 23 pounds since January this year and I already feel good, I have more energy since I am eating more nutrient dense foods. Oh... Huge, huge thing that I did that worked instantly is...No More POP! Soda, it is pure sugar, calories and nasty stuff my body doesn't need or want. Our taste buds love it, because that is how it gets marketed and money is made, what tastes good has to keep tasting good as long as it is making money. I stopped drinking soda after having to have one a day, even when I was pregnant... yeah I know bad juju. In February there was my "Golden Week" where I changed my eating habits, stopped drinking soda and wow... I lost 10 pounds that week. Our bodies don't need all the sugar that is in soda, this is coming from someone who loves soda, so don't get me wrong. Yeah after that "Golden Week" I fudged and fudged some more and put 5 pounds back on... and to someone over 300 pounds it may not seem like a lot, but as they say on the biggest loser... "Every pound counts".

I am going to go work out tomorrow, and make another step toward who I really am inside, underneath all the........ "Layers" as Shrek would say...Ha, sorry had to. I have to add one funny, funny quote (and ladies you are not allowed to embody this saying) "There really is a sexy, skinny woman under all this padding..... I just keep her sedated with chocolate."

Until next blog... thank you all. God bless.

Beginning the Journey

2010-05-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hello,

My name is Jana, I am 25 years old and wanted to share the fresh start to a journey which has come from a lifetime of struggles. I like so many others have had my trials (we all do) I want to share one of the biggest with you and that is the struggle with my weight, to give you an idea let me recap a little of my life. When I was younger I was a healthy (albeit thick and stocky) child with the average adolescent pudge. I believe that I started to put weight on as I got to be about 11 years old where I think I hit about 100 pounds and from there I kept getting heavier. I have always been an exceptionally strong and muscular person underneath all of the padding, which I have used to my advantage and have always been able to perform many strong and arduous tasks. I maintained my weight fairly well in High School around 260 pounds or so (I think that is thanks to PE and the fast paced atmosphere).

I started to really add the weight on after I graduated and started working. I worked as a CNA for a few months after I had to quit College (FVCC) when my fathers health really started declining. I got injured when I worked as a CNA, with tearing in the cartilage of my right knee and had to be out of work. Subsequently about a week after having to be off of work due to the knee injury, I went on a family trip which is when we lost my father. All manner of things seemed to happen at once, my father died due to a major heart attack (he struggled with weight problems, heart condition issues, smoking, etc his whole life). I had to look at surgery for my knee and lost my job the week of my surgery. I had an entire summer of trying to recoup and heal, spiritually and physically, which truly felt as though it was an insurmountable task. The injury to my knee in 2004 is how I met Katherine and Gordon. I was referred to Katherine for physical therapy and was able to heal quickly and regain full use of my knee and was able to go back to work.

One thing that I have realized over the years is diet truly is one of the most important things in a persons life and should be one of the top concerns. The reason I state this is, growing up my mother worked full time and my father stayed at home due to his blindness. He had macular degeneration which caused him to be legally blind. When I started home schooling at the end of fifth grade (11 years old) he was my teacher, and stay at home parent. My father's moto in life was "I don't eat to live, I live to eat", and he meant it. He just simply liked what tasted good, and that meant that what he cooked for all of us (since my mother had to work) was what tasted good, not necessarily was good for you. My father was over 300 pounds when he died in 2004 and was almost 74 years old. I was 19 in 2004 and already over 300 pounds. I had my gull bladder removed when I was 14 due to gull bladder disease & knee surgery when I was 19. When I started working at Teletech after my rehabilitation from knee surgery, I sat all day. I wasn't as active, I was tired all the time and I had picked up smoking. I never smoked very heavily, but any is enough and did so even though I had watched the heart issues my father had, had that weren't not helped by his many years of smoking.

I went from a sit down with Teletech to another sit down job with National Flood Services (NFS). At least my current employer (NFS) promotes good health by having walking challenges, Biggest Loser challenges and a health and wellness community providing informative material and events. It hasn't been until almost 6 years later that I finally realize "Hey, your a mom now, things have changed". That's right, I am a blessed mother of a beautiful and healthy little boy. He is 15 months old now and is gorgeous. If I was not convinced before that I needed to make some drastic changes in my life, I am definitely convinced of it now. All through my pregnancy I had major back pain, hip and sciatica pain and exhaustion. After my son was born I was diagnosed with a large mass in my chest and thought I could be facing cancer. It turned out to be just a large cist next to my heart, but I was told, "if it gets larger then you will need surgery, you can't have surgery until you lose weight". Okay, lose weight or maybe die... you don't realize it but before you even receive news like that, your choices are "lose weight or die", seems extreme but guess what... the weight pandemic that is upon us is extreme.

I started seeing Katherine again this year, 2010, 6 years later after I started having major pain in my back that was causing me to miss work. Since I have started working with Katherine in February of this year we have been trying to heal my back and aide me in losing weight. I have lost 22 pounds since the beginning of the year when I was the heaviest I have ever been of 397 pounds and as of today I am 375 pounds. I have always had support from my mother who has had her own struggles with weight and successes at losing a significant amount. I now have the support of a group of people with the facility and knowledge to aide me in being successful with my journey. I until now have not applied my entire being to the commitment it takes to lose weight. That has changed, this is my life to live, no one else's and I know what I want to look like, I just can't wait to see what I am GOING to look like.

Thank you for reading, and I would love it if you would share your journey. Good luck, just remember "You ARE worth it!".

2010-05-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, Gordon here and I want to personally thank and welcome Jana and her willingness to share with all of us her weight loss journey AS IT HAPPENS! No photoshop touch-ups just the real struggles and success of many of you out there! So talk to us and share your thoughts and encouragement. Weight loss .....like so many other things....is a Journey ...not a destination....Welcome to Jana's Journey..