My waistline has been expanding everyday. Surprisingly the scale at the doctors office, at least last Wednesday, was at 132. I can only attribute it to loss of muscle from no weight training.
Good news! My MRI and EMG showed no pinched nerve. And my neuropathy got better after seeing my endocrinologist. Apparently, I was suffering from hypothyroidism and synthetic hormone took care of the numbness.

My workout routine now consists of mostly yoga and cardio. I did a bunch of body weight squats and (very careful) lunges yesterday a long with some push ups. A lot of people have been cautioning me to take it easy with my workouts. Which I had to reassure people that I have been. I am SUPER cautious about what I consume and do to my body.

The good thing about my years of dieting and exercise, is that I am comfortable with eating small meals and also changing up my workouts. I am hoping that my workouts will make this transition for me a lot easier. For me, exercise has been key in keeping my energy levels up, helping my sleep and mood. In talking to my physician friends, and just reading up on books, 30 mins of exercise a day is highly encouraged.

BTW, I used to think people with thyroid conditions were making crap up. But I do really believe its a tricky disease to treat and understand. Hormones affect all aspects of our body and imbalances can cause other imbalances to happen.

So, I looked at my Thailand pictures and I am thinking to myself, WHY AM I SO PUFFY? I am cold all the time and really big considering how little calories I was consuming before the trip and how much I was exercising. My skin was also extremely dry and I was also experiencing some neuropathy. So when I got back, my endo told me that I am starting to show signs of being HYPOthyroid. But he initially did not want me to get started on synthetic hormones because once I take them, I will have to take them forever. I could tell he wanted to wait till my hormone levels had totally dipped. In the meantime I could gain 20-30 lbs and my symptoms could worsen. However, I remembered him telling me that being hypothyroid could affect the neural development of a fetus. So I reminded him I was trying to get pregnant, he said in that case, he would put me on the hormone.

so we'll see what happens. right now my focus is just on trying to get the best sleep every night. not stressing out too much, eating properly, going for all my appointments and exercising in between. '

break

When life gets a little too much I go back to Krabi...

Speaking of which, life has been a little stressful lately. My hand/finger tingling has not gone away, in fact its happening every night (multiple times per night). There is no position that is safe. I fall asleep on my back and bam, my hands go numb. Or, I'll move to my right or my left, and the same thing would happen.

It's gotten so bad that finally I called my endocrinologist for a referral to an neurologist. I get my MRI done on the 28th. So until then, no more weight training.

Post Thailand Update

I am going to post some photos of the trip as soon as we get our camera memory card issue figured out. It was the most memorable trip I've ever taken filled with so many wonderful moments. The beaches and resorts we stayed in Phuket and Krabi were unbelievable. All the wonderful seafood and flavorful meals we had were amazing.

Now if I can just get over this jetlag!

thailand in a week and a half

scary! i feel so unprepared. this past weekend was pretty busy - went to spin class on saturday and helped a friend move a fifty lb wedding cake in the afternoon and hung out with some of my old college friends (their kids and husbands) at night. i love my friends dearly, but always get tremendously stressed out after seeing them. i think seeing them reminds me of how different my life is...no kids, babies, and LV bags. i gave my friend a gift certificate to target for her birthday. my other friend gaver her chanel crystal earrings and a nordstroms gift certificate...i cringed hoping she would still like my gift anyway. i realized that i have barely any room for such luxuries, even buying a latex bed for 2k is waaay to spendy for me. getting an LV or chanel bag is totally not on my radar. out of curiosity, i decided to google the earrings to see how much they were...$400. yow.
also i got an earful about how im pretty much behind the curve on the child thing and should probably go see a RE again. that whole process was so such a nightmare, i am not surprised how low the success rate is for pregnancies. the funny thing is that i don't think of myself as "challenged" and i do believe that it will happen someday - just maybe not in desired timeframe. i pray that my mom is not too old to enjoy grandmotherhood when it happens, and that i'm healthy enough to raise my children way into adulthood to see them become parents as well.
anyway, one great thing that came out of hanging out with my friends on saturday, is that my friend's husband is going through a graduate program at uci. i may check into it - supposedly anyone who works for the university gets half off tuition. i don't know how im going to cram in having kids and trying for graduate school but im thinking about it.

its a little more than a week till thailand. fortunately this past weekend in vegas didn't do as much damage as i thought it would. my appetite fortunately, is not as huge as it used to be. don't get me wrong, i still love it all...my new love, butter cake...but its just not as crazy. the true test will be the holidays. thanksgiving will be a good test. i just love everything about that holiday.
anyway, i've been doing a lot of introspection lately. there have been a lot of funny changes in my body this year because of weight loss, hormonal fluctuation, etc. i was asked recently by a colleague why i decided to lose weight and get in shape. what's the urgency? some of it is vanity. i know that i don't have that many years left in my youth, why not make the most of it and slow the hands of time down? especially during this time period where the next year may bring change with seriously trying to get pregnant. i know my body will go through more changes, i want to be at least to be able to get closer to my goal before it happens, so i can say i did it. i haven't made much of difference in weight, but i have managed to squeeze into a size 4 dress with a belt for halloween. i was supposed to be joan from mad men. lol. i don't think i have ever worn a dress with a belt in my life.

Yesterday was a pretty tough day. I was working on about only 3-4 hours of sleep. For the past few months, I have been experiencing numbness on one or both my hands and arms when sleeping. I had mentioned this at my endocrinology appointment a while back, but they didn't seemed so concerned. So I've kind of just lived with it thinking it was a bad bed. Also, I noticed that the symptoms seemed to improve when I went for an adjustment. It seems that my C1-C7 keeps on getting out of alignment. According to my chiropractor and other massage therapists, I hold a lot my tension in my neck. A lot of it also has to deal with work - I am on the computer all day and despite attempts to stretch and walk around, its not enough to keep the muscles from rounding out on top.

I also noticed that the symptoms were exacerbated whenever I did any heavy weights like squats, deadlifts or overhead presses. My weights now for squats are 135 lbs, 155lbs for DL and 25-30 dumbell OPs. In addition, I have been using the lever machines with plates to do overhead incline chest and should presses -- all with decent results. But I think all the heavy weights and overhead movements have caused more tension in my clavicle area.
I'm seeing my endocrinologist on the 26th to rule out any involvement with my hormonal levels. This numbness thing also happens to people who have hypothyroidism and are going through menopause. I also want to see if he recommends me to see another specialist.

Yesterday, I did spin, took two z-12s and 2 advils. I also had Dave massage the knots in my clavicle area. I also did chest stretches as recommended by my chiropractor. All of this seemed to alleviate the numbness enough so I could sleep.

Now, I have to figure out what to do with my workout plan since, a lot of it uses upper body movement.

bod pod results

i'm a few weeks in logging in my bod pod results. on 2/14 we went back to csulb to do our follow up testing. here were my results:

Body Mass: 128.7
Percent Body Fat: 25.5 %
Fat Mass: 32.8 pounds
Fat-Free Mass : 95.9 pounds

first time under 130 in years!

tightness

after four days out from the gym from being sick, i worked out two days in a row. what i shouldn't have done was doing deadlifts yesterday and an rdl workout today. MY LOWER BACK IS KILLING ME. i can't even sit in front of the computer before the soreness returns. i've been stretching and using the massage chair all day.

yesterday
DL 135/4/8
SS 25/10(2x)/4
SC 12.5/4/10
Cable rows 90/3/7
Cable wood chop 45/10 (2x)/4
Jack knives 15/4
30 min Elliptical

today
RDL, clean, OP 40/10/4
BOR 40/10/3
Bosu PU 15/4
Inverted rows 10/4
10 min run
50 min elliptical

but, the good news is that i am about 130-132 lbs right now, which is only 2-4 lbs lighter to what i was when i weighed in with bod pod, but i think i'm a lot denser now with muscle. hopefully with me off thyroid medication (i was a little hypothyroid a week ago) weight loss can normalize a bit. for a while i was eating very very little calories per day. a one scoop shake for morning and lunch, snack and a low carb dinner and maybe a yogurt or a banana. that was the only way i was maintaining or lower my weight with my slow metabolism - my endocrinologist was suprised i had not gained weight since i last saw him two months ago. i explained that i had been eating less and working out like a madman.

also, through out the past few months i've been trying to change my attitude about food - taking my cues from economic times. it doesn't take much to keep you alive and you need enough to sustain you. everything else is excess. so when i do come across great food, or festive occassions with food, i appreciate the taste and experience more.

anyway, also i have been having some weird stomach issues this past month, which has also reminded me that i cannot abuse my body with pratically doing a liquid diet -- shrinking my stomach for most of the week and then overeating on weekends. the abuse has caused a weird sensation on the left side of my stomach that lasted two weeks. so - after last week's superbowl party, it finally scared the shit out of me to overeat. i just cannot do it for the sake of my stomach and my body.

This is my boss and I toasting at our hospital opening on Friday. WOO HOO, 2-3 mos of working late hours. Maybe I can find time now to ressurect my blog.

curry rice salad

Curry Rice Salad Recipe

Ingredients

Short grain brown rice - 1 to 1 1/2 cup, best is organic

One large yellow onion - chopped

Curry paste or curry powder - red or yellow Indian (not Thai)Cinnamon

Olive oil

Cumin

Cayenne pepper

Sesame oil

Cilantro - chopped

Dried cranberries - one cup

One apple - cored and chopped (not peeled)

Honey

Salt

Celery - chopped

Snow peas - stringy ends chopped off, then chopped

Bell pepper, red, green, or yellow - chopped

Green onions - chopped

Italics = optional ingredients

Method

1. Prepare the brown rice in rice cooker. One cup uncooked rice to two cups water.

2. Prepare onions and curry oil.
In a large saucepan put 1/4 cup of olive oil on medium high heat. Add a couple heaping tablespoons of curry paste (if it is mild) or add a couple of tablespoons of mild curry powder. Add a dash of cayenne pepper, cinnamon and cumin and a few drops of sesame oil if you have it. Let the curry simmer for a minute. Add the chopped yellow onion and cook until translucent.

3. Mix rice and onions.

In a large mixing bowl, put in the hot rice and then fold in the onions with the curry infused oil in which they were cooked.

Taste test the rice at this point. If it needs more curry flavor, heat some more curry
powder, cayenne and cumin in olive oil for a few minutes and add to the rice to desired spiciness.

4. Add other ingredients to taste - cilantro, raisins, apple, celery, snow peas, bell pepper, green onions. Add a couple tablespoons of honey. Add a dash of salt to taste.

5 Chill and serve. Serves 4 to 6.

nice adobos

i'm depleted from work. falling asleep right after dinner sometimes everynight and waking up at 5 to go to work at 6:30 and working 12-14 hour days. i don't know how dave did it for so long. my back is in knots and i fight exhaustion to concentrate at work. i've been using up my stress soother balm like and drinking yerba mate and strong black tea like its going out of style. but i pretend its final week and i will, get through it.

my comfort is that i'm not alone. my coworkers and i have bonded the past few weeks. there have been tears, outburts of laughter, vomit (from my pregnant twin). oh, and another bonus. i dropped some weight in the process - let's hope i hold on to the progress this week.

and dave's been awesome, making dinner the past week. he is the crock pot king, making adobo chicken and ribs. he is also a wiz now in making brown rice and quinoa. seriously, i couldn't feel more fortunate.

my coworkers grossed out from the diaper game

my pregnant twin is on the left. this was taken at her baby shower on 11/20. oh i wish i were on maternity leave!

check out my backside

my poor cousin. hey at least its coverage!

I took a break yesterday from a week of heavy duty workouts. Today I'm back at the gym doing DLs *ugh* 105/3/7, OP 22.5/3/10, LP 75/4/10, SS 95/4/10(2x)

If I don't talk about food or smell it, I can usually rely on protein shakes for my nourishment during the day. Sometimes if I get a craving, I'll drink hot tea and take whiffs of this stress balm I got which has lavendar and menthol oils...for some reason, it works.

So I've gone down in a couple shirt sizes to a 4 (which is a prolly still a 6P at Ann Taylor..and I've been wearing 6P pants for the past two months) either way, I'm going to take it as a victory. Granted, the shirt's not hanging loosely on me. It's funny how you can still look chubby even though you've lost weight. I've looked at myself in photos from I've taken recently. They're mostly unflattering (sometimes I swear I look like Sam Kinison from my side profile). But alas, size 4! Little victories!
Weight-wise? I've lost a pound, gained a pound and lost a pound today. Who knows where I'll land in the competition. Deborah and I are about even right now. Tracking my progress has been keeping me accountable.

my stocking stuffer

today

deadlift workout, hour on elliptical.