So, it's been quite a while since I first posted that I was going to work with someone to help me lose weight. And work I did! I met with my personal trainer 3x/week and focused on weight training and flexibility exercises. For 6 months I did this, and was careful about what I ate. I didn't remove foods from my diet though. I didn't remove sugar, grains and oils. And somethings I overindulged in ice cream because the craving for something sweet was too much to handle. But, overall, when I look back, I think I did okay - not great, but okay.
Results: after 6 months I lost 6 lbs. Disappointing, until I see that I gained strength and flexibility. When I started the effort I couldn't lift my own weight or stretch my legs beyond a certain point. When I finished I could not only lift my own weight but do so in reps. And boy was I flexible!
But, I was still too heavy and very uncomfortable. Then I lost a large client and couldn't afford the personal trainer.
I didn't gain the weight back - and I really haven't lost the strength. I found a YouTube video series that I now use - it's using kettlebell workouts. The series shows beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of use and they videos are short enough that I don't feel like I have to take out an hour or two of my day to follow them. Her name is Kitty and her site is My O My TV. Go ahead, check her out.
In the meantime, I've once again decided to tackle the weight issue by following a restricted diet. How restricted? Well, I've cut out dairy, oils, grains and sugar. High protein every meal in quantities of less then 4 ounces, lots of greens - green leaf veggies and green veggies (cooked and cold). It's been a few weeks, I've lost 10 pounds (mostly, I think, to no sugar or grains) and I'm feeling pretty good. We'll see. I treated myself to a bit of sugar yesterday (Snickers), and it didn't taste that great. Maybe I'm on to something, heh?
Doctor says either do it this way or try diet pills again. Diet pills worked to get me started on a weight loss track, but then I had to take Prednisone again and gained 30 pounds - obliterating any evidence of weight loss via the pills. And I don't like taking pills - so I said no thanks Doc, let's do something else.
He told me to try the Paleo diet without the oils and grains. So, that's what I'm doing. Another few weeks and I'll start introducing oils, grains, sugar and milk back into my diet. One at a time. If I feel different/icky/ill, etc. then I know what not to eat moving forward.
Oh, and I haven't had a Crohn's flare up in over 6 months. Let's pray that I don't have one for another 6 months, heh?
