Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Certified!

Well. I did it! I'm officially a certified fitness trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Now what?

I've spent the last week arranging to rent studio space, designing forms (lots of forms in this business), and getting mentored by Kristn. I start with my first two clients next week and I'm really excited to get them going.

(Shameless self-promotion starts here.) If anyone in Seattle is interested in early evening training, email me at snappydawg at comcast dot net. If you're interested in training in the morning, I think Kristn has a couple of spots open. We have very similar training styles and philosophy so you'll definitely benefit from working with either one of us. (End of self-promo.)

I ran into a friend at the gym yesterday. She's been interested in my progress towards this goal, so I gave her a mini training session while we were talking. I was also watching various people on machines and such and one of the things I noticed is that people don't seem to go through the whole range of motion when they're using lifting machines. So just a reminder to push/pull all the way up/out and all the down/in when you're using machines so that you use the entire range of your muscles.

Weight Loss Update
I've continued to lose weight and keep my blood sugar at fairly normal levels. I'm down 92 pounds from my heaviest now. I've gone from a size 26 a year ago to a size 12. (I'm still surprised when I pull my jeans out of the dryer and they seem so small. I never expect them to fit, but they do.) The weight loss has definitely slowed down. I'm losing about 2 pounds a month now. And I'm fine with that. It's not like my eating is going to change when I get to the magic weight. I fully expect my body will decide when it's happy and the weight loss will just stop.

I have my next Ha1c in a couple of weeks. This will be the first test since I reduced the metformin by 75%. So it will be interesting to see if my numbers stay below 6%.

Losing the Bread
When people find out how much weight I’ve lost, and the dramatic improvements to my diabetes management, they always want to talk about it. They ask a lot of questions. But the minute they find out I don’t eat bread, I get this stunned “Oh, I could never give up bread.” Every. Time.

I realize that the way I eat is a little extreme for most people. But this is what has worked for me. I have emotional issues with food and I just have to stay away from the things that trigger overeating or binge eating. Unfortunately for me that pretty much includes anything that contains grain, primarily wheat. And since a lot of processed foods contain wheat, plus sugar and high fructose corn syrup, I avoid processed foods.

The amazing thing to me is that the bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, etc. were not that hard to give up. I saw weight loss and blood sugar improvements within a week. So it was really easy to keep going because I was definitely getting huge rewards.

Even if you can't give up the bread, just reducing the amount of processed foods and sugars in your diet and eating more vegetables can make a huge difference in how you feel. And the better you feel, the easier it is to eat healthier and the more likely you are to start moving more.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! Congrats! That's a huge accomplishment on top of your amazing progress, and I'm really glad you've taken this step forward for yourself. :) I'm so happy for you!

(formerly) no-blog-rachel said...

Exactly what Moiraeknittoo said - before I even saw her comment I was thinking 'WOW - Congratulations!'. On all fronts. You really are an inspiration!

Marianne said...

Congratulations on your certification and..well, EVERYthing!
Yep, people and their bread, like some sacred marriage, eh? I'll also recommend they try and find something besides wheat and they're even more aghast at the whole idea. meh.
There are a whole lot of people not willing to be open to their food tasting a bit different.

Anonymous said...

Proud of you as I can be. You have worked hard for this, and I'm excited to see your plans unfold for the future.

You're the best, TMK!

Sara said...

whoo hoo -

I more or less try and restrict myself to whole grain breads - and no processed stuff. It works for me and the beauty is that my taste/desire for white flour stuff is pretty much gone - it tastes like cardboard. By default, it drastically reduces how many carbs I consume as the whole grain stuff (true whole grain stuff - not mostly white flour with a little whole wheat thrown in for labeling purposes) is harder to come by.

Do you also get constant amazement from folks? Folks who I don't see often but who met me while heavier often just don't recognize me - even if they see me and then see me six months later - it's like I am encoded visually as my former self in their brain ha.

karen said...

WHOOOOOO-HOOO! Excellent, and you deserve to throw in a little self-promotion, it's for the betterment of all, right? Love seeing the updated photo, too. Very nice.

Anonymous said...

Ain't it great! People always asked me what weight I was going for, and I always said my body will decide. I went from a size 18 to a 6 in about 8 months. And when they say, oh, I could never eat like THAT, I say, well, I've grown accustomed to my feet and eyesight......and who knew that eating less and exercising more actually WORKS?