8 weeks in Melbourne and I am back to my life in Norway again.  Let’s get down to the nitty gritty of the topic….did I manage to lose any weight while I was away?  Ummmmmm …no I didn’t. 

As I suspected, it was difficult to lead a lifestyle that leads to weight loss while having to share a house with my family.  So what went on?

*  My nerve pain and lower back pain played up for most of the time but in the last few weeks the nerve pain has decreased drastically!  I see the specialist tomorrow and I am interested to see what happens as I can tell I am wonky at the moment, but with almost no pain.  (the warmer weather definitely helped)

*  Constant celebrations with food at fabulous restaurants.  Also access to much loved and missed junk foods which were very tempting……and I was tempted.

*  My Mother’s “control” of the kitchen and not letting me prepare any of the meals had me eating only what she prepared.

* Bad habits of the people around me created bad situations like late night snacking.

*  My Mum also freaked out every time I wanted to leave the house  (she had always been like this…but I moved out of home 18 years ago and am a grown woman!)  Anyway, getting out for walks and exercise (once my pain issues were better) was difficult and annoying because of the nagging and warnings of rape, bashings and muggings!  (mind you we live in a super nice and safe area…gawd)

*  No scales!  Makes it impossible to keep track.

The reality of the situation is actually pretty damn good…and I am almost embarrassed.  I weighed in at 78.0 kg this morning.  So even though I was determined to come back to Norway smaller than when I left…after everything, I somehow managed to maintain and not gain anything somehow!?  I find this astounding as I really was expecting the worst.

So……back to my life.  The weather is improving slowly and I am more mobile than I have been in the last 6 months.  I am not entering this summer season skinny, at my goal weight…but I will persevere and get there slowly.

I am back!

I don’t know what the scales situation will be like while I am away.  I don’t think my parents have a digital scale…so I will have to assess the situation when I am there.  This might mean I am not able to post precise weigh ins while I am away.  I will do my best to keep up posts while I am away though.

I am yearning to eat all the great foods I can’t get here in Norway and am scared that this is going to be a very dangerous period for my weight loss.  I have never denied myself  foods while on this journey, but simply exercise rational discretion about portion sizes and enjoy the food a whole lot more, but savouring it when I do indulge.  Hopefully I can start exercising and walking more soon and maybe even get a short term membership at the local gym.  I am determined to return to Norway thinner than when I left!  hehe It won’t be easy…My Mum is morbidly obese and celebrates everything with food treats.  She also obviously doesn’t follow a lifestyle that embraces health and doubt she has ever actively exercised.  She might be upset when I don’t want to go out for gelato or get annoyed that I would prefer to head out to the gym for an hour instead of hanging out with her.  We’ll see.  Dad is a little fire cracker and probably more than happy to run all over the place with me…but again, he’s a not into intentional exercise.  He doesn’t even own jeans or runners, let alone tracksuit pants.  I may be over thinking this too much, but we’ll see.

So my lovely weight loss readers, my next post will be from across the world.  Wish me luck and stay centred in your resolve and relish all your little accomplishments.

Sophie

As you can see I am WAY off track of this goal….13 kg off track.  I never actually expected to be able to lose that much weight each week but had hoped to be much closer to 70kg by now and around 72kg before my 2 month trip to Australia.  But as we all know, shit happens right!?

I never anticipated that my sciatic nerve pain issues would return with such ferocity and for so long after improving.   I got my life back after a year of intense pain…only to have it taken away from me again. Lack of being able to walk, let alone exercise put a big reality sized spanner in the works. I have written before the dangers of setting time span goals with weight loss and I hope that this proves a point to all of you who persist.  At the end of the day, I am 13kg off an unrealistic weight loss goal time span.  I AM 25.3kg less than my weight last July and how great is that!? I will make it my goal sometime this year…soon I hope.

I somehow managed to lose weight again this week…hope it’s not all muscle weight! But I am thrilled my body is still responding to the little I am able to do to assist a healthier existence.  And the best news of all….I have made some headway with my sciatic nerve pain and pelvis problems.  I have been given a few really good tools to help pop my pelvis back and my body is finally responding to these.  Knowing the pelvis is in place, but still not being to walk for more than 3-5 mins before the pain becomes too intense to think straight.. I figured that my main pain issues are being caused by a knock on muscular effect.  When my pelvis is in the wrong place, the piriformis muscle in the buttocks freaks out (and my sciatic nerve runs through the muscle instead of beside it and gets squeezed to death).  So I have spent the last few days stretching and massaging and getting acupuncture for the piriformis  AND things are finally improving!!  I probably just jinxed myself though

Anyway, here’s this week’s stats.

78.2 kg      or      172.40 lbs

LOST 0.6 kg/ 1.32 lbs

13.2 kg / 29.10 lbs TO GO!

BMI = 28.2 (9.1 points down)

TOTALS = 25.3 kg/ 55.78 lbs LOST SO FAR!

65.71 % OF WAY TO GOAL!

Stay smiling and keep up the battle against the bulge.

LOST 0.6 kg/ 1.32 lbs

13.8 kg / 30.42 lbs TO GO!

BMI = 28.4 (8.9 points down)

TOTALS = 24.7 kg/ 54.45 lbs LOST SO FAR!

64.16 % OF WAY TO GOAL!

I am not quite sure how I achieved such a great loss this week, aside from the fact that I wasn’t very hungry on a couple of days.  I am really pleased to see a significant drop on the scales again!

I am still unable to exercise and can barely stand or sit for more than 1 or minutes at a time…..and I am wearing thin.  I have done well staying positive and in the hope that everytime I get readjusted that my body will calm down and keep my pelvis in the right place…..but it doesn’t and it has been 3 months  like this now (after 7 months of improving so much).

I broke down on Saturday and sobbed.  I try not to do this and stay in as good a mood as I can, not letting this defeat me….but it has beaten me down.  I am heading off to Australia in 10 days and things are looking grim.  Instead of heading out with friends, shopping with my husband and his Mamma (who we are taking with us), seeing the sites and enjoying the sun…I will most likely be stuck lying down on the sofa in my parents house for 2 months.  Oh Yay!  :/  That is if I survive the plane trip there.

Anyway I’m off to get adjusted by the pelvic specialist tomorrow morning and acupuncture again on Friday.  Also had acupuncture last Friday and this morning.  Was extra sore all weekend and this morning when I got up….but I think I have improved somewhat (sitting is easier)…so maybe it was not the calm before the storm…but… the storm before the calm   We can only hope right?

Calm determination and success to all my weight loss friends.

Sophie

LOST 0.2 kg/ 0.44 lbs

14.4 kg / 31.75 lbs TO GO!

BMI = 28.6 (8.7 points down)

TOTALS = 24.1 kg/ 53.13 lbs LOST SO FAR!

62.6 % OF WAY TO GOAL!
Well…it’s a loss I guess.  I can lose that much by emptying my bladder, but at least it means my body is responding in the right direction.  I’ll take a 200g loss over a weight gain any day!

It’s still really tough for me.  My hyper mobility issues are still pretty chaotic and I have not been able to exercise at all…or walk…or stand for more than a few minutes.  In fact I have to spend most of my time lying down on the sofa.  I had a very intense physiotherapy session on Friday and left feeling like I had been beaten up   Good thing is, I think my pelvis is still in place.  I have probably just jinxed myself though.  The muscles in my buttocks (primarily the piriformis) is hard like a rock and seeing as I have unusual physiology (where the sciatic nerve passes through the piriformis instead of next to it) my nerve is feeling very squished and I still have intense pain.

Acupuncture again on Friday.  Just over two weeks until I leave for Australia for 8 weeks…so I am getting nervous about being able to cope on the flight and actually enjoy myself while I am there.

I still live in hope that things will calm down and I can get back to exercise and jump start my weight loss again.  Until then I just keep eating sensibly.  I admit I do not always make the best food choices, but I eat a LOT less than I used to and have kept my water intake high.

Hope everyone else is doing better with their weight loss than me.  I promise I’ll be back in the game as soon as I am able!

My hyper-mobility issues are still driving me crazy.  My pelvis was adjusted back into place on Thursday and by Friday afternoon it has moved out of place again.  I had some Chinese acupuncture this morning and we’re hoping this will help settle down by body which my specialist described as “spastic at the moment”.  I think it might help.  I have another session on Friday and then hopefully some physio.  I really hope it works.  I didn’t like being a human pin cushion much but I am willing to do anything to get my life back. Wish me luck.

LOST 0.5 kg/ 1.1 lbs

14.6 kg / 32.19 lbs TO GO!

BMI = 28.7 (8.6 points down)

TOTALS = 23.9 kg/ 52.67 lbs LOST SO FAR!

62.01 % OF WAY TO GOAL!

It has been a while but I felt it was worth doing a proper progress update again!  Not a huge change in my weight, but IT IS DOWN!  yay   A little bit all adds up in the long term after all.

My pelvis is still playing up sadly and is causing me a lot of pain…but I live in hope that each time I go and get readjusted back that it will stick this time.  My specialist is getting me a special belt/sling to wear that will hopefully help stabilise me and things will get better for me. Seeing her again on Thursday thankfully.

An annoying thing I have noticed is that since I have been stable at around 80kg for so long now I have become used to my new size and shape and am no longer proud of the changes I have made.  Now when I look in the mirror all I notice is that I still have a lot of weight to lose still.  I guess this is what people who are already thin must feel when they gain a few kilograms.  I also have the perspective of what I look like thin (and crave to look like that again), as 10 years ago I weighed somewhere around 51 – 54 kg  (I can’t quite remember)….and remember the huge changes a kg made.  Don’t get me wrong…I am delighted with the progress I have made so far. Anyway, as I start to lose more weight I know my body will begin to surprise and delight me as it changes.  The paper roll effect should start to kick in soon and each kilo lost will be more obvious.

Hope everyone is happy and doing well.

Sophie 

My pelvis did a huge twist out of place on Friday at some point and the following days were extremely painful.  Last night I decided to throw caution to the wind and exercise. It went much better than last time I attempted and I managed to get a sweat up.  After, I did dome stretching and stomach strengthening…also tried to feel which way the pelvis was twisted  (to the right)  and tried adjusting myself with some stabilizing movements and some gentle shoving.  I am seeing the specialist tomorrow so I figured it was worth the risk if I stuffed up.  Anyway I did well   It’s not perfect, but the sciatic nerve is not being crushed anymore and that’s a huge relief.

I was also thinking about ways I can help my body stay in place….and I might have an idea.  Body sculpting pants.  The compression might help keep things stable and make me more aware of holding my stomach muscles tight.  It’s worth a try and I will be asking my doctor tomorrow.

Back to my weight loss journey.  I maintained again….BUT….this morning I had a breakthrough!  The first time in this journey and the first time in years I saw the 70′s on the scales!  It was 79.9kg…so I barely snuck in, but I did it!   YAY   I hope that sticks over the next few days and I never have to see 80 kg on the scales ever again!  Happily fare-welling the 80′s.  This is great motivation and although I am a long way off track of my weight loss goals …at least I am on my way again.

Unfortunately I don’t have much to report this week.  I finally had an appointment with the specialist on Monday morning and that wiped me out for the rest of the day.  She put me back in place .. AGAIN..but I am afraid that my pelvis has already slipped out again as the nerve pain in my leg is back as well as a lot of muscular pain in the hamstring.  I will try going to the shops tomorrow as I need some things but I am not very hopeful.  Luckily I have another appointment set up for Thursday.

We chatted a bit about what’s going wrong with my tratment at the moment and she said it was two things.  1.  There has been a change to my posture.  I usually have terrific posture (all those years of ballet I guess) but I got a macbook in October and have been using that whilst sitting on the sofa.  So I must stop that.  2.  The cold weather is messing me up.  This winter has been especially cold (January was the coldest recorded in 110 years)  and she said she has never had so many problems with her patients before.  So, constant hot showers and layers of thermals is the best I can do until I escape to Australia in March.  Problem is I need this sorted out before I go or else I will never survive the plane trip there.

As for my weight loss.  <BIG SIGH>  I am the ‘maintain queen’ it seems.  I am sitting at 80.0kg .  That is a minuscule loss of 100g  and barely worth mentioning in my opinion.  Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled that I am not gaining weight…but it’s another week with no weight loss and that is bugging me.  There’s not a lot I can do about it though and I can’t deprive myself of any more calories without making myself even more miserable.  Gawd, I really want to see that scale drop below 80 though!

The other thing on my mind…and I have a confession to make is that I need to stop smoking.  I used to smoke a lot and then I quit cold turkey for 2 and a half years.  I started again three years ago and smoke around five to six cigarettes a day.  But I have to stop!  I know it shouldn’t be that difficult as I have done it before coming off 20 cigarettes a day…but my heart is not in it.  I know I need to do it for my health.  I know I need to do it if we are going to try for a baby.  I know I need to quit before I travel to Australia so I don’t stress out on the flights. …..I am scared I will gain weight.  Can I control my eating, quitting and deal with the pain of my dysfunctional body all at the same time?  We’ll see.  I will try as of tomorrow.

Checking in on all of you now.  Hope everyone has been successful.

I am yearning to say goodbye to the 80′s and see the 70′s on the scale but seeing as I can barely walk atm I am pleased that I have been able to maintain.  My pelvis is definitely out of place and my specialist has not been able to see me yet…so I am stuck in limbo.

I’ll make as good an effort as I can this week with my eating and see how it feels using the exercise bike on the lowest setting.  I am hanging in there and still working towards my weight loss goals.