Hitting high school, I was more than chubby. Entered college, discovered the gym, lost a lot of weight. Moved back to Iowa three years later, and went absolutely crazy with it. Tim was in grad school all night, so I had plenty of time to run and go to classes at the rec. Last summer I was at my prime, and for some reason, my body just stopped. I plateaued, which was fine by me, but now over the past 6 months or so, I started gaining again. I have kept my diet and exercise routine, and it is the most frustrating aggrivating thing in the entire world.
This is a vast majority of what I eat. Fruit. Lots of it. Plenty of carrots and broccoli too. Throw in some oatmeal and cereal and you have my favorites. I am trying to get more protein in, but not liking a lot of meat, its a lot of egg dishes for me. 1200 calories a day. And its not approximate, I measure everything. It seems crazy, but it helps a lot. .jpg)
I run like crazy. 5 to 8 miles a day. 5 to 6 days a week. On an incline. Its impossible to run more than this, it takes FOREVER. Thank god for tivo. On top of that, I do yoga four days a week and an abs and core class twice a week. So after trying some new routines and failing, I finally gave in and went to the doctor, too worried to avoid it anymore. I keep gaining and it drives me insane. I cant eat less, I cant work out more, and yeah, Im not as big as I was, but if it keeps going, where will it stop? I just cant afford a personal trainer right now in life, and frankly, what else are they going to tell me that I dont know? So in to the doctor!
I dont know what I was expecting, but it was not what he told me. He pretty much automatically assumed that I was lying about what I do and how i eat and told me that I should lift upper body weights and be more careful about what I eat. My mom was diagnosed with a thyroid issue recently, so to humor me, he had me pricked, but his attitude was ridiculous. No talk of vitamins or supplements or any possible problems with my body. It was straight to more exercise. Ridiculous. And then he said that I have come a long way since I was younger and should just be happy with that and be happy with my body. Excuse me? I am gaining weight here, its not like I am trying to become a supermodel, I just want to buy normal pants! I currently have to get pants two sizes two big for my waist because of my thighs. Its miserable.Ugh. Sorry. Its a long term aggrivation for the past eight months. And I have completely hit a wall with nowhere to go. It's like, I might as well give up since nothing works. I know I wont. But still, GGRRRRRRRR. Help.
8 comments:
ok, i totally want to dismiss the entire western medicine system, but i won't do it. there's a lot lot LOT of good there, even though i don't want to admit it. BUT maybe you should go see a naturopath or something. they might be a bit harder to come by in iowa, but i bet IC has a few. otherwise, you could always do a juice fast and kinda reset your body, or try going raw for awhile ;)
kinda a long the lines of the first comment... you might want to consider a good hippie doctor. i have learned a shit ton in the past 6 months myself. it isn't all about eating less calories and measuring food, its about eating the right foods (and i think you might be surprised what those are). and what got me started on all of this really... (well really a lot of things, but the easiest to pass on to you) Slow Burn by Stu Mittleman.
here are a couple suggestions:
-your doctor sounds like an ass, go get a second opinion.
-your body gets used to your routine activities and will stop burning as many calories to do them. I know this sounds crazy, but it's true. Bike/swim/kickboxing/something else to get your heartrate up might do you some good.
-weights and resistance work is really beneficial. It would be easy to throw a couple 5 pound weights under your desk and do some biceps/triceps/shoulder work randomly throughout the day to keep your metabolism going. You can also do lunges, squats, calf raises, and belly-dancer moves in an office space. Just keep yourself from sitting for hours.
-same thing with foods as exercise. If you eat the same thing, your body will stop enjoying it and using the beneficial parts of it. Switch it up, it's the spice of life, and I agree with this mudly person - it's the right foods, not always the amount.
-eating only 1200 calories a day, if it's *truly* only 1200 calories, is not healthy. Your body may be in starvation mode where it stores sugars and fats because it's not getting enough and is afraid food might stop all together. push it up to 1400-1500 a day for awhile and see if your body starts eliminating those stores and toxins.
Listen, you *should* be happy with what you've accomplished. We're getting older, our metabolisms are slowing, and muscle weighs more than fat. At the risk of sounding flowery... love yourself and it will love you back.
Calais and Mudly,
It's so nice to see productive advice! I didn't even think of naturopath/hippie doctor! As soon as my husband and I read that suggestion, we both were like, that is TOTALLY an awesome idea.
You're right about it probably being hard to come by very locally, but definitely worth the search, especially if I ask around a bit. Im also going to look into that Slow Burn book.
You know, as for the going raw thing, as soon as I saw that you were doing it for Lent, I kinda wondered about trying it for a week just to see how it goes. Are there any sites that have been a big help to you on what to eat and what not to for the raw diet? Im just envious that you have raw restaurants out west to help in your quest. CF cant even go vegetarian yet!
I find it strange, but refreshing that the people that might as well be complete strangers to me have such awesome advice while there are people that seem to claim they understand me when they dont even listen to what I say in the first place.
Im not going to exaggerate the facts in such a situation where I obviously crave the help. Giving out false information isn't going to do me any good. I also think its interesting that the helpful advice tells me to see out other ways of doing things and other avenues instead of telling me one specific route to go, such as bumping up my caloric intake for sure and lifting arm weights, which I do. But again, it takes someone not assuming that they know the whole situation to realize that such targeted advice isn't exactly helpful.
Lastly, I will flat disagree with the being happy with my body crap. Its bull. I am 23 years old, by no means is it expected that I should be totally happy with my body and realize that I am getting older. 23 should not have aging effects yet. Not like weight gain, lets get real. I would like to continue to try to look good and be healthy instead of succumbing to the unhealthy mentality to just let aging take over and love myself. I do love myself, and thats why I strive to take care of it and work towards its best.
Go to a different doctor until you find one who listens. I suspect I'm having some thyroid issues myself, even though my blood tests all come back in the "normal" range.
I've been reading up on it a little bit though, and what can be within the normal range in *general* may not be normal for an individual. Some people at the upper end of the range may be miserable until their (THS) levels are at the lower end, and vice versa.
So I'd definitely get a second opinion. Doctors are knowledgeable, yes, but they don't know your body better than you do, and any doctor who tries to act as if he does isn't worth a dime.
Good luck. I hope you get some answers; I can certainly see why you are so frustrated.
These are all great comments!
I would say definately consider seeing a naturopathic doctor. They will address the whole body and really take the time to talk to you about all aspects of your physical/emotional/spiritual health to evaluate your needs. Then they will work on finding and treating the root cause instead of prescribing something to treat the symptoms.
If you can't find one or decide not to go that route, DEFINATELY find another doctor to get a second opinion, the one you went to sounds like a yahoo, what a waste of time. I'm sorry you had to go through that.
As for plateauing. I hear you. I'm 25, my god I can't believe it, and I'm facing the same sort of problem where it takes more work to get the pounds off and it's just so easy to gain'em.
hang in there! And keep us posted on what you decide to do! :)
Hey-So I'd definitely agree with a more natural doc as well. We have gone to a homeopath in Clear Lake, it's a drive but when you see her once you can usually Skype for some of the other appointments if needed (we're still using her as our homeopath even though we're in KC). It's maybe something to check into anyways, a naturopath may be good too, we chose homeopathy but naturopaths sometimes do homeopathy too. Anyways, I would trust that you know your body and if you think something is not adding up it's probably right. I don't want to dismiss western medicine either but I have my fair share of frustrating stories that had me looking elsewhere as well.
I'd recommend juicing as well. We love our juicer, even if it doesn't completely help with the weight thing it's super healthy.
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