Well a lot has happened since I last wrote on here. I’ll try to keep it short and interesting.
Since June 2016:
Well I took on a big responsibility of becoming the PTA President for my son’s elementary school. The great thing was that I learned great leadership skills, was part of building up my local community, hope I made a difference at the school, made some great new friends, and was able to do a whole school year as a president of a non-profit. With it being such a big responsibility of building it back up, I wanted to make sure it succeeded and it took a lot of my time. I decided one term was all I could handle with other things coming up. But it was a great experience.
My mom had some big health scares since then too. She suffered from a mini-stroke, had some major infections, and just recently was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. She was hospitalized in October of this year because of fluid being all the way to her abdomen and around her back. Fluid was getting into her lungs. After she was released I had her stay with me to help get her back to health. She was in a wheelchair, couldn’t get into her bed on her own or other things on her own. Made sure she took her medication and was eating right. Yes, she went on my “Nutratina” plan of dairy free, gluten free, and corn free. When she got out of the hospital beginning of November she was 310 lbs. 2 months she is now at 250 lbs. They said 40 lbs was water but she has lost 20 lbs of weight. She hasn’t been in her wheelchair since she left the hospital. She’s walking in her walker. She’s hitting 3000 steps on her fitbit. Feeling stronger and healthier everyday. With physical therapy and cardio therapy she’s on her way to good health and getting back to her social life. I thank God for healing her and making her stronger. Also giving me the strength and wisdom to help her.
My boys are doing well and keeping me busy. I’ve been helping my son with his challenges of having ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder. That is a whole blog post in itself. And my little is now a very active 3 year old with endless energy.
As for myself. I have started my journey at 260 lbs. I am now at 210 lbs. I’ve lost 50 lbs. My starting size was a 20 and I am now between a 12 and a 10. I went from a size XXL to a now a Medium! My show size has went from a size 10 to a size 8.5. Since I’ve gotten stronger I out grew my little garage gym, especially for my leg day. My husband and I joined a local InShape gym and I love it there. It is my sanctuary! We find ways to take turns to go. Or I try to go when my oldest is in school. They have a kids club there, family swim time, and my favorite the sauna! So many amenities on top of just the gym aspect of it.
I am still gluten free, dairy limited, and gluten free. I definitely need to be gluten free. I just had a bad episode where I wasn’t careful and got glutened. So much stomach pain. When that happens I take a shot of apple cider vinegar, rub peppermint essential oil on my stomach, and drink so ginger lemon tea. I got relief within a hour.
BUT, the scale has not moved in about 6 months. The PCOS frustration started to set in. I felt like how it was when I was doing it all and the scale wouldn’t move. I had to change doctors and got recommended to a new general practitioner that could help with my PCOS. The first visit was very informative but overwhelming. I stood on the scale and they told a bunch of stuff that I was like wow! I’m 44% fat. They told me how much was muscle, how much I should be, how much water was in my body (which I need to drink more water).
When I finally met with the doctor, I was pleased he knew of PCOS. It’s hard to find a doctor that knows how to treat it. But he told me to that I have a metabolic disorder. Great another thing to add to my list. I’m supposed to get a whole blood panel work done. And we will know more after that. He did recommend me going on the KETO diet.
I have heard of the KETO diet. My cousin and her boyfriend went on it and they share about it with me. But I saw that it uses a lot of dairy. I cannot do dairy and high fat scares me. Since I have congestive heart failure on both sides, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Hearing high fat, I immediately think of being at risk of those things.
Here is what this website says about a Keto Diet: https://www.ruled.me/guide-keto-diet/
A keto diet is well known for being a low carb diet, where the body produces ketones in the liver to be used as energy. It’s referred to as many different names – ketogenic diet, low carb diet, low carb high fat (LCHF), etc.
When you eat something high in carbs, your body will produce glucose and insulin.
- Glucose is the easiest molecule for your body to convert and use as energy so that it will be chosen over any other energy source.
- Insulin is produced to process the glucose in your bloodstream by taking it around the body.
Since the glucose is being used as a primary energy, your fats are not needed and are therefore stored. Typically on a normal, higher carbohydrate diet, the body will use glucose as the main form of energy. By lowering the intake of carbs, the body is induced into a state known as ketosis.
Ketosis is a natural process the body initiates to help us survive when food intake is low. During this state, we produce ketones, which are produced from the breakdown of fats in the liver.
The end goal of a properly maintained keto diet is to force your body into this metabolic state. We don’t do this through starvation of calories but starvation of carbohydrates.
Our bodies are incredibly adaptive to what you put into it – when you overload it with fats and take away carbohydrates, it will begin to burn ketones as the primary energy source. Optimal ketone levels offer many health, weight loss, physical and mental performance benefits.
I’ve been overwhelmed with trying to figure out if this is for me. Gathering information and researching. What my body needs to do is a combo of Keto and Paleo since I cannot do dairy. I’ve agreed (with myself) to commit to doing this for a month. Then I will see how I feel and what results came about. This may be the change I need. What made me feel better was that it’s not just any fats, but its high in good fats like avocados, nuts, olive oils, coconut oil etc.
Doing this new lifestyle change I decided to document and blog about it. You will see my transparent views and results. I will take my measurements, weight, and before picture and I will see where I am at in month. I will continue to workout and weight lift. With doing some cardio. What I have read is that you won’t need to do hours and hours of cardio on this plan. Just cardio to exercise your heart. But I love the look of my body when I weight lift, so that’s not going any where.
I will keep you updated on this lifestyle change (another one). 
NutraTina 