Monday, 12 December 2011

The battle of the bulge

Well tonight is my official weigh in and I find out as well how my body fat is doing.  It is a fine balance between what I eat and how much I exercise to get that scale going in the right direction.

In 2009, I went to Christine Charest-Monty about my desire to drop alot of weight before Ironman Lake Placid in July.  The only deal I made with Christine was that no matter what I told her about what I had done to by body over the years, she could not hit me.  She kept her word but I am sure she wanted to belt me a few times especially when I told her that I had even done Dr. Bernstein.

In my teenage years I became anorexic and my entire adult life has been yo yo dieting.   I have tried every diet - Weight Watchers, NutriSystem, the cabbage soup diet, the maple syrup/lemon juice fast, etc.  I was always in it for the quick fix.  I was born and raised in a rural area where we grew all our own vegetables which my mom canned every year and had an orchard beside out home with apples and pears.  To this day, I am not a package food/processed kind of person.


When I went to see Christine in March 2009, I was very frustrated in that I was being very diligent in what I was eating and the scale was not moving.  For 2 weeks, I kept a record of everything I ate and handed it in to Chris.  It did not take her long to figure out I was starving myself and my body was hanging on to whatever weight it could. 

Chris understands the caloric needs of an endurance athlete.  It took alot for me to get used to eating when I was not hungry.

Chris provided me with an eating plan.  I swear I ate so much I went around with a pouchy "Thanksgiving Day" stomach for two weeks.  I was eating non stop and the weight started to fall off.  I did my Ironman in July 30 lbs lighter.

I am a total depression eater and the last couple of years have been really hard for me.  Kev's battle with cancer and his subsequent death devastated me and I went on binge of either starving myself or eating everything and my weight and health has suffered because of it.  I was diagnosed with clinical depression and saw a psychologist for a year to help me to come to terms with learning to live my life without my brother.  I am still on anti-depressants.   I am also B12 deficient and now have weekly injections.  It is really sad the damage I have done to my body over the years (including being an ex smoker) and now I am asking it to do an Ironman. 

Recently, I have started to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  I am feeling stronger mentally and physically each day and I am getting my health back on track with the help of Christine and Paul.  I am so focused on Ironman Texas and my fundraiser - I have been putting 110% into my workouts. My fundraiser is for my son and in memory of my brother -neither of whom I want to disappoint.

Hopefully tonight that scale will be kind to me.  I hope it is kind to my friend Jeff Drinkle as well.

Lisa

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