Hello, ladies!
Finally checking in after a hectic little time! First off, I want to most sincerely thank Laura, Ellen, Ilene and Lieke for your very sweet words of support. When we reach out to one another on here, writing messages that we hope will impact another positively, we do our best and send it out into the void -- not knowing if it will make contact as effectively as we'd like. It can be a difficult medium. I want you to know that your words went so far in bolstering me and reminding me that it really will all get easier. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. :grouphug
My eats have been stellar, and my exercise, while good, has fallen just a bit only temporarily. I had my port-a-cath removed from my chest two days ago (if only there were a JUMPING banana to express my jubilation!!) The surgeon put the kabosh on exercise that evening and the following morning, and limited me to lower body exercise the following evening -- so I did lower body weights (a little tough because holding the dumbbells pulled on my stitches a bit, but whatever.) Today brought now fewer than 3 doctor's appointments -- including two for my dear partner Lorraine, who, it turns out now officially has Lyme Disease, which has damaged her beautiful heart muscle.
It caused the muscle to weaken significantly, so it's output is greatly reduced and may call for a pacemaker. It also caused a left bundle branch block. Anyway, we ran around so much today and it was so emotionally draining, when we got home at 8 I just wanted to cook us a healthy meal and decompress. Of course now I regret not having decompressed on the treadmill or exercise bike!
On the agenda tomorrow: another doc's appt. (sheesh!
) and no less than 50 minutes of cardio, as well as upper body weights. (I'm trying to catch up, so I can get back to my planned 3 x week full body workouts.)
My weights not moving, which I was told to expect, but thought I might escape because I'm so special.
I had a nice conversation with the surgeon about it when he had my chest open and was pulling the port out of my main artery!
He explained that the body, after extreme physical stress, dramatically slows its metabolism and retains fat in particular in its desire to preserve itself. How clever our bodies are, no? Ah well, can't argue with that kind of physiological intelligence, even if I'd very much like to reason with it!
I'm sure the exercise -- and time -- will eventually convince my body that it's ok to relax, cooperate, and give up the fat. In the meantime, I'll stick with the daily cardio, the 3 x week FB weights, and the 1500 (average -- I cycle them) clean kcals.
What else am I gonna do?
Lieke, a word to you -- I'm sorry you're at this point with your DBF. I reached that point with my partner and her smoking. I finally gave her an ultimatum (I'd been begging her to quit for 7 years, and she was up to 2 packs/day
) I gave her a deadline -- of September, coincidentally -- which she reluctantly, sort of disbelievingly, accepted. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view,) the heart difficulties were discovered and it was first thought that she'd suffered a heart attack. That was enough to put the fear of God in her, and today marks Day 15 of her new, smoke-free life.
I'm so proud of her. I know that when I told her very seriously that I was not kidding, and that I was not going to sit by while she killed herself and held our future -- and my health also! -- in so little regard, she was pretty taken aback. I can only imagine that it was the same for your dear boyfriend. My heart goes out to you -- I know your pain and worry. He'll have to do it for himself, of course, but it's important that he understand that his health has an impact on your relationship and on you, who love him. Big hugs for you.