My Journey to a Healthier Life! Part 1 in the Series

 

 

 Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

 

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

 

ANNOUNCEMENT

 

I am now posting 3 times a week !!!

 

 I will be posting on TUESDAY, THURSDAY and SATURDAY

 

With the beginning of Fall, the HOLIDAY SEASON starts for me....

 

 

I consider the Holiday Season from September until after Easter as I decorate for all the Holidays and Seasons in between those months....

So I usually have a lot to share....

 As always, click on each picture if you would like to enlarge it....

 

 

In my last post, I shared how I decorated areas of my Kitchen in a Whimsical Halloween theme....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Click HERE if you missed this post....

I want to Thank Niki, over at Life As A Leo Wife, for choosing my post, Early Fall Front Porch and Yard, as her feature from last week's You're The Star Blog Hop!!

 

 Thanks again , Niki!!

Please stop by and link up to this great party and all the other parties that Niki hosts!!

 

 

I just have to share this amazing Sunset taken from our front porch.....

 

 And this was taken from the top of our parking lot on the edge of the Woods....

Amazing, huh???????

 

  This entire post is going to be a very personal post.....

 

And brutally honest, which I am known for being....

My Teaser at the end of my last post definitely caused some curiosity about what would I be revealing in this post.....

NO, it is not a remodeling, decorating or craft project....

 

The project is ME!

In the beginning of June, I decided that I was not going to make any more excuses ....

I needed to take control of my life and my health.....

After doing a lot of research during the month of May, I decided it was time to start a Journey toward a much more Healthier Life which includes changing my Lifestyle!!

I have been enjoying my Retirement so much that I want to have many more years of it!!!

Now this is not the first time I decided to do this BUT I assure you that this will be the LAST time!!!

I have vowed that by the time I turn 65 years old next year, I will be living a much healthier life than what I have been for the last 25+ years.....

A big part of this has to do with my weight!!

 

 

  So let me give you a little background....

I was a FAT kid!

I know that FAT is no longer an acceptable term in today's society but it sure was in the 60's when I was growing up...

 

 

And I was bullied mercilessly because of it....

The Summer before I went into 8th grade, I got Braces on my teeth to correct an overcrowded mouth full of teeth caused by a small jaw....

 

 

 Yes, they pretty much have to use pediatric retractors for dental work to this day for me even though Joe does say I have a Big Mouth!

I had a double row of 2 teeth on the bottom in front and a set of vampire fangs on the top!

They pulled 4 teeth so they could move the others around...

They had to HAMMER those metal braces down onto my teeth because they were so tight in my mouth and that took several hours!!!

Consequently, I was not able to eat solid food for 3 months and lived on high protein milk shakes, pudding, soups and canned pasta....

And I dropped 60 pounds by Christmas of that year!!!!

 

I maintained my weight except for going up and down about 10 pounds until I was pregnant for the first time....

I gained a lot of weight and had a troublesome pregnancy....

 

 

It took me a year after I had my oldest son, Joey , to lose the weight I had gained....

And then I found out I was pregnant again...

I vowed that was not going to happen again and with a much easier pregnancy, I was down to my "normal" weight 6 weeks after I delivered my youngest son, Jimmy!

 

Again, I fluctuated about 10 pounds up and down for many years....

 

 

 

I walked 5 miles everyday at the Mall by our house, after working all night but then I developed heel spurs on both feet and could hardly walk at all....

 

That was the start of my weight gain....

In my early 40's, Joe took the job with the United States Post Office as a letter carrier and life as we knew it changed drastically...

For the first 6 years on this job, he could NOT refuse overtime and worked 6 days a week, 50 -60 hours a week....

No more vacations, weekend and day trips....

And I was working full time night shift too!!

I was now responsible for the house and everything that could go wrong with it and for running my sons to and from school events, CCD, etc.  as they were in Junior High at the time....

The stress of this situation was relieved by my big time Stress Eating which I have done my entire life....

  

 

After my Dad passed away, while my Mother was vomiting and having diarrhea, I was eating every thing that people dropped off at the house for us to eat!!

I gained 10 pounds the week my Dad passed away...

 

My Mother lost 10 pounds....

Needless to say, I did not take after my Mother who prided herself at never going over 115 pounds her entire life!!!

I took a weekender job which enabled me to work 32 hours over every weekend, maintain my full time benefits and pay and allowed me for 6 years to be off during the week so I could spend as much time with my sons and take care of everything around the house as Joe was never home!!

 

You can see the weight I gained by the year 2000!

 

The change in our lifestyle was a lot to take and I ate for comfort and to relieve the stress of it all....

Then my health issues started with the more weight I gained.....

And so did the Fat Shaming....

By my Mother....

She took it upon herself to try to get me to lose weight by telling me about how much weight I gained and how I looked in comparison to other family members on a daily basis.....

Yes, this not only caused more stress for me but it also caused me not to speak to her for long intervals of time because of it.....

Of course I was extremely unhappy with the way I looked and very embarrassed by it too!!

 

I stopped wearing shorts and sleeveless tops and have not worn a bathing suit in 25 years!!

And I went into "Hiding".....

That was when I started not to allow any pictures to be taken of me....

There are very few pictures taken of me after my youngest son Jim graduated from high school because I did not want to see what I looked like....

Out of sight and out of mind....

And that was when I feel I made the biggest mistake of my life....

I stopped weighing myself daily....

 

 

I was so disgusted with myself that I chose to ignore what was happening to me....

You know all that weight that I lost when I got my braces put on???

Well, I gained it all back and then some!!

I was mortified with myself!!

When my knee started causing me severe pain and I could barely walk, I went to an ortho surgeon, fearing the worst....

Yes, my right knee was 'bone on bone" which meant there was almost no cartilage left...

The first thing he told me to try to ward off a Knee Replacement for a bit was to lose at least 50 pounds...

Every 50 pounds of weight is 200 pounds of pressure on your knee joints!

And to do a stationary bike at least 5 times a week....

I bought one the very next day....

I was now determined that I was going to put this surgery off for 6 1/2 years until I was close to retiring at 62 years old which was my Early Retirement plan that I had already been working on with a financial planner....

At the time I weighed about 50 pounds more than when I was pregnant with Joey!!!!

In 9 months, I lost 55 pounds!!!

 

What was funny was 1 was back down to the weight which mortified me when I was pregnant and now I was thrilled about weighing that!!

I felt great!!

But as time went on, I started to gain weight as I was diagnosed with Hasimoto's Thyrioditis, an auto immune disease, which makes it almost impossible to lose weight in addition to IBS and Post Gall Bladder Syndrome...

 

JUST GREAT!!

By the time I had my Knee Replacement, 6 years later, I had gained half of that weight back....

2 1/2 months of not being able to walk after having to stop working also contributed to that weight gain just prior to my surgery....

So.....

I had the surgery and held my own for awhile afterward .....

Until the Pandemic hit!!

 

 

Since my son, Joey, moved in with us for 3 months during the initial phase of the Pandemic, I decided that I would finally listen to what several dieticians and a nutritionist had told me to do because I have an almost non existent metabolism.....

Yes, I was able to have private sessions with dieticians and nutritionists for free, paid for by my Healthcare insurance, because of my elevated blood pressure which I took advantage of several times...

You see....

I was raised only eating one large meal a day.....

That was all my parents ate and that was all I ate all of my adult life...

Joe was also raised the same way....

This, coupled with years of drastic dieting, totally screwed up my metabolism and put me into what dieticians call "Starvation Mode"

 

 This means that my body grabs on and holds on to whatever calories are ingested because it feels it has to combat starvation....

JUST GREAT!

So, I took the advice of eating 3 meals a day to try to speed up my metabolism....

I gained 20 pounds in the first 6 months of the Pandemic....

JUST GREAT!

Again, by not weighing myself daily, it was out of my sight and out of my mind until I could not fit into most of my clothes again!!

Can I tell you how mad I was at myself and disgusted by it???

 

But the Pandemic gave me the perfect opportunity to "Hide" out again....

Staying home meant no one had to see me and know how much weight I gained....

But I knew, especially after this picture was taken, in 2020 for my great niece's graduation.....

 

My Pandemic hair style because we were not able to go to get hair cuts during the Pandemic....

How the heck did I let this happen again??????

Again, I did not allow any pictures to be taken of me after this one....

As time went on after my Knee Replacement Surgery, I was feeling better than I had in years....

The Stress from work was also gone...

In December of 2021, my son and DIL welcomed another pup into their family!!!

 

Azumi!

 

We had been going every morning, 5 days a week, when Jim and Danielle were at work for Joe to take Faye, their other dog, for a walk to do her business....

 

I stayed in their house while Joe took Faye out to walk and played with her when they came back....

 

Now, I was going out too to walk Azumi with Faye...

After having knee pain for close to a decade, I had not walked any distance for close to that time even though I am able to do 5 miles in 20 minutes on my stationary bike...

 

 So at first,  I experienced pain in my hips and my lower back when walking but by March of 2022, I was able to walk longer and farther and the pain was gone.......

Now that I was feeling great, I decided that it was time!

No more excuses!!!

 

 

So I started to research how I was going to go about losing weight...

And people gave me a LOT of advice over the years...

"Eat 3 Meals a Day' which I failed at miserably even though it may work for some!

"Cut the Carbs Out"

Since I have IBS and Post Gall Bladder Syndrome, a LOT of foods cause me to become ill and carbs are pretty much what I can eat without incidence!

"Eat mostly Fruit and Veggies"

Again, due to my multiple GI issues, I can not eat fruit and veggies without experiencing dire consequences....

So I decided to go back and listen to what my Ortho Surgeon told me when I had my first visit with him and he told me to lose 50 pounds to ward off my Knee surgery for awhile....

"Burn more calories than what you take in and you will lose weight"

This was the plan I followed many years ago when I went to a hospital based Behavior Modification Weight Loss program and lost 35 pounds in 8 weeks!!

I was in my 30's then so it was easier to take the weight off...

And this is what I followed before my knee surgery and lost 55 pounds in 9 months!!

The first thing I did was buy a new scale and started weighing myself daily!!....

Even the scale provides me with encouragement to be Thinner!

Weighing myself everyday helps me plan how much I will be eating for the day.....

I have also adopted this attitude about Food, which I have always regarded as my biggest enemy in life....

And this is where I will leave off for now .....

 

BUT I will tell you that since June 1st when I started this Journey, I have lost, to date, 25.5 pounds!!

It has not been easy and I had to totally change my way of eating and I started walking for exercise in addition to doing my stationary bike, chair sit ups ( had major abdominal surgery for repair of 4 hernias with a mesh system put in place) and arm exercises with weights for strength training...

And the answer is YES to the question that I was able to lose weight even while eating the food that I have been sharing with you in my Food of the Week Segment!!!!

In my next post in this Series, I will tell you what I am doing on my Journey to a much Healthier Lifestyle....

I still do not allow pictures to be taken of me but this is a recent picture I did take to show that my dimples are coming back, which is why I am not smiling.....

 

You can see the weight that I have lost in my face already....

 

And I am now able to fit in these jeans which I have not been able to wear for the last 6-7+ years....

 

Plus I am feeling fantastic!!

Stay tuned for my next post in this Series where I will tell you how I changed my eating habits and how I am trying to speed up my metabolism....

I hope that maybe I may have inspired someone to stop making excuses and start their own Journey toward a Healthier Lifestyle because if I can do it , you can too!!!

In my next post, I will be sharing some of my Halloween decorations in my Dining Room.....

So I hope you will stop by to visit again on THURSDAY!!

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

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SUNDAY
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