onyah.com

I missed my weigh-in last Thursday, because I was driving around North Carolina on a weeklong vacation. I’m a little worried about what the scale will say this week. I started out the vacation strong, using my BlackBerry to track my points and making smart choices. But… my resolve faltered after a while. I ate more than a few hush puppies, drank more than a few beers, and ate full-fat ice cream on more than one occasion.

One thing I can boast is that as soon as I got home, I got back on track. That feels good. I doubt I’ll be able to un-do 9 days worth of damage in 3 days worth of healthy eating, but at least I know that the badness is behind me.

On another topic… I went in for a physical at the end of February and got a bunch of routine blood work done. While I was on vacation, my doctor called me with my results. My cholesterol, blood sugar and other stats were a-ok, but my liver enzymes were high. My doctor indicated that this is not anything to freak out about, and that it could be caused by something that would mean nothing, like maybe I had acetaminophen in my system.

But it also could indicate this thing called “fatty liver” (like fois gras!) that is caused by obesity. Even if that is the case, my doctor indicated that it’s still not anything to freak out about, as it could be reversed with weight loss. She asked me to come in for another test in a month. If the enzyme levels have gone down, then I’m in the clear.

There’s one more snag… I have to have booze-free blood to guarantee reliable results. So, for thirty days prior to my follow-up blood test, I can drink no alcohol. That’s right, a month without beer! I’m on day 4, and it’s been painless thus far. But… I like beer. I’m sure taking a month off will be good for my weight loss, but I’m sure I’ll have an evening or two that’ll be tough!

As I mentioned in my first post, I am particularly motivated to be a loser because of the recent discovery that I have “degenerative disc disease” in my lower back. This solved the riddle of why I’ve been having sporadic pain for several years. On a handful of occasions, I’ve moved or lifted something heavy, and found myself incapacitated with back pain shortly thereafter. Each time, I went to the ER and was given heavy painkillers and muscle relaxers. Which would make the pain go away, but didn’t really solve anything.

This last December, the pain came back, but this time without any sort of heavy moving or lifting to precede it. So I went to the doctor, got the drugs, took them, and the pain didn’t really lessen. Various friends had been suggesting I see a chiropractor for quite some time, so I finally decided to give it a try. The first thing he did was order some x-rays. When the radiologist delivered them, they were accompanied by a letter detailing that my discs were thinning and that osteophytes were forming on my lower vertebrae. My chiropractor prescribed that I come see him for 12 sessions, and I’m about halfway through them.

I hadn’t talked to my mom about any of this until this morning (because we’ve been totally preoccupied with talking about the inauguration). I learned from her that my aunt has the exact same ailment, though hers was caused by being a super-athlete, not by being overweight. It got so bad that she had to have surgery to fuse her vertebrae together. When I met with my chiropractor this afternoon, I told him of this, and he assured me that I’m doing the right thing to keep it from getting that point.

Regardless, I am a little more spooked about this than I was. It’s one thing to know that you’ve damaged your body; it’s another thing to know that not taking better care of yourself will result in surgery on your spine. I cringe just to think about it!

I’ve created this blog as a chronicle of my weight loss journey, as well as a place to share recipes, food finds and the like. I’ve joined and quit and re-joined Weight Watchers more times that I can count in my life—the most recent re-joining was on January 1, 2009. I’ve got no delusions that it’s going to be any easier this time around, but I do have a sense that it will “stick” this time around, for three important reasons:

1. It’s about my health. Every time I’ve done this before, my motivator has been improving my looks or fitting into a certain dress, but this time, I’m working to un-do the damage I’ve already done to my body. I learned about a month ago that I’ve got degenerative disc disease in my lower back, which was caused by living the life of an overweight person for so many years. It was sad and humbling to learn that I’ve done such a thing to myself, but it’s also given me a good kick in the arse to make a change.

2. I’m figuring out how this all began. In September of 2008, I started seeing a therapist who specializes in eating disorders. She’s been helping me to identify the reasons why I eat, and to train myself to pause before putting something in my mouth and make sure it’s really what I want to do.

3. Time’s a-wastin’. One particularly revealing conversation that I had with my therapist was about putting off weight loss, and how I tend to see it as something I’ll get around to one day. I noted, for example, that I keep thinking I’ll lose the weight when I decide it’s time to have a baby. And she asked, “how far off could that be?” And I kinda realized, uh, I’m 30, so… not that far.

And finally, here are a few “before” pictures, for posterity’s sake. These were all taken of me during the holidays in December 2008: