Twelve Years of Rust: 1st Checkpoint

So one of the hallmarks of the Spark Diet is setting goals for yourself. I suppose most weight loss programs do this, but Spark wants to get more general than weight goals, they like covering fitness, lifestyle, etc. Now, I'm doing Sparkdiet, but I'm not crazily into all the site, it's not bad stuff, but some of it is overkill to me. But I do like the goals idea, because instead of focusing on "I have to lose 100 pounds in a year" and looking at progress against the big number, you can chunk it up.

So originally, when I was dropping nearly 3 pounds a week, I'd targeted 225 by July 1st. But my weight loss settled out and I adjusted it to August 1st. In the week leading up, the scale continued to read 228. I knew I was still making progress, because I'd done good on my ranges, I've kept up my exercise, and the 228 number was more common on random weigh ins. My weigh in number changes from hour to hour, so I generally average them out to figure out my real weight, since so many little things can bump you up a pound or two here or there. So when I weighed in today, I was expecting to not hit my goal.

224.4

Yup, I got it. CHECKPOINT CLEARED! I'm going to celebrate with a Lean Pocket Turkey Sausage, Egg, and Cheese (Still good on my diet) and focus on my next checkpoints. I'm on track to be the lightest I've been since college in just a few weeks time.


8/1/2011 - 225 POUNDS - ACHIEVED
11/1/2011 - 200 POUNDS
11/5/2011 - D.C. Undy 5K
2/1/2012 - 175 POUNDS
4/1/2012 - 160 POUNDS
5/19-20-2012 - Warrior Dash MD

Twelve Years of Rust: Doctor Approved

So, another big hurdle I can cross off in my path to chisle off the crap that's built up in twelve years inside my body...I saw a doctor today.

Granted, he wasn't doing anything more than talking to me and doing slight exam, but it was a big step for me. See, every time I thought about going, I knew I was going to have to talk about the number on the scale, and address how I was going to fix it. And I just didn't want to think about it. So instead, I just went to Minute Clinics every time I needed antibiotics and just ignored the doctor. But, with the recent plan in place, I felt now was the time to get this cleared medically and make sure I wasn't missing anything troubling that needed to be addressed...

So let's start with the vitals, which is probably the biggest news from the visit. Weight was about same as at home...228, but that was also with jeans and flip-flops. Height was the first suprise. I did a quick check at home when I started this diet, and I had my height as 5'7". At the dr's, they have me at 5'9". That will help my BMI a bit. They took my pulse and BP. I didn't catch the pulse (They said it was lower, but attributed that to exercise), but the BP was outstanding. 112/70. That is normal range, no monitoring needed! When I had pneumonia earlier this year, my BP was 164/92 or something crazy like that. High blood pressure runs in my family, so to hear that after just a few months of dieting and exercise, my BP is in a totally normal range, alright! I'm kicking ass and taking names!

Apart from vitals, not much to report. Doctor just went over my history, said I'll need to go for blood work for a full metabolic panel to check out all the routine screens. Need to fast for 12 hours before, so I can do it after 9:30am tomorrow. He gave me referrals for a dermatologist (for mole check, since we've had some mole issues in my side of the family as of late) and a urologist (for snip-snap day) and that's that. But the overall feeling I got was I'm on track now and no concerns.

The next goal I have, outside of the diet and exercise...to donate blood. I've never donated and I've always been slightly afraid of the process, but I want to give. That'll come soon though, since I don't have any prep work to do for it.

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try... - Broccoli Chicken Cheese Braid

So, I'll confess, I got the original recipe/idea from this blog which Shannon found on pinterest, but I did it tonight with my own twists and used the Spark Recipe calculator to figure out the damage. This was one of the few broccoli recipes I liked when I was still living with my parents, and this was a kind've unique twist on it, so we gave it a try. It was "billed" as a quick recipe to make if you're running late from work, but the prep time for me was about 15 minutes, then about 30 minutes to bake, so it's still a bit of a hassle if you're running low on time, but it works well.


Broccoli Chicken Cheese Braid

1 3/4 cups of Perdue Short Cuts Carved Chicken Breast (any style)
1 3/4 cups of Kraft Natural Cheese Fat Free Cheddar Shredded Cheese
1 3/4 cups of cooked, chopped broccoli
1/2 cup of Kraft Olive Oil Mayonaisse
12 Reduced Fat Crescent Rolls (Dough, not cooked...The ones I got from Giant were 8 per container, so I used 1.5. Pillsbury might be 6 per container so if so, get those to avoid waste)
1/4 cup Egg Substitute
Rosemary

1. Steam the broccoli
2. While the broccoli is cooking, cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces
3. While the broccoli is cooking, combine the chicken, cheese, and mayonaisse in a mixing bowl
4. While the broccoli is still cooking, preheat oven to 375 degrees
5. On a paper lined cookie sheet, unroll all the dough rolls to form a large rectangle. Press or roll the edges together so it forms one continuous layer.
6. Chop up the cooked broccoli into fine pieces and add into the mixing bowl. Stir the mixture up well
7. Pour the mixture onto the dough sheet, forming a "log" in the center of the dough
8. Along the long dimension of the dough sheet, on the sides of the "log", cut the dough in strips 1 inch wide
9. Pull each strip up and cover the log, alternating sides of the log to form a braid
10. Brush the top of the braid with the egg substitute
11. Sprinkle rosemary on top
12. Bake for 30 minutes

Serves 5 2-inch wide slices

439 calories
17.5 g fat
39.5 g carbs
31 g protein

Notes:
-Ok, so this recipe is kind've high in fat, even with the olive oil mayo, the fat free cheddar cheese, and the reduced fat crescent rolls. But, for how tasty it is, that's pretty worth it. And 17.5 g is only 27% of the reccomended fat intake for a 2000 calorie diet, so that's not too bad
- I wonder if you can prepare the braid ahead of time, which would halve the time needed to make it.
- One way to speed up the recipe would be buying chopped frozen broccoli, so no chopping is needed. I only had broccoli florets here, so I had no other option

Twelve Years of Rust: Not Just a Diet, but a Lifestyle

I don't think I've used the term in this blog, but that's what I'm calling this recent kick I've been on....Twelve Years of Rust. Twelve years ago, I was 16, at a decent enough weight that my senior pictures looked good, actually able to FULLY run a mile without stopping to walk. The years after that have been a gradual relaxation of all health sense. Yes, in that time I did WW twice, I did Spark once, I even took a running/jogging class. But every time, I just did it for a bit and let it go. Not realizing where I'd end up. I started off losing weight at 260 pounds, and I'm down enough that people are noticing, and I like that. I'm around 228 now, which isn't even halfway to my goal weight of 160, but it's the lightest I've been in probably 5 years.

But, what this entry here is about, is not just the weight loss. Because, just losing the weight really isn't enough. I've done diets before, I've lost weight before. With Shannon's cancer battle going on, I've realized I need to get EVERYTHING about my health back on track. It's really scary when I can't recall the last time I saw a doctor. I mean, I know the WEIGHT I was at (190, wow :-/) and I know it was during college, but before senior year, so we're talking at least 6-7 years ago. But in any case, that's 6-7 years of no checking blood pressure, cholesterol, and other general health things I'm sure I need to be watching for. I'm glad to say at 2pm tomorrow, that will be remedied. I'm going for my first doctor visit with Dr. Ruzbarsky. I'm a little nervous but a little excited. Because I like telling people I'm losing weight. It makes me feel accomplished. I'm sure he'll talk about what I need to lose still, and I'll need blood work, but I know a lot of things are already improved. My blood pressure for instance, was 164 on the systolic when I had pneumonia this year. Now I'm sure pneumonia was part of that, but 164 is almost stage 2 hypertension. Now, I'm down to the 120s. Still a bit high, but way closer to normal.

Another big piece of this is the exercise. I didn't do that any of the other times. I'm actually getting excited to run and try races and think down the road. I'm already planning the 5K in November and the Warrior Dash in 2012. Once that's done and I can really hit the ground with running, I'm torn on whether to go for 10K/Half-Marathons, or maybe start trying to train for a Triathlon. I know Ironman is out...EVER! And I don't really want to do the Tough Mudder...EVER! But apart from those two, I want to try these fun crazy runs like "Run For Your Lives" Zombie 5K. I loved when I went to do my 5 min run on Monday and despite thinking I was never going to make it, I pushed through and did it. Goal setting, goal smashing.

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try... - Cheesy Sausage and Eggs, The Lean Way

Starting to fall behind on my posting goal, but two of the things I really enjoy lately are cooking and getting healthy. More on the getting healthy in a later post, but I want to start putting up some good diet recipes which I find helps me stay in my diet goals while not eating "health foods". Basically, a way to get some good comfort food while not busting your gut.


I love breakfast. Eggs are awesome, Sausage is f-in awesome, and Cheese is always gold. Combine the 3, and you have one glorious pile...of fat! 2 oz of Jimmy Dean Sausage is 22 grams of fat. Cheese is 8 grams of fat for 1/4 cup, and eggs, while they are nutritious... 4.5 grams of fat PER EGG. So, if you wanted to make some scrambled eggs, let's say 3 eggs, with cheese and 2 oz of sausage... almost 44 grams of fat. In one meal. No sir! And calories? 520 for 3 eggs, 1/4 cup of cheese, and 2 oz of sausage. So on a diet, I guess you can't eat this right?


Cheesy Eggs and Sausage, the Lean Way



1/2 cup of egg beaters, yellow
1/4 cup of egg beaters, whites
2/3 cup of Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage Crumbles
1/4 cup of 2% Shredded Mexican Cheese
2 tbsp of 2% Milk (Just to fluff the eggs a bit, this is optional)

1. Put a skillet on the stove with cooking spray on low-medium heat (3 or 4 out of 10)
2. Mix the egg beaters and milk in a cup
3. Once your skillet is heated, pour the egg and milk mixture in the skillet
4. Allow it to cook untouched until you can see bubbles forming where the bottom is cooked
5. Pour in the turkey sausage crumbles and wait 2 minutes
6. Start scrambling it all up, continue cooking until all liquid is gone and the mixture is good and cooked
7. In a bowl, put 1/8 cup of cheese on the bottom
8. Once the eggs and sausage are finished cooking, spoon it into the bowl, then add 1/8 cup of cheese on top
9. Allow to sit for a minute or two, then stir so that the cheese is mixed well into the sausage and eggs
10. Go to town!

265 calories
10 grams of fat
36 grams of protein
5 carbs

For my diet, the only problem here is the lack of carbs, as I need to eat about 220 a day. But eating some toast with this would help that out, and if I use my *plug* Giant Lite Italian Bread, 50 calories per slice, 0.5 grams of fat, 12 carbs per slice...That brings our meal totals to 365 calories, 11 grams of fat, 29 carbs, 42 grams of protein.

Notes:
*Eggs aren't a bad thing to cut out, so feel free to take out the egg substitute and use real eggs, just remember that if you are counting grams of fat, that's 15 grams of fat compared to 0 in egg beaters.
*You can use fat free shredded cheese, which I found at Giant, but the last time I tried that, it tasted weird to me
*Turkey Sausage Crumbles are awesome. Sometimes, I just eat those alone to help get in some protein at breakfast. To me, the taste difference between beef/pork and turkey is minimal.

Fighting the Good Fight

wow, so my last post was pretty gloomy. But, as we all know, it usually gets worse before it can get better...

So Shannon got all lined up for her radiation treatments, and actually went through two of them. Before doing it, they sent her for a PET scan to examine lymph node involvement and get a baseline measurement for her tumor. Well, at her 2nd appointment, the radiation oncologist grabbed her into a side room. The lymph nodes were okay, but the scan turned up suspicious spots on Shannon's liver. The liver is generally the first place this cancer spreads to. While they can't tell for sure if it's cancer or not (suspicious spots can be cancer or any number of other conditions which cause sugars to burn quicker than normal), they thought the best course of treatment now is to stop radiation and instead attack this thing with a more broadband chemotherapy. That means no more chemo pills. This is full on, intravenous chemo.

Now, let's let me work out why this doesn't mean the end of the world. First of all, Dr. Hermann was quick to point out that he has several patients who had it spread to the liver who have gone past the 10 year mark still cancer free. Also, looking at wikipedia, when the cancer is isolated in the liver in small spots, you can do surgery to "resect" the liver and the prognosis for that is above 50% over 5 years, rather than the grim 5% that Stage 4 would usually quote you. And we still don't really know that it is cancer, it could be nothing.

So today was Day 1 of chemo. And we got our first snippet of good news today. Comparing the blood work from this morning to the blood work taken last week, Shannon's tumor marker has already dropped after just two treatments of radiation. So it looks like the cancer should be responding well to the treatments. Chemo treatments will be long...2 hour wait in the beginning while blood work confirms her cell counts, then 3-4 hours of infusion, followed by a 46 hour infusion pump. But the whole staff there? AMAZING! They constantly shower you with attention, ask you if you need things, explain everything, ask to see your kids, the whole deal! And they even made sure to get Shannon a day bed with a window today so she'd have a nice comfy treatment.

So that's that. This is going to be a long tough journey for Shannon, but everything in my head is telling me she can beat it. It will suck, but everyone at Hopkins has been awesome and made this experience a lot easier to go through.

When Life Takes a Crap On You

It's kind of hauntingly ironic that my last post talked about a new era between having a 3 year old, a new born, and dieting...

Shannon's weight loss concerned her doctor, so they sent her to a GI, who thought she probably had IBS but sent her for a colonoscopy as a pre-caution. During that, they found a large growth low in her intestinal track, so large it prevented them from going any further. They took a biopsy of it and sent her for a CT scan and bloodwork. We knew right away, from the diagnosis codes on the CT scan order, that the doctor suspected cancer. Half a week later, we got the heavy news...cancer. Various CT scans have shown no mestases, so that's good, but still...CANCER?!

Through some gentle prodding by families, we decided to start working with Johns Hopkins, since they have a specialty center for these type of cancers, rated #3 in the world. So, this week was pretty swamped with appointments. Met with a surgeon on Wednesday who dropped another rock on us...The treatment plan won't just be surgery. Radiation and chemotherapy for 4-5 weeks before, followed by chemo for 4 months after the surgery. Now, in fairness, the reason they are doing this is because with this type of cancer, there's really good results shown when you go for this type of treatment. As one of the oncologists described it, you want to try to kill this thing in one shot, rather than being conservative and having to battle it 3 or 4 times. Still, it means a lot of changes and isn't something that'll be fun. On Thursday, Shannon went for an MRI in the morning, then met with radiation oncologist where they laid out what was going to happen with the radiation. On Friday, we met with medical oncologist to discuss the chemo piece, Shannon got another CT scan, and then she had her simulation radiation treatment. That should be it for the initial appointments, now it's just waiting for the treatment to be ready to execute.

I wanted to blog this because I want to ask anyone I know to pray, hope, send good thoughts, or whatever your own spirituality allows, send it Shannon's way. She has been really strong up through this point, taking in a lot of information and rolling with the changes this is going to bring, but this is definitley emotionally tolling, and once the treatment starts, that's going to be just a little heavier to bear. We're optimistic, everyone at Hopkins is really great and this is a very well studied cancer, so the treatments are something that has been shown to have a high success rate. And everyone knows Shannon...she's head strong. She's not going to let this take her under. But please send any good thoughts you can.

Another thing you can do...So a way I can combine being a supportive husband with the fitness I've been trying to improve. The Undy 5k in Washington DC is November 5th, 2011, benefitting Colon Cancer Awareness. I'm sticking my flag in the ground...this is my first fitness goal. Be able to finish a 5k and not be the last place runner, finishing a solid 3 hours later. If you are interested in joining a team, or donating, please let me know. I'm excited to do this, wanted to try some sort of event to motivate my fitness, and to pick one that is for cause, and especially one that ties into what Shannon is going to....it's just perfect.