LOOSING WEIGHT part 2

So I decided to try a diet I have heard a lot about.  I have a good friend, she is Amish, who did this and lost a lot of weight.  I checked into it, decided that as a diabetic, it might be worth a try.  

It is called the "HCG" diet.  

HCG-is Human Chorionic Gonadotropin.  This is a hormone produced by the placenta in pregnant women.  It controls the metabolic function through the hypothalamus in the pregnancy.

  I thought back to my pregnancies and remembered that I often felt pretty good, and I would usually loose some weight at some point in the pregnancies.  My first pregnancy, I gained, but the others, I usually lost some during the pregnancy.  But I am not one to try fad diets, and just jump into doing things.  

You can take the HCG in a shot form, or in drops.  I went to a doctor (not the  grouchy one who hates my herbal use) but a D.O. who practices as a D.O.  (so many do not -but do the medical route only)

I received a prescription for the shots, got them, and began.  But, I did not do the diet part.  I just did the shots, and ate healthy...I wanted to see how they did with my body-esp since I was a diabetic.  

I had a very interesting reaction!  

Driving down the interstate, I became shaky.  I started sweating, and realized-I am diaphoretic!  Humm-

I grabbed my glucose monitor, checked my sugar and it was in the 60's!  I was driving in the interstate (the toll road) so very limited areas to pull over.  I searched the tray and between the seats storage area for something to eat-a package of crackers or something.  I found a cough drop.  But that was not doing much.  I started thinking I might be pulling over and calling the EMS unit.  

Now for some of you that do not have a sugar problem, being in the 60's you would not react like I was-but it would be like you having a sugar of 30-since I have had a high sugar for so long, being in the 60's was really low for me!  I thought I had a way to go until an exit but then saw one coming up, so took it.  I pulled into the first restaurant that I came to which happened to be a Bob Evans, and went in.  The greeter seated me and my waitress came up and I said, orange juice right away.  She looked at me and recognized that I was having a hypoglycemic reaction so hurried to bring me some juice.  

Well, these shots were helping my body to really rev up my metabolism!  Perhaps this diet would work!

That was early spring, and later in the fall-I would test the drops. 

I was taking a trip to Virginia state to work with a midwife for about 5-6 weeks, and on the way-drove past a place where I could purchase the drops (I planned that little side trip) so bought a couple months worth.

While in Virginia I took the drops, ate healthy, but again did not do the diet.  I wanted to test the drops now, and see how they reacted on my body.  Same reaction! I often would wake up with sugars of in the 30's.  Middle of the night, awake shaky, (thankfully I even woke up at all!) and would have to eat something in the middle of the night. 

So now, I knew how the drops and the shots would work on my body.  I decided that even if I never lost any weight, that it was worth  taking them, just for the way they worked on my body and blood sugar.

There are many versions of this diet out there, but for me-I wanted to do the diet that was designed by the original author, Dr. Simeons.  So after a lot of research, reading including reading on a support site for HCG dieters-decided to jump into doing this beginning in the new year.   

We share a meal before church services each week, so after coming home from Virginia, I did attend for a few weeks and share in the meal-but then in December of 2010, stopped.  I had to not do things that were a trigger for me to eat things I should not.

So I began on a Monday-phase 1. There were two days of a loading day.  That means I get to eat a lot of food.  You need to have a good amount of high quality fats, like avocados stuff like that.  But also the junk is allowed too.

So Monday and Tuesday I ate a lot.  On Tuesday I had lost almost 2 pounds.  Not everyone looses weight on the loading days, some gain a lot of weight.  

By Wednesday I had lost another 2 and 1/2  pounds.  Wednesday was the beginning of phase 2.  This is a VERY low calorie diet.  Only 500 calories a day.  That is not much!

Your allowed two meals a day.  Each meal consist of a protein, a vegetable, a very small carb, and a fruit.  There are certain vegetables and fruits that you can choose from-this is the original diet.  The newer versions allow for more vegetables to choose from.  

I would eat a lot of the vegetable, enough to get full.  I am not sure that was really allowed, but for me-it worked.  

So after being on this diet for 25 days, (that included the 2 loading days) I had lost over 25 pounds.  

I stayed on it for about 4-5 more days, (I had been keeping a diet record-but did not during the final days) and I think I lost about 5 more pounds-but did not stay on the diet.  

When you come off of this diet, it takes 6 weeks to come off from the diet-the correct way.  3 weeks of phase 3 where you add more vegetables, increase the amount of protein. You should add one vegetable at a time, to see how your body responds to each food.

Then in phase 4-3 weeks of this, you add back dairy, fats (although meat has fat in it, they mean butter -dressings, stuff like that) and sugar.  Again, you are to add them one at a time to see how your body reacts to each one.

My brother went into the hospital, and was dying.  So I came off from the diet in a quick way, not correctly-and over the next 4+ weeks, gained back some of the weight.  Almost 10#. 

One of the difficult things was no one seemed to ever notice that I had lost weight.  No one from church said anything-no friends said anything.  Once I said something to them, they would say-'oh yeah, I see ...." or stuff like that.  But what I really wanted was for someone to just say on their own-"hey, your loosing weight!"

But I guess that is prideful.so taking the dying to self attitude...I move on.

I finally got back onto the diet-and in the first 5 days dropped almost 13#.  But then had a day that my hubby did something to discourage me...he did not mean to, but it set a road block in my path that I made the choice to not go around.  So for the next 2 days I ate what I wanted.  gained back a couple of pounds....and today-well I am back onto the diet.

LORD willing and by HIS strength only, I will stay on this diet and loose weight. 

Stay tuned for more info!

Weight Loss...The Beginning

We all want to loose weight at one time or another...but for those of us who have carried even more weight than others, it can become a 'dream'.

Many people look at over weight people and think-well if they just eat less, or just do this or that...I have met  people who judge over weight people severely.  I have been mistreated by people, rude looks if you even go into a restaurant to eat...

 I have even been judged on a mission trip one time.  This couple who had went with me, well...we went into town and went out to eat at a restaurant that had a buffet with a steak option.  I did not eat any dessert, ate the veggies and some fruit, but had an extra piece of steak (actually it was my birthday that day and I was 'treating' myself) I was told later that is why I was 'fat'. That extra steak-over eating that day.  It did not matter that it had been a special day for me-to treat myself.  No that did not matter.

 This guy had the nerve to continue with his rude comments....I had drove out with my auto, I did not have the peace about just leaving this couple at the side of the road-although I seriously did consider that option...many times.  When driving home, I never ate anything at all-nothing in front of them. Actually for the rest of the week I did not really eat at all.   That did not do my health good at all...fasting for prayer is one thing, I believe that GOD takes care of you, but fasting for other reasons-it destroys your health.  Causes your body to go into a starvation mode and it is not always the 'fat' that the body lives off from.  I really hated that guy for a long time.  He was the example of the world and its view of people.

(lobster, shrip
Through out the years, we (Scott and I) have really changed how we eat.  We never use to eat pork for example, except for occasionally some bacon in the morning and ham at the holidays.  But then after a relative talked us into raising pork, we started eating a lot more pork.  Bad decision.  GOD never had pork as food.  Pigs were NEVER considered food, so when he said we could eat anything, HE did NOT mean we could eat non food items now and consider them to be food!  If that is so, we can eat paper, we can eat poison ivy, we can eat all non food items and they would be considered clean!

Now before you talk about the scripture in the new testament about peters dream, remember peter himself gave his own commentary on that dream-GOD was talking about the non-believer.  Not pigs.  In that dream animals were a symbol for people.  The gentiles (non food animals) vs the Jews (the 'clean' food items).  We really have to keep the scripture in context.

But for years, I was taught that we could eat pigs.  I never really trusted this, but did.  And by doing that, boy did our health go down hill......

GOD set the eating guidelines up for our health-not to punish us.  The animal garbage disposals of this earth and its oceans, are not healthy to eat!
Lobster, shrimp, pork...all not healthy!

So now (for a number of years) we eat very healthy.  We always did eat more fruits and vegetables, we actually use to eat a bowl of mixed vegetables for breakfast instead of ham and eggs!

The one thing that I did abuse my body with was Pepsi...I loved my pop!  I would drink up to a 2 liter a day! (mostly fountain pop) I would spend the money to run to town just to buy a fountain pop!  That artificial junk, along with all the high fructose corn syrup combined with a health problem that I already had-just about did me in!

I had a doctor tell me-just drink diet pop Ireena, it does not have the calories as regular pop does.  So I switched.  Now I did not have the calories, or the high fructose corn syrup-but had the artificial sugar that killed brain cells.  Smart move.

I did this for a few years, then back to regular pop as I learned that the artificial sugars were so bad for you.  I thought, well at least if I am taking in sugar-at least it will be real.

My day would begin with water.  Then a pop.  A 44 ounce fountain pop.

 I work hard, at which ever job I am doing-but just did not eat correctly.  I would often not even eat anything until about 2-4 pm, but would have from one to two 44 ounce pops by then.  Then I might eat a small item, and a huge meal from 6-8 pm.  Not healthy.  The food I ate was considered healthy, but it was at all the wrong times of day, and combined with all of that pop-well it did not matter if it was healthy food or not really!

Another mission trip, I took a doctor along.  He is a pediatrician.

One time during a lunch, he says:  "You are over weight and I have been watching you eat this week....."

I threw my spoon down from eating the soup, and looked at him with my eyes glaring-if I could have shot fire from my eyes at that moment and consumed him-burning him to a crisp-I would have.  I began to yell at him about judging me, and how tired I was about men coming out here to do mission work and instead just wanting to 'fix' me about my food....

He said-"no, no...I am not gonna do like that guy did..."
(I had told him about that)
"I am saying..you should not be the size you are, you do not really eat enough."

What?

He then went on to say that he had been watching me eat (ok I was quiet this time) this week and really I did not eat much at all.  He then went on to say, there must be something wrong, I said-well I have went to doctors too many times and they all say everything is ok..He said...I am a doctor, and I am saying there is something wrong.  You should not be the size you are based on how you eat.  It is not enough.

Well imagine that.

What I did learn, was I was substituting the pop for the calories of food-so not getting a lot of food, not enough really for my body to live healthy, but replacing those calories with  pop.  Pop is NOT a food, and is NOT healthy!  I really just never realized how unhealthy it was!

One day, as I learned just how bad it was-I thought, time to give it up. So I stopped drinking pop cold turkey.

My blood sugar was always very low, even with all of that pop.  I use to have to watch actually, as it would go so low that I was considered to be hypoglycemia (low-sugar).

Another thing I had going on which I have since learned a lot about, was I have poly-cystic ovarian syndrome. (PCOS) .  This is when you have cysts and over all you just do not do well...gain lots of weight, even if you eat very very healthy.  The doctors did not know anything years ago (in 1992 when I first had this syndrome) and instead of saying "Ireena I just do not know what is  wrong." they would lie to me.

Now we know that this syndrome is a pre-diabetes situation.  So diet would be extremely important!

So after I stopped the pop-cold turkey.  A few weeks later, I began to feel so very ill in the morning.  While at work (was working then as a nurse) I would be sweating away, weak, and shaky.  Took my blood sugar-it was over 500. I had eaten a basic breakfast, hours before-of eggs, toast.  The next day, I only ate eggs-all protein, as that should help balance my blood sugar a bit.  No difference, still over 500 hours later.  Then the next day, I did not eat any thing in the morning to see what it would be like-it was still very high.  Time for a doctor visit.

Diabetic medication began, and eventually insulin too.  Now I am on 3 types of pills and 2 insulins a day.  Not good.

So back to dieting...I have been one of those who have tried them all.  None of them work, even that one that was so popular for years-the high protein diet.  Never lost even one pound.

Also years ago when a friend of mine -we use to walk about 5-7 times a week.  Every morning, we walked from 2-4 miles a day.  I was also working out in a gym at least 4 times a week.  I never lost one pound.  I tried that for 3 months.  I should have at least lost a pound or two!  But NONE.

I had pretty much decided that this was how my body would be forever.  I missed jogging, I use to jog years ago.  Actually the only way I could ever keep my weight down was to do major vigorous exercise.

 Growing up I use to ride my bike into town all the time, and around the country-daily except for winter weather.  I would easily ride my bike about 10-20 miles a day.  Yes i really did that!   I was thin, very thing actually.

So what I have seen is I can keep thin if I do lots, a whole lot of vigorous exercise!  So that is why I would jog years ago, after Nalani was born for about a year, I was still jogging.  (had been for years) but then I stopped....4 kids and one more on the way...I finally gave up 'my time' and quit jogging.  The weight also came on.

So now...I have found a way to take this weight off...stay tuned for the diet diary...!

I want to address being a nurse and taking care of the dying patient.

  I became a nurse in the early 1990's, working in many areas-mostly OB, but also Med-Surg (which means on the floor where people who are ill stay, and also those who have had surgery-stay.) I have also worked with ReHab, and people on Ventilators.  So I have made the 'rounds' in nursing.....

One thing that often happens-nurses become burned out easily.  The job is stressful, requires quick thinking skills, and a back bone that causes you to stand up and take crap from the doctors and patients.

When I had first graduated, out of nursing school for just a couple of months-I grew my back bone.

I was taking care of a post-op patient (just out of surgery) and when the doctor finally quit writing his orders on the chart, and brought the chart to the nurses station-I began the task of trying to read his awful hand writing.   I learned later he was dyslexic.

He promptly left.  I did not get to speak with him.  Often many of the doctors will say to you before they leave, do you have any questions...but not all of them are this polite.

I had been with the patient  so did not get to talk to him at all before he had left.

This doctor went to church with me-so I considered him to be a friend. Most of the orders were readable, but there was a couple of them I really could not figure out his hand writing.  I asked a more experienced nurse that was on that day, she could not figure it out either.  The ward clerk (a person who is at the desk all the time, helps with the doctors orders, answers the phones, and all of the other ways to keep the floor running smoothly) could not figure out what was written either. She can read their writing better than us...so now what?

That meant I had to call the office.  Great.  I hated to do that, it often meant a long time on hold, waiting to hear from the doctor who had to finish what ever he was doing with a patient in the office, and that meant that I was not with my patients on the floor, so I was getting behind in my work...

But I did not want to mess up with the orders, or do anything wrong to a fresh post-op patient...that would not be good.  I could loose my job if I did something like that!  And more important, harm a human being.

So I called, talked to the secretary (who also attended church with me-and was a friend) told her I could not understand the writing, and needed to know what it said.  I thought maybe he (the doctor) would just give her the message and I would not have to speak with him.  I waited......waited....

Finally I heard the phone click off from being on hold...it was the doctor.  He began yelling, and said DOES IT SAY.....(fill in bad words here) DOES IT SAY.....(again fill in information and bad words)...DOES IT SAY...

I began sobbing and said ok...ok...ok...to each thing he said.  Then he hung up.

I turned and went back to the employee bathroom (which was right behind the nurses station) and locked the door-locking myself in.  I sat and cried for about a half an hour.  Sobbing.  I could not believe how this jerk of a so-called-friend from church had just spoken to me!  I was not sure I wanted to be a nurse anymore.  All I wanted to do was to help people!  If I had interpreted the orders wrong, I would have been in trouble-so I know I had done the right thing to call-but to be treated like this?

(today-you would prob not have to put up with this-you could file a complaint against the person ---but back then, 18 years ago...not done-doctors were 'god' their word was 'final'.)

Everyone was so worried about me, they stood outside of the door knocking and trying to encourage me to come out...telling me it was ok, he was a jerk.  Even the director of nursing came down and tried to get me to come out.  I had to deal with this somehow...

Finally-after prayer and searching my heart, seeking GOD ---seeking if this was this the right path for now that I was to be on--- I opened the door, I had grown a back bone.  Thick and tough.

  I dried my tears, and walked out to finish my job for the day.  To everyones looks of pity-I just walked past them and up to the nurses station.

That doctor and I did not talk again. Never.  Even in church.  He never apologized to me. I heard he had -had a bad day with something to do with the county health department-so he had taken it out on me.

He continued to go to church-never saying 'lets talk', or 'I am sorry.'  To this day, we have not spoken.

 But this showed me his heart.  You should never take your anger out on someone else, but especially if they are considered to be a brother or sister in Christ.  Never.  But if you do, you should be mature enough to say your sorry.

So now as  nurse, you-a doctor had better not make me mad-or you will get a 2 am phone call, as often as I can-waking you up, for the slightest thing.  I will hound you for anything your patient wants-a cough drop-so, well...how about an order at 3 am for a cough drop?  Worked for me!

So often nurses develop this tough attitude.  And in reality, it is needed to deal with the crap you have to deal with in the health care field.  But if not careful it can carry over to the patient.  If not careful it will cause your heart to become hard.

Being a nurse means you see life and death, often daily and sometimes together.  When your with a dying patient, you really have to have compassion...you have to be patient...you have to spend the time with the patient, listening to their fears, and be able to address them...and also take care of the practical stuff with the patient.

When you have developed this tough exterior to be able to deal with the doctors and crap, you have to be balanced to not use it towards those you are caring for.

One such patient, who knew he was dying any day-any time....wanted a bath.  So myself and another nurse, gave him his last bath.  He was fully aware and talked about dying to us, about heaven, about GOD and HIS SON.  We prayed with him.  It was very awesome to me to know one minute he was here, and the next-gone-his soul gone.

When you get tired of dealing with life and death, you can become hard towards the patients.  This is when it is time for you to change jobs.  Go do some desk work, where you will not be with any people (patients anyway) or even change the type of job your doing.  If you do not, you will not take good care of the people, you may even do harm.

Patients deserve respect, dignity and kindness.

So now for my brother-who had Parkinson's for over 10 years.  Parkinson's is the shaking...it becomes difficult to walk and even hold items.  Holding a glass of water becomes a challenge to not spill any.  Almost impossible task.

My brother also had breast cancer-on his Left side.  That arm was swollen about 5x the normal size.  The fluid seeping from the skin, was in response to the bodies way to reduce the swelling....he could hardly move the arm or hand, let alone hold anything with it.

In walks the nurse or nurses aid of B****** Hospital in ********* Michigan.  They (the kitchen staff) would deliver the food tray to my brother, and then the nurse or nurses assistant should come in  to set it up for him and help him eat.  Remember he can not use the left arm at all, and the right one, hardly -shaking so bad.  But they would open his drink, and put the straw in it and sit it on his chest.  My brother would have to try to move his head in such a way to grab the straw-remember his head and neck shakes too, and his neck is so weak he often wore a neck brace to support his head.

My brother loved raisin bran cereal. He ordered this for breakfast.  Unable to open the box or poor the milk, or hold the spoon, it would just sit there.  The aid would come back and say 'do you want this for later since you did not eat it yet?'   Frank would answer-or try to (you had to be patient as he tried to talk) but the aid was not willing to wait for his answer, so she would just sit the cereal on the bed side stand, and walk out.  How cruel to leave a hungry dying man with his food in front of him, never offer to help.

How awful to leave a dying man with something to drink, but unable to hold it himself or do anything...

How awful to not attend to a dying man....

How awful for a dying man to ask for a bed pan and have to wait for 45 minutes to get one, then have an 'accident' and have the nurse say "well you've started going so you might as well finish and I will clean you up".  

Lets take away his dignity in the last days of his life....

The shame that this nurses assistant or any of the nurses should feel...

Again, I HAVE taken care of many dying patients through the years when I still worked as a nurse, and you do NOT abandon them.  You offer a drink every time you walk by, no matter how much time it takes. And if you find that you just can not physically do this, too many patients, too many things going on, then advocate for that patient and call the supervisor and insist on more help.  If you get now where, go above that supervisors head, continue until you get the help that is needed.

My family had to fight for my brothers rights to just good care.  You should not have to go through that-ever but especially when your dying.

After the family originally waited all day for a doctor who was on call to show up, after a whole shift (one nurse who was on duty said the doctor would be in that morning, came back for her next shift and the doctor still had not shown up...) so this nurse worked to contact him.  (although we had bad service from some, we also had wonderful service from others)

He --the doctor--would NOT return her calls, so she went the next step up-contacting the cancer department and they got a hold of him (he was a cancer doctor) and then-- he finally called and was talking to the nurse, who told him the family wanted to talk to him so she handed the phone to my sister in law-who began asking him questions...this doctor yelled so loud in the phone to my sister in law, that my brother heard it, and said: 'is my life not worth 5 minutes of his time?"

 He then yelled at her and said, "he is dying what do you want me to do?"  Really?  How about taking care of him.

How about coming in and talking to the family, since this is the FIRST they have heard that he is dying.  They have been told by his regular oncologist all along that he is doing better and winning the battle with the cancer...

What a way to learn your dying.

 We were told by another doctor who sat before us defending this doctor- he is the
 'doctors doctor...'  
 "they all have such great respect for him...." 

...well I say, that don't impress me much...

Frank, years ago before he became ill....

New Babies

Well over the past few weeks we have had a total of 6 baby lambs born to 4 moms so that means 2 sets of twins!

The first mom was a good mom, and took care of her babies well.  The second two moms, were new mommas and needed a little encouragement, but did well once the bonding began.

This third momma -also a first time momma, delivered before we got her into her own little stall(although the other two new mommas did this too and they became good mommas anyway).  We find that if they are not off on their own, in their own stall, they really struggle with being a great mom.  The herd will tend to the babies, drying them and all, but only the mother can feed them!  If her time alone with the babies is interrupted, then she struggles with the fact of being a mother.

This last mother was doing just that.  We did force her to hold still so the babies could  nurse and get some colostrum, but she would not cooperate her self, and allow them to nurse.  We left them alone for a couple of hours, hoping that would work (sometimes that does) but for her, it did not.  She continued to kick at the babies, push them away (harmfully) with her nose, walk on them, so the babies were officially rejected.  Into the house they must come!

That means artificially feeding them...when the next mother delivers, and if she has only one baby, we might be able to get her to accept one of the babies, (we have to be there when she births, and use the placenta to rub onto the baby so the baby would have her scent-sometimes that will work)

What a long night!  I think I got more rest feeding my babies at night than I did with these lambs!  But finally after midnight they were satisfied, and settled down for the night.  I still had to get up and try to feed them every couple of hours, so not much sleep.  But they are doing ok so far.

It sure is easier when the mother does the work!  But this also shows how very important it is that the bonding process is NOT interrupted ~!  I think that (from what I have seen) even the first time mothers, do well when they are left alone, not bothered by humans or other animals!

Right now our cat Todd is bigger than these lambs are!  The two in the house are twins-a boy, (the black one-called Ink) and the girl-(the white one-called Page).

Well-soon hopefully they will be out running in the pasture with the herd, in the spring on new grass!