The Formula

Captainsblog, Stardate: 63860.1

It's all contingent on a formula, this weight loss /  improved health thing. And here's the thing, it does NOT come in a pill... the super duper, new and improved weight loss fat burning formula product du jour... NOPE!  

The necessary components to the formula are all within YOU, all things over which YOU have influence: eating the right foods in the right amounts (duh), exercise (ditto), water consumption, and sleep.  If any one of those components is missing, or inadequate... weight loss.. yeah, aint gunna happen!  Let's look at these one at a time, shall we?  Now I am talking from my own post-bariatric perspective, keep that in mind.

• Food - must be the right KIND of food, for me, that means a whole LOT of protein.  Any non-protein food kind of robs me of protein, I've said it before, but I repeat this for MY benefit... I'm not perfect and I do want other stuff too, so this helps remind myself.  Also portion control is critical. Granted the surgery did a lot of that for me, but any post-op bariatric patient will tell you, you can eat too much - and it is unpleasant to say the least!  In my case, I also must supplement my food intake with vitamins, due to the malabsorptive nature of the procedure I had.  I am faithful about taking those.
• Exercise - I have found that if I am leveling off on my progress, exercise is probably the culprit.  Either not getting enough, or that I need to mix it up.  My body gets used to  whatever I am doing physically and I need to shake it up sometimes.  
• Water  Consumption - Sometimes I get bored with water... I want some FLAVOR... and I'm not a fan of many of the crystal lite flavors any more... I love TEA... so I drink a LOT of it (mostly decaf herbal teas).  I sometimes have to force myself to drink just... plain... water.  It messes with my progress, it messes with my body in so many ways... so yes WATER, WATER, WATER!
• Sleep - this is a tricky one for me.  I do have intermittent insomnia (not a surgical side effect, this has been with me a long time)... sometimes I just can't sleep, at other times I just don't go to bed soon enough, but wake up time is still the same. It is not uncommon for me to only get 4 or 5 hours sleep, and I KNOW that is not enough.  What I am finding out though is that if I deprive myself of sleep my progress slows/stops.  It's like my body is saying alright... we only have so many resources here kiddo, and if you're NOT going to recharge us, we're holding onto all resources... just... in... case!  

So these days I'm really TRYING to be mindful of the formula...  I came across the pic on the left recently and I think that was pretty close to my heaviest.  When I look at that, I am blown away at how far I have come.  I feel so much better, I have stamina, I look forward to physical activity and am enjoying life - manuganuh - it's all good!