About Living Real with Carol

I will be 71 years old next month. Seventy-one! I have to say that time has gone into overdrive since 50. Suddenly I'm undeniably a senior citizen, and yet, I don't feel any different than I did 20 or 30 or 50 years ago. I'm still Carol. I'm still the young wife, mother, and teacher. I still have all those persons inside. Now I've added mother-in-law, grandmother, and retiree to the list - and so much more. Each person has so many facets - wears so many different hats at various times in life. We are so many different people throughout our lifetimes, and yet we never lose the people we were earlier

This blog is about my 70s. I'm almost a year into my seventies. I breezed through my 30th, 40th, 50th, and even 60th birthdays. However, 70 hit me hard. I could pretend that 60 was still fairly young. I can't do that anymore. 

As I type this post, I'm sitting in a recliner with an orthopedic boot on my elevated left foot. Last week my foot started hurting. I have NO idea why. I didn't turn it, didn't stumble, didn't drop anything on it. It felt normal in the morning, and by evening I could hardly walk. Very painful. So my daughter let me borrow her boot to see if that helps. I will give it a few days and see.  Unexplained aches and pains - a sign of aging. 

One focus of this blog will be my weight. Since my childhood, I've obsessed about my weight. I don't make that statement lightly. Truly, my weight and wanting to lose weight is almost constantly on my mind. Over the years, I've tried every diet imaginable - Weight Watchers, Keto, Whole 30, Atkins, Nutrisystem, Phen-Fen, Jenny Craig, Low Fat, Counting Calories, Counting Macros, Fasting, Daniel Fast . . . that's all I can think of offhand.  What they all have in common is that I didn't stick with them. It was always a "diet" - not a real change in attitude. My thinking was that once I lost the extra weight, I could maintain it easily. However, unless habits are changed, the weight will naturally come back because I would start eating the same as before.

The Phen-Fen diet was the easiest. I lost the most weight and felt wonderful. It was illegal in Tennessee, and so once a month I'd drive to Huntsville, AL where a "doctor" had rented an office and dispensed Phen-Fen. It was such a farce - but the Phen-Fen worked. I just didn't think about eating. It is fascinating to me that a couple of small pills can have such a big effect!

However, Phen-Fen is now illegal everywhere because of serious side effects. I took just the Phentermine for years (got it from questionable online sources), and it helped me maintain a lower weight for a few years, but then I started having heart palpitations and headaches and decided I didn't want to die; so I stopped taking it. Definitely the easiest weight loss plan, though.

Weight Watchers is the diet that seems most healthy to me. If you look at the other diets I listed, you will see that each of the others are restrictive or unbalanced. I DO truly believe in eating natural and whole foods. My mother is 97, and she has always believed in the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables. I just can't do Atkins or Keto or Macros because I've always felt that fruits and vegetables should be the cornerstone of a healthy diet. When eating a small apple can ruin one's diet for the day, then that isn't the diet plan for me.

I have always done a lot of my own cooking, and since the pandemic, I've cooked 99% of my meals. It's the end of July, and I haven't eaten in a restaurant since mid-March. I sure miss that!

What motivated me to change my way of eating was our family vacation July 11-18. We rented a beautiful beach house and had our children and grandchildren with us. We had a private pool and were right on the beach. I LOVE swimming, and yet I didn't put my swimsuit on a single time because I was embarrassed by my out of shape body. I sat there, watched everyone else enjoying the water, sun, and sand, and I decided NEVER AGAIN. I got online and joined Weight Watchers while we were still at the beach. And I began tracking the morning after we returned - July 19th.

I chose Weight Watchers because it allows me to eats lots of fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins - along with some special treats - which I feel is the healthiest diet - balanced, not restrictive, and encourages moderation. So I have a new resolve to make it a lifelong healthy eating change - not a diet.   

Week 1, July 24, 2020: -2 lbs.

Week 2, July 31, 2020: - 1.8 lbs.

Total loss: 3.8 lbs.

I want to lose about 65 pounds. So I've got a solid start.  

There will be other focuses as time passes, but that's good enough for a beginning.