Starting Weight: 290.3/291.3*
Last Weigh-in: 284.3
This Week: 283.5
Net Loss: -0.8
Loss-to-Date: -7.8
I'm actually really stoked about this week's number, for a few reasons:
1) A loss is a loss, right? I mean, we always say that as long as the number is going down, you're doing something right, right? Losing 0.8 is pretty good in and of itself, but...
2) I haven't been on Metformin all week. I was supposed to have a CT scan yesterday and my doctor said that Metformin can negatively react with the contrast solution, so I stopped taking it (temporarily, of course) last Saturday. This means that I lost 0.8 without any help! This was just me, doing the right thing and eating the right stuff! (Due to insurance baloney, my CT was initially not authorized, so my doctor had to talk to one of Cigna's doctors, and now it's authorized, but I had to reschedule it for next Friday. So, another week sans Metformin for me!) Also...
3) I started my period (I can see Derek covering his ears and going "LALALALALALALALA" right now...). We'll see what this does to NEXT week's number, but it appears to have not ruined this week. Hooray! :)
I'm pleased to say that Derek and I did not eat out AT ALL this week. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all made at home. I'm so proud of us. We made our meal plan, bought groceries, cooked delicious food every night, and we even managed to eat about 95% of the leftovers! I'm really, really, excited that we were able to do it. There were a couple times when the motivation to cook was low and we were really tempted to order a pizza or something, but we talked ourselves out of it. Let's see if we can keep it up!
I'm also pretty happy because all of the things we cooked this week are foods we actually like and enjoy. We picked healthy meals but none of them were super restrictive. We still had rice, pasta, bread, etc. We managed to not have absurd portion sizes, and we didn't have any extra fat or anything, but we were still snacking on stuff we probably shouldn't be (Cheez-its and pretzels anyone?). This just goes toward proving my point that I CAN lose weight without eating like a rabbit. Knowing that I can get the ball rolling towards getting healthy with changing my habits but not giving up EVERYTHING makes me that much more likely to stay on track. I know that at some point, losing weight on what I usually eat will be more difficult, and I'll need to cut some things out, but this is good for now.
In other news, I had an Exercise ECG (stress test) on Thursday. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that in the hours/days leading up to it, I was nervous as all get out about this damn test. All I knew about it was that they hook you up to crap and then put you on a treadmill. I was scared shitless that I was going to have to run, because while I'm okay with trying to jog a little here and there on flat, solid, ground, I'm a clutz with bad balance and trying to run on a path that's already moving and approximately two feet wide gives me the heebie-jeebies. I considered calling to cancel it, but I knew that would get me nowhere and I'm trying to get proof that I'm not dying, sooooo I needed to stick with it.
Basically, I was mostly right. First they did an ultrasound of my heart, and then while we waited for the cardiologist to come in, I got hooked up to an EKG and had my blood pressure tested. Then the cardiologist came in and read the ultrasound results to me -- my heart looks perfectly healthy. It beats strong and regularly (woo!) and didn't look like there was anything to be concerned about. He said the same thing about my EKG. So, we started the stress test. The tech explained that the goal was to get me to my target heart rate for my age, which is 162, and then stay there for a little bit to see what happens when I'm "stressed". I got on the treadmill and walked at a fairly steady but not-super-fast pace on a slight incline for 3 minutes. My heart rate got to 162 right at the end of those three minutes so I was HOPING that they'd just let me keep walking at that pace, but nooooo. They upped the speed AND the incline, and all I can say is thank god for the handlebar across the top that I was holding onto for dear life because I felt certain I would've flown off the end of that thing. Oy! Aside from being a little off balance, I managed the new speed pretty well at the beginning, but it started getting pretty tiring. My heart rate got up to like 190 but I had to finish that 3 minutes. And then the cardiologist thought he would be funny and try to talk to me.
"So, what do you do for a living, Sarah?"
"Arling...ton.... County....Planning... Depart.....*unintelligible groan*"
"Good, good... do you like it?"
"Yeah....*pant pant pant*
Etc, etc. Once that three minutes was up they slowed me down and let me get off, and then had me sit for a few minutes to get my heart rate back to normal. Or at least close to it. He then looked me square in the face and said "Your heart looks great, Sarah. I am confident that it is not what's causing your chest pains." On the one hand, YAY. Healthy heart! On the other hand, that means I just went through this for nothing! >:O
So, back to square one... sort of. I have a hypothesis. I think it's the Metformin that is causing the chest pain. The pains all started a couple months after I started taking it, and the only times I've had relief have been when I've gone off of it for various reasons. Example? I stopped taking it a few days before the wedding so that I would be able to drink on my honeymoon because you're not supposed to drink alcohol on Metformin... it's apparently okay to have a drink here and there but you're not supposed to drink to excess. I am not a big drinker but I wanted the freedom to do whatever I wanted on my honeymoon, and if that meant sitting by the pool tossing back bahama mamas like it was my job, then Metformin be damned! Anyway, I didn't have any pains during the honeymoon nor for the first couple weeks after we got back and I resumed taking them.
Also? Stopped taking them on Saturday for this stupid CT scan and haven't had a chest pain this entire week. I had asked my doctor about this correlation the last time I spoke to her and she said that chest pain isn't a known side effect of the Metformin so she didn't think that would be it, but she didn't rule out the possibility because as she put it, we put these chemicals into our bodies -- there's no telling what they can do sometimes... so she said she'd look into it. This conversation was before I stopped taking it this time so I am going to bring this up when I have my follow up after the CT scan. She also ordered more bloodwork for that visit so I get more pokes and prods.
Hopefully we have an answer soon. I can't help but feel that I'm putting myself through a lot of hoops for some pretty innocuous chest pains. But, I guess this all needed to be done.
Have a great week, all!
