Boy, a week flies by FAST (though my days seem to linger on forever).
My knee has been REALLY bothering me every day for several weeks now. It seems that I reached a "tipping point" at about 254 pounds. As long as I was below that, my knees only hurt sometimes (particularly in bad weather). Once I passed that point, they have been hurting continuously. I've decided to try to go BACK to that "maximum capacity" point in my weight, and see if getting below it helps to relieve my knee pain.
SO, my plan is to lose down to below 250 pounds. This morning, I was at 257.2 (but in the past few days, I have gone as high as 258.6!) All I need to lose is less than ten pounds, and I'll be able to see if being overweight is really the reason for all this pain (as my orthopedic doctor seems to think).
On Monday, I will start recording my food again. My plan is to start drinking water (8 cups a day, if possible), decrease Diet Coke (from over 2-liters/day to "just" three 12-oz cans daily), increase protein, decrease fats (things like BUTTER, ranch dressing, tartar sauce - not eliminate them, but eat less), stay under 2,000 calories a day, get in 3-5 servings of fruits/vegetables daily (right now I get ZERO servings many days), try really hard to eliminate the middle-of-the-night slice of Dave's Killer Bread toast with butter, limit myself to one dessert a day, eliminate salty snacks (pretzels, chips, etc.)
Between now and Monday morning, I will go to the store and stock up on healthy food choices. I'm NOT incorporating any exercise into my "plan" because of the knee. Once that improves, I may start at least walking in the house. Right now, I don't even get out of my recliner unless I HAVE to.
The "crisis moment" that has finally led to my making some changes is not only the constant knee pain, but the fact that I've started to think of myself as "handicapped." I had to have my husband set up the raised medical toilet seat with handles (which I hadn't used since I had knee surgeries five years ago). I am also looking at getting some 4x4's to put under the legs of my bed to raise that up some more. Trying to get up from a low position really kills the knees! The last time I went to the store, I actually considered riding the motorized cart!
Even though I've "started" a million times, I hope y'all will encourage me to stick with my plan and join me in praying that I can get my life back on track. Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this, and to everyone who cares. I appreciate it!
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