Kat's Health Journey

Life has been crazy. Since starting my new med of Metformin, I have noticed some extra symptoms of anxiety. Heart palpitations, paranoia, etc. But it doesn't help that my schedule is super full right now and it simply doesn't leave a ton of time for just unwinding and, well, containing my anxiety. I have my second Chemistry exam in a week that I am sorely unprepared for, my lab practical 2 days after that, I had to cram an ungodly amount of Algebra homework last night, Equine Affaire/the breed demo, and riding Seamus daily. Oh, and moving. Even though it's just down a level, it's surprisingly difficult and all of my furniture is impossibly heavy. Then there's all of the repainting... A lot of my workload is elected. I don't have to move or participate in the Equine Affaire. Those are things I want to do, but with everything else on my plate, it's just added stressors. I had a full-on breakdown in one of the Shire stalls a few days ago because at first I ...

Welcome to the world of living with anxiety and hypochondria.  I am losing weight, and not even trying hard. (I know, I suck.) I am not depriving myself at all. Mind you, I still am aware of carbs and try to have low carb options when I can. But I have a munchkin or 2 (or 5...) when I feel like it. I have my regular sugary coffee (although with 1 pump instead of the normal 3). I eat bread in a limited amount. I have some mac n cheese when I feel like it. I rarely settle for salads anymore because, well, I don't like them. For a month, I stayed the same. I am now losing weight more than I was when I was trying. And it must mean I have some sort of cancer or illness that I am unaware of because it cannot just be this simple. The only changes I can think of are cutting out the Atkins snacks, which are higher in carb than they advertise. I also am not consuming as much synthetic sweetener. Instead of having Sweet N' Low in my coffee, I have a single pump of the real stuff. I...

I have no excuse for not writing regularly. It seems like I’m either not busy enough and don’t have anything to say or I have so much going on that it gets overwhelming and I have no time to write.  I guess I’ll start with my current schedule. I am now working one of the Shires at the draft barn along with a friend of mine, and we are going to be riding in the Equine Affaire! For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a horse festival located in West Springfield, MA. Pretty much every horse person I know goes there. I am riding in the Shire breed demo. We just found out last week and poor Quinn is so not in shape. He has such a long mane that we finally untangled and now he looks like Fabio. I, however, call him Fattio. He’s a good boy. So different than Seamus, where he’d rather stand there and not move. He hasn't been in full work for a while and first time sitting on him, we had no fireworks. So we have about 3 weeks to get them in shape for New England to see. We won...

It's been a while, friends. There hasn't been much happening in the diet department. I've been staying relatively the same weight-wise but dropping back into bad habits of eating and I need to get that fire under my ass like I had before. Breakfast: 1/2 cup almonds: 6g net carbs 1 cup whole fat Greek Fage Yogurt: 8g net carbs Berries: ~10g net carbs Snacks: 2 Mini Kind bars: 9g net carbs 2 cups Boom Chicka Pop kettle corn: 19g net carbs Lunch: Omelette: ~5g net carbs 2 pieces of whole wheat toast: ~22g net carbs So, so far today I had a total of 79g of net carbs. My goal is to stay between 100 and 150g net carbs per day. My weight has been ranging from 225-229 within the span of a day, so it's so hard for me to judge where I am at. I might need to invest in a better, more reliable scale because it's been giving me issues lately. It is now later tonight (9:37) and I'm waiting for my dinner of cauliflower pizza to cool enough to eat. I had a coup...

The following blog post was from last week. I am planning on writing up this week's post, but I don't want to get too behind on the content, so I am posting it now. It kind of got put on the back burner with everything going on.  This week has been full of polypeptides, monosaccharides, prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In school, I had my first quiz in chemistry lab and first test in biology. Considering I knew none of the biology material before this week, I got it down pretty well. But unfortunately, when you are in a new class with a new teacher, it’s really hard to know exactly how to study. This test didn’t go my way. I passed, but by the skin of my teeth, and for my program, I need to get exemplary grades in my science classes. The good thing is that I know how to study from now on, and she drops the lowest grade. I also am completing all of the extra credit I can possibly do. The other good news is that I am finished with the microbiology part, for the most part. Because of...

Hunker down, folks. This is a long one. It is also written over multiple days. Thursday I have always known that weight-loss is a non-linear process. It is unrealistic to believe that every week, I will lose weight. On that same thought process, it is also unrealistic to believe that once I am on my dietary plan, it means that cravings will cease completely and I will not have any slip-ups. I've been silent for the past week or so. It wasn't completely on purpose, but at the same time, it's hard to write about failure. Well, let's redact that a little bit. It's not a failure, it's simply a setback. I am not being overly down on myself, but I am being realistic. I didn't do as well as I should have this week. That's OK. If I went in with the attitude of gaining weight is a failure, then this process would be over very quickly. This week, I gained ~1.5lb back. There were a lot of temptations this week, and I gave in to said temptations. My sisters were ...

This post is from last night. I ended up getting distracted and forgot to edit it. I am in a better mental state now, but still figured I would share what was running through my mind. After all, the whole point of this blog is to document my progression, regression, struggles, and successes.  This is the first week since I've started this that I haven't lost anything. I am only up .4 of a pound, but it still is frustrating. That being said, I did slip a lot this week. My schedule has changed, what with school and stuff. That's not a bad thing, but it's a change and I'm not good with change. I know, I know, I wanted this. But the added stress of classes has done some damage to my mental health. Nothing that will stop me from continuing, and I'm sure that once I get into the groove of it, I will feel better. But as of now, it's all brand spanking new, and very much overwhelming.  Along with that, I have my horse who apparently had something wrong with hi...