Day 18 - 1/18/09

Weigh-in: 198.8

Well, it's an improvement over yesterday, but I still have a long way to go.  And tomorrow's weigh-in probably won't be this good, with a day of beer and chili on the couch in front of the football games.  Oh well.

I have heard, off and on, people referring to "volumetrics".  I thought it was just a general concept, but apparently someone actually coined the phrase and wrote several books, with recipes, about it.  The concept is simple, though.  You want to fill up on large volume, low calorie foods.  Water, of course, is the prime example; it can make you feel full, but contains no calories at all.  A big pile of raw veggies might contain the same number of calories as two chocolate chip cookies, but you might still feel hungry after the cookies, while all the veggies fill you up.  It all makes sense.  And really, there isn't anything here that doesn't apply to most of the other common sense diets--eat more fruits and veggies, eat less sugar and fat, and drink lots of water.  

But what do you do when you still crave those stupid cookies?

On a different topic, I'm trying an experiment.  I mentioned before that I take blood pressure medication for hypertension.  Well, I need to refill the prescription.  But I decided to try going a few days without it before refilling it.  Since my ultimate goal is to drop the meds entirely, I need to know where I stand right now, before the weight loss.  So I plan to skip the blood pressure med for a couple days, and take my blood pressure at home using an automatic pressure cuff I got when the doctor first put me on the med.  I want to get a baseline for my blood pressure without the med.  That way, I can tell if I'm improving, by taking a few more days at the end of the next month to do the same thing.

Day 14 - 1/14/09

Weigh-in: 198.2

I have no idea how that happened.  That's about a pound and a half difference from yesterday morning.  I didn't do anything special; I ate pretty much the way I always eat.  So it's a mystery.  I hope it's a mystery that repeats itself!

I started looking up information regarding taking medication during pregnancy.  I have a vested interest in this, because I currently take two prescription medications and two OTC daily.  One of the prescriptions is birth control; that certainly will not be happening while I'm pregnant.  But the other prescription is for high blood pressure, which is a medical condition that can make pregnancy much more dangerous.  One OTC is for heartburn.  The other is a fiber supplement.  Both of those are also issues that can tie in with pregnancy.  So I needed to find out some specifics about medications and pregnancy.

The main rule seems to be: TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR.  Some health problems are severe enough that you must continue to take a medication, despite what some of the risks may be.  But the second most common thing I found seems to be that it's best to take as few medications as possible.  If you can live with that stuffy nose, then do it.

As far as my medications go, they seem to fall in to three categories.  Actually, there are many categories.  They are as follows:

A--these are medications where there has been lots of research proving no significant risk to the mother or fetus if taken during pregnancy.  Many vitamins fall into this first category.

B--these are medications where there isn't much research to go on, but based on the findings so far there is no significant risk to human mothers and infants (it's possible there was some risk found in animals).  Some things that fall into this category are things like antibiotics and insulins.

C--these are medications where this is some risk potential, but the benefits of the medication outweigh the dangers of the risks.  For example, some asthma medications are in this category.  If you have a major asthma attack, you can die; obviously the possibility of risk is overshadowed by the possibility of death.  Prozac is in this list too.

D--these medications definitely have side effects that affect the fetus, but the effect they have on the mother's health is still considerable.  For example, some other medications for depression can be found in this list, as can many cancer treatments.  Yes, these can harm your baby, but so can your death!  However, these medications are serious business; you can't take them lightly (literally).

X--these are the no-nos.  There is no benefit great enough in taking them to outweigh the dangers to the fetus.  Remember thalidomide?  People took it for a skin disease.  Well, it ended up causing babies to be born WITHOUT ARMS AND LEGS.  That's major, people.  You can live with your annoying skin disease for the sake of your baby.

Ibuprofen, naproxen, aspirin, and even caffeine are all on the questionable side.  Do you really need them for something?  If you are in pain, they suggest taking acetomeniphen (Tylenol) instead.  No caffeine too means I'll need to stop taking Excedrin for headaches, and no more diet cokes.  I'm going to be drinking a lot of milk when it gets to that point.

My fiber supplement falls into the A category.  No need to stop taking it, although it's probably better to get my fiber from real food.  I'll have to consider that.

My heartburn medication is a B.  No one has shown or even suggested that there is a danger to taking medication for your tummy (like antacids or Pepto).  Generally, stuff that's meant to stay in your tummy won't cross the placenta and affect the fetus.

My blood pressure medication is a D.  I really shouldn't take it unless I NEED it.  Drugs that make the mother's blood pressure go down also make the fetus' blood pressure go down.  That's bad--the baby needs all that blood to circulate and bring oxygen and nutrients to its growing, dividing cells.  My goal with weight loss isn't just to make myself more comfortable; by losing weight I will hopefully bring my own blood pressure down naturally, so I won't need the medication anyway.  

So, that's the meds, in a nutshell.  

Day 12 - 1/12/09

Weigh-in: 199.4

Eh.  I guess I should've seen it coming--I didn't do a very good job sticking to my diet yesterday.  Based on the way I ate today, tomorrow's weigh-in won't be a picnic either.

Among the many other things I'm contemplating, thinking about pregnancy, I'm wondering what I'm supposed to eat, and what I'm not.  Several questions come to mind.

1) How much weight gain is "recommended"?  I've seen a few things that say you really aren't supposed to increase your caloric intake much, by about 100 calories per trimester.  Well, what about those of us who are already overeating?  Can I just stick with the amount I'm consuming?  Could that make me lose weight?  Wow.  That would be way cool.

2) What foods are recommended?  Is there a balance of carbs, fat, and fiber that a pregnant woman is supposed to consume?

3) And what about foods that AREN'T recommended?  Are preservatives really bad?  Could a woman actually give her child a food allergy based on what she consumed (or didn't consume)?

Also, I'm wondering about medications.  Certainly you shouldn't take much in the way of medicine, definitely with regards to prescriptions.  But what about over-the-counter meds like ibuprofen or aspirin?

These are some of the things I will be researching this week.  I hope to find some reliable information out there.