Cam's New Lease on Life Journal (comments welcome!)

[ScoJo15]

Cam -

I really hope the Dr. appointment tonight goes well. Please take care of yourself. Great job with getting through your challenges!!! Takes a lot of willpower and determination and I'm proud of you Good Job!!

Have a good day (good luck tonight) !

 

[toystoryduo]

Cam,

Sending good thoughts and prayers your way.... Please let us know what the doctor said.

 

[keenercam]

Thanks for all the good thoughts, WISH friends!
I posted on the weekly training thread, so I will cut and paste it here:

Thank you so much for all the pixiedust and prayers. I just LOVE my doctor (he is the director of sports medicine -- I think that is his title -- at the university and only works in this medical office 2 nights a week, and is just the perfect doctor for me). I told him I had a primary concern (breathing/breathlessness issues) and secondary (vtach) and though I knew he'd be more concerned about the second, I really wanted to talk about the first.

When I acknowledged how far I have to go weight-wise and that that could be the reason I run out of breath when I jog, he praised me for how far I've come -- 65 pounds since 11/04 and going from totally sedentary to physically active 4-5x/week). I thanked him with tears in my eyes. Then, he asked if we've created a monster and couldn't I be content with walking. I told him that if that is an inherent physical limitation, then "yes", but if it is resolvable, then let's resolve it. He is pretty certain that while I may have exercised-induced athsma, it is more likely that the really heavy-duty drugs I took for ten years may have had a negative impact on my lung, perhaps even creating scar tissue -- beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, amiodarone.

Long story short (sorry, I do tend to go on, don't I?) -- He gave me an inhaler to use morning and night of azmacort (sp?) as a prophylactic but is sending me to a pulmonologist for a pulmonary function test.

On the heart thing -- I am going to let my treating cardiology team here in Delaware know that the vtach has re-started, but we'll all just be hypervigilant to be sure it doesn't start sustaining. I am not going to contact the doctor at Johns Hopkins unless and until it sustains because I really don't want to go down there for testing or evaluation until necessary. Because it is so intermittent right now and random and not related to exercise, I'm allowed to continue my training and we'll re-evaluate after the marathon.

So, thank you so much, guys, for your support. I really, really appreciate you all so much!

I did well on core yesterday on everything except I forgot to take my vitamin. Already did it today so that I don't forget again.
I didn't get to weight watchers last night, but am going to stop in tomorrow morning just to weigh in before work. According to my scale, I am .2 away from my lowest adult weight ever (right before I got married), so I am hoping the WW scale is friendly tomorrow.

 

[goldcupmom]

Wow, Cam, you have a lot on your plate. Hopefully the heart issues will resolve and not become a permanent thing again. You've come so far!!!

Hope WI went well today. I hold no hope for a good one tomorrow, so someone needs one!

Have a great rest of the week!!

 

[keenercam]

Thanks, Julie!
I went to WI this morning and was down .6, which isn't much, but considering what week this is, I am grateful not to be up my usual 1.8-2.6 pounds. So, next week's weigh in should be even better.

Did 60 minutes on the bike last night to try to give my hip a chance to recover from whatever has been ailing it the last day or two.

Hoping to get to the gym to run on the treadmill tonight. I guess I won't see any benefit from the inhaler for about 2 weeks, but I am going to push it on the TM to see how I feel. After hearing about the speed at which other new runners are setting the TM, I think I am going to try to set the jogging speed a bit lower to see whether I can go longer if I do it a bit slower.

Food today has been good but I am very hungry now, so it is a good thing that I am going home before the gym so I can grab something to munch on.

B: coffee w/skim milk; shredded wheat w/skim milk
L: salad -- greens, kalamata olives, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, olive oil & lemon & garlic
S: bites of banana (not ripe enough - yuck!)

 

[toystoryduo]

According to my scale, I am .2 away from my lowest adult weight ever (right before I got married), so I am hoping the WW scale is friendly tomorrow.

Cam~

Didn't your post say that at WW, you had lost .6? So that means that you are at your lowest adult weight ever, right? Congratulations Cam! Let's celebrate!

Thanks for the update from your doctor. Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

Hope you have a great weekend!

 

[keenercam]

Cam~

Didn't your post say that at WW, you had lost .6? So that means that you are at your lowest adult weight ever, right? Congratulations Cam! Let's celebrate!

Thanks for the update from your doctor. Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Thank you so much, Tracy, but alas, my scale and the WW scale are a bit off from each other, and I am still 1 pound away on the WW scale. I am hoping to get there Tuesday night. You know I'll take any excuse I can to party, however!

After I got engaged, I was working 2 full-time jobs before going back to college for my senior year. That summer I lost 18 pounds and got to my lowest adult weight, though I gained a few back by the time we got married. I have obviously gained so many, many pounds in the past 22 years. Now I am only 1 pound away on the WW scale from a benchmark number for me. I can't wait to break that barrier.

All that being said, I ate too much last night, though it was all core foods. I ate 2 turkey burgers w/A1 sauce and fat free cheese and then had some whole wheat pasta topped with the sauce from the chili I was making for DH and DS. The only good thing to come out of my many hours in the kitchen last night is that I have a huge stock of protein in my fridge to get through the weekend -- 12 chicken breast pieces & 6 more turkey burgers. I also steamed broccoli. I put chili aside to take to DD and her best friend (who is like another daughter to us ) when we go to their campus for family weekend tomorrow.

Tonight I am going to bake a huge batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for the girls and for DS and his friends tonight and for their cross-country championships Sunday. I am hoping I can withstand the temptation as well as I did when I made them last weekend -- I never tasted a bite.

Food today:
B: bite of turkey burger (very hungry when I woke up); fat free yogurt w/strawberries; coffee w/skim milk
L: grilled chicken; steamed broccoli
S: hard-boiled egg

Dinner will have to be a carb-load. I am going to get up and be at the gym by 5:30 to get in 14 miles before heading to campus.

 

[toystoryduo]

You'll definitely be there Tuesday night, Cam! You have been doing such a great job with your exercising and Core. We'll celebrate on Tuesday too!

 

[keenercam]

Thank you, sweetie. Aren't you just the nicest person, Tracy? I am so lucky to have you for a friend. I can't wait to celebrate with everyone!

 

[Blueeyes101817]

I am all for celebrating Tuesday night!!! WOOHOO!
Cam-you have come such a long way--i am proud of what you have accomplished!

have a great weekend

 

[CJK]

What a celebration Tuesday is going to be!!!! Lowest adult weight will be back!! Please do post so we can celebrate with you. We're all in this together so your successes are our successes and vice versa. Hopefully we'll all continue to have more successes than not-so-successes! Here's to a terrific week ahead!!!!

 

[Blueeyes101817]

Just checking in to see how you are doing..hope you are having a great week!

 

[toystoryduo]

I am blessed to have you as a friend too, Cam.

Shall we celebrate?

 

[keenercam]

Good morning, all my dear WISH buddies!
Guess what? I did it! I finally broke through that barrier and got below my lowest weight since high school. I just absolutely cannot believe it. I didn't really expect to have a loss this week because of my cheese fry fiasco Saturday night and my pizza slip Sunday night, but here I am.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE CORE!?!?!?!!? It really seems to be the kinds of food my body wants and needs.

Thank you so, so much for all of the support I get here. It has really kept me on track, even when I don't post.

Off to change my ticker!

 

[toystoryduo]

I am so proud of you, Cam! It is time to celebrate!

You are such an inspiration to me and to so many people here on WISH, Cam. Keep on keeping on WISH sis! You are doing a fabulous job and I am so very proud of you!

 

[CACruisin']

Yea, CAM!!!
What a wonderful breakthrough!!

 

[Blueeyes101817]

i am so proud of you Cam!!!!!!!!! Congrats on the weight loss!

 

[eeyore25]

I missed the party Tuesday night, but I am so proud of you Cam. That is great!!!!! Keep up the good work!!! It really is paying off!!!


Way to go!!!!

 

[keenercam]

Thank you so much, guys! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE sharing this journey with all my WISH buddies. I am sorry I haven't made time to visit journals in a long time. My husband's stepfather who raised him since he was about 5 years old is in the final stages of cancer, and we made an unplanned trip to the Pittsburgh area to see him this weekend. It has been difficult for everyone who loves him because he is in a lot of pain. And yet, I am so grateful that we had a visit with him and he was able to talk with us. I think we all needed some more treasured moments with the best man I have ever met. He is truly responsible for my husband being the wonderful, loving, generous man that he is. I am glad that I have taken the time to thank him for raising my DH to be the man he is. Anyway, I know I am going on and on, but it is difficult to see this wonderful man suffering the ravages of the same cancer that my Dad had. Losing my Dad in April 2005 and then my Mom 16 days later made me really want to just chicken out and not make the trip this weekend and I was so worried about DS13 and how he'd cope with all of it. It was difficult but I am so glad I went.

Things have been going pretty well with marathon training when I carve out the time to train. At this point, I really wish I had the discipline to get to the gym 5x/week, but that just isn't happening. I did go yesterday and did 8.58 miles on the treadmill in 2 hours which is an overall pace of 13:59. My breathing is so much better know that I am on the azmacort and I was able to run for at least 4 minutes at a time yesterday, which is just an an unbelievable accomplishment for me. I'd LOVE to think I might be able to RUN the Minnie in May, rather than walking or wogging it, but that is just something I'll have to work toward.

I had some food splurges this weekend including a McDonald's hot fudge sundae with nuts and some doritos last night, but I'm not beating myself up over it. I was perfectly on core for a few weeks before I allowed myself those few splurges and I am trying to accept that it is okay to use some of those 35 extra points/week and activity points.

Tomorrow night is my first evening weigh in in 3 weeks, the past two were in the morning. AND it will not have been a full week since the last WI, so I am trying not to get my hopes up too much and not to be disappointed if the results are not as great as I'd like.

Thanks again to all my WISH friends who have been there for me through all of this. You guys are so amazingly generous and I am so blessed to have you.

I promise I will get to journals in the next couple of days. I am really looking forward to catching up on how everyone is doing.

 

[toystoryduo]

Oh Cam,

I am so sorry to hear about your DH's stepfather. I am glad that you and your family got to see him and spend some time with him. Those are precious memories for all of you and I am sure that your visit blessed his heart. I am so proud of you for going because I know it was a difficult reminder for you.

Don't worry about the weekend splurges... You have done such a great job on Core that you deserve a treat!

I hope your weigh-in goes well WISH sis. Take good care of you!