Category Archives: Healthier Me

I have spent most of the last year in a holding pattern.  My health while outwardly (to most folks) you would assume was pretty good has not been so much; a few years ago I discovered that I was having a recurrence of Cushing’s Syndrome which for me is caused by tiny tumors on my pituitary gland. Briefly what happens with Cushing’s is your body is flooded with cortisol, creating a fight or flight condition where you store fat, a lot of it. It also causes headaches, increased bruising and healing times, acne, fatigue, muscle weakness, high blood pressure and blood sugar, and stretch marks (my personal favorite).  And to add a cherry to all of this you’re also susceptible to all the side effects that go along with being overweight.

Much of 2014 was focused on my treatments and less about addressing my weight or more accurately the intent to lose weight, instead my focus has been on not gaining more weight while on my doctors have worked to control of my disease.  Which was a good thing, in my opinion, my weight gain from in 2013 was +/- 40lbs compared to only 8lbs in 2014.

Recently, I have been given the good news that these tumors now no longer visible via imaging; they are still there, but are now reduced to the point where my body no longer overwhelmed with cortisol but is actually creating less and less of it every week. I’m not entirely out of the woods yet, there are other potential complications that could happen and there is always the possibility of another recurrence down the line. I am, though, finally in a place where I can start looking at getting this weight off of me.

So where do I start?! Well I have been, for last year, on a pretty straightforward diet and exercise plan, after working with a nutritionist last year, I do eat pretty healthy, give myself a cheat day once a week but stick around 1500 calories a day.  If you look at my nutritional stats I eat lots of fruits and veggies, very little fat and a very limited amount of carbs outside of fruit and vegetables – most of my splurges are in the form of wine.  On the exercise side I have stuck with a basic boot camp style strength program, Zumba or walking for cardio and a weekly hike to round things out.

With the reduction in cortisol, I should be able to make some minor tweaks and start seeing some good results but I am impatient. I’m switching to a more challenging boot camp, upping the Zumba as well as adding the elliptical, and adding an evening workout that will of alternate between power yoga and a walk/run program. I’ll also up the intensity of my hikes but that’ll be more progressive. This will completely encompass the next 90 days, monitored entirely by my trusty Fitbit.

On the diet side, for the first two weeks I’m going to continue on with my current diet then progressively decrease my calories down to 1200. I have a plethora of diet tools at my disposal; everything from spreadsheets to MyFitnessPal, weeding that down to one thing that works well for me may in fact be a bigger challenge than losing the actual weight.

Going forward I’m going to use Sunday progress posts as a way of keeping myself accountable, and only doing an occasional Thursday post when I find something interesting or decide to try something entirely new. Wish me luck!