Read, or don’t, with your own self-care in mind.

I’ve been wanting to lose weight all year. I’ve tried numerous times and been unsuccessful.

A large part of why I’ve been unsuccessful is because there’s something wrong with my body chemistry. For much of this year, no matter how much or how little I ate, about twenty minutes after I finished, my body would be convinced that I hadn’t eaten anything in weeks. Months, perhaps.

It was crazy making. I tried different types of diets, from strict carnivore to lots of veggies. Nothing made a dent in that ravenous hunger.

This had happened one time before, when I made the change from keto to carnivore. Any veggies caused this unending hunger and carnivore seemed to fix that. This time, it didn’t work.

I can be fairly self-disciplined. However, it would frequently get so bad I couldn’t stop myself from eating. It was scary, just how out of control I’d get.

I made the assumption that lowering my baseline stress level would help in terms of this. It did, but didn’t, at the same time.

Once I lowered my stress levels, I had the very strange dual sensations of feeling full, while at the same time, feeling as though I was starving.

I would take deep breaths and try to ground myself and stay calm and the hunger would disappear for very short periods of time, between one to five minutes. Then it would come roaring back. I just couldn’t keep it away.

You can imagine what havoc this played on me trying to diet and consume fewer calories…

My husband has some issues with gas. So we bought some Gas-X, to see if that would help his stomach issues.

I love broccoli, cauliflower, etc. Those veggies no longer love me, though. So a couple weeks ago, I figured I’d try the Gas-X after I’d eaten some.

And the feeling of hunger went away.

WTF?

I’d actually tried three different things all at the same time that weekend, and it took me a few days to tease apart which one of them was responsible for the feeling of satiety.

It really is the Gas-X that allows me to feel full after I’ve eaten.

This product contains simethicone, which reduces the gas bubbles in your stomach. Doing some deep dives into simethicone, it appears that yes, in some cases, it can help you feel satiated. The only thing I can figure out is that the gas bubbles, that I was unaware of because I had no pain in my stomach or other symptoms of gas, had pressed against the lining of my stomach and intestines, blocking the receptors there from perceiving the presence of food. Once the gas was broken up, the receptors realized that I had eaten and was, in fact, full.

It is a strange solution to a strange problem. I have no idea if anyone else has ever experienced this. But every day that I’ve postponed taking the Gas-X, that raging hunger returns, only to disappear about five to ten minutes after I’ve taken one of those pills.

The good news is that after World Con next week (hope to see some of you there!) I feel as though I’ll be able to successfully go on a diet. Fingers crossed!

In terms of exercise, I’ve been making progress there as well.

I started off the year making sure that I did twenty minutes of exercise every day, mostly just riding the pedal machine.

Then, I started walking. I’d drive into town to walk a mile along a fairly level trail.

Then, I started walking out here on the property, where I have some significant hills. I’d do a mile every morning, going up and down the hills twice.

Then I added in three leg exercises every day to strengthen my legs. Three different exercises per day, for a total of nine, like side lunges, going up onto the toes of one foot, forward walking lunges, or stepping up on my step stool.

Finally, I came up with three different body-weight workouts that I can do at home. I’ve discovered that if I’m going to work out, doing it first thing in the morning, just after I’ve woken up, is the best time for me. I can get my workout in, then take a shower and start the rest of my day. This works best for me. I find that I’m actually looking forward to my work out that morning.

I have a long list of exercises that I can do, and I frequently end up changing out things, treating the set list like a guideline, not rules. That also makes it much better for me.

I started off doing two circuits of exercises, each one lasting about ten minutes, so about twenty minutes total. Then I added reps, so I pushed the workouts up to thirty minutes. Originally, I’d planned on doing three circuits to get me up to thirty minutes, but I think two at thirty is better.

I was doing the body weight workouts M-W-F, and then walking one mile T-Th-Sa. Sundays, I was resting.

And then I strained the calf muscle behind my left knee last Saturday. I had a full knee-replacement done on my right knee, so I REST when my left knee complains, even the littlest bit. I don’t want to ever have to have another knee replacement. (I understand that I probably will at some point because I have no cartilage left in that knee either, but I’m going to do whatever it takes to postpone that date.)

I need to be fully up to speed come next week with World Con and all. So I’m doing the whole RICE thing, rest, ice, compression and elevation. Sitting here typing with my leg up on a pillow and ice underneath it. Once I finish this piece, I’ll put the compression brace back on it. And not walk or do much of anything again today. Quite possibly for the rest of the week.

I do have a set of dumbbells that I’ve been using for the body weight workouts. I have a couple of those out. I’ve been sitting, lifting those, today. It isn’t a full workout, but it is doing something.

And so that’s my diet and exercise story as of now. Fingers crossed that after World Con, I can get back to doing it all! And yes, I’ll post my World Con schedule sometime soon.

So what about you? How have your diet and exercise plans been going?