Emotional Binging

Happy Friday Everyone!!!

This has been a very hard week for me. On Tuesday night, we got the call that my grandpa passed away. I was a lot closer to him than I was to my grandma. We used to go mushroom hunting about once a month while I was in middle and high school, and there were a lot of times where it would be just us. 

Ever since I got the news, all I've wanted to do is eat. And not just eat food. I have wanted to eat donuts, and French fries, and carbs upon carbs upon carbs. It has been so difficult to keep from eating these things!

But for the most part I'm staying strong. I had some ice cream today and had Tater Tots with my chicken Caesar wrap at lunch today. But I haven't binged on anything. 

I think one of the things that's keeping me on the right path is the tools that I've learned about emotional eating through this journey. I'm actively telling myself to feel what I need to feel instead of dulling the emotions with food, because after I have the surgery I will have to face my emotions head on. I won't physically be able to binge when I'm sad or lonely. 

One of the ways that I've processed my feelings is by writing his obituary. It forced me to feel the sadness that came along with remembering him. I know that his funeral is going to be really emotional, but I feel strong enough to sort through those emotions in a healthy way. 

Thank you so much for your continued support. Here is a link to my grandfathers obituary. 

http://m.legacy.com/dignity-memorial/obituary-preview.aspx?n=Donald-Melchior&lc=4173&pid=175400271&mid=6537106&locale=en_US

Thank you for your continued support. 

Jenelle

#GallonChallenge - Week 2

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

Warning: This post may contain TMI, but I find it very informative.

So a few posts ago we talked about the importance of drinking water, specifically when it comes to losing weight. I found myself so intrigued by what I learned during the research for those posts, that I decided to start drinking a gallon of water a day, otherwise known as the #GallonChallenge. During my weekly grocery trip, I bought a gallon bottle from Safeway (one that looked rather durable) to use as my water bottle for the foreseeable future.

The first days were very interesting. Before I started this challenge, I had never had more than a few bottles of water in a day, certainly never a gallon. What I experienced during the first few days I can only describe as extreme thirst! I found myself not only drinking the entire gallon of water, but drinking more water on top of that! It was an incredible phenomenon that I can only take as my body saying "FINALLY! WATER!"

Now, if you are anything like me, you only really like to drink water if it's cold. There's just something about warm water that is unappealing to me. So, in order to keep my gallon cool for a longer period of time, I fill it a quarter of the way each night before I go to bed and stick it in the freezer. That way it stays cold for hours while I'm at work or at home.

I'm now in to week 2 of the #GallonChallenge, and I have to say that I can really tell the difference. I feel like my body has more energy than it did before. I do have to pee a LOT more, but I see it as my body flushing out all of the toxins. Plus, whenever I have to go to the bathroom, I do 5 squats in the bathroom to get a little bit of exercise in throughout the day.

One thing that I noticed this week as well has to do with my period. Here's probably where the TMI is going to come in. I have always had heavy cramping during my periods, as well as heavy clotting. I live off of Ibuprophen for the 4 days that I am on my period. I am also always extremely tired during my period. I started my cycle yesterday, and have only had to take 2 Midol. I am experiencing far less cramps than usual, and have noticed that I don't have as many clots as usual either. I am also not as tired as I usually am during my period.

I highly recommend trying the #GallonChallenge to all of my readers. I also wanted to take a minute to say a HUGE thank you to all of my readers. This blog surpassed 450 views yesterday, and I have you all to thank for the support. I would love to hear from my readers, either via comment on these posts, or email at jenellesjourney@gmail.com.

Happy Hydration!
Jenelle

Food in Film

Happy Monday Everyone!

I hope you all had a good weekend! It was pretty rainy and cold this weekend in Seattle, but I still got a good workout (and a few scratches) picking blackberries by my sister's house on Saturday. There is nothing that I love better than fresh fruit straight from the plant, and if you can get a good workout in the process, it's even better.

Fueled by my fruit-filled adventure, I decided to watch a movie that has been on my Netflix queue forever, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead.

The movie is a documentary about an Australian man who goes on a 60 day Juice Fast and loses a ton of weight, but more than just losing weight, his health drastically improves as well. Along the way, he inspires another gentleman in a similar health condition to do the same thing and he also loses almost half of his body weight in less than 6 months.

While I parts of this movie highly relatable, and a lot of it incredibly inspiring, there are things that you need when your body loses weight that you really aren't getting that much of when you are drinking just fruit and vegetable juice.

When your body loses weight, it essentially runs off of the fat that it has already built up on your body, so your body is getting calories, fat, etc. What your body really isn't getting much of when you lose weight (from just eating itself) is protein. Protein isn't prevalent in high amounts in fruits and vegetables. Don't get me wrong, there are some fruits and veggies that do have protein in them. For example, Kale has 0.7 grams of protein per cup. That is, however, not a whole lot of protein.

Your body is getting a lot of other things from fruit and vegetables that are really great, like vitamins and "micronutrients" as the film calls them. But another thing that fruits and veggies are somewhat high in is sugar. It's not bad sugar because it's naturally occurring sugar, but it is still sugar.

I recommend the film, simply because it will show you the effect that eating healthy has on your body. Another film that I highly recommend is Food Inc.

Food Inc is a great documentary about the food industry in America and just what it processed foods, and agricultural business has done to our natural resources. It is an extremely scary movie. Not in a horror movie kind of way, but in a "What am I eating?!" kind of way. It will make you take a serious look at just the kind of foods you are putting in to your body.

Happy Screening!
Jenelle

Dear Insurance Companies...

 Happy Tuesday everyone!

This is a late post today. I usually write my posts at night and schedule them for release the next day, but this matter seemed pressing to me. 

I had a little scare today. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I just turned 26 on Saturday. Under Obamacare this meant that I was no longer eligible for my parents insurance. Luckily I just was able to get insurance through my new job. I called my surgeon which is also my nutritionist office to update my new insurance policy. They told me that they would look into my benefits under my new coverage and call me back to let me know what they found out.

Today while I was at lunch, I got a call from my surgeons office. They told me that unfortunately they have some bad news for me. My surgery was not covered by my new insurance. But not only was my surgery not covered, my nutrition appointments were not covered either.

I broke down. I had been working so hard towards a goal of surgery and it had all been for nothing. At the suggestion of my benefits coordinator through my surgeons office I contacted my old insurance provider to see if I was eligible for COBRA benefits. It turns out that I am eligible for COBRA and that for me to continue with the coverage that I had it will only cost $40 per month. Currently I am paying $20 a month for my new insurance through my workplace. So, I am still able to have the surgery.

After this little scare, a coworker and I were talking about insurance companies and their decisions to cover or not cover medical benefits. To me it seems a little bit ridiculous that any insurance company would not cover a weight-loss surgery. I understand that the surgery is technically elective, but in some cases like my own it isn't really all that elective. 

Let's take a look at a few of the side effects of the gastric sleeve weight-loss surgery:

After the sleeve surgery many comorbidities of morbidly obese patients resolve themselves. To name a few type two diabetes resolves itself and 83% of patients. Obstructive sleep apnea resolves itself and 74 to 98% of patients. Cardiovascular disease reduces in 80% of patients. The quality of life improves and 95% of patients and mortality is reduced by 89% in five your mortality of sleeve patients. 

To put it bluntly,  being morbidly obese's is unhealthy. There are a lot of medical complications that come with being severely overweight. To me it would make good business sense to want to reduce the amount of medical bills a company would have to pay. If an insurance company spend the $15,000 it costs to have the gastric sleeve weight-loss surgery, how much money are they saving in the long run on that patient?

It wasn't simply the fact that my new insurance would not cover the surgery that bothered me. It was the fact that they wouldn't even cover a nutrition appointments. The appointments with my nutritionist are not expensive, costing a mirror $25 per visit. That seems like money well spent to me.

In a country where insurance companies have no problems paying full price for Viagra, in the same hand they will not pay for potentially life-saving surgery or nutrition appointments that eventually will save the money in the long run. What part of this sounds OK? 

People have fought with insurance  companies for years and I'm sure will continue to do so. But for something like this that will cost said company less in the long run, doesn't it just seem like good business sense to cover a life-saving surgery?

I would love to hear from any of my readers. Feel free to post comments below any of the posts that I've written, or email me at jenellesjourney@Gmail.com. 

Food for thought, 

Jenelle

Mid Month Update

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Only 3 more days until my 26th birthday! It's so weird to me to be turning 26. Last year, when I turned 25, I was living in the Los Angeles area, but it didn't feel as weird to me then as this birthday does. Maybe it's because I am officially on the downswing toward my 30th birthday, and have been really thinking about the future the last few weeks, but I think it's also because I am so hopeful and excited about the fact that my 6 months Pre-Op dietary requirements are up in September, which means that I can schedule my surgery soon!

I don't know if I had mentioned this before, but I have been through this process before. About 2 years ago, I went through the dietary requirements and was planning on having the Lap Band surgery. Circumstances then prevented me from having it. It was a combination of my family not being supportive and actually talking me out of the surgery, as well as having to relocate to Anchorage, Alaska for work that made me decide against the surgery then. I had thought that it was one of the worst mistakes I had ever made, but looking back at it now, it was really a blessing in disguise.

This time feels different. Moving to another state and being away from home for 2 years forced me to live outside of my comfort zone. I have severe social anxiety and always have, and I know that my weight is a contributing factor to that. Living in a different state, somehow, made it easier for me to make friends and to go out of my comfort zone. I think I needed that mentally to be able to get past the fact that this time around, my family isn't supportive of me having this surgery. Last time I wanted and needed their approval and support. This time, I know that I have friends that support me and I know that I've done the research and am okay with the fact that my family may not be supportive of this surgery, because I'm doing this for me and no one else.

I find myself making plans for the future, and getting rid of old clothes that don't fit anymore because they're too big. I didn't do that the first time around. One of the best examples that I can think of is the fact that I won't buy a swim suit. I had a swim suit in California, but when I had to leave the place that I was living quickly, I literally packed what I could fit in my car and drove back to Seattle in 2 days. I ended up leaving my swim suit behind. It's been a really hot summer here, the hottest on record ever in fact, but I can't bring myself to pay money for a swim suit that I will maybe use once or twice, because I know that I will be too small to fit in to it next summer.

I find myself thinking about relationships as well. I've never really dated, because I've never really felt pretty or sexy enough to attract men, but I find myself thinking about the future of relationships that I may have put on hold because of my lack of self confidence, or because my weight was a factor keeping us apart. Don't misunderstand that I am not having this surgery for other people, or to make myself skinny so that other people in my life will like me. It's not a contributing factor at all. I know that the people in my life like me, but for one of the very first times in my life, I look forward to being comfortable as myself.

So here's to the future!
Jenelle

Drinking Water to Lose Weight

Happy Monday Everyone!
I apologize for the lack of posts last week. I have been taking an Algebra class and had a test on Saturday that I needed to focus on. I got 80%, which I am satisfied with, for those who are wondering.

I had an awesome weekend! I hope that you all did too. I celebrated my birthday a little bit early with friends by bowling and playing a pretty epic game of Cards Against Humanity. I was surprised at just how much my body felt the physical aspect of bowling. I hadn't bowled in several years, but my legs and arms feel like they got a great workout, which is always an added bonus.

So, continuing our talk about hydration from last week, today I want to look at a few reasons why you should be drinking water, specifically when if comes to trying to lose weight.

1. One of the many benefits of water, is that just drinking it fills you up. One of the things that my nutritionist told me about emotional hunger, and that I went over in an earlier post, is that often hunger can be confused with thirst. If you feel hungry, but just for a specific thing, or you just ate, try drinking 8 ounces of water first. Also, try drinking a glass of water right before you eat. This will significantly reduce your hunger, because your stomach will be full of water, causing you to eat less food.

2. Your metabolism needs water to function! Recent studies have shown that by just drinking an extra 17 ounces of water a day, men and women can increase their metabolism by up to 30%! That's huge, especially when you are trying to lose weight!

3. One of the best things about water, is its lack of any calories. By drinking water, you are not drinking your calories by drinking juice, or soda. Save your precious calories for things with substance!

These are just the benefits of water when it comes to weight loss. Forget the fact that staying hydrated keeps your body functioning like it should. Hydration is one of the many keys to a well rounded weight loss experience. Challenge yourself to drink more water by playing one of the "drinking games" we went over last week!

Stay Hydrated!
Jenelle

Drinking Games...

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

With summer officially in full swing and temperatures around the country on the rise, it's important to stay hydrated, and that is what I am going to dedicate this week to. Today we are going to go over some fun "drinking games" (fooled you with the post title didn't I?) that you can do to stay hydrated.

One of the most important things to think about when drinking water, is just how much water your body needs in order to be properly hydrated. While doing the research for this topic, I came across an astoundingly unbelievable statistic, and that is that 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated! At first I couldn't believe that, with the number of drinks available to us at any convenience store, and even whole aisles of grocery stores dedicated to drinks, there is no reason for us to be dehydrated. But if you think about it, a lot of people drink throughout the day, but don't drink the right things. We will get in that later this week.

 

On a daily basis, use this chart to see just how much water you should be drinking. Now, for those of us who's weight is not on this chart, A simple way to find out just how much water you should be drinking a day is to take your weight (mine is 359.4 lbs as of yesterday) and divide it by two to get the number or ounces of water per day that you should be drinking. So for myself, I should be drinking 179.7 ounces of water per day, which equates to about 7.5 24oz bottles of water, or 1 gallon of water! I find it hard to drink 3 bottles a day!

Here are a few of my favorite ways to keep track of how much water I drink:

Time your water breaks. If you are like me and aren't a naturally thirsty person, it is important to remind yourself to drink water. One of the best ways to do this is with a visual reminder, like these two bottles.

I really like the one above, because it just makes it more fun to drink water, and if you start off with an actual gallon, it's easier to see just how much water you have had and how much you need to drink to finish.

Now, if a visual reminder isn't enough for you, you might want to set a reminder in your phone to go off every hour and match it with your bottle to make sure that you get all of the water you need.

Tomorrow we will talk a little bit about why hydration is so important, especially when you are trying to lose weight.

Stay hydrated!
Jenelle

Pre-Op Month 4 Weigh In

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

I hope that you all had a fun and healthy 4th of July weekend! I did the most walking that I have done since before my back surgery in October. We went to the Seattle Woodland Park Zoo on Friday. I had not been in about 7 years, and a lot of things had changed for the better. It was over 90 degrees, and by the end of the day I was exhausted, but in that great way that you feel after a really good workout.

Today I had my Month 4 Weigh In. I had mentioned in an earlier post, that this month has been a real struggle for me. I had hit that wall that we all hit where dieting isn't new and exciting anymore, and you really just want a donut. And if I am being completely honest, I made more than one trip to my local Krispie Kreme shop this month. So it surprised me that I managed to still lose 4 pounds this month. Now, granted that is not a lot, but I was really expecting to gain weight!

I feel like I have gotten back on track for the most part, and gotten over that hump. Now I am more excited at the fact that I am headed in to my 5th month of a 6 month nutrition requirement before I can have surgery. That means that I can schedule my surgery soon! I am hoping for September, but it will likely be October or November.

There are so many things that I find myself looking forward to, that it's hard to feel like the diet isn't worth it. People always ask me why I am having this surgery, and whether or not I am scared. But the honest truth of it is that I am more afraid of living my life the way I am now and dying at an early age from one of the many co-morbidities that comes with being morbidly obese than I am of not being able to drink soda again, or only being able to eat a cup of food at a time. To me, the many benefits of this surgery outweigh the few things that I will have to give up. And honestly, the things that I would have to give up like soda and alcohol and pasta, are really things that aren't the best for you anyways.

Have a great day!
Jenelle

Shrimp and Sausage Skillet

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Here's to 300 views so far!!! I was telling a coworker yesterday that I feel more comfortable sharing this journey with complete strangers than I do with my own family and friends. I think in part it's because my family isn't completely supportive of me having this surgery. They think it's extreme, and it is, but I need extreme at this point. They haven't done as much research as I have, so they see it as an unnecessary surgery with a lot of potential risks. When I lived in California I was seeing a surgeon there and going through the same process, but had decided not to tell my family about it until I had scheduled the surgery, because I knew they would have a similar reaction to what they are having right now. I've just come to accept that they will be supportive once I have the surgery, but right now I have the support from all of you, and that means everything, so a huge THANK YOU to my readers!

I don't know what part of the US or Internationally my readers live in, but in Seattle it has been H.O.T. I lived in Southern California for over a year and we would go to Palm Springs where the desert would be 124F, but the 85 degree heat here feels hotter than that, and it's all because of the humidity. So, I have been trying to cook meals that either cook very quickly on the stove, or require no cooking at all.

One of the meals that I made is my healthy take on a Shrimp and Grits recipe, and my family loved it. In fact, I am making it again tonight for dinner.

Jenelle's Shrimp and Sausage Skillet

 

Ingredients:
-2-3 Zucchini, chopped
-2-3 Yellow Zucchini, chopped
-1 bag frozen shrimp, no tails
-1 package spicy brats/sausage, chopped
-Trader Joe's Harvest Grain Mix
-4 cups water
-1/4 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
-2 cloves minced garlic
-2 tbsp. Mrs. Dash No Salt Seasoning
-2 tbsp. olive oil
-Salt to taste

Directions:
1. In a medium pot, cook the Harvest Grain Mix and water over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the grains have soaked up all of the water.
2. In a large skillet/wok, add the sausage, zucchini, yellow zucchini, shrimp, oil and Mrs. Dash. Toss to coat, and cook on medium heat until sausage is cooked through, shrimp is bright pink, and zucchini is fork tender (10-15 minutes)
3. Add the garlic and sharp cheddar cheese to the harvest grains and mix well
4. Plate the grain mix first and the shrimp and sausage on top of the grains and serve hot.

Happy Eating!
Jenelle