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Introduction Text UPDATE: 7/31/08 I'm back to make a better go of getting myself healthy. In the past 18 months I've managed to gain back over 40 lbs just by being lazy & foolish about food choices and portions. This time I plan on "going for the gold", not stopping until I cross the finish line at 135 lbs.! ¸»¤°¤«¸»¤°¤«¸»¤°¤«¸»¤°¤«¸»¤°¤«¸»¤°¤«¸ If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You get another chance. Hi! My name is Kathy. I grew up "chubby". I have never met a carbohydrate I didn't like and have always considered chocolate a major food group. I have never been less than 40 pounds overweight all my adult life... and too much of that time spent eating my way into the loathed and uncomfortable status of morbidly obese. Over my dieting "career" I have been able to dip below 200 lbs. only three times. For me this fourth time will be the charm! In October 2006, after several years of increasingly debilitating symptoms, I had surgery to partially remove a benign, calcified tumor from my upper thoracic spinal cord. Developing these types of tumors is not uncommon in people who have had raditation treatments, as I did back in 1971 for Hodgkin's Disease. Too bad it took my doctors over four years to figure out what was causing my increasing health problems. In January '06 a neurosurgeon diagnosed me with spinal stenosis and degenerative disc disease and wanted to do surgery on my LOWER spine. She flat out said I was TOO FAT (267 lbs.) and had to lose weight. I spent the next eight months eating healthy and exercising as much as my physical condition would allow. After losing over 60 lbs., I was seen by a different neurosurgeon who discovered the real problem was the tumor on the UPPER spine. By the time I had surgery, my spinal cord was 90% compressed and only 60% of the tumor could be lasered off. The surgery left me partially paralyzed and with severe neuropathy from mid-back down. Extensive rehab followed. I can now walk with a cane/walker and work hard to overcome/compensate for the lack of feeling & altered sensations I experience. I think (rationalize) that the disappointing outcome to the surgery and the difficultly adjusting to my disability lead to being depressed, frustrated and unmotivated. I easily slipped into my old, unhealthy habits. I was making poor food choices, indulging my sweet tooth, hitting the drive-thru's again, throwing portion control out the window and rarely exercising. In a mere seven months I went from post-rehab progress of 187 lbs. to a self-indulging 215 lbs! This is just stupidity and insanity on my part. It has to stop NOW! I just finished a 16 day Lemonade Diet/Fast to help clean out/detox my system. My goal is to create and sustain a diet of at least 60% raw food and to limit the amount of meat & dairy products I consume. This is my new mantra: ~*~ Don't satisfy your taste buds to the detriment of your body.~*~ ¸»¤°¤«¸»¤°¤«¸»¤°¤«¸»¤°¤«¸»¤°¤«¸»¤°¤«¸ EXERCISE: Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 5-lb. potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides, and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, then relax. Each day, you'll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb. potato sacks. Then 50-lb. potato sacks, and eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb. potato sack in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute. After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each of the sacks. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Shakespeare's Hokey Pokey ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ O proud left foot, that ventures quick within Then soon upon a backward journey lithe. Anon, once more the gesture, then begin: Command sinistral pedestal to writhe. Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke, A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl. To spin! A wilde release from Heavens yoke. lessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl. The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubt Verily, I say, 'tis what it's all about.

1. Get fit & healthy. 2. Stay that way! 3. Maintain a diet of at least 60% raw food.

1. Shop the outside ring in the grocery store... avoid the aisles. 2. Use my juicer 2 to 3 times a week. 3. Stretching for 10 min. a day. 4. Athletic Club 2x/week. 5. Absolutely NO fast food.

Portland, Oregon has been my stomping ground for over 22 years. I was born & raised in Indiana.

I love cats and Texas Hold'em. A fragment of a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson is telling: "Finish each day And be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and Absurdities have crept in. Forget them as soon as you can."

Add a Link ~*~ Don't satisfy your taste buds to the detriment of your body.~*~ Remember: You don't stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing. ...and a weigh we go!
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