yarrow

See if you can pick out the stuck periods in my graph. So obvious, so easy. I know what I need to do to start that downward motion, now why can’t I just do it?

I’m stuck, because I am choosing to be stuck. The plus part is I am not doing poorly enough to gain. Cool that at least.

I am not drinking enough                                                                                                                       I am not working out at all                                                                                                                     I am not making perfect food choices                                                                                                   I am not getting enough sleep                                                                                                                Most of this is just lack of focus and laziness

In other news……….. I did something wild and crazy and I’m lucky my dd2 didn’t kill me.    DD1 went on Craigslist to see if there were some social groups in the area to join. She did not have a job yet and a lot of her good friends have left the area. She did find a group. I went hmmmmmm. So I went on Craigslist and there wasn’t anything in my area but……. On the personals there was a young fella in the men seeking women area. I thought DD2 has been complaining of not having any friends. This is not true entirely, but her friends are not near by, not working (and she is) and needy. She is a listener and nurturer……. she attracts people who need to talk about their troubles and need nurturing. aaaarrrrgghh. Anyway long story short his tagline was “wanting someone he could take home to mom” I decided to write. I wrote “This is the mom” and asked him a dozen questions. Thought that would be the end, but he wrote back. Answered my questions with a score of about 70. I replied to the same with regard to DD2 in general ways, i.e. non-specific. These all from my alternate email. I sent 20 more questions: political leaning, activities, religious background, financial, birthfamily info. etc. Dang if he didn’t answer those. I replied in a like fashion with info about dd2 in a general way. They have a great deal in common. I set up a cyber date. They are going to chat tonight. Here’s the kicker. I told my dd2 and instead of being horrified (in a teenage way, “Oh mom, how could you?”) she just laughed and laughed. She is so easy going. Sure she said, she would chat with him. Bet they become good friends and chat buddies.

So, how ’bout that…………………

This makes me laugh. Aren’t we all different. My daughters are soooo very different in build and personality. DD! has such a large head and is 6 feet tall. DD2 has such a small head and is 5-5. How does this happen? :0) On this day we were waiting for a very late bus and they switched hats. LOLOLOLOLOL

Yarrow

I think I am short calories and up on carbs. I even had about nine hersey’s kisses. and a glazed doughnut. Ok not good choices, but I just logged it and I am short calories. I was splurging on friday. 147 and change today. Not enough water. I am going to go slug down 16 ounces and maybe some almonds. I am starting to fit clothes again.

I went crazy and cut my hair. I wanted it cut, but this is definitely NOT the cut I was going for. Way too blunt. It’s ok, I can work with it but my face is old and this cut is not. Not a good combo. ;o(

Working retail tomorrow and then to a band competition. My daughter and I were not seeing eye to eye on some t-shirts she is making for the kids in the clarinet section. I see the things she is saying on the shirts as rude. She sees them as funny and I think the other kids will agree with her. BUT the parents will likely agree with me. eg
“It’s balls cold if you go in that gay creek” Some sort of inside joke, but sounds rude and derogatory.
“It’s pissin hard work” Piss was a no-no in the house where I grew up.
Aaaaargh and they started out so clever with clarinets in sparkle paint.

yarrow

This is a good article. I am currently adding fish oil to my diet and was pleased to learn that this might help. I am starting to look thinner and guess what. My skin looks like a balloon that someone deflated. aaaaaarrrrrgggghhhh.

Loose skin…This is a very common concern and there are no definitive answers or guaranteed solutions if you have already lost a large amount of weight and you have a large amount of loose skin remaining. In extreme cases, surgical skin removal is the only option, but in most cases, I’ve found that the skin tightens up over time at least to some degree. If you’re still in the process of losing weight, don’t assume that surgery will be a necessity. It’s sometimes dificult to tell in the early stages how much is loose skin and how much is remaining body fat, as well as how much the skin will tighten up over time.

By losing weight slowly and sensbibly, you can put the odds in your favor. The list of 14 points below will help you better understand the causes and potential solutions to this cosmetic problem.:

1. Skin is incredibly elastic. Your skin can stretch and expand or tighten and retract to a great degree. Look at what women go through during pregnancy. Some women do experience stretch marks after pregnancy, but obviously skin is remarkably elastic.

2. Elasticity of skin depends on both genetics and environment/lifestyle. Wrinkling and loss of elasticity is partly the consequence of aging (genetic factors) and also a result of environmental factors such as oxidative stress, excessive sun exposure, and nutritional deficiency. The environmental parts you can fix, the genetics and age part, you cannot. Advice: Get moving and change the things you have control over… Be realistic and don’t worry about those things you don’t have control over.

3. How much your skin returns to its former tautness depends partly on age. The older you get, the more an extremely large weight loss can leave loose skin that will not return to normal.

4. How long you carry extra weight may influence how much the skin will become taut after the weight loss: For example, compare a 9 month pregnancy with 9 years carrying 100 excess pounds.

5. How much weight was carried has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so much and be expected to “snap back” one hundred percent. With extreme obesity, the probability of there still being loose skin after weight loss is higher.

6. How fast the weight was gained also has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so quickly and be expected to “snap back.”

7. How fast weight is lost also has a lot to do with how much the skin will tighten up. Rapid weight loss doesn’t allow the skin time to slowly resume to normal. (This is yet another reason to lose fat slowly; 1-2 pounds per week, 3 pounds at the most if you have a lot of weight to lose, and even then, only if you are measuring body fat and you’re certain it’s fat you’re losing, not lean tissue).

8. There are exceptions to all of the above; For example, people who gained and then lost incredible amounts of weight quickly at age 50 or 60, and their skin returned 100% to normal.

9. Creams probably don’t work. There are many creams advertised as having the ability to restore the tightness of your skin. the late bodybuilding guru Dan duchaine used to recommend topical creams made with pycnogenol, which contain the antioxidant bioflavanoids called proanthocyanidins. But to the best of my knowledge, none of the topical creams are scientifically validated. I haven’t even heard much anecdotal evidence that they work — at least not permanently and measurably — and especially if you have a lot of loose skin. There are definitely some topicals that will pull water from under your skin, but remeber, that is temporary. Buyer should beware with topical products. (as an aside, Ive also heard anectodal reports that skin brushing was helpful, but again, I am not aware of any scientific evidence proving this is effective).

10. Nutrition has a lot to do with the health of your skin. Essential fatty acids in particular are very valuable for many reasons, and one of them is for the health of your skin. It would be worth taking an EFA supplement such as fish oil, flax oil or an oil blend like Udo’s choice. Antioxidants are also very important, so be sure to consume copious amounts of a variety of vegetables and fruits. Also pay very close attention to hydration. Drink approximately a gallon of water a day or a minimum of half your body weight in ounces. (By the way, whey protein is high in a powerful antioxidant called glutathione).

11. Exercise has a lot to do with how your skin appears after you lose body fat. If you use very low calorie diets, you are likely to lose lean body mass, and this is going to exacerbate the loose, hanging skin appearance. On the other hand, if you are exercising regularly and increasing lean body mass with weight training, you will be more likely to minimize the appearance of loose skin.

12. Get second opinions if you are considering surgery. If you’re considering surgical skin removal, consult a physician for advice because this is not a minor operation, but keep in mind that your plastic surgeon may be making his BMW payments with your abdominoplasty money. (Surgery might be recommended in situations where it’s not 100% necessary). Surgery should be left as the absolute final option in extreme cases.

13. Give your skin time. Your skin will definitely get tighter as your body fat gets lower. I’ve seen and heard of many cases where the skin gradually tightened up, at least partially, after a one or two year period where the weight loss was maintained and exercise continued.

14. Know your body fat percentage before even thinking about surgery. Loose skin is one thing, but still having a lot of body fat is another. Be honest with yourself and do that by taking your body fat measurement. This can be done with skinfold calipers or a variety of other devices (calipers might not be the best method if you have large folds of loose skin. Look into impedance analysis, underwater weighing, DEXA or Bod Pod).

Suppose for example, a man drops from 35% body fat all the way down to 20%. He should be congratulated, but I would tell him, “Don’t complain about loose skin yet, your body fat is still high. Press onward and keep getting leaner and be sure to focus on strength training to increase lean body mass as well.”

Average body fat for men is in the mid teens (16% or so). Average body fat for women is in the 20-25% range. Good body fat for men is 10-12%, and single digits is extremely lean. Men shouldn’t expect to look “ripped” with 100% tight skin on the abs unless they have single digit body fat. Women shouldn’t expect to have tight abdominal skin unless they are in the low to mid teens in body fat.

Except in extreme cases, you are actually unlikely to see someone with loose skin who has very low body fat and especially someone who has not just “lost weight” but has altered body composition by adding lean muscle as well. It’s quite remarkable how much your skin can tighten up once your body fat goes from “average” to “excellent” and even more so when lean body mass increases. Someone with legitimate single digit body fat and a ton of loose skin is a rare sight.

So the key to getting tighter skin is to improve your body composition (muscle to fat ratio), and lose more body fat, slowly and sensibly, up to the point where your body composition rating is better than average (in the “good” to “great” category, not just “okay”). Only after you reach your long term body fat percentage goal should you give thought to “excess skin removal.” At that point, admittedly, there are bound to be a few isolated cases where surgery is necessary if you can’t live with the amount of loose skin remaining.

I would hope I could have as much grace under fire as Gov. Palin.  who said, when being attacked by buzzards……… “Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents,”.

This is a nightmare for any parent who has raised children in a Christian home.  I have a friend currently going through the same situation and she is sick at heart and putting on a brave face. Her daughter marries next month. They will have a reception in April. When you hold that precious baby in your arms you don’t think….. I hope someday when she is a teenager that she will get pregnant out of wedlock and drop out of school.

This stress is making my friend drop the weight she has been struggling with for years. At least we have had a laugh over that. We call it her stress diet. Don’t want to go on that one. :o)

This week I am focusing more on toning. Hope to get to 150 by weigh in. Wish me luck.

yarrow