Weight Watchers Day #1 4-10-12

Okay today is the day I start Weight Watchers again...I went to the meeting with my sister last night and weighed in at 224.6# or 16 stone or 101kg. OMG! I am happy that I hadn't gained back up to the 248# of a couple years ago but I was definitely on my way back up!

This picture is of me when Heather and I went on a cruise November 13, 2010. I had booked the cruise in February 2010 as a celebration for Heather and I because we both graduated from college with our bachelor's degrees...mine in nursing and hers in art. The year then went to hell in a hand basket and I ended up sick all summer and was finally diagnosed in October with Chronic Fatigue/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Fibromyalgia. It had all started a lot earlier (about 20 years before in 1990) but that was the flare up that showed me that I was not normal and probably better sit up and take notice of what was going on in my body...

In this picture I weighed in at 248# Chunky chica to say the least. I was having troubles getting around and thought it was the weight so I joined WW then so I could get to feeling better again. I got down to 219.6# in January of this year but I didn't notice a difference in the way I felt day to day.

I tell people I can tell FM pain and ME issues cause they are different then my normal day to day aging issues. I have knee, joint, and back problems just like any other 59-60 year old person and I take Ibuprofen or even a Lortab once in awhile when they get to bothering me. I think the WW weight loss will help with those issues. The FM and CFS issues aren't helped by the drugs unless the pain is so bad that I am so tensed up and the drugs help the nonFM pain and that relaxes me enough that the FM eases up. I have been really watching and following what my body is telling me and I suggest that everyone keep a log so that they can get a handle on what their body is telling them. What I learned from my log is to listen to your body and don't push it or you pay for it. What you used to do before FM CFS/ME is a lot different then what you can do now so live with it or not but if you don't you will pay for your inattentiveness. I do everything I used to do but not all at the same time or same day. I can cook 3 meals, do a load of laundry, make the bed and vacuum the living room in one day and be down in bed for the next 3 days. If I make the bed and fix a couple meals I am okay. I vacuum another day, keep a load of laundry going just about everyday. Wash today, dry tomorrow, fold the next day. Works for me and that is what my log did for me.

I still have a lot of cognitive dysfunction an it will take me 3 hours and sometime longer to get my brain awake after I get out of bed in the morning...usually after noon. The fibro-fog drives me nuts. I describe it best for me as a morning after hangover where I probably drank a gallon on sangria the night before and my brain is mush. I am slow on the uptake and the output. Getting an idea formulated in my brain is not a pretty sight. Confused and disoriented sometimes to the point I just pour a cup of coffee and sit down at the computer or TV (and hope I remember how to make them work) and surf till my brain wakes up. Some days I don't make it to 90% and I don't push anymore. I do what I can do. This is one of my qualifiers for SSDI is the cognitive issues cause who would want me taking care of time if I can't remember what I am suppose to do. Was really a downer to me till I figured out what what going on. I am a take control person so that didn't set well with me.

Okay that's all I am going to rant on today. I have a ton of stuff to do to day so I guess I had better get busy getting it done. I need to make a couple tags for a swap, get ready for a meeting tonight, cook some supper. THATS my idea of a ton of stuff now. Before I would have wallpapered a wall, cleaned house etc etc etc. Live and learn.