I made it!!

I weighed 136.6 this morning!! I'm so excited as that is the exact weight I made it to in the autumn of last year. It's the lowest weight I have had since I started gaining weight with my neuromuscular disease. I began to have full body paralysis in the summer of 2000. At that time, I had lost my baby weight (50 lbs!!) and was back down to my normal weight of 125 or so. Weight wasn't a huge issue for me back then, so I don't know the exact 120 number. Then I began this whole long journey with Periodic Paralysis. In the beginning, I mostly had Hyper episodes which had to be aborted using sugar. Straight sugar. I ate sugar cubes to stop the attack. Well, when you do this 5-10 times per day and you lay around paralyzed, you are going to gain weight. It's simple consumption/consequences. Over time those sugar cubes and paralysis add up, let-me-tell-you. I got up to 170 in March of 2007. That's when I began to feel better paralysis-wise and could "fast". What I mean by fasting is when my body has used up it's immediate source of fuel (the previous meal) and begins to be hungry again. While I was so sick with PP, the first sign that I was hungry was full body paralysis episode ... not a stomach growl. I couldn't let myself get hungry because then I would be paralyzed. Trying to live a normal life of carpool, mommyhood and wife, homemaker, chef and chief family organizer ... there's really no time for paralysis. So, in order to avoid paralysis, I had to avoid hunger which means I had to eat every two hours. I began to take a medication called Avandia, which helps my body use insulin properly and thereby allowed me to "fast" without episodes. Halleluia! It was a breakthrough. I am still on Avandia and doing great. I have lost 33.5 pounds and I am so grateful. My goal is 130, but if I can, I'd like to be back at 125 or so.

It is taking a lot of work to lose weight. For instance, last night I wanted to eat chocolate chip cookie dough, Rocky Road ice cream, and a big cheeeeesy pizza. I did not. I instead had lentil soup with rice and for my snack I had some almonds with blueberries. I'm glad I made that choice and was rewarded when I stepped on the scales. I was able to work out again this morning, having only missed Sunday morning since I was sick on Sunday. I worked out Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday. Not bad for a paralytic!