Extreme Makeover Weight Loss & Big Ole Stanky Lie Edition

I really want to like this show. Even though he's lipless and full of cheese, there's a part of me who just wants to adore Chris Powell for the innocent beefcake that he is tries to portray. But... this show is getting annoying. When I first started watching it, I happily ignored the lies (there's no way in hell that Chris stays with the contestants for 3 months, pft not even three days) after all it was entertaining and it did inspire me to... well, not really do anything in real life, but I thought about... one day... getting off my ass.

You can tell that the contestants never see him. And if you're reading this and overweight, you know that there's no way that these folks are losing 200+ lbs on their own. I'm not saying that it's not possible to do that in a year healthfully, but I'm just not buying that most of them are. I know that one of the early contestants, James Garrison, was talking smack about the show on his blog. He's since had to remove his sass, but excerpts can be seen here.

I think we all know (at least I hope we all know) that these types of shows are... massaged, let's say... to be entertaining. That's coolio, if it gets me to start thinking of my health enough to make a change, you can take me for a ride baby. I just wish that Chris et al. would give the audience some credit and make the show a little less liar-liar-pants-on-fire-y. And tone down the cheese... oh gahd... the cheeeese.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about:

:*(

Bad Lupi day (again). What people don't know about Lupus is that when you flare you get really emotional. I've been really sad today. :(

Living With Lupus.

Living with Lupus sucks balls. On top of all of the pain and overall crappy feeling, you have to deal with the social aspect as well. It's an "invisible disease" which means that there's no obvious outward sign that you're sick. The average person just doesn't know how to process the information; especially without a wheelchair, cane, cast, eye patch, sling, mechanical leg, whatever, to draw reference from.

I get it. For the longest time I bought into the "lazy" theory or the "if I just ate better and worked out" b.s. that everybody parrots to you when you mention the word "tired." Right before I turned 30 I remember telling my boss that I was feeling run down recently. His response was that I should hit the gym, implying that my overweight was the cause of my fatigue. I agreed with him until a few weeks later when I had a stroke.

We were able to joke about his advice later, but it dawned on me then that people don't know what the fuck they're talking about. Yes, I choose to believe that, in general, people are coming from a good place, but for the most part they really are just spouting shit they heard from magazines and TV shows.

Sorry if I'm all over the place. I don't feel well and when that happens, my mind doesn't work so well. Right now I'm feeling sad and angry. It's frustrating to have to deal with this shit. Pain. You know when you have the flu and your body is inflamed and you feel like sore all over? It's sorta like that. My hands feel like they're on fire and someone has run them over with a steam roller. I'm fucking tired. Like I haven't slept in weeks.

It's so fucking frustrating. I want to believe that I can control this disease, in tiny ways I can, but really it's got me by the ovaries (well, one ovary now). My life is being held captive by Lupus (I hate that bitch).

From San Diego Lymer

Tired.

Lupi day. Tired. So tired.

My Own Biggest Loser: Starting Info

238.5     Start

As we all know, it's important to see the horror from whenst you came to keep you motivated throughout your weight-loss/ gett'n-healthy journey. I'll try to find some photos from when I was 250, but for now we'll do the starting info for my BL challenge. I took this info right after I bought the Withings scale, so the weight is probably a little high since it was in the afternoon.

February 4, 2013

Height: 5'3" (63")
Age: 38 (yeesh)
Weight: 238.5
Lean Mass: 49.2%
Fat: 50.8%
BMI: 42.2

It's so crazy the mind works. When I look in the mirror, I don't see the weight; but these pictures, man. What I am thankful for, though, is that even with all of this fluff, I still find myself extremely attractive. THANK MUTHA FUCK'N GAHD FOR HIGH SELF-ESTEEM (or delusions... that's fine, I'll take it).

In the side view, you can see the surgery scar underneath my boob and the bruise from the Lovenox shot (taken in December, mind you). Whenever I see my progress photos I always think, "Goddamn, I need a better bra." Heh. Other than that, I'm just excited to see my future progress.

Setting Myself Up for Success (Yah Boyiiiie).

Okay, so we don't have kids and evidently we don't like contributing to our retirement. That leaves us with a bit of $ to typically spend on fast food. This week, after watching The Biggest Loser reruns on HuluPlus, I've started my own Biggest Loser competition. Right now I'm the only contestant, but I'm pretending there are others. AND I WILL CRUSH THEM!!! *shaking fist into the air*

A few days ago I think I blogged about choosing a fitness monitoring device. I went with the FitBit One because it was cheaper, smaller, and it has a really great free support website. The website applications are cool and easy to use. I swear to god, I'm not a paid endorser, I'm just super pleased with this product. It also works side-by-side with MyFitnessPal. They sync with each other so that everything is nice and purdy.

I also splurged and bought the Withing's Wi-Fi Body Scale which does everything including the laundry. Dude. Duuuuude. This thing zaps all of your info from your bathroom to your computer AS SOON AS YOU STEP OFF OF IT! That's crazy, yo! After I weigh in, I run to the computer to see my progress: weight, body fat %, and BMI.

All of these devices interact with each other. It's like an electronic three-some of fat busting!! I will gadget myself to weight loss. Oh yes, I will.

Killer Tomatoes.

Did you know that one medium Roma tomato is 35 calories? I put one on my sandwich yesterday and another sliced on the plate. When I entered the info into MyFitnessPal I was shocked, nay stunned, to find that I had spent 70 of my precious 1200 calories on tomatoes. TOMATOES!

Sure it's better that than, say Cheetos  but sheesh. Did you also know, tomatoes are part of the (deadly*) nightshade "vegetables". OoooOOooOooo. Some say that we Lupi peeps shouldn't eat nightshade veggies because of their inherent inflammatory properties. If that were the case, then we should stay away from a number of tasty veggies that would honestly make me horribly depressed.

Luckily Lupus.org weighs in on the issue (edited, head over there to see the hole s[ch]piel):

Q: Will eating nightshade vegetables increase my lupus flares or joint pain? It seems that every place I read about this has a different opinion about this.

A: The nightshade vegetables include white potatoes, tomatoes, peppers (sweet and hot), and eggplant. While there is anecdotal evidence that some of these foods can be related to inflammation, there is no solid scientific evidence to support this concept. My advice would be for people to keep track of when they eat these foods, and to look for a pattern between consumption and a flare. If there does seem to be a connection, ...a person could avoid one/all of the nightshade vegetables without creating any nutrient deficiencies. 

Why tomatoes gotta be like that? Always gotta be gett'n all the attention... bring'n all the dramarama. Tomatoes are just another squirrel try'n ta get a nut.