The Dunk Tank

Hola, Amigos!

I've been really busy these last few weeks but I wanted to share with you some cool things that have happened.

I promised you guys full disclosure a long time ago about my health battles so here goes....

On the 7th I underwent Hydrostatic Body Fat Testing. I had never even heard about this technology until recently. They are very very adamant about calling it "the gold standard" for body fat testing so I wasn't sure if I was being fed a line or what. I've always been curious about how accurate BMI charts can be so the opportunity to try something that would be very specific to me appealed to me. Basically they weigh you underwater and with technology given to us by aliens they can determine your fat vs. lean mass as well as your basal metabolic rate.

Here's a video of the process:

 It was quick, it was painless, the guys that administered my test made me feel very comfortable and I got a 4 page print out of whats going on with my body as a souvenir.

I was really prepared to find out that I am over 50% body fat. I mean when you go to the doctor anyone over 40% just gets the >40 on their chart and that has been me for a long time. When they weighed me I rang in at 224.8 and since I'm 5'3" here I am thinking that I should weigh 110lbs. ( I blame the media for that by the way. Stupid TV) . But here's the not-so-skinny:

My body fat came in at 41.4%

The weight of my body fat is 93 lbs!

The weight of my my lean mass ( muscles, tissues, organs etc.) is 131.75!

That's fucking awesome!

It may not sound awesome to you, but what that told me is that the person living inside all of this weighs more than 131 lbs! In fact at a healthy body fat level I would probably weigh 150 to 165 lbs. And that is really encouraging when you are starting over 220. To know that you don't have to lose half of yourself really takes some weight off of your shoulders ( now if it would only take some off my hips...)

I got a print out list of how many pounds I need to loose to bring my self down on the BMI scale. And this is pounds of body fat. Not just pounds on a scale. Let's get serious here. What does a scale really weigh? Everything. So never know if what you see dropping on the scale is adipose fat, muscles, or the really big lunch you had. As I said before I have no numerical goal for my scale weight.I just want to see it dropping even a little at a time. I do know that I don't want to loose any muscle. In fact I wouldn't be upset if I gained muscle, I want to gain muscle. Did I tell you I can do a push ups now? Because I can. And that is because I have been gaining muscle.

I will be able to take this test again in August. Which is perfect because it will give me 4 months to work on my muscles, lose some body fat and that 4 month result is what I will really base my success on. Not how much I weigh on a scale, but how much body fat I have lost. The results also included my resting metabolic rate. This was super informative for me because ( and again I blame the media) you get all this info that makes you think that to lose weight you should eat less and exercise more in a severe fashion. It is true to an extent but there is a point where your body kinda stalls because it gets all fight or flight. My body needs 1795 calories a day just to lay around. That's my resting rate. So if I go to Kaia ( burn 700 cal) and then hit the treadmill ( 350 cal) I am burning 2845 calories. To have a healthy weight loss I should eat 2000- 2300 calories that day, not 1400. I will admit that I have been counting calories with my Fitbit and I average 1700-1900 a day. I am finding it hard to eat more than that too simply because Chris and I are eating a lot healthier and vegetables aren't high calorie foods. To quote a fellow Kaia girl:

"It takes a lot of kale to eat 2300 calories a day."

Now for some less exciting news....

On April 8th I had my 6 month appointment with my Neurologist. We had a good visit and he really applauded the changes I have been making. He is happy to hear that I want to lose fat and gain muscles instead of the ever vague "weight".  In my condition the healthier your body is early, the healthier my body will stay long term. And as I am constantly mentally preparing myself for the day when I will be in a wheelchair, I would really like to be in my 60's or never ever as opposed to sooner. As nice as this appointment was I left it with two more prescriptions and now I am up to 3 pills a day, 4 on Saturdays :( I don't even want to tell you what my new med is for.  It's probably pretty common place but it's super embarrassing because I am not elderly. Let's just say I finally have a condition as a result of having MS and thank God it's not Diabetes.

I'm going to save my final inches lost and weight lost next week after I finish my last week of Kaia. My last class is next Saturday and then Sunday I am walking in the MS Walk with my friend Carmody.

You can donate to Team Emerald Exiles here if you are so inclined. We are $400 away from our goal and I have been walking every day to get ready for this. This years MS Walk is going to be kind of a practice for me as I am signed up to do the Women's Fitness Festival 5K in June and I plan on running at least 1 of those miles.

And I'm going to share this picture.
I should hate the way my stomach looks but I love my niece and the memory too much to care. I got to spend my 32nd birthday with my family last week and it was awesome. Haley had a bit of a rough moment and I will always remember what we were talking about right then. It's a big sister thing :)

Get ready for the big blog next week!

Adios!