Evil BMI Charts

I work at a company that is kind enough to spoil us with a health and fitness program. Part of those benefits, apparently, is an annual {voluntary} biometric testing -  you know, cholesterol, glucose levels, triglyceride levels.... it's pretty bad ass.

So I decided, yes, of course I wanted to do this. I should know where I stand as far as my health is concerned. In all honesty, I felt pretty confident I was going to see decent results, and I was right.... for the most part....

Turns out, according to the nurse that drew my blood and scanned it in her handy dandy little machine, All of my "numbers" are excellent. Good cholesterol, bad cholesterol levels are great, glucose levels are great, and so on.... BUT... my BMI was NOT great.

You see, because I am a short 5'5" woman.... my weight throws a wrench into my healthy system. I pack a mighty punch in this little body of mine. When most people guess my weight, they are a solid 30+ pounds off.... and I mean I am usually 30 lbs heavier than most guesses.

So, you can see where this is going. I weighed in.... after seeing the number, in my head I hear, "Awesome! I'm another pound lighter AND I have clothes on right now!"
What the nurse said after calculating my BMI, "Well, this is where you need some work. your BMI is 30, which makes you Obese. You know, you could improve that by changing your diet and doing some exercise...."

Obese.

That awful, awful word.

I laughed in her face, but in that HOW DARE YOU kind of way. I saved her the explanation because I doubt she wanted to hear about how I've lost almost 10 pounds already from DIET and EXERCISE, ahem, thank you very much mean nurse lady..... I knew she didn't care. It wasn't worth the hassle.

I left feeling a little bummed. It hurt to hear that after everything I've gone through this year so far, I'm still OBESE. It's terrible, how a simple word can make you feel so defeated. And then I went from feeling defeated to feeling angry.

How dare they categorize us all into about 5 different body types?!?!?!? We are a gigantic race with each and every one of us, a different make up. Different body types, genetics, disorders, hurdles.... this stupid piece of shit BMI chart is practically a playground bully.... rubbing your face in the metaphorical sand that is obesity.

I mean, seriously.... take a look at this.

Because of my height, I am apparently the second from the right.....

Clearly, this BMI chart business is for the birds. I am in the OVERWEIGHT section, not the OBESE section. I understand it helps some people get an idea of where they are and where they should be, but in my case, I feel like it was a complete miss... I know I have work left to do to myself, but COME ON.

Please dont focus too much on these charts. They are a vague generalization.

DETOX: Day 15 update

It has been one hell of a roller coaster, this detox thing. I made it exactly 14 days without even wavering off the program. So far I've lost a total of 7 lbs, and a few inches off my waist... But last night, I did waver..... I had a MEAL for dinner.

However, I don't plan on quitting all together. It was a special night, and I went to have a nice meal - one of my favorite things in the world: Pumpkin Curry. Yes, I'm aware it wasn't the healthiest thing in the world to eat after a detox, BUT it was a far cry from terrible for me. After all, I did still order brown rice (always) instead of white, and it only had a little bit of cream in it.

How I felt after eating it: Extremely full, even though I ate about 1/2 of what I would have normally, so I can definitely tell my stomach has shrunk. I didn't feel sick, my stomach didn't hurt... nothing felt out of the ordinary.... so maybe I didn't waver too far off my path. Food for thought.

I juiced again this morning. I wanted to try to stick to the healthy morning regime. I think that is where a lot of my calories come from. I used to eat a smoothie with protein powder - probably totaling something around 300 calories, then I'd also have 2 eggs - another 160 calories and a good amount of fat, and i'd snack on nuts before boot camp..... so before lunch that was probably an average of 600 calories.... and that doesn't include my sugary 290 calorie coffee drink. Hmmm...
Come to think of it, if I compare that to what I'm doing now: A large fresh juice blend from 2 apples, 1 lemon, a little bit of ginger, 1 cucumber and a few stalks of celery - probably at most 100 calories. Then about an hour after I drink that, I have some tea.... no sweetener. 0 Cals. At 10:00 I have an apple with sunflower seed butter for energy before boot camp - about 275 calories.

Morning totals before detox: 600 cals
Morning totals after detox: 375 cals

Calories saved with new regime: 225
Calories per week saved: 1575

Yikes. Thats pretty good. I really need to try my very hardest to stick to this morning regime. If I look at that from a monthly perspective, thats almost 2 pounds saved per month. What a concept.

ANYWAY....

Goals for the remaining week, stick to the program as best as I can. Follow the elimination diet as much as possible for as long as possible, and TRY WITH ALL MY MIGHT to keep making smoothies and/or soups for dinners -  and at a reasonable hour.

Let's see 10 lbs lost!!!

Two Steps Back

Today, I'm feeling a little disgruntled, frustrated and defeated. Though I know I will not give up, there just always seems to be a pothole in the road that you don't see, or you pretend you don't see.
Allow me to clarify: I got a new scale yesterday. I noticed on the F2F Challenge everyone was using nice digital scales, and I thought, hey, I should probably run with the pack on this one and ditch my ancient antique of a scale and get a digital one. My digital scale is really nice, and works great.

Almost too great, actually.

Turns out, my ancient scale was nicer to me than I thought. My ancient scale told me I was in between 174 - 176. {The red hand never really stopped shaking in between those numbers - as I said before: ancient scale} While my NEW scale tells me I am actually 177.2 -- lovely. A whole 2 pounds more than I thought I had to lose. At least I know the truth right?

So today, I am making adjustments to all my stats and buttons. Joy.