holla back girl

Many of you know this story:

About 4 months ago, Lief and I bought one of those magazines, Consumer Reports, because it reviewed two things that I was particularly interested in at the time:

1/ washers/ dryers

2/ weight loss programs

My mom has had the same washer and dryer set since she divorced my father, which I suppose would be about 16 years ago. With some minor repairs, the set has managed to handle at least 3 humans worth of laundry every week since that time. Both my brother and I are more than happy to head to my mom’s place once a week to do our (and often other people’s) laundry. It is time for a new set and Lief and I wanted to help her do research on what a good investment would be.

Many of you also know that my mom has been dealing with a host of health problems over the last two years… one of which has been an 18 month wait for a desperately needed back surgery. 18 months of waiting. Waiting while she was no longer able to do all the fun, active things she likes to do. There was no walking or running groups, no fitness classes, no water aerobics. To add insult to injury, her foot problems got worse during this time.

It is no surprise that she put on some weight. She and I are both curvy ladies anyway, but almost two years with no activity changed her entire relationship with her body.

As I said, we are both curvy ladies. As much as I get irritated by the fact that clothes sometimes look ridiculous and/ or obscene on me, I like the way that I am – and would only ever try to be smaller for health-related reasons.

I got to thinking about my MS and about how the number one symptom for most MS people is fatigue. Fatigue related to multiple sclerosis is unlike anything that a non-MS person can comprehend (save for maybe folks with fibro myalgia or chronic fatigue). It is a feeling of having ABSOLUTELY NO GAS LEFT IN THE TANK. You find yourself walking down the street and realizing that you may not make it to the bus stop… you may have to sit down. Right. Here. Right. Now.

Being a skinny person is not going to change the fact that I have to live with fatigue, but I started to think that it certainly couldn’t hurt to lose some pounds. The fatigue will still be here, but I will have to lug less of myself around when things are really bad. I have also come to understand that the *only* thing that doctors have any certainty about in MS is that cardio exercise and resistance exercise has a positive impact on the daily lives of MS peoples.

So, I told my mom that she should look through the Consumer Reports magazine and choose any diet that she thought had a good record and that appealed to her. As long as it was vegetarian compatible, I would do it with her.

And so I have been!

I cannot say that I feel fabulous and filled with energy, especially when I have been having so many craptastic MS days lately, but I can certainly feel a strong, positive difference. On my good days, being at the gym has felt even better (which is saying a lot, considering that even at the worst times, the gym has always been my friend).

I have been very surprised at how much my actual eating habits have changed. I am learning to make the best choices for myself every day.

To date, I have lost about 10% of my body weight, which I am totally stoked about. After my next major MS attack (and let’s hope that is a long, long time away from now) I will let you know if shedding pounds and adding more muscle made a difference. My bet is that it will.

Sure, all my pants are looking totally dumpy, but it is nothing a pair of scissors and a sewing machine can’t fix.

As for my mom, she says that she is also learning a lot (especially about what is actually *in* her food). She keeps asking me things like “Why are these little guys so good for you again?” as she chomps on some edammame. Even though she is probably overwhelmed by some numbers and long term goals she has, I think she is doing really well.

Go, mom, go!