Hi! I'm a medical person who gives advice on how best to control weight as (one) part of my job--but I admit it's hard. (It's hard giving advice, knowing that a lot of patients will not do well anyway, and it's hard DOING IT--trying to keep those evil vices under control.)

I lost 57 lb with Sparkpeople back in I guess about 2008, and, and kept most of it off. Whoo-hoo!!!!! I had gotten within about 30 pounds of my ultimate dream goal, the weight I haven't seen since I was 20. ...

Hi! I'm a medical person who gives advice on how best to control weight as (one) part of my job--but I admit it's hard. (It's hard giving advice, knowing that a lot of patients will not do well anyway, and it's hard DOING IT--trying to keep those evil vices under control.)

I lost 57 lb with Sparkpeople back in I guess about 2008, and, and kept most of it off. Whoo-hoo!!!!! I had gotten within about 30 pounds of my ultimate dream goal, the weight I haven't seen since I was 20.

There were a couple of amazing things about the weight loss. One was how GOOD I felt while I was doing it. If I felt HUNGRY, of course I could eat something. That's healthy, and I usually had some almonds or healthy granola bars on hand in case it was a while until lunch. But I actually didn't even have too much of the "appetite hunger"/"munchies" except after supper, and I just budgeted a fairly large snack in my food plan (hooray for popcorn). I had lots of energy--I think some of my momentum in weight loss had something to do with walking to talk to people in the office rather than emailing them because I wanted to MOVE, not SIT.

So what happened between then and now? Hmmmm. I have maintained most of the weight loss, mostly because I did discover one type of exercise that I actually really, really like. Not just do because I have to, but LIKE. I'm doing karate. I'm not great at it, but I'm having fun, so I'm keeping the exercise going.

Over time, in large part due to my not-so-secret vice, Coca-Cola classic, 20 to now almost 30 (ouch) pounds have snuck back on. This has gotten to the point that it isn't just affecting my clothes--it is affecting my karate!!! And unfortunately, while one drink of caffeinated soda helps me feel better when I have a migraine, being stuck on caffeine day after day tends to make me more migraine prone, and getting off the stuff gives me a migraine version of the caffeine withdrawal headache.

So.... last weekend I quit caffeine again. I hope it's for the last time. Caffeine makes me hungrier (mostly for junk food); I usually drink the "real Coke" with calories in it, and while ONE caffeinated drink can help if I already have a headache, drinking soda regularly makes me more headache prone.

So, I've now been back on the water wagon for a week. I'm eating better, and I started to feel a little better.

Then on Wednesday (da-da-da-DUM!) I drove my daughter to her cross-country practice. About 35 middle school kids, 20 cars, 15 "I got dragged along and I'm sitting with mom" kids, and I was the ONLY parent who got out and did anything. All the other parents either sat in their car, beside their car, or in one case, brought chairs out to the field for a better view.

I brought running shoes. :) Now I will confess that I kind of hate running. I like to say that I run so slowly that I might as well be on the treadmill anyway.... not quite true, but compared to a lot of people, I'm pretty darn slow. I've finished 1212 of 1219 in one race, and dropped out of a half marathon once a bunch of years ago because I couldn't go fast enough to make it to the train back to the starting point and because I was tired of having (for 8 miles) some helpful jerk in a truck behind me announcing with a loudspeaker RIGHT IN MY EAR (did I mention migraines) "LAST OFFICIAL RUNNER". I realized he was just letting the volunteers know they could leave--but it felt like he was harassing me for failing to catch up to the 60-year-old guy who was 1/4 mile ahead.... So anyway, I have this like/hate relationship with running. I like how I feel when it's OVER.

But on Wednesday, I brought my shoes. I already knew the X-country route from the last few years (my older daughter also ran X-country), so I took off while the team was having an organizational meeting and warm-ups. The first part of the run was right past a lot of the cars, so I felt pretty weird (and slow), but then as X-country does, it disappeared into the woods, where I stopped feeling so slow, and realized that I was still moving, I wasn't as slow as I expected (hadn't run in a long time and expected to be awful), and that I didn't FEEL AS BAD as I expected. I haven't been running, but I've been doing martial arts, for 45-60 minutes, 2-4 days a week, plus whenever I can sneak in practice time. My goal was to just see what I could do--it was a one-mile course, and I wasn't sure I could even run the whole way.

As I finished the course, running strong :) :) :) but winded from kind of sprinting the finish :), the tail end of the kids were just disappearing into the tall grass part (about 2/3 mile to go), so I kept jogging until I caught up, then walked the rest of the way arounds, "motivating" more than a few of the walkers to speed up, and outwalking those who didn't. (The second half of practice was ultimate frisbee/football/etc., and the coach invited me to join if I wanted :) He LIKES parents to participate. I passed on that part because the kids would have more fun without an adult in the way, and smiled at all the folks who looked bored as I went to stretch, then sit down and get a little reading done.

My only real problem with the cross-country, actually, was that I broke my left ankle a bunch of years ago, and I've never really regained enough strength in it. So my ankes, especially the left, were kind of sore the next day. Otherwise, I felt pretty good (pumped, really).

Yesterday I went to a running store. One of the cool ones that videos your feet while you run in their "test shoes" on a treadmill to see what kind of shoes you need. I bought two pairs (I have happy feet) of running shoes that provide enough stability to make my ankles happy.

I'm going to see if I can turn that like/hate relationship with running into a love/dislike, or maybe a like/lukewarm. The last few days, since running (it was coincidentally a pretty heavy total exercise day because I also did my karate class), I have felt GOOD. Like when I was losing weight back in 2008. It's too early to see anything on my scale (building leg muscle, etc.), but I was too busy to run after buying the shoes yesterday, and I've actually been WANTING to run because I just want to move. Yeah, I'm slow--but it's all about how I want to feel.

And hey, just because I don't look like one of those 90-pound lady runners (I'm not sure my boyfriend wants me to) and don't run as fast as them--I'm still faster than all those parents at the cross-country practice.

Go me!

(And my daughter said she wasn't embarassed to see me out there--she was proud and thought other kids would be happy to see their parents actually do something. Isn't that cool?)

Read More About BJFREE (Updated July 13)

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