Plateau!!!

Since I wrote my last entry, my weight has stalled. So basically, I have stepped on my dear old scale every morning to see the same number + or minus2 pounds for the last 2 weeks. Still on the fast 5 and I can't figure out why I stopped losing. I may try to add low carb to the fast 5 to see if it will bring me down the plateau insha Allah. I am not really perturbed about this because I feel staying on a plateau is better than gaining all the weight back. I suspect not having the time to go for my evening walks contributed to my stall, anyhow, I'm not giving up. I will keep doing my fast 5 till I get there, insha Allah.

Still losing on the fast 5 diet

Its been another month on the fast 5 diet and I managed to lose another 6 pounds. I started on the 24th of january @ 193.5lb. I now weigh 181.2lb, maa sha Allah. This makes a total of 12lb in 2 months; not a lot, but I intend to stick to it until I reach my goal weight one day insha Allah. I was off the diet for some days during the month when I was down with tonsilitis and had to take antibiotics for 7 days. I have not been having my daily walks for some time as well because of the wind and sandstorm we've had here for some time. So, I think I would have lost a little more if not for these constraints. I hope to reach my goal weight of 150lb by the month of Ramadaan insha Allah. 

My kids are on their mid semester break and we had some guests from another town visiting for 5 days. It was so much fun to have an adult female  company in the same house for 5 days. We cooked and cleaned together and went places together. When it was time for bthem to leave, they were so reluctant to pack and we also wished they could stay around for a few more days. We were all thankful for the opportunity and look forward to having more of it insha Allah.

I am generally taking life easy and not putting pressure on myself, my hb or the kids about anything dunya as much as possible. No more dwelling on what  I need or want or what I dont have or wish others to do for/to me or not. I thought I was traumatised enough about Tahera's death until my friend who came here for a visit told me about a sister I know back home, a married mother of 2 who was run down by a car and ended up with spinal chord injury. She is now confined to a wheelchair and lost the ability to control her bladder and bowels. She cannot feel anything from the armpit down to her feet and needs to be taken care of by others 24/7. Needs to be cleaned and given a shower and had to beg some family members to take her little kids in because she can't take care of them herself. Her brother who is a doctor rented an apartmet for her and got her a maid who he pays for and he is the one who pays for most of her expenses   including adult diapers which are quite expensive over there. I mean this sister does not know she has defecated until she perceives the smell and then she calls someone to come help clean and change her just like a baby. The sister who told me is a doctor and she said the loss of continence due to spinal injury is an irreversible thing so she would remain like that for the rest of her life. I don't think she is even thirty years old yet! Everyone tries as much as possible to avoid spending time with her including her husband and her mum. They go to visit her but could not make themselves to as much as pass the night with her. She has cried so much at her misfortune until her tears dried up and could no longer cry. And I thought I had issues, subhanAllah. I now realize there are some situations which are more difficult to handle than death and if not for Islam she would probably have taken her life by now. I was a complete mess by the time I finished listening to the sister and even wished she had not told me. I pray Allah strengthens the sister's heart and protect her from saying things or asking questions that may count as blasphemy because it would be difficult not to wonder "why me" in her situation. I pray Allah gives her loads of sabr in her affliction and reward each and every pain and discomfort she is having, whether physical or emotional with the ultimate reward; Jannah.

Diet helped me get rid of tinnitus

I have stopped using the Grape seed extract for several weeks. In fact, I only used it for for a few days, not up to 2 weeks in all. During the first few days after I stopped, I noticed I still had the ringing sometimes during the day, maybe like 10% of the time, but it was not as loud as it had always been, and it was such that I could easily ignore it, without having to mask it with the AC unit and I was always able to sleep at night without any background noise. When you have a condition that is said to have no cure, and you are trying to wrap your head round the thought of having to live with it for the rest of your life, a partial relief from the ailment no matter how little would feel like the best thing in the world. I was however not as excited as I should have been back then because I always had this nagging fear at the back of my mind that the ringing could return with full force any time, and I would be back to where I have to have a fan or AC on whenever I am in a room, no matter the weather condition. I dreaded the thought, but there was nothing I could do but pray. 

Sometime along the line, I stumbled upon the fast five diet while searching for the reviews of the warrior diet on Amazon. The warrior diet is one good diet that can be easily adopted by those who don't have the will power to try the fast 5 diet. WD allows you to eat a light BF and lunch made of fruit and veggies and then you can have a sumptous dinner. The basis of the WD is also shifting between periods of under eating and overeating. Many people have used it successfully but I found the fast five somehow easier than the WD because while fasting, it is much easier for me not to think of food. Well, it just occurred to me few days ago that the period my tinnitus stopped completely, coincides with the time I started the fast 5 diet. I have read on earthclinic some people who claimed that eating a neanderthal diet in which they only ate whole unrefined foods, the type that would have been available to the cave man during that time, cured their tinnitus but I could not bring myself to eat in that strict manner. Now that I am on the fast 5, I eat 1 main meal daily which is almost always the same dish and I snack on some nuts, or a cup of youghurt and then have a fruit before dinner time and thats it. I have not eaten rice,  bread or any junk food for many days now. The best part is that I did not even miss it. The fact that I can eat whatever I want during the 5 hour eating window makes this diet easier for me than atkins, though I would have probably lost more than this on atkins.

Anyway, I  think I will stick to the fast 5 lifestyle even after I have reached my goal weight so that hopefully, I can continue to live tinnitus free.

I lost 6 pounds in 1 month!!!

I started this not so popular diet 1 month ago, 24th of  January. I am 6 pounds lighter today. The diet is called The fast 5 diet and the fast 5 lifestyle. I have tried different types of diet but this is the easiest for me. The basic rule of the diet is to eat during 5 consecutive hours during 24 hours and to fast for the remaining 19 hours. You are allowed to drink water, unsweetened tea without milk or cream or any other zero calorie drink, Even diet soda is allowed but I avoid drinking this because I know aspartame, the most used sweetener in diet soda is said to be bad. You are allowed to eat whatever you want during the 5 hour eating window but it is recommended that you eat healthy for best results. The recommended timing for the fast 5 diet is eating between 5.p.m. and 10p.m. I shifted the timing for my convenience such that I eat between 1.p.m and 6p.m daily and spend the remaining time fasting. The expected average weight loss on this diet is 1 pound per week, which means 52 pounds in a year. The diet can be found in a book written by Bert W. Herring MD. Its sold on amazon for a price of 10 dollars but he gives the e-book for free if you go to the official website of dr. Herring. Just google fast 5 diet. 

My starting weight was 193.5 pounds.

Current weight 187.4 pounds.

Losing weight is now a must

I have been overweight for many years now. It started after I had my first child, around 8 years ago. I was at what is known as a healthy weight before I got married. I have never had to do anything about my weight, until that time. I ate whatever I wanted including junk food, sweets, chocolates, anything. I have never thought of exercising. I was active because I was in school and normal daily activities was just enough to keep me healthy. 

After marriage,  I moved to Saudi and got pregnant and sick. I could barely keep anything down. I lost weight in the first trimester and was really weak. I made it through the 9 months and was blessed with a healthy baby, maa sha Allah. But there was a problem. Being a food lover, I was pissed about the fact that I could not enjoy my meals for almost 9 months. My nausea and vomiting started very early, even before I realized I was pregnant. The nausea drugs given by the doctor did not work. I was told it usually subsides after the first semester but mine did not. It continued till the time of confinement. Needless to say, after delivery, I started eating like never before and I just assumed I would not gain weight due to overeating because I thought afterall, I used to eat a lot in the past and never gained weight. How wrong I was. I realized  I was getting out of shape and breastfeeding alone would not help me lose weight when my baby was around a year. I started taking steps towards healthy living and lost some pounds in a few weeks. But before I could really get back into shape, I got pregnant with my second baby. I had 2 more babies after that. When I had my 4th, my first baby was 5 and a half years old. I now weigh 193 pounds. After my last child, I decided to get serious about losing weight because by that time, I was really concerned about the health implications of being fat as well as my desire to look good for my hb. I tired so many fad diets and always lose around 10 pounds and regain it off and on. I have a problem staying on a particular diet for long time so understandably, I did not succeed while on any of them. The last I tried was Atkins but I stopped because firstly, I read something about a risk to the kidneys and then it was not so much  fun eating so many eggs, chicken, meat and veggies. I also learnt it is not safe to be in ketosis while pregnant and my system is such that I sometimes get pregnant without knowing, so I did not want to take chances. 

  I wrote in my last post about taking Grape seed extract for melasma and then being pleasantly surprised that my tinnitus stopped. I was puzzled about what could be the relationship between the supplement and tinnitus and decided to do a little research. I have good reasons to suspect that I have pulsatile tinnitus which has nothing to do with the ear but the blood vessels. I found this

"Pulsatile tinnitus is the type of ear noise that is perceived as a rhythmic pulsing that is often in time with the heartbeat. It can be experienced as a thumping or whooshing sound. It is sometimes referred to as vascular tinnitus because in the majority of cases, it is related to disturbances in the blood flow. About 3% of tinnitus patients experience this type of tinnitus. 

Pulsatile tinnitus usually originates within the blood vessels inside the head or neck region when disturbed blood flow occurs. This results from either increased blood flow or a narrowing of the opening of the blood vessel, both of which result in turbulent blood flow that can be heard in the ear."

I feel this explains why taking GSE for just 2 days could relieve my tinnitus. GSE is known to help blood circulation. This also explains why I had low blood pressure.  It was stated in the site, (www.tinnutusformula.com) I found this from that there could be an underlying cause and in rare cases, it could lead to a stroke. I made further search and found that pulsatile tinnitus is more common in young women who are overweight and that losing weight most of the time is enough to take the problem away, completely. I will make an appointment with the ENT again and this time around, I will insist he carries out the necessary tests and discuss with him what I have found out about my tinnitus to be able to help him in helping me. The problem with tinnitus is being able to find out the cause so as to know how to treat it. Now that I believe I have an Idea about the cause, it should be easy for the doctor to understand what the overall problem is and what to do about it. But before I see the doctor, I have made up my mind to have a turnaround today and start eating right and living healthy.

Low blood pressure , obesity and Anaemia

I made a post about my unexplained tiredness after eating sometime ago which I later found out it was due to low blood pressure. As I mentioned in that post, the doctor said its not a disease, just a condition and I just need to make some adjustment to my eating and other regimen to be okay.
   I  decided I would try to lose weight and see if my condition would improve. I have gained about 20kg in 9 years, between the time I was pregnant with my first child and now. I have tried different approach in the past without success. I have a problem staying on a particular diet programme for a long time. I start getting impatient if I don't see results within days...
    Around 3 months ago, I decided to try the popular low carb diet; Atkins. I lost 10 pounds before the end of the 2 week induction. I felt so happy because I had never lost 10 pounds in such a short period of time in the past. I however had to stop after 3 weeks for health reasons. I have been told I had low haemoglobin few months back and was taking Iron supplements. One of the rules of Atkins is not to take any iron supplements, not even the ones added to multivitamin pills. So I figured if my low blood pressure was (partly) due to my being anaemic, staying on a diet that forbids me from taking my iron supplements may make my low B.P. worse. Well, I started eating carbs again after 23 days of clean low carb eating, and of course, my weight crept up again. I went back to the doctor and got another prescription of Iron supplement and started taking it again. For the low blood pressure, the only thing that has worked is drinking a glass of water before my first meal  and if i have not eaten for many hours during the day,  I also drink water before eating. I may try Atkins again in future when I am no longer Anaemic. But for now, I have to find an alternative way of losing weight.

After the Fast...

I made it through the rest of the month without my mystery sickness and did worry so much about it anymore. I just decided it might be low blood sugar as a result of fasting and as long as eating eggs before commencing the fast fixed it, I thought I should just let it go, thinking it will be a thing of the past after the month.

I was wrong! Few weeks after the month of ramadaan, I notice that for some days, whenever I skip breakfast and even if I eat lunch as early as 12.p.m, I get tired like I used to in the month of ramadaan. I still thought it may be blood sugar problems as carbohydrate is always a major part in my meals. I went to the doctor and did all the blood sugar tests. I was so scared and worried for the 2 days I had to wait to get the result. It came out negative, alhamdulillah. The doctor said I did not have diabetes. I was relieved about that news, but was still worried about what ails me, that could not be diagnosed. I even convinced myself there must be a mistake somewhere; maybe they did not get the result right. I decided to start eating like someone who has diabetes, limited carbs, more protein, no more juice, etc as much as I could. I checked out a list of foods allowed for diabetics and shopped for the ones I know I will enjoy and started eating that, hoping for relief...

Well, I did not have any noticeable improvement. Some days, I was okay after eating and some days, I still get dog tired. I started getting depressed. I no longer look forward to mealtimes. And I used to be someone who loves food so much. I read on health forums and other random sites that the solution is to eat more!. To eat 5-7 small meals a day, to never be hungry. Who has time to prepare and eat 5-7 meals a day, especially as a mum of 4 young ones and the fact that I go to tahfeez school in the morning and homeschool my kids in the afternoon. It is easy to forget to eat except at meal times when everyone is eating. Anyways, I went back to my doctor and asked her to tell me what else could be making me tired after eating if I was not diabetic. I explained to her that I sometimes have the symptoms if I had not eaten for some hours too, even though when it stated, it was just after eating. That very day, I went in the morning right after leaving the tahfeez school. Just as the nurse called me in to the doctor's office, I started feeling tired again. So, the doctor asked the nurse to test my blood glucose again, the one they check by getting a drop of blood from the thumb after pricking it with a needle. The result was fine. so she said the nurse should check my BP, and there, I got the answer to what has been making my life uncomfortable for months. My Blood pressure was not normal, not high, but Low!. ya Rabb!. The tiredness was as a result of a sudden drop in blood pressure. I was scared, quickly asking the doctor so many questions about the seriousness of someone's blood pressure being low. She assured me that it is ok, she said it is not a disease, just a condition(yea right). It does not reqiure medication, just some lifestyle changes and healthy eating and living. She told me some things to do like eating salted crackers, salted peanuts, drinking salty water and generally adding more salt to whatever I eat. She also told me to lie down for a few seconds with some pillows under my feet so that more blood can flow to my head.

I was thankful to Allah for being able to find out what was wrong with me, and to know its not as bad as I had feared. I know that low BP could be dangerous too, especially if it falls too low, but the fact that I had feared the worse made the news more acceptable to me. Most of my friends have high BP and have to take meds daily. So being told I do not have dibetes or high BP or even some form of cancer but just low BP was a welcome relief to me. Sometimes, I still feel guilty that I must have brought it on myself by my yoyo dieting and most of the time, not eating well, because I was concerned about my weight. Another reason I suspect I got to have low blood pressure is because I was busy trying to be smart by half. I am very much into holistic medicine and being surrounded by loved ones who have high blood pressure including my mum, I felt the need to take measures to prevent myself from developing the disease. So I used to drink Apple cider vinegar which is known for its amazing ability to lower BP., even though it has a number of other health benefits. I did not stop there, I was adding less salt to my cooking and also stopped using food additives that has MSG, especially maggi cubes among other things. I was practically living like someone who has been diagnosed of high BP already. This is a big lesson to me and others. Even though prevention is said to be better than cure, one still needs to err on the side of caution so as not to invite one ailment while trying so hard to prevent another.

I have been mostly okay after I started following the doctor's instruction and I am indeed Thankful to Allah for everything and pray that I am not tested with that which I cannot bear.