Weight Loss Success - Finally!!!

Okay - for anyone whose read further back in my Blog, you know that I have struggled with my weight for the past 5 or 6 years, since I came off stimulant medication and hit mid life at the same time and had a serious weight gain because of those two things. You also know from "My ADHD Journey" post that I have tried everything to lose that weight and have never been able to lose more than about 10 pounds.

Until now. In the past 2 months I have lost 22.5 pounds, 20 inches (including 4 inches off my waist, 4 inches off my hips and 2 inches off each thigh, which is significant as I am pear shape and that's where I most need to lose inches) and have gone from a size 16 to a size 12. I still have about 20 to 24 pounds to lose and want to get to a size 10 (or even size 8 like I was 7 years ago) and I am confident that will happen now as I finally found something that really works!!! So I want to share it with you here in case anyone can benefit from this info.

For 10 years I have been following an online health website (www.mercola.com) by a naturopath doctor named Dr. Joseph Mercola and I receive his newsletter. He researches health information and also has an online health store (he doesn’t manufacture his own products, just researches, endorses and sells other companies products that support his theories for living healthy). His health info has always been spot on and follows my own theories and beliefs about eating healthy and preventing illness.

For years he has been against diet or fat burning supplements – he promotes weight loss through eating whole and natural, eliminating grains and sugars, exercising, getting adequate sleep and reducing stress, and felt that diet supplements or fat burners were ineffective or unhealthy and a waste of money. But about 4 or 5 months ago he stated that he just can’t ignore the research and proof that extracts from brown marine vegetables and pomegranate seed oil really do increase metabolism and burn fat – especially for people whose metabolism has slowed down due to the aging process and need something in addition to healthy diet and exercise. He found that one product, called fucoTHIN, combines these two extracts and has powerful research and proof that it really does increase metabolism, burn fat and promote weight loss -it is thermogenic but non-stimulant so it doesn't cause racing heart or the jitters. Dr. Mercola started selling it on his site for a reasonable cost (it works out to around $35.00 US/month if you order in a 3 pack to save shipping). As I trust his info and have ordered products from him before and they’ve always been top notch, I figured I’d try it and I started taking it July 1st. I continue to be amazed with it as my clothes feel looser every day!

I have also modified my eating habits a lot and follow a modified low carb and low calorie plan – it’s basically lean low carb (lean protein, lots of low starch veggies, a few eggs, very little dairy, no starches like grains, sugars, corn, rice, potatoes etc.) and do a fair amount of walking. But I have done both of those things (with even way more exercising) in the past and never lost weight like this before – so I really think it is primarily the fucoTHIN that is really helping me finally lose weight this time.

So here is the web info and ordering information:

http://www.mercola.com/products/fucothin

Hopefully this can help others the way it's helped me!

Life in the Slow Lane - Time to Deal with Some ADHD Problem Issues

Well for the past few weeks there's been not much going on in my life. We had our fundraising concert with my band, The Late Boomers, on July 6th - it went really well and was a great concert, but now that band is on hiatus as one of the key members is a university professor and is now out of the country on Sabbatical for a year. My other band, Tin Pan Alley is waiting for our drummer to return from finishing rebuilding his cabin at Waskesiu that suffered major water damage over the winter, so it's also somewhat on hold. And there's a bit of a gap in my cake business right now as well - most people I've been doing cakes for seem to have birthdays or events in the first half of the year, so except for referrals that come up, I don't have any scheduled cakes right now until October. I've gone from insanely busy (see my last post) to almost nothing going on outside of work.

So I am taking this time to explore some solutions to productivity issues I'm having at work. The Wellbutrin helps - since I went back on it December my productivity and focus has been better, but I still don't process complex tasks as fast as the others in my department and I find distractions are very hard to refocus from after they happen. Also, when there's high volume and stress (which there's been a lot of lately because of short staffing due to holidays or illness) I get overwhelmed and shut down.

I had some long discussions and meetings with management in the past couple of weeks about my productivity and ended up telling them about my ADHD. I haven't told them until now as I was trying to find other solutions to keep up on my own, and most ADHD forums I belong to talk at length about the pros and cons of telling an employer as it could go either way and backfire. Either management or other employees think you are using it as an excuse, if management makes concessions (lower workload or less distractions) the other employees resent you for getting special treatment, some employers or co-workers who don't understand ADHD write you off as retarded or stupid and some companies just don't even want to deal with it and find ways within the law to fire or demote ADHD employees. It was a scary decision, and I still feel I am in new and uncharted waters.

My manager was somewhat understanding - he said it makes sense in a way because he was puzzled that someone with my education, knowledge and years of experience was having such trouble keeping up with the workload that the other underwriters are handling with no problem. He showed compassion and said my company is committed to helping employees reach their full potential, so he and the VP of Human Resources want to learn all they can about the disorder and see if there's any programs of tools they can get to help me. That's cool!!!

I've been doing more research myself since this all went down and I have been researching cognitive nuerotherapy type brain exercises (like the Brain Gym or the Dore (DDAT) Method) that use specific brain exercises and activities to reprogram how the brain works and can even regrow pathways in the brain and in essence fix the wiring of (or rewire) the ADHD brain. Dr. Hallowell and other leading ADHD experts have really endorsed these programs and witnessed or documented amazing results with them. The problem for those two programs is: 1) both programs are really expensive ($5000 plus) and 2) both have to be done in a office/clinic with a trained practitioner and there are no clinics or practitioners in my city. There is a Brain Gym practitioner in Regina, about a 2 1/2 hours drive south of me, but as the program requires weekly or bi-weekly visits for many months, that would be a lot of time and cost to travel, in addition to the high cost of the program itself. So it's just not feasible for me.

I kept researching and found a program called SharperBrain, developed by a Toronto doctor for ADHD as well as brain damage patients that is a comprehensive series of exercises done on a computer that retrains the brain using cognitive neurotherapy. He's got many years of peer reviewed research documenting amazing successes with ADHD children and adults. Being a computer program there are are no office visits needed, it can all be done at home in half hour sessions 3 to 5 times weekly and it is a fraction of the cost of the other two programs.

So I've ordered the program, it should be here in couple of days and I will start that as soon I as I get it and install it on my laptop. If I could rewire or reprogram my brain to focus better, reduce distractability, have better (faster) cognitive abilities to do complex tasks and be more organized and on top of things (all things this program has helped others with and what it was designed to do) then this could change my life! (I'm hoping...)

I will post updates here as I progress through the program. If it really works and can improve my brain, it's definitely something to write about in my upcoming ADHD book and it may even help me to complete that ongoing project/dream of writing and publishing a book.

So stay tuned for this continuing saga - this could be a turning point!

Crystal

Almost Too Busy to Breathe!!!

Wow - the past few months have been a blur!!!

I finished teaching the Insurance Institute class, my students passed and did very well and I got good reviews on my evaluation sheets.

The band that started as the New Years Eve Gala band has come into it's own and we are now called The Late Boomers - see our website at: http://www4.webng.com/lateboomers/ . We are having a Coffee House Fundraiser for the Bridge on 20th Street on July 6th, 2007, all the details are on the website, so if you're in Saskatoon reading this prior to July 6th, 2007 - come on down and hear us play! We do an eclectic mix of cover tunes from the 60's to the 90's and even throw in an original now and then (we also play my song Good Life for which this blog was named!).

I am decorating cakes like crazy- sometimes 4 or 5 in a week, it's a great deal of fun and I am enjoying it immensely. If I ever won the lottery and didn't have to work full time, I think I'd just build a commercial kitchen in my house and make cakes all day! But, alas, I do have to work full time at a very busy, demanding career which is also very stimulating and mostly enjoyable (if at times very stressful).

My other band, Tin Pan Alley, is starting to go strong again after a 2 year hiatus - we now have a drummer/percussionist and are very close to getting a bass player. We are going to set up some gigs over the summer and I will post them here. I also got an awesome saxophone - I bought a vintage silver plated 1923 Buescher Alto Saxophone and completely restored it - it looks beautiful and it has a tone and sound quality that beats out any modern saxophone (in my humble opinion as well as many other sax players).

It's now 93 sleeps to the next cruise - this time we're cruising the Panama Canal from LA to Miami for 15 days, so I'm looking forward to that.

So that's the new stuff, busy as always and loving it all!

Some New Passions and Some Old Passions Make Life Busier Than Ever Before!!!

Well, the past few months have been an absolute blur - I don't think I've ever been this busy (for such a prolonged period of time) in my life. I think the meds are helping me to focus, keep track of more things and to do everything I've always wanted to, and I seem to be making up for lost time.

First of all, I mentioned in a previous post that I was asked to teach night school for the Insurance Institute (the organization that oversees the Chartered Insurance Professional program which is the designation I got last year) and started that in January. I kind of always thought I'd like to teach - but I don't just like it - I LOVE IT!!! It's fun to help adults in my industry learn insurance concepts and theories. When someone is struggling with a difficult concept (like co-insurance) and we work together through many examples and different ways of explaining it and the light finally goes on and they get it - that's the greatest feeling and very rewarding. I try to make my classes fun, interesting and really make my students think, and while it's a lot of work (I figure I spend an average 10 - 15+ hours per week (the majority of my weekends) on my lesson plans, flip charts, quizzes, exercises and home assignments), it's also amazingly fun and rewarding. In fact my students seem to love me - several of them started a mission to get me to teach another class from the end of April to the end of June that they want to take and the Institute agreed to add it with me teaching if we get 5 students registered by April 20th (we have 3 now...). Before this came about I was looking forward to some time off (what is TV anyways and are there non-insurance books to read?!), but if this goes ahead I'll do it and just wait til July to rest over the summer.

In addition to that, other passions or interests in my life have resurfaced and become too much fun to give up. I used to decorate cakes for many years (I started when I was 12) and quit for about 8 years because I had tendonitis in my wrist and my wrist was fried. Well my wrist has definitely healed in that past 8 plus years, plus I find magnetic bracelets and FAR infrared wrist bands really help me do lots of other crafts and writing, so I was asked to decorate a very basic cake back in late October and discovered how much I missed it. So in November I started building up my cake decorating tools and supplies (I sold a lot of them when I quit before) and decorated an elaborate cake for a wedding reception in early December. Wow - I love decorating cakes!!!! Now it's like I'm making up for the 8 years lost - I've decorated 7 cakes this year already and I have 4 more in the next week alone!!! I work in a company with 50 employees, so almost every week there is a birthday, promotion, farewell or other event, and now those employees are paying me to do cakes for relatives and friends. My new side business - Crystal's Custom Cake Creations - is officially launched and I am having the time of my life dreaming up unique cake ideas and bringing them to life. I am trying to set up some kind of basic (hopefully free) website to display my cakes, and when I get that figured out, I'll post the link here.

As if all of that isn't enough, musically things are taking off too. I am in an Easter choir at church, the band that I was in for the New Year's Gala (see previous posts) is doing a reprise of that music for a special church service on April 15, and my original band - Tin Pan Alley - has started up again with new life. Tin Pan Alley has been on hiatus for a few years as my husband and I - the core duo of TPA - couldn't seem to find any other members (we need drums and bass). Well we met a really cool percussionist in the past year who we started practicing with and he wants to join, and we just need to find a bass player and then we want to really get practicing to get gigs this summer and get playing regularly again. So in addition to teaching and decorating cakes, I have practices for something music related at least 2 or 3 times a week. until Easter or the week after. (And believe it or not I do manage to sleep at least 7 hours a night, work full time and sing and/or do sound in church!)

So that's my busier than ever life, but as long as I don't burn out I'm having the time of my life and getting more success stories for my ADHD book whenever I do get it written.

I'll post more when I come up for air again..........

Wellbutrin - Take 2

Well, about 5 weeks ago I had my visit with a psychiatrist to see if there were new drugs I could try to get more focus and help my brain chemistry so I could deal more effectively with the issues in my life that I can't seem to get in control of. He was convinced that if I didn't have good results and/or side effects with Dexadrine before, then Adderall would not be a good choice, and he said that probably Ritalin or Concerta would not work well either. To prove his point he put me on 20mg of Ritalin, waited a few hours and made me take a concentration and focus test that I had previously taken to see if there was any improvement. Well not only was there little of no improvement, I felt very spacey and out of sorts, so much so that when I left the psychiatrists office I proceeded to start my car and then get out to scrape the snow off my window and locked my keys in the car with the car running! It took an hour and half of waiting in the -15 C snowy and windy weather for a tow truck to come, and besides almost freezing I lost 1/4 tank of gas! It's embarrasing but funny to be leaving a psychiatrist's office for ADHD treatment and have to go back into that office to use the phone because you've pulled a classic ADHD stunt like locking your keys in the car with the car running and your spare key is in the pocket of another coat! And that was while on 20mg of Ritalin!!! I think that proved Ritalin or Concerta is not for me!

So after much talk about what did work before, we revisited the subject of Wellbutrin - the only drug that worked amazingly for my ADHD, but as I gained about 35 pounds within the first month of being on it, I thought it made me gain weight and I eventually came off of it. He said it's very rare that Wellbutrin causes serious weight gain like that and we discussed other reasons why I might have gained weight. The previous four years to being on Wellbutrin I was on stimulant medication, either Ephedra or Dexadrine, and he said that coming off stimulant medication can cause a profound rebound weight gain even if you don't change your eating habits or activity level. This is significant, because my previous Doctor kept saying things like "you must be eating more now that you're off the stimulants and don't have the appetite suppressant" or "you're probably less active" and I kept telling him I didn't change a thing in how I ate or my activity level, so it had to be the Wellbutrin that made me gain the weight. If my former Doctor had told me about rebound weight gain from coming off the stimulant meds even without eating more or excercising less, we'd have had the answer and I wouldn't have blamed the Wellbutrin for making me gain weight. The psyciatrist also made another significant point - if the Wellbutin had made me gain weight, it was reasonable and logical that I would have lost the weight once I stopped taking it, and I never have. I was off Wellbutrin for 4 years, and despite very healthy careful eating and tons of excercise, I couldn't lose more than about 10 pounds.

After this discussion, the psyciatrist said "but you probably hate Wellbutrin like the plaugue if you feel it caused you to gain weight". I said I didn't hate it neccessarily, I was scared of it causing me to gain weight, but it did work amazingly well, his theories about other factors causing weight gain made sense, and if there was a chance it wouldn't make me gain weight then I'd be more than willing to try Wellbutrin again. So we decided to monitor my weight carefully and try Wellbutrin again.

I started Wellbutrin on December 17th, and I noticed the improvement almost within a day - it's like night and day difference for my brain. I can focus for long periods of time and I'm not so easily distracted. I get far more files off my desk in an average workday. I'm less compulsive and can control my spending and eating far better. I can even do moderation - instead of all or nothing when it comes to things like sugar and chocolate, I can make rules and stick to them like a normal sane person (if I'm going to have sugar it must contain chocolate, I can't buy it for myself (just when given or offered), and I can have only one item from any given plate or box of chocolate items and that's it, no more.) Before if I had one item of sugar or chocolate I would eat handfuls or the whole box or plate, or it would start a binge that led me to buying more and seriously overdosing on sugar/chocolate, so moderation is an amazing accomplishment. And the best and most amazing thing of all - in the past 4 weeks on Wellbutrin, even with small amounts of chocolate and controlled indulgences over the Christmas season - I've actually lost 4 pounds!!!! So it's definitely not making me gain any weight!!!!! Yippee!!!

Now I feel confident to start to tackle some of my issues like chronic disorganization and dig myself out of years of problems that has caused, as well as deal with some of the self esteem and other emotional issues from years of failure. It can only get better!

I'm also ready to start working on my book again. I'm going to a huge music and arts conference in Edmonton in a few weeks (Breakforth) and the electives and intensive workshops I've signed up for are all creative writing, so I hope to learn tools and inspiration that help me with progressing on my book. I may not be able to do alot on my book in the next 12 weeks due to my teaching job (see previous post) as I need to put lots of work and preparation into that, but I will do bits and pieces on the book and be ready to really start working on it once I finish my teaching assignment. With the help and focus I get from the Wellbutrin I know it will all start to come together - I have a long ways to go, but I am very hopeful and optomistic that I will get there!

Life is good!!!

The Student is Becoming a Teacher and Singing Alot

Well, I had my official CIP (Chartered Insurance Professional) Convocation (Graduation) Ceremony last week so now I've officially graduated and I have my Diploma!!! It was a fun event - the food was excellent (almost as good as cruise food) and they really made us feel special, like we'd accomplished something (!) So now I have the official framed piece of paper and for me that was one expensive piece of paper both in terms of money and work!

Now I am moving to a new phase - from Student to Teacher. I had always thought it would be good to give back to the industry and help other students, and for many years I proctored CAIB (Canadian Accredited Insurance Broker - the other designation I hold) Exams. About a year and a half ago I mentioned this to a co-worker who was on the board of the Insurance Institute of Saskatchewan (that runs the CIP program) and she said they have enough proctors - what they really need is instructors for the night school courses of the CIP program, would I consider teaching when I got my CIP designation? At the time it sounded like a cool idea, so I said yes - thinking it would be a while after I got my CIP before they asked me. Well - a few weeks ago they asked me, and provided the class I'm now scheduled to teach gets at least 5 students registered by December 15th - I will be teaching in January!!! I am excited and scared all at the same time. I have done alot of training one on one, and done the odd small group presentation, but I have never formally "taught" a class - so it's a great unknown and a learning curve for me. I think I can do it - people who I've trained one on one have said I was a good teacher/trainer - it's just the formal 12 week group setting (including making lesson plans, writing and marking my own quizzes and midterm exam (!)) that scares me. It's a stretch, and being stretched sometimes hurts or is uncomfortable, but it's the only way to grow, so I'll do it!

I am also doing alot of singing - I have been asked to sing in a band that will play at a New Years Eve Gala formal event and it is a great experience. The other singers and musicians are all very talented and fun and I really love the music we will be doing. In addition to that I am singing in an ensemble at church for Christmas - it's a more formal "chior" type of setting and that is fun to be a part of as well.

So between a very busy, high stress job, reading teacher training manuals and reviewing the material I will be teaching, practicing and learning about 17 songs (15 or so for the Gala band and 2 for the ensemble) and all the usual Christmas involvments and activities - it's a more full life than usual. But then I'd be bored with anything less, so I'm not complaining.

I am also endeavoring to read several ADHD books I just picked up in the last month, to continue my research and learning in this area. This is to help myself get a leg up on the problem areas in my life (procrastination, chronic disorganization, inconsitency in focus, compulsive spending and eating, etc.) as well as for the ongoing research for my book. I am so frustrated in these problem areas that I have an appointment with a Psyciatrist in a few weeks - both to work through the issues and to maybe again look at ADHD medications. There are new drugs out since the last time I tried them and had bad side effects (or no effects at all), so maybe something out there would work to keep the dopamine levels in my brain steady without any nasty side effects or other health problems. I'm willing to try that road again.

Anyways, thats life as it stands right now - fun, busy and a roller coaster as always!

ALOHA!!! - What An Awesome Vacation!

Well, I am back from my Hawaiian Cruise Adventure with my Mom, and we had a fantastic time! We did so many things and went at such high speed like there was no tommorow that we needed to come back to have a vacation from our vacation!!!

We sailed out of Vancouver headed for Hawaii at sunset on Sunday, September 17. Our first full day and a half at sea were really rough - we heard later there was a hurricane down in Mexico that we caught the tail end of. We didn't get really seasick (like a lot of our fellow passengers), but we were both woosy and nasueated, and even slept most of the afternoon on that first full day. Thankfully it calmed down around mid day on the second full day at sea and it was smooth sailing after that. The weather got warmer as we headed further south, and we spent more time outside, especially once the wind and waves calmed down.

The food was amazing (as always) and there were awesome craft classes on the cruise. We made floral leis (with real fresh green and purple orchids), kukui nut necklaces (I even bought several kits and made them in several other colors than the ones in class and also made earrings and bracelets), woven ribbon leis and beaded bandanas for western night (there really are Hawaiian cowboys!).

The enterainment was excellent - we saw a comedian and not only was he pretty good as far as language and subject matter (very little off color or risque humor) but he was hilarious and had us laughing til we almost fell out of our chairs. Lots of great entertainers and dancing shows as well as a singer that did great imitations - he said he would be doing a Neil Diamond tribute (among other singers) at a later show, but then he didn't do Neil so I was disappointed :).

I auditioned for and got in the Talent Show - it's now called "Star Seeker" (sort of an Idol knockoff) and based on audience reaction and judges response, you can win a trophy and the videotape of the winner is sent to NCL Headquarters in Miami and there is a chance to win a free cruise!!!! I sang an Amanda Marshall song (Believe in You) and did my best as I really wanted to win not only to the trophy but also the free cruise for me and Mom. There were 3 singers and 5 stand up comedians in the talent show, and although I did well, one of the comedians won. It's apples to oranges to compare comedy to singing, but maybe they are looking more for comedians than singers for being entertainment on a free cruise. Oh well, it was still fun and everyone who participated got a really nice tote bag full of goodies.

After 5 fun filled days at sea, we arrived in Hilo, Hawaii (Big Island). There we went on a wonderful 6 1/2 hour bus tour in and saw a waterfall, a volcano museum and learned all about volcanoes (I walked on a lava flow!), went to the Mona Loau Macadamia nut factory and had wonderful samples (and bought lots to bring back and share), and then went to the Noni Mau botanical gardens. Then we sailed to Kahaliu, Maui and went shopping during the day and in the evening went to a Luau at a beach 45 minutes from the ship (Kaanapali) and it was amazing - awesome sunset, food and polynesian dancing. We even bought really nice Muu Muu dresses so we looked the part!

The next day we rode in a tender (*fun* little boats that rock as you get into them and Mom almost fell in the water!) to get to Lahaina, Maui and went shopping till we dropped. After that was Kona, Hawaii (Big Island) (also by tender) where we did more shopping. We finished the cruise in Honolulu, then we had a 3 night stay at the Mirimar Hotel at Wakiki, shopped the International Marketplace, swam in the ocean at Wakiki Beach and went to the Polynesian Culture Center and Pearl Harbor before flying back to Vancouver to spend a few days with relatives.

All in all it was a fantastic trip and probably the best vacation I've ever had - but then I've come home from every cruise I've been on (this one was number 5) and said the same thing!!!

Now it's time to get back to real life and keep researching and writing my book!

Aloha!!!!!