Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Weight Loss Challenge: One Month Down


Hi Everyone,
I am sorry it has been so long since I updated you on the weight loss challenge. I have been really busy with all of my work here. Plus, I wanted to wait to update you because, as expected, Semana Santa (Easter Week) was a disaster! A lot of the participants gained weight during the two week festivities of Semana Santa. In the Dominican Republic, Semana Santa is a time when all the family members come home to the campo, everyone goes to the beach, everyone drinks, and eats habichuelas con dulce (Dominican treat- sweet beans). Anyways, I looked up the calorie content of habichuelas con dulce because I was curious to see if the treat was really the problem or if it was just the all around feasting/party attitude. I am sure that it was a little of both, but I thought that I had prepared them really well going into the week. I found out that a 12 oz cup of habichuelas con dulce averages about 500 calories, although recipes vary a little. Now the problem with this is that they don’t just eat one cup… each family makes a giant vat and drinks it all day every day. Anyways, we had a few bad weight loss weeks (but really fun on the other hand). I was really nervous that after a few participants gained weight they would be discouraged and quit the program so we did a lot of motivational activities, and I made some of the stronger group members be mentors to some of the weaker group members. It worked really well, and we had no drop outs after Semana Santa!!!! We did have two drop outs for other reasons (moving and sick family member), but none due to weight gain or discouragement. In fact, we even had a few more people join the group. We now have 21 participants, and I have closed the group off for the time being. I would like to let everyone join who wants to, but it is way too difficult for me to have individual meetings with the 21 I have right now (plus all of my other work!). 

Review of Month 1:
The first month of the weight loss challenge has been a success. Like I said we had a few rough weeks, but overall all of the participants have lost weight, gained confidence, learned a lot, and made healthy lifestyle changes. I think the most important change I have seen is the boost in confidence. A majority of the participants are women, and in a lot of their homes the men have all of the control (or so they think). I have seen the women really step up and take control of their diet and exercise, and I have seen a huge difference in their attitudes, especially in the individual meetings. I think they are enjoying the realization that this is one aspect of their life in which they have total control. Plus, the boost in energy and confidence that comes along with living a healthy lifestyle and loosing weight never hurt anyone!

We continued the whole first month following the same format of two meetings a week per participant. One individual meeting where we get the personal stats (weight, % body fat, blood pressure, blood glucose, body measurements etc. ), talk about the ups and downs of the week, review their food and exercise journal, and make a plan for the next week. We then have one meeting as a group. The group meeting is set up like a support group. We spend time sharing success and failure stories and celebrate the people who lost weight (the person who loses the most according to % pounds lost gets a healthy prize).

In the group meetings we also have a small lecture every week. This month we discussed the emotional, spiritual, and physical aspects of weight loss, how to change negative thoughts into positive thoughts, how to eat healthy during parties and holidays, choosing healthy snacks over high carb high sodium snacks, how to substitute with vegetables, the importance of exercise, different exercise methods and how they affect your body, how to take your pulse, your heart rate and what it means, how to make small daily changes that will result in long term results, the importance of moral support, what does “metabolism” mean, how to we increase our metabolism via exercise and diet, etc. I think the most exciting mini-lecture for me was the one about how to take your pulse and what your heart rate means. I can never exercise in this country without someone telling me to rest because my heart will explode. I just always say okay and kept going… but when I started encountering this with my women during exercise classes it started to bother me. In the beginning we would speed walk for 2 minutes to warm up, and people would be telling me that they needed to rest so their heart didn’t explode or so they didn’t start sweating (ps I did medical histories with everyone and nobody has any condition that should inhibit them from walking for 2 mins FYI). Anyways, we calculated each persons Max heart rate, and they all know what it is and how to do it. I love it because when people tell me they need to rest after doing basically nothing we just take their pulse together and keep on going. Later on in the workout when we are actually working hard I have to let them rest, but at least I don’t have people pooping out after the warm up anymore.

The last thing we do in the group meeting is exercise! Depending on how long the meeting lasts we do anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour of exercise. The participants really enjoy doing circuit style training so we have been doing that a lot. We go to the park and I split them up into groups of two. I usually have about 5 stations set up, and they rotate through the stations in 2 minute intervals (this changes weekly depending on the types of exercises). It has been going really well, and the women actually work hard now! They sweat and everything! I think the “heart rate lecture” and the “how many calories do you burn in each type of exercise” lecture really convinced them that they need to work harder J

One of the largest hurdles for the group has been water intake. There is a place in their food and exercise journal to circle a number every time they drink a glass of water. In the beginning I was noticing they were only drinking an average of 3 glasses of water a day (and we live in the Caribbean!!!). In the individual meetings we discussed reasons why they were not drinking more water and why it is important do drink a lot of water. A lot of them asked me how I managed to drink so much water and I explained to them that I always carry my Nalgene with me. A lot of them started carrying around disposable plastic bottles with water to try to up their water intake. Anyways, I decided to buy them all reusable plastic water bottles so they can bring them to the exercise classes and hopefully carry them around so they drink more water.

Below are the group stats from month 1. If anyone is interested in individual stats let me know. I have them all in an excel spreadsheet so I can easily send them out (without names of course). I also have more body measurements (chest, arm, hips etc) , BP and blood glucose. I am just giving you the most important stats below J

Month 1 Group Stats:
Pounds lost: 106
Average pounds lost per participant per week: 1.5
% body fat lost: 24.6%
Average % body fat lost per participant: 1.64%
Average inches lost in waist per participant: 1.13

**Note: Not all stats include all participants due to the fact that some of them just recently started. 



I finally got them to run!!!!!!!!!!

Working out in rolos.




These are the water bottles everyone received. 

Saturday, April 6, 2013

chicken in a bed. deuce in a bag.

Hiiiii my peeps. I have two funny peace corps stories for y'all. Get excited :)

Now those of you that have been reading my blog know that I have a serious chicken problem. I share a plot of land with two other families, and they have TONS of chickens. Now this wouldn't be an huge issue except for the fact that when the chickens have little baby chicklets they turn into crazy-mutant-angry-hens. Its straight out of a comic book. You take one step in their direction and its BAM chicken in the face. They also really enjoy coming into my house to eat skeeters dog food. If you have ever been stuck between a crazy-mutant-angry-hen and the door you will know how scary this can be. Imagine a chicken in your face screaming, jumping up in the air, scratching at you with its talons, and trying to peck your eyes out with its beak. Crazy ish. Anyways I take it out on them by eating them and their eggs bwahaha. So I guess the moral of the story is Chickens... you can't live with them you can't live without them.
So back to my real story...The other day I was out on my front porch drinking my coffee, reading my email, and sending all the passers by on their way with a good morning. I was out there for a good long while, and then I realized I should probably go change my clothes and attack the crazy weed situation in my front yard (no joke them weeds are on steroids). So I entered my room and... BAM! chicken in the face! It scared the bajezus out of me. Once I came to my senses I realized I needed to get this thing out of my room. This resulted in a five minute battle that could have been straight out of a cartoon. It left me bleeding, and my room a disaster. I took a deep breath and was a about to laugh when I saw it. A beautiful little white gem in my bed... the crazy-mutant- angry-hen laid and egg IN MY BED! gross.

Ok. Before I start story number two let me say.... please do NOT continue reading IF you are grossed out by bowel movements, you are romantically interested in me, or there is a chance you may be romantically interested in me in the future. just saying.

If you were a peace corps volunteer, or you have ever spoken with one, you know that about 80% of our conversations revolve around poop. It is a very natural, very comfortable topic for us which can be awkward when we speak to people from home. So I apologize ahead of time. Now before I tell you my poop story I have to tell you that ever since I got back from Christmas break my community has not had water. I have a tap in my yard that would get water for an hour or two every 5 days. So during that time I would have to fill up a big 50 gallon drum to use for the rest of the week. Well our aqueduct dried up, and they now have to build a new one.... sooooo we haven't had water for over 3 months now. This means that we have to go to the river to collect water, or the wealthier people have dug big holes in their backyards to use as wells. Luckily, I have a latrine so I don't need water to flush (i only need it to bathe, wash dishes, clean my house etc). People who have regular toilets have to flush them by dumping a bucket of water in them at the perfect angle with the exact amount of force. Now the "clinic" (aka empty building) in my community has a regular toilet. I am lucky because I get to hold my meetings there since nobody is using it.... but at the same time, nobody is using it, so there is no water tank or ANY source of water. This usually isn't a problem because I am only there for a couple hours at a time, and I can go to the house next door to use the restroom if I need to. Well, the other day I was there for a REALLY long time doing the individual consultations with my weight loss program participants. I had a 30 minute break in between participants so I was planning my lecture for the next week when all of a sudden I felt "the drop".... dun dun dun. Now I like to use the term "the drop" when you have had a rumbly tummy for a while, but nothing too crazy, and all of a sudden you feel the plumpfff or "the drop" when whatever craziness inside of you all of a sudden relocates itself right outside of your anal sphincter ... or in other words the " oh sh*%# I need to find a restroom in the next 30 seconds before I explode" moment. Well, it happened. In the clinic. So I ran next door to the latrine... and it was occupied. I knew I wasnt going to make it so I ran, clenching with all my might, back to the clinic. I don't even know what happened next... it was a very stressful time and I don't remember the series of events.... but the end product was a deuce in a plastic bag. I was so shocked, disturbed, whatever you want to call it that I had to sit there (after disposing of the bag of course) and process. I just kept saying "I just shit in a bag. I just shit... IN A BAG" After the initial shock wore off (and a very supportive phone convo with fellow PCV James) I was finally able to laugh about it, and I guess I felt the need to share it with y'all. Im sorry about that haha.

Okay on to serious stuff. We just finished all the Semana Santa (Easter Week) celebrations which include lots of church events, lots of habichuelas con dulce (sweet beans), alcohol (for the men), and trips to the river and beach. Everyone that lives in the cities comes to the campo to visit family and go to the beach which is great for the Dominicans but SUCKS for the peace corps volunteers. Its like the first week in your community all over again. Nobody knows who you are, everyone thinks you know nothing about dominican culture, and they assume you are a lost tourist. Anyways, I took the opportunity to hang out with the kids and explain the american tradition of easter egg hunts. They enjoyed dying the eggs, but they thought I was CRAZY when I tried to explain that a magical bunny comes and hides them in the yard and then all the kids have to go find them. In fact, they thought I was so crazy (even after a few HOURS of explaining it to them and showing them pictures on the internet) that I decided to skip the whole hunt part and just dye the eggs. This worked out okay anyways because the kids ate all the eggs immediately after dying them.... so there wouldn't have been any eggs to hide anyways haha.




My host mom and I making habichuelas con dulce.


Work has been going well. I have been super busy with the Reto de Rebaja (Weight loss challenge). I will be writing a complete update on that shortly. I want to take a few pictures of one of our exercise classes before I write the blog. I am still giving english classes twice a week, working with rural health promoters and teenage peer educators, and still waiting for my grant money to build the clay stoves. If I stay this busy the next 6 months are going to fly by!