Back in saddle again

Hello Folks! It's back at it again to the health portion of this blog. I took a bit of a detour with my leg and our trip to San Francisco, Portland and back to good old SLC.

UPDATE: I was not diagnosed with DVT which is really bad and people suffer with clots. I however have deep varicose veins that we can not see, like the spider veins and such. So basically I was wrapped with this medical tape and such and then pantyhose to help reduce the soreness, redness and swelling. I will be wearing compression socks from now on to keep my legs healthy and live a good life. I am a bit worried about the socks though. The above picture is of my leg and the cat is Nala in the which she loves getting petted with my foot for some odd reason.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

RYAN'S weight is officially 388 and has lost 44 lbs since this journey started. Today I lost another 9 lbs. as well!!
Linda lost 7 lbs recently and all together 20 lbs down!!! GO LINDA!!!

Team Pilkington "Pickle" combine weight loss is 64 lbs. (OH, YEAH!)

I have been thinking lately that this blog does not share some of the hugest trials we have had to overcome to get to this point. First of all I am a HUGE milk drinker and cheese is my best buddy (Besides Linda, Bella, Nala and etc.) This new lifestyle requires us to give up a lot of our favorites. For me it is the chips, burgers, pizzas (Marcos), subs, Italian.. oh, sweet italian food. Steak, pork and breads.

You might be saying, what the crap is there left to eat. For Linda it is ice cream, chocolate, desserts, and most baking stuff. Which for her is huge as well, she loves baking and is darn good at it. We have had to do some detox days that require us to drink nothing but Water, Pure Squeezed Lemons, and Pure Maple Syrup. These detoxing days push your mind, soul and body to the test. We have had to invest in groceries that basically we are flying blind on what we can have and what we can not have. We try and figure that if it has sugar, and is has lots of the bad fats that we should stay away from it.

The problem is, we are foodies and we love to try new restaurants and new dining experiences. We have literally stopped going out for the most part. The secret has been a few things; support of doctors and those trained on things, our weekly sessions at the chiropractor and the drive to feel healthy once again and not bogged down with being overweight.

On our trip we stopped on our anniversary just about 1 hour out from San Francisco at Jack in the box. We were tired of driving and needed a bit of a break. So we decided, oh why dont we have a nice juicy burger here. It was very good and was so tasty.. it was magical moment for sure eating a burger after months of not having one. However, the ride into the San Fran we were starting to feel a bit sick. The burger and grease really made us sick to our stomachs and we should have not done that.  But it did teach me a big lesson. The world around us seems to think us Americans are dumb and feed us crap and these foods that we think are great are actually killing us. Now, I will do my best to eat italian in the coming months and years again, but it will be in moderation, and a bit of education on how we approach it. With vegan menus, vegetarian recipes and organic health stores there is a bit of hope. I suggest Pinterest and instagram and look up these items along with Canadida diet. There are some great alternatives that taste just as good and good for you. Yes, I have replaced my Milk with Almond Milk and the cheese for avocado and hummus.

Again we want to thank all of you for reading this, following our journey and maybe learning along the way. Have a great day until next time.