Thank you very much for taking an interest, folks. Being one who checks the About pages on all new blogs I find, I thought you might wanna know something about me *s*.

General history

My online nick name is Lorien, a name I picked from Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Though it's not my real name, it is my "real" name on the net, because since I'd adopted it some ten years ago, my whole life had changed. There's a Jewish belief that people can change their luck by changing their names. I'd changed mine - online - and my whole life had a surprisingly wonderful huge turn for the better. So... for you... I am Lorien.

I was born in Israel on October 3rd, 1959, and had lived there for the first 39 years of my life. Then, on June 1997, I've met Joe on the Internet, and we'd become the best online buddies. We've met in the real world On May 1998, and almost a year later (on March 24, 1999) I've moved to Calgary, Alberta,Canada to be with him. Joe and I got married on December 19, 1999. I have 3 step kids (Joe's kids from his first marriage). 2 of them are already married, and we have a (step) grandson.

I left my country simply because I wanted - and needed - to be with Joe. I left my family, home, friends, my past, took my memories with me, and the blessing of those who love me, and moved half the globe away. Admittedly, this major change I've made in my life brought me the happiest moments, alongside with some negatives affects as well. It's not easy to uproot oneself from a known comfortable life and start all over again in a foreign country. Though I love my new hometown and province to pieces, I still try sometimes to figure out what's my place in my new surroundings... and that's not an easy task.

Changing to a healthy lifestyle - The first round

Dancing towards a healthy lifestyle was the place on the net where I've shared round one of my journey towards a healthy lifestyle. I've been battling with overweight since I was 9 years old, and had been dieting every few years (Yeap, I'm the famous accordion *s*). I've started my journey on February 25th, 2002 (I was 42.5 years old then), carrying 213.4 lb (96.8 kg) on my frame. My main goal was to keep my high blood pressure (180/110 at the time) down to normal levels without any pills. My goal weight was to go down to 132 lbs (60 kg).

The diet plan I was following at the time was the one by Dr. Peter D'Adamo called The Blood Type Diet. Dr. D'Adamo claims (on 30 years research base) that each one of the four blood type groups members should eat what's best for their body, and that the blood type makes a difference in how the body digests different foods and fights illnesses.

I have blood type "A", which means I should follow the recommendation to become full vegetarian. At that point I gave up red meat, but continued eating chicken, turkey and fish. Most of my protein intake came from soy products. Other than that, I ate lots of veggies and fruit (which I love very much), minimum dairy products, and no "white bad carbs" products.

My workout regime went something like that: In winter, I tried to workout at least 5 times a week in the gym. I did cardio on bikes, treadmill and elliptical for at least 60 minutes, sometimes more. The rest of the time I worked on the weights machines. In summer I tried to workout outside as much as the weather permitted. I did bike rides, walks and canoeing.

It was a long and tedious round one, but I can't deny I've managed to achieve some of my goals. At the beginning of March 2003 I've been off any kind of pills, and my blood pressure levels stayed on an average of 120/75 most of the time.

I've reached my lowest weight of 149.8 lb on October 2003, and in the next few months my weight moved up and down without really going anywhere. Around the end of June 2004 I totally gave up on it all, and decided to close my weblog. At that time, I was somewhere under 160 lbs (72.6 kg).

Changing to a healthy lifestyle - The second (present) round

So... What made this elusive need for a change surf at this time?

On May/June 2006 I took a visit trip to Israel. I had the greatest time with my family and friends, but also a very stressful time with my dad, who has Alzheimer's for the last 13 years. While there, my dad went through a hip surgery, an ordeal which put my mom, brother and myself on an edge filled with worries and sorrow.

After coming back home I had some hard time readjusting - yet again - to life without my family close by, plus I've found out my blood pressure went sky high - yet again - and needed to be taken care of pronto, with pills. For a while I felt quite depressed and down, without really knowing how to pull myself up and out of it all.

Sometime around October 2006 I came upon the RealAge site (I think it was few weeks before the first time I've watched Dr. Oz on Oprah, talking about his new book YOU: On a Diet). After reading a bit around the site, I've decided to take The RealAge test... and I got the slap of the year: My test results said my real age was 61! yeap, never mind I was 47... according to this test, my real age was 61!

Seeing that ridiculous test result in front of my eyes had become a turning point in my mind. Though shocked, I wasn't really surprised. I did feel old and empty for a while, with no idea what I was to do from there. The sharp-stab-in-the-ego test result pushed me to do lots of thinking... then reading... then thinking some more...

"Girl, you're going to be 50 in 3 years", I thought. "At that time, you'll be probably entering menopause, and then try to shape up and lose weight. You know very well that losing weight has become harder and harder for you with each passing year, so... what are you going to do about that???".

But that wasn't all that went through my mind. I knew I had to get rid of another nasty habit of mine - smoking (Yea, guilty as hell), get control of my high blood pressure, start eating healthy again, start working out again, get enough sleep, drink enough water, get rid of an unhealthy and unnecessary stress in my life, try and reach out more to people, try to become the best possible me I can be...

Lots of neglected work to be done - three years to do it. That's the shape and time frame things have taken in my mind... and I started walking a new path... on November 7, 2006. This is the written testimony of it.

More to come as this new adventure progresses.

»»»»»»»»»

« Back to main page »