When bigger is not better

The wake-up call
Doctor’s visits aren’t always fun. As a child we dread those visits that include immunizations. While some people don’t mind shots, I never met anyone who likes them.

As you grow older you avoid going to the doctor except for those nagging items that you haven’t been able to "get over." Then comes a visit when you feel O.K., but then the doctor sits you down and "tells it like it is."

For me this happened in September of last year. I went to the doctor for two reasons first, I just felt "off," and the second was the belief that although I didn’t feel sick, I hadn’t had a doctor’s visit in a long time and was more than overdue to be checked over.

I had a sinking suspicion that I wouldn’t like the results and procrastinated setting up my follow up visit.

The doctor sat me down and gently warned me about the dangers of my elevated cholesterol, elevated blood pressure and elevated blood sugar. I listened.

This was the basis of my motivation, my desire, the beginning of my journey.

Journey’s beginning

Making the commitment to improve your health is hard, especially when no one else is concerned with following the surgeon general’s recommendations for diet and exercise. I started with little baby steps.

Everyone has the latest greatest recommendations to lose weight. You’ve got hoodia and acia berry. Those are wonder foods that will enable you to lose weight even though you enjoy downing a quart of ice cream every evening. Plus have an added benefit of being 100 percent "natural".

On the other side is the "only way for you to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more" crowd. This advice is not only depressing and non-inspiring; it’s tedious and boring. Where is the middle ground? Anyone can do anything for a short amount of time (and perhaps for a LOT of money or for reality TV shows) but I was interested in a lifetime change, something I could learn and maintain for the rest of my life.

Now that I can look back and compare where I was, to where I am today, I am encouraged to continue. But let me tell you, when you’re in the midst of it, things don’t look so good. I struggled with wanting to see immediate results and sometimes it was hard to keep going. I asked for help, and I’m glad I did. My family and friends were great at encouraging me without making me feel dumb.

Getting on track

First thing I started was watching what I ate. I met with a nutritionist, who recommended a low-carbohydrate diet. To be brief, carbohydrates are in most, if not all foods, they break down quickly and depending on the different trials and doctor’s recommendations, too many carbohydrates or carbs are not good for you, but your body needs some carbs. Unfortunately, those items with little carb content can be high in fats so a person has to look at the whole nutritional picture.

Pastas, breads and fruit are typically high in carbs, while meat and real cheese has little to no carbs. Vegetables range across the board with peas, corn and lima beans in the high carb category and mushrooms, broccoli and spinach in the low carb category. For my uses, each meal (and I only have three) is limited to around 3 servings of carbs or 45 grams. A Wonder bread hamburger bun is about 25 grams of carbs, while three cups of raw spinach is about 8 grams. If I’d like a snack I limit my carb intake to 15 grams or one serving of carbs. I’m very glad I love to eat fresh, raw vegetables; I can’t imagine following this plan if I didn’t.

Now that I had become obsessed with food and watching everything that I put into my mouth, it amazed me how much of our society is caught up with food. Everything we do, every event, every contact, is closely intertwined with eating and food. We love it. Most of the time, we don’t pay any attention to what exactly we are eating and how much.

Sometimes our acceptance of food reflects on how we feel about the person who offered it. Or our refusal of an offering of food is a refusal of that person offering it. When you’re watching what you’re eating, how do you balance food with relationships? It will always be a struggle for me and I continually try to balance the "relationship" with my commitment to eat healthy. It’s something I keep in mind.

The second part of my "plan" was to include more exercise. I was fortunate to try out a membership to the Stark County Physical Therapy office in Wyoming. It is a great alternative for me and continues to be one of my essentials to maintaining a "healthy" lifestyle. I started out slowly, bike riding for a minimum of 30 minutes, three times a week. Now I’ve increased the biking difficulty, added weight training and increased the number of days to at least four times a week or more (as my schedule permits). The trainers at the facility have been very friendly and open, helping me to focus on different problem areas.

I’ve found that I am more committed to exercising when it’s located outside of my home, but have invested in a Wii Fit for weekends. The Wii, for those uninitiated, is an interactive video game. The "Fit" portion of the Wii allows me to set up exercise programs and monitor my weight, balance and agility. I’ve also joined my husband’s Tae Kwon Do classes in Toulon and Bradford on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

I’ve tried losing weight before, many different times with typical results. A couple of years ago, I was able to lose 20 pounds, but hit a roadblock. I couldn’t take off any more weight. Now that I look back on it, I see that my desire was just not enough to make a permanent change. I wasn’t paying close attention to what I ate and didn’t increase or maintain an exercise regimen.

Planning a healthier lifestyle

Many people have stopped me and commented on my appearance. Some even ask "how did you do it", and "what are you doing"?

I think the most effective technique is to watch serving sizes and limit my intake to one serving, a measured serving, not my serving.

Another is to keep active by exercising; find ways to keep moving.

I also have a few mental tricks that I’ve tried to keep myself on track and not burn out.
One is to choose a food (besides water) that I don’t limit. I can drink as much diet soda as I possibly want. Some people have preached the dangers of artificial sweeteners and carbonated beverages, but right now being able to drink as much as I want helps fight off those cravings and hunger pangs I "think" I have as well as giving me something I don’t have to limit.

Knowing I can have something I don’t have to limit is important in order to stay motivated. Maybe someday I’ll be able to cut out all sweets and poly-unsaturated fats, bleached white flour and carbonated beverages and become "perfect" in my eating habits, but that’s not something I can do right now. And that’s OK; I don’t have to or feel guilty about it.

Another mind trick is to tell myself that I can eat ANYTHING, but may have to limit the amount of some foods more than others. When you’re looking at carb grams in sweets, a little goes a long way. It has given me the opportunity to buy more expensive goodies to enjoy instead of buying a lot of cheap junk food. If I must limit myself to a small serving size then I’m going to buy a Dove Dark Chocolate bar or Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream and not on a little Debbie snack cake.
My third trick is to divide up my weight loss goals. Instead of looking at all the weight I need to lose, I break it up. That way I have more encouragement to keep on working. I have made three tiers of weight loss goals and am very close to reaching my second tier. I would still like to reach that last tier, my dream weight, but if I don’t then I won’t be unhappy with myself. To date I’ve lost 65 pounds from my heaviest weight and about 55 pounds from when I first started last September.

The result

If the weight loss wasn’t enough, as further proof my efforts are working, my follow-up test results have been good. At my doctor’s appointment three months into my plan, I dropped my cholesterol by 70 points, from 250 to 180, and all other tests, blood pressure, blood sugar, came in at normal healthy ranges. It was a big moment for me, to see the "official’ numbers. Now I hope to continue to work on my weight and keep the other things in control. I also hope to encourage others to begin their journey.

If we are truly honest with ourselves many of our failures are due to the lack of desire. I believe it was in my case.

The key to accomplishing anything is finding the determination to do it.

An old Webster’s 1828 dictionary (my favorite place to define words) gives one definition of desire as "An emotion or excitement of the mind, directed to the attainment or possession of an object from which pleasure, sensual, intellectual or spiritual, is expected." Another simpler definition states, "Desire is a wish to possess some gratification or source of happiness which is supposed to be obtainable."

What does this have to do with anything? It’s one of the most important things I’ve learned from my recent attempt to lose weight and eat healthier. It’s something I hope to continue for the rest of my life.

Remember, there isn’t anything you can’t do if you really want to.