I have a new birthday!!
Yes, I’m now a little over a year and a half old. On April 7, 2014 I started on a journey of what I hoped would be weight loss. Sounds like a diet! Sounds pretty normal. Sounds doable. Sounds like I might fail … again! Sounds like I may lose some weight … again! Sounds like I may gain some or all of it back … again! After all it’s a diet. Isn’t that what happens with all diets? But, little did I know of where I was headed … the ride, the roller coaster, the mountains, the meadows, the tears, the laughter, the pain of exercise, the exuberance of movement, the dreaded scale, the thrill of small results … oh, the journey that I set out on, and the journey that I continue!
I am 4’9” tall, so you can definitely say that I am vertically challenged. I also share, that on my first weigh-in, I was 199.5 pounds. So your vision is correct … I was as wide as I was tall. I’m not sure at what point during my gradual, but very steady weight gain, that I actually saw myself in the mirror and felt that it was okay to be the size I was, or look the way I looked, or more importantly feel the way I felt. My only justification has to be, that it was simply such a gradual progression, that I was blind to the vision, and grew accustomed to the aches and pains. Can you even imagine growing accustomed to aches and pains? But, to me, that is one of the first symptoms of food addiction. If I had broken a bone and had pain, I would have gone to the doctor to fix it! If I had slipped on the ice, and my back was aching, I would have gone for x-rays to check it out. If I had tripped over my dog and banged my knee and had pain, I would have readily picked up the phone and called the orthopedist. If I had had a bad cold or flu, and couldn’t breathe fully, I would have been on the exam table in my primary care physician’s office. But somehow, when one suffers from food addiction, and the subsequent weight gain associated with that addiction, it suddenly becomes satisfactory to become accustomed to aches and pains. “I’m just so overweight, my knees hurt.” “If I didn’t weigh so much, I’m sure my back wouldn’t hurt.” “If I wasn’t wearing this flotation device around my waist, it wouldn’t hurt so much to bend over and tie my shoes.” “If I could just lose some weight, I could climb this flight of stairs without gasping for breath.” Or my favorite, “I get so short of breath. I inherited my Daddy’s lungs.” Somehow, somehow it is okay to justify the aches and pains associated with obesity, and if not actually justify it, accept that it just is what it is. But it doesn’t have to be that way!!
Obesity is a leading cause of many illnesses. Heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, orthopedic issues, pulmonary issues, and the list goes on, and on, and on!!! But the good news is obesity is treatable!! Treatable!! Treatable!! Yes, it is treatable!!! Is it easy to treat? Absolutely not!!!!! There is a patchwork quilt of diet plans on the market today. Low carbs, low proteins, high proteins, low sugar, low sodium, vegetarian, vegan, shakes, smoothies, liquid diets, diet pills, diet teas, herbal remedies, tree bark, Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, Slim Fast, Optifast. And, I bet, I have only named a handful. Is there any wonder why we are all so confused, and bouncing from one attempt to another, with little or no success, and weight loss and gains moving faster than the Championship Yo Yo Winner? But, it is treatable!!!! It is treatable!!! Everyone will have their BEST EVER diet and plan that works for them. They will try to convince you that you should do the same. I won’t do that, because I am a firm believer of “to each their own.” But I will use one word. One word that my health educator and coach has used over, and over, and over, and over again with me … BALANCE!!!! There is a balance needed. It is needed for health, for the body, for all the moving parts to work together. And to me, even more importantly, it is needed for maintenance and sustainability of a true life change that can and needs to continue forever. To steal a comment from another success story … It is never “before and after.” It is always “before and now.” There is never an “after.” There is always a “now.” Balance is what makes the “now” just keep on going!!
So my journey …
I can’t tell you how many times I would say, while watching Oprah, “if I had someone fixing my food, and if I had a personal trainer, and a gym, I could lose weight, too.” Well, I finally got the opportunity to put my time, money, and effort where my mouth was … literally!! I work at Baptist Health Care, and they had an employee wellness initiative. Boy, do I love the word Wellness! They had a wellness initiative they offered to their employees. They offered the HMR Diet Plan, coupled with a gym membership, and a personal trainer for 13 weeks. Then they went the step further, and offered the continuing support classes for an additional 6 months. So, there in front of me was the food, the support, the gym, and the trainer for 13 weeks. The catch … we had to sign up for the full 9 months! So, I now had the choice to put my time and effort where my mouth had been. No excuses, the offering was right in front of me. And, I did it!! I attended my first class on April 7, 2014. My healthy birthday!
I walked into the meeting room with the same feelings of every other diet I had started. Here I go again!!! I didn’t even tell friends or family I was embarking on yet another attempt. Too hard to justify months later why I was still overweight or had completely dropped out again!!! So, I attended my first meeting with the same dread, same reservations as before, but I have to admit with a renewed hope. Had I finally had enough? Had I finally gotten sick and tired of being sick and tired? Had I finally looked in the mirror and saw what really looked back at me? One of the first questions we were asked, was why we had joined the program? So many folks shared they were pre-diabetic, or had heart disease, or had arthritis, or had hypertension, or had hypercholesterolemia, or had strong family history and were trying to practice prevention. The only response that came out of my mouth, was that I was so tired of putting head to pillow at night and being so greatly disappointed with myself. Enough said.
We met our health educator and personal trainer that first night. Brandon! God love Brandon!! You will see his name mentioned in this post and several to follow, I am most sure. We were also his first HMR class. He had been a trainer for several years, but we were his first HMR class. God love Brandon! He will never know the true gift he has been to so many people. I can only hope that he can feel the love we all have for him. He has literally saved our lives. But I digress … the first meeting. We weighed in, of course. The dreaded scale, my nemesis, my fear, my enemy, and the one thing I still fight with!! But after weigh-in, Brandon conducted our meeting, and we quickly saw that we were not just learning about the Phase 1 of the HMR Diet Plan, but he was offering us so much good advice about health, nutrients, sleep, exercise, and oh yes, the BALANCE of the importance of all of it. Our class was about an hour or a little longer, but the time flew by. Now came the challenge of following the plan for the next week, so we could face the scale again! Phase 1 of the HMR Diet Plan is extremely regimented. It is a no-brainer, very easy to follow. It is designed to help you lose the most weight possible in that first 13 weeks. This not only serves the purpose of losing weight, but it also is a great motivator. When you see results, you naturally want to continue. Then after the first 13 weeks you move into Phase 2, which is gradually putting “normal” foods back into your system, but in a healthy, planned, and controlled manner. Living in the real world but in a healthy way. Tons of fruits and vegetables, lean protein, whole grain, and healthy fats. Again that word … BALANCE!!
For the first 13 weeks (and even for a bit afterwards) I wore the same ugly blue dress. I wanted to make sure that when I weighed that my clothing did not affect the results on the scale. At the end of this post, I will share the picture. I eventually quit wearing that dress, and Brandon had the pleasure of ripping it to shreds. I still have that dress. It is my trophy!!
So this is the beginning of my journey. From April 7, 2014 to December 29, 2014 I lost 70 pounds!!!! I lost 30 pounds in Phase 1, which truly was a motivator to continue onward. I lost the next 40 pounds in Phase 2, and I am down another 5 to 7 pounds (depending on whether the scale is being a brat or not.) It would be wonderful to hit the magic 80 pounds of loss, but at this point, it is a number in my head. I am a healthy, active, in fact more active person, than I have been since my high school years. And believe me, high school is a long way in my past. I am 16 months old in my healthy birthday calculation, and 62 years old in my “normal” birthday!!! When I look at my years in this stage of my life, one of my biggest regrets of my years of obesity, are truly the years that I lost being unhealthy. Until I returned to a healthy state, I couldn’t fully comprehend what I was missing. But it is clear, oh so clear now! But, I elect not to dwell on the past and feel sorry for those days, but embrace my future and live it! Sometimes we have to weather a storm before we can enjoy the sunshine.
I’ll continue to share my journey in future posts. There is so much more to tell!! We’ve only just begun. The excitement of exercise is next!!! And believe me, it’s not always a pretty sight. In fact, it rarely if ever is!!! But, I can assure you, it is always most entertaining.
But in keeping with my outlook on life., all things are only possible through our faith and our God. God truly put me in the right place, at the right time, with the right folks. This journey has never been one step at a time by me the whole way. It has always been one step at a time with much support from many. And, of course, with God as my pilot!
