The Elephant-- Part 2

As I said in my previous post, I was fairly oblivious to the fact that my weight gain was a health problem-- until multiple physicians mentioned it to me.  Upon each mention, I at first felt angry.  Who do they think they ARE-- telling me that I'm "obese"???  They don't KNOW me!  How DARE they make such an accusation!

Yeah.  We call that "denial."

{Now, I'll get up on my soap box here for a minute, and then I promise to hop right down.}  It took nearly a DECADE for me to finally decide that I needed to REALLY do something about my weight.  Despite multiple physicians (family dr., ObGyn, chiropractor, sleep dr.) trying to tell me that my weight was impacting my health-- albeit in seemingly small ways (I've been pretty lucky, actually)-- it wasn't until *I* decided that it was time to do something that I really started to make changes.  [The "changes" didn't last for long, but I'll get back to that.]  I think that physicians approach this in the wrong way.  {The exception to this is a Naturopath that I saw for a season; his approach was different.  I'll get to that in a minute, too.}  Each time a physician mentioned my weight, I felt hurt, insulted, violated in some way-- NOT "motivated."  Now, I know that that's not reasonable.  A doctor's JOB is to help us improve our health, and if there is a very OBVIOUS thing that can be done, then they are, of course, obligated to TELL us about it.  But, the way they go about it seems to be WRONG.  I don't really have a recommended alternative, but I really wish there were a better way for doctors to present this to their patients.  {Stepping down from soap box now.}

The Naturopath, Dr. Sharif, approached my weight issue from a completely different perspective, and HE was not the one to bring it up:  I was.  And, from day 1, the seemingly-simple goal of, "just lose weight, and you'll feel tons better!" was NOT our primary goal.  Dr. Sharif (and most natural medicine practitioners) wanted to heal things in my body from the inside out-- to first focus simply on "improving health."  Once my body was functioning better, it would be more prepared to lose weight.

Unfortunately, I was not able to do ALL of the things that Dr. Sharif recommended because of financial constraints... and, quite honestly, I just wasn't completely READY at the time.  I continued to see him occasionally, but I didn't complete any intensive therapy to help with my weight-loss.  However, I DID learn a lot from him, and I still think of things that he suggested that I can do to improve my health.  He is NOT a fan of consuming wheat (or any gluten, really) or dairy.  Both of those things cause inflammation (and are highly irritating, otherwise).  And, lo and behold, when I cut those things out of my diet, I DID lose weight, and it was pretty darn effortless!

Now enter, "Paleo Diet and Lifestyle."  I had heard about Paleo (vaguely), but before I even knew what it really was, I saw a cookbook on a friend's kitchen counter, and I was curious, so I went home and looked it up.  After some research, I thought, "Oh, that looks interesting."  And, a YEAR (or more) passed by before I even considered actually DOING IT!

When I finally DID decide to "do something different," it wasn't because some doctor was harping at me.  [Side note:  even after I had lost more than TWENTY pounds, when I went to see my sleep dr. again, he didn't even MENTION it!  Jerk.]  What motivated me was my (then) almost-one-year-old baby boy and a desire to BE BETTER for him (and for my two daughters... but I felt more of an "urgency" because he was becoming more mobile, and keeping up with him was becoming more and more of a challenge for me).  I decided that I was tired of being exhausted all the time; I was tired of looking in the mirror and feeling disgusted with myself; I was tired of wanting to CRY every time I saw a picture of myself.  It was time for CHANGE.

The change I chose (about 1 year ago today) was to try Paleo, cold-turkey.  Sort of.  If you've ever looked into Paleo, you probably thought to yourself, "What on earth will I EAT?  No milk, yogurt, cheese, bread, potatoes, rice, oatmeal, popcorn...???  How will I LIVE?  I'll be a skinny DEAD person!"  So, a little preparation was in order, for sure.  And, honestly, I started by ADDING IN things to my diet-- focusing more on leafy green veggies, nuts/seeds, fresh and dried fruit; kombucha, bone broth, healthy fats, etc., rather than REMOVING things.  Then, over the next few weeks, every few days, I would remove something from my diet.  I think the elimination order was this:  gluten (wheat), dairy, refined sugars, legumes, grains, then UNhealthy fats.

Pause:  If you're expecting this to be a "Paleo success story," let me stop you right here.  I stuck with Paleo for 2 (maybe 3) months faithfully, and I DID lose weight-- about 23 pounds-- and I felt GREAT!  But, I started getting lazy, and despite my weight-loss, my family was NOT inclined to cut things out of THEIR diet, so I was feeling lonely and discouraged.  I was having to spend a LOT more time planning, shopping, prepping, to maintain my habits... and it was just too much to handle at the time.  So, I slowly started giving in to the "no-no" foods.  Fast-forward one year, and I have gained back all but 6 pounds of the weight that I had lost.  BUT, I don't see it as a Paleo failure.  The problem wasn't Paleo.  It was ME.

Okay, this will have to be continued at a later time.  I didn't know this was going to be a "series" of posts... but, I guess I have a lot to say!

In Part 3:  I'll tell you what I'm doing NOW to lose weight (hopefully forever).  Tomorrow's post will be a *bonus* (unrelated) post, and then I'll finish up "Elephant."  :)

Bon jour!