Posts Tagged ‘healthy lifestyle habits’

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A Prescription for Change

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

weight loss wednesday

doctor visit and a prescription for change

Have you ever been told you would die shortly if you lived the way you did?

I have.

In February of 2008 I went to the doctor for a checkup. I hated going to the doctor. It was never good news for me. I was not feeling very good at the time. I did not tell my wife this, but I was coughing up blood for no reason. That made me very nervous.

I walked in and the nurse called me from the waiting room. She walked me to the scale where I told her it was not necessary for me to go on it. It went up to 350 pounds. I did not know my exact weight, but I knew I was over 400 pounds at the time. As always, she wrote down “350+” as my weight.

The nurse took my blood pressure which was 160/100. She freaked out a little.

That was normal for me. It is crazy to think that was normal for me as I consider it now. It was high because I was not taking the blood pressure medication they prescribed to me. Nor was I taking the medicine for my cholesterol which was over 300.

The doctor came in and asked me what was wrong. I told him I was coughing up blood and feeling dizzy a lot. He was writing some things down and then asked a couple of questions….

“Are you eating any better than before?”

“No.”

“Are you taking your medication?”

“No.”

That is all he had to ask. After that he told me what I knew, but did not want to hear.

“If you do not change the way you live, you will die shortly. Your blood pressure is high, you are coughing up blood and it just seems like you do not care. You have to make some drastic changes. You need to not only lose weight, but change your life.”

I have heard of people who have heart attacks and still live life like they did before. Only to have another heart attack or die. I did not want to be that person.

I was scared. I asked what the best bet was and he told me to change how I ate. I had to do it fast.

I joined Weight Watchers and started to lose weight. During that time I decided to not only lose weight but change the way I ate. I really limited my processed foods and started to focus more on real ingredients. You know…..fruits, vegetables, lean meats and whole grains.

That is how I am living my life now. I am not perfect, but I do not have to take the medications I once ignored. I live an active life now and I can go on any scale and know my exact weight.

I also still focus on real foods now. That is why I love Attune and Uncle Sam cereal, which is made of a few simple ingredients. I think that is the key for me. That is how I am going to stay under 400 pounds for the rest of my life.

Tony photoBe well!

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Tony

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Posted in Weight Loss Wednesday | 1 Comment »

Grandma knows best

Thursday, May 10th, 2012

food for thought thursday

grandma knows best

As I began my trek down this healthy living path I somehow became an eliminator.

I decided if I didn’t eat certain foods (thankfully I’ve repressed what they were as I quite clearly recall the repetitive nature of the foods which remained) my excess weight would miraculously  melt away.  Swiftly, easily and permanently.

Not only did I possess zero healthy eating habits as I began to shed pounds, the healthy foods I did consume I ate over and over (and over).

Apples. Apples. Apples.

Big salads. Big salads. Big salads.

You get the idea.

And you know the prevailing wisdom about not eating the same foods daily because if you miss a nutrient once you miss it *repeatedly*?  That was me. BigGapsInMyDiet McGee.

I’d arbitrarily pick a few healthy food options, eat them till I lost my appetite completely (take my word for how shocking this is), return to old junk-food habits, and eventually start the cycle again.

I firmly believe I’d still be in the ‘grasping at random healthy foods in a panic’ loop were it not for a comment a friend made:

“You need to eat like our grandparents did. Half a sandwich, some fruit, veggies, a few nuts and a glass of milk.”

Eat like our grandparents did.

Those words made sense to me.  It was that basic: real food, real ingredients, wide variety.

For the next few weeks I thought about my grandmothers each time I reached for food or prepared a meal.

“Is this something they’d have eaten?  Is what I’m about to place in my mouth something they’d have recognized as “food”?”

I’d be lying if I claimed I succeeded in answering YES to both questions back then.

Heck, I’d be lying if I claim I succeed in answering YES to both questions right now.

There are still times when I grab a snack pack (something neither grandmother would have recognized), but the victory is it’s a conscious choice and not done mindlessly or emotionally.

I strive, some days more successfully than others, to consume only real ingredients and a wide array of healthy foods.

I make an effort to eat as my grandmothers did.

And, on the days when eating healthy involves much preparation and work, I like to imagine them investing the same care and time in the foods they ate, too.

I like to imagine they’re smiling at my efforts.

Take a moment and reflect on what you’ve eaten over the past few days.

Did you consume foods our grandparents would have recognized or eaten?

Do you struggle, as I still do, with the ease of the processed?

 

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Carla

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Posted in food for thought thursday | 2 Comments »

Mystery Food and Changing My Relationship with Food

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

weight loss wednesday

Mystery Food

Here is the truth. When I struggled with morbid obesity, I never gave the first thought to what was in the foods I bought at the grocery store. If it appealed to my taste buds, I bought it. If I liked the packaging, I bought it. If it seemed like I would like the taste of it, I bought it.

I rarely turned the box over to scan the ingredient list. Instead I ate the food happily without regard to what I was putting into my body.

Things like orange cheese puffs, chocolate peanut butter cereal, oddly colored candy, and crackers with no nutritional value appealed to me and I ate them.

Those foods contributed to me looking like this picture.

diane carbonell

Although I had joined Weight Watchers dozens of times and heard knowledgeable people talk about how important it was to eat healthy, whole foods, I never truly believed it would matter in my weight loss attempts.

How wrong I was.

In 1997, when I took charge of my health and responsibility for my own obesity, I took a long hard look at the foods I had been purchasing and eating. Honestly, I felt a little guilty when I read the food labels of orange cheese puffs. The label looked like something from a science experiment in my chemistry class.

Words like partially hydrogenated soybean oil, maltodextrin, protein concentrate, monosodium glutamate, lactic acid and more leapt from the label, causing me to realize, perhaps for the first time, that there was more to foods than just the picture on front of the package.

As I began trying to lose weight by really changing my relationship to food I confronted not only the emotions surrounding my problems with food, but also worked on developing a new attitude towards food. If I had to use a dictionary to decipher words on the label, I tended to avoid the food. Foods that had recognizable ingredients or whole, natural foods were those I worked hard on enjoying and choosing.

Sometimes when I am at the grocery store I think back to the old days when my food was so full of processed ingredients that they no longer resembled their food of origin. Whenever I speak to groups I always remind them that if they look at a food and say “What in the world is in that food” then they may be wise to avoid that food altogether.

How are you at foregoing foods full of chemical additives in favor of more natural, wholesome foods? 

Diane photoBe well!

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Diane

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Posted in Weight Loss Wednesday | 36 Comments »

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