I think that when we are young many (if not most) of us think we have plenty of time to worry about our health. Later. We are gonna drink, eat and be merry while the sun shines -to mix a metaphor or two. LATER. We aren’t worried one iota about our health in midlife because we are YOUNG.
Later.
Trouble is.
Time is short and it’s later than you think!
I’m gonna be honest here. BRUTALLY honest.
I’ve been told my whole life that I need to lose weight. I’ve always been heavy except for a brief period in high school.
Then I discovered beer and that all went to hell.
I remember always not being able to find clothes that I liked for special events. I remember when I was pregnant with my first child, that I saw the words “morbidly obese”. It was a shock to me and I cried.
“I know I’m heavy,” I wailed “But I’m pregnant!”
I lost a lot of weight during and after each pregnancy but I would gain it all back and then some once I quit nursing.
I’ve tried every diet under the sun.
My whole family is obese.
It just wasn’t in the cards for me to be sleek and athletic.
I’ve uttered every rationalization and excuse humankind has ever come up with. And more than a few that I made up on the spot.
Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt my friends.
So I learned to accept myself and make peace with my body.
I settled.
When I finished cancer treatment I weighed a whopping 301 pounds. That was in January of 2015.
This fall, after prescribing high blood pressure medication, my doctor finally put it like this, “Lose weight or you will have to start diabetes treatment.”
BOOM!
And just like that the hammer dropped and the party was over. No more denying that I’m slowly killing myself. No more excuses. No more rationalization.
Right smack in the middle of the best part of my life.
My health in midlife may be one of the biggest things I have to tackle in what is left of this life but I found the quote above yesterday and it has me thinking that I can change. I can renew my health.
If I don’t put it off until later.
I’ve lost 10 pounds since my appointment this fall and I’ve just started a diet bet that has me down a bit more. I have until mid-March to change my doctors mind about the diabetes medicine.
While I won’t be changing this over to a weight loss or health blog you can bet I will be writing about it again. I have a feeling I’m not alone in needing to get my “poop in a group” where my body is concerned and I’m hoping we can help each other out here.
Also, while there is no shame in diabetes or needing diabetes medication I’d like to clarify that I have personal fears about it. As a woman who has a family history with the disease and seeing what it, and the medications, do to people I have a fear of coming as close to the disease as I have. Call it a phobia if you want but it freaks me the heck out. I don’t want it and I’m determined to turn things around.
Stay tuned…
You might also like:
Iam in the boat with your my story is the same has your
I worry about my health also, and I too have always been heavy. Throughout my life I’ve been active and have lost the same 50 pounds over and over. It comes back eventually. Or, until I get so determined, I lose it again. I now have high blood pressure (well, higher than my MD would like) and have just started taking a prescription that seems to help without too many side effects. That’s what I truly worry about. Side effects. The first drug almost stopped me from going #2 and made me so dizzy that I almost passed out. I attend a senior women’s fitness class twice a week and a private exercise session 1-1/2 times a week. I have a gym membership that I need to use too! I just keep telling myself to keep on keeping on. So Vicki…hurray for you. You are a work in progress (WIP)!
Believe me, it is so much easier to lose when you are younger. I too have fought weight most of my life and with diabetes, it is a lot harder especially when you are on insulin which I am. I’m 65 now and miserable and trying hard to get healthy. have joined a gym and take some old lady classes which I enjoy.
Keep up the good work and I’m looking forward to your next post. Hopefully, we will both have progress.