Let’s be honest with ourselves. If you stop to think about your weight, the number on the scale, and how your clothes fit, you realize that the number on the scale didn’t jump up 5 or 10 or 15 pounds overnight. It was a slow gradual change that you may have not even noticed.
I am a runner. That’s how I have always kept my weight off and my clothes fitting. Even as the years crept up on me, as long as I put the miles on the road or treadmill I could keep my weight within what I considered normal limits. A couple of years ago, I tripped and fell injuring my left knee. One minor surgery and seven months later I had packed on 25 pounds. I went from wearing my snug fitting jeans in February to wearing stretch shorts for the summer months. I had surgery the middle of March (temps were in the 80’s) and needed to wear clothes I could get on and off easily. Unfortunately, I didn’t really notice my weight gain because of the clothes that my injury required me to wear the majority of the time. Of course I knew that I had gained some weight, but I didn’t realize I gained 25 pounds!
Looking back I realized that I hadn’t changed my habits much in the way of eating, even though I was exercising much less. My father always told me that it was not a good thing to forbid yourself from eating what you were craving. I love ice cream, Thin Mints, and chocolate chip cookies with sea salt. I’m not so partial to chips or salty snacks, but I love a sandwich with jalapeño chips every now and then. I forgot about french fries.. don’t get me started! LOL! My small dessert at night (I usually put ice cream in a small bowl as to curb the amount I eat in one sitting) became a replacement for exercise endorphins. 🙂 I started burning less calories and, in turn, started craving more of my guilty pleasure foods. I should have realized, though, that since I was not exercising I should probably have cut some things out of my nutritional intake.
When I am at my peak of what I call fit, my body is my temple. I do take care of it. I love to exercise! I crave the endorphins of a nice long run. I am not a fast runner, mind you, and that’s OK with me. I am the turtle…. slow and steady. But, during the seven months that I was not exercising because of my knee injury I became listless. I felt old, tired and just not myself. I felt like my body was just the container that housed my brain, and that was sluggish too!
My weight gain was gradual for certain. When I stepped on the scales at my cardiology appointment in October though, I was mortified. I was in denial. My cardiologist (who is fairly fit himself) came into the room and said, “You know that you are not fitting into your clothes. You know that you have to do something about this.” I am not obese by any measure, but he has overseen my cardiology care for many years and was kicking me in the butt to pay attention. So I did!
Loosing my weight and gaining my life back happened one pound at a time. I unfortunately learned that there was not a quick fix. I love the endorphins I get from a good sweat, whether I am running or in the gym working out with weights, and was dying to get back out there and work off everything I had gained. Eventually I did get the go-ahead to start exercising again and, while it was my saving grace as far as mental health, it didn’t fix everything that the months of sedentary lifestyle had wrought on my body. So I sought other means to help my journey back to a healthy body, and I found a great nutritional shake and cleanse system.
After one week on this new program, I was hooked! I was sleeping better, any digestive issues (I know, GROSS, but we all have them from time to time) were gone, my hair and nails started to grow faster and stronger, and my energy is was off the charts! Did I lose the weight and fit back into my clothes? Yes, yes, and yes! Was it easy? Nope, but I will never forget how I felt in October at that cardiology appointment. Regardless of how fit I can become from exercise, I need to keep my nutrition in check first and foremost. The way I eat now has forever changed my life and I am not looking back!
