Seeking Professional Help

Up until this point all of my health changes have been unsupervised.

I happened to see Dr. Oz on Oprah one day about two years ago and what he said seemed easy and made sense. I got fed up with my health one day and started with something small, cooking with olive oil. From then on it has been one small step after another, one small battle after another.

When cooking with olive oil became a habit, I switched from ground beef to ground turkey.

When ground turkey became a staple, I switched from white bread to whole grain bread.

When whole grain bread became my new favorite thing, I started exercising a little.

You get the point...

Slow and steady wins the race. One small change has snowballed into a dramatic lifestyle change. I feel extremely well about my progress and am proud of the accomplishments I have made because I set my mind to changing and I did it. But for some reason yesterday, out of no where I decided I need to make an appointment and visit my doctor.

First off, I guess I shouldn't really give Dr. Oz all the credit because my family physician, Dr. S really got my fat butt in gear.

I went to see him about two years ago because I had quite a few ailments. My stomach was hurting a lot, my feet and knees were bothering me, I was depressed. I started crying and told him that I was embarrassed because I knew all these problems were directly related to my weight. I wanted him to baby me a little. He totally didn't. He told me I was right. He also told me I could fix it.

That was the seed I needed. It wasn't even two weeks later I saw Dr. Oz on TV. I had some earache issues and had to go back to see Dr. S four or five times within the year following our first conversation. Each time I returned I weighed less than the time before. Each time he entered the room that was the first thing he talked about. He encouraged me and told me I was really doing a great job.

Most of the time I am a people pleaser. I always did well in school and behaved at home for the most part. I have said before I would do great on The Biggest Loser because I would want the trainers to be proud of me. I think I had the same thing going for a while with Dr. S.
I really need to sit down with someone who can tell me what I should be doing as far as food goes. I think lately I have been doing things wrong. I know that I have not been eating enough. My mind shouts out orders all day but it doesn't seem to tell me to eat.

Now, I am not by any means starving myself or anything like that. I think part of it is that for the first time my body is not full of junk. The junk was sending the signals to my brain before that were constantly telling me that I wasn't satisfied. The things I eat now all make me feel satisfied. I just need to eat more of them and I know I need a greater variety in my diet!

Sparkpeople.com is a great place to track your nutrition and stuff but I think I need to have a "check in" for a while. I need to sit down with Dr. S and figure out how many calories I need and stuff like that (or as they say in the south "stuff lieGAT") and then I need to know that I am going to see him again in a week or month or whatever so that we can track my progress. I also want to have blood work done and want to have a chat about what vitamins I am currently taking and if there is anything else I am forgetting.

I think I remember now what got me thinking about this to begin with...life insurance. My life insurance is due to be renewed in June. This year I plan on reapplying since I know my current health is much, MUCH better than it was when I first signed up two years ago. I am really hoping for a decrease in my premium!

I think I may look in to seeing a therapist as well. I would love to find a christian counselor in my area who specializes in eating issues (not disorders really, just issues).

It's not just about my body, it's about my mind and my soul too. I don't just want to be physically healthy. I WANT IT ALL!

Challenge:

You asked for it Heather!

Here is her challenge suggestion from yesterday:

"Hey Michelle Remember Squat Thrusts?Start out standing, go down with your knees completely bent, then put both legs out behind you hands on the floor in front of you.(kinda in a jumping motion) then pull your legs back up and stand. It is kinda a quick movement, and it will kill ya! Try 20 of those! I hope you know what I am talking about they are real hard to explain. Good Luck!"


The following people need to send me their address asap as I am sending something out tomorrow!

Mindy
Janet
Jayne
Lynea
Karrie
Carrie
Coriann
Anne