When you start to take care of yourself, you can't lie to yourself anymore. It is really easy to blame how we feel on the extra weight. We do this because society has taught us this. Send two ladies into a Doctor's office both complaining of fatigue, malaise, and headaches. One is average weight, the other obese. The obese lady will be sent home with instructions to lose weight, the average weighing lady will be sent to the lab. Some would say I am over generalizing, maybe but this happened to me time and time again.
When you are obese, that is the first thing someone sees. An assumption/judgment is made about you, even when the person knows better. So imagine, you are the obese lady and you do as your doctor indicated. You go home and you start to work on losing weight. You eat right (according to the Canada food guide) you start walking a little bit. Soon you walk every night because you love it and decide to sign up for a 20K walking challenge to support cancer care. Overtime, nothing changes. Everything you are doing isn't working and it should be. You convince yourself, more exercise will help. After a couple of months of training, you realize you need to talk to your Doctor. You tell him you walk on average 8K 3 times per week. You show him your food journal, he still doesn't believe you. He thinks there is no way you are doing those things and losing weight so slowly and still feeling so fatigued. He sends you home and tells you to be more honest. You doubt yourself, you struggle. You re-commit. You go back to your Doctor a month later and demand blood tests, you suggest that maybe your iron is low, or something else is wrong, because you know that with all the exercise you are doing and how healthy you are eating, you should be feeling way better. He shakes his head and sends you to the lab to appease you. The results are alarming enough that he hauls you back into his office concerned about your anemia. You are instructed to take high doses of iron and warned that inter-venous iron may be necessary if things don't turn around. Why am I sharing my long winded story? Because I told myself that I didn't feel well because I was overweight and that delayed me from taking action. I let a Doctor convince me that my symptoms were due to being overweight, when being overweight, was in fact, a symptom. My Doctor treated the anemia, but never once talked to me about what could be causing it. I continued to live unwell treating only a few of the symptoms of an undiagnosed issue. Eventually, I just gave up because treating only the symptoms wasn't working. This led me to return to finding solace in my favorite foods.
Fast forward a few years and here I am, taking care of myself again. Suddenly, I can hear what my body is telling me. From past experience, I knew I needed to see my naturopath doctor. Which of course led me to the gluten free lifestyle changes I've recently made. I am excited to report the bloat and migraines are gone. I am still detoxing and my body is adjusting. Low and behold, the scale is finally moving in the right direction and my weight loss is catching up to my inches lost. Every day, I am one step closer to the healthier me I so desperately crave to be.
I share my experiences and stories, not because of my excessive need for attention, but because I hope to help others find their own health and wellness, much quicker then it took me. I urge you to listen to your body. Don't let someone else, even a Doctor, tell you to ignore your symptoms. Please don't let the Doctor tell you it is all in your head, no matter how much you weigh. Be your own health advocate and help yourself be well. Xo
When you are obese, that is the first thing someone sees. An assumption/judgment is made about you, even when the person knows better. So imagine, you are the obese lady and you do as your doctor indicated. You go home and you start to work on losing weight. You eat right (according to the Canada food guide) you start walking a little bit. Soon you walk every night because you love it and decide to sign up for a 20K walking challenge to support cancer care. Overtime, nothing changes. Everything you are doing isn't working and it should be. You convince yourself, more exercise will help. After a couple of months of training, you realize you need to talk to your Doctor. You tell him you walk on average 8K 3 times per week. You show him your food journal, he still doesn't believe you. He thinks there is no way you are doing those things and losing weight so slowly and still feeling so fatigued. He sends you home and tells you to be more honest. You doubt yourself, you struggle. You re-commit. You go back to your Doctor a month later and demand blood tests, you suggest that maybe your iron is low, or something else is wrong, because you know that with all the exercise you are doing and how healthy you are eating, you should be feeling way better. He shakes his head and sends you to the lab to appease you. The results are alarming enough that he hauls you back into his office concerned about your anemia. You are instructed to take high doses of iron and warned that inter-venous iron may be necessary if things don't turn around. Why am I sharing my long winded story? Because I told myself that I didn't feel well because I was overweight and that delayed me from taking action. I let a Doctor convince me that my symptoms were due to being overweight, when being overweight, was in fact, a symptom. My Doctor treated the anemia, but never once talked to me about what could be causing it. I continued to live unwell treating only a few of the symptoms of an undiagnosed issue. Eventually, I just gave up because treating only the symptoms wasn't working. This led me to return to finding solace in my favorite foods.
Fast forward a few years and here I am, taking care of myself again. Suddenly, I can hear what my body is telling me. From past experience, I knew I needed to see my naturopath doctor. Which of course led me to the gluten free lifestyle changes I've recently made. I am excited to report the bloat and migraines are gone. I am still detoxing and my body is adjusting. Low and behold, the scale is finally moving in the right direction and my weight loss is catching up to my inches lost. Every day, I am one step closer to the healthier me I so desperately crave to be.
I share my experiences and stories, not because of my excessive need for attention, but because I hope to help others find their own health and wellness, much quicker then it took me. I urge you to listen to your body. Don't let someone else, even a Doctor, tell you to ignore your symptoms. Please don't let the Doctor tell you it is all in your head, no matter how much you weigh. Be your own health advocate and help yourself be well. Xo
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