My Relationship With Food
For 36 years, I made a lot of poor decisions (or failed to make any decisions) when it came to my health. I am now happily married, with two wonderful children, and I have a lot of things I would like to see in my life. I have come to the conclusion that in order to do that, I have to take responsibility for my own health and my own healthcare decisions. This process began about two years ago when my wife started us on a Whole30 eating style. No sugar, no processed foods, no carbs. This has lead to more protein, more fruits, more vegetables. On the left are my “numbers” at the beginning of 2017, on the right are my results after 8 months of continuing a Whole30 eating habit and adding exercise into my weekly regimen.
My Why?
I have the knowledge to heal people, and rehabilitate them, and keep them on a healthy trajectory, but I finally decided I have to practice what I preach. I know that when I get stressed, I will eat the heck out of any junk food within reach. So one of my next steps was to start with mindfulness and meditation so that I would not get as stressed in the first place. (That is another blog for another day). But the moral of my story was I just did not want to be the out of shape, overweight, Physical Therapist giving you advice on how to heal and get healthy, when I myself could not do these things. So I simply started eating more healthy than I was little by little. (Special thanks to the APHPT.org for their wonderful support and resources)
ONE THING I LEARNED TODAY:
Diet and exercise are an important aspect to getting healthy. If you would like to hear more about my story and my methods and the changes I have made to achieve these milestones, please feel free to reach out to me and I will let you know some habits I am forming. But I have to warn you: IT IS NOT A SECRET DIET OR A FAD WORKOUT PROGRAM! It is literally taking small, productive, measurable steps over a long period of time to get the desired outcomes you want and deserve.
Have I reached my goals? Not even close. I still weigh 309 pounds (my first goal is to get to 299, where I will then attack the next 50 pounds). My cholesterol is still 221 (I’d like to be under 200). But that is better than the 262 I was at where the doctor I was seeing wanted to put me on a statin medication. No thank you! My major goal is getting OFF all medications and just living as naturally as I can. And come January of 2018, I go for a 3 month follow up where I should be taken off my final low dose of blood pressure medication (the only one left).
So lets do this. Lets get healthier. Lets turn away from disease and medication and towards health and wellness! Feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me about anything you’d like to know, and lets figure it out together.