Well I am finally back from a great trip to Colorado to attend a cousin's wedding in the beautiful scenic Rocky Mountains. Also, I have the pleasure of having my granddaughter with me for a few weeks.
In my travels my mind kept returning to motivation. Motivation is a tough one. Or at least I have found it so in my life. You would think knowledge and desire would be enough to convince someone (i.e. myself) to change lifestyle habits etc. This has not been so in my life and I have not found it so in my observations of other peoples lives. Look at the number of healthcare professionals who drink alcohol to excess, smoke, eat a bunch of junk and get little to no exercise. Now you know these people have the knowledge. Or at least you would hope they do. Even dietitians can know how to eat and live healthy but not follow through with their own lives.
What is up with that? In my own life, I had to believe I could succeed, continually focus on the health benefits of succeeding, and keep encouraging myself each step of the way.
My most recent victory has been a loss of 48 pounds! I thought I would never loose that excess weight! When I was younger I tried everything, but just seemed to keep gaining back what I painfully lost, plus some. Whew. That was really discouraging! I finally resolved I would be heavy the rest of my life. As a nurse, that hurt, but I just couldn't do hunger or stay away from foods I loved. That contentment only lasted until I started gaining weight again without any change up in my diet. Boy was I scared. I was pushing 200 pounds! Even worse, I was getting older (59) and had border-line low thyroid function. I was convinced I would fail at anything I tried. I felt desperate.
Fortunately a coworker insisted I look at, "Let's Do Lunch". It is really not a diet. It is a way of eating. Wow! I was amazed. I have lost the weight and kept it off for almost 2 years now! If you are interested check out www.letsdolunch.com. I had to continually encourage myself in the beginning but as the weight kept coming off I knew It was only a matter of time before I reached .......... my high school weight!!!! I am still amazed that I lost so much weight. I am even more amazed that I still enjoy all the wonderful delicious foods that I lost my weight on. The message board on the website is full of a ton of people who have been successful with this way of eating and are there to encourage others who are going through what they went through. My story is under Hopefull. Because I was only hopefull that I would be able to loose weight, not sure. Woohoo! It worked!
What is so different about Let's Do Lunch"? The rules. Eat till full every time you are hungry is a must. Eat only foods you love! When you are hungry for sweets eat fruit. When you are hungry for carbs eat all the beans, peas, and corn you want. Lots of delicious healthy food. Initially I did not believe it would work for me. But hey, anytime I can be on plan by eating till full, I was game to give it an honest try! I am laughing here. Like I said, I did not believe this would work.
I have yet to find an exercise program that I am motivated to stay with. Usually I get going, overdo, then quit either out of too much pain or boredom. Motivation, still is a bit of a mystery, however, I believe whatever we are trying to change must really be important to us and seen as something we can do, no one likes failure.
Until next time,
Health Bug
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Health Insurance
One of my pet peeves is the idea that health insurance for everyone will lower/control the cost of healthcare! Let's take a look at what health insurance is. It is a pay system for healthcare. Opps, I am sorry, really it is a pay system for disease care. Think about it! Even if everyone could get free care at your Doctor/hospital/ER, would that help people be healthier? Whether it is healthcare or disease care, what we are talking about is paying for someone else to take care of you AFTER you get sick! How can that possibly lower the cost of providing that care?
I had a nurse make the following statement to me one day. "I don't know why I am still sick, I go to the Dr. all the time." This statement indicates that this person thinks the Dr is the one that makes her well. Yes, the medical professionals help foster that line of thinking. "Don't take x without consulting your Dr first! Don't do X without consulting your Dr first"
What about paying attention to yourself, your body and how you respond to food, exercise, vitamins, medication. If you have just starting taking or doing X and you start having adverse symptoms then maybe you need to stop taking/doing whatever it is. Pay attention! Know yourself.Of course some things take much more thought and figuring out than "I do this and that happens" Sometimes food you eat doesn't affect you until 24-36 hours later. This really complicates the issue,however, you are still more apt to figure it out if you apply yourself than someone else. Again, know yourself.
I've been tending a lot of garden plants lately. This has always been a tedious but very rewarding activity for me. The mundane activity seems to always lend itself to thinking on a deeper level. Yesterday I noticed a sunflower plant that had been half mowed over by the neighbor, the plant was still green and determined to live, even though it was bent over at the ground level and it's stem was lying parallel to the ground. It struck me how determined plants are to survive. Weeds are sprayed with chemicals, hacked on, pulled out yet they will struggle to survive irregardless of the onslaught.
We are the same. Stress, bad food, poisons, radiation all are negative influences on our health and well being. You get a cut, it is almost impossible to stop it from healing, stitches or not. I know there are times for the ER but expecting a Dr to heal you is asking for the impossible. They may facilitate, but they can not heal you,even in the ER. Your body is the healer! Thus, it is you who can make the biggest impact on your health with your lifestyle and food choices and knowing that you hold the keys to your health!
So wrapping this up, my healthcare is my responsibility. I choose who I go to for advice about my health and I choose what to do with that advice. In my opinion, Health Insurance will simply make Insurance Companies wealthier. Another, "think about it", if our present system of "healthcare" was working, we would not have the increase in every major chronic disease out there like we do. If what we have was working, we would be getting healthier as a nation. We are not. I believe the answer lies in helping people be informed, take responsibility for themselves, know themselves as only they can and trust their body and themselves to be in charge of that health and healing.
Until next time, Be healthy!
Healthbug
I had a nurse make the following statement to me one day. "I don't know why I am still sick, I go to the Dr. all the time." This statement indicates that this person thinks the Dr is the one that makes her well. Yes, the medical professionals help foster that line of thinking. "Don't take x without consulting your Dr first! Don't do X without consulting your Dr first"
What about paying attention to yourself, your body and how you respond to food, exercise, vitamins, medication. If you have just starting taking or doing X and you start having adverse symptoms then maybe you need to stop taking/doing whatever it is. Pay attention! Know yourself.Of course some things take much more thought and figuring out than "I do this and that happens" Sometimes food you eat doesn't affect you until 24-36 hours later. This really complicates the issue,however, you are still more apt to figure it out if you apply yourself than someone else. Again, know yourself.
I've been tending a lot of garden plants lately. This has always been a tedious but very rewarding activity for me. The mundane activity seems to always lend itself to thinking on a deeper level. Yesterday I noticed a sunflower plant that had been half mowed over by the neighbor, the plant was still green and determined to live, even though it was bent over at the ground level and it's stem was lying parallel to the ground. It struck me how determined plants are to survive. Weeds are sprayed with chemicals, hacked on, pulled out yet they will struggle to survive irregardless of the onslaught.
We are the same. Stress, bad food, poisons, radiation all are negative influences on our health and well being. You get a cut, it is almost impossible to stop it from healing, stitches or not. I know there are times for the ER but expecting a Dr to heal you is asking for the impossible. They may facilitate, but they can not heal you,even in the ER. Your body is the healer! Thus, it is you who can make the biggest impact on your health with your lifestyle and food choices and knowing that you hold the keys to your health!
So wrapping this up, my healthcare is my responsibility. I choose who I go to for advice about my health and I choose what to do with that advice. In my opinion, Health Insurance will simply make Insurance Companies wealthier. Another, "think about it", if our present system of "healthcare" was working, we would not have the increase in every major chronic disease out there like we do. If what we have was working, we would be getting healthier as a nation. We are not. I believe the answer lies in helping people be informed, take responsibility for themselves, know themselves as only they can and trust their body and themselves to be in charge of that health and healing.
Until next time, Be healthy!
Healthbug
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