Weight Loss and Wellness: My Story

Hi! Let the weight loss and wellness continue! This my second article regarding this topic. Please feel free to check out Weight Loss and Wellness: Let the Journey Begin!

In the last article I describe how achieving wellness and weight loss is like planning for a trip. There is a lot of planning involved (and it can be frustrating at times), but the end result is usually worth it. 

In this article, I am going to deviate a bit and tell you my own story of illness and weight fluctuation (fluctuation is my fancy way of saying I gain weight or lose weight when I don't want to.)

Your story may be somewhat different, but we all deal with these issues in our lives. 

When I was 16, I came down with a virus known as mononucleosis. I found myself with the familiar
fever, sore throat, and fatigue. It was several months before I felt mostly back to myself. What I didn't know then, but was soon to find out, was that the Epstein-Barr virus can trigger autoimmune conditions if you are prone to them. And both sides of my family had autoimmune conditions. The fatigue never went away completely and at 17 I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroid Disease. 

By the time I reached 24, the fatigue was starting to affect my everyday life. I knew I had a thyroid disease, but my thyroid hormones were normal, so I did not think that was the issue. It was a big part of the issue. But my condition did not stay the same. As time went on, more and more symptoms started to show up. 

Fatigue and pain were my constant companions. I tried everything I could think of. I went to at least 80 providers. I went to family practitioners, specialists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, nutritionists, holistic providers, meditation teachers, even personal trainers. I went to community providers, university level providers, and I flew to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. I even visited a few snake oil salesmen. And, yes, I knew what I was getting into. I was just desperate. A quick tip: If the first thing you see when you enter a provider's office is a wall full of patient testimonials- run, don't walk. If someone has to show off about how amazing they are, they probably aren't. 

My list of diagnoses: Hashimoto's Disease, Fibromyalgia, severe allergies, persistent sinus and ear infections, Microvascular Vascular Angina, Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome (very painful), Depression, Psychogenic Seizures, heart murmur, a benign splenic aneurysm, GERD (gastric esophageal reflux disease), inflammatory bowel disease, gallstones with gallbladder sludge, suspected Multiple Sclerosis, TIAs (transient ischemic attacks). I lived with a variety of symptoms: severe abdominal pain with nausea and vomiting (requiring multiple ER visits due to out-of-control pain and dehydration). Numbness, tingling, and occasionally trouble feeling part of my body at times. Persistent chest pain making it hard to walk the stairs at one point. Generalized pain and joint soreness. But the worse part was the fatigue. It was severe, relenting, and affecting everything in my life. 

Occasionally I would get "breaks" in my life. Sometimes I had a good day (or even week) with very few symptoms. I even had a few long breaks where I felt great for several months. Interesting to note, though my pregnancies had some complications (hyperemesis with my daughter in 1997/1998 and a heart murmur with my son in 2004/2005), I had more energy during my pregnancies than most any other time in my life. I suspect it had to do with the increased blood flow. But even so, it made no sense to me. With my thyroid condition and other medical problems, why wasn't I more tired? Also, my postpartum periods were great. The energy I enjoyed during my pregnancies lingered for a few months after I had the baby. Also, rather than suffering from postpartum depression. my depression actually went away for a period of time. 

So, what did this mean to me? If I could feel good with increased blood supply maybe it was because
the increased blood supply gave my body nutrients it was lacking. I tended to run anemic, have low vitamin D, and B12 deficiency. I also noticed that I felt different depending on what I ate. Not eating lunch could mean the difference between being exhausted but ok or becoming so weak I am stuck in bed the next day. 

Long episodes of nausea, vomiting and severe pain left me weak, with unintended weight loss and often unable to function. When the episodes (lasting days to months) ended, I would be ravenous. Jumping into eating, rather than taking my time, led to weight gain. But I wanted to return to my life and if eating allowed me to do that, so be it. 

It took years of trying supplements, different diets, different medications, and having more medical tests than I care to remember before I found a system that worked for me. I will discuss a little about that in future episodes. But what it meant for me was that I could stop the cycle of gaining and losing the same 40-50lbs over time. I could actually lose weight and be able to keep it off for a change! So...let the weight loss begin!