News From The Doctor's Office

I got results from my blood tests this morning.

My blood pressure has gone from a average of 140/89 in 2014 to an average of 119/80 in 2015.

My A1C was 7.5 in Dec 2014 to 6.2 in March 2015. I no longer have diabetes, or take Metformin.

My Thyroid TSH level is now into the normal range. I have been taken off of  Levothyroxine.

My pituitary was functioning at 8% in April 2014. It is now functioning at 56%.

I have now lost 35 lbs, and gone from size 26 to size 20.

More important any number from a blood test. I can think clearly, and move my body again.

I am so thankful and grateful for my body today.

Growing up in the Low Fat Era

I graduated high school in 1985. Which puts me smack dab in the middle of the Low Fat Era. When I started grocery shopping for myself I made a beeline straight too all of those pretty shiny packages on the shelves. My shopping criteria was modern, convenient, and low fat.

In my late 20's I would buy two 24 packs of Diet Cola for a week. If it wasn't soda then I would drink coffee with those lovely pink and blue artificial sweeteners. Add to that the frozen meals, and my ever present cigarettes and I was just your average all american girl trying to get thin.

When I started to gain weight I assumed that all I needed more modern solutions. I started those diets were you substitute a canned shake instead of a meal. I tried the new Fat Free salad dressings of course I used tons of it because it was Fat Free it didn't even count.

It was around this time my disfunction with good and bad foods started. I would label things in my mind. For example a apple has 95 calories a rice cake had 35 calories. In my distorted thinking of the time the apple would of course be labeled "bad" because of the higher calories. However it never occurred to me that a apple might make me feel full and satisfied where 10 minutes after eating the rice cake I was still hungry.

I started to reevaluate my assumptions about food about 5 years ago when my doctor figured out I was allergic to aspartame. He asked me to stop using foods with aspartame for a month trial.

After a two hour grocery trip reading labels. I went back to tell him I couldn't possibly do a month. I made the claim that every food I ate had aspartame in it. When he asked me for a example and I pointed out my favorite fat free salad dressing. He responded as if he was speaking to a two year old suggesting that instead of buying the fat free dressing I just buy the regular one. I was shocked. Seriously, it took me awhile to process this thought. Didn't he know I was fat? I can't eat regular dressing!

I fell for advertisements like this one all the time. To add to the dysfunction I would be telling myself I was "good" because I was eating a "good" food. I realize now that my  food disorder is a thinking disorder. Every assumption about food I have ever made needs to be challenged. As much as I enjoyed the 80's I am ready to let all of it's dieting advice go.