How I Improved My Odds for Good Health: Step One

I have three risk factors that are statistically proven to shorten life and increase the risk for serious disease. I am overweight; I have a family history of heart disease and I have a family history of diabetes. So why would I allow myself to get overweight? Well I didn't plan it, but I eat to relieve stress, to feel loved, when I am happy, or sad, or bored, or excited. You get the idea, I just have this habit. I have also recently been diagnosed with very low thyroid function so I sleep. I mean I feel totally wiped out all the time. My trademark comment is " I have to get horizontal". I went in for a physical and my blood pressure was creeping up. So there you have it; to much food, to much sleep, not enough exercise and the wrong kinds of foods.

"Ok" I tell myself, "It's time to really stop playing games with your life and improve your odds for good health". First I made my health professional my confessor and just told her all about my lifestyle, my concern about my weight, my nutritional sins, my family history and my creeping blood pressure.

What I needed to know before starting a program was the numbers, you know the ones I mean. Things like what exactly is a good blood pressure and what is mine. I wasn't sure what my cholesterol was either. Actually I do know its to high but not the exact numbers. I know a person needs to know their blood sugar levels and my health care provider assured me mine are in the normal range and that was a relief.

I didn't want to know much about exercise because it sounds like work. At this point I groan with the thought of sweating through a workout session and decide to do it different.....if I can figure out how.

My health care professional talked to me for a long time first and got an idea about where to help me start, and then she took a battery of blood tests and did a careful physical exam including a pap smear and breast exam. She also made sure that my preventive immunizations were up to date, began weight and nutritional counseling sessions with me at each visit and started me on a medication to lower my blood pressure.

The lab tests revealed the low thyroid function so she started me on thyroid medication. We decided together that my cholesterol, while high, was not the first priority and that diet changes would be the only intervention for it for now. I began some low impact exercise that bores me silly, I used to run five miles a day. What happened to that me? I hate just walking, I think going to the gym is a bore, and I am in the mood for instant results. I began parking the truck three blocks away so walking is built in to the work I do. I changed my job activities so I was getting in and out of the truck more often.

Then I began to cut back on "The Fat Foods" no more donuts with my morning coffee, now its Oatmeal and fruit. For lunch its low fat cheese and fruit or a sandwich and coffee but I work a twelve hour day and that just wasn't enough so I experimented with some diet shakes. I tried Herbalife, Isagenix, and Slimfast (and that's a different article). That was the first step for improving my odds for better health.

My blood pressure is down, my energy level is up, my sugar level is normal, and my weight is beginning to go down.