Who I am and why I am

Hello Strangers!

It's been a long time. I have a had a lot of life changes that have distracted me from focusing on my health completely and being able to have the time to share the good news about how you can take control over her overall physical health.

A refresher: 

Me weeks before my surgery

I am an Elementary Educator. I currently serve as a campus Principal at a Primary School in the Austin area in Texas. In 2013, I was an instructional coach on another campus. My husband and I were trying to conceive and we were having no luck. In addition, I was having strange, unexplained pains. In my many appointments with my OB about these concern, there was a a suspicion based on my complaints, inability to conceive and blood work that I had something going on inside me that had not yet been diagnosed. At that time, the worry was that it could be cancer. I had to immediately go into surgery to diagnose what was going on. Thankfully, cancer was not the issue. Instead, I was diagnosed with severe Endometriosis. I had several stages of figuring out life after this diagnosis but eventually decided, after appointments and research that I needed to take my health back into my own hands and I can control this. Endometriosis is not something you can cure, but certainly can be managed. I feel blessed that it was not worse than that. I decided to thank God for my 1st (and only) child since she was more of a blessing and miracle than I even realized. From then, I let go of the idea of having a second child and I decided that building a healthy lifestyle would not only benefit myself but would benefit my daughter, who watches my every move.

4 years after my diagnosis and trying to Sustain a Healthy Lifestyle 

The Changes I made:

When I set out to change my habits, weight loss was not my preliminary reason. I had been to the doctor after my diagnosis and the doctor said to me, "Can I be candid? You can do a lot more if you would lose some weight." This appointment was us consulting about pain management and conception through IVF. That phrase just totally changed my perspective. As I researched endometriosis, I began learning that foods I introduce into my body could very well have been the reason I'm dealing with this at the severity that I was and that if I didn't change fast, it would not be good. So I studied foods to restrict: Dairy, Sugar, Caffeine. Then I decided to figure out what foods were best to introduce: Whole, natural foods, fruits, vegetables. Then my simple mind put two and two together... You introduce this into your body and you've been poisoning yourself. Fix it. So I did. Well...I should say I am. It's a process. 

Major changes: 

- 6 meals per day (I used timers until I got used to it)

- Reduction of sugar

- No more Dr. Peppers

- Don't drink calories

- More fruits/veggies

- Increase exercise/weightlifting

I focused hard for 9 months and dropped 75 pounds and felt great. I was managing my pain well, but still had some hard months. I did gain back about 10-15 pounds and I'm struggling to get it back off. 

Some of the habits I let go of that caused the gain: 

- I don't track calories anymore

- I work out a little less than I did then

- I am not as strict about my dairy consumption. I will periodically consume dairy even though I always regret it, since I've built an intolerance to it now. 

- I used to stick  to my meal plan 100 percent with a Sunday cheat day, and I cheat more frequently now. 

With that said, it's clear that I'm not getting any younger so I need to kick it back into high gear and pick some of these habits up to ensure success. 

In my next post, I will work on my food plans so that I have reusable plans and shopping list that will repeat yearly. I have all of the work, it's just not organized in a way that I can make sense of it. 

Stay tuned. We are all in this together....It's in our hands.