Tuesday, October 22, 2013

A dose of Good News...

Have you enjoyed my journey so far? These past 10 months have been a time to rediscover my life as it could be and should be. I still see myself from time to time in a light that is not so much flattering but that’s okay. I still look in the mirror some days and point out what is wrong instead of realizing everything that is right. I am okay with this, don’t worry I’ll explain, we live in a world where the idea of perfection and beautiful are skewed and twisted out of whack entirely. The truth is that ~I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. ~ See I have always felt “okay with myself” running never came from disliking my appearance, it came from wanting to make a change, a change that would have a direct correlation with my family, my children and my health.

Yes, I will do a little dance when I drop in weight and when I fit in a smaller size, I am (after all) woman hear me ROAR, NAG, COMPLAIN, GRIPE, NAG, ECT.! Even more so I am HUMAN. I also have worked hard to get where I am and I will celebrate when I see all that hard work making a change in a tangible way.

At one point or another I have mentioned that I have health concerns with my weight, I’ve said I would elaborate and I never did. Truth is I am scared of an eight letter word that is closely associated with my family, more so my mother’s side of the family. Diabetes(Type 2). About 5 years ago I was diagnosed as being a pre-diabetic; I know that to many people it may not be a very scary word but to me it is. I know and have family and friends that have been majorly affected by this, and it blows my mind. My mother was diagnosed with diabetes about ten years ago, she vowed to beat it somehow, she went to classes and quickly understood that she could change her diet and life style and possibly one day no longer be a diabetic. Now I don’t know the ends and outs of diabetes BUT I will say that once you are a diabetic I don’t believe it’s easy to overcome it. I have seen my mother make changes, I have seen her take care of herself more than ever  by staying physically active and making better decisions when eating, she watches her weight and has brought her sugar level way down, so much so that her doctor has mentioned she maybe could be taken off her medication.

Family History. When my mother was diagnosed I quickly realized that not only was she a diabetic but so were almost all of her siblings! Some of them taking huge doses of medication and insulin shots...hum I'm not fond of shots. Many stories of people who have lost their sight or had issues with their feet, toes and legs. So about five years ago when I first thought to myself that I might be headed that way, all kinds of flashing lights and sirens went off! There I was 29 years old and there was a chance that maybe my own health was keeping me from getting pregnant… I remember that sinking feeling that I was headed the wrong way. There was no doctor at this point just me and my gut feeling, that moment a set of events took place that I will forever look back on as an affirmation that I have some control over this and what I do will have a direct effect on my health and my children. I started to exercise again without instruction from anyone but as a form of my own experiment! I ate better and worked out and lost some weight, about three months later I was pregnant.
PHEW!? No, not quite, at my checkup I spoke the words I was afraid to say, I told the doctor I thought my sugar might be high. At this time the results came back elevated but not so high that I would be have gestational diabetes, but oh boy did they watch my sugar like a hawk. AND I got to moving and eating better, throughout my 9 month pregnancy I lost weight, my little boo was healthy and so was I. I read books about pregnancy because I wanted a natural birth, and with many mid-wives (insurance) not willing to take on a patient with diabetes I realized there was a lot to be done on my part. I read once that preparing yourself for a natural birth is a lot like training to run a marathon, you don’t just get up one day and say you’re going to run a marathon, you train and prepare. Mega WOW, for me now as I prepare to run my first half marathon.  My pregnancy went great and my delivery was just as perfect as anything I could have asked for, I wish I could tell you that was the end of it… but it wasn't, by the time my next checkup came along I was diagnosed as a pre-diabetic. The past four years has been a constant up and down of weight and numbers. Two years ago I lost weight, I was in the 170’s and my “numbers” were still high, I must have been discouraged because slowly the weight came back on last year I went in and my cholesterol was high too at that time I weighed in the 180’s by January I was 196, I had a lot to lose and more to gain than ever – so I started to run- really I started to walk, slowly I started to run.
My checkup was about two weeks ago, I was nervous to say the least, then I had to wait for results to come in and last Friday I had a sit down talk with my doctor. My results? GREAT. All numbers are down, I am NO longer pre-diabetic {happy dance inserted here} I am off my medication and my cholesterol and my lipids are normal. Again I don't know everything there is to know about diabetes  I don't know that I've beat it forever but I know now that I've have delayed it - hopefully for many many years. How about that running... for me personally it means so much - but I will save that for another day ;)

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