Lighten Your Load

156 lbs. vs 124 lbs.

Two years ago, at a frame of 5 feet, 4 inches tall I weighed 156 lbs., experienced a constant hunger, and suffered from chronic fatigue which weighed heavily like a sack of potatoes over my shoulders.  After much harsh criticism from co-workers, patients, family, and friends, I decided to take action. Firstly, I hired a trainer who put me through workouts and nutritious plans that at the moment felt like hell but changed my overall skin/body tone and physique for the better. Secondly, I attended healthy cooking/eating classes which made me a conscientious consumer. In the process I learned ways to stay active and how to prepare/eat low glycemic foods which has brought me back from the brink of diabetes, fatty liver, borderline high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, and low (HDL) good cholesterol.

Over the course of four months, I applied all of my trainer’s and chef's recommendations. The outcome: I lost over 30 pounds, most of it visceral fat. To this date, I have been able to maintain more favorable eating and exercise patterns.

Ahi Tuna Salad

Now, when people look at my driver’s license, I often get a second glance because I don’t resemble the person whom Iused to be. In fact I am frequently complimented on how young I look.  At my almost 39 years of age, I feel great and receive verbal praise when I tell my story of how I changed inside-out. I lost that double chin which made me age by 10 years, decreased the waistline, and upgraded from a woman’s size 10 to a size 4.  Furthermore, I no longer have fatty liver and according to my doctor, my blood pressure and blood lab work rate “excellent” for my age. Most importantly, I went from a sedentary lifestyle to an active one which includes jogging 3- to 4-miles outdoors two to three times per week, stair climbing when ever possible, hiking, and dancing when not at the gym.

Spaghetti Squash/Gluten Free Caprese Meatballs

One of the biggest changes I have made is lowering the glycemic load of my meals. I did not know this, but there are different hidden sugars in foods: glucose, sucrose, and fructose. Fructose is the most damaging to the body’s metabolic system. According to my trainer, when we eat foods that raise our blood sugar, the body produces insulin to cleanse the blood of what it considers toxic. Insulin takes the sugar, called glucose, and searches for a place to store it and get it out of the bloodstream. First and second choices are the liver and muscles which have limited storage capacity. The last resort is fat cells, which the body can easily reproduce as needed, to store unneeded sugar.




Excessive levels of sugar in the blood elicits the pancreas to release large amounts of insulin, which moves the sugar into fat cells and depletes the blood of sugar.  This exhaustion of sugar yields extreme hunger often leading to unhealthy food cravings and intake of high-glycemic foods. Consequently, an unhealthy cycle ensues: insulin production–fat creation- hunger–eating high glycemic foods–insulin production–fat creation–hunger...

Chicken

After learning this, my inability to lose weight in spite of hitting the gym everyday and the constant food craze I experienced began to make sense. I was consuming “low fat” fast food on a daily basis because it was convenient at the time, especially during busy work days. However, the high-carb, low-fat diet I’d been putting myself through (which included rice, wheat breads, and salads pumped with salad dressing) was overloading my body with carbohydrate sugars, which made me tired, hungry, and FAT.  I was tested for thyroid/metabolic problems, and soon discovered that the carbohydrates that I was eating were high-glycemic carbs, spiking my blood sugar throughout the day. These carbs were making me hungry--very, very hungry--and I was eating like a bear going into hibernation.

With what I now know, I have eliminated high glycemic foods from my meals--potatoes, white grain breads, crackers, popcorn, pastries, pretzels, commercial cereals, maple flavored syrup, scones, doughnuts, bagels, corn, cookies, dates, watermelon, instant white rice, short grain white rice, tapioca, french fries, soda, commercial fruit juice, and pastas. Uff! Everything else I still eat in moderation. I include protein at every meal, snack on fruits and vegetables, eat approximately every 3 hours and make time to fit in at least a 15 min. work out.

Natural Juice (Apple/Kale Base)

Once in a blue moon, I do get a craving for something dangerously sweet. However, as tempting as it looks, I will pass. I think of my previous life at 156 lbs. with visceral fat that expanded at my waistline and hindered me from simple tasks like tying my shoelaces. As a reminder and testimonial to the efficiency of my insulin and fat cell production days, I decline that cookie..doughnut...cake unless it is a special occasion in which I will have a small piece. Those fat cells, I’ve been told never go away!

I have written this blog to encourage others to assess their current situation and inspire change. I work in skilled nursing facilities where hypertension, diabetes, and renal disease are the norm, and the outcomes most likely cannot change. Often, as I treat these patients, I wonder how much of those outcomes are the result of genetic predisposition versus (and/or possibly accelerated by) previous eating patterns and sedentary lifestyles. Each person is different and there is no magic cookie cutter that can be applied across the board. Fortunately, I have discovered an eating plan and an active lifestyle that works for me. Daily exercise and eating low-glycemic foods feels natural and good to me. 

Leaner and Healthier Me!

Sabbatical--One of the Easiest Things to Do!

I'm smiling because today is my 19th day on a Sabbatical--an extended leave from work to pursue a break for personal development and  leisurely activities. This is the second year, that I go on a sabbatical.  People often seem surprised to learn that I'm not working and that I don't intend to work for more than a month. The concept seems unfathomable to some and I'm often asked how I do it.

Two years ago I was working two jobs with long shifts. I was feeling unmotivated to meet my deadlines and burned out. Inspired by travel blogs, I decided that I would save up enough money to travel for a month. I started packing lunch to work and made downgrades to my lifestyle. Within a year I had saved $10,000 and headed out to Costa Rica where I learned about sustainable development and preservation of natural resources and wild life. Subsequently, I had money left over and traveled to Southern California where I visited my brother, made new friendships, and completed a tour of the S. Coast beaches.

I think that the concept of waiting for retirement to enjoy life is outdated. People should be able to enjoy time off into their career paths while they are still vital, healthy, and full of vigor creativity. I'm a fervent believer that everyone would be much happier if they had a chance at a sabbatical. Fortunately, hundreds of companies today offer paid and unpaid sabbaticals for employees who wish to improve their health, recover from burnout, pursue personal development--one just needs to be  savvy in his/her approach toward selling the idea of  a sabbatical to an employer.

Before my first sabbatical, someone told me that the down economy presented a bad time to take an extended leave and that the break would derail me from my career path. Those words made me feel a bit anxious. I thought of what was at stake--my car, my house, my credit...my oh my. Hence, I had to overcome those mental hurdles and the fear of giving up financial security before undertaking my first sabbatical. Fortunately, I've always been a risk taker, and the risk turned out to be rewarding and beneficial.

I chose to take a sabbatical because I was burned out and lacked motivation. Seeing 20 patients a day in a clinical setting, supervising therapy assistants, and working a second job following the same repetitive pattern while having to catch up on documentation with little time for eating and sleeping proved to be systematic, robotic, and exhausting.  I was not enjoying life anymore.  My life was sleep, eat, work..sleep, eat, work. However, after I mentally committed to taking time off and found myself in the middle of adventures--horseback riding through rapid waters, exploring volcanoes, hiking through forestry terrain with exotic fauna--I was able to return to the fast career track with an optimistic outlook and a newfound desire for more ambitious goals.

Through traveling, I've discovered so many things about myself, as well as, things that I can do to earn a living without feeling stuck in a day to day rut. I've learned that taking a sabbatical does not mean depleting one's life savings or losing focus of one's career path. Money can be a hurdle in this opportunity, however, traveling can be planned so that the cost is less than a fraction of the cost of living. Gone are cable/internet bills, manicures, expensive dinners. In addition, networking opportunities continue to thrive everywhere.

When I took my first extended break, I updated my resume and continued to network online. At the end of my sabbatical tour, I had job interviews lined up and the position of clinical director at an outpatient pediatric clinic was the winner! I had a dream job two weeks after returning from my travels.

Planning without a doubt is fundamental to a successful sabbatical, and this includes developing a plan for covering your financial responsibilities. For me, paying my bills online and using internet cafes to communicate with loved ones while overseas has worked. In addition, investing in a travel health insurance plan has given me a peace of mind.

This being my second year on an extended break from work, I've learned that traveling with a dose of faith is the best way to take a sabbatical. In this type of journey, trusting that everything will turn out right and that the time off will be one of the greatest investments ever is a must. Who says one needs to wait for retirement to enjoy life? Not me! (Big Smile).

If you had the opportunity to take a sabbatical, what kinds of things would you do? Would you learn a new language? Pursue a hobby? Travel somewhere?