So often I get caught up in the craziness of life and give myself a quick reality check. I ask my self "What is most important in my life and to my life?" For me it always comes down to 2 things. My health and my family. Sounds pretty simple right? I guess if you are a high level kind of person you may read this and just move one, but for me I need to dive deeper in the details to get my self on track.
Saying your health is a top priority is great. Making it your top priority often is challenging once you throw in all the stress of life. I remember shortly after my diagnosis back in 2000 saying to my self. "I guess all those thoughts of being healthy are bit too late now." So I went on a tail spin and ignored my health, because I thought I had no options. I figured that I now have MS and I didn't have a say in the matter. Well I could not have been more wrong. I had years of struggles living with an unpredictable decease. There was the complete numbness of my legs, the loss of visions and often pain even to try and walk around. Needless to say I didn't really like it. I had gained tons of weight and was no longer happy with myself or my life. I tried to mask the unhappiness with "FUN" stuff. The problem was I wasn't being honest with myself. I had given up on me because I thought that I had to. I was just going thru the motions in life. I was just doing the "HAVE TO" stuff. I had forgotten about the "SHOULDS" and "WANTS"
I remember early 2005 my Dr (Dr. Brian Apatoff - He is brilliant) tell me for the Umpteenth time that I needed to loose weight. He said I needed to be under 200. I was tipping the scales at 243lbs. I'm only 5'10" (barely) It was unhealthy for anyone, let alone someone living with MS. Over and over I told my self that I "SHOULD" loose weight.
I had always read and had been told that symptoms of MS were brought on by stress, but I never really understood what that fully meant. I remember being at a funeral and someone passing a comment that I overhead "With out your health your nothing" I had heard this old cliche for every, but for some reason this time it struck a cord. So after leaving a stressful event, I started to think about stress. What is it? Where does it come from? Can I control it? If I can reduce it, will it make me feel any better? I know that when it comes to someone passing in our lives we grieve in a certain way. In a sense it is how we not only deal with the loss but deal with the stress. Some are better than others.
So I dove right into - What are the stresses we all experience? I broke it into 3 categories
Chemical
Physical
Emotional
I asked my self "Which of these do I have the ultimate control over?" and the answer was simple. Chemical and Physical. When it came to emotional I couldn't grasp how to get that one under control except for mental therapy, so I dismissed that and figured I would just go and lie on someone's couch for an hour here and there and tell them how I was feeling :)
Now it was time to dig deeper. Chemical stress seemed to be the easiest. I asked myself "Self :) what chemicals do I put in my body?" First that came to mind was alcohol. I learned what it did to the body and kicked that out of my life. Caffeine - I didn't consume much but realized that that made my body race and get hot from the inside which when you have MS you learn quickly that keeping you body temp low is better. Then I looked into what I thought all these crazies were talking about when it came to organic foods. I started to inspect labels and realize that much of what I was eating was loaded with chemicals I'm pretty certain that our bodies where not designed (by whom ever your creator is) to consume and digest what you would find in any so many everyday foods. I mean when was the last time you saw a High Fructose Corn Syrup tree? Do they grow next to the Hydrogenated oil plants? So i made a conscious decision. If I needed a degree in chemical engineering to know what's in my food I'm not eating it. On top of that I learned portion control and lost 30 pounds just changing that. I removed the chemical stress on my body. My body no longer freaked out when it was trying to digest something.
I didn't realize it but changing eating habits and foods helped with physical stress. I first thought physical stress was lifting heavy things. Well it was in a sense the heavy thing, for me I was lifting was my heavy body. I now had lowered the weight of my body and started to feel better. I had eliminated the chemical stress and started to reduce the physical. So I decided to (as Emeril would say) to Kick it up a notch! I started to lay out a plan for exercise. I started on elliptical machines, did some strength training and then a little jumping of rope here and there. It was the most amazing thing. In 9 months time I lost a total of 70 pounds and I was now weighing in at 172 pounds BAMM!
Life had completely changed form me. Everything started to fall into place naturally. That emotional stress that I wasn't sure how to deal with turned out to be easy. I would exercise and it was a great release for me. It was the best double edged sword. If I exercised I was working both on my physical and emotional stress. I have been symptom free since the day I changed my life style. I now find it easier to deal with the curve balls that life throws at me. I have a better relationship with my family and my friends. You find that when you are in a positive place and are involved in healthy activities you find your self surrounded by others with the same goal......... to live a healthy life.
So know I always make time for my 3 loves .......... Family, Exercise and a Healthy life.
See you soon!
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