From couch potato to marathon girl
Now that I am at a healthy weight for more than two years, people often assume I have always been this way. They think I am naturally thin and active, and have always eaten healthy foods. They think I am just very different from them. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. In this post, I’ll give a chronology of my weight loss and healthy eating efforts. I do not remember exactly when things began to change, but I do not think that that is very important.
- At age fourteen, I decided to become a vegetarian because I thought factory farming was cruel. I still ate lots of cheese, though. I thought being a vegetarian made me quite healthy, but I really was eating very badly with lots of processed junk foods. During one period in my life my favorite food (next to potato chips, of course) was dried pasta with dried sauce in a bag. Just add water and stir and you have a meal. I shudder to think about this.
- During pregnancy I was aware that I should watch what I eat. I quit diet soda because of the aspartame in it (better safe than sorry, I thought). I stopped drinking alcohol and eating soft cheeses. I took a good quality multivitamin and made sure to eat vegetables every day. I thought I was eating pretty well, not great, but good enough. I was still eating potato chips every day though.
- When my daughter was six months she started solids. She did not react well to solid foods. I started researching what to give her, and started reading about healthy foods. This is when I started to realize I was obese, and that obesity really is bad for you. Before that, I thought it was inactivity that was bad, or the fact that most obese people eat unhealthy. Now I realized that the fat itself was bad. I read that obesity was as bad as or worse than smoking. I read about how terrible a disease diabetes was (naively, I thought diabetes was just a nuisance nowadays, but very manageable). I wanted to be a healthy mother for my daughter, so I decided to lose weight. It was hard to find time for proper exercise, but I went for a long walk with my daughter in a baby carrier every day. I also started to eat healthier, but I did not really know what healthy eating was. I read every health guru on the internet and only got more confused. Restricting calories worked very well though, so I lost weight pretty quickly.
- I read that losing weight while breastfeeding is not recommended by some authorities because losing weight releases toxins in your breast milk. I thought it was very strange that everybody agreed that this was bad, but that nobody seemed to think the obvious solution was to make sure there were less toxins in our bodies in the first place. I started to realize that everything is connected. What we eat, what we use to clean our houses, what the factories use to make the products we buy, it all ends up in the environment, and eventually in our bodies, breast milk and babies.
- I stumbled upon “Eat, Drink and Be Healthy” from Walter Willett in the library. This was the first book about health and nutrition that made sense to me. I decided to limit potato products (including chips) and eat more whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Eating more grains does not seem like such a good idea in hindsight, but the upshot is that I ate lots of vegetables with the rice and whole wheat pasta.
- I stumbled upon some great recipes for beans (chickpeas and lentils). I always thoroughly disliked beans, so this was a major change. I found out that eating healthier could actually be delicious.
- I learned about the concept of inflammation. I browsed through Inflammation Nation. This was a small breakthrough, because I realized that this may be why vegans are quite healthy after all. If you are a vegan, you completely eliminate most problem foods with regards to inflammation. I still love books that do not advocate a vegan diet, but fit in perfectly with the vegan lifestyle.
- I discovered the vegan health guru’s (Fuhrman, McDougall, Ornish) through the boards at vegsource. I was astounded that there were actually people, MD’s even, that went vegan for health reasons. I had wanted to go vegan for a long time, but thought it would be too difficult and too unhealthy. And here were people who did not even care about the animal rights aspect, they were on a vegan diet because they thought it was the healthiest diet in the world. I admit, that when I first discovered Fat Free Vegan I thought they were very mistaken. I was still convinced of the benefits of a fairly high fat diet, as recommended by Willett, and I thought a low fat vegan diet must be worst of all, because it would be very high in carbohydrates. My interest was caught though. After I read Eat to Live I decided to become vegan again. Dr. Fuhrman addressed many of my concerns with the low fat diets (he agrees that low fat is not ideal for most people — they should add nuts, seeds and avocado’s). I still was not entirely convinced that this was the perfect diet to eat, but I decided it was good enough.
- I started to run. I started with a very easy run-walk schedule that gradually built up to running 30 minutes at a time. Now I run for 30 minutes three times a week and I know I will run a marathon someday.
This is where I am now. I may not yet eat as healthy as I would like, I may not exercise as much as I would like, but I know how far I have come and how easy it goes. I know that I will continue to improve with small steps; this works much better for me than radically changing my lifestyle. I have no intention of ever going back to my former lifestyle.
I once heard that people tend to overestimate the progress that they can make in a short time, but underestimate what they can do in the long run. Three years ago I was a completely different person. Losing weight has made a dramatic impact on me. Not only do I feel much better, I also now know that I can do much more than I thought. I feel responsible for my life and making the best of it. This did not happen overnight, but a few years is a very short time when it comes to health. Start making a commitment to your health today. If you cannot completely go Fuhrman (or whatever your ideal is) now, just do what you can do.
Cintia said,
June 30, 2006 at 3:14 pm
Congrats on the progress which is really a victory in my eyes. I read your blog often and I really enjoy it. I hope to start running and keep it as a habit for the rest of my life. I still have a while to go and I realize I need some goals and lots of motivation. Thanks for being an inspiration. Have a blessed weekend, Cintia.
helena said,
June 30, 2006 at 11:41 pm
Thank you Cintia! I hope you’ll love running as much as I do. And I think we all have a while to go. It is important to recognize the small steps on the way. I often noticed small victories, like you describe on your blog about suddenly noticing that you really do not need that cupcake. Those are powerful moments, cherish them. I wish you a wonderful weekend as well!
Weight Loss Motivation Blog said,
July 2, 2006 at 12:06 am
Very inspiring story!!! Losing weight goes a long way in shaping one’s life for the better! Keep up the great work! ~ Terry
Sasha said,
July 6, 2006 at 1:10 am
Way to go, girl!
Your success really lies in realizing that the choice of your diet influences your health about 20%, while the rest will be determined by the person within! Keep up with that attitude and see if you can “spread the word” accross.