Battle Of The Bulge

For the greater part of my adult life, I’ve been at war and it all began when my mother died.

I was never what you could call “skinny”. Even as a slim-trim teenager, I was still curvaceous. But in the months following my mom’s death, the inevitable depression and stress that went with it, caused my weight to really get out of control. I was a thirty-year-old mother of two and I was just plain fat.

Apparently, there are many chemical imbalances that can occur in your brain and body when stressed. My metabolism hormones went into hibernation.

I’ve fought and fought for the last 16 years, mostly by myself. I’ve tried just about every popular diet out there—From Atkins to the Zone and nothing worked.

The most success I’ve had to date was when I lost 25 pounds this past year on South Beach. I was also going to the gym 5 days a week. That averages out to a fraction more than two pounds a month. Then the losing stopped and gradually I gained back 15 of those 25 pounds.

When my paychecks came to a screeching halt just before Christmas, I had to drop the gym membership, but I still was eating healthy (with the occasional indulgence in a bowl of ice cream or chocolate cake on special occasions).

According to the laws of physics, if a body consumes fewer calories than it requires to stay alive, that body will become smaller (lose weight).

This is fine—in theory. But I’m baffled as to how a body can consume less than 1200 calories a day, walk half a mile every day with the heart rate at about 120bpm, and still GAIN weight!?!?!?

Enter Dr. Kelley. He’s my new “ladies doctor” and for the first time, I not only have a doctor who is sympathetic to my plight, but who has done extensive research on why women of a “certain age” pack on the pounds for no good reason.

So far, we’ve discovered that my thyroid is lazy. So he put me on Armour Thyroid. Next stop---hormoneville. I’ll know more about those puppies on Friday.

I’ve also started on a program developed by Dr. Mark Hyman, MD, called Ultrametabolism.

Yeah, yeah…I know what you’re thinking…just another fad diet. But I’m not so sure.

He talks a lot about how our bodies react to not only stress, but also from the constant barrage of pollutants and other chemicals we experience on a daily basis.

He discusses food allergies and sensitivities.

Getting to the point of my rather long story here, I’ve just about cleaned out my cupboards and pantry of all “junk” foods. That includes anything with wheat, dairy, high fructose corn syrup and transfats.

For the next 3 weeks I will be the guinea pig in my own experiment and see if I can actually lose weight by treating food as medicine.

I’ll keep you posted.