My Oola Journey: From Fat to Fabulous

Sometimes small changes result in big payoff.  I have lost 3 pounds since my last blog, putting me at a total of 6 pounds down.  My Oola goal for 2015 in the area of fitness is to lose 50 pounds, exercise 5 times per week and to eat healthier.  I am well on my way.

I am definitely eating healthier.  I do have a protein shake most mornings for breakfast.  I mix it with frozen fruit.  Lunch is soup or a salad or something on the healthier side along with fruit.  I also have a midmorning snack of fruit, a protein chew or both.  For dinner, I eat fresh -- salmon, 93% lean beef or chicken along with veggies and a small starch -- whole grain rice or a sweet potato.  I have given up all artificially sweetened foods/drinks and no saccharin -- something I grew up on.  It is a hard habit to break since it has been ingrained in me from childhood.  I think our family was one of the first to adapt saccharin as one of the five food groups!  Even my children's pediatrician ok'd me giving them aspartame.  I now shudder at the thought!  I have also given up coffee for herbal tea -- an even harder habit to break; and truth be told, I relapsed twice this week.  However, the payoff was steep.  Acid reflux that stayed with me all day!  Not cool. 

I am learning that eating healthy does not necessarily take a lot of time in the kitchen.  Cooking salmon is actually really fast and I can steam veggies in the microwave.  Twenty minutes at best -- probably less time than driving to the fast-food restaurant and waiting in line for a meal!    I shopped larger items at the mainstream grocery store and the rest at Trader Joe's which does not add GMO's to their food.  If you want to be scared into "Eating Straight",  read up on those.  They've been in our food supply for probably something like 20 years.  The scariest part?  We have no idea what these will do to the human body for the long-term!

I am not going to lie.  This is not easy.  There are some days I would kill for a donut and our school has been quite generous by keeping a supply in the mailroom; as a matter of fact, twice this week!   Fortunately, unless I really have to, I can avoid the mailroom by asking my aide to check my mailbox while she gets her own coffee.  I also have gone to bed with my stomach growling more nights than not.  But, I am eating well and I am not starving myself.  My stomach just has not gotten the message that this is forever.  It is not happy.  It is complaining-- loudly!  I also know that it will live -- as will I.  And probably longer than it would have otherwise! 

The smaller payoff for all of this is getting to put a sticker on a surfboard next year at OolaPalooza 2015, signifying I have met my goal.  The larger payoff is when my monthly pharmacy bill goes from $150 to $50 and my risk of a heart attack and stroke are reduced significantly.  It's sort of like when Glinda has that final conversation with Dorothy.

Dorothy: Oh, will you help me? Can you help me?
Glinda: You don't need to be helped any longer. You've always had the power to go back to Kansas.
Dorothy: I have?
Scarecrow: Then why didn't you tell her before?
Glinda: Because she wouldn't have believed me. She had to learn it for herself. (www.filmsite.org)

You see, like Dorothy, I've always had the power -- I've just had to learn it for myself. 

 And so, I continue this journey.  I have many people walking beside me.   I hope this article has helped you to realize that you too have the power to change.  Change is hard -- no question-- but sometimes, it is necessary.  I've gone through many changes these last two years and continue to strive to improve myself.  My Oola journey is not nearing an end but rather, just beginning.  I hope, if nothing else,  I am an example that you are never too old to become the person you want to be.  Dream big.  Then, throw that dream away and dream bigger.  I am going after my Oola life -- isn't it time to start going after yours?