This is a story about people who have influenced this journey greatly in the past couple of months.
I have been very frustrated. I have managed to lose a few pounds only to gain it right back. This is mostly because of my failure to stick to any one change that I have tried to make. A couple of weeks ago I stepped on the scale and saw a number that was only two pounds from where I originally started almost 3 years ago when Adam and I came to Claremore.
Enter my sister. Memorial day weekend she proposed a contest. The winner (whoever loses the most weight) gets to have the loser come and visit them, and we included an aunt and cousin who live not that far away. I thought, "This is good, it will be great motivation to get my life in order and really do this thing." Except that I still struggled. Down a couple of pounds, then right back up even more than I had lost. We message each other every week and report progress for accountability. My sister has been dropping pounds left and right. After a bit of discussion she says that she hasn't really been exercising all that much, but just made changes to her diet on her doctors recommendation. She sent me a list of things that she has quit eating. So I made an effort to cut out a lot of the things on her list, and made a little bit of progress.
Enter Dr. Owens. He is not actually my doctor, but a friend from church. He had told me a while ago what changes I should make in my diet and if I would do it I would see serious change. I didn't do it. Until this week! I have been having some pretty severe pain in my arms. I had been using Icy/Hot and taking pain killers before I went to bed just to sleep. Gradually the pain has gotten worse over time. In a moment of desperation I asked Dr. Owens what he thought. (I am generally opposed to asking somebody to do what they do for a living for free). But he was generous and told me to get a different kind of cream that would be an anti-inflammatory. He also said to stay away from "pro-inflammatory foods". I asked him for a list. He said: all grain, sugar (and some other stuff I don't remember, I think because I wasn't eating them anyway).
I have been completely grain free and mostly sugar free since last Monday. I am almost completely pain free and I have not had to use the pain cream since Wednesday. AND...I am losing weight!!
P.S. I don't think I would mind if my aunt or cousin eventually won our contest as long as I can beat my sister, which I fully intend to do.
