Hope

Hope is a feeling of expectation for a certain outcome.  We generate forward progress with hope.  We hope for a job when we apply, we hope for a medal when we compete, or we hope to improve our health at the beginning of a new year. But what happens when the expected outcome doesn’t happen?  As long as we have hope, we continue to strive for progress., but when hope is tamped due to unexpected outcomes, it dwindles.

For years I counted calories and balanced that with exercise; the calories in, calories out mantra.   And for years I gained weight.  Losing hope in my own health, I succumbed to the belief that this was how my health would be.  For a decade I accepted “the fact” that as a middle-aged woman I am supposed to gain more body fat.  It’s part of life.  I continued day-in and day-out losing hope with each pound. I wavered between living moment to moment and struggling with “willpower”.  My hope to be a healthy grey-hair was gone.  My blood pressure was rising along with my blood sugar.  I felt bloated all the time and my legs were so swollen, they hurt. My skin stretched around my belly like it did with pregnancy. 

Fifteen months ago, I was at the end of my hope-rope and took a chance.  I decided to try a taboo approach to nutrition and greatly reduce carbohydrates.  “This will be a trial, but it won’t last long.”  A scary step indeed, but it proved to be the best experiment I’ve ever done.   Within the first month, I knew I had something solid.  The next few months my hope returned.  I continued to make improvements to my nutrition changes. I saw results, but most importantly, I finally felt in control of my health.

People are told, once they cross the type 2 diabetes threshold, they have it for life.  That is a devastating prognosis, and those people lose all hope of living a normal life.  Time after time, doctor’s prescribe blood pressure medication and patients know they will be on it for the rest of their lives.  The hope of being healthy is gone.  Until now!  There is hope!!  There is hope to improve or reverse chronic disease.

Does this sound like your story?  Contact me at Start Well Stay Well if it is.  I can help you find hope again.