Look for the good

As Sally sipped her coffee that morning, she found herself looking outside. She loved watching the traffic on the streets and children at the play ground having fun on a summer morning.The more she watched them, the more she remembered what it was like to be a kid and have all that energy. Now as an adult she was lucky to have enough energy to last a day. As she was watching them her phone made her aware she had an incoming message from someone. She turned and reached for the phone that was sitting on her desk. She woke it up and checked the messages. It was from her doctor with the results from her recent blood work. Not realizing what she would be reading she opened the app, and clicked on test results.

She sat down as she began reading them. So far everything looked good or at least in the normal range, until she came to two that were not. One result was two high the other two low. She wrote them down and looked them up. When she read the treatment she made an appointment to speak with the doctor and see what she could do to prevent the ultimate treatment options that would put her on dialysis several days of the week.

The things she learned that she could do now was eat better and exercise. The other treatment was take medication to even things out. And she did not want to be on medication if she could help it, so she made a decision until she spoke with her doctor to eat better and start exercising.

And because she knew from her last doctor she had a strong heart despite her families history. So she decided to start looking up exercises which were at her level of fitness right now. But before she sat down to look up workouts, she chose to clean out her pantry and get rid of foods that were not good for her. She had them in her kitchen because she liked the taste and it made her feel good.

While she didn’t want to throw anything away she didn’t want it so visible either so she she decided to just reorganize the shelves, so the foods she needed to cut back on were on a separate shelf, away from the other items. Even though she would have to cut back on them, when she did eat them, she would eat slower and enjoy them. When she was done, she had spent an hour cleaning and organizing her kitchen. And she felt like she had a worked out at a gym.

Now sitting down and taking a break, she looked up how many calories she had just burned cleaning her pantry. When s looked at the numbers, she was surprised that she burned 85 calories. Just from the chart she found those 85 calories were only for 30 minutes. And looking at her clock she was well past that because it took her 30 minutes just pulling everything out of the pantry. She couldn’t believe she was so out of breath. Before she did anything else she decided to sit and have some water.

The next thing Sally decided to do was make a list of all her activities and look up just how many calories she burns when she did them. Things like make the bed and clean the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. As well as vacuum, dust, put groceries away. Things she did every day that she never thought of as exercise and could be a benefit to her.

Now with a new energy she began to see the positive where before there was negative. AS she looked at her list, she thought about her childhood and all the times she turned bad news into good news. And she wanted this time to be no different. She was still the same person, she had just gotten older and unfortunately heavier. But now she was going to get in touch with who she was and remember how she didn’t let bad news stop her from the good things in life. When she finished her list she found herself smiling. Now she would have something to take to her doctor and show her what she had come up with between the results and visit.

Days quickly passed and Sally now sat in the waiting room awaiting her turn to go back. As she waited, her eyes scanned the area around her and watched as people walked back and forth on their way to various places in the building, Then she turned and watched the cars which drove back and forth and wondered where they were heading and what was happening in their lives.

She turned away from the window when she overheard a couple talking and it was then she thought about the goal she wanted to achieve and ways she wanted to do that. Eating and exercising was one of them. The other was becoming more flexible and able to walk from one place to another without tripping, falling, and losing her balance. But the biggest was to stay off meds as much as she could.

Soon the inner door opened and out came a nurse holding a folder. After looking at the name she looked at the lobby where she saw several siting.

“Sally Morris,” the nurse said as she looked around. Sally smiled as she got up and grabbed her purse and notebook. She then followed the woman through the doors and followed her to the dreaded scale. “Let’s see what you weigh.” The nurse said smiling at Sally.

“You don’t want to know, I sure don’t.” Sally laughed.

“It can’t be that bad. Besides we can do something about that once we know how much you weigh.”

“I know, I spent the week cleaning out my pantry and reorganizing it. Not to mention looked up how many calories various activities burn.”

“Oh yea? That’s good.” She said as Sally tentatively stepping up onto the scale.

Sally stood as the woman moved the slide back and forth while the balance evened out.

“Okay you are at 187.6.” She said as she jotted the numbers down and Sally stepped off. “What is your target weight?” She then asked as they walked to a room.

“Even though the charts say 155 is still to much, that’s what I’m shooting for. Because that’s where I’m most comfortable at. I was at that weight a few years ago and liked it.”

“Okay, I’ll make note of that,”she said as the two stepped into a room and the door closed behind them.

Within minutes the rest of the vitals had been taken and Sally was left alone to wait for the doctor to come in.

After only a few minutes there was a knock on the door before it opened and Sally heard a friendly greeting. “Hey there Sally, how are you?”

“Doing good, and you?” Sally answered as the door closed for the second time and the doctor came in and took a seat at the computer and woke it up.

“Fine,” the doctor said as she finished updating the file and now turning to face Sally. “So,” she began taking a deep breath, “lets talk about the test results.”

“Good, because they have me little concerned.” Sally said taking a deep breath.

“After I read them, I had to do something and looked up treatments to both. And the one thing or things I saw was drink more water, exercise and eat better. All of which I could do while I waited to see you.”

“Okay,” Doctor Rogers said shaking her head, “ we can work on that.

“ Another thing we can try and it has been proven to work, is prescribe a Vitamin D tablet. You take it once a week for 12 weeks then we can take another set of test and see where we are. That along with water, eating better and exercising should show some better results. And at the end of 12 weeks we can see how much weight you have lost.

“So the low Vit. D isn’t worrisome?”

“I’m not real worried about that , only because I’ve seen numbers like this since the start of last year, and every time we have been able to get the numbers to where they should be. A vitamin once a week will help."

“Then let’s do it.” Sally said smiling and confident that she and her doctor were heading in the right direction. Because of her past and family history she did not like taking pills, whether prescribed or not. And when they met for the first time, she laid all that out to her and why. Since then med’s were the last resort.

After a few more minutes they made a plan to get the numbers right and start to get the weight where it should be. Then Sally headed out stopping at the desk and made an appointment for 12 weeks to see where the numbers were.

Before Sally got back home, she stopped at the store and grabbed skinless chicken breasts and a salad. as well as some sherbet for dessert. She was serious about not wanting to be on medications if there was a better way to get back into better health, and if that was diet and exercise, then that’s what she was going to do.

That night while she ate, she began a journal of her journey to better health. To start the journal she began with her thoughts of what the recent doctor visit had uncovered. And she entitled that chapter ‘test results’

'My story for this stage of my life began a few days ago when I received the test results from my doctor. But if I were to be honest, my weight loss battle began when I was in 3rd grade. and went went from 99 lbs to 100 lbs. It was also the day my mother’s words would haunt me for the rest of my life. After she looked at the scale she just said ' get used to it that’s the way it is in our family.’ And she walked out of the bathroom where I had weighed.’Those words haunted me for the rest of my life.'

After writing that paragraph, she stopped as she remembered that scene from her past. And how hurt she was after hearing them. In fact, they still haunted her and thus began the roller coaster of diets in her life. Unfortunately nothing worked because she had seen them all wrong, because the minute she stopped dieting and went back to normal living she got heavy gain. After a few more moments she began writing again.

As of writing this entry I am 57 years old and looking at my life and health in a whole new way. Because I have always used writing as a problem solver these entries are no exception. Since I have already cleaned my kitchen and pantry the second thing I must do is find workouts I can do that will not cause injury. Third, I am going to do is find apps for my phone where I can keep track of food and exercises. As well as my weight so I can see the numbers vanish before I eyes. More later.’ Sally wrote before she set her journal aside to finish her meal.

Once her meal was done, she headed to the kitchen washed her dishes and went back to her desk. Now that she ready to look for workouts that would get her body moving. From past experience she knew she would not continue with workouts alone and not without motivation. And she needs to do this systematically using this experience as a research project. Sharing her ups and down with others showing them they were not alone anymore than she is now.

She clicked on several videos of workouts and watched to see if she could do them. If she couldn’t she moved onto the next. Finally she found three channels on social media focusing on those in their 50’s.”

Finally, she had 3 different channels she liked and saved them to play when she set up her workout schedule. And that was the next thing she did. She would get up at 7:00 am, get dressed,before having coffee, and breakfast about 8-9 am. Once breakfast was done, and logged - which she found beneficial so she could see just what she was putting into her body, she clicked on one of the videos set her workout timer and began. She would also weigh once a week and track that so she could see the change in numbers. Whether they were good or bad.

She made sure every stage in her new lifestyle and adventure was written down with feelings and true results. Nothing would be sugar coated because she wanted to show while it was hard to accomplish a healthy lifestyle, with a doctors care she (and anyone ) could and would improve her heath and feel better as a result. She wanted to make it fun and productive as well.

After she had worked out for a few days she found herself writing her feelings and what she had discovered.

‘Today has been a week since I began exercising and eating better. So far its going well but there are moments when I am working out that I want to give up because the workouts are so hard and tiring. In those moments I feel like there is no way I can or will get past the pain and soreness. While I don’t want to give up and go back to the way things were, there is so far left to go. Every minute feels like agony, I know my heart is healthy and will get stronger the more I continue to exercise and listen to my body. I cannot quit and give up now. After all this is my life, so So from now on I am going to take one day at a time one step at a time and focus on here and now instead of the future and how far I have left to go.”

And as she ended writing in her journal about how she is feeling, her timer went off signaling it was time for her afternoon workout of 39 minutes. She closed her book, and cued up the workout video she would be following that day.

After 12 weeks of being on the meds she was feeling better and stronger than she had been when she began. She also felt confident that her doctor would like the changes and encourage her to continue After all, she lost 14 pounds and was seeing a difference in her clothing. She also realized she had not been eating when she was bored but choosing to exercise and workout instead. She was feeling more energetic. Instead of fearing the scale and what her doctor would say, Sally couldn’t wait to make an appointment and see her.

When she concluded writing her journal, her last words were: “what you have read was one woman’s attempt to turn bad news into good news and become successful in her health and lifestyle. if I can do it so can you.”

The end.

“PS, The next weekend I found myself going to the play ground when it was empty, not to play on the equipment mind you, but to run on the track that sat next to it. I had a great time.