Overcoming Obesity - My Wife Writes:
Three years ago, I couldn't walk a block down the street. I would start having asthma problems (I was on two drugs to control it), and heart palpitations. I suffered from migraines. Low back pain. PMS so bad that when that time of the month came around, I would do nothing but vomit and cry for a week. I couldn't sleep. I was allergic to everything and taking three drugs to keep me from sneezing constantly. My blood pressure was through the roof - 180/90. I never had any energy and my mood sucked. When I did sleep, I would wake up feeling terrible - like I needed a pot of coffee to function. I craved starchy foods and sugar. I was constantly hungry. My hands and feet would fall asleep at night because of poor circulation. I was borderline type 2 diabetic. I even needed sunglasses on really dark cloudy days.In addition to the asthma medications, the allergy medications, and the painkillers, I was also taking birth control pills. The people at Planned Parenthood didn't want to renew my prescription because my blood pressure was so high that any little thing that made it worse was considered a real threat to my continued existence. It was thought that I wouldn't really need birth control because of my weight issues anyway, but they looked for an alternative to humor me.
Not only had I been dieting since the age of fourteen, but the first doctor I saw about my health photocopied the food pyramid and told me to eat better. The second doctor I saw didn't touch on diet at all and started writing me prescriptions for medications that cost upwards of $200. It was finally my mother who asked the question, "Why is my oldest daughter so unhealthy and overweight when she grew up eating the same thing as everyone else in the house, and now eats better than the rest of us do?" She went back to school to find a solution.
And she did. No, I haven't lost more than 75 pounds in the last three years because for one of those years, I actually got pregnant and had a kid. But I did lose that much weight. I'm off all prescriptions. My blood pressure was last 112/70. I don't know my BMI because my mom doesn't consider it a usable number when measuring personal health, and my doctors haven't ever cared. I don't have asthma problems anymore. I still do suffer from allergies to penicillin and something in natural cold remedies that I haven't been able to isolate yet (thank goodness it wasn't actually bananas), but I don't suffer from pollen allergies, allergies to dogs or cats, or any other thing in that vein. My PMS is gone. So gone that I frequently forget I'm going through that time of the month. I don't get migraines. I don't have low pack pain. I'm not a total nervous wreck, and I only need to wear sunglasses when it's super bright outside (my pupils now actually dilate and contract like they're supposed to). I can sleep.
So, what was the solution? Simple: complete nutrition. I was on a diet of mostly pasta, with a variety of different sauces and meats, to be sure, but still mostly pasta. When my mom told me that I was killing myself with my food, I changed my diet overnight.
I won't lie: it sucked. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, for those first two weeks. It was hell. I had cold sweats, total lethargy, horrible mood swings, and full-body ache for two weeks straight. But that's what getting over an addiction is like.
The diet I ended up with is the Fire Your Doctor diet. It's simple: eat whole food, grown as nutritiously as possible, with no soy. Of course, there are a lot of details, and Michael (the writer of Fire Your Doctor) gives you a lot of help in finding those foods you need, but once you internalize the basic concept (and get over the sugar/flour addiction), it's easy to follow. I eat whenever I want to, I'm never hungry, and I can even eat things like ice cream (as long as it's a whole, natural food - I make mine myself!)
I think everyone deserves to be as healthy as I am today - and I know better than most people just how dramatically your life can change! Just do some research into whole foods, and if you don't feel confident enough in what you find, check out what the experts say!