About Me
The journey to making my midlife marvelous
I am a passionate health advocate and love all things related to health. But, that has not always been the case. It wasn’t until my mid 40’s that I found some answers after a lifetime of struggling to lose weight. Having been a chubby child to an adult peak weight of 222 lbs, diet and exercise were not a part of my lifestyle. I was healthy enough but never thought I could be “normal sized”. It wasn’t until my mid 40’s that things clicked. With great support and a lot of learning along the way, I lost the weight and kept it off for 4 years until….menopause!
Despite maintaining the new lifestyle changes
I had made, doing all the same things I had done to lose the weight and keep it off, my weight began to creep back. I was “that certain age” said doctor after doctor. Frustrated and angry, I sought out and eventually found more holistic care for my health.
With all that I have learned over the course of my journey I want to help other women with similar issues. As a National Board Certified Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach, I hope this website and the resources I have to offer can help you on your journey as well.
Being overweight was not new to me. I grew up that way. Yet with a background in science education, an above average understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of it all, losing the weight I wanted was always illusive to me until one morning I had a shift in my perspective about it all. Instead of wanting to lose a certain amount or be a certain size, I wanted to know what it was like to be ‘normal sized’. What would that feel like? Now I had something to move towards instead of something to move away from. It was this shift that became my sustainable motivation.
Before the before…
In my mid-40’s my knees began to ache. The discomfort likely would not have been significant enough for me to take notice of if it were not for the daily nursing home visits I was making to see my mother-in-law. My kids were in high school and still as a stay-at-home mom I had the flexibility in my schedule to make the morning check-in for the family.
This experience gave me the opportunity to look down the road a bit and see what a loss of mobility and ability to take care of day-to-day selfcare could look like. Having read that every extra pound of weight is the equivalent of 4 extra pounds of pressure on your knees, it did not take too much imagination to envision my children making trips to see me in such a care facility some day.
After the after…
Over the course of the next year, I lost about 40 pounds and began to evolve my diet and lifestyle to support my health and wellness. Doing all the same things I had done to lose the weight and keep it off for over 4 years, my weight began to creep back. To say the least, this was frustrating! Knowing that what I was doing had worked before, I turned to several doctors for help. “Well you know you are getting to be that certain age” was their repeated message. WHAT?
I have been called stubborn but I like to think of it as tenacious, I could not accept menopause, a natural cycle and time of life, to be the reason I had to gain weight! Why did that have to be a part of it? This is when I sought out more holistic care for my health.
Fast forward to the 8th month checkup following my hysterectomy. With some gynecological issues along the way, I was just sure that the fibroids and ovarian cyst causing my uterus to be ‘nearly full-term’ in size was the cause of the midlife weight I had regained and could not lose despite doing everything I had done to lose and maintain my weight loss for over 4 years.
As the doctor was finishing up and about to leave the room, I summoned the courage to bring up the topic of my weight. For those of you who have struggled with your weight, the topic is super sensitive and …..”Ummm, I’m still having trouble losing weight,” I said, and my doctor’s response surprised me this time. “What? We talking 10-15 pounds? (Yep! 12 to be exact) I’ve got just the thing!”
Pulling out his prescription pad he began to write.
Guessing he had forgotten my stance again taking any sort of hormone replacements I interrupted, “I don’t want to take any synthetic hormones,” I said, interrupting his writing. “Oh! This isn’t a hormone! It’s an appetite suppressant! Just stop at the front desk on your way out and the girls will give you a sample” And with that he handed me the prescription and started to leave the room. With one hand on the doorknob, knocked on the wall with the other saying, “and so far no one has had any side effects” and left the room.
I would be lying to tell you I was not just a little bit hopeful. Could it be as easy as taking a pill? Yet a quick search online revealed that this particular prescription was made up of two main ingredients – one was an antidepressant, the other a drug given to opioid addicts. It was then that I became enraged! How many other midlife women had been given the same prescription? What were the long term costs? Did anyone care? This is when I discovered functional medicine – root cause medicine and I finally found some real answers.
The journey from “before” to “after” is ongoing.
Now that I am in my 50s, the lifestyle changes I have made along the way are more important than ever. As my body changes with age, my diet and exercise regimens have had to change, too.
I have gone on to become a National Board Certified National Board Certified Functional Medicine Certified Health and Wellness Coach. Being a health coach is a new opportunity for me in my “parenthood retirement.” Not only am I helping myself continue to stay healthy, now as a health coach I am able to use what I have learned on my own journey to support others along their path to attain their goals. This journey has literally taken my life in an amazing new direction for my empty nest years!