Introduction: Making Health a Habit picks up where A Dietitian’s Journey left off and provides general health information that can be applied to almost anyone for lowering insulin resistance, keeping blood sugar at a healthy level, maintaining a healthy body weight, or building muscle mass, or may simply be my opinion on different matters related to a low carb or ketogenic diet. Making Health a Habit are short videos (< 5 minutes) or short blogs on health-related topics and are quite different than Science Made Simple articles, which are longer, research-focused articles.
This is the 4th entry in the new series titled “Making Health a Habit”, which can be found here.
This photo was liked 370 times on Twitter and 120 times on Facebook in less than 24 hours, which astounded me. I think it’s because people can identify with what I looked like on the left.
I am a Dietitian but I clearly had a “weight problem”. Despite having 2 degrees on the wall that indicate that I should have “known better” I was still obese. While the BSc from McGill in Nutritional Sciences and the MSc from UBC in Human Nutrition gave me tools that I could apply to myself to lose weight, I found it very difficult to eat a low fat, calorie restricted diet, especially given that all I do all day is talk about food.
Not only was I obese, but I also had Type 2 Diabetes for 8 years and my HbA1C kept gradually rising, year after year. Like many who are in the same boat, I then developed high blood pressure.
I was a mess.
I was a fat Dietitian.
Then I heard about the therapeutic use of a low carbohydrate diet from a retired physician friend and my life, and my clinical practice changed. Not right away, of course — but the more I read in the literature about it, the more I became convinced that this was not something I could simply write off as another “fad diet”.
I began using a low carbohydrate approach with some of my clients and then when I was sick enough and tired enough of feeling ‘sick and tired’, I did for myself what I do for others. I designed a Meal Plan for myself. And the rest, as they say, is ‘history’.
The photo below was the result of a whim to wear the same camisole and crocheted top on Friday night that I wore two years ago — just to see the difference when I’d later compare the two pictures.
When I compared them, it was almost unreal.
I used to look like that and what was far worse, was that I was really metabolically sick.
I’m not any more and I think THAT I am not struck a chord with people.
That is why I think it was liked and shared so much in such a short period of time — because people could identify with the process (either because they’ve been through it themselves or because they want to).
The whole story of reclaiming my healthy (March 5-2017 – March 4, 2019) is under “A Dietitian’s Journey”.
In short, I lost 55 pounds, put the symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes into remission and lowered my blood pressure. I did it without being hungry all the time and without taking medication to accomplish it. I did what I teach my clients to do and no surprise, it worked.
I made reclaiming my health a priority.
As I’ve often explained, I did it “as if my life depended on it” because it did.
Yes, I understand the process from both sides of the clinical desk — as a Dietitian and as a formerly obese person with major health issues.
I hope that by having my “fat pictures” out there from the beginning, I’ve encouraged you that I believed in advance that I was going to be successful. I did.
And here I am.
I haven’t “arrived”. I am simply making health a habit.
If I can help you do the same, please let me know.
To your good health!
Joy
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