Losing weight and staying healthy has been a roller coaster ride my whole life. Sometimes I’m in it to win it, and at other times I just want to rest and relax.
Life happens and thats okay, but what do you do when you’re doing everything right and still failing to achieve the body goals that you want?
Everyone talks about diet, exercise, but no one mentions genetic predisposition, environmental factors, and your body type.
That was me for 3 months straight. I was working out consistently, eating for my body type, refraining from unprocessed foods and sugars, but felt like I should be further along than where I was currently at.
I knew it wasn’t just my ideals, I noticed a few things about my body that weren’t quite right.
Listen to your body
In my experience from years of exercising along with practicing healthy living, I noticed that after months of jogging my body should be conditioned for running about now. Everytime I went jogging I would get a cramp on my right- lower quadrant of my stomach, unless I wore a corset to add support.
While walking, especially incline, I’d be winded, as if my body was working overtime to keep up. I noticed that I had a double chin (not the delicious kind either), which was odd because your face is usually the first thing to slim down to notice your loss of weight.
It felt as if the muscle underneath my tongue was tired and I had difficulty swallowing, it felt restricted. I could never get under 135 lbs. and I thought to myself ‘your just plateuing you just need to adjust your regime’.
When exercising, the first month or two you take a beating, feel exhausted, but eventually your body begins to change. After a while you should feel energized, stronger, then your mood improves along with all of the added benefits. This was quite the opposite for me.
I believe you must listen and become aware to what your body is trying to tell you through pain, headaches, aches, rash, inflammation, energy levels, emotions, moods, and so much more.
Many times we write off these common symptoms as normal and treat it with modern medicine for temporary relief. What we fail to realize is that this is the body’s way of signaling to us that something is wrong or not functioning optimally.
When we dismiss simple things like a headache, mild cramping, or disruptions in sleep patterns because it’s been normalized, sometimes we could be ignoring a bigger health issue that potentially is hiding.
Consult your physician
If you have a physician or holistic practioner that listens to your concerns, and you trust their expertise check-in with them.
Nowadays, you really have to self advocate so that the symptoms you’re experiencing aren’t dismissed, especially if you’re considered to be “young”. (Whatever that means!)
After consulting with a specialist, it was discovered that I had a decent sized ovarian cyst(s) and possible thyroid issues that were affecting my HORMONES!
Although it’s important to consider the recommended care from your specialist, it’s important that you look into understanding your health situation for yourself.
Just because someone says this is the way you should go about doing something doesn’t make it entirely true.
There isn’t only one way to resolve something and that automatically deems it the right way. If you don’t feel at peace with the information you’ve been provided, it’s completely alright to get a second opionion.
You have a right to protect yourself and if anyone has a difference of opinion, it’s not your job to convince them otherwise nor does it have to do with questioning a professional’s ability to do their job well.
Hormones
Who would’ve known hormones play such a significant role in your overall health. The only thing we think about when the word comes to mind is what we’ve been taught in science class. The transition we experience in our bodies as part of adolescence and for birth control.
According to Hormone.org, “Each part of your body from your brain to your skin, your heart, your kidneys, and your muscles has a specific job. They take direction from your endocrine system to get the work done. The glands of the endocrine system send out hormones that tell each part of your body what work to do, when to do it, and for how long. Hormones are vital to your health and well-being
Hormones are your body’s chemical messengers. They travel in your bloodstream to tissues or organs to help them do their work. They work slowly, over time, and affect many different processes, including:
- Growth and development
- Metabolism – how your body gets energy from the foods you eat
- Sexual function
- Reproduction
- Mood
Sometimes hormones get out of balance. That can lead to problems like diabetes, weight gain or loss, infertility, weak bones, and other problems.”
Do your own research
I respect my specialist and followed the instructions I was given. I did see a few symptoms turn around for the better. However I realized it was just treating some of the primary symptoms temporarily, barely touching the surface of a bigger problem internally while leading to other reactions.
I did a lot of trial and error with diet, food, exercise, and supplements to really narrow down different inflammations and to identify how my body responded.
I started to research the health benefits of different foods, and began to follow multiple hollistic doctors, nutrionalists, and fitness gurus on Instagram and Youtube. I didn’t want to become dependent upon mainstream medical care and wanted to heal my body from the inside out.
As a result from taking my health into my own hands, I was able to self-diagnose from months of research which would have cost me several trips to the doctors, pointless lab tests, and hundreds if not thousands of dollars for medical care.
Your health is a journey
I’m sure you’ve had a conversation with a girlfriend describing her experience with a new birth control she was prescribed and how much weight she gained while using it.
Many women have become aware of the side effects from using hormonal birth control, or ingesting hormones found in our foods. It’s not just women who are affected by hormones. We don’t hear often talked about in the media, but hormones affect men as well.
Our bodies are so complex and how we think, eat, and what we physically do affect every part of it. We must remember that our body has it’s own unique way of processing everything and in order to live healthfully we should be mindful to learning about how it does just that!
My Real Flex 