The Ongoing Saga of a Girl and Her Scale
by Karin L. Nauber
Every year I talk about weight loss, probably to the point that people get sick of hearing about it.
Today I will “not” be talking about weight loss specifically, but generally as the result of healthier eating.
Since there won’t be a Be A Loser With Karin contest this year, my mom, my sister and I decided to do our own contest.
We all know one thing to be true, we want to be healthier. If we lose some weight as a result of that, great! If we don’t, but we see other effects from our efforts, that’s great, too!
All three of us have struggled with our health over the years. Some of it is a direct result of being overweight. Conversely, some is not. One thing rings true through all of it, though—we need to eat healthier.
My mom and I struggle with type 2 diabetes. We have high blood sugar numbers and it has been an ongoing struggle for us.
I was watching the inaugural episode of The Biggest Loser on the USA Network and one of the men was told he has type 2 diabetes.
He said, “I figured.”
He knew what he was doing was unhealthy, but he continued to do it (eat unhealthy foods) anyway.
He added he had eaten himself “into sickness.”
There are so many of us who have done the same thing. In fact, according to The Biggest Loser Host Bob Harper, 40% of Americans are now obese. Not just overweight or a little pudgy, but obese!
According to the Webster Dictionary, obese means: excessively corpulent; fat; fleshy.
Ugh... It doesn’t sound good.
According to Wiktionary, obese is defined as: Extremely overweight, especially: weighing more than 20% (for men) or 25% (for women) over their ideal weight determined by height and build; or, having a body mass index over 30 kg/m2.
According to my height and build my Body Mass Index (BMI) is 41.7.
The BMI categories are:
• Underweight = <18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5–24.9
• Overweight = 25–29.9
• Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater
They didn’t include morbid obesity in this list, but according to my last doctor visit, I am morbidly obese.
So, what is a person to do?
Well, eating healthy is the first step in combating any illness, at least according to some doctors and health professionals.
From my personal experience, medications don’t really work, they just mask the problem. But eating more healthy, that has made a huge difference.
By eating healthy, I lost weight, lowered my blood sugar readings and the amount of insulin I had to take. Plus I felt better. Some aches and pains that I had been feeling just were not there anymore.
Eating in a healthy fashion takes a lot of work. You have to tell yourself “no” to certain things, but the end result is worth it.
I will keep you updated on my mom, my sister and my weight loss/healthy eating plan. Feel free to join us, if you like. The winner gets their choice of a nice homemade meal of healthy foods!
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