Got Wellness?


We have all heard that saying, “if you have your health, you have everything.” And we all know the things we are supposed to be doing to be healthy-move more, eat less processed food, eat more fruits and vegatables, manage stress. So if wellness is so simple, how come I was struggling so much? In the first 35 years of my life, I managed to put myself through college and medical school, marry an awesome guy, manage a successful practice, cultivate strong relationships with friends and family, enjoy lots of hobbies. So why did I weigh 228 pounds? I have learned that there are as many reasons for unhealthy behavior as there are people. My hope is that by telling you a bit about my journey from unwell to well, you might begin to understand what those reasons are for you. It took me 11 years to finally get to a place where I can honestly say I am optimally fit and healthy. By sharing my story, maybe you can learn from my mistakes and my successes and create your own wellness success story! And maybe it won’t take you more than a decade to get there!

Genetics play a role in obesity, no question. So coming from a family where everyone struggles with weight, and food was a central theme, I tended to rationalize my weight gain. “I just have the W----- Stomach, it’s ok, we’re big people”. I played the overweight- but -healthy game for a while. My blood pressure and cholesterol were normal, my mobility wasn’t affected—I even walked a full marathon--all 26.2 miles-- weighing 208 pounds. My plan worked until age 36, when I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, pre-diabetes, and the beginnings of high cholesterol. The W------ Stomach, I was willing to live with, but the Wxxxxxx High Blood Pressure-Diabetes-High Cholesterol Trio was not in my plan, because, as a physician, I knew the Wxxxxx Heart Attack-Stroke was just around the corner. I couldn’t keep lying to myself—my weight really was affecting my health, and I decided to do something about it. I joined Weight Watchers and I started adding little bursts of running to my walking. I learned how to cook delicious, healthy food on the weekends and freeze it in individual portions. Slowly, I started losing weight. I felt fantastic! I maintained a weight of around 175 pounds, I became a triathlete, I got into lifting weights. I was very proud of my accomplishments, and quite content to stay here—maintaining 175 was fairly painless. I was able to go off my high blood pressure medicine, I was no longer pre-diabetic, and my cholesterol readings were improving. Once in a while, I wondered what it would be like to be one of those fast runners in my running group, but I assumed that lean people probably subsisted on plain chicken breast and steamed broccoli, and I just wasn’t willing to live a life of deprivation.

When Fxxxx Hxxth xxxx xxxxxx rolled out our Employee Wellness Plan in April of 2007, honestly, I joined because of the free gym membership. We filled out a survey about our lifestyle habits, and I wasn’t surprised to discover that I had an Ideal rating in the categories of Exercise, Nutrition, Stress, Smoking, Vehicle Safety, Cholesterol, and Blood Pressure. On my summary sheet, there was one, lone, big black box that extended into the Borderline Range—BMI, or body mass index, basically a calculation using your weight and your height. My BMI was 26.4, placing me in the Overweight category. I was mad! Here I was successfully maintaining a 60 pound weight loss, I took no prescription medications, I was lifting weights, doing triathlons, wearing size 12’s. Initially, I thought about rationalizing my high BMI as just a result of how muscular I was getting in the gym, but unfortunately, that just wasn’t the case. At 5 foot 6.5 inches and 168 pounds, I really was carrying extra body fat. When I took a good, hard look at my nutrition, and started looking at the “extras” I included daily, I realized that maybe it was worth trying to take my wellness to the next level and get down to a normal BMI. I began to wonder if I could ever become one of those fast runners in my group. I wondered if 168 pounds meant no prescription medications, would 158 pounds mean an even higher level of health and wellness?

So off I went, I started paying more attention to my nutrition, I joined an online fitness community that included women who were lifting heavy weights. I learned a lot, started focusing more on weight lifting, and began slowly gaining some muscle and losing some fat. By the next wellness fair, even though the scale had decreased only 7 pounds, my body looked completely different, and I was running so much faster! An echocardiogram of my heart showed that I had completely reversed a leaky valve problem, something that my cardiologist attributed directly to my weight loss and athletic training. I had so much to celebrate, that when I saw that pesky little BMI black box still hovering in the borderline range, I just smiled to myself and knew that my quest was not over. I would kick it up a notch and see what could happen.

I plodded along at my tortoise-like weight loss pace, occasionally veering off into some of the rapid fat loss protocols that that I learned about on my online fitness forum. Those plans always backfired on me in a major way. Sure, I would drop weight quickly, but as soon as I returned to what I consider a livable, reasonable eating plan, the weight would come right back. I decided that since I didn’t make my living as a fitness model or a professional athlete, it really wasn’t necessary to race my way to a normal BMI. I channeled my need for speed into my track workouts instead, and went back to my tortoise pace for fat loss.

Sure enough, in august of last year at our most recent employee wellness fair, I weighed 151 pounds! I was solidly in the normal range for BMI, and my body fat percentage had dropped to an all-time low of 25%, which put me in the “acceptable” range. I am shooting for 22% or “optimal” for this year! Regardless of that number, I am running faster than ever. In October, I have a shot at qualifying for the Boston Marathon. At my age, that means running a 4 hour marathon—in treadmill terms, that would be 6.7 miles per hour at a 1 percent incline for 4 hours. When I started training for my first marathon, it was as struggle for me to even do 3.0 miles per hour for 30 minutes.

I am so grateful to F---- xxxx xxxx xxxs for starting the wellness program. I often wonder if I would have pursued this higher level of fitness had I not received that one blemish on an otherwise perfect wellness report card. One thing is for sure, the effort I have put into becoming optimally well has been one hundred percent worth it. I wish I could bottle the way it feels to run a fast mile on the track, to wake up with plenty of energy, ready to tackle each day, to have a wide variety of choices when I shop for clothing, or to be mistaken for someone who is 10 years younger. I have learned that optimal wellness is available to anyone who seeks it, but it often doesn’t happen on the timetable that we expect. Slow, steady, daily, gradual steps toward our goals can produce dramatic changes in the long run.

And in case you were wondering? Eating healthy is anything but boring. I have several versions of chicken and broccoli on my menu. Sometimes it might be a yummy spicy curry, or maybe chicken/broccoli parmesan with a great marinara sauce. The choices are endless and so much tastier than the way I used to eat.

So I ask you again, Got Wellness? If not, consider enrolling in the Employee Wellness Program. Some words of caution, though. Be careful what you sign up for! I thought I was signing up for a free gym membership and deeply discounted Weight Watchers meetings. What I received was something far more valuable: a chance to experience vibrant health at an age when many of my peers are complaining of age-related decline. I might even get the chance to join all of the fast runners in Boston next year. If you catch the marathon on TV, I’ll be the one running with an apple in one hand, and a homemade dark chocolate truffle in the other. After all, isn’t wellness about learning balance? I’ll bet you a plate of stir-fry Szechuan chicken and broccoli that you can find yours.