Get help to start your healthier lifestyle

A friend recently emailed me to say she hired a nutritionist to lose weight and then added, "I know you'll disapprove because you did it on your own."  I don't know why she thought I'd disapprove because in reality I thought it was a great idea.  

A nutritionist is trained to know what foods are healthier to eat and tailors a diet plan to each client's specific needs, particularly if that client has medical issues, for example, acid reflux or diabetes.  Having a trained professional who'll be there in your corner to answer your questions and guide you is priceless, particularly in the beginning of your journey.

I thought of hiring a nutritionist myself years ago but I never did anything about it.  I thought about a lot of things I could do to lose weight, including seeing a psychologist to help me figure out why I was such a failure when it came to my weight, but I never did anything about it either.  In my case, I had given up on myself in every sense and I just didn't think enough of myself to seek professional help, whether from a nutritionist, psychologist, trainer, or anyone else.  I guess I felt that I just wasn't worth all the trouble.  It was a huge mistake on my part not to seek help much sooner, but when you're in that vicious cycle, it's really difficult to seek help to get out of it.

Despite that my friend thought I did it on my own, I really didn't.  I had help.  First it was Weight Watchers ("WW") in late 2012 which put me on the right track and proved to me that I could succeed, and then, of course, my blue-haired tormentor, Flaminia ("Fla"), who turned everything around for me in late 2014 after WW no longer worked for me.  In essence, Fla's been my nutritionist - with the added benefit that she tortures me with push-ups and spin classes, too!

Although I did all the hard work and overcame any struggles myself, the reality is that I didn't succeed on my own.  My journey (and, consequently, my blog) includes everyone I've ever met and information I've heard or read about from various sources throughout my lifetime.  I learned so much from people, both good and bad, through the years that I feel like my present success is something I was training for my entire life.  Unfortunately, it took me until my 50s to start listening and to figure out how to convert everything into my personal success.    

As I mentioned under "How I lost my first 40 lbs." it's incredible to think that by the time I was 52 years old, I had no idea what to eat nor did I know proper portions either.  It sounds ridiculous, but it's true.  I found it completely overwhelming and confusing to change my eating habits by that time in my life to lose weight.  It was all too convoluted what with the food group charts, the nutritional facts that include a multitude of different things to keep track of (calories, fat, carbs, protein, etc.), and then there's other stuff to consider like saturated fats versus unsaturated fats, good cholesterol versus bad cholesterol, etc.  It was particularly confusing when the information kept changing.  For example, there was a time when eggs were considered bad, bad, bad.  Then they were good again until they were deemed bad once more.  The information kept changing so often that today I have no idea if eggs are supposed to be good or not.  I like them so I eat them regardless of what the trend is today.

I consider myself to be relatively intelligent, but when it came to eating healthy, I just found it all too convoluted and beyond my comprehension.  The four food group charts is a perfect example.  First off, is it four food groups or five food groups?  I've seen both.  It used to be depicted in a pyramid shape and now it's in the shape of a plate.  Regardless of the chart type or its shape, they all list how many servings of each food group you're supposed to eat every day.  The question I always had was, "Okay, so what's a serving?"  They didn't tell you that, they assumed you just knew.  When I tried to follow the chart of the day, I'd ask myself, "So what's a serving of vegetables?  Is it 5 carrots or 10?  How much lettuce constitutes a serving?"  When you did find the answer, you could find several different answers, too.  It was all too confusing.  The internet has made it easier to compare information, but before websites existed, you had to rely on printed charts and it was time consuming to research the various information out there.

I could kick myself now because when I finally realized how easy it is to eat healthy, it was so simple all along that it's almost ridiculous.  In an effort to teach society how to eat properly, the powers that be just made it all too complicated with contradictory information to boot.  Who's got the time and energy to sit there every day and figure out what constitutes a perfect day using the food groups while looking at the nutritional values and making sure they're consuming the right fats, etc.?   Good grief, it's like a calculus project trying to eat right.  And to do this every day for the rest of your life?   Forget it!  It's too much work.  No wonder I had no idea how to eat.

From the start, Fla told me, "You worry about the calories, I'll worry about the rest."   This was the best advice ever.  It simplified the whole concept for me.  Even after Fla had me also look at my sodium consumption, the overall process was easy.  Also, a funny thing happens when you start eating better: the other nutritional values start falling into place on their own.  I've never been perfect on my eating during this journey yet I still managed to lose over 120 lbs.  I'm living proof that it can be done.  Regardless of whether I lost any weight at all (thank God I did though!), I know that I'm eating a million times healthier today than I was ever before.  That alone is a huge improvement to my health, too.  Now that I'm on this side of the scale, I can't believe I made it so difficult for myself because in reality, it's the simplest thing to do.  The concept itself is easy, incorporating it into our daily lives, of course, is incredibly difficult.  But conquering the first aspect (i.e., understanding the concept) is a huge step in the right direction.

My suggestion to people is this:  if you're as confused about how to eat healthy as I was, get help to get you started!  All you need is someone to show you the way initially.  Hiring a nutritionist is a great idea.  Check your local hospital because you'll always find nutritionists there or ask your doctor to recommend someone.  Perhaps your insurance will cover the cost, too.  You'll need someone to work with you one-on-one like Fla worked with me.  It wasn't until Fla sat down with me every week to go over my food diary that it started sinking in and making sense to me.

All I needed was to set foot on the right path.  WW got me there and Fla pushed me along until I was able to continue on my own.  It's not easy by any means to change your lifestyle, especially after decades of bad eating habits, but it can be done.  If I can do it, anyone can!