The P.E.W. Path to Health, Wellness and Fitness
submitted by Andrea Hall-Miller, RN, MA, HC # 798
I spent the majority of my adulthood being overweight despite trying one fad diet after another, losing and re-gaining the same 20 pounds for decades. Finally, six years ago, weighing 213 pounds at 5’4” I hit bottom. That was the day I tried on a pair of size 18 jeans and they were too small. Refusing to buy a size 20 I left the store, prayed for help and made an appointment with my doctor for advice. I suffered a new low blow when I looked over his shoulder and saw that he had typed the word “obesity” into my electronic chart as my primary problem. I knew I was overweight but had not thought of myself as being obese. My feelings were hurt and I was angry but something my doctor said to me really made sense. He said, “You have to count something. I don’t care if you count carbohydrate grams, calories, fat grams, portions or points. Just pick something to count and stick with it.” He told me to go to the pharmacy and buy a book called The Calorie King. He said, “It looks like a cheesy little book, but you need to decide which diet you are going to follow, count whatever you choose to count, stick with it—and exercise!” he added with an encouraging smile. Armed with my new book and more importantly my new attitude I began my journey toward health, wellness and fitness.
I believe we all know what to do to lose weight. We’ve heard it all of our lives: make up your mind to do it, then eat right and exercise – and keep on doing it. It’s not easy but it’s simple. In order to wrap my head around it, I came up with this simple mnemonic for quick and easy recall to keep me on the right path: P.E.W. which stands for Prayer, Exercise and Weight management. I call it the PEW Path.
PRAYER:
I started with prayer, admitting to God that I needed Him to give me strength to successfully lose weight and keep it off. I meditated and visualized myself at my desired size and thanked God for having already reached that goal in my spirit even though it did not yet show physically.
(Im in the lavender sweater and jeans)
I chanted to myself as I power-walked: “Nine would be fine but eight would be great!” This I chanted because I wanted to reduce my size 20 body to a size 8 or 9. I began speaking my perfect size out loud and visualizing myself at my goal weight and size almost constantly.
EXERCISE:
When Dr. Ian Smith spoke at the BABUF African American Health Summit he said that if he could recommend one simple magic pill to cure illness and dramatically improve health it would be exercise. It’s that good for us. So I started power-walking. I strapped on my headset with my favorite music going and started walking as fast as I could. Eventually I started jogging, then running. When my knees and ankles began to complain I switched to dancing and fitness routines. I fell in love with Zumba and Beachbody workouts like Insanity, Hip Hop Abs and Turbo Jam. Wanting more definition and even more health benefits I began strength training with weights. To this day I am hooked on exercise. The natural high produced from the endorphins released while exercising can’t be beat! I reach for that natural God-given high through exercise nearly every day!
(Me the African American Health Summit)
WEIGHT MANAGEMENT:
Following my doctor’s advice, I began counting something. I chose carbohydrates (carbs) because I was drawn to the fact I could eat as much meat, cheese and eggs I wanted and to eat the bulk of my carbs through eating fruits and vegetables. Living the low-carb life actually worked out quite successfully for me over several years, and along with prayer, meditation and exercise this new way of eating resulted in a weight loss of 47 pounds! However, I became bored of the restrictions of the low-carb life and began straying from the diet by eating way too many processed carbs, including sweets, treats, and other things I had no business eating. Dr. Atkins wrote in his book that if we started to do that we should switch to another diet for a while and stick to it. He warned his followers to keep on following a “diet” even if it wasn’t’ his. Admiring the success my daughter was experiencing with weightwatchers, I switched to the weightwatchers plan and began counting points. I quickly lost the 15 pounds I regained after falling off the Atkins diet path and kept losing all the way to my goal weight and size and even a little lower. Truly, I believe weightwatchers is the healthiest eating plan to follow. Besides that, it’s quite similar to the food plate ‘Our First Lady Michelle Obama’ recommends: Half of our plate should consist of fruit and vegetables. The other half should be one-fourth whole grains and one-fourth protein.
Around the same time I joined weight watchers, I also enrolled in the Health Conductor program which I learned about at the African American Health Summit. The support and encouragement of the leaders and participants in the program provided a solid foundation of common goals, aspirations and accountability. To this day, I remain in close contact with a HC team member I met on the journey and we continue to support and encourage each other.
By following my P.E.W. Path I lost a total of 75 pounds over 5 years. I wear a size 8 now, but more often than that I wear a size 6 and on rare occasions I even need to wear a 4. I’ve kept the weight off for over a year. I’m not skinny and I don’t want to be. I am fit and healthy which was my true goal all along. My blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, body fat percentage and body mass indicators are all in healthy ranges.
Through the grace and support of God and the Health Conductor program I have reached my health and fitness goals but that doesn’t mean it’s time to rest on those laurels. Persistence is the key. The same thing it takes to reach our goals is the same thing it takes to maintain them.
Me Now July 2011
Be Encouraged!
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