I'm Melting…Melting!

 

That’s right and it’s not because of the summer heat right now, but rather that my body is back to proper function.  I shared with you last fall that I now have a different cardiologist and she made a change to my medication.  Primarily she took me off the medication that I was having a lot of side effects with and ultimately I ended up allergic to.  One of the side effects that I worried about the most was the steady climb in my weight.  When I had mentioned it to my old cardiologist he told me I just needed to accept it.

 

In total, over the three years I was taking that particular medication, I gained twenty six pounds.  In my mind I just couldn’t see how carrying that much extra weight was good for me, especially for my heart which is what the medication was initially prescribed for.  I also didn’t like the changes I was seeing in annual my blood tests.  It just didn’t make much sense.

 

Another complication was that my old cardiologist insisted that I not eat low carb or Keto anymore, although the Mayo Clinic said it was fine.  I did try the Mediterranean diet, as suggested, but with all the carbs I just felt like a slug and I really didn’t enjoy the food.  Once I stopped taking the medication that was giving me so much trouble I also went back to a REAL food low carbohydrate lifestyle and some amazing things began to happen.

 

The first thing I noticed right away was that I no longer felt exhausted all of the time and I stopped falling asleep in my chair at 7:00 at night.  Almost immediately I rebounded with so much more energy and endurance.  I was able to get back to doing things I haven’t been able to do all that well in the past few years.  Even more impressive is that the hives and itching stopped within a week’s time and that was a huge relief.

 

I was told that the weight would come back off, but it might take a while until I got all of that medication out of my system and that turned out to be true.  For the first few months my weight stayed the same, but at least I wasn’t gaining anymore.  I tried not to get too discouraged by telling myself it took over three years to get to this point so don’t expect it to happen overnight.  Then the weight started to steadily fall off and needless to say I am relieved.

 

Carrying that extra weight was hard on me, both emotionally and physically, because I didn’t feel good about it and I didn’t like how I looked or having to buy bigger clothes.  I also was having a lot of joint pain.  It took me about six months after I quit taking that medication before I really started to see a change, but now I’m thrilled to be feeling and looking so much better these days.  By the time I go in for my next annual visit in September I should be right back on track.  I have lost a total of twenty pounds with only five more to go.  Once I’ve lost those last pounds I’ll be back to the weight I was when all of this craziness started.  I’m almost there.