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SparkPeople: Weekly Community Highlight
  Week of 8/13/2009 - Featured Board Post

What It Feels Like To Truly Be Healthy

I've spent my entire life being overweight. I've spent it dieting and failing. In January I topped the scales at 410 pounds, and I had resigned myself to always being fat. To always being left out. To always being the butt of jokes. I had resigned myself to the fact that one day my obesity was going to kill me. I was tired of my failures.

Then I found SparkPeople, and I realized an important thing. I wasn't going to find happiness in being thin. And, that the best I could do for myself was to become healthy. In achieving that goal, weight loss would be a side effect. I've lost almost 20 pounds since then. It doesn't seem like a huge number for 8 months, but I started small. I started with one thing. Drinking water. Once it became habit I added another thing. As long as it took, I stuck with it.

Today, the weight is starting to come off faster as I have many new habits. I...
- drink 8-12 glasses of water
-eat 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables
-get at least 8 hours of sleep every night
-eat only lean meats
-exercise everyday
-take vitamins to supplement where my diet fails (I don't like fish)
-get 2-3 servings of calcium everyday
-do not eat junk food, fast food, candy, or soda
-take time everyday to breath and meditate
-eat only whole grains
-quit smoking!!!!

And, guess what. I feel great! I feel better than great. I feel alive. So, I went to the doctor and guess what.... I'm healthier than I've ever been in my life. My cholesterol is great, my blood pressure is normal (which it hasn't been in quite some time), my blood glucose is normal (which means I am NOT diabetic), and my triglycerides are normal.

AND, I FEEL ALIVE!!!!! And, I'm started doing things that I never thought I would ever accomplish. I even climbed a mountain. And if I can do it, so can you. Pay more attention to being healthy than being skinny.

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