With Dr. Kimia Shakerpoor and Ariel at Pilate Sante one of my favorite places.
A year back I suddenly noticed my pants were not fitting as well, so I stepped on the scale and discovered I had gained 7 pounds. Now before you eye roll and groan due to my slender genetics inherited from family and my drive to stay active, remember what caused me to notice it in the first place; my clothes didn’t fit well. I am not someone who steps on my scale often because I don’t think it is good for me, but I do believe we all have a weight our bodies feel best at plus or minus 5 pounds. This weight is not usually our super model skinny or what we were in high school, but a strong healthy weight that allows us to move, exercise and live life healthfully. This weight is personal for each of us and we innately know around what that number is. So for me who lives a healthy lifestyle, I exercise, eat my veggies and watch my portions- this change was a shock. What had changed; my diet hadn’t, my exercise hadn’t, and my candy consumption hadn’t sky rocketed. Then came that horrible question, “Is this my age?”
As a doctor, weight gain is a sign that something has changed internally in the body. First I tried intermittent fasting periodically through the week since I had done this periodically for healthy cell recycling and it usually works well. Guess what? -No Change-. I stopped eating late at night on my late work days. Guess what?- No Change-. I continued to exercise. Guess what? -No Change-. Finally I upped my exercise intensity with HIIT workouts and reduced the amount I was eating, and did a blood test to see which vitamins I was deficient in and started taking those as well. Slowly but surely the weight came down and by slowly I mean it took 1 whole year to drop those 7 little pounds.
I want to stay as close to my pre-baby weight, not my 18 year old me weight so that when my body makes the big change of menopause, I will be in a position for as good of health as possible. For me, health looks like being able to exercise, play with my kids, work as a chiropractor and be in nature. It doesn’t look like being skinny but weak. Thin and strong is fine but I want my weight to support my life and let me tell you- life as a chiropractor requires muscles and I will lift weights probably forever so I can be a healthy little old chiropractor.
Change in our bodies gets slower and slower as we age so make the good choices daily because you never reach the mountain peak of health and then say OK I am healthy and don’t have to worry about that again. Health is a choice we make each day, so hang in there and remember weight loss will happen even if it’s a year later. Consult your doctor or a Functional Medicine like me to get help if things aren’t changing for you.
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