An Introduction – Minus the Awkward Silence + My “Why”

My name is Naomi.

Full disclosure: I like to talk. A lot. My grade school teachers worded it more like this –  “Naomi is a good student…but she doesn’t know when to stop talking”. I never really got in trouble at school but my Mom got more than a few notes about my “overly friendly” personality. I am not one of those annoying people who likes to talk to hear myself talk (well I don’t think I am, but it seems those people never do….). I’m disclosing this early on for one reason: my propensity to be vocally wordy tends to follow me through all avenues. If you hate reading feel free to turn around now, you know like when you see ‘that’ person in Target and you DO NOT want them to see you. Go on, quickly now, I’ll look the other way and we’ll both pretend it never happened. Thanks to the rest of you for waving and acknowledging me in the shampoo aisle! I thoroughly enjoy entertaining others, making people laugh, and engaging in lively conversation. Being quiet while others are talking is not hard for me…respect comes naturally when you grew up with spankings and a Momma who didn’t play around (Momma…if you are reading this, I ADORE YOU). I’m teachable, if I’m listening to someone talk about a subject on which I have minimal knowledge I am respectful and curious – with questions! Believing we can learn the most by listening regularly and attentively to other people is something that comes with maturity, I think. I can never know it all, but I can surround myself with people who know things that I do not. I can use their knowledge in place of my own. (I’d like to use my phone a friend lifeline, please!) 

I’ll dive into my family life, faith, and friends in later posts. Suffice it for now to say I LOVE living this life I was gifted with! God has blessed me abundantly and enabled me in many ways to be a blessing to others. I love to have fun. I don’t like to do a lot of sitting around, I want to be making memories, annoying my kids and husband. If I do sit, I’d rather it be on my front porch rocking chair or on the floor loving my dogs. I considered myself fairly active. I took regular walks and occasionally even exercised (even to the point of sweating sometimes).

I’ve told you a few of the things I AM, but one of the biggest things I’m not (nor have I ever been) is thin. I’ve generally been healthy and always able to keep up with my kids, etc. But, after having the girls in 2004 and 2006 I didn’t take off baby weight. 2.5 years into a sitting desk job found me at my all-time high weight…a number I’m not yet ready to share but I hope to be soon! Life is BUSY for most of us, excuses are far easier to make than changes. I’ve yo-yo dieted a few times but never really kept it off. I never found the willpower to stick to it. Until now. But, unfortunately for me I had to learn my lesson the hard way. A wake-up call in a doctor’s office that, while not life altering, shook me to my core is what it took to get me moving…LITERALLY!

 

Mid December 2018 I made a doctors appointment for my yearly physical. It was more than a few years overdue, to be honest. Like…I think my last GYN visit was Tara’s post-birth 6 week checkup. Tara is now 12 and a half. Don’t judge me. I made it right! I didn’t weigh myself regularly and thought I was 20 or more pounds lighter than in reality I was. I had the assistant weigh me twice, I insisted the scale was inaccurate. It wasn’t. Sigh. I was the heaviest I had ever been, or ever imagined being. As she wrote the number down alongside my blood pressure, height, etc it felt like I’d been sucker punched. No one but me had caused this. I was full of emotions, none of them good: pure anger at myself, unbelievable frustration and disappointment. God gave me this one body, this one life. I was the only one responsible for it. I had done a pretty shitty job. (Sorry for the bad word, Momma).

The next morning I received a call from my doctor with my blood results. If I thought I’d been sucker punched the day before this was a Stone-Cold Steve Austin chair over my skull. CRACK! I was listening to her and all I caught was this…”we can start on you a low dose of Metformin…” Wait! What?!?!?! I must have missed something. I don’t drink soda, rarely eat candy and we don’t eat processed foods often at all. What is she talking about? My A1C was 5.8. I’d stepped into the world of pre-diabetic levels. Diabetes and heart disease run in my family which only increased the doctor’s concern. My cholesterol was elevated, as well. I was sitting in the parking lot getting ready to walk into work while this conversation was taking place. My surroundings just faded and my heart was racing. This was not happening. It simply could not be. But…it was. It really, truly was. I’d let myself down. “We can start Metformin for a few months to see if we can get it under control, this will also help you lose some weight”… No! I must have screamed it or shrieked it because she seemed surprised. I scrambled for words, I’d fix this. I was going to fix this. I convinced her to give me three months to fix this on my own. Three months. 12 weeks. I will change my diet. I will change my entire lifestyle. I will exercise. For real this time, all of it. For REAL this time. I meant it. Suddenly I realized this was the only way. She agreed but I could tell she didn’t really believe me…this is something she hears often and most people don’t stick to their end of the deal.

Today is Saturday, March 23. About 3 months (13 or 14 weeks) since I got serious and implemented changes. I use my Monday morning weigh-ins as my “official” weight. This past Monday I was officially down 33 pounds. Today I weighed in just to have an up to date number for this blog post. I’m calling it “unofficial” since it’s not Monday, but today I am down 35 pounds. At 50 pounds I plan to get a new tattoo. I thought it would take me a year to hit that. It’s looking like I may be able to do that by summer! I’m still so excited with every pound. I have a long way to go. But I’m not focused only on the scale. I’m focused on my endurance, my energy level, my strength. I’m focused on the long haul, this is not a diet. My life is changed. I hike on the weekends when I used to relax. I take flights of stairs at a run, not raggedly breathing after walking up two flights. I max out the difficulty on the elliptical for 30 minutes logging well over 3 miles before I start my strength training. My clothes are falling off. I sleep better. I have less stomach issues. I get headaches less frequently. Oh, and the BIG ONE. Y’all ready for this? My A1C at my 3 month check was 5.0. I’m down well into the normal range, diabetes is no longer on my radar. My cholesterol is normal.

This highway called life is bumpy with off-ramps, detours, and multiple destinations. Your time on this road may not be the same as anyone else’s. What’s important to remember is this…you can change lanes at any time. I did…and I won’t be getting back in that slow lane.