Semi-long post…

I lost five pounds.

It took me ten months to lose FIVE POUNDS.

I have never told anyone, but I’ve been obsessed with trying to lose weight without the drugs for three years. I’m not ragging on anyone who chose that pat,h but since having migraines since I was six, EVERYTHING gives me a migraine,e so I had to work out my life around everything. On top of that, my HS skin condition doesn’t help either because my skin will hate what the migraine doesn’t like. Drugs were one of the top things that made it hard to do anything because of the chemicals in my body.

Also, I didn’t particularly appreciate that my pre-diabetic numbers went up by .001 points after seven years of being steady.

Even if I got on the weight loss drugs, I still wasn’t tackling the problem – my eating habits.

Plus, I wanted to lose weight consistently by doing something that wasn’t hard and that would help me change to healthier habits as I got older.

So, at the beginning of the year, I took a good look and decided to start cutting out more sugar. Last year, it was pop and any kind of artificial drink.

I switched to real butter, eliminated many preservatives from my food, and reduced my dessert intake.

This year, I tackled bread and pasta, which are my weaknesses. I also added lots of fruits, Greek yogurt, chia seeds, and veggies to my snacking rather than desserts and chips.

I added Berberine, coconut oil pills, fenugreek, and milk thistle supplements.

I also included at least fifteen minutes twice a week of dedicated walking on a high incline on a treadmill. Most times I’m scrolling on my phone and doing all my “social media research,” so it’s actually not taken any time away or added anything extra.

I make a point to walk up and down my basement stairs at least four times a week, do leg lifts three times a week while brushing my teeth, and do stretches three times a week before getting out of bed while engaging on social media.

I said all that to say that I finally lost five pounds and was able to keep it off instead of it creeping right back on me, and that says a lot about me. It says to me, I can do it if I put my back into it—literally, and I can do more than that if I really want to.

I do, and I will

I want to give a special shout-out to Twyla Turner-Author because listening to her a couple of years ago, just made me sit down and tell myself I could do this no matter how long it took.

As a writer, it means a lot to know I won’t go into my sixties with cramps, barely able to walk and other things, and that I can attend writers’ events long until I’m at least eighty before I just want to sit my butt down.

I’d love to hear other natural journeys readers and other writers are taking to make sure they stay healthy even though they’d rather be reading or writing books, because that’s what I would love to do, but I would love to do it for a long time and I need my health in order to do that.