Preparation

As I get ready for major surgery this Friday, it occurred to me that I have spent a lot of time making sure things are prepared.

Laundry is done.
Floor is washed.
Extra pillows and blankets are purchased.
Everyone at work has a to do list.
Away voicemail and out of office message...check.
Frozen natural lemonade pops freezing.
 Medical recliner is rented (delivery tomorrow! power buttons and all!)

I have a list to bring to the drugstore tomorrow when I go fill my prescription for my pain meds. At the top of the list? Gas-X and a bottle of Magnesium citrate, which I get to drink in the midst of my clear-liquids-only diet tomorrow. This is part of something lovely called a "bowel prep." Good times. Thinking of when I prepared for vacation and printed out lists of "what to bring to Disney World" I cannot help but laugh on the inside. This is not something I ever thought I would have to prepare for.

As I went through the last few weeks since my diagnosis, I realized that I have been preparing myself since late 2012, when I started my LEAP journey. Little did I know that I was laying the foundation for this Friday. Little did I know that by eating healthy, and figuring out what foods caused inflammation in my body, and which foods made me feel bad, that I would be laying the groundwork for a healthier canvas on which my doctor could work. Little did I know that by following LEAP I would be able to stop all my medicines (Miralax, Nexium, Simvastatin) and drop my cholesterol 50+ points. My heart is healthier. My body is healthier. I am down to a more manageable weight and out of the "obese" category on the BMI chart. My fibromyalgia is gone baby gone and will not make my recovery more difficult.

I will be a better patient because my body is prepared. 

You need to prepare for so many things. It would be foolish to take a test without studying for it. Or run a marathon without training for it. Studying after the test? Foolish. Running after the race? Dumb. Had I started to "prepare" my body only after I got my diagnosis, things would be much different. I would have had two weeks in which to act; hardly enough time for a proper preparation. I wouldn't be down 24 pounds (ok ok it was 30, nobody's perfect) :) I wouldn't be able to check off the box that says "none" when the hospital forms ask me what medicines I am taking.

When it comes to taking care of our bodies, we need to prepare just for the sake of preparing. Because you just never know what will come your way - and wouldn't you rather be ready for it instead of scrambling at the last minute to see what you could do to make things better? If there was an emergency RIGHT NOW would your body be prepared to handle it? Look, I have faith, but I admit I am scared. That's the human part of me; the part that doesn't yet understand God's plan to turn this into good. But trust you me, I would be a whole lot more scared if I had been diagnosed before I started LEAP and gotten control of my eating habits. A whole lot more.

Emily's website is a great place to start to get control over your relationship with food. Whether or not you have medical problems like I had (which is where LEAP helped me) it's better to use food as your medicine than medicine as your medicine. Of course, sometimes we have no choice (I will take that Percocet on Saturday thank you very much) but it's better to have a preventive maintenance plan in place, "just in case" you get news like I did a few weeks ago.

I do not know what to expect on Friday. I am not sure I can fully prepare for that. But I take comfort in the promise of Jeremiah 29:11, and I take comfort in the fact that I have been kind to my body. I have seen my body heal and recover (most miraculously from cracked ribs and most recently from a broken toe) and I know that it heals better when it feels better to begin with.

Ask yourself one question: Are you prepared? Would you be ready if something came your way?

This guy sure was:

I want to make sure that I stay prepared. I don't want something that is well within control (that is, the choices I make about what to put into my body) to define my health in case of an emergency.

I challenge you to make like Noah and build your ark :) so that you can withstand the mighty storm. I'm getting in :)

Peace!

Healing

I am amazed at the ability the body has to heal itself, when we give it the proper tools. I am recovering from a broken toe, and I have lovingly and tenderly buddy-taped  it every day for the past 6 weeks, with a tiny piece of cotton ball between the 2 toes. I have worn sandals and fuzzy socks in the throes of winter since all other shoes hurt my toe. I did what the doctor said, and my toe is pretty much mended.

It was broken, and now it's not.

Amazing. 

I remember how astonished I was to see my hands heal after just 9 days on LEAP. My hands, once cracked and bleeding from a horrible case of eczema, literally healed right up. Obviously, something I had been eating was not agreeing with me, and this was proof positive in my eyes that the program WORKED. No placebo effect here - something worked and I could see it with my own two eyes. It's what kept me going until I healed my fibromyalgia, migraines and moodiness (yes, that needed healing too) as well as my GERD. Yup. All gone.

Lately you read about the "cracks" that I had fallen into. Slowly but surely, some of my weight loss became weight found, and I started to literally see the cracks again as my hands responded to what I was eating.

At the same time I was healing my toe, I was hurting my body by giving it things that harmed it. Ugh. But I am glad I had this paradox; because it was rather eye opening. I had the "Eureka!" moment after the 7-inch snowfall we had. Sandals in the snow weren't gonna cut it, so I decided to give my new snow boots a try. So I tried them on. And that is when I realized my toe was better. Because I had been kind to it, and loved on it, and given it what it needed. When I looked at the cracked hands that were pulling up my 2nd boot, that's when this happened.

Because I had been kind to it, and loved on it,
and given it what it needed

Too bad I hadn't been treating the rest of my body as kindly as my little piggy that went wee wee wee wee all the way home.

Your body can heal itself. You just have to give it the right tools. And to find out what those are, sometimes you need help. I thought I was doing the right thing - skim milk, wheat bread, wheat pasta…too bad those were all reactive foods. Cutting those out is what made me feel better. And I wouldn't have known how to do that without the LEAP program (and the guidance, support and wisdom of the lovely Emily). You might not need LEAP (read the page on Emily's website to see if you do!) - you might just need to stop doing whatever it is you KNOW is preventing your body from healing. But LEAP also helped heal my mind. Otherwise I wouldn't be having the light bulb moments, I wouldn't be starting all over drinking water "like it's my job" :) and I wouldn't be counting the 24 pound net loss instead of the temporary 11 pound gain.

Look, it's a lifetime issue. I get it. I did not, do not and possibly might not ever have a "normal" (by most definitions) relationship with food, my body image, or the number on the scale. I get it.

BUT.

I can heal myself from the inside out by holding to the principles I know to be true (be kind to my body, heal my body) and following the program that got me this far. It's unrealistic to think I will be perfect 100% of the time. But it's time to continue this journey of healing. Because my body can heal itself. It just needs me to help it. By giving it the right tools. Get it? Food is a tool to help me heal.  I control what goes in, and what goes in controls what goes on. 

I am about to run a 10K next week, without having done any training or running for months because of my toe. But I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and I will finish the race, because my toe is healed and the rest of me is getting better every day.

I hope that whatever it is that needs healing in your life, you will go after it with all your heart.

Let the healing begin!