The Dumbest thing I ever did...

I was always in good shape growing up. Starting at age 3, it was either Gymnastics, Dance, Waterpolo, Basketball, Soccer, Volleyball, Track, Swimming or Softball. Not to mention a couple of stints in Powder-puff Football. All of this activity allowed me to eat whatever I wanted…whenever I wanted…and how much I wanted. My mom was a home economics major and always had healthy well balanced meals for us. Then I went away to college…continued to eat as much as I did in High School…but wasn’t working out NEARLY as much as I used to. 3 hour sports practices 5 days a week went down to 1 hour dance classes twice a week. So I gained the freshman 15…and sophomore 20. I found myself at a place I had never been. Unhappy about my weight…and wanting to be thin. Pepperdine was an amazing school. But it is in the Heart of Malibu, California…the center of perfection…where everyone looks like a Barbie. These amazingly beautiful women were lusted after on my campus by the hottest guys in the school. I was never given a second glance. I thought I was going to find the man of my dreams in college…and I didn’t ever have a REAL date. Sure I took guys to parties and formals and sorority functions…but they were all just friends. I needed to do something drastic if I was ever going to get noticed. My junior year I tried to be anorexic. I would eat 10 baby carrots and 5 saltine crackers…and that would be my food for the day. I think I made it to about 30 days. I lost weight…but my body went into starvation mode…and you wouldn’t have been able to tell exactly how much I had lost. Then that summer I studied in Florence, Italy, and in our villa we had an Italian chef who made 3-course meals 3 times a day. I wasn’t going to pass that up! I knew I would never have another time in my life eating authentic Italian food. So…I again gained weight.

Then my senior year in college I found the ephedra filled “Metabolife”. This was the biggest mistake of my life!!! I did lose about 10 pounds the first couple of months. I think all in all I probably bought 5 bottles of Metabolife. It made me feel like CRAP. My heart would race, and I would be shaky and jittery, but I didn’t really care. Then I stopped because I just couldn’t take my heart beating so fast. Even when I stopped taking it…I would notice my heart beating weird every now and then. About 2 years later…it woke me up in the middle of the night…and it wouldn’t stop. It’s like it would beat normally for 5 seconds…then skip a beat. Every time it skipped a beat it made me either cough…or take a deep breath. It freaked me out and I didn’t know what to do. I think I worked myself up more just getting anxious that it made it worse. I was finally able to calm down, but knew I needed to go see a doctor…as it was happening more regularly. I was scared…and I stopped working out for fear that something might happen while my heart rate was elevated. After wearing a heart monitor around for a month…the doctor told me that I have a PVC. It’s premature ventricle contractions. My heart beats at a different speed than the valve below my heart pumps. So in order for it to get caught up my heart will skip a beat to catch up to the valve. But I found out that working out is actually a very good thing for my PVC…and as long as I don’t go more than 2 days without working out…I usually never notice any signs of it. The doctor also said it isn’t uncommon to women my age…but there isn’t any medication that treats it. The medication they were using…proved to be fatal. I did talk to my doctor about the Metabolife…and he said there is a good chance that that is what caused my PVC. I couldn’t believe it. Taking a dumb pill to try and lose weight probably caused this. Ever since I have sworn to not take any pill or substance to try and help lose weight. And I am proud to say that when I finally ended up losing my weight…I did it the right way…the old fashioned way…just through diet and exercise. I do love to exercise, but this is just another reason that motivates me.

So this takes me to today. I was lazy this weekend (and it was FREEZING) and I didn’t work out Saturday and Sunday. (I can’t really remember the last time I didn’t work out 2 days in a row.) This morning my heart was bothering me. First thing I got on the treadmill and ran my 2 miles. I felt better…but something was just off kilter. My heart wasn’t settled. It kind of freaks me out…but whenever this happens I just remember Dr. McKechnie telling me that getting anxious just makes it worse…and to stay calm. Luckily it only really bothered me for an hour or so. But it just really terrifies me when this happens. The only thing I can think about is what am I going to do when I am pregnant??? I will run as long as I can…but after that I will just have to get creative to get my heart rate up. But I hear you are so exhausted when you are pregnant…and what if I just can’t work out every day because I’m too sick or tired. I guess there’s no sense in worrying about that now. But it’s something I think about. And it just infuriates me EVERY TIME I see “weight-loss drugs” advertised on TV. I just scream at the TV and tell these people… “Don’t DO IT”. I know weight loss is a big topic in the US these days…but seriously people…if I can convince you of ANYTHING…please don’t take drugs to help make you lose weight. Believe me…you don’t want to end up with a heart problem because of it!