About health, diet and exercise...

OK, so yesterday I attended a training for my business. I met with several women most of which were overweight moms, and I am NOT saying this to be mean because I was not in the best shape at the beginning of this program. What was interesting and a little frustrating is how women make up the excuse of "oh I'm a mom now and this poochy, belly, etc. will never go away, it just remains forever". I was about to say something but figured that it wasn't the best time or place to say anything so I stayed quiet.

Today my mother in law called. I love her! She is one of the most amazing women I have met, she lives in the Midwest and of course does not watch her diet. I've worried about her health for some time now. Well, she got news from her doctor that she has diabetes and is now on a strict diet. She's overweight and has not watched her diet for a long, long time. She can't work out because she lost a leg due to a surgery that went wrong (medical malpractice) a few years ago and has had trouble adjusting to her leg because of her weight. In any case, both Joseph and I have talked to her about her diet but she won't listen.

Her conversation with me was pretty interesting this morning... she insisted that I have to eventually get Angelina checked for diabetes when she gets older because "it runs in her family"... her nephew has it and so does her sister, but she didn't mention that they are both 300 Lbs. I told her that diabetes can be avoided with diet and exercise and that Angelina would be fine. I told her to watch the amount of carbohydrates she ate because that's what would affect me when I was pregnant. I was surprised to find out that she doesn't know what carbohydrates are and of course, her nutritionist only told her to watch the fats she ate and the amount of sugar that her food has. Anyhow, I will be visiting her soon and will probably sit down with her and go over what my nutritionist said and what her nutritionist said and we will go from there... more on that soon!

This reminded me of a conversation I had with my half sister who lives in Guatemala a while back. She insisted that after I have the baby that I check my blood pressure with the doctor every month. I insisted that it would be fine, but she kept going on and on about how she has had high blood pressure since she was 17 (she's very overweight also).

I'm grateful to live in California and have great doctors, nutritionist and trainer (thanks Tracey). I'm really blessed to have access to all these amazing professionals around me. It saddens me to find out how people lack information regarding diet and health. They still think that high blood pressure and diabetes is hereditary and that there is nothing that can be done.

In any case I'm glad that even though I'm not where I want to be yet... I'm getting there and I had a physical not too long ago which came back 100% great and I plan to keep my health that way!!