The Flip Side

Hi, all--

I just returned from a short long weekend (you know what I mean ... they're always shorter than you want them to be!) at our house in Bham. My son was down at my inlaws, so my husband and I had some nice adult time in a REAL home ... not that temporary space in Nashville. Although according to my feng shui expert friend Ellen Whitehurst, to finally sell our house I need to let go, and start thinking of it as "that living space." Hey, I'll try anything.

So we spent the weekend in that living space in Bham. And during that time, I got to talk to my mother-in-law, who was recently diagnosed as pre-diabetic. Now, the woman has been through a lot--she had breast cancer several years ago and is doing well, thank goodness. But I think she is having a really hard time dealing with the idea that she isn't as strong as she used to be. And I can certainly get that. And she has always (or since I've known her) been on the heavy side, and has at various times asked me for help. She had started walking and kept it up for a while, but quit. And now this. She was so depressed this weekend, feeling nauseated and sounding really tired and discouraged. So I am trying to help--sending her cookbooks, offering her suggestions, giving her my rah rah speech. It just so happens that I am working with a really great writer named Jon Katz on an essay about HIS diabetes problem, which, at age 60, he kicked by exercising and learning how to eat. I love Jon's take (I won't reveal much because the piece will be in the November issue of Spry). He was actually in a pretty dark place emotionally when he got the diagnosis ... but he saw it as an opportunity. It's almost as if, he says, he needed this excuse to finally get off his butt and start doing right by his body, and so he did.

I love that--I love that he just jumped on it and took charge of his own health. But as someone whose purpose in life and career is to help others find their way to good health, there's still the question: how do you get someone to flip that switch? To go from OH, NO! to OH, YES! I went through it myself ... hit my own bottom (well, you know what I mean!) and I can't get you there. I think the answer for me, anyway, is to continue to find and tell the stories of people who have turned it around, in the hopes that maybe reading those stories--mine, Jon's ... my mother-in-law's (thinking positively here)--will help someone, anyone, turn it around.

And, again, I am always looking for stories. It's amazing how many successes there are, if you only look for them. Drop me a note at lisa@formerfatgirl.com if you have one to share!

Salude!

Lisa D