In January 2020, I went in for my annual physical, and when I got my results back, quite frankly, I was very discouraged. I had high A1C, so I was prediabetic. I had high blood pressure. High cholesterol.
I was with Kaiser Permanente, and they encouraged me to attend one of their Center for Healthy Living prediabetes classes. I kept putting it off. I was extremely busy at work. I even scheduled and canceled and rescheduled a couple of times. But they kept calling me and encouraging me to go. Finally, I committed to going, but because of some work meetings, I arrived 20 minutes late.
But they didn’t turn me away. They said they’re well into the prediabetes class, but there’s a diabetes class that’s about to start if you want to just go to that instead. And I really appreciated that.
I ended up learning a lot in that class. I realized that if I didn’t change my diet and my daily routine, I was headed toward a lot of health issues. I was under 50, and I knew I had hypertension and that I had gained weight over the years. But I didn’t do much to change my lifestyle. I traveled a lot. Ate out a lot. The indicators were there, but I had ignored them.
I took the chart they gave me about healthy eating, and I put it on my fridge. And in four months, I lost 35 pounds. I eventually lost 60 pounds total. People ask me all the time, what’s your secret? I say, “Two words, seven letters: Eat less.”
I had knee problems from a motorcycle accident where I’d torn my meniscus on both knees and had to get them surgically repaired. I had back problems. After losing weight, I can move around. I can jump around. I can do so many things.
When I was in high school, I got my black belt in taekwondo. So in my 40s, not having done martial arts in decades, I decided to start taking taekwondo classes with my daughter, who is 8. And I just got my second degree black belt.
Thanks, in part, to the ongoing guidance and support from my doctor Janet Solis at Kaiser, I’m no longer prediabetic. I no longer have high blood pressure.
I participated in the annual YMCA stair climb for the first time this past September. I was always too afraid to do it. But I climbed 75 flights of stairs in about 20 minutes. And I recruited about nine other people to do it with me. What was amazing was seeing all the folks there trying their best. For some, it might have taken an hour or even two hours. But they did it.
Afraid to try. And that meant a lot to me.
It’s interesting to know that your story can inspire others. I posted about my journey on LinkedIn. I wanted to make the point that we might have good reasons to not do something. But you have to show up for yourself. You can’t let fear stop you from trying. And someone told me that it inspired them to get into marathons. And so, I encourage people to share their stories because you never know whose lives you may touch.
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