My Weight Loss & Diabetes Story – How I Turned It Around
Two years ago this past August, I found myself in the emergency room of a hospital in Orange County, CA while traveling for work. The doctors informed me that both my lungs were loaded with blood clots and they were moving me to ICU immediately. That was the start of my seven day hospital stay and taking blood thinners for the following six months to dissolve the blood clots. I remember talking with the doctor after being moved from the emergency room to ICU and telling him that after leaving the office, I felt very tired and light headed; so I just relaxed in the car before heading back to the hotel for the evening. After feeling better, I started the drive to the hotel thinking, I’ll just go back to my room and lay down. On the way to the hotel, I saw a gas station and thought, I’ll fill up the gas tank to return the car the following day and pick up some water and snacks before heading to the hotel. In relaying this story to the doctor, he informed me that if I would have gone to the hotel and laid down or flew home the next day, I would have died.ed
How would you feel if you found out that you almost died? Would you make changes in your life? Would you treat the people in your life differently? Would you look at your health and make the changes to become a healthier person? I truly believe that God guided me to that gas station instead of going back to the hotel to sleep (and never wake up). God said, you are not done on this earth and I have a plan for you; and in time, you will see that. Over the past two years, I’ve made some changes in my life to get healthy and along the journey I’ve inspired others to make changes in their lives as they have watched my transformation.
I have struggled being overweight since the fourth grade with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes type 2. In fact my diabetes A1C was 9.7 which is very high, normal is 5.7 and the doctors wanted to put me on insulin the same summer I almost died. This photo was taken at my highest weight, 315 pounds; and as you can see, a very unhappy person. For most of my life, I have worn a smile on the outside when inside there was a sad,lonely and insecure woman who always put others first instead of myself. Guess you could say, I was a very co-dependent, people pleasing person while at the same time, overeating and eating very unhealthy foods to try to stop the pain I was feeling inside.
While I’m still a work in progress; when it comes to losing weight and becoming fit, I’ve released over 130 pounds in less than two years by adopting a healthy lifestyle. I’ve been off my medication the past four months and no longer have any health issues reaching one of my goals when I started this journey to a healthy lifestyle. About 4 months after almost dying and struggling with a dietitians diet, I decided to seek out a personal trainer. The personal trainer I worked with was certified with the American Diabetes Association to work with people who have diabetes. The trainer put me on a very strict diet. Keep in mind that for the first three months due to blood thinners, I was not allowed any greens. Imagine dieting and not being able to eat salad and other greens! Making the changes was not easy, but I knew that it took years of bad eating habits to bring me to the weight of 315 and while it was hard changing my eating habits, it was what I needed to do to lose the weight and get healthy. The exercise program was intensive working out six days a week.
I worked with several personal trainers and their diet programs over the next year; but found strict diet was not working for me and started to gain the weight back as I was making unhealthy food choices, feeling like I couldn’t stay on this strict diet the rest of my life. In fall of last year, I also suffered from severe arthritis in my knees; after all, my knees carried around 300 plus pounds for many years. So my cardio took a back seat while I underwent physical therapy for months to strengthen the knees. While they are not 100%, I find the mental strength to work out and through my struggles; because getting healthy and fit is important to me.
Unfortunately, I found that again another “diet” was failing me and I was gaining the weight back. So I started the search for a new health program to help me continue my journey. In January 2014, I found such a system that was more flexible allowing me to indulge from time to time, complete with nutritional cellular cleansing to release the toxins, meal replacement shakes and eating a healthy low-glycemic balanced meal(s). Let’s face it, diets don’t work. It’s about living a healthy lifestyle. Healthy lifestyle is a balance of 20% exercise and 80% nutrition. What you feed your body is so important. Are you getting the nutrients you need? Do you eat processed foods? Do you eat organic? Do you buy fish that is wild caught or farm raised? Educating yourself about eating clean and real foods is an important part of the nutrition.
I never thought that I’d say this, but I love working out! I love lifting weights, squats and flipping 380 pound monster tires! Cardio, well that is another story; but I try to make it fun listening to some great music and letting my body move to the music on the elliptical (hoping no one is video recording it). Do you need to lose weight, do you struggle with health issues, would you like more energy and feel less stressed? One of the changes was putting myself first and learning to say “NO”. Yes, even to the people I love. If you don’t take care of YOU, how can you take care of the ones you love. Don’t wait for tomorrow like I was doing; embrace today and make the changes to a healthy lifestyle – for tomorrow may not come! Almost dying definitely was on of the reasons for making the changes I made in my life. I encourage you to make a commitment to make the changes you need to with exercise and nutrition to give you a healthy lifestyle.
Since almost dying, I’ve embraced life and live it to the fullest! Skydiving in spring was an awesome experience and something I could not do when 315 pounds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVTBot-zR8w&list=UUpY8H0Z4c84kRMjR07SoybQ
Kim A. Bruck
https://www.facebook.com/lovelifedream13
LOVE LIFE and DREAM!
Carbaholicsanonymous would like to thank Kim for allowing us to post this inspiring article. We applaud her fine work and wish her more success.