My Journey to a Healthier, Happier Life with Less Pain

The year was 2011.

I was once again meeting a new Doctor being passed around as doctors come and go every three months back then.

I was asked to step up on the special scale for us morbidly obese. She read out 375 pounds. I had gained yet another 15 pounds.

I felt ugly,

I felt old.

I felt like the pain had control over me.

Once again the Doctor didn’t listen to what I had to say. His advice was just like all the other Doctors before him. EAT HEALTHY, EXERCISE, STOP SITTING, AND STOP SLEEPING ALL DAY.

I was so tired of explaining over and over!

I eat healthier!

I grow my own veggies and can them up every year. I bake my own bread, I clean my house I make jewelry, and sell it on Etsy. I put on music and dance around, and when I can’t stand up I dance around in my chair! They always looked through me like I was lying! I was asking the Doctors what could be wrong with me. They all said Fibromyalgia.

Yes but what is causing this Fibromyalgia and why am I gaining weight every month? They had no answers and said, “The nurse will be back with a recommended diet and exercises for you.”

I walked out of the office with my husband pushing me in my wheelchair to the car. I cried all the way home.

I crawled into bed.

Depression, anxiety, and I lost my sunny self somewhere along the way.

I also started to see mental health therapists… they too didn’t understand me.

I went through many therapists. I decided they weren’t helping me.

I read many books that helped me escape from my reality.

For a few years, I meditated and used journal writing about my depression, and one day I wrote I choose to be happy.

In, this moment I breathe in love and happiness from heaven. I breathe out my anxiety.

I invited happy thoughts.

I am beautiful, after all the first goddess looked like me.

I wrote, that from that moment on I would honor the goddess in me.

It is true, like energy, attracts like energy.  I found a doctor that listened to me. That was 2014 and she was the beginning of figuring out my body.

We got my thyroid to work.

We figured out I was diabetic 2 and took steps to bring that under control.

Slowly the weight started to drop.

I was laughing again and one day I could walk around the grocery store pushing a cart. Becky said, “you are looking good.”

I was using a cane now to help me walk. I could walk with my dog around the house.

Each step hurt but it was a good hurt and if it was a bad hurt I would have to rest and heal.

Daddy told me once, “Be happy for the pain it means your alive!”

Laughing out loud every morning I gave thanks for the pain!

One Day I looked in the mirror and I was smiling!

My sunshine was coming back into me!

Then I found a mental health therapist that helped me. With the use of hypnosis to help my pain and anxiety…

It’s funny how the depression just was less with each new step I took. one day it was just gone!

Then my primary Doctor said physical therapy would help.

I found a lovely place that offered aquatic therapy.

I was afraid to be in a swimsuit, but when I went to have a tour of the building and what they had to offer… people looked like me and they all said hi and waved.

I was sold. I got myself a swimsuit and started my exercises in the water.

That was 2018 and since then I have gone down from a size 4x to a 2x.

Today I weigh 200 pounds and can walk 2 miles without a cane.

So when people ask me how did you do it?

I say I balanced my mind, body, and soul, with people who could help me. When I felt like giving up I would pray and write in my journals.

Then I say, you have to change the way your brain thinks. You have to want to make a change in your life. Once you want the change and you begin that road to change slowly, It empowers you to be the best you can be.

There is no fast way for change to happen it took me 50 odd years to get to 375 pounds. it will take every day for me to make the choice to change.

May your journey be blessed,

Julia