Weight Loss, Health and Fitness Struggles: My story

When it comes to weight loss and fitness, we all struggle to stay motivated and make the right choices.  For me, my true source of motivation is my health.  My story might not be directly related to you, but I think there is a valuable lesson to learn for everyone.

Over the past 9 years (wow I never really though about how long its been!) I have struggled with an illness called Epstein Barr Virus.  Here is my story on how my sickness has effected how I eat, exercise and look at weight loss.

What is wrong with me?


Before and After.  My Swollen eyes/face from EBV

In 2005 I went of to college in Boston at Northeastern University.  I was one of those teenagers who couldn't wait to go to school and being from a small town in Upstate NY, I was even more excited to be living in a big city.  Within the first week I would be working to found out what was wrong with my health as all of the sudden I started experiencing a wide range of symptoms. Every morning when I woke up for class I would look in the mirror to see that my eyes were extremely swollen.  I would ask my roommate if they looked swollen to her and she would say no (she was trying to be nice, but seeing pictures later made me realize she was lying).
On top of that I started to notice these little ball like things sticking out in my neck (I would later learn that these were my lymph nodes).  They hurt to press on and made it sore to turn my head/neck.  I was also feeling very tired, but was chalking it up to the fact that I was staying out late at night, which I wasn't used to.  The last straw for me was when I went to a party and had a few sips of a beer, which gave me shooting pains in my stomach so bad that I immediately left to curl up in bed.  The next day I called my parents and told them about the lumps in my neck.

My parents immediately urged me to go to the hospital.  I, of course, thought they were being a little drastic, but to make them feel better I agreed to go. I went and the doctor who saw me told me my lymph nodes were inflamed, but it was probably due to some type of cold or flu I was coming down with.  Regardless, they were inflamed enough that he wanted me to stay and wait for an oncologist to see me.  At the time I had no clue what an oncologist was so I wasn't nervous, but when I told my parents they,of course, panicked.  I waited all day for the oncologist to look at me and tell me that I was fine and was just getting a little sick.  None the less, my parents decided to drive out to Boston to check on me.

When my parents arrived they immediately knew something was wrong. I had always been into fashion and enjoyed dressing up and being "put together". They arrived to find me in my sweats, going to class having not showered in a few days.  For any one who knows me they know that is extremely out of character. That weekend my parents took me to a different hospital in Boston to try and figure out what was wrong.  I was sent home with the doctors saying I "probably had mono" even though my blood test came back negative for it. With little answers, my parents decided to sit me down and talk to me about coming home.  The idea of leaving college within the first two weeks was unfathomable to me.  I fought them hard and insisted that I was fine and I just had some type of flu.  I eventually agreed to leave just to see my doctor at home and they promised I would be back within a week.

My Diagnosis
Going home helped me find answers, but the promise my parents made to bring me back to school in a week was not in the cards.  I was diagnosed with Epstein Bar Virus (EBV).  EBV is a member of the Herpes family (I know what you're thinking, no it's not an STD!).  To quickly explain, a virus inserts itself into a host cell in your body in order to preserve itself.  In a healthy immune system, the body detects the virus and customized antibodies are created to fight the virus. The EBV virus is different, in that, it is extremely smart and can avoid attacks from your antibodies.  This means once you have EBV, it will stay with you for life.  Most people who get EBV don't see symptoms as it lays dormant, but there are some cases where it is activates and continues to re-activate throughout a person's life.  This is the case for me.  When first diagnosed, my symptoms included, an extreme sore throat, swelling of my eyes, organs and lymph nodes, crippling fatigue, and night sweats.  A few days after I was diagnosed, I was admitted into the hospital as my sore throat became unbearable and the swelling just kept getting worse.  I was given pain medication for my throat and high doses of steroids to attempt to reduce the swelling.  At one point the swelling in my throat was so bad, I was at risk of having a breathing tube put in.  I couldn't swallow solid food and was receiving fluids through IV to stay hydrated.

The worst part of EBV is there is no cure.  The only thing that can be done is to get a ton of rest.  In cases like mine, medicine can be given for pain and swelling, but these things will not get rid of the virus.  My health has never been the same since being diagnosed.  After my initial diagnosis it took me months to be able to get up and carry out a normal day.  If I start working out routinely my symptoms will start to come back.  I take naps regularly and get tired very easy.  This is just something I have to live with ever day.

How my story relates to fitness and weight loss

You are probably thinking, how does this relate to weight loss?  For me it has changed my whole outlook on the subject.  I can no longer do really hard work outs.  I can go for walks and do Yoga, but that is about it.  This is very frustrating as I was used to leading a very active life.  One thing that helps me a lot with my EBV is my diet.  Eating healthy is absolutely essential for me to function.  When I start to get off track I immediately notice a drastic change in my health.  The diet that works best for me is a low carb, low sugar diet.  I don't eat dairy and limit my meat intake.  I also juice a lot which, I think, has helped immensely. Lastly and most importantly I stay away from processed foods.  Processed foods have less valuable nutrients and take longer for your body to break down.  I would recommend to eliminate as much processed food as you can from your diet.

One result of my healthy eating is weight loss, but this is not what drives me to eat the way I do.  It is for my health, which helps me stick with it.  If you stick with a diet just to lose weight chances are you won't make that diet a lifestyle,which is what you need to do in order to maintain your weight.  For any of you who struggle with weight loss I urge you to use your health as motivation. You may not have any major health problems now, but eating a healthy diet can prevent you from major health issue in the future.  In my mind, working out is great, but if you have bad eating habits you will never reach your full potential in weight loss or your health.

Getting adequate exercise is also important.  I may not be able to do a hard fast paced work out, but that doesn't stop me from going on walks and doing less intensive activities like yoga.  Staying active will help you maintain a healthy metabolism, which is another important factor in weight loss.

My main message is about motivation.  Find something that will motivate you to reach your goals.  Mine is my health, what's yours?