My Health Journey #1: Everyone Has Got To Start Somewhere

Today, I hit a new rock bottom. For the first time today, the airplane seatbelt did not fit me. I sweat beads on my forehead and huffed and puffed as I sucked in my stomach and tried to click the belt together, but it would not clasp. I could see the girls sitting catty-corner to me laugh as I struggled to put my belt on. Because I was sitting in the back of the plane, the flight attendant noticed and got me a seatbelt extender. This was possibly one of the most humiliating moments of my life. I have never seen anyone ask or be offered a seatbelt extender before. I'm just grateful that the attendant did it as coyly as he could, but it was still humiliating none the less. I closed my eyes the entire plane ride (thank god it was only an hour long) and really struggled to fight back tears that I finally let go of in the La Guardia Airport when we landed. 

I thought about creating a whole new blog for this post, but I figured this is part of my journey and I wanted to keep it as part of my main personal blog. I knew this was a long time coming, but I finally need to step it up and take care of my weight.

As I stand currently, I am 270 lbs, 5'1. My BMI is 51 which puts me in the morbidly obese category. 

The physical ailments I feel include sweating very easily, getting short of breath climbing ~5-10 stairs, a chronic cough due to reflux, heel pain sometimes with prolonged walking. I also believe I have hirsutism and facial hyperpigmentation that got worse as I have been gaining weight. My hair is dry, brittle, and falls very easily which could be due to my unbalanced thyroid or because I'm not using the right products. 

As I wrote in my last blog post, I finally feel like my mental health is in a good space. My next challenge, and possibly my toughest, is to get my physical health back in track. This is going to be a long, tough, arduous journey. One that I have failed many times in the past. But I have new tools now -- I have motivation, mental peace, my thyroid medication, and a wonderful endocrinologist. I am not going to rely on Zepbound to get this journey started. If this medication gets back into stock at some point then great! I can't wait to add that as a tool in my toolbox. But I have to start making changes now. I cannot let my weight balloon and I refuse to hit 300 pounds. 

Everyone has got to start somewhere. This is my beginning.