Is it all in my head?............................

Through the training of my marathon last summer, and continuing to run 15 to 20 miles a week, giving up all white/processed foods, and ninety percent of the sugar I used to consume I have gained ten pounds over the past six months. All of it around my middle, which my doctor says is carb weight. The only carbs I was eating where things like lentils, beans, and multi-grain tostada chips for nachos (beans, cheese, veggies) which was my splurge treat.

I went to the doctor, hormones fine, IE. no menopause as of yet. Sugar number fine, I still believe I am glucose intolerant, but she says my numbers were not at a point that she could treat me yet. IE. One must be diabetic before modern science can help them. No thank you. She also said my over-all cholesterol number was up by 20 points. This she wanted to treat with medication. Again, I said no thanks. I insisted that she give me a couple of months to bring it down myself. I had read somewhere that more people are diagnosed with high cholesterol in the winter months (this was last January) because your body needs vitamin D to make the good cholesterol. One gets vitamin D from the sun and where I live sun is a scarcity in the winter months. I plan to expose my tummy to the sun for a few weeks before my next test as it can't hurt. A little aside here. For those of you that believe in supplements, Dr. Oz believes that we are all vitamin D deficient and that it is one of the most important vitamins we can have. One must take the correct type of D and that number (I think it is D-3) is not in my memory bank at the moment, but if you are interested let me know and I will dig up what the correct kind of Vitamin D we should be taking.

After going to the doctor, I ate perfect for a week and tracked everything I ate. Fruits, veggies, grains, reasonable portions, about 1,300 calories a day. I gained two pounds that week.

For the next four or five weeks I tried the low carb, high protein diet. Only about thirty grams of carbs a day, daily calorie intact again around 1,300. I lost the two pounds I had gained the previous week and another three in the first two weeks. The remaining weeks I lost a big, fat, nothing. The pain in the ass of writing everything down would have been worth it if I continued to lose weight but since I wasn't I gave up.

Through a string of unusual events I discovered that we have a natural-path (doctor) in our town and so I made an appointment to see her. My first visit to her was two and a half hours long, and the total cost including herbal prescriptions was $130.00. My doc charges a hundred bucks a visit, not covered by my insurance. I have a $5.00 co-pay on prescriptions, received five of these which (if they had been doctor prescribed) would have cost me $15.00. So, here is what I got for the extra $15.00.

She began the session with muscle testing. She would touch all of these little vials and push down on my arm as I held it out. Once she figured one thing out she would hand me a group of these little vials and do more muscle testing. The first thing she honed in on was I had parasites in my liver AND IN MY HEART, including my heart valves. YUCK!!! But she assured me we all have them. She wanted to treat these first and then I will go back to see her in a few weeks and we will see what my body wants to focus on at that time.
To treat the parasites, she zapped me. She plugged in this little machine and I held it over my heart and then my liver. I felt nothing with this zapping, except towards the end of the treatment the paddle began to get a little warm. After I had these treatments she tested me to see if I had any left by asking the question, "What number are left in the heart/liver?" and then muscle testing me while counting until the answer was none.

I get that the whole thing sounds like mumbo jumbo, but it didn't hurt and couldn't be worse for me than hearing the words, "I can't do anything for you due to the results of your counts from your blood test." The herbal prescriptions she gave me where to get rid of the few lingering parasites and also my liver "wanted" some additional support.

So how do I know it worked?

First, I found it interesting that I "failed" everything that has to do with the gallbladder. I had mine removed when I was fifteen. Can't really be working if it isn't in there can it? Second, I have to tell you that I am not a good pill taker. I not only hate pills and have trouble swallowing them, I am usually sick to my stomach for the rest of the day after taking them. I've been told that we should all take a daily multi-vitamin, and I have over the years tried to do this. They ALWAYS make me sick and I always give in and stop taking them. The natural-path's little vials told her that my vitamin and mineral counts were pretty good.

Now this is what I think is really cool. I was really worried about feeling sick while taking these herbal medications, but willing to give it a try to see if it would bring my body back into balance. Monday will be two weeks since I started taking these (big, honkin) pills and I HAVE NOT FELT SICK ONE SINGLE TIME! It seriously makes me think I felt sick from the other pills/vitamins because my body was trying to tell me I didn't need them. My body wanted/needed the pills I am currently taking so it consumed them without ill effect.

The other things I have noticed are small and yet significant. My stomach (where all the weight went on) is not as paunchy now. Still there, but a bit smaller. The bigger thing I have noticed is my breathing seems to be easier when I am running. If my heart and heart valves where fighting parasites and now they don't have to it stands to reason that the heart would be pumping better, the blood would be getting more oxygen in it, and I would be breathing easier with exertion.

Ya, it could also all be in my head. These herbal prescriptions and the zapping could only be working because I think they are working. I am totally okay with that. As long as I am feeling healthy, and am able to do the things I want to do in life it doesn't matter to me how it comes about.

What do you think? Any thoughts on alternative medicine?