What You See is NOT What You Get!

What you see isn’t what you get.

There is a paradigm concerning health that has bothered me and, honestly, I'd love to kick it in its teeth. If you'll allow me, I'd like to share a couple scenarios that has brought this shift in me.

Four years ago, I lost close to 50#. Almost everyone who knew me told me how wonderful I looked. And sure, I’d lost inches, my clothes hung from my body and lost my frame somewhere inside the fabric. But was I really as good as I looked?

For a while, I tried to tell them I wasn’t healthy, at all, but all they could see was the slimmer me and didn’t hear the struggle I was having. Some asked what I was doing to lose so much weight. I’d tell them, “I live on granola bars and orange juice.” They’d laugh and continue on their day.

What they didn’t realize was that I left for work every morning, my stomach twisted into knots, and my heart wrenching from my chest because I’d failed my sons who were “home schooling” and I wasn’t available to assist them in their work. My youngest wasn’t reading, therefore couldn’t do much of anything without the constant presence of my husband or me. And for me, I felt the entire weight of this deficiency in my children’s education.

When at work, I felt inadequate, and still more a failure when there was the constant reminder coming from someone in authority who found it necessary to diminish my worth in the presence of four and five year old children. I often left the classroom in tears because these children were told crying was a sign of weakness. When the year ended, I couldn’t wait to get home and curl up on the floor of my bedroom, where I stayed most of the time that summer. In tears. I’d lost huge editing accounts because I couldn’t function, emotionally.

And the weight kept melting from my body.

And the compliments kept coming in.

And yes, the only thing my stomach would digest was a granola bar; and the only thing that tasted good to drink was orange juice. One meal every day. Then sleep. Or floor time in tears.

As the new school year approached, my stomach twisted tighter and the grand diet of granola bars fell to a minimum of one bar each day.

I was in effect starving my body of precious nutrients. Sure, I looked good … on the outside. But no one could see the mess on the inside.

After a while, when I realized no one really could hear my pleas for them to hear the pain I was in, I quit trying to tell them and let them think I was as healthy as they.

So why share this?

It is true. When you eat healthy—take in the proper amount of essential nutrients your body requires every day—you will look healthy. But you can also look this way and be unhealthy. A person can consume 1200 calories each day, loaded with fats and carbohydrates, and still look fit; but, is this person truly healthy? Most likely not. Eventually, this lifestyle will catch up and “surprise” the individual with either blood sugar or heart diseases. Maybe a combination.

On the flip side, a person can be overweight, searching out and consuming all the right foods, avoiding an excess of junk food, and be found by the doctor to be healthy. To this, I can attest. 

Almost two years ago, I was at work (Target) when after racing around to keep the team members well supplied with freight to put away that I began to feel pain in my chest. My supervisor insisted I go home, and a friend decided she was taking me there. Their instructions were for me to see my doctor as soon as possible. I was sure there was nothing wrong.

When I did go to my doctor, he found my heart rate to be a bit too low for his liking so I spent the night (2 actually) in the hospital undergoing a series of tests. One of the nurses came into my room one night to record my vitals. Her comment left me grinning. “Wow. Finally, someone on our floor who is healthy.”

Now, how is it that I, an overweight person, could be considered healthy? I was eating foods that fueled my body efficiently. It turned out I was having an episode with latent asthma, which the pulmonologist said the dust at work could upset.

So. Are you healthy? Would you like to learn healthy dietary habits?

As I learn, I will pass it along. Let’s shift the paradigm that tells us we’re only healthy if we look good.

Weaving words for the heart and soul,

Karlene A. Jacobsen
Freelance Writer
southpawscribbler@gmail.com