Back in 2002, I had a serious health issue that arose seemingly from thin air.  I felt like I had a stomach bug, but it persisted for weeks, I had blood in my stool and of course was panicked that I had cancer.  After many, many exams and tests, I found I didn’t have cancer (thankfully), but I had no answers.  I continued to get sicker and weaker and I lost a huge amount of weight in weeks.  Finally, the pain in my digestive tract was more than I could take and I went to the emergency room.

Hours rolled on with no answers.  Finally, I was given medicine to manage the pain and IV fluids, but I was convinced I was not going to leave the hospital.  How could this have happened, I was rarely ever sick at this point and I didn’t do anything differently.

Finally, a gastroenterologist came into the room and said “Sir, you have ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.  They are idiopathic, so we don’t know why it happens, but we are going to put you on a particular anti-inflammatory medicine and large doses of prednisone.  Once it is under control, we will wean you off the prednisone and keep you on anti-inflammatories.”

He no sooner finished speaking when a surgeon bursts in the room and says “Mr. Paquette, the best thing to do is give you a colostomy bag and give your digestive tract a break so it can heal.“

I was 29 years old, I did not want the colostomy bag.  I looked at the gastroenterologist and he calmly said “We will consider that as a last resort”.  The surgeon wasn’t happy, but left the room.  The gastro indicated he would send a nutritionist in to speak with me as he felt this was something we could control with diet.

Long story short, bland, boring foods and medicine, but that pain was such that I would do anything to avoid it.  I responded well and was weaned from the prednisone (after my weight skyrocketed).  All was well (so I thought) until I ran out of my prescription for the anti-inflammatory and had to wait for an appointment to get a new prescription.  When I was able to get in to see the gastro, he saw I was panicked about not having the anti inflammatory.  He asked why.  I explained I was afraid of the pain.  He said that if I was fine without the medicine, he would rather keep me off it.  He gave me some samples and instructed me not to use them unless the pain returned at which point, he would call in a new prescription.  He explained that whatever I had been doing diet wise had been working.  Over the next few years, he and I determined that stress was the biggest trigger of a flare up for me (when that happened, I would have to really restrict my diet to allow everything to heal).  He encouraged me to pursue meditation and anything else I could to keep from getting triggered into a flare up.  He wanted me to share my experience with other ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s patients as it might help someone.

I felt like I needed more knowledge before I could go around talking about it.  I became a health coach and still never shared (who was I to speak on such things), but what I learned helped me…at least until I lost sight of it.  Years went by and I gradually fell into old habits, worse habits…life got in the way and I lost focus.

Finally, in November 2023, just before Thanksgiving, I decided enough was enough and that if I wanted to have any quality of life, I would have to focus on my well being.  I am after all a massage therapist, trying to help others achieve their own well being, time to lead by example.  I needed to be clear on what my goal was…not looking thinner or even losing  x amount of pounds…ultimately, I wanted to not have aches and pains going up and down stairs, get winded over little things and just generally improve my life and energy levels.  I had started to work out again over the years, but found I didn’t have the stamina to make much of a difference.  I thought I was eating well, but I remembered the saying that you can’t out work bad eating habits, so I took a hard look.

I examined my calories and macro nutrients and what I found was a shock to me.  See I thought that since I ate mostly unprocessed foods, that I was pretty close to where I should be.  This couldn’t have been further from the truth.  I got on an app that allows you to track your macros pretty easily and saw that I had been short on calories for some time and the calories I was eating didn’t have nearly the amount and mix of macros I needed to be healthy.  My body was making due with what it had, but basically, I was cannibalizing muscle and rebuilding it while storing anything I could for energy, a constant cycle of treading water muscle wise and storing fat for a rainy day.  My body wasn’t being given the chance to give me what I wanted.

The great news is that once I saw this and started making food choices with full information (no more “I eat well enough, I’m sure this one soda…or two won’t kill me).  I set my dietary budget, monitored it and made decisions that were consistent with my goals.  I honestly didn’t expect to feel as full as I did or as good as I did.  I didn’t feel deprived, I could in fact eat what I wanted, I just knew what it meant to eat them…sometimes it has been worth it to me to eat a hoagie or piece of cake and others, not…but I have not felt restricted at all.

So, how have I made out?  Well, it is early April, about 5 months in and my energy levels are up, I can go up and down stairs much more easily and that’s not surprising as I am down almost 30 pounds and lost 4 inches from my waist.  The dangerous belly fat I have been carrying around is greatly reduced.  I am not setting any speed records losing weight, but that is kind of the point.  Radical changes are hard if not difficult to sustain, the changes I am seeing, I am confident are here to stay.  Imagine trying to carry a 30 pound weight around every second of every day…it makes a huge difference.  If you were wondering, I haven’t worried about a flare up of Crohn’s or Ulcerative Colitis in a long time either.  

So what is my point here?  It’s this - cliches like you are what you eat are cliches for a reason…there is a deep truth in there.  Like most things in your life, you are in charge of the decisions you make and the only way to truly make the right decisions for yourself is to decide what is important and to understand how the choices you make compare to the end result you desire…and you have to pay attention and course correct if necessary.

If this seems like a lot and you feel like you may need support, you may benefit from receiving coaching.  Find a coach you are comfortable with and get after it.  If you feel like I may be the coach you are looking for, feel free to reach out and we will see if we are a good fit.