Lately I have been questioning how much we can do to
have a healthy life. When we are young we are not taught, well at least I
wasn´t, what is good for us in terms of health and exercise. What foods to eat
and what foods to avoid. Even if you are taught, does your family put it into
practice? ( Mine never did.) Deep down inside I have been questioning all this
paranoia of eating and exercising correctly so that you can have a healthy
life. I am using the word paranoia because it does take over your life and turn
your world upside down. Maybe my
thoughts are all jumbled up here. Let me try to simplify my ideas and give you
some examples.
You go to an endocrinologist who turns to you after
you have just gotten rid of 12 kilos and this doctor says very boldly “ You are
obese”. And repeats it to you three
times and each time the tone of voice is louder. Then the inner voice that
lives inside your head and drives you mas yells: Like, hey doc which part of
the 12 kilos gone did you not hear? Aren´t I on the road to losing all the
extra kilos? Cut me some slack here.
Then some time later you go to a nutritionist recommended
by the doctor above and also says the same thing. No congratulations on your
weight loss, just a “you are obese”. Once again, frustration hits you. The
nutritionist has the audacity to ask you what a comfortable weight is for you.
You tell the truth and it almost knocks the doctor out of his chair. The truth
being: my weight now. Horrified the nutritionist says in a high pitch “ No, no,
no, thirty kilos have got to go.”
Did these doctors care about the sugar level in the
blood? No. Did they care that the lab tests came back fine? No. Did they care
that during this period a loved one passed away? No way. Did they realize that
now in your 50´s it is much harder to lose the weight? Are they aware of the
issues involved when you have hit menopause?
You leave the office with a horrible feeling. It seems
like what you are doing is wrong.
At lunch time you share these experiences with your
co-workers and they are aghast, with the best intentions they try to comfort
you and give you other suggestions. So one fo them tells you about a naturalist
doctor who works with herbs and food.
Having given the idea of a new doctor, you call and
make an appointment. His consultation is not cheap but it lasts over an hour
and you leave with the sensation that he really heard what you said. He gives
you a list of recommendations and he emphasizes that if it does not work out it
is YOUR fault. Hey, ok you at an age that you are aware of your
responsibilities. Nonetheless, it is a light at the end of the tunnel.
After a month, you go back to the naturalist doctor,
who you later find out is a Shaman. (Pretty cool). Then you tell him what
worked out and what didn´t work out. Once again the consultation last two
hours. But you notice that something has changed. When you tell him that you
have been walking every day for one hour, he turns and says “ Perhaps you could
try to go to a gym or some water sport.” Yeah , right. Again, isn´t walking
every day for an hour a great accomplishment that deserves to be praised?
For some doctors, what we are doing to make our lives
more pleasant and a bit easier doesn´t really matter. Ever since I have started
talking to people about these experiences more and more people have reported
that they are under the same impression.
Perhaps, when I say praise it might sound like a
person who is needy. Maybe it is. But nonetheless, life is filled with stress
and people are doing their best to do better. It has made me think of the fact
that we are all going to die one day. No one lives forever. Instead of living,
are we only worrying about how to prolong life? This brings to mind how the
elderly are treated in most countries. (That will probably be another post).
In the meantime, my inner voice is telling me to just
keep doing my best and enjoy each day as if it were my last, because in the
end, it really could be.
Written:
August 16, 2017 Todos os direitos reservados a Meire Marion.
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