A New Start, A New Journey....

Every day, I meet with patients who are living the consequences of poor health choices...Diabetes, Heart and Vascular Disease, Lung Disease, Kidney Disease, Eye disease, Cancer and the list can go on.  I advise these patients to eat healthy, lose weight, and work at managing their diabetes and preventing further health complications.  But...I'm a hippocrite.  Yes, those are harsh words, but it is a harsh reality and one that has it has been haunting me on a daily basis.  I'm obese, I also have high blood pressure that is directly related to my obesity and I'm at high risk for all of the many health problems that I treat in my patients every day.  I do not exercise, I drink sweetened drinks and I have a high fat, high sodium diet.  The very things I preach against to my patients every day.  I make excuses for why I can't do differently....I'm too busy, too tired....But the truth is, I'm lazy...and I'm a hippocrite.  Someone once put it like this....if you were standing in the middle of the highway and a tractor trailor was barreling down the road toward you, what would you do?  You would get out of the way! Right?! But why...you feel fine...yes, and you will feel fine up until the very second the truck hits you.  Well, chronic disease is the truck, and I can see it clearly.  I understand what the consequences are, and yet I'm playing in the street.  I am passionate about helping others be more healthy.  It's time to get PASSIONATE about my own health.  I can't truly help others, until I help myself.  So...who am I doing this for?  That's the key question...because change will not last unless the answer is ME.  I am worth it.  I want to be healthy.  So....today, I start a new journey...not tomorrow, today.  I'm not going to do some fad diet or take a pill or anything like that.  I'm starting a journey to permanent lifestyle changes.  Notice I said a journey, not a destination.  Health is a daily process, it cannot be rushed and true results will not happen overnight.  So....here we go!

Happy Nurses Week!

I'm so honored to serve my community as a Nurse Practitioner.  It is my prayer that as I strive to lead my patients to better health, they will see Jesus shining through me.