Turning Point. 02/21/2010
 
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Have you had a turning point in your life?
I would love to hear of your turning point, in the comments section.

I have had many. The latest one was just over three years ago.  My joyful journey is mostly told in my artslim blog.

This was my turning point and also when I began blogging.



My turning point was being so ill I was going into hospital once or twice a week due to extreme low pulse or low oxygen saturations as my lungs and heart were packing it in.
I was finding it difficult to walk, both my feet had been broken and my right leg crushed in an accident and I needed some   mobility products  to move around, even in, my own home.

I was looking at chairs and scooters in mobility compare , and barely managing with Reg’s help (when he could assist me) and walking sticks.

Reg my husband had then and of course, still has a degenerating disease of the frontal lobe of the brain and I needed to care for him not the other way around.
Doctor told me to 'make our final arrangements this involved arranging for someone to care for my husband after I was gone.  We relocated to live 6 minutes walk from my youngest daughters so she could take over when needed. I had a couple of night time life threatening events and needed to call the ambulance when I only needed help to sit up to breath deeper and some steam, but she was out and my man was confused, so the move was still of no help to me in managing my illness at home.

Similarly, when I needed help to manage my husband when he was having a bad episode of dementia, she could not step out of the daughter role, be strong, and learn how to be the one to manage her dad's behaviour. 

I also realized that the risk of having an adult with dementia under your roof is too great a risk factor to give anyone who also has the responsibility of children under the same roof.

I knew that a dementia hostel, would be the emotional and mental death, for my wonderful husband and if he was to stay well most of the time, if he was to live a good and happy life, then I had to be the one to provide the environment in which it happened.
To do that, I needed to be healthy. 

There was only one part of my health situation, I knew I had the power to fix and that was my weight.
I began my joyful journey to a healthier lifestyle and becoming slim, on 28th January 2007. I have only had one slow pulse visit to hospital since then instead of almost twice a week  prior to my commitment to be 100% healthy lifestyle living, no excuses, not ‘just this once’ overeating and I learned how to be more active.  I had already been eating healthy, just too much quantity. 

Illness and injury had gradually made me sedentary.  

How I became active after some serious illness and injury is another story, but I did it and my health returned, conditions considered incurable ceased to be evident and my current Doctors who do not know my past medical history are very unaware of those conditions I used to suffer from.

Today as I swam in the pool, watching Reg sitting reading under the shade of a tree,  I feel so fit and well, I can hardly believe I am 63. 
This afternoon, Reg and I walked on the beach and with Indigo the dog, I did seven 100 meter plus sprints along the sand.  Lol, this is the same woman was once in need of a heart lung transplant. 

This is the same woman who so easily could have been wheelchair bound with feet and legs too painful to stand up on.  
I know I have worked hard to be this fit, but I also know I have been blessed, with an amazing recovery and I do not take it for granted.

If through writing and telling people that you can recover from the near impossible, I can instil in them the belief that it can happen for them, then J, I’ll waffle on about my own recovery for ever. I am so very grateful that the human body has such incredible ability to heal itself given the right degree of self-nurture and positive belief.  
Remember that every cell within our body is replaced, every seven years. Remove the reasons for illness occurring and degenerative illness can reverse.


 
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These are the before picture images I used to SHOCK me into eating LESS. Obesity is NOT in your genes, I ate to much and was too inactive and that is why I was obese. NO MORE EXCUSSES..
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One of my favorite pictures. Me as a healthy young senior, having downsized myself and the family home and ready for an eco touring lifestyle with husband Reg.
 
 
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Dr, Nora Volkow, is a passionate advocate for addicts of all kinds, she is determined to find a cure. Her work with drug addiction may offer help for overeaters.

Dr. Nora Volkow is determined to change people’s minds and make them realize, it is not only the weak that become addicted

I have an interest in drug rehabilitation. I have worked professionally with drug addiction from the emergency ward, through into the psychiatric wards and in several of the best private drug rehabilitation centres in Victoria.  I have combined my certificate in health sciences with my arts training to become an arts therapist, working in this field of health care. I have always felt compassion for those with addictions, I have had my own battle with overeating in the past and not so, past, I have no reason to feel superior to people fighting worse demons in their lives.  

Dr Volkow is the director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA, part of the National Institutes of Health) and is one of the leading addiction researchers, Volkow says brain science is proving that we all have the potential to become addicted to something: drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, gambling, even food. Overeating and substance abuse are "two sides of the same coin,"

The brain chemistry of over-eaters and drug addicts was very similar. Drug addicts, alcoholics and smokers all have the same type of brain chemistry, which prevents them from quitting their habits, except with great difficulty.  When people eat, way beyond their need and store the excess fat, there's a debate as to whether you want to call that a disorder of the brain

Addictive drugs hijack the normal food reward system that humans need to survive. For example, the dopamine signaling system in the brain is activated, by food cues, such as the smell of turkey roasting in the oven. This system drives us to eat and feel satisfied after eating. Brain-imaging studies show this same system is at the core of drug addiction.

With understanding of what triggers addictions we will more easily be able to manage them.  This research certainly backs up what statistics tell us, that it is stress management, changing our thinking and lifestyle rather than going on a diet, that is the only long-term pathway out of obesity for a former overeater like myself.