Margaret and I have so many things in common. After almost seven years apart (I have lived in three different states since we last saw each other), we met in Portland and it was as if we had never missed a day. She is goofy and smart and funny and sweet and silly and serious and thoughtful and kind and an all around good egg. Just like me. We also both live with autoimmune diseases, although I've been luckier in that regard.
A little over 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis. No, it isn't the kind that is contagious, nor is it the kind that you have some fun getting (drinking, drugs, eating at a buffet that wasn't clean). Nope, it is all internal where your body tries to kick out the liver, just because. Thanks to the miracle of steroids and anti-rejection drugs, I was able to get rid of it after a couple of years. Unfortunately, less than two years later, it was back. The doctors said I should plan on taking those drugs for the rest of my life. ICK. I was not a happy camper.
I was still on medication when I moved to Ohio a couple of years later. There I met my neighbor, Deni (an amazing woman who recently received her Health Coach Certification), who introduced me to a book called The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. Basically, the premise of the book is that most western diseases are preventable simply through controlling one's diet. (The movie Forks Over Knives is an excellent documentary based on that study.) With encouragement from Deni and support from my husband, Brian, I reduced my (heavy) diet of dairy and meat, while increasing my consumption of fruits and vegetables, and got back on a daily regimen of exercise. It helped! After a year and a half, I was back in remission and have been ever since, about four years.
A couple of years ago, I left my job in Ohio and moved to Georgia to help my mom as she dealt with early stages of Alzheimer's. We used a diet of fresh, local fruits and vegetables with limited meat and dairy consumption, as well as limited sweets. That, along with daily walks and gardening, helped mom go from 78 pounds to 101 pounds and made life more fun for all of us. Unfortunately, it didn't stop the Alzheimer's progress. It got to a point where none of us felt comfortable being able to care for mom and she moved into assisted living. That last 9 months at home was really stressful and I fell back into some poor eating habits: soft drinks, burgers, ice cream, lots of dairy, etc. We also had very limited exercise because it wasn't safe to leave mom alone. I started feeling less than great and at my checkup found that for the first time in years, my blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides were all too high. Danger signs! I needed to do something.
This brings me back to Margaret. When we met up a couple of weeks ago, I found out that Margaret had not been as lucky on the autoimmune front. She was diagnosed with Lupus just a short while after I was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis. Unfortunately, she has had to live with it every day since then. We both still enjoy the daily annoyances of Sjogren's Syndrome (another autoimmune disease that impacts the moisture producing glands in the body), as well as Rheumatoid Arthritis, but those are nothing compared to Lupus, which attacks every organ in the body (slight humorous note: except the liver). We both know that diet and exercise is critical, but we both felt that comfort food was so, well, comforting. What to do?
Brian's cousin Charles unwittingly shared the answer. He posted on Facebook that he was taking part in an 8-week challenge of extreme diet and exercise. I told Margaret about it and we thought it could be something that we could do together. However, when I looked into that program, it didn't seem sustainable for me. Still, I liked the idea of taking eight weeks to really focus on lifestyle choices and make healthy changes, and so did Margaret. Thus, 8 Weeks to a Healthier We was created.
For the next eight weeks, Margaret and I (along with Brian, my mother in law Marty, and probably Margaret's husband Glen) will be working to create a sustainable diet of whole foods, mostly fruits and vegetables, while minimizing our intake of meat, dairy and sweets. At the end of the eight weeks, we should be on the right track for long term healthy food and exercise choices. Hopefully, we can both move to a place where we no longer need medication to moderate our blood pressure, immune system, etc. Even if that doesn't happen completely, I expect that we'll both feel better. And that is a really big deal
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