The Return of the 23 Pounds Thinner Blogger….

Dear Readers,

Sorry to have been persona non writa. Allow me to explain.

Two years ago my business partner and I got a routine blood test for insurance purposes. I’m 46, in decent health, I like veggies, no big deal I assumed.

Well it turns out my liver was about to shut down. Apparently two enzymes that are normally 35 and 40 were 630 and 750! Scared the living you know what out of me...

After consulting two top liver specialists in New York (we may have mega-taxes, but by golly you can get multiple specialists on the phone), getting a liver biopsy (really big needle, really scary, avoid this) they tell me it’s “idiopathic autoimmune hepatitis.” In English that’s “Your liver is wonky, we don’t know what caused it, and we have no idea how to make it better.” Idiopathetic.

They offered to put me on Prednisone (a common steroid that is the strongest psychosis-causing prescription you can buy – it causes massive weight gain while it destroys bone and makes you bark at people in public!) and Immunosuppressants.
Great idea. Suppress a New Yorker’s immune system.

I said “for how long?” They said, “For life.”

I said, “no.”

I seemed to remember that the liver is the most regenerative organ in the body. So I found a French doctor who practices naturopathic medicine – he prescribed plant bud drops instead of pharmaceuticals.
First he took every kind of blood test known to man.

Then he took me off of Wheat (Aagh!) Dairy (hm...) Sugar (Oh no!) Red Meat (ok) and Alcohol (no problem). He gave me a mix of vitamins and nutrients to boost my immune system and a range of plant bud drops to take every day and off I went.
It was hard. But he’s a triple-Virgo, so you do what he tells you.

This was in October. Now it’s May. I just got my new numbers back. I’ve lost 22 pounds (which feels pretty fab at 46), my liver numbers are now 39 and 49 (almost there!) and amazingly, I have energy and feel good – not creaky and old.

I haven’t written about it because a) it’s taken a lot of my daylight hours to readjust my diet and b) I couldn’t find the sunny side of it – I just couldn’t – until now.

But I’m writing now and if you’re still with me, here’s the message: you don’t have to feel exhausted after 40, you don’t have to run on fumes or accept the gradual decline of your body and the creep of weight. And you don’t have to take a doctor’s advice if it doesn’t seem right. Not even a fancy New York specialist.

This hasn’t been easy – anyone who tells you a major dietary change is ‘quick and easy’ is lying to you for profit. If I hadn’t had really strong motivation (eat that cookie? Or see my grandchildren?) I wouldn’t have been able to do it.

But here’s what I got when I gave up all the unhealthy food and lost 22 pounds; I lost having to think about my weight all day. I had no idea how much mental capacity I was devoting to wondering if people thought I looked awful, trying to overcome being judged on my physical appearance by being charming (how many calories did I burn by waving my hands a lot?) and feeling apologetic because I knew I ‘used to be pretty.’ I have more energy and I also have more time now to think about other things because I’m not obsessed about my weight. And that may be the healthiest result of all.