Muppet Wisdom

"I really do believe that all of you are at the beginning of a wonderful journey. As you start traveling down that road of life, remember this: There are never enough comfort stops. The places you're going to are never on the map. And once you get that map out, you won't be able to refold it no matter how smart you are.

So forget the map, roll down the windows, and whenever you can, pull over and have a picnic with a pig. And if you can help it, never fly as cargo."

Kermit, the Frog

It's Never Too Late - My Journey to Wellness

How to begin? I guess with the "first day of the rest of my life," which was August 4, 2006. That was the day I met with CHEK Practitioner and Coach Scott Herrera. To say it was a seven-hour appointment that changed everything would be an understatement. Actually, a little background material might be appropriate.

Growing up, I was a bookworm. Although my biological father was a talented athlete in many sports through high school and in the Army, my mother and step-father were neither athletic nor sports-minded. My family moved around – a lot – and I was a solitary child, living in the world of my imagination and that of the authors whose work I poured over, often by flashlight underneath the covers after I was supposed to be asleep.

It wasn’t until after my only child was born that I started exercising and trying my hand at sports. I fell in love with tennis and found out that I was actually pretty good at it. I didn’t like losing, but I didn’t know how to compete. I played tennis five days a week, often twice a day. In addition, I started running. Though not fast, I was religious about it and entered local 3K and 5K races in Dallas. During the first eight years of my daughter’s life, I also dieted. One, The Beverly Hills Diet, resulted in a morning where I literally crawled down the stairs to wait – on the floor – for my child to be picked up by her carpool. I was too weak to stand. When I called my doctor and told him what I had been doing he said, “Go eat a piece of toast, for God’s sake.” For two to three years, I ate no meat…I was a lacto-vegetarian, living on cheese, nuts, fruit, yogurt, and bread and crackers. I often did a liquid day on Monday…water, fruit or V8 juice, coffee, and broth, but from bouillon cubes, not homemade. I also used a laxative at least once a week. There was a period of time when I was probably taking an over-the-counter laxative every two to three days. Even when I wasn’t doing that crazy stuff, I was on a low- or no-fat diet with lots of grains…I thought I was eating healthy because I was eating whole grain bread.

Then one of my old tennis buddies started an aerobics studio in Dallas, one of the first. I was immediately hooked. She and I formed a corporation and opened up several other studios, one on The Miracle Mile on Lovers Lane and another in Arlington. Usually, I taught two classes a day, sometimes three (it was a rite of passage to actually teach three in a row, like that made you some kind of legend…not many could/would do that). Soon after opening The Workout on Lovers Lane, I was working seven days a week. Classes started at 6:00 AM and ended at 9:00 PM. We had a good staff, but the hours were intense and, as the owner/managing partner, I was always on call. When I was at the studio, I felt I should be home with my family. When I was with my family, I felt I should be at the studio. Mostly, I was at the studio. I would go home and wait for carpool, then take my girl to work where she would wait for her daddy to pick her up after his run at the end of the day. They would go home and my husband would fix dinner (one year, he got the Mother’s Day card and gift), do homework, and wait for me to get off work. Often, I would fall asleep on the couch, in my leotards, too exhausted to eat. I weighed 111 pounds and was 5’6”. I looked great. Wired and tired is how I would describe myself, knowing what I know now.

When my daughter entered high school, my partner and I sold our studios. I tried to find a place to exercise, but the product we had offered was of such high quality that I couldn’t take just any class…it really bothered me when instructors couldn’t count eight beats to a measure. By this time, I had stopped running, but I walked practically every day; one day a week I would do an eight-mile walk. My hips would kill me at the end of that distance, so even though I felt I needed more, I usually only walked three to five miles at a 11-13 minute pace.

Once my child was in college, a friend and I started playing singles tennis again, which I had given up right before opening the aerobics studio. I played in the city club league during the school year and, during the summer, our club had a team that played in the Volvo league. I was the only singles player (each team had to have one singles player and the rest were doubles teams). One of those years, our team went to regionals, which was great fun even though it was in south Texas in August. We missed going to the national championships by two points.

I was still active, but I was gaining weight. My eating habits didn’t seem different…low fat, high fiber. Where once my cholesterol had been poster-child low, now I was on medication. Ditto for blood pressure…hormone replacement…acid reflux…and thyroid.

I tried Jenny Craig, Weight Watcher’s…and I could lose weight on these programs, but once I went back on a “normal” diet, that weight – and more – would pile right back on. My internist treated me as though I just didn’t have enough will power to eat less. My weight ballooned to 177 pounds and I had shrunk to 5’51/2”. I wasn’t able to sleep more than a few hours at a time and I had back pain, radiating down the outside of my left leg into my calf. I didn’t look great. I didn’t feel great. Emotionally, I wasn’t great, on many levels.

My Pilates instructor and friend had consulted Scott Herrera for nutritional help and thought I might benefit from his expertise. I asked her (what an angel she was in my life) to call Scott to see if he would take me on as a new client. So there I was, on the ‘first day of the rest of my life.” Seven hours of epiphany later, I was on a journey from which there is no turning back. And thank God for that.

Scott had sent what seemed like reams of paperwork…HAQ, Lifestyle Questionnaire, Pain Diagram, to name just a few. I had gone on-line to take the Metabolic Typing Test as well. When I first came to Scott’s office, all of those things were complete and in his possession. We didn’t talk about food. We didn’t talk about exercise. I remember early on in that first conversation being asked what I was most afraid of. The flood gates opened when I answered, “I’m afraid I will have to leave my marriage in order to save myself.” That was not the first time I had uttered those words.

So Scott and I talked for many sessions, many hours about the mental/emotional aspects of my dis-eased state. I was angered by what I felt traditional medicine knew and didn’t tell me or by what they simply didn’t deem important or believe contributed to the condition my condition was in. I was on fire with concepts that I had not heard articulated in quite the way Scott presented them to me. This ignited a dormant spirituality which had been pushed into the background of my life. Books I had never heard of were listed as must-reads. Paul Chek’s work was central to the process of wellness for Scott and for me. Scott began teaching me more effective coping mechanisms, different frames of reference for problem solving. We talked about learning to manage my life, to establish core values for every chakra, how to have non-violent dialogue…how to look at and live life differently, in a more integrated, fulfilling way.

Then we started working on food and implementing my food plan based upon the results of the Metabolic Typing Test. Scott took me to a local cafe he had convinced to cook clean food cleanly…they would actually cook according to the Metabolic Typing program for Scott’s clients. I was so focused and committed to healing myself that within four months I had lost 40 pounds. This was done, not by starving, not by ramping up a cardio program (I hadn’t even started training with Scott yet), but simply by eating right for my metabolic type. I was eating more than I had in 20 years. I was eating organic fat which I hadn’t eaten in 20 years…ghee, organic beef, buffalo, wild salmon, coconut oil, organic free-range eggs. I was drinking half my body weight in ounces of pure, bottled water daily, and I was gluten-free. Most grains contain a protein called gliadin, which can be extrememly difficult for some stomachs to breakdown and digest. This can lead to a host of GI tract problems that, over time, spill out into other areas of the body. I thought being gluten-free would be impossible for me. but I have been for 3 ½ years and I am so grateful for that one thing. I always knew something was wrong when I ate breads, crackers, etc., because it would start a feeding frenzy…I simply could not get enough. But everything was explained to me in a way that made sense and fortified my desire to implement the program. When Scott told me I needed to eat good fat, I remember asking him how he could tell a woman who was fat to eat fat. He asked me to trust him. I did. I do. It works. It’s true.

Eventually, I made it into the gym. But this was not the kind of exercise I had known. No crazy cardio, no heavy or really any weight work in the beginning. I was “working in”, not working out, in order to rest and heal a broken body, build energy, learn body awareness, develop my stabilizing muscles and balance. I was exercising less and exercising less intensely than I had my whole adult life. But it wasn’t easy, fluffy stuff. I was learning how to use my body efficiently and safely. Many things made me feel like a klutz, but I wasn’t completely hopeless and, with time, I was able to master things and move on to learn other things. My body showed the results and the results looked and felt good.

I also started working, through Scott, with Dr. Daniel Kalish. Conversations and body systems analysis testing revealed that I was borderline Stage 2-Stage 3 Adrenal Fatigue and that I had gut issues. As going gluten-free began to heal my intestinal lining, all sorts of things presented themselves. I had parasites and bacterial infections…all typical in a person who ate gluten when they were sensitive to it. I embarked upon another phase of my journey to health and wellness. Various food and herbal based supplements were added to my daily program in order to boost an exhausted body to start doing the functional things that a healthy body should be able to do. The goal was always to be able to get off the supplements; I was using them for support until I was better, not as a prescription for the rest of my life.

I could write volumes, about every subtle nuance of the next 2 years. Here are some highlights: I left my marriage of 40 years. I started taking some of the same courses that Scott had taken, as he suggested. I became certified as a Metabolic Typing Advisor, CHEK HLC Level 3, CHEK Exercise Coach. I tore up my left knee on my off-road bike, which led to meeting and working with Guy Voyer, O.D., taking his ELDOA and Myofascial Stretching Courses. Scott rehabilitated that knee and I have not needed to have surgery to replace the ACL or repair the torn meniscus. I begin using some of the supplemental protocols developed by Dr. Cass Ingram. I passed a parasitical fluke (which I wish I had kept to put in a jar of formaldehyde, but I was too grossed out by the thought of having THAT in my body). I got rid of HPV and moderate cervical dysplasia in three months after starting an Ingram protocol. Using a combination of Kalish and Ingram protocols and sheer refusal to give up, I am off all the prescription medications that I was on 3 ½ years ago, with the blessings of my traditional physicians and with blood work that proves I don’t need the Rx. My weight has been stable since I started the metabolic typing food plan, although I did get too thin right after my divorce. I regained the lost ½ inch through training and ELDOA work with Scott and Guy. I started a business centered around the coaching and business model Scott Herrera uses and has been generous enough to share with me. I teach segmental exercise classes – abs, glutes, hamstrings, quads and adductors training). Scott and I have started an LLC through which we offer quality bottled water and the best supplement lines we can find for our clients. My libido is alive and well. I have discovered that happiness is living within one’s core values, creating a life that is not dependent upon the actions of others, and learning to love and forgive oneself. I have a sense of purpose I never experienced before and a desire to teach others, specifically women, that it is never too late to create health, to live a life that is congruent with one’s heart and soul, to discover a passion and zest for something new.

Would I pretend this has been easy? No. I have cried more in the last 3 years than in my entire life, and I was a pretty good crier in the old days. Would I say that it is worth it? Yes, oh yes. I have also laughed more in the last 3 years than in my entire life. I have met wonderful people from all over the world. I have been taught and mentored by some eccentric geniuses. I have discovered that I can take care of myself even if it scares me silly. I delight in life’s delicious ironies, and there are many. I can’t wait to see what the future brings…what I bring to myself. I have learned to be grateful, for everything, especially my genetics and the wonderful machine that is my body. I have learned that I am a co-creator, and always have been, of my life. I have stopped blaming others and started looking within.

I teach in gratitude for having been taught.