I suppose I should break the news to all of you. I did not win the 2013 Go Red for Women Challenge, but I can assure you that the runner-up and winner accomplished some amazing things. The winner lowered her cholesterol by over 70 points! (In comparison I lowered mine by 3…but to be fair I started at 183, which is pretty dang good).
With that behind me, I’ve realized I’m at a bit of a crossroads. This blog was originally set up to chronicle my weight loss journey, and that’s a journey I will more than likely be on the rest of my life. So to me, it seems a bit redundant to constantly be writing about the same thing over and over. I’m a big fan of fiction thrillers, but it doesn’t mean I don’t throw in a Nicholas Sparks book every now and then.
So from here on out, our blog topics are going to vary. They may include health issues I’ve dealt with, health issues other people I know have dealt with, and sometimes we’ll get information from some of our doctors. I can name every state capital and recall movie lines in the blink of an eye—but at the end of the day, a doctor I am not. So when we need expert advice, we’ll get it for you—rumor has it we have a few doctors on our service. And I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking this is going to turn into some medical blog that you can’t understand. Absolutely not the case—I’m no doctor remember? So I’ll talk to the doctors, but I’ll let you know what I find out and give it to you in a way that can actually be understood.
You may notice we’ve changed our tagline (look underneath This Thing Called Health at the top of the page) to read: Health is a constant. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, but it’s always there. Here we look at all of it—the good, the bad, and even the ugly—because this thing called health is as complex as they come. Let us help you make it simpler.
I stand behind that tagline. Granted, I wrote it so I should stand behind it—but it strikes a chord with me. Health IS complex. There may be people out there who have never had more than a common cold their entire lives, but most of us can’t say that. Hence the complexity.
Moving forward, my goal with this blog is still to help people, albeit in maybe a different way than originally intended. The weight loss blogs aren’t going to stop entirely, but when you choose to write about something so specific, it becomes harder to find material—especially if the scale is at a standstill. I’m fairly certain no one wants to read a blog that just says, “No change.”
Also, if any of you ever have any health-related questions you want/need answered—I’m more than happy to work with our doctors to get you an answer. We’re trying to uncomplicate health for you and believe me, there’s no better way to do that than to go through someone like me who thought until I started here that an otolaryngologist was someone who studied birds (that’s an ornithologist by the way—an otolaryngologist is an ENT, or an ear, nose, and throat doctor).
