Many of you may or may not know that I battle my share of chronic illnesses, including Endometriosis, PCOS, a neck injury, and a slew of ugly autoimmune diseases (clearly, I won the jack pot). As an outlet for my sanity and platform to share with others in similar shoes, I write a blog on topics related to my life and chronic illnesses; about a year and a half ago, I wrote a blog post that reflected a point in my life where I was merely surviving, struggling to get by in even the day-to-day.               
Originally, when I was diagnosed, I wanted to “treat” my ailments by whatever means were possible, accepting almost any medication or procedure that was recommended. As many of you have experienced, medications come with side effects, and before I knew it, I was taking medicine just for the side effects and had a regimented total of thirteen pills or injections to take regularly. And did I feel better? No. In fact, I felt worse. I was not the paradigm of health you imagine when you think of a personal trainer, and became ashamed to even tell anyone that I was a personal trainer because of the physical state of my body. Most difficult was the weight I gained during the trial and error of all of these medications; despite my clean diet and regular exercise, I packed on the pounds like a growing baby calf.
           It was both frustrating and embarrassing, but I knew that if I threw in the towel, I would only be worse off. My mom begged me for months to quit taking all of the medications; she watched my health slowly deteriorate, but I was too terrified to stop, until one day I was sick and tired of being sick and tired and dumped the meds. I was determined to take care of myself as naturally as possible from then on. What happened was astounding: after my body detoxified from all of the medications (which took roughly six months) I started shedding weight, and responding to the consistent diet and exercise program I followed, losing thirty-two pounds of fat. My patient endurance and consistency with my food and workouts had paid off, like I had faith they someday would. Since the proof is in the pudding, below are pictures of my transformation:

To this day, I carefully watch my diet to be certain it is free of any foods that will upset my system, and fuel myself with the best nutrition that I can. There will be many days where thoughts creep in that it is unfair that I have to live this way when others can get by with eating nearly any assortment of food they want and be seemingly unaffected, but I remind myself of the picture on the left, and the blog post from a year ago, and just ask myself if being able to eat those things would be worth it, and every time, my health wins. 
I know that everyone will meet some challenge to their health and fitness during their lifetime, and believe that the way to overcome it is to have patient endurance and be consistent in good habits. We must treat our bodies well: allow them to rest, nourish them with good foods, and give them regular exercise. Small changes in the right direction, over time, will make the world of a difference! Believe that your health is worth it, make it a priority, and don’t accept any less.

            If you’d like to know more, grab me at the gym or send me an email, I’d love to chat with you.

Thanks,

Morgan

"When you think about it in the context of the fact that diet-related illnesses among young people are on the rise. We all know that. And we think about this omnipresent marketing I think it isn't an exaggeration to say that it has become downright dangerous." --Anna Lappe, TEDxManhattan