Remember the sceptical doctor and his misgivings about my diet choices? Well, because of him, I find myself doing monthly blood work, as I promised. My experience with the very first of those tests made me think about what I was doing. Following is an account of that time and the decision I made about the blood tests.

I will start off by saying that it is a good thing my medical is covered by my work insurance. It could get very expensive otherwise. I finally succumbed to getting the tests done at the end of May and agreed to repeat it monthly.

I did not take the comment on malnutrition as a joke. Coming from Africa, I know what malnutrition looks like first hand. Luckily I have not had the misfortune of suffering from malnutrition. However, I am familiar with diseases related to malnutrition, such as Kwashiorkor. According to medicalnewstoday.com, Kwashiorkor is caused by severe malnutrition, particularly a lack of protein and other essential nutrients. The human body needs sufficient nutrients including protein, to maintain fluid balance in the body. 

A sidebar; When my Angel was growing up, I would always threaten her with Kwashiorkor and Marasmus. This is when she was reluctant to finish her meal. When I told the diseases my Angel would get for not finishing her food, she would quickly eat her food. She was afraid of these diseases with big names. Marasmus is another disease due to malnutrition. In this case, the body wastes away from the lack of nutrients, proteins and energy. Resulting in minimal subcutaneous fat and severe muscle wasting.

This scare tactic worked well for my daughter until the beginning of high school. This is when they began studying tropical disease in her Biology class. With the new knowledge of tropical diseases, she was able to argue. Showing me that she was not now and had never been at risk for either diseases. This she argued was because she always ate balanced meals of adequate quantity. Well, it worked for many years and got her to eat her food so there!

Malnutrition is very real in developing countries. Countries where people do not have enough to eat and do not always eat a balanced diet. Malnutrition targets the more vulnerable of our society, children. If the disease is not treated in time, reversed by introducing more calories and proteins, to the sick child’s diet, can lead to death. 

Though Kwashiorkor is more prevalent in children. I believe the doctor’s concern was that, in dieting and depending on how desperate a person is to lose weight; They can reduce their caloric intake so significantly causing more harm than good. Even in adults, malnutrition and can become life-threatening, if taken to extremes. 

Cases occur of people starving themselves to lose weight. Desperate people do very drastic things to lose weight and end up hurting themselves, even to the point of death. Anorexia is one of the main culprits of this. Additionally, people harm their bodies with behaviours’ such as those found in bulimics. These things happen every day when the desperation of weight loss outweighs one’s sense of self-preservation.

I was clear from the beginning, that I did not want to do any harm to my body, in this weight loss process. Hence my willingness to do the blood tests, to ensure that I was not losing important nutrients during my weight loss journey.

To fulfil my promise to the doctor, I found myself early one morning, at the doctor’s office to give blood for the first test. This is after fasting from before midnight (not ingesting anything including water). I was somewhat nervous, not from a fear of needles, more about the results of this blood test. Being so sure I was eating healthily and on a roll with my new diet. My results showing that the diet was on was working, I did not want to stop. 

The fear of reverting to my old food habits made me not want to stop my diet. It would mean that the progress I had made the last two months would have been a complete waste. Worse, stopping would mean that what all the naysayers had said would be right. I could not hack it. 

Not being a fan of supplements, I would not have liked have to take any vitamin supplements to my daily regime, as a result of depleted nutrients. I am a big advocate on all things natural. My diet thus far had been all-natural and I was thriving in my chosen path.

With these misgivings, I gave the blood and left, hoping for the best. I spent the day apprehensive about what the results would say. So many people had been so negative about my ability to see it through successfully. The last thing I needed was to find out that my efforts were so extreme, that I was now suffering some type of vitamin deficiency and/or malnutrition. 

Eventually, the doctor called and all was well, in fact in some areas like cholesterol and blood sugar, had improved, and all the other markers were within the normal range. Thank God. A vindication for me to continue my diet. I was ecstatic! 

I quickly forwarded the results to the doctor and was able to continue on my diet without any misgivings. When I look back, I know the doctor meant well. He was concerned about my health and general well being. Or at least that is how I prefer to rationalize it.

Unfortunately, I also realize that there were those people I encountered in my journey who were very negative about my process. I have learned that times when people are negative about efforts you are making in your personal development, they are usually mirroring their inadequacies on to you. They may not understand nor do they need to. It is not their journey. I call this group of people the “peanut gallery”. They have an opinion about things that don’t concern them.

As long as you have chosen your path and taken pains to ensure you are doing it in a healthy sustainable way; You should not waiver from that path. Put your will power to the test and use your determination to forge your way forward on your journey to weight loss and personal development!

You can do this! Good Luck!