By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet
Back when I was 34 I ran into some serious health issues. Just to give you a quick perspective on my life at that time I’ll tell you a little bit about what was happening.
I was a young CEO of a small but growing company. We had probably a dozen employees then with a training business that served about 5000 clients per year around the US and Canada. I was in one of my thin stages so that was lovely. We had nice offices, a beautiful home, a pretty nice lifestyle and nothing really to complain about. I was working about 60 hours a week. We loved to golf on weekends and traveled around Wisconsin to visit little towns whenever we could to check out the local highlights. We were child-free so we were pretty mobile and carefree. Sometimes our business took us to Europe so we’d be away from the office for extended periods but the staff held down the fort pretty well.
One day I drove into the parking lot at the office and all “hell” broke loose. I swung the car into the driveway as usual but as I turned to maneuver the car into a parking space the whole lot of cars started to swing. It was like my head was spinning on an axis (like something out of a horror movie) and I had no control over where my eyes were going. Everything that I knew intuitively was stationary was moving in front of my eyes. I had to stop. I could not even park the car. I had to let my husband park it and staggered immediately into my office and called to make a doctor’s appointment. After a few minutes my equilibrium returned and I was able to work. I just had this fuzzy sort of headache after that.
My appointment only netted me another appointment with a specialist. At that meeting they realized that indeed, something was haywire with my equilibrium. My head kept going back to the dizzy stage. When I would lay down and close my eyes my head would spin. Everyone’s head spins one way; like when you get a bad hangover but in my case the spinning was going the other way and faster and faster. Sometimes I could not stand. It was getting really scary. There was no inner ear infection. This was something more sinister.
The specialist put me on a medication. He warned me that this med would cause me to gain weight but not to worry, that I’d get it back off. I sunk in my chair. I had worked SO hard on a physician-assisted diet to get the weight off and it was not going to be as easy as he thought to get it off again. But my ability to stand trumped my weight big time. I could not function so I began the meds.
I also began 12 weeks of tests. Sometimes they’d tip me over and shine lights in my eyes. Or they’d ask me to track a beam of light with my eyes while they watched. And more. Every week.
As long as I took the meds on schedule I could remain erect and function in my job. I could drive. I could walk. I had to hold a handrail because once I took a header down a set of concrete stairs but I didn’t break anything. I just learned an important lesson. No walking with purse in one hand, briefcase in the other. Hold the handrail; just in case.
I gained 30 pounds in just over a month. Back to my fat clothes. Fooey.
My husband traveled a lot so I was on a constant diet. I didn’t have to cook meals when he was gone. I’d live on diet orange soda and peanut butter sandwiches. I realize peanut butter sandwiches aren’t “diet food” but I wasn’t eating much else so my calorie count was really low. I thought I was doing just fine. The meds made me gain weight but eating very little and drinking diet soda made me feel like I could hang in. I was in fear of gaining even more! And I was in constant fear of not knowing what was wrong with me. The stress was almost unbearable but peanut butter was my comfort food.
12 weeks later I was back in for a big meeting with the specialist. He gave me his results.
Nothing.
He didn’t find a thing wrong with me so now they were going to take me off the meds and see if I could walk and not lose my equilibrium. He said I was not the first person with this mysterious affliction. They just knew that if nothing worse happened that it was likely gone after 12 weeks so I’d be set free. I asked him to tell me what “worse” could have been that they were looking for. He said he didn’t want to tell me but since I asked he was obliged to spill the rest of the story.
He thought maybe I had a stroke. so during the 12 weeks they were waiting to see if I had another one. Some of the tests were checks for that.
He thought maybe I had MS (Multiple Sclerosis). I was a perfect candidate at 34 years old so they were watching to see if the other symptoms began to pop up.
And lastly he thought maybe I had a brain tumor. That explained some of the other tests with my head shoved in an MRI machine.
I about collapsed. I had been through what I thought was hell the past 12 weeks but news of any of those other things would have really turned my world upside down. I was scared and relieved at the same time.
Lastly, he told me there was no guarantee that the condition wouldn’t come back.
I could walk. Yeah. My dizziness went away. I felt like a walking time bomb for awhile but as time passed the fear dissipated. I was left with over 30 pounds of weight to get off. I carried that for years but at least I could walk.
Fast forward about two decades to the present.
As I am in constant research mode for improvements on The Plan Z Diet I am looking at new research all the time. You can imagine my reaction to this news story. I am going to give you the link so you can watch for yourself. It’s not very long. Just wait for the few slides to move through at the front and then the TV coverage will launch and you can watch it. It is very compelling and I have lots of other things that back this up. I would not categorize this as urban myth at all. Take a listen and see:
Back when I was 34 I ran into some serious health issues. Just to give you a quick perspective on my life at that time I’ll tell you a little bit about what was happening.
I was a young CEO of a small but growing company. We had probably a dozen employees then with a training business that served about 5000 clients per year around the US and Canada. I was in one of my thin stages so that was lovely. We had nice offices, a beautiful home, a pretty nice lifestyle and nothing really to complain about. I was working about 60 hours a week. We loved to golf on weekends and traveled around Wisconsin to visit little towns whenever we could to check out the local highlights. We were child-free so we were pretty mobile and carefree. Sometimes our business took us to Europe so we’d be away from the office for extended periods but the staff held down the fort pretty well.
One day I drove into the parking lot at the office and all “hell” broke loose. I swung the car into the driveway as usual but as I turned to maneuver the car into a parking space the whole lot of cars started to swing. It was like my head was spinning on an axis (like something out of a horror movie) and I had no control over where my eyes were going. Everything that I knew intuitively was stationary was moving in front of my eyes. I had to stop. I could not even park the car. I had to let my husband park it and staggered immediately into my office and called to make a doctor’s appointment. After a few minutes my equilibrium returned and I was able to work. I just had this fuzzy sort of headache after that.
My appointment only netted me another appointment with a specialist. At that meeting they realized that indeed, something was haywire with my equilibrium. My head kept going back to the dizzy stage. When I would lay down and close my eyes my head would spin. Everyone’s head spins one way; like when you get a bad hangover but in my case the spinning was going the other way and faster and faster. Sometimes I could not stand. It was getting really scary. There was no inner ear infection. This was something more sinister.
The specialist put me on a medication. He warned me that this med would cause me to gain weight but not to worry, that I’d get it back off. I sunk in my chair. I had worked SO hard on a physician-assisted diet to get the weight off and it was not going to be as easy as he thought to get it off again. But my ability to stand trumped my weight big time. I could not function so I began the meds.
I also began 12 weeks of tests. Sometimes they’d tip me over and shine lights in my eyes. Or they’d ask me to track a beam of light with my eyes while they watched. And more. Every week.
As long as I took the meds on schedule I could remain erect and function in my job. I could drive. I could walk. I had to hold a handrail because once I took a header down a set of concrete stairs but I didn’t break anything. I just learned an important lesson. No walking with purse in one hand, briefcase in the other. Hold the handrail; just in case.
I gained 30 pounds in just over a month. Back to my fat clothes. Fooey.
My husband traveled a lot so I was on a constant diet. I didn’t have to cook meals when he was gone. I’d live on diet orange soda and peanut butter sandwiches. I realize peanut butter sandwiches aren’t “diet food” but I wasn’t eating much else so my calorie count was really low. I thought I was doing just fine. The meds made me gain weight but eating very little and drinking diet soda made me feel like I could hang in. I was in fear of gaining even more! And I was in constant fear of not knowing what was wrong with me. The stress was almost unbearable but peanut butter was my comfort food.
12 weeks later I was back in for a big meeting with the specialist. He gave me his results.
Nothing.
He didn’t find a thing wrong with me so now they were going to take me off the meds and see if I could walk and not lose my equilibrium. He said I was not the first person with this mysterious affliction. They just knew that if nothing worse happened that it was likely gone after 12 weeks so I’d be set free. I asked him to tell me what “worse” could have been that they were looking for. He said he didn’t want to tell me but since I asked he was obliged to spill the rest of the story.
He thought maybe I had a stroke. so during the 12 weeks they were waiting to see if I had another one. Some of the tests were checks for that.
He thought maybe I had MS (Multiple Sclerosis). I was a perfect candidate at 34 years old so they were watching to see if the other symptoms began to pop up.
And lastly he thought maybe I had a brain tumor. That explained some of the other tests with my head shoved in an MRI machine.
I about collapsed. I had been through what I thought was hell the past 12 weeks but news of any of those other things would have really turned my world upside down. I was scared and relieved at the same time.
Lastly, he told me there was no guarantee that the condition wouldn’t come back.
I could walk. Yeah. My dizziness went away. I felt like a walking time bomb for awhile but as time passed the fear dissipated. I was left with over 30 pounds of weight to get off. I carried that for years but at least I could walk.
Fast forward about two decades to the present.
As I am in constant research mode for improvements on The Plan Z Diet I am looking at new research all the time. You can imagine my reaction to this news story. I am going to give you the link so you can watch for yourself. It’s not very long. Just wait for the few slides to move through at the front and then the TV coverage will launch and you can watch it. It is very compelling and I have lots of other things that back this up. I would not categorize this as urban myth at all. Take a listen and see:
I didn’t connect the dots right away. This didn’t sink in until I saw this piece three times and I’m not wholly sure these things are connected but I am darn suspicious that they are. I’ll look forward to your comments.
Cheers,
To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/
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