Cindy is an active, 62-year old, moderately overweight (183 pounds, 5 feet 4 inches) female, taking only a statin to “control” her cholesterol and no other prescription medications. She heard about SHAPE ReClaimed from a friend and was impressed with the way her friend started looking and feeling doing the SHAPE Program.
Cindy works a full-time managerial position at a local corporation. She was frequently fatigued and had multiple regions of her body that always ached and burned, including her elbows, fingers, knees and ankles. She attributed her aches and pains to the fact that she was getting older. She was told her aches were from arthritis and was offered prescription medications to aid in dealing with her pain. She refused to accept the diagnosis or the drugs.
Upon presentation to my office, Cindy’s main concern was that she didn’t like her appearance. As a younger woman, she was always able to keep her weight in the 120 to 130-pound range without any dieting, wear petite-sized clothing and she was proud of the way she looked. Over the last 10 years, she found it increasingly difficult to keep her weight down and watched her waistline and bust line continue to increase, no matter what she did.
She began her SHAPE Program journey at the end of March 2016. She was diligent with regard to following the SHAPE Program exactly. By the end of her first week, she had lost 5 pounds and was ecstatic. She also noticed that her fatigue began to wane, and she was feeling more energetic.
As the months passed, her weight and inches continued to decrease while her fatigue disappeared, and much to her surprise, the burning and aching feelings in her extremities were gone. She was truly “reshaping.” She inquired if it really could be that eating the right foods, and not eating the wrong foods, could have such an effect on the human body.
As of July 25, 2016, she lost 30 pounds, and was fitting into clothing she had not worn for 10 or more years. She was able to walk and do other physical activities with little to no pain. She was sleeping better and had greater clarity of thinking.
Even more importantly, she realized that “you are what you eat.” On the few occasions, Memorial Day and Independence Day, when she did eat a few bites of food that were not on the program, her extremities began to burn and ache again within a few minutes to a few hours. With this, she made it a point to stay away from the foods that her body didn’t “like.”
Cindy still wants to lose about 5 more pounds and then start Phase II. She has vowed to stay the course through Phase III and beyond. I have every confidence that she will lose the last 5 pounds and continue through Phase III.
More importantly, Cindy has learned the power of eating clean and healthy. She now knows and understands that what Hippocrates is reported to have said in 431 B. C., “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” has significance, even in today’s highly pharmaceutical, and highly refined-and-processed-food world. She is truly a SHAPE Warrior.
Submitted by Dr. Joseph Di Carlo
