Pt I: The Be Well 365 Experience with Terri Johnson

This month on our blog we’d like to share one of our most exciting success stories from be Well 365 patient Terri Johnson. Terri came to Be Well over a year ago looking to improve her health and wellness through developing life-changing habits. We sat down with Terri to learn about her struggles, motivations, and overall experience working with Dr. Lopez and her team of weight loss experts. Here is Pt. 1 of our interview with Terri.

Thank you very much for taking the time. We’re excited to hear your story and to share it with others. So I was wondering, Terri, what was your day-to-day life like before Dr. Lopez and before BeWell365?

Terri: Day to day life was kind of sluggish. At the time I had bad knees, so, I wasn’t real mobile, and of course I had a lot of bad habits. I would love my sugar, my starches, and eat all the wrong things, which did not help my health any. So, I was basically a pretty unhealthy person.

And how did you feel physically and mentally?

Terri: Tired and slightly depressed, I didn’t like myself that well. I was overweight, obese, I was actually obese, so when I would look in the mirror I didn’t like what I saw. So I didn’t have a very good self-esteem about myself. I basically just didn’t like myself.

And what made you decide that you needed to make a change?

Terri: My knees. I was having problems with both knees, and I went to see a Dr. Eddie Garcia about my knees, and he told me that for every pound that you’re overweight, you put 4 pounds of pressure on your knees. And my knees were bad enough (that) I did need surgery. Not a replacement, but just, uh, pretty much clean out all the junk and everything that was in there and the arthritis, and. But he was hesitant to do the surgery until I lost some weight. So I asked him if he’d recommend anybody, and he recommended me to Dr. Lopez and her staff. So I thought, “Okay, I’ll try anything at this point. I’m in pain.” So I made an appointment with Dr. Lopez and went to the classes, she had classes on Saturday, real convenient, and then I, I made an appointment for a consultation to actually see her. And that’s how the whole journey kinda started.

And what was that first meeting with Dr. Lopez like? What were the goals that were established? How were you feeling at that point?

Terri: I was hesitant, ’cause I’d been on diets before, and so I was, ya know, I thought, “Okay, lets give it a shot. What’ve I got to lose except maybe a few pounds.” Not real high expectations but, meh, we’ll give it a try.

And what helped you overcome that skepticism?

Terri: Probably the actual results. After the first couple weeks of actually being on the diet, I lost weight. Dr. Lopez and her staff were wonderful and encouraging. I would come in every week, get weighed you know and I would get the B-12 shot which boosted my energy so I felt better about myself, and I was losing some weight. Said “Hey, this is really working.” And her staff was wonderful; they played this little game with me. You know they says. You know, I set the goal; I wanted to get down to 150 lbs. Well, at the time I was 212, so they would set this little game with me of, of uh, says “Okay, well, uh. How about next week we lose another pound, pound and a half. See if you can do that.” “Oh, okay.” Ya know. And when I met the goals, “yayyy” it was a big cheering squad, you know. “Good for you! Go for it!” You know, and the diet wasn’t that hard. You know the first couple months I missed, It was hard for me to change my eating habits. I’m 61 years old, so I had established some pretty bad habits over a pretty long period of time. Loved my sugar loved my carbs. To cut that out the first couple of months were kind of hard. But then I established a pattern of just leaving them alone; staying away, substitute something else, and it was working.

And how long was it before you started seeing results? Was it immediate? Did it come gradually?

Terri: Within the first couple weeks. I started losing weight. It wasn’t massive amounts of weight, but you know, it was like, 2-3 pounds the first week, 2-3 pounds the second week, and you know that first month I had lost like, 10 pounds. And, uh, I was impressed with that. I thought “Woah, this is fast!” well, of course a lot of it had to do with, you know, water consumption, eating correctly, and, determination. I was not gonna cheat, and I didn’t.

to be continued…

 

Does your story sound like Terri’s?

We want to hear from you! Call us today to set an appointment with Dr. Lopez and her team. You could be on your way to greater health and enthusiasm for life with Be Well 365.