Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts
By Alyce Wilson
Losing weight is not worth dying for. I learned this lesson the hard way, a few months ago.
I've been actively working to lose weight for about two years now. As anyone knows who's lost weight, you often hit a plateau which forces you to make a change, whether in adding more exercise or refining your eating habits.
I'd been stuck on a plateau for a month or so and somebody suggested taking a diet supplement. He suggested Stacker 2, which is available over the counter at a number of health food stores, for about $30 a bottle.
When I first started taking them, I had a lot more energy. It seemed to make a difference at first. But after awhile, the results slowed down. I was up to taking two a day (with three a day being the maximum dosage) and decided it was a bad idea to be too dependent on Stacker 2 for my weight loss. Plus, it was getting difficult to tell, working out at the gym, whether I was working out in my weight loss zone. My heart beat faster on the Stacker 2, so the heart rate monitor didn't really help me figure out how hard to work.
So I stopped taking the Stacker 2 for a couple weeks. I was feeling a little run down, though, so I started taking them again. The very next day, I had a serious scare.
I woke up flushed and feeling sick. I felt as if I couldn't breathe, as if I'd just run 10 miles. I was sweating. Feeling my pulse, I discovered it was beating extremely fast, at least twice as fast as normal. I waited for a couple minutes to see if I'd feel better. I didn't.
After awhile, I couldn't stand lying around anymore, because I couldn't relax. I decided to take Una for her morning walk. My dad told me later that if I'd been having a full-blown heart attack, any exercise would have made me collapse.
My heart continued to beat extremely fast the entire walk, which took half an hour. When I returned, I lay down again. Una licked my face in an attempt to soothe me. My rapid heartbeat continued for another ten minutes or so before returning to normal.
After that, I did a little Internet research on ephedra and found out that rapid heart beat is one of the side effects. A few days later, a professional athlete, Steve Bechler, died of a heart attack. Authorities suspected a dietary supplement containing ephedra.
I haven't
taken even one Stacker 2 since my scare. It's just not worth it. The irony
is that, despite everything the commercials promise, it didn't even do
that much for me. So now I'm back to drinking a lot of water, exercising
daily and eating a lot of fruits and vegetables. Doing it that way is
best, I believe. And it's far, far safer.
Moral:
Better to be chubby than dead.
Copyright
2003 by Alyce Wilson
What
do you think? Share your thoughts
at Alyce's message board (left button):
