Don’t Give Up @Joe Hildebrand

I was reading a funny yet sad blog by @Joe Hildebrand on his attempt to purchase a house in Sydney which resonated hugely with me, as my daughter @croftyk7 too, is on the treadmill of trying to buy her first house in Melbourne. It appears you have to be a zillionaire to buy your first home in both Melbourne and Sydney. But what I want to tell both of them is Dont Give Up – you never know what might happen and one week you might be on the happy end of ‘going, going, gone – sold to the hyperventilating couple on the left’!
This is a similar message I spend my days spruiking to my patients every day. Don’t Give Up – on all the strategies I have taught you to manage your pelvic floor dysfunction. Many moons ago  I wrote a blog about Perseverance, Persistence and the Pelvic Floor. In it I lamented how many patients struggle with the fact that the strategies we teach to overcome leakage or prolapse have to be continued FOREVER. Patients can sometimes be excellent for the first month, mediocre for the next three months  and then plain ordinary for the rest of their lives till they return for a pep talk. So ‘hangin’ in there’ with pelvic floor muscle training and all the conservative strategies is a must.
I was reminded of the virtue of persistence and never giving up when two weeks ago I saw a most remarkable thing at a press conference. I saw our (Qld) chief Medical Officer saying she was basically at her wit’s end with the increasing level of obesity in Queensland and at that this current rate (and probably because recently her current health dollars are rapidly dwindling in QLD), she was proposing that we give up (??) on this current generation of obese adults and focus on trying to salvage the children and adolescents who were coming through.
Maybe it was a shock tactic. If it was it certainly got my attention. Our Chief Medical Officer saying it’s too hard and too late for the current batch of obese adults? Dr Young reported that every year about 55,000 Queenslanders join the ranks of the overweight and obese. This is equivalent to the population of Redcliffe or a capacity crowd at Suncorp Stadium.
Now obesity and pelvic floor dysfunction are closely linked. It is a causal factor for both prolapse and incontinence and as you know from my blog on Accountability, maintaining a healthy weight range (and to try and look like Elle on a surfboard this year at Noosa) is something I struggle with all the time. But I bit the bullet, announced my commencement of a healthy eating programme with a dietician to the world and slowly (ssslllooowwwlllyyy) but surely the weight is coming down. And I feel much much better for it. But if I WAS morbidly obese, how despondent would I be if I had just witnessed the ‘purveyor of all things to do with health prevention’ giving up on my plight. Probably despondent enough to have a Tim Tam or three.
So what can you do:
Try reducing your sugar intake…slowly- to get used to it and not get terrible withdrawal shakes.
Find your local dietician, strike up a rapport with her and set realistic goals. To lose your extra weight in 12 months or 18 months …not by next month when the togs have to be dragged out of the bottom drawer. If you lose half a kilo a month (instead of putting on half a kilo a month) by the time you get to 6 months you are 6 kg better off than what you are now reading this blog. Under my dietician I am losing on average half a kilo a week and I am now used to a much reduced bread intake and enjoying the healthier ‘feel’ to my eating plan.
Exercise – anything (pelvic floor safe) anytime, anywhere.  Love it, find time for incidental exercise and love the release of endorphins that come from getting away from the computer, the phone and life stresses.
So to @Joe_Hildebrand, @croftyk7 and all the other @…….s who are struggling with their battle: whether it be finding your dream house (without funding it with a major Gold Lotto win), starting your journey towards a healthy weight range or commencing a programme for your pelvic floor dysfunction – there is one clear message…..DON’T GIVE UP!