Today started out frustrating. I had an appointment this morning to get my metabolism checked. I gave myself 45 minutes to get to the Longwood medical area, which should have been plenty of time since its typically a 20 minute drive. Apparently, Longwood is busy during the late morning and I got to the parking garage just in time for my appt, but in reality 15 minutes late because I was suppose arrive 15 minutes before the appointment to let my body sit quietly and rest.
Once I got to the waiting room, I tried to meditate, but had no luck, so I simply sat quietly and tried not to move much. I wondered if thinking too much would be an issue since the nutitionist had warned me not to read since that would burn calories and could cause the results to be skewed.
After the allotted time, the nutritionist came and got me and we went to her office to start the test. I had no idea what I was in for. The test consists of wearing nose clips which pinch your nose so you can only breath out of your mouth and breathing into a device for 10 minutes. It doesnt sound that bad, and I had no issue until I started it. Because the body warms the breath, it felt like I was breathing in recycled hot air. I felt like I was suffocating! My mind started to get all these images of being really sick in a hospital bed breathing into a machine. Then I started to think of what it would be like to be paralyzed, since I wasn't suppose to move during the test. My mind was really getting out of contorl and I kept trying to bring it back, but the fact that I was breathing in this hot air and felt like I couldn't breathe, wasnt helping matters. I finally thought I had had enough. Thats the point when she told me we were 5 minutes into it and I had 5 more minutes to go! I tried to focus, think of Aruba, St Thomas, beaches, snorkling, anything! But I couldnt breathe! I knew I needed to finish the test. I knew there was no way I could start it over and that once I took my lips off the mouth piece, I was finished. I also knew it was important to have the results. So, I started singing the ABC's to myself, in full sing-song fashion. Repeatedly. This seemed to calm me down a bit. For the next few minutes, I sang, thought of Aruba, swimming, and think I said a short prayer somewhere in there.
Finally, the 10 minutes were up. And the results? My metabolism is normal. The nutritionist couldn't explain to me why Ive been eating 1800 calories a day, burning 600 at the gym and gaining weight.
In the end, it was a reminder of just how powerful the mind is, how much strength our thoughts have and how much our thoughts become our reality. That reminder was more important than the results of the test.
