Do You Have A Big Head? Listening To Your Body Can Be Life Changing

You may be wondering what the heck is she talking about. Well I had a big head and I’ll explain what I mean.

I normally consider myself to be a health conscious person. I believe in making sure you are eating macro nutrient rich foods, drinking water, eating your veggies and etc. I also believe that fitness is important as well. Being a former athlete, it was always apart of my life, but as an adult I had to learn how to incorporate it in my new life that was not centered on me chasing or hitting a ball, so the gym became my friend. I also think it is important to know your family history in regards to various diseases, so that you can take preventive measures and get routine checkups.

Outside of playing sports, the best shape I was in, physically and cardiovascular, was before I moved to LA. While I was in NY about a year prior to moving to LA, I worked with a trainer virtually by the name of Kahlila Alexander. By far she was the best trainer I had ever had outside of my basketball coach. Mainly because she Listened to what I wanted to accomplish, she knew my prior history of being an athlete and she understood how to build a meal plan that would work with the workouts she was putting together and my lifestyle. This was the first time I really started to pay attention as to why I should choose certain foods over others and how it fueled my body. Needless to say, I hit my goals, but more importantly I felt like an athlete again. Throughout this process Kahlila Listened to me, in regards to how my body was changing, how I wanted to stay engaged while working out and how to adjust when needed. I was this full on fitness advocate.

Fast forward to a year or so after moving to LA. I noticed that I started picking up weight. I was like what the heck is this? Truth is, my lifestyle had changed in LA. At first, I was like how do I move to LA (healthy place in the world and gain weight)? First of all, I no longer walked anymore. I was now driving everywhere. I started indulging in delicious foods and desserts that I never ate before. Thinking to myself, I’ll knock this little extra out in the gym. But hold up, I wasn’t going to the gym as much anymore. Also I was stressed and didn’t know it. I was experiencing the everyday stress that comes with living in an overly plugged in world.

There has been three times in my life that I made life-changing moves/decisions and each time, I put on weight. Sometimes it takes a minute to get back to your norm. It’s like you are adjusting to everything around you and so is your body, hormones etc. To top it off, I had a job that had me on the road traveling a lot, so now I was eating all of my meals from a restaurant. My body was just going through some things.

I started having vision problems and dizzy spells that were not going away. So In August of 2015 I went to the doctor. The doctor told me I had low blood pressure and to increase my water and salt. I clearly was side eyeing this doctor “salt”, don’t he know I’m trying to loose weight not retain it, however I did as instructed. In September the issue only progressed and by Listening to my aunt, I went back to the doctor, but this time I went to an Ophthalmologist. I explained what I was experiencing and they proceeded to do a variety of test. Well when the results came back, I was told that I needed to do an MRI, because the symptoms and test that came back, is something that a person with a tumor would have. They didn’t think it was a tumor, but thought I may have swelling in the brain and a MRI will determine that. One of the questions they kept asking was, did I gain a lot of weight in a short period of time. I thought “no”, but they explained that someone could be 125lbs and have these issue and someone could be 190lbs and not. But everybody is made up differently and some people aren’t’ built to carry certain weight. Long story short, I did the MRI and yes I had a big head or a water head (Cranial Hypertension). I had a lot of fluid in my brain and they needed to drain it (Spinal Tap), in hopes of stopping the blurred vision, dizziness and potential loss of vision. My now Neuro Ophthalmologist continued to ask me, if I were experiencing headaches and I thought “No I Don’t”. She said that was interesting because the pressure that was in my brain was extremely high, like 10x higher than normal. When I told my sister what the doctor said, she sat me down and said “Candice you do complain of headaches a lot”. Here I had become so immune to the feeling of stress, I couldn’t even recognize when I was actually having a headache.

Needless to say I had a range of emotions. Outside of experiencing some complications with the spinal tap and needing a blood patch, I was disappointed in myself for not Listening to my body. I had become so out of sync with what my body was telling me. As I started to think about it, I had been experiencing shortness of breath, dizziness and blurred vision for at least 8 months. I always had a reason as to why those things were happening. Like I got up to fast, or this extra weight got me so out of breath, or maybe I need glasses. In regards to the headaches, I for sure thought my head only hurt when I was dehydrated or upset about something. I didn’t think that little pain in my neck when I bend it had anything to do with what was going on in my brain. My body was giving me all kinds of signals and I simply didn’t Listen. Internally my body was saying, you are stressed, your hormones are off kilter. Slow down recalibrate, Listen to me.

In the weeks that I couldn’t move and had to lay in bed and just deal with what was going on. I felt so helpless, angry and not in control. But I also recognized where I went wrong. Because I was not Listening to the signs my body was giving me, I was putting myself in danger of loosing my vision.  All this took place one week before I started shooting my film “Dating & Waiting”. How was I going to shoot this film and I can’t even walk, or I’m having back spasms? God is good and it worked out, I was able to walk and the show went on. But when I reflect on that moment, the statement “Your Health is Your Wealth” is true. If I don’t have my health the things I love to do, can possibly not happen. But more importantly not Listening to your body, can change your world in a blink of an eye. Listening is critical in all aspects of your life.