Finding Strength Through Adversity

Ever wondered how the fusion of personal determination and groundbreaking medication can redefine lives? This episode showcases the incredible journey of Barb, who shares her brave battle with obesity and its health ramifications, including diabetes. Her candid story reveals the emotional scars left by years of bullying and her encounters with ultra-processed foods and medications like Trulicity and the controversial fen-phen. Despite the heart valve damage caused by fen-phen, Barb's resilience shines through as she narrates her transformative path toward health. Her story isn't just about weight loss; it's a powerful tale of reclaiming one's life and finding hope amidst adversity.

Barb Herrera

• Email: healthatanycost@gmail.com
• Website: https://healthatanycost.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HealthAtAnyCost

We also spotlight Barb's remarkable transformation from being bedridden to covering over six miles, propelled by a combination of personal effort and GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro. Barb's journey challenges preconceived notions about fat activism and medical intervention, illustrating how these treatments can coexist with self-acceptance. From a decade-long midwifery blog to entering the world of storytelling, this episode reveals the profound impact of community support and shared narratives in overcoming personal and health challenges.

Join us as we support Planned Parenthood this month!

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Shireen's Bookkeeping Services LLC
Outsourcing your bookkeeping to Shireen’s Bookkeeping Services can save you time and money.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Chapters

• 0:03 Barb's Weight Loss Journey
• 12:11 GLP-1s and Weight Loss Success
• 18:07 Finding Inspiration Through Weight Loss

Transcript

Voice over: 0:03

Tales from the wild, stories from the heart. A journey into the mind and soul of fired up business professionals, where they share their vision for the future and hear from a different non-profit organization every month as they create awareness of their goals and their needs. Dive into a world of untamed passion as we join our host, Shireen Botha, for this month's episode of Friends from Wild Places.

Barb Herrera: 0:36

And I just had so many different obesity-related illnesses. So, yeah, so definitely, the issue of health is so, so important to me, it's most important. But, as I said, they piggyback on each other the weight lowers, the health improves, back and forth, back and forth. So again, I stopped eating Uber Eats. And then, about three and a half months later, my doctor, my endocrinologist, my diabetes doctor, said I think I'm going to put you on Trulicity, because I kept going up and up and up with the insulin which puts on weight, which I didn't know, and I did not have one clue what Trulicity was. For a year I on trulicity. Oh my gosh, I lost 86 pounds on trulicity.

Barb Herrera: 1:29

Now, mind you, I did not. I was not on social media, did not? I don't watch TV, don't watch commercials. Had no idea what GLP ones were, which is a medication that helps the pancreas emit insulin so that you don't have to inject it. Blah, blah, blah. So I didn't know. But what I did, of course, as a research nerd, is I looked it up and Trulicity, on the package insert, said you may lose five to seven pounds. I'm like I always gain weight when they say you're going may lose five to seven pounds. I'm like I always gain weight when they say you're going to lose five to seven pounds, and I had lost 40 after stopping Uber Eats and then 86 on the Trulicity. And then my daughter called and said she had lost 20 pounds in a month. And I asked her how? And she said Manjaro. And I'd never heard of Manjaro in my entire life, had no idea what that was, and looked it up and then opened up the world of GLP-1s. So, and then on we go.

Tanya Scotece: 2:42

So, barb, you know something? I just. I've heard you mention Uber Eats. So, shereen, do you have Uber Eats in South Africa? I do yes, okay, okay. So, barb. So when you refer to Uber Eats, is it because people are ordering from restaurants that maybe have added preservatives or other ingredients, that it's not being homemade? Is that what it is, or it's just access to whatever you want that's delivered? What is it about Uber Eats specifically?

Barb Herrera: 3:11

Yeah, a lot of it was convenience, but I was born in 61. And so the first 10, 15 years there was not the plethora of ultra processed foods that there are now. Once the ultra processed foods started, then yes, I absolutely believe I had an addiction to ultra processed foods and I just learned that term because people always said, oh, you're addicted to food. Well, it's not like you can abstain from food we have to eat, but the addiction to ultra processed foods, Absolutely, so definitely there was that addiction.

Barb Herrera: 3:52

But the idea of going into a nursing home and I could I know nursing homes and I could picture myself at 400 plus pounds and the nurse who hates her job, cleaning the infection under my belly, wiping my bottom, doing all those things that she hated about her job, and I could not fathom being in a nursing home. It just was too much for me. And then the Uber Eats was really challenging at first to stop and I changed. Oh, I had to go off salt as well and I was a major saltaholic. So I had to change my entire diet, making everything at home, lots of salads, things like that and the weight just started dropping off with the trulicity.

Tanya Scotece: 4:42

Wow, barb, can you share with us, like, for example, like how, like you know how did your journey begin, you know? I mean like just a little bit about you as far as like, how did you get from point A here? You know just what happened and what was that like for you? I mean, what age did you actually start like putting on excessive weight to where maybe I don't know if you were bullied? But share some things about your. You know the earlier stages.

Barb Herrera: 5:07

Absolutely definitely bullied, definitely bullied. I was made fun of in school and when I would walk later for exercise I had eggs thrown at me one time I had oranges thrown at me another time. People would moo at me all the time. I was really big, I was even under, even before I had kids. I was 300, 270, 280, somewhere around there. And then I had kids, and my first one I gained 80 pounds, second one 30, second and then the third 130, and never lost any of that weight. And that is we'll just jump to 95. My kids were born in 82, 84, and 86.

Barb Herrera: 5:53

So in 95, when I was diagnosed with diabetes, the, the medication fen-phen had just come out, fenfluramine and fentermine had just come out. And the doctor said and fentermine had just come out, and the doctor said I mean like within two months? And the doctor said would you like to try this? And I'm like sure Cause. He said you lose weight, whatever, sure, whatever. I lost 111 pounds in about 14 months, somewhere around there. And then it came out that the fen-phen caused heart valve damage. Now I made the rounds on different talk shows and national tv shows and things like that, um, and in the press because they were going to take it off the market and I was going to go off that kicking and screaming until I found out that I had heart valve damage and then I was part of the class action suit, won a whole bucket full of money that in 2001, I spent on a gastric bypass and a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and lost 210 pounds and then when I got to 150 pounds, down from 360, that was my. My surgery weight was 360.

Barb Herrera: 7:15

Also very ill, sick with the diabetes, everything. It was just. You know, I was mobile I wasn't using a walker at that time but, yeah, I couldn't walk very far. So when I hit 150, I kind of freaked out because I had never been that small and, having a history of sexual abuse, I was very nervous. I was worried about being hurt by men and started eating.

Barb Herrera: 7:48

The day I can pinpoint the moment I tried on a pair of jeans that were a size eight and I had started at a 3X and I had friends with me and my partner and I came out of the dressing room and I, out of my mouth, without even any thought, was I need to eat some chips, and I began getting big and regained all the weight within five years so, and then got more and more immobile. Now, mind you, I was a swimmer. I was a swimmer and swam all the time, even at 360. I was a swimmer, and just still, exercise and diet changes just never worked for me and I ended up counting. I had to count how many diets I'd been on and I counted 50 plus diets.

Barb Herrera: 8:38

I had tried 50 diets and and or programs that I had tried, not including the fen-phen and the surgery.

Tanya Scotece: 8:46

Wow, and from when you like walking the walk like you know your whole life? What, what age would you say the weight started Like, was it like from? From? Like you know, elementary school, high school, like prior to then? What? What timeframe are we talking?

Barb Herrera: 9:03

Now this is really controversial, but there is enough proof that shows that people who had their tonsils out when before they're 10, many of them become morbidly obese as adults. And I had my tonsils out at six and I was really thin and the day I came home from the hospital, my mom says I began shoveling in food and I still had stitches in my throat and she said she was never able to stop me eating. From there. I was put on speed when I was 10. I went to Weight Watcher starting at 12. And that continued through a lot of my life and that's when I was fat. Now, mind you, if I was that fat today, I would not be very fat, but back in the 70s I was huge compared to all my schoolmates compared to all my, my schoolmates.

Tanya Scotece: 10:08

Yeah, so the journey, that's okay. So, barb, the journey, though, from you having like all of these, for example, like bouts with diets and surgery, gaining weight, losing weight, gaining weight, losing weight, gaining weight, losing weight Then, when you got afflicted with COVID and you were hospitalized and the four physicians standing there and the one made the comment about the nursing home that, for you, was the catalyst out of everything that's ever been said to you prior. Is that correct?

Barb Herrera: 10:33

And I and I honestly really believe that my age now cause I actually weigh one 45. So that's five pounds less than the 150. The 150, I'll tell you, did give me a zing when I saw it on the scale, but I was able to go, but you're safe and I swear to you, I think part of that, or much of that, is because of my age, or much of that is because of my age and I've got so much skin. I've got so much skin and I feel safe at this age and I feel safe with all this skin. I don't feel like I'd be very attractive to anybody who would hurt me and I know that's really odd and probably delusional thinking, because certainly plenty of older people get hurt and sexually abused. But yeah, I just feel safe now and I'm able to live this amazing life.

Tanya Scotece: 11:29

Wow, and what was the journey like from hearing those words to where you are now, and what would you like to share with our listeners about people perhaps that are struggling with the challenges that maybe you have had experienced. You know, whether it's sexual abuse, trauma, bullying, people trying to lose whatever 10 pounds, five pounds, 400 pounds, like I mean everyone's at a different stage, right, I mean you look at society, you know. I know they say population is growing. Even in the death care industry we have oversized casets, larger vaults, you know, larger stature people. So what is tell us what your mission is right now for our listeners.

Barb Herrera: 12:11

One of the things, because I was a fat activist, I have this belief that a person, a fat person on GLP-1s, like Trulicity and Manjaro, manjaro, ozempic people know the word Ozempic and it's turned into the word like Kleenex or Band-Aid, it's just an all-encompassing word. So Ozempic is in the United States, is for diabetes, wagovi is for people who want to lose weight, manjaro is for diabetes and Zepvi is for people who want to lose weight. Manjaro is for diabetes and ZepBound is for people who want to lose weight. So I have this feeling of many people believe that someone being on GLP-1s and a fat activist is an oxymoron. But I do not feel that way at all. I feel that I, the people that are fat activists now, tend to be very young, like I was before. But it's a march and people say, oh, I'm healthy, oh, I'm healthy, but it's a march towards illness, it's a march towards immobility is a way to be healthier and that happens to be with losing weight and again they go hand in hand. But it's so wonderful, especially for those of us who are really big, those of us who are over 300, 350, 400. It feels hopeless. It feels hopeless. How could I ever lose that much weight that I'd be healthy. Even the Monjaro, which is the most effective medication, says that people will lose 20 to 25% of their starting weight. I've lost 64% of my starting weight, so I want to.

Barb Herrera: 14:06

I'm considered a super responder to the medication. Some people are regular responders, some are under and some are non-responders, but these GLP-1s are brand new in the world of weight loss and diabetes. They are 20 years old in some of the iterations of it, but there are a hundred in the pipeline, so those who are not responders now may be in five years, which is fantastic, anyway. So, yeah, so I want to give hope to people that are bedridden, that can't walk more than two feet, that live in a wheelchair, that are doomed to die and know it. I swear to you I didn't care.

Barb Herrera: 14:59

During the COVID, during the pandemic, over my bed I had a sign that says do not resuscitate, because I just did not want to live a life of disability any more than I already had. So, yeah, so here I am. I'm living proof that it can be done and it's glorious I mean like, like Shereen was saying, to go from being bedridden for so long and then yesterday I walked 5.31 miles in my morning walk and then by the end of the day I had walked six and a half miles. So I in my life have never walked six miles. I've never been able to do anything like that. So I'm just so proud of myself. I thank the universe for the medication, but I swear to you, the medication did half and I did the rest of the work.

Shireen Botha: 15:57

So I love that. Thank you for sharing your story, bob. We really appreciate it. But before we continue, ladies, I do want to just add a quick little buzzsprout ad here. So friends from wild places is a place to share stories from other business owners and professionals, a safe space to show support for other business owners and entrepreneurs from all over the world. We feature non-profits every month to take and try, make a difference and give a helpline to someone in need.

Shireen Botha: 16:31

Do you have a message you want to share with the world? Or maybe you just think it'll be fun to have your own talk show? Podcasting is an easy, inexpensive and fun way to expand your reach online. To start your own podcast, follow the link in the show notes. This lets Buzzsprout know that we sent you and it does help support the show. The team at Buzzsprout is passionate about helping you succeed. So, bob, one of the questions that I wanted to ask you and I'd like a little bit more information about it is your blog, and you also mentioned to me that you have your own YouTube channel. Would you mind taking a moment and just expanding a little bit on?

Barb Herrera: 17:13

that? Sure, absolutely. The blog is about a year, a year and a half old. Once I started Manjaro. I started the blog so you can actually follow along with not only my experience I actually call it an excursion Journey is way too benign, so I call it an excursion, but you can follow along and I also discuss things like the news, like GLP-1s with pregnancy, glp-1s with people with heart disease, things like that. So it delves more into the medical aspects, along with tied along with my own walk as well. And then I started the YouTube channel, which is also health at any cost, and I started that, oh, two months ago maybe.

Barb Herrera: 18:05

So there's very few and it needs to. I need to learn editing and I know that everyone says in the beginning it's okay, in the beginning they're not very well put together, etc. So, but I'm telling my story because I again want people to know that there is hope, and I got the most beautiful message yesterday from somebody who saw one of my videos who said I know you understand and I do, and that's exactly that's exactly why I have them, because I want, I want to stand. A lot of people keep saying I'm an inspiration, which is odd to me because of being so fat my whole life and I'm a great writer, so, people, I had a blog for my midwifery for 10 years, so I'm a really good writer. But to be called an inspiration, that's new and it just it brings tears to my eyes to be called that, so it's fun.

Shireen Botha: 19:03

Tune in next week for part three of Friends from Wild Places.

Voice over: 19:09

You've been listening to Friends from Wild Places with Shireen Botha. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast from the links to catch every episode and unleash your passion.