Episode 251: The Mountain Within: What Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro Taught Me About Weight Loss, Health & Resilience (Part 1)

[00:00:00] Welcome back to the Back on Track Achieving Healthy Weight Loss, where I help you get on track and stay on track with your weight loss journey. I'm your host, Dr. Alicia Shelly. So let's get started.

[00:00:27] Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Back on Track Achieving Healthy Weight Loss podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Alicia Shelly. So today is a little bit different. Instead of talking about the latest and greatest medications or the nutritional studies that have come out, I want to tell you a little bit of a story.

[00:00:49] A story about one mountain and one decision. And seven lessons that have completely changed the way I think about health, resilience, and what it really takes to accomplish something difficult. Now, over a week ago, I stood on the highest point in Africa, Uhuru Peak. That is approximately 19,341 feet above sea level.

[00:01:18] And if you know what I'm talking about, I'm talking about Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. And people have been asking me, like, Dr. Shelly, what was it like? And honestly, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro was the hardest thing that I've ever done. And as I look back, I do a lot of hard things that I've accomplished. I've competed in Ironman competitions. I've done triathlons, marathons.

[00:01:47] But literally climbing that mountain was the hardest thing I've ever done. Not because of the distance, not because of the actual hiking, but because every single day, the mountain taught me something new. And somewhere between when we started at the rainforest and when we were at the summit in the very cold, rim, roof of Africa, I realized that I just wasn't climbing a mountain.

[00:02:16] I was watching my patient's journey unfold right in front of me. Because losing weight, improving your health, changing your lifestyle, sometimes it can feel like you're climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. I mean, raise your hand if you've been like that, where you just feel like everything you're doing is just not enough. And so today I want to share with you the first four lessons that the mountain has taught me.

[00:02:44] And so lesson number one, the journey begins long before you get to the mountain. So when people see my summit pictures, you see just one day, one celebration, one accomplishment. But what you don't see is that everything that happened months before I even boarded a plane to Tanzania.

[00:03:12] So just to give you a little bit, last summer, my friend sent out an invitation to multiple people to see if they'd be willing to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for her 50th birthday. And you know what? At that moment, I said yes. I said yes to the adventure. Yes to doing something that I've never done before.

[00:03:37] If you know me, I love a good challenge, especially when I think of things that I never could do. Now, I didn't hear about Mount Kilimanjaro from my friend. In fact, when I was in college, the president of our college had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. And in every speech, any sermon he gave, he talked about the experience.

[00:04:01] To the point, and I'm not the only one, but when I told some of my old college classmates that I was doing this, they're like, was that the same mountain that our president climbed? I'm like, absolutely. And so when he would talk about it, I could never see myself do it. And when I actually traveled to Tanzania in 2022, one of the ladies in our group had planned to come back to Tanzania to actually climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

[00:04:30] And so she was telling me what she was doing. And I was thinking, man, if she could do it, maybe I could do it. And so when my friend mentioned it, I was like, you know what? Yes, I want to do this. And so the funny thing is that after making that decision, that work began. So in December, I joined the Atlanta Tri Sisters and completed an Olympic distance track line in April.

[00:05:00] After April, I hired a hiking coach and spent 12 weeks learning how to climb efficiently. Now, mind you, prior to this, I was not a hiker. Like I was not like, oh, let's go hike. I'm more of like a runner, marathon. And I live in the city of Atlanta. And so they have this mountain called Stone Mountain. I have run around Stone Mountain multiple times because it has really great hill work.

[00:05:25] But I had never actually hiked Stone Mountain to the top. And so when I started training for this almost every weekend or every other weekend, I found myself hiking the local mountains, Stone Mountain and Kennesaw Mountain. And after even seeing patients all day, I would head to the gym and spend time on the Stairmaster or the treadmill at an incline of 10 percent.

[00:05:54] And then a month before the trip, I even traveled to Colorado and climbed Mount Bierstadt, which was over 14,000 feet to help experience that high altitude prior to us going to Africa. None of these moments were glamorous. In fact, if you asked me, I probably was like, I don't know what I'm doing. There was no finish line. There was no medals. There was no applause.

[00:06:22] But it was just quiet preparation. And it reminded me so much of what I tell my patients. Everyone celebrates the 50-pound weight loss. They see somebody who they haven't seen in a while and they lost weight. They're like, oh, my gosh, how much weight have you lost? But nobody applauds the person who packed their lunch instead of eating fast food. Nobody sees the morning walk before work. Nobody notices the person who's choosing water instead of soda.

[00:06:51] The victory everyone celebrates is built on hundreds of invisible decisions. So preparation builds confidence, but not perfection. And when I mean preparation, I'm talking about every healthy meal, every workout, every decision that you do to keep your weight loss going is preparation.

[00:07:16] And those things that you do will prepare you for your own summit and your own weight loss journey. And so sometimes I have to remind people when they bring up and compare themselves to someone else, that they're like, oh, well, so-and-so lost 50 pounds. I'm like, well, they didn't lose it overnight. They worked at it. Yeah, you saw them yesterday, but they've been working at this for maybe six months to a year.

[00:07:42] And it's the invisible decisions that we make that prepare us to get to that top of weight loss and to get to our goal. Now, let me share with you lesson two. Lesson two is entitled, Pole Pole, Forward is a Pace. Now, this second lesson came almost immediately after we started hiking. And mind you, this was an eight-day hike. We camped out in the wilderness.

[00:08:13] We had tins, a portable potty, a shower. Like, we were camping. And the Pole Pole was a Swahili for slowly, slowly. And our guides kept repeating those two words over and over again to remind us that it's important that we slow down. And like you said, sometimes there were times when I thought I could go a little faster. I felt like the pace was unbelievably slow. And especially the last night.

[00:08:43] The last night, I had thought that for some reason our group had split up. So we had a fast group, an intermediate group, and then a slower group or the back of the pack group. And so the faster group went away. And I was like, oh, no, we got to keep going. We got to stay with them. And then I realized as I was trying to get faster that it took a lot out of me. Like, my breathing was labored. And I was like, you know what? You're exactly, and I was getting a little irritated.

[00:09:12] And then I was like, you know what? You're exactly where you need to be. You need to slow down so that you can be able to breathe as the air is spinning as we go up. So, and the reason why our guys used to always say pole pole is because this mountain was not about speed. It was about endurance.

[00:09:35] So just to give you a good example, when we started summit night, we started summit night at 1140 p.m. That's when we left the camp. And we walked overnight to get to the top of Kibo Peak, which is where the summit is. And we got there at 8 a.m. So over eight hours it took us to get from the camp to the peak. So it is about endurance.

[00:10:04] And the people who rush, the people who just kind of keep going, keep going, keep going, sometimes they struggle. And in my defense, when I was trying to go too fast, I felt every bit of it. And I had to slow myself down so that I could finish the hike and not be so short of breath. And so the people who learned to respect the pace often were able to make it even further.

[00:10:31] So as I reflect on this lesson, I couldn't help but think about our culture. Everything's about being faster. Lose 20 pounds in a month. 30-day transformation. Two-week detox. Instant results. We're all about instant, instant, instant. But guess what? Our biology doesn't work that way. Our bodies change slowly. Our habits change slowly. And I can attest to that. Sometimes it's hard to keep our healthy habits together.

[00:11:01] And our minds change slowly as well. So sustainable weight loss isn't supposed to feel like a sprint. It's supposed to feel like a lifestyle. Sometimes patients apologize because they only lost two pounds. And I smile because I know something they don't. That two pounds indicates consistency. And that two pounds can actually lead to 20 pounds.

[00:11:30] And that 20 pounds can also lead to 50. Because guess what? That person is making progress. They are going forward. And moving forward is still moving forward. So that one healthy meal. That one walk. That one better choice is moving forward as well. And remember, forward is a pace. And it's about your endurance.

[00:11:58] And to keep being consistent. When people ask me what's the secret sauce to weight loss, I said consistency. Because if you can keep doing these habits over and over again and continue to do it, you'll start to see that weight loss. That half a pound. That one pound shedding. Because remember, this is not a sprint. This is a marathon. So let's talk about lesson number three. Encourage somebody else on the journey.

[00:12:28] One of my favorite parts about Kilimanjaro, besides the scenery, because I love the scenery, was the people. Every time we pass somebody, another group, a porter, we would say, Jumbo! We'd say, hello, how are you? And they would say, hello, you're doing good. Keep up the good work. And sometimes when they come by, I'm like, you guys are looking strong. Keep going. Keep going. And sometimes that person encouraging you looks just as tired as you do.

[00:12:58] And as you feel. Yet they still took a moment to lift you up. And here's what amazed me. The encouragement always came back. I would encourage them. They would encourage me. Even on days when I felt tired, when I felt like I could not do this anymore, someone encouraged me. And when I doubted myself, I'll be honest with you, on that last night, I don't know how I made it up that mountain. Because I didn't think I was going to make it. I was sleep deprived.

[00:13:27] I was tired. And we had to still get up there. It was overnight. But because someone believed in me, it reminded me that health isn't just a solo journey. It's not just me. Research has shown that people with a strong social support are more likely to stick with healthy behavior. Whether that's family, whether that's friends, a workout partner, a trainer, or even your healthcare team.

[00:13:57] Community matters. And as physicians, we often focus on calories in, calories out, exercise. But encouragement may just be as important. Sometimes it's just one kind word that keeps someone from giving up. So maybe today, you may need encouragement to get you through your journey. Or maybe you're the one who's supposed to give it. Make sure you give it. So let's talk about our last lesson for this episode.

[00:14:26] And that's lesson number four. The first step is saying yes. So looking back, the hardest step wasn't summit night. It wasn't the altitude. It wasn't even Barranco Wall, which is a really uphill wall. Very, very steep. But the hardest step happened months earlier. And that was just saying yes. Saying yes before I knew exactly how everything would work out. I had no clue if I was going to get to the top of that mountain.

[00:14:56] I had no clue how my body was going to respond. And I said yes even before I had all the equipment. Even before I had the poles and the water reservoir. Even saying yes before I had even completed the training. I think so many people delay improving their health because they're waiting to feel ready. They're waiting to be motivated. They're waiting until life slows down. But guess what?

[00:15:24] Until work gets easier, until kids get older, until January, until Monday, until we still keep waiting. But the healthy change rarely begins when everything is perfect. Because, spoiler alert, nothing is perfect. But healthy change begins when we make a decision and decide to do it. So when a patient finally schedules that first appointment, that's a victory.

[00:15:54] When somebody walks around the block for the first time, that's a victory. When they choose grilled instead of fried, that's a victory. Every summit starts with one decision. That one yes. And so it's important that you celebrate that yes. Celebrate those decisions. Celebrate the small things. Because the big thing's going to happen. But you've got to celebrate and be content where you are.

[00:16:24] The one thing that I learned in Kilimanjaro is that nobody reaches the summit by accident. You reach it through thousands of small choices. Your health journey works exactly the same way. No single meal is going to make you healthy. No single workout's going to change your life. No medication is going to replace consistency. Health is built one decision at a time. So this week,

[00:16:52] I want to leave you with one question. What's your next step? Not your entire journey. Not your final destination. Just your next step. Maybe it's scheduling appointment with your obesity medicine doc or with your primary care doc. Or maybe it's just taking a walk after dinner. Maybe it's drinking another glass of water instead of juice or soda or pop. Or maybe it's finally just saying yes.

[00:17:22] Because remember, forward is a pace. So next week, I'm going to share what happened during the most difficult days on this mountain. And we'll talk about why sometimes you have to climb higher before you get stronger. And why trusting the process matters. And what happened during summit night that reminded me why no mountain is climbed all at once. And if today's episode encouraged you, I'd love for you to subscribe,

[00:17:51] leave a review, and share this episode with somebody who's climbing their own mountain. And until next time, stay strong, stay committed, stay consistent, and remember, we are stronger together. And remember, you have to take care. you