Natalie Jill - Aging in Reverse: The Easy 10-Day Plan to Change Your State, Plan Your Plate, Love Your Weight

It doesnt matter where youre atits where you want to go.

I thought I was doing everything right. I was running a successful fitness and nutrition business, and in my midforties, I was in the most amazing shape of my life.

And then I tanked.

It became really noticeable en route to an all-day workout shoot in Miami, but it actually had been building up for some time before that. I already had some mild disc bulge in my lower back, as many people my age do, but I thought I could ignore it and keep on going as if nothing had changed. My ego got in the way of getting real with my bodys needs to prevent the disaster that happened.

At the workout shoot, my brain was telling me to slow down, but I wouldnt listen. I was doing some high-impact moves that I normally dont do, which was not helping. I knew not to do those moves in my situation. My normal mild back pain started escalating to horrible back pain, worse than I even experienced during labor. It was by far the most pain I had ever been in, a dull pain that kept getting worse. But I didnt complain about it and kept pushing through.

To this day I dont know how I did it, but I got through the day, went to sleep, and when I woke up the next morning, the pain in my back was gone. However, when I got out of bed, something was wrong with my right leg through to my piriformis (one of the glute muscles). It was sort of heavy, like it was asleep and lagging behind me. It was still working, but it felt as if it wasnt listening to my brain. There was a total delay in movement. I thought I must have just strained something and it would heal on its own.

As I walked sluggishly through the airport to fly back to California, my leg continued to feel heavy and delayed. Through the flight, it kept getting worse, to the point that it almost felt like I was getting paralyzed. This continued for three days. Still, I thought that Id just pulled something and that it would get better.

But it didnt get better. The pain in my piriformis went into my hip and lower back. Going from sitting to standing became almost impossible. In tears I called an orthopedic surgeon friend, and he told me to get an MRI right away. I did what he said, and the doctor showed me that the disc bulge had completely ruptured and was wrapped around my spinal cord, which was impinging on my sciatic nerve. Thats why I was losing feeling in my right leg. He warned me it was going to keep getting worse unless I removed the ruptured mass.

The doctor immediately got me in with a specialty surgeon. The surgeon looked at my MRI, and I was in surgery two days later. He explained to me that if I were to let it go any longer, I would have permanent damage to my right leg. He told me that the foot drop I was experiencingmeaning my foot would literally drag while I walkedcould become permanent. The surgery was successful, though my surgeon told me that it was one of the largest ruptures he had ever seen. I havent regained my full balance yet, but Im 90 percent back, still moving forward, and grateful that no lasting damage was done.

Could I have prevented the ruptured disc? I dont know. But I do know that I had been in denial. I thought maybe my symptoms and the 10 pounds that came with them were simply aging or my hormones. Yes, its true that our body doesnt quite bounce back the way it does when were younger. But I know from myself and the many clients Ive worked with that we can be at the top of our game at any point in our lives. Those of us who dont experience pain as we age are typically using our body in a functional way. This means our body works as a unit, without imbalances or weak links. Our core (that whole middle section) and our body move how they are supposed to. With my abs and strong-looking core appearing on multiple magazine covers, I always considered myself one of those people!

But somewhere along the way, I started to ignore pains warning signs. I was pushing myself in ways that werent serving me anymore. I knew that I needed to spend more time on my warm-ups and doing the right moves to keep my body in balancestretching out my hip flexors, firing my glutes, and keeping the muscles I couldnt see (the stabilizer muscles) strong so they could continue to do their job of supporting the muscles I could see. Looking back, I believe that my six-pack abs were a false sense of security for some of the deeper issues I had going on with my body. I knew that I needed more rest and time between travel and working out, and I needed to put more effort into staying hydrated and properly nourished. If I were consulting with a client, I would have told her not to wear heels all the timethat being fashionable was outweighing functional and smart for her! After the surgery, I did some soul searching. But not before wondering whether my career was over. The workout wasnt the cause of the ruptured disc. Not taking care of my body and not doing what I knew to do was the cause. I had so many limiting beliefswhat I call self-imposed stopsthat I believed I was doomed, my business went downhill, and my relationships started to crumble. My stress level was getting out of control and it seemed as if everything was going horribly wrong.