Kicking & Screaming My Way to Health: success

Showing posts with label success. Show all posts

I never thought I’d do this

I never thought I’d do this.

I have to say… I was not this person.

When I heard people say, “Oh Equal is poison, you really shouldn’t use it!” I thought, “Yeah, whatever! If there is a problem with this stuff it will happen to me because I use so much of it.” And went haughtily on my merry way. Because honestly, if I listen to everything everyone says I would live in a bubble on air. The one issue with the internet is that there is so much information and much of it is contradictory. We need to learn to find information that resonates as true and be willing to vet the sources to confirm our facts. Remember the old warning “Anything that sounds too good to be true probably is.” (try teaching that to kids who start using the internet and are viewing these clever marketing ads tempting them to give information to win a non-existent prize.

I am going off on a tangent there.

I was saying that I’m not this person. I was the “I will eat what I want, when I want and as much as I want person. “ I didn’t ration myself or try to limit food. I tried to eat protein with sugar so I didn’t get a headache, but still.

I don’t exercise, I eat what I want, I have poor sleep habits.

It does catch up with you.

Perhaps pain and discomfort are the only thing some of us will listen to. I joke that God often needs a 2x4 to get my attention. Not because He needs to yell at me but because I force Him to that point. I keep pushing back and God cares enough to ride it out with me. (Thank you God!)

So… why am I changing?

I had headaches every single day.
I was on 2 asthma medications that were giving me bad side effects. (Including a 25lb weight gain and thrush. If you don’t know what thrush is; count yourself fortunate.)
I have no actual energy but I am hyper all the time.
I can’t focus.
I’m fat. I was OK with this for a long time, but my weight hit a point where I was now physically uncomfortable. Sitting in a restaurant, just being… I was aware of the weight and I was uncomfortable. So that got my attention.
Ultimately, this systemic candida outbreak was the clincher for me. As I read about it, I am overwhelmed by the information and the steps necessary to kill this tiny replicating demon. It is subversive and evil. However, the symptoms are bad enough that I was finally willing to make some of the bigger changes.

SUGAR

I’ve talked about what I’m giving up. Some of the changes I’ve made.

· Less sugar, lowering the amount in my coffee.

· Drinking more water.

· Going on supplements.

· Stopping soda.

· No longer drinking sugary drinks.

· No dessert and candy.

My life that sounds miserable when I look back.

I don’t feel miserable though! I feel excited.

I’ve made these changes slowly over a year. Taking on one thing at a time (sometimes several things, but I find that leads to failure pretty quickly). It’s been a one step forward, half a step back, 2 steps forward, 2 steps back… and so on. But at the end of this past year, I’m in a better place than I was and I’m only counting the progress.

stress is a killer

I have been incredibly stressed the past few weeks. I was shocked when I lost weight last week at our weigh in. I doubt seriously that I will have lost this week. I "fell off the wagon" in eating and exercising this past week. It wasn't horrible (certainly nothing like how I might have eaten before I started this journey), but I'm not happy about it.

I realize that making the wrong choice and feeling bad about it is part of this process. I can remember the next time how I feel afterwards and make better choices.

Still I am determined to focus on the positives (not to Susie Sunshine it all, but to keep myself from beating myself up -- because seriously, most of us do enough of this already!).

Positive: still no soda for me. I had a few sips of a cup at an event and didn't drink the rest. YAY!
Positive: was offered brownies and only ate half of a bite sized piece! YAY!
Positive: I'm doing smoothies most morning and want a smoothie for lunch even. I would like to keep doing this more!

Caution: I have fallen into cereal a bit. Not like I used to so there's my YAY! but cereal is an addiction that needs to be watched very carefully. Another YAY, it was Wheat Chex and Organic Granola with Berries not Capt'n Crunch.

Goal: exercise 3x/week
Goal: consistency in supplements
Goal: 2-3 days/week, 2 smoothies/day -- I did this last week for 2 days and felt great!

I've also hit a big turning point in my life.
As of 9:57p tonight I have no volunteer responsibilities!
I am usually involved in something (kids school, church, friends, teaching, face painting -- something). My last responsibility ended tonight and I am free to work on just my job and my family and spend time with friends and enjoy myself.

Of course, I am already scheming on what other things I can do with all this down time (all this downtime, I crack myself up really)...but for at least a month, I will do nothing. Hopefull I'll make it to the end of the summer. That would be great!

Maybe I can go back to weekly massage and acupuncture! That makes a big difference and it would be great to do that again!

It's getting better all the time!!