Day 23

Hi,

Last night I went to VBS (Vacation Bible School) at my church (they have an adult class too -- if the adults come, they bring the kids and the neighbor's kids too) and they also had a snack for everyone. It was almost like a small lunch with a sandwich, chips, and dessert. My first reaction was to skip it, but I got in line and chose some turkey, cheese, lettuce, and tomato with a glass of ice water and then sat with friends and chatted. They did not comment on what I was doing. First I took a slice of cheese and wrapped it around some lettuce and ate that. Then I wrapped the turkey around some lettuce, dipped it into a little yellow mustard, and ate that. Then finished up with the tiny tomato slice and the rest of the lettuce. We were all eating with our hands so, I did, too.

I was sitting across from the candy man who had shared that he needed to stay away from salt (as he was sprinkling it on his food). I asked him if he had high blood pressure and he shared that when he went to the doctor his numbers were something like 229/170 (wow!) and they gave him lisinopril which immediately brought it down to below normal, so they had to adjust it. I shared that I had the same problem and how when I cut out the sugar my blood pressure went down. He seemed intrigued by that. I also shared how it went back up with the whole grains, so I went back to what worked, meaning vegetables and meat with tiny amounts of grain once in a blue moon. He was interested and I enjoyed the conversation. I hope it gives him the idea to reduce the sugar intake. He is a small built but sturdy slender man who eats candy all the time -- his pockets are full and he loves to share it with others -- that's why he is called "The Candy Man." He has a very physical job so maybe that makes a difference. I remember working with a woman a long time ago, who was also small built and extremely slender, and she had a bag of candy next to her as she worked as a typist and consumed candy for eight hours straight every single day. I have no idea how she (and he) stayed slender when she ate so much candy. Human bodies are certainly unique. I could never have done that and gotten away with it.

I went shopping after church and filled up the veggie larder. I am looking forward to having a good salad with some fish. I decided to get a bag of the same frozen fish I had been eating when the program started. You remember the breaded fish? I continued eating that as I dropped out the sugar and was eating that when my blood pressure went down while I was on phase one. It did not seem to affect things in a negative way, and I really miss that fish, so I bought a bag and will see how it goes.

This morning I have not yet eaten breakfast and am getting hungry. I took my morning barrage of prescription pills plus vitamins and minerals. I have also just finished a bottle of water to which I had added about 2 ounces of pomegranate juice which is allowed on the program. It is the only juice that Dr Ripich recommends. I had already been drinking it watered down because of all the good things it does for the body. Well, this morning, it seems to be giving me a slight case of nausea. Perhaps it is because I took the minerals (calcium, magnezium, zinc, and chromium) with it. I have not had tummy stuff going on, like I have with this major change in my diet. I have no idea what is causing it. Maybe I just need to keep doing it, and see if things settle down over time.

I have now finished my 12 minutes of Aerofit, plus upper body exercises. I then had a big salad with Romaine, tomato, avocado, some nuts and a hard boiled egg. I sprinkled it with Italian herbs, garlic pepper, EVOO, and a little salt. And the tummy is back to normal. I guess it was the combination of the pomegranate juice and the minerals. I also know that taking vitamins on an empty stomach will sometimes cause upset, too. I am not usually bothered by that, but every once in a while I am.

Note: The skin on my hands is still soft and smooth showing no signs of the dryness that comes from having too much sugar in your blood.

On to day 23.  Eliminating Self Sabotage!!  This is an excellent chapter full of really good ways to both recognize and prevent wrong choices. Repeatedly making small wrong choices is what heads me in a wrong direction. Dr. Rip talks about what to do if you have fallen off the wagon. I liked the Japanese quote: "If you fall down seven times, get up eight."  That kind of says it all. Reminder: this is not a diet, that will at some point end so I can go back to eating all the things that caused my diabetes in the first place. How crazy would that be?

You have got to read this chapter and be encouraged by it, as I was. He lists the top 10 commitment busters as a way of pointing out the things that we do ourselves to sabotage our own health. Among them is not getting rid of the junk food in the house. If it is still there, you will still be tempted to eat it. Get rid of it. Another one is making up special eating rules for birthdays, and celebrations. If you start doing that, suddenly every "occasion" becomes an excuse and they will be coming closer and closer together. It becomes easier and easier to wander off onto the wrong eating path simply by allowing that small break in vigilance. I believe that is how I got on the wrong path before. It seemed like it was OK to eat, say, a cupcake, once in a while. But as I made small wrong choices, it got really easy to make more and more wrong choices until I was doing what I did during the Holidays which ended up with me binging on candy and also turning on the eating machine. (See "Before Day 1" if you are curious for more details.)

I think the one I need to remember is one that came to my own mind as I read his list: Every mouthful makes a difference, because "you are what you eat." If you want to be healthy, you have to eat healthy, and to exercise -- there is just no way around this.

He also gives nine ways to get back on track if you have gotten off track. My favorite is this: Use the one-meal-at-a-time approach. Make a healing choice right now! It makes me think of what occurred to me in an earlier post, "The more I skip, the more I skip." Keeping on track today, will help me keep on track tomorrow. So if I keep on track today, I feel better today, and tomorrow will take care of itself.

I have always been a procrastinator, so believe me, I know what it means to say, "I'll start doing that tomorrow," or "I'll make this wrong choice now, and make the right choice later." Unfortunately, "Later" never comes. The only time we have to take any kind of action at all, is the eternal "now." You cannot do something later, you can only do it now. You can make a plan, but when the times comes, it will be a "now" moment. Keep eating healthy right now, and tomorrow, really will take care of itself. In the arena of diet and health your tomorrow will be brighter, because it is brighter today, already, by your having made right choices. And we just seem to keep going in the direction we are headed.

If you choose the wrong thing right now, you will only create guilt for yourself and consequences that you would rather not have at some future "right now." A sense of worthlessness and shame will soon engulf you. But if in this moment, right now, you let go of the past and begin fresh, and begin to make good choices right now, there will be no guilt or shame. You will have eliminated it. You will only feel the success of having made the right choice, right now, and you will love the wonderful uplifting feeling of success, too.

So that means that success is not a future event, it is something you can only actually experience right now -- and it comes from being equal to yourself like God is equal to Himself. God never makes a decision that does not fit who He is. If you do the same, if you only choose to eat or do what you know is the right thing to eat or do, you will not stumble or go out of balance. You will stay on an even successful keel. 

But if you do upset your applecart and get out of balance, Dr Rip says, just go back to day 1 and begin again. Let go of the past and look to the future, by doing what is right and good today. If you need ways or methods to encourage yourself, read the book because there seem to be double dozens of them in this chapter. Just make a healing choice right now and the rest will take care of itself.


Here is to your success, and mine.


I just checked my blood pressure which is at: 133/79 -- yippee -- (It was 154/83 a couple of hours ago.)

Blood sugar is at: 110 (ate bowl of bean soup and 2 pieces of breaded fish about 30 minutes ago.)

Weight: still where I was the last time I weighed (no loss, but no gain, either) although I usually weigh in the morning which might change things slightly.

Be back soon

--Marcia