Hi,
I take lots of supplements every day. I have even made a chart of them so when I go to the doctor's office I don't have to spend ten minutes reciting what I take while the nurse writes it down.
I have said that, in order to say this: If the supplements matter.... why would the food not matter?
If we truly believe that ingesting a pill prescribed by our doctors, or a supplement recommended by them, will have a beneficial effect on our physical well being... why does it not follow that the food we eat affects our physical well being, also? After all they are going to the same place: our bodies.
What we put in our bodies matters. What we eat, drink, take, and swallow will eventually do something, either good or detrimental, to our body in both small and large ways. Water quenches our thirst, while sweet beverages only seem to coat the tongue. Food nourishes us, or irritates us.
What I consume will affect my body in some way. Why must my desire be for food that I know will do me harm? Why do I not have a craving for fresh raw veggies instead of frozen yogurt or mac and cheese?
I must admit that I have, on occasion, craved a salad or some raw veggies -- especially when I have not had any for a while. After my body feels stuffed and bloated and out of sorts from eating processed food for a period of time, then I do actually crave the light healthy satisfying feeling of fresh raw salad.
Sometimes I wonder why I need to be reminded of these things so often. Why do I seem to wake up every day in a rut? Is it the fog of addiction? Or is it simply the fog of being human?
What is discipline and how do you do it? Why do you do it? What keeps you doing it?
Asking questions is a way of thinking. I'm not looking for "answers" like on a test. I am attempting to wake me up from my most recent stupor.
I logged into my blog tonight with the thoughts about supplements and food on my mind but when I pushed the "view blog" button, it seemed to randomly choose to take me to an old post which I read as if it were from some other author. What a reminder. What a slice of my own life it was. It was the entry for "Day 53" and it was refreshing to me.
I don't know what it is like to be someone else. I envy the people I read about or see on a TV program who always eat right and always exercise right. Or are they not telling us something? I envy those who have successfully lowered their weight and no longer struggle, because they have really incorporated a new lifestyle of eating right and exercising into their daily activities.
Someone who does the same healthy routine every day.
I do have a routine but it feels like it is born of habit rather more than purpose, yet I do have a purpose. But is it not the "habits" that define a lifestyle and bring us to our purpose?
I'm glad to have the habit of recording my personal statistics every day. I check my weight. I test my blood sugar. I take my blood pressure. I examine my ankles for swelling. I look to see how much pain I have in my neck and head or in my low back. I have a simple system of recording this information daily. I take my supplements and then the day begins.
I also have the exercise habit going pretty well, now. I really do aquatic exercise three times a week for at least 30 minutes and often for 40 minutes and if some holiday is going to interfere I make the adjustments needed to get there the three times I believe is good for me. I like the exercise. I like the water. I crave it.
So I do have those two things going for me currently. I just need to get back on the proper food band wagon again. I got off it with the "7 day" program I tried. For the first six days I ate properly (veggies and protein) and on the seventh day I ate two high carb meals. That was it for me. I have had a really hard time getting back to the Six Day Program and have been seeking to include carbs nearly every day. Wow. Strong Addiction!!
Well... I do have a salad in the fridge at this very moment. I have eaten two salads today. Tomorrow is the day before Thanksgiving and I want to eat right. Thanksgiving is going to be whatever is at my friends' house that I've been invited to. I am bringing the dressing. It is the only time in the year that I make it, and I want it to be special. I don't want to waste a high carb day on carbs that I don't really like, but crave when I see them, anyway.
What a system. The plan at the moment is that the day after Thanksgiving I go right back to the raw veggies and protein. After having read another one of my posts, and thinking about the condition of my body after having done a higher amount of protein than normal and not liking the results, I have decided to cut back some on the protein and increase the veggies. I think 80/20 will be a better ratio for me.
When focusing on this stuff, I need to be reminded of all the things I am thankful for and that this matters but it is not the "Main Thing"
God is the Main Thing. Keep the Main Thing, the Main Thing.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Marcia
http://www.food.com/recipe/ina-gartens-oven-roasted-vegetables-363313
ReplyDeleteAbove is Ina Garten's instructions on roasting vegetables, I stick with carrots, broccoli and cauliflower...they are wonderful each time and I take the time to roast instead of steam or eat raw. Roasting veggies is where it's at!!
I am visiting your blog from A. Valenzuela's blog list.
Food and weight have been a struggle for me for 25 yrs.(at my heaviest 210 and I'm only 5 ft tall!) Only recently did I lose the weight. Maybe something will click with you from my blog entry. I am always hoping to encourage others through my own struggles with food and lbs. http://sweetinlows.blogspot.com/2011/01/lbs.html
Hi Sweet Inlow!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I read your post about eating only when you are hungry and stopping when you are satisfied. Awesome. What a great point of view and what a wonderful decision.
I feel inspired.
God bless,
Marcia
Hi Marcia,
ReplyDeleteI just want to thank you so much for journaling about your experience on the 30 Day Diabetes Cure. I am trying to motivate myself to cut out sugars and fast carbs and begin eating only real food, and I had been looking for information about the book to help me decide if I should buy it. I sure wish it were less expensive; $60 for a book is a huge investment for me. It sounds like it would be helpful, but reading your entries makes me think I have found most of the info in it from other sources, so I think I will wait and see how I do on my own first.
But I do want to tell you that I really admire you for being willing to put yourself out there and be honest about your experiences. I weigh almost 300 pounds and have been fighting fat all of my life. I am trying to get my blood sugar down since I am prediabetic, so I know what you are going through. About 4 years ago, I had tremendous success with the plan in this book:
God's Diet: A Short & Simple Way to Eat Naturally, Lose Weight, and Live a Healthier Life by Dorothy Gault-McNemee
http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Diet-Simple-Naturally-Healthier/dp/0609806750/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325795206&sr=1-1
I lost 50 pounds in 6 months without feeling hungry or exercising at all, and my A1C went down - sorry I can't remember how much now. But then, as it usually happens, I let myself eat whatever I wanted over Christmas season and never could get back on track. I gained it all back over the next year and haven't managed to get back on the plan since.
The eating plan is extremely simple: only eat what God made - in as close a form to natural as possible - no processed foods. And no sugar (in any form), high fructose corn syrup, flour, cornstarch or any other food starches or anything made with them. Otherwise you eat whatever you want. I want to go back on that, though I am having a really hard time getting started, but I'm afraid that since I am less fit now that I might not get as good results this time. Though I do plan to exercise too, which as I said, I didn't before.
I hope you are still fighting the good fight. I'd be interested in continuing to read your blog for motivation if you start writing again. I hope things are well with you.
Blessings!
Hi Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting your comments so openly and honestly. I really related to what you shared... it seems that we travel life in the same boat.
Since Christmas, I too, have gotten off track. I'm not going to go into detail about all of my ills (colds, injured knee, and up-chucking flu) but I also took a vacation from eating right and swimming.
I am back on board with the pool, but still do not have the food plan in order, just yet.
Sometimes the thing that helps me most is to simply make the decision to do it, and set a date to start.
A friend shared with me recently that there are only two decisions we can make: we can decide "to do it" -- or we can decide "not to do it" -- and it works both ways. We can decide to eat the wrong things or decide not to. Sometimes we forget to decide not to eat the wrong things -- and that one is the most important one.
It always boils down to what we have decided.
If you have given up for a while, please don't think of yourself as a "bad person" or "not equal to the task." We all have set backs. The question is how long are you willing to be "set back."
I must ask myself, am I willing to sit back and let Diabetes conquer me, slowly but unrelentingly ending up on kidney dialysis or minus a limb or blind -- or am I willing to take the simple bite by bite steps that will foil this enemy in it's tracks? If I am not willing to answer that question, then I have answered the question in favor of the enemy -- which is the definition of a traitor. If you are not going to help yourself, who is going to?
I wish I knew of some magic pill that would give me the motivation that I need... but there is no such thing as magic. Fortunately there is such a thing as motivation and nothing motivates like success. And nothing makes success like a plan and a decision to try again.
continued from above:
ReplyDeleteIf "God's Diet" helped you and made you successful... read it again. You don't have to commit to anything but reading it again. Pray for God's help and trust Him to provide all that you need.
At the right moment, set a reasonable date for you to begin eating that way again, and begin to prepare. Clean out all the stuff that you should not eat. Stock up on the things that you should eat. Then, on that date, begin.
Decide to follow the plan for ten days. The first three will be the hardest, but after that it will get easier because you will go through withdrawals on those first three days. Then... when you have been successful for ten days... decide where you will go from there.
For some reason we seem to be stuck on thinking "forever." We fear that if we are "set back" we must or will stay that way forever.
Nothing on this Earth is forever, except the promise of Jesus Christ -- and that is something that He fulfills -- not us. We only have to believe.
But we can make ten-day plans and make decisions. We can make longer plans than that, but sometimes, especially when we are in overwhelm, we need small plans. So try these suggestions (or try some that fit you better just do what works for you):
1. Read your book again for motivation.
2. Set a date to begin your change.
3. Prepare by removing what you don't need from your house
4. Prepare by providing what you do need for healthy eating
5. Do your plan for ten days
6. Then see where you are and decide what you will do for the next ten days.
Since you will have had about seven days of successfully eating healthy, and enough time will have passed that you will feel the good effects of the change, you and I know, you will been in a different place and able to make a better decision much more easily at that time.
Go for it!! I will be doing the same thing right along with you because this is the plan that I am going to follow, too.
Let me know how you do and what you decide. And thanks again for posting your comment, because you have motivated me, too. Thanks a million!!
Hugs and God bless you,
Marcia
Hi Marcia,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear I have motivated you. You have helped to motivate me too. Thank you for all the good advice. Part of my problem is that I have been considering all kinds of plans without ever starting any of them - and worrying about whether or not they will work before I even try them. How ridiculous!
But you have helped me to decide that I will go on God's Diet again. I believe He led me to it the first time, and it worked really well then, so why on earth would I try something different before going back on that again? I just worry too much and want to be absolutely sure before I try something, but life doesn't work that way.
I also had a revelation yesterday and today that seems so simple, but had been escaping me. That was that I need to find substitutions for the foods that usually make me fall off my eating plan. For instance, I ate ice cream last night because I was craving it even though I had done well with what I ate all day before that. I realized that I could find a frozen yogurt recipe made with real food and no sugar (I would use stevia or maybe a little honey, which is allowed on God's Diet in very small amounts). And I would still be on plan.
(By the way, after I had this revelation and decided to go on the plan, I had the lowest blood sugar reading today that I have had since I was on God's Diet last time - dramatically lower - even though I ate the ice cream last night - and some Fritos too! I believe it was God telling me that I had made the right decision.)
So I have decided to take your advice and read the book again. I also plan to come up with some ideas and recipes for enough meals to get me through the first 10 days. And I will try to include some substitutions for foods that make me cheat.
Thanks again for the motivation and great advice. I'll let you know how it goes. Best of luck with your journey to health! Please let us know how it goes.
Tricia
Way to go Tricia!! You have grabbed hold and gotten inspired to do things that work for you!! I'm glad you wrote back and let me know. You are still inspiring and motivating me. Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteI'll be posting my journey soon. Stay in touch.
Hugs,
Marcia
Please do post about your journey. I'll keep a watch out.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Tricia