Tag Archive | Blood Sugar

Forget Fat! Get Healthy!

May20

I wasn’t sure if I would continue this blog or write another. I’m opting for the latter. One thing I’m absolutely sure about is that I will keep at the gym thing and make it work for me. I like exercising out of the house, even if it is inside a gym.

Being healthy is what I care about now. You can only say so much about fat and food addictions and then it’s time to take action. This is my time to take action.

What Scripps Research proved in March I have known since the first time I had a blackout from hypoglycemia brought on by eating too much candy. Now it’s time to live a new life.

You can’t fix an addiction, even if it is only a food addiction. You have to choose a new life and live it to the best of your ability.

I will check in from time to time until the new blog is ready. I’m ready to lose the weight so it’s time I put all the knowledge and information aside and do what I know to do.

Forget about fat and get healthy. Have a kickass healthy life. Healthy is better than anything. It makes everything else possible.

If you have a story you would like to share, step up and comment so you can inspire others as they have (hopefully) inspired you.

Later……………….

Food Addiction and Exercise

Apr8

Today I joined a gym. I’m tired of being overweight so I signed up for a 16-week program at a gym that is only a couple of miles from my home. Then I went home and binged, but only slightly.

My life has been particularly stressful the last two years and the binge eating isn’t helping anymore. At first there is some feeling of relief, and that may last for some people, but it isn’t working for me anymore.

Being overweight makes part of you fade away. Even though you take up more space, you feel invisible. It’s a very emotional experience that gets more stressful as you gain more weight.

Some people can go on an emotional eating binge now and then, put on a few pounds and then take them off. But for a person with a food addiction, those emotional upsets always seem out of proportion as do the binges that follow.

I walked on my treadmill almost every day for the past three or four years. Recently I was injured and missed almost six months, then it was the flu for two weeks, and now the tread has started slipping.

There are diets, exercises, weight loss programs, and pills that promise a flat tummy or toned backside in some short period of time. Then you see the women in bikinis, sleeveless dresses, all  smiles.

If they can do it, why can’t you, you ask yourself. And so you give it a half-hearted try and lose a few pounds.

Then something unpleasant happens and the food addict will likely give in to a binge because that’s what we do when the stress of imagining oneself in good shape, happy, enjoying ourselves in a social situation is too intimidating, too overwhelming.

So let’s see how the gym experience goes. Perhaps the exercise will prove a good substitute for overeating in times of stress.

We shall see.

Food Addiction and Pain

Nov29

Emotional pain isn’t the only kind of pain that can send you on a food binge. You also have to watch out for the physical variety because it has a way of sneaking up on a food addict.

Back pain is one of the worst because it can be very subtle. You start to feel uncomfortable and you don’t even know why. Then you start snacking.

The mild discomfort is the beginning of it. There isn’t the high anxiety of a food addiction trigger, or the blatant feelings from an obvious emotional upset. You aren’t focused on eating and there is no real hunger involved.

It’s just a slight discomfort that gnaws at you and turns into anxiety. You go to the refrigerator and stand in front of it, opening and closing the door, waiting for some magic wand to coax you into a decision.

After you eat a little of this and a little of that, just enough to throw your blood sugar off, you default to whatever you dislike the least and start nibbling.

Eventually, you recognize that it’s pain you’re feeling. By then you’ve done a lot of nibbling  . So if you do have a food addiction, the real anxiety is starting to set in, and there you go, back on the treadmill.

Best remedy for that is to recognize when you are feeling uncomfortable,. Take a moment to identify the feeling.  Discomfort can be caused by many things. Give it a name. Naming it takes the fear away, or in this case, the anxiety.

No one likes to feel uncomfortable but nowadays it is a common feeling so it’s harder to recognize than it used to be. All the more reason to get tuned in to your body and in touch your feelings.

Food addiction and pain can be terrible adversaries when they join forces. Recognizing that physical pain is the cause for your discomfort can head off a food binge.

Know thyself. It works every time.

Food Addict Searches for Candy As The Votes Are Tallied

Nov7

My goodness! That health care vote was intense. I was on the side of the nays and we lost by 5 votes. But only 5 votes.

Since I pay for my own health insurance, under the new health care plan, I would have to pay $5300 a year plus $2000 out-of-pocket expenses for a “qualified plan” the details of which have yet to be determined.

If I declined to pay, I would be fined $5000. That’s not the kind of stress a person with a food addiction needs to be subjected to, so off to the cupboard to search for candy.

Comfort food doesn’t really comfort a food addict when stress grips you at the heart like this issue grips me. If you don’t understand why the bill upsets me, click here.

Where did I hide those candy corns? The sugar temporarily counteracts the insulin war that is going on inside my body until my blood sugar balances out and the addictive urge suddenly disappears.

Some people don’t take governmental issues too seriously. But this issue is near and dear to my heart, so I let people know about it. They can make up their own mind.

Maybe a tootsie roll fell down between the couch cushions on Halloween. I don’t feel like baking anything. There must be a piece of candy somewhere in this house.

Why don’t more Americans know what’s going on in their own country? My European friends ask me that frequently. So I work to gain as much information and insight as I can, and share it when the opportunity presents itself.

My health is the most important asset I have, and I aim to take care of it. That means taking action, learning what I need to know to keep stress levels down and carry on an everyday productive life.

Emotional eating is more common these days perhaps because there are more things to get emotional about. When unexpected outcomes occur–sounds benign, doesn’t it–we become agitated and “emotional”.

Food is convenient, easy, and it works. That is, when you can find the treats your triggers are demanding.

Sometimes, you just have to accept yourself the way you are, make the best of all situations, and hang in there until the food addiction tendency goes away.

Maybe this new health care plan should include weekly massages, forced vacations of 3 weeks a year minimum for all workers except executives who would naturally get more.

Hey, and how about relaxing and fun activities that aren’t labeled “exercise”? And all foods containing more than 5 grams of saturated fats in one serving could be removed from supermarket shelves.

Preventive health care means having a plan. Plan to be healthy. Plan to be relaxed. Plan to heat when you’re hungry and stop eating when you’re no longer hungry.  Plan to enjoy life more.

It was only 5 votes, so there’s more work ahead. So no more stress for tonight. If I have to live with a few extra pounds for a while, I can live with that. Sometimes it just goes down that way.

Thanks for listening to my rant. Now I’m going to take a nice, relaxing bath, forget about those five lousy votes, and have a Ricola cough drop, apparently the only candy I have in the house.