I've been allowing myself to progress in my journey toward a more active lifestyle while completely ignoring the nutritional side of a healthy lifestyle. I've done this very purposefully - I don't want my disordered thinking about food to throw my 3-day training off - and I'm totally OK with it, not feeling guilty or manic or obsessive or any of that. But now these two worlds that I've been trying to keep separate have collided and I need to do something I've put off for a very long time - deal with my diabetes and put together a nutritional plan that supports walking long distances day after day.
What's pushed me to this point is that I'm having a lot of difficulty walking back-to-back long distances. It's not the walking itself that's problematic - my five mile on Saturday was easier than I had any right to expect! - it's the fact that I feel completely drained afterwards and that my blood sugar gets low and then my body starts to shut down bit by bit. Saturday afternoon, while we were on base looking for an iMac, I felt as thought I would faint and had to sit down to eat something immediately. Once I had some food on board, I progressed from feeling faint to feeling hungover. The next afternoon, after doing several loads of laundry plus vacuuming, I started feeling weak and nauseated again - no breakfast, no lunch! I wasn't able to do my planned 4 mile training walk for Sunday even after eating because of the same hungover feeling.
I'm trying not to panic because that's not going to help at all, but it's creeping in anyway. I can't keep missing training walks, and I don't want to, either. (Isn't it crazy that I'm starting to ENJOY walking and being active???) Mick made my lunch for me this morning: sandwich, pickle, apple, soup at hand, and some chips. I need to eat my two fruits and three veggies every day. I need to not eat so much fried food with no nutritional value. I don't want to be obsessive about food because I know where that ends, but changes do have to be made.
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Just start with little things -- like what Mick's doing with your lunch. I'm wondering if you can eat small things throughout the day rather than meals to keep your BG level. (OTOH, don't do that if you do what I sometimes do -- have big snacks and/or high density calorie foods....I'm full of good ideas but sometimes bad at implementing them for myself!) Good job with the exercise and I totally understand. It's hard to make big changes so if you were to do FOOD and EXERCISE, you might think all of it's impossible.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit tardy in my reading (and hence commenting). 1. Congratulations - self awareness is a huge step and you're there! 2. Watch out for the soups - extraordinarily high in sodium.
ReplyDeleteSadly, you have to combine dietary changes with exercise...at least eventually. Guess that's why they call it lifestyle changes? I thought that "Bob Greene's 'back to business' Plan" on p. 153 of the Jan 09 issue of Oprah's mag was extremely sensible. If you can't find it online, email me your address and I'll be happy to put a copy in the mail for you.
I've been having a blast with my Wii Fit - love it! The hula-hooping really works it - (I have to choose other ways to get moving besides adding more walking - b/c of knee problems...they're doing great, but no reason to tempt fate!)
Good luck - keep us posted. I know for me it helps to keep thinking very long term since these body-changes often plateau and/or take some time to show...
Oh sweetie, don't obsess. Don't don't don't! Look at it this way: ADD the healthy foods. Don't think about giving things up. Just add the healthy stuff, and try to eat it first. You can slowly crowd out the less-healthy foods without having to deprive yourself and feel desperate; just change the ratio.
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