Wish Me Luck!

I don't feel well. Nope, I do not. I am tired, I feel heavy....make that I have gained weight, I'm getting headaches, my body aches, I feel blah.

No, I don't need to go to the doctor. I know exactly what is wrong with me and I started to handle it yesterday.

Whenever I fall off the good eating and exercising wagon...this is how I feel...and let me tell you...I fell off a long time ago...have tried a number of times to get back on and I just keep falling under the wheels.

I think Thanksgiving was the "straw that broke the camel's back" so to say. It started Friday morning and didn't end until Saturday night when my head was pounding and I actually felt ill. For two days I lived on nothing but carbs. I ate pumpkin pie, dressing, candied sweet potatoes, a cream cheese apple dip that is about 50% sugar and caramel pecan apple pie. Not exactly a great diet. Yes, I did eat some cauliflower and green beans, but not in the mega doses that I ate the other things. My diet consisted of almost no protein whatsoever. Not a good thing for me...or for anyone for that matter.

The events leading up to the camel's broken back would be Starbucks Chai Lattes on a daily basis, bread, pasta, pizza and cereal. Not that those things are terrible, but I have a problem with wheat and in addition to that, all of those things are carbs. I haven't eaten a good salad in ages. I use to eat salad at least a few times a week. I don't even walk anymore.

What's happened to me?

I think I have gotten so wrapped up in my etsy shops and craft shows that I have forgotten that always, always, always.....we have to come first.

So at the grocery store yesterday I bought a lot of fruits, vegetables, rice, beans, yogurt, nuts and grains. This won't be fun, but I've done it before and I can do it again. I have to do it again, because I can't continue to feel like this. I remember talking about this not too long ago and telling myself I needed to pay attention to what I was eating.....but I didn't. It was just "next week I will do better". Next week never got here, until today.

I would really like to do one of the nutritional cleanses, but since my main problem is sugar and flour, I plan to start there. That will wipe out about 80% of my current diet, but I will be fine. It doesn't take long for your body to stop craving the bad stuff.....I'll let you know when I get there.

Have you ever reached that point when you know you have to make THAT change? Did you? How did you go about doing it?

Off the Wagon AGAIN

Okay, so I fell of the wagon AGAIN! I cannot stop eating crappy food. I know how bad it is for me. I know how many calories it all has in it. I know the fat content of what I eat. I know it's clogging my arteries. I know it's going to make me gain weight. I know. I know. I know!

But I can't seem to stop. I am out of control.

I have had a chai latte from Starbucks 10 times in the past 2 weeks. Not only is that a lot of calories I don't need, at $3.22 each, that is way too much money to be spending on junk food!

Every Friday, in fact last week it was Thursday AND Friday, and this week it was Friday AND today......it's an egg and cheese croissant from Dunkin' Donuts.

Last night it was a mushroom swiss black bean burger from Chilis and of course I had to get the Paradise Pie for dessert. That Paradise Pie is on the top ten list of the worst things you can eat. Doesn't it look just awesome though....and you should taste it...oh my word!!!!


What on earth is up? I never use to eat like this. I am just craving crap food right now, and have been for quite a while. This just isn't me and it isn't who I want to be.

So, here it is. I need to make a change....and I plan to start on Monday. No point in trying to start today. I still have 1/2 of my Paradise Pie left to eat, and I know I will eat it, and then tomorrow we are going to Michael and Bern's for the afternoon. I know I will eat whatever is put in front of me. Monday will be better. It's just me and the food with no outside influences....sort of.

I am going to try to go cold turkey with the chai lattes. I think that is the only way. To cut down won't help because I live for that chai every morning. If I have it one day....I will have it every day...guaranteed.

I will only bring good food to work...and that isn't hard to do and I usually do that. It's the cake and cookies and crap that other people bring to "share" that I can't keep my hands off of. I will try.

The weekends are sheer hell. I just eat whatever looks good and that has to stop. So, it will.

I am walking the dog one mile every morning...it's hard to do that at 5:30 a.m., but I can do it, and I said I was going to start doing my yoga and pilates after work. I really have to do that, but it is so darn hard to use that precious time for that when I have a million other things to do.

I once followed this awesome plan where you ate good all week and then you had one day where you could seriously eat anything you wanted. It was great and I did so well on it. I might give that a try again rather than deprive myself of every nasty food I love. The funny thing is that when that eat whatever you want day rolls around, you can only eat so much crap without feeling sick so you really don't eat all that much!

So, how do you do it? Do you eat good and exercise? Are you motivated? Do you stick with it or do you start and quit over and over and over again like I do? I am open to any and all suggestions......help?

Looking For The Quick Fix

Seven years ago I started working at a natural health office. Even though I didn't care for the ethics of the people I worked for, I did learn a lot about taking care of myself in a more natural way. I believe there is a time and a place for prescription drugs, but I also feel we are an "over drugged" society. Part of that can be blamed on the doctors, but most of it can be blamed on ourselves. We are a "quick fix" society. We can't even tolerate a runny nose anymore. We run to the pharmacy or to the doctor to make that runny nose go away. We seem to do that for every little ache or pain we have. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of very sick people that need medication to survive. Thank goodness we can help them.

What many people don't realize though is that symptoms are our body's way of telling us that something is wrong. Suppressing those symptoms with drugs may not always be the best thing to do. Besides all drugs have side affects.

When I worked at the natural health office, people would come in with shopping bags filled with medications they were taking....lists the length of their arm. It was awful. These weren't people with serious illnesses. These were people that went to see the doctor for common every day ailments like stomach pain and got a pill. That pill gave them a headache, so they got a pill for that. That pill gave them ringing in their ears, so that got a pill for that....and before they knew it, they had a shopping bag full and now they really were sick. Most people's systems can't handle that many drugs. It was so sad. The thing is, they would take all of the pills, feel sicker than they did in the first place and still not know why they had stomach pain!

I use to run to the doctor for everything. Now I don't. I have learned to understand my body and symptoms. Sure, it is tempting to reach for the medicine bottle when my head hurts, but now I prefer to figure out why my head hurts and just deal with it. It hurts for a reason and I prefer to know why.

Many of us have awful diets, including me at times. We eat fast foods, processed foods and foods covered with insecticides and pesticides. It's easy to see why we often don't feel well. I go through phases of healthy eating, but always seem to fall back into the "whatever is easiest" rut. I find myself eating a handful of chips, or stopping for chai lattes almost everyday, or ordering desserts when we eat out. I never give a second thought to what that is doing to my body, until I feel awful with no energy or have a headache everyday or my nose is so stuffed up I can't breathe. That is what eating poorly does to me. I know that, because I know what it's like to eat healthy and feel fantastic.

About 4 years ago I was tested for food sensitivities. Those are a bit different than food allergies. With allergies you usually get symptoms immediately. With food sensitivities, the symptom can take hours or even days to appear. Everyone probably has sensitivities to something in their diet or their environment. My problem back then was wheat and chocolate. The way to correct the problem is to avoid eating those foods for about 6 months, which I did. I had never felt so good in my entire adult life.

Then as time went on, I slowly added the wheat back into my diet and felt fine. I tried adding the chocolate back in, but kept getting headaches, so I try to still avoid the chocolate. Over time though, my diet has really become inconsistent. I eat good, I eat bad, I eat bad, I eat bad, and then I might eat good for a while.

Lately I just haven't felt the way I know I should. I've been getting headaches, my nose is stuffy all the time and I'm tired during the day. I know why...so, I decided to get tested again. I had regular blood work done and I also got tested for Vitamin B and Vitamin D. I haven't eaten meat in over three years, so I was curious about my B and I had melanoma 10 years ago so I get very little, if any sun...so I wanted to see where my D was at. The test I had for the food sensitivities was called the ALCAT TEST. I got my results last night. Let's just say that I am a little frustrated right now and have some major decisions to make about my health.

Tomorrow I will talk about the test results with you. Let's suffice it to say that I am desparately looking for that "quick fix" pill right now!