Spring has almost sprung

It has been a long and very brutal Winter here in Nova Scotia, heck in Canada.  It seemed that we got a snow storm every Wednesday for 3 solid months, but it wasn’t quite that long.  I shoveled my walk way every few days, whereas last year, I shoveled it maybe 4 times the whole Winter season.  My point is is that I got a lot of exercise because of the snow.

Now that Spring has nearly sprung, I will be getting out every day for a walk, no matter the weather.  I will walk each day shortly after I have my supper and hopefully walk for half an hour or longer.  I am still on track with my new lifestyle, no nicotine, no alcohol, no pot, and just a cup or two of tea on those days where I need a little bit of pick me up.

I started this entry a few days ago and am now just getting around to finishing it.

I have many goals set, one being getting down to 250 lbs and I will buy myself an elliptical machine and when I get below 200 lbs I will buy a whole new wardrobe. But the biggest goal for me is to get to my pre insulin weight of 175. It seems like a pipe dream right now but I have started the journey to reaching those goals. Maybe in 2 years I will be down to my pre insulin days. I am looking forward to that day.

There are a lot of stops on my journey to being 175 lbs, I Know I will stumble and fall, I will slide backwards, but as long as I keep my eye on the ball, I will win. I will win this battle of obesity. I would like to one day be able to say “I was once obese, but now, I am healthy, fit and love my life.” Powerful words but have so much meaning to me. I hope that when that day comes, that there will be people like me, now, can look up to me as inspiration.

PS: Today is day six without a cigarette… I had a bad craving over the weekend but I was able to get through it with carrot sticks and ice water…

Diabetes Words to Live by

Definitely something to remember.

Trying to eat six times a day

When I was first diagnosed as a Type 1 insulin dependent diabetic,  I was told that  I had to eat six small meals a day.  That went well for a few years but then I started “choking” on food when I tried to swallow anything other than fluid.

For several years I suffered in silence because it can be embarrassing not being able to swallow food.  At a 4 course, sit down, formal wedding dinner, with me as the maid of honour, I choked on the chicken and mashed potatoes.  It was at that point that I decided it was time to seek medical help.

I was living in Ottawa at the time and my doctor said it was psychosomatic, meaning that my body tells me that I need to eat for nourishment but my mind tells me that I can’t eat because I need to lose weight.  This is a mental disorder that most female diabetics go through, where they don’t eat, then eat a lot or deliberately take less insulin needed to control blood sugar levels. The actual terminology is Diabulimia . This works but only in the short term, with the long term effects,however, are not worth it. Going blind, kidney failure, and in some cases, death.

I chose life but at the cost of my kidneys. I now face an uncertain future, will my kidneys fail completely or will the damage reverse itself with proper eating and lifestyle habits? No more taking less insulin than needed, no more gorging myself until I want to vomit, no more starving myself. I am now on the road to better eating habits. I still find it difficult to swallow at times but biting into and chewing a piece of apple helps. It gets the throat muscles working and produces saliva to make food slide down easier.

Maybe one day I will be able to look back on these tough years and be thankful for getting through them. They have made me stronger and better. A small word of advice, never ever, fall into the bad habit of not eating properly as a diabetic, no matter if it is type 1, type 2 or gestational.

Working out through the pain

I have been doing the ten minute fat burning aerobic workout for a couple of weeks and have been able to do five minutes of the workout before having to stop.  So, last Thursday I decided to push myself a little to see if I could do the workout longer.  Yes, I can and did, unfortunately, it resulted in muscles protesting the next few days.

So, since then,  I have been doing only my toning with a walk to town twice.  The old saying “no pain, no gain” certainly applies to me.  Some times the pain is so bad that I can’t work through it but I do toning.  I hope that one day I will no longer hurt when I workout, heck, I hope to no longer hurt at all.

Between the diabetic nerve pain, fibromyalgia and arthritis, there are days that getting out of bed is a struggle.  I have been told (many times) that eventually the exercise will help the happy endorphins work better and make me feel like I haven’t any pain at all. I look forward to that day.