Fighting The Bulge With Eating

We have heard all our lives that in order to conquer weight loss we must restrict, restrict and exercise. And while this may come to some people as easy as putting on clothes for others it is a battle we lose time and time again.

I never wanted to be a size two because well my fear is I would lose my curves. I mean what is a woman without those curves, right? But once my health became a concern do to diabetes 2, high blood pressure and cholesterol I decided it was time to once again try another diet advertising an easier alternative to losing weight. Many people succeeded and many ended up with their labs coming back remarkable. For me, it was expensive, confusing, too much to read, to take in and did I say expensive? I know you can eat beans but come on, when you love to eat who the sam hills wants to eat beans for every meal? All because it's cheap and follows one of the guidelines? I wanted to experience the diet as they had intended it to be. I mean isn't that how it works? So, needless to say when I got to the cashier with both my "diet" foods and the families regular food I spent almost an entire paycheck. Not to mention spending 4 hours or longer on reading all the labels for no sugar in the ingredients. Do you know how many products have sugar in them? I was astonished at some items that they add sugar too. Isn't that what the media says currently is the number one cause for America's obesity rate climb? Sometimes I swear I think it's a money game. Make us sick to put more money in the pockets of people who don't really need it anyway. But that's just my conspiracy side coming out.

On one of my monthly groceries hauls I ran into this sweet retired nurse who told me the only thing I needed to do was take the total net carbs and subtract the fiber as the total will give me exactly how much my body will turn into sugar. She explained how carbohydrates turn into sugar if they are not all used. Well I know I had heard that somewhere, and I love an easier solution so that is a formula I started to use. I mean when you can drop a shopping experience down to an hour or 2 from 4 to 6 I would have been down right ignorant not to. Because it's not just sugar that's the problem but we all know that. There have been diets revolving around no carbs and no sugar for decades. They just come back out with a different name and a little different verbiage of how to follow it and make it work.

Here is how I decided to do it; My Way. After realizing that I have always done things better when I do them my way. I decided I would take pieces from every diet plan I had ever been on, told about or purchased and piece them together like a quilt. The parts that worked for me that I still used and easier to follow. I even took it all the way back old school to the food pyramid. This means we get to eat and not restrict any food. Go look at the new food pyramid there is even a little space for fats. We just have to cut back what we are eating and how we prepare it. But nothing is off the table.

Keeping your blood sugar, even for non diabetics, at around the same level through out the day will help you lose weight. The reason? You will have more energy to get things done, to exercise and keep you from getting brain fog. Our minds can get into this when we get too busy to eat. That's when the frustration sets in, you get upset more easily and make more mistakes or bad decisions. When your blood sugar gets too low your liver decides to go into survival starvation mode. It will spill blood glucose into your system to keep you going. With diabetics our blood sugar will continue to rise. That is why blood sugar that gets too low is the same as too high. When I was trying the no carb and no sugar diet my blood sugar was over 200 and I had been eating and exercising just as planned. All the doctor sees is that it is high because that is how the labs and paperwork will show. But I found through watching and testing my blood sugars after I ate a little carb it went down. What?!! This is not what they are teaching us in the fad diet world. So, between what you find out medically, fad diets, your own research and perseverance you may find out what actually works for you. Your doctor should be able to tell you what your blood sugar level should be. I have found I actually have to eat what is more like the food pyramid we were taught in grade school. Interesting.

Most of us have been on and off a diet from the time we were little. It all centers around a person's weight to signify their worth in this American dream we all have. I have actually been told by a doctor I wouldn't have pneumonia because I was obese. Things a thinner person may have addressed right away, for me, still has not been explored because they can always blame it on something else. We grow up feeling ashamed of ourselves, our bodies, our decisions and thinking we are all just walking around about to fall out from a stroke or heart attack. I've heard of athletes who were in great shape with no body fat fall over dead so I am not sure how or when they decided it is solely the "obese" that are dead men walking.

Then they push the weight loss surgery and nag about it so much that eventually most people buckle from under the pressure because we want to be pleasing. Plus, they promise us it's easier and the only way for us to be successful in losing weight. It's proven they tell us. Lots of people have done it and been successful. What about weight loss is easy? So now surgery is the easier alternative? You risk your life every time you go under the knife. You have to sign waivers and liability forms regarding death. Then they tell me I still have to lose an X amount of weight on my own before I can have the surgery? That I will more in likely have to have another surgery to fix the lose sagging skin that will keep my weight from meeting the doctor's charts. The parts they don't tell you? You won't ever be able to eat normal again and if you do you may gain the weight back. Which in turn depending on which surgery you get it could also kill you. I wander why they never tell you about the years later stories?

So, what I am hearing is that in order for them to get a commission check or kick back I have to do it on my own first anyway. Then have another surgery to cut the skin off that wouldn't be as extreme if I continued to lose weight on my own. Because on my own it would be a lot more slowly and my skin will have time to retract naturally. The doctor then gets another commission check while I have the bills from what's not covered by my insurance. I am risking my life again to have the perfect body that you all say I should have to live a happy and productive life that I was doing and having anyway? I am going to stress myself out more because not only do I need to pay the bills I already had but the extra hospital bills and buy more expensive food. For me this was a no brainer. But I didn't have those type of friends who told me that I should get the surgery. Instead, I had some that made me aware I wouldn't be able to eat normal ever again, that I hadn't really tried to do this on my own first and that any surgery should be the last option on my mind.

We are killing ourselves for a society of people who could give a hoot whether we are alive or dead. There is always someone else standing behind you with the same problems or worse. Do you know why? Because the yo-yo dieting we have done since we were kids has slowed our metabolisms down to almost non existence. Add the stress of a high demand job, not enough money, not enough time off to relax, pushing ourselves to be the best parent, the always pleasing friend, and the perfect employee. We are destroying our adrenal glands and our mental health.

You know that cortisol we have heard so much about for years that causes the belly fat? It comes from too much stress and is released from our adrenal glands. It is a real gland that we all need to live. The diet industry has diet pills out to help burn the belly fat caused by cortisol levels. Why aren't they pushing more natural calming herbs like Ashwagandha, Holy Basil or Rhodiola and making an adrenal blend to help support cortisol levels rather than another diet pill? I only found this out by going to an Integrative doctor who had the blend. And while there are nerve pills we can take to "calm" us down that we were prescribed with ease for years and years those have now been linked to early onset dementia. Well now isn't that great to hear as we are getting older and start to forget things. More stress!! So, for a doctor to add the words you are going to die before everyone else because of your weight, because you smoke, because what ever reason they can find to write you another prescription or throw you under the knife well it's enough to just push someone over the edge. Unfortunately, it's a double edged sword because without a doctor we could die but in my experience listening to a doctor can kill you as well.

You need to take your health into your own hands. Ask those questions, demand more tests and if you are like me basically demand you get heard instead of taking them at face value. Allowing them to assume you are just another statistic or number and treating you that way is why you are in the shape you are in right now. If they refuse, chuck em, and find a new doctor. And if you have friends who don't support you in your efforts and agree with the old doctor that never listened; chuck them too. We need to have people in our lives that support us, love us and if they feel different will at least come to the table with useful information that could help us not keep us down. We are already down on the floor. But when you get to this point in your life you have decided to look up and find a way to stand back up for good. You don't need anyone holding your arm and pulling you back down. They should be bringing a pulley to hoist your tail up if they really want to help. Life is too short for should have, could have and would have when you do have.

Take time to breathe. Inhale through your nose and slowly exhale through your mouth as if you are blowing out birthday candles. Not fast but slowly release that exhale. With that slow steady exhale imagine you are releasing the burdens, the stress, and all the emotions you keep bottled up. Relax your shoulders and your neck and just be in that moment of nothingness. You are going to live, you are going to make it, you are going to succeed and the answers are already within yourself buried under years of someone else's burdens. Let them go and stop carrying them with you. They are not yours.

I will continue to write about my journey and share my thoughts for anyone looking for something different but the same. Remember. it's your life, your journey and if it's not something you can do for life then there isn't any reason to make it a must have in your present life. You will only falter, feel guilty and have a binge fest while googling the next fad diet to get you to the size you want to be. This is why you have to retrain your brain into knowing it's ok that you ate the chocolate bar, had the glass of wine or ate a fattening cheeseburger. Tomorrow is another day and if it kills you, well, at least you didn't die hungry and depressed. But I would bet you will wake up the next day and instead of being back on the floor depressed, guilt ridden and embarrassed keep looking up and forward. If at first you don't succeed try, try again but never give up!