It's late at night when I often feel inspired to write. I'm excited. One of the pieces of my journey to health has been an experiment that I've been carrying out for almost a month now. In about a week I shall expound more on it, but for now, suffice to say that I have seen a significant change in my bloodwork which is quite exciting. My blood glucose has dropped 10 points since January, and I have an inkling that it is due to this change I've made in my lifestyle.
Am also working hard on adding more fruits & vegetables to my diet. I realize that a huge part of it is sheer laziness. I can't be bothered to cut up the fruits and veggies when I can grab a pastry or a slice of bread instead. I do eat a diet rather heavy in carbs, and while I am learning that sustained weight loss will happen with a diet higher in carbs rather than attempting to eliminate carbs, I also realize that I still need to swing the balance a little more towards the whole plant foods. A meal should ideally consist of 70% fruits & veggies and 30% carbs/proteins is what I read/heard somewhere recently, and I tried it. For about 2 days. Then I realized that I didn't have time to calculate it all out, neither prepare enough foods or get to the store to buy the fruits & veggies to have enough variety. So I scrapped that.
I'm still cooking without added oil, though, which I'm also excited about! I've found it is so easy to dry-fry if you have a good non-stick pan, and if you don't, just add a little bit of water to the pan and stir vigorously. A great combination to start a dish is to try garlic, onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers. The peppers and garlic really help to flavour the dish and mask the rather strange smell that onions have when they are sauteing in water.
And as I'm learning as well, keep experimenting. Keep trying. Don't be afraid of new things; you may find that you really love them! I picked up a tub of quinoa tabbouleh salad at Costco on Friday and I'm excited to have that as my main dish one day. Super healthy and great on the calorie side too!
Become aware of labels. Even learning little things has helped me. For example, keeping sodium below 200 mg is a great idea. It's difficult to find tomato sauce, though, so I try to keep it as low as possible. Or reading up on how many servings are in a bag of whatever it is you're purchasing. When you calculate how many servings are in a bag, and realize that you'll probably eat half the bag by the time you're home (which would be me), then it is just easier to put the bag back on the shelf and walk on by. But do find foods you enjoy and treat yourself with them. Buy the $9 box of fresh blueberries and leave the $3 bag of potato chips in the store. I know, I know, the chips taste sooooo much better. But seriously? The last bag of potato chips I bought a couple of weeks ago had a warning label on them: may cause cancer. Blueberries don't come with that kind of warning!
So till the next update, keep eating healthy and having fun!
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Friday, April 12, 2013
Trial & Error
So I'm finally back again, now that the internet has been restored to a semblance of normality. Super excited to blog about some of the changes that have been happening in my own life as I continue on this journey to whole-health living!
About 10 months ago I wrote out my birthday goals. I do it every year, on my birthday (which occurs mid-year) and around January 1st. I write out what I plan to achieve in the next year, and then when each anniversary comes around I have great fun looking back and reading what I wrote. Amazingly enough, it seems that when I write down my goals I have a greater chance of achieving those goals. I am learning to move to more concrete plans rather than idealistic dreams, but I still enjoy the process.
One of my birthday goals was to become vegan. I was happily writing down about three or four different things that I thought were reasonable and doable, when the thought popped into my head and I obediently wrote it down, not really thinking about what I had just written. "Become vegan." I looked at the words in amazement. I wasn't sure I was ready for such a huge leap. I was raised vegetarian, and while I did do a stint of veganism for a period of time out of necessity, I hadn't made being a vegan a complete lifestyle choice. I still enjoyed my marionberry Whole Foods pastries, my Round Table pizza, my Ranch Doritos, my Chipotle burritoes with sour cream and cheese, and my Subway chocolate chip cookies. Now, ten months later, I try hard to think what my favourite foods were before I began this phase of my journey. As I look back, I realize that it wasn't a decision that I made overnight but rather happened slowly as I learned how to make healthier choices.
I first made the conscious choice to monitor my diet last year when I learned that I was pre-diabetic. Diabetes runs in my family and I was freaked out at the thought of having to poke myself with a needle and try to monitor insulin levels if I didn't take care of my health right away. Though it takes about 5 years to move from pre-diabetes to diabetes, it was enough of a wake-up call to get me into some serious action. On the advice of my Newstart doctor, I cut out all oils and sugars for four very long months.
At first it was super hard, but when I started to see results I realized that it was the best thing I had ever done. I used to love the smell of frying onions, which is how I started every dish I made, and found it difficult to adjust to frying the onions in a small amount of water. As I began to read and research, I bought a non-stick frying pan from Ross and learned how to fry onions oil-free. I've learned how to cook without using oil now and find that I don't really notice that it's gone.
Here are some helpful tips that I've learned from my journey:
It's not easy to make a switch and go against the grain of what you've done all your life. I've had many battles with myself where I wanted to just give in and eat the food I was craving, rather than make a healthy choice. And there were times when I couldn't remain true to principle, or there were times I forgot. But I didn't beat myself over the head with those trip-ups. Instead, I tried to learn and I determined to move on, and it has all been worth it. Because I'm worth it. . .and so are you!
About 10 months ago I wrote out my birthday goals. I do it every year, on my birthday (which occurs mid-year) and around January 1st. I write out what I plan to achieve in the next year, and then when each anniversary comes around I have great fun looking back and reading what I wrote. Amazingly enough, it seems that when I write down my goals I have a greater chance of achieving those goals. I am learning to move to more concrete plans rather than idealistic dreams, but I still enjoy the process.
One of my birthday goals was to become vegan. I was happily writing down about three or four different things that I thought were reasonable and doable, when the thought popped into my head and I obediently wrote it down, not really thinking about what I had just written. "Become vegan." I looked at the words in amazement. I wasn't sure I was ready for such a huge leap. I was raised vegetarian, and while I did do a stint of veganism for a period of time out of necessity, I hadn't made being a vegan a complete lifestyle choice. I still enjoyed my marionberry Whole Foods pastries, my Round Table pizza, my Ranch Doritos, my Chipotle burritoes with sour cream and cheese, and my Subway chocolate chip cookies. Now, ten months later, I try hard to think what my favourite foods were before I began this phase of my journey. As I look back, I realize that it wasn't a decision that I made overnight but rather happened slowly as I learned how to make healthier choices.
I first made the conscious choice to monitor my diet last year when I learned that I was pre-diabetic. Diabetes runs in my family and I was freaked out at the thought of having to poke myself with a needle and try to monitor insulin levels if I didn't take care of my health right away. Though it takes about 5 years to move from pre-diabetes to diabetes, it was enough of a wake-up call to get me into some serious action. On the advice of my Newstart doctor, I cut out all oils and sugars for four very long months.
At first it was super hard, but when I started to see results I realized that it was the best thing I had ever done. I used to love the smell of frying onions, which is how I started every dish I made, and found it difficult to adjust to frying the onions in a small amount of water. As I began to read and research, I bought a non-stick frying pan from Ross and learned how to fry onions oil-free. I've learned how to cook without using oil now and find that I don't really notice that it's gone.
Here are some helpful tips that I've learned from my journey:
- Find fun foods you like to eat and keep a supply of those on hand. I love Dole peach bowls, Mediterranean olives, and creamy honey. What I love to eat changes, though, which also makes it fun because then I can switch it up a bit.
- Read, watch movies, or go online and research. Educate yourself as to why you are making the decisions you are making so you own your choices. Vegucate is a great documentary, Neal Barnard has informative yet easy to understand books on how to eat, diabetes, and more, and there are scores of easy tasty recipes online.
- Commit to change. I can't do portion control, so instead of buying a bag of potato chips and "portioning it out over the next week" when I know that I will finish it in three nights, I don't buy that bag of potato chips.
It's not easy to make a switch and go against the grain of what you've done all your life. I've had many battles with myself where I wanted to just give in and eat the food I was craving, rather than make a healthy choice. And there were times when I couldn't remain true to principle, or there were times I forgot. But I didn't beat myself over the head with those trip-ups. Instead, I tried to learn and I determined to move on, and it has all been worth it. Because I'm worth it. . .and so are you!
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