I am a slave to food. Particularly packaged crap food that is terrible for you, high in sugar, high in fat, high in calories and LOW in NUTRITIONAL VALUE.
My poor eating habits (and that is what they are – habits) are the downfall of my diabetes control. I eat for so many reasons that are not related to hunger. Tired, bored, upset, depressed, etc. I guess I’ve been aware of these things for a while, but just haven’t taken that next step to actually not eat anything. It’s kind of like “Ok, I know I’m just eating because I’m bored & tired”, then “chomp, chomp, chomp”<chomp,>. Then I’ll be all down about it, and want to eat again because I’m down, then “chomp, chomp, chomp” all over again! It’s what I call a toilet bowl downward spiral.
It’s amazing to me how good my numbers, mood, energy and outlook are when I’m not eating all the time (or thinking about eating all the time). It’s also amazing to me how crappy all of the above are when I am eating all the time.
If I can get a grip on my food intake, everything else will fall right into place. How does one go about that? I tend to go totally crazy and be so strict with myself that it doesn’t last long. Then I’ll swing to the other side and go totally reckless! I need to find that balance.
A major part of it is my food choices. Now, when I explain what I like to eat and what I don’t like to eat, you will see that I should not be as healthy as I think am. I am a carboholic. I need to join some 12 step program. Carboholics Anonymous or something like that. I love carbs. I don’t eat meat, fruit or veggies. Just carbs. That’s right. I have no frickin’ idea how my body deals with what I eat and don’t eat. It can’t possibly be getting what it needs to survive! I do take a multivitamin, but that doesn’t cut it.
I don’t like the way I eat – I mean my tongue likes it, but I wish I had healthier tastes. I wish I liked salads. I wish I liked fruits & veggies. I wish I liked certain meats or other protein sources. But I like what I like – how can you change that?
I’ll go through spurts when I think I’m being very “good” about what I eat, and will have cottage cheese and V-8’s mixed in with whole wheat bread choices, etc. But it only lasts for a while. Whether it’s because I’m broke and ran out of groceries, or just get so sick of it that I quit.
I would like to start eating smarter also because those damn calories add up so fast. I’m a pretty big guy, 6’1″ & 260. Some of it’s muscle, but I could stand to lose a good 40 pounds or more. The key to losing weight is burning more calories than you eat. Which is tough when you make crappy food choices. With good solid balanced regularly spaced meals, I can stay under 2500 calories and feel very satisfied. Throw in some exercise a few times a week and I’ll be headed in the right direction. Have Micky D’s or BK for breakfast, and you’ve started your day by consuming almost half of your daily intake limit. I’ll be on the treadmill forever and STILL not lose any weight!!!
So, that’s what I’m working on. Smarter eating.
The other thing that has been on my mind a lot the last few days is a blog from a guy (Wil) over at lifeafterdx.blogspot.com who has started using the Medtronic Guardian RT continuous glucose monitor. I have a lot of questions about how this works in a real life situation, and Wil is giving us an excellent report of his daily experiences with it. The idea of being able to see what your blood sugar is at any time just by looking at a device is so exciting. A dream come true. What I question is the hassle of having to wear a second infusion type thing & transmitter, and what challenges that might present. Would I be able to wear it playing basketball? Would I WANT to wear it playing basketball?
There’s so many questions right now – I can’t say enough how much I appreciate this look into Wil’s experiences. I think that within the next couple of years we are going to see big advancements in this technology. It’s the next big step in our therapy. The early 80’s was the step moving from testing urine to testing blood. Continuous glucose monitoring is the next big impact improvement. I think that data management will be a challenge – I haven’t figured out a good easy way to make good use of my manual numbers now – much less having hundreds and hundreds of readings each day! That is a problem I’d be happy to wrestle with though! The tradeoff of being able to know my BG at any time without having to do a manual test would be enough to convince me.
