I’m starting over. This time, I’m armed with some new ammo:
» Eat lots of fat.
» Build a broth-y stew to fight sugar cravings.
» Fat.
» Have a food plan.
» Always have snack foods around.
» Fat.
This way, I’m sure to have a fighting chance. I stocked up on some tiny shrimp and avocados, am going to take half-and-half to work to stick in my tea, and allowed myself a big block of my favorite Irish cheddar. Last night, I made a big thing of pot roast with onions and carrots, and have some wine to distract myself when cravings get rough.
The biggest problem I see doing this all a second (third?) time is that I know how hard the first week is. I stopped eating sugar today, and I’m already feeling the effects–my head is all woozy. That’s the biggest thing, the switch from my body running on sugars to running on fat. The sugar withdrawals. The cravings. The times when I’m hungry in the supermarket looking for some quick food that won’t set me back a week.
It’ll be helpful for me to have something to compare against, so I can tell if I’m actually getting better. I have this terrible habit of adjusting to whatever is the “new normal,” and forgetting where I came from. So here goes:
» Roughly 153 pounds. Not obese, but enough extra poundage to make me a little uncomfortable in my own skin. Clothes getting a bit tight. Yay, post-prednisone weight gain.
» Don’t do much exercise, other than walking (I don’t own a car, so walk or bus everywhere). Do have a desk job, but stand for at least 1.5 hours everyday, and am usually out of my desk walking around a fair bit every day. And I fidget a lot.
» If I’m not in bed by 10pm or so, will fall asleep no matter what I’m doing. Sometimes I wake up in the night so I can brush my teeth, but most of the time will sleep until morning. Or will wake up and think about brushing my teeth, but have absolutely no willpower to do anything about it. Alarms set from 5.45am to 6.30am (yes, alarms, as in plural). One is across the room, so I have to get out of bed to turn it off. Usually crawl back into bed and pry myself out of it between 6.30 and 7.00. I’ve never been good at waking up.
» Gums are a little sore, definitely inflamed. Have started bleeding when I floss, which they never usually do when they’re this bad. My teeth pick up stray food constantly, and I HAVE to floss, or plaque sticks all over them.
» Have a bit of psoriasis on my left index finger. It’s painful.
» Mountainous zits on my chin. The pus-y kind.
» Dry skin. Even my scalp is dry. Have been using coconut oil as a moisturizer, but am a little afraid to use it every day because of the zits.
» Poo has been fairly regular, about once a day. This is probably because I’ve been eating salads. Other than a persistent perianal sore that won’t heal fully, I’m doing pretty well in the guts department.
» Mucus: like cement. I could use it as glue.
» Am getting a little bit of a runny nose.
And now that the TMI is done, I’m going to stop writing and pretend this never happened. By which I mean “go to bed.”