Smartbody’s Ramblings

Have you ever had a day where you seem a little off or a few days and you think it is nothing but you do a little testing just to see and something is wrong! Yeah, I had some of that recently. I was feeling kind of off for about a week…thought I would check a couple things…..run through family health history and see if anything stood out compared to how I felt. One thing I checked was my blood sugar. Yeah, not too good to see the numbers I was coming up with. On an additional note I was eating mostly carbs (not cake but bagels and pasta and such) and running on very (apparently) little sleep.

These types of activities caused my body to get out of whack and for me to appear that I was going down a very bad path. So I did what some would do and FREAKED OUT! After I was done with that I decided to adjust my eating habits, get more sleep, increase my fiber, and go for a walk during lunchtime at work. In addition to this I kept track of my blood sugar and noted how I felt every day and what I ate. I am still doing this but not in such a concentrated manner as before.

My blood sugar has evened out and no I have not gone to the doctor as of yet, but if anything changes symptom wise I will be there in a heartbeat. For now I can liken it to bad habits leading to bad reactions. Now I just know I am more sensitive to my habits than before so I must keep better track of myself.

Not eating meat hasn’t been as big of a problem this time around as it was last time (I guess with age comes wisdom). I have been sampling different protein shakes (I like the ones that are already mixed–they seem smoother to me). Just received some from Bodybuilding.com so I am looking forward to how they taste.

All week long I have been sick. Interestingly I started getting sick when I was exercising more the weekend before. I guess I have the issue that if I am starting to even think about getting sick I can really bring it on with vigorous exercise. I know there was a few times in the past that I would have to get off of the elliptical or treadmill because my chest was starting to burn. In the next couple days I would have a chest cold. I haven’t taken that route this time.

I have been taking extra vitamins while I have felt bad and one day I forgot and the next day I felt worse. I am planning on using the weekend to catch as many zzzzz-s as possible to finish this cold off.

Well here’s to feeling better……. 

So I have decided to go back to being a vegetarian for awhile (or longer depending). When I was younger I made the mistake of watching a video series called "Faces of Death"–real scenes of death captured on film. Some of the scenes involved a slaughterhouse and I gave up meat after that. After quite some time not eating meat I felt I wasn’t getting enought protein….I am not a huge fan of beans and the vegetables I like have been somewhat limited…..so I started eating meat again. One revelation came after I ate a hamburger…..I found I could not eat red meat anymore!!! After one small hamburger I was sick for THREE DAYS!!!!! I started eating chicken and turkey and then tried pork and found that wasn’t an issue either.

 I have been going back and forth about not eating meat again and I figured I could at least try it again and see how it goes. This time around I am cutting out fish as well. I am working through my thoughts about such things and figured what could it hurt to give it a try? My sister was VERY bad at making dishes with tofu so I am not the biggest fan of that. I also am not sure about food where I need to change the water!?!?! Um, ew at the moment. Maybe I will get better at that.

I have told myself that since I have chosen to go down this path once again I simply MUST expand my food options. (I don’t like mushrooms….I have a problem eating something that is considered fungus). So I will try new foods and figure out what I can add to my regular meals.

I have protein shakes and bars to ensure that I am not depriving myself of protein and I will take a close look at what I am eating and what else is out there to make sure that I am not depriving myself of other essential nutrients.

 We shall see how this goes……

So I am watching some cooking shows and wondering why I cannot expand my mind enough to think about putting ingredients together the way it was done on TV. The food is simple with few ingredients and yet it was something that hadn’t crossed my mind. I guess I just stick with the "tried and true" too much and just get myself in a rut.

Currently I am trying to find something else to do with my canned tuna…..Anyone have any good recipes with canned tuna? So far I just keep staring at it and drawing a blank.

So, I went out of town and visited my sister for about a week. Yeah, I had dessert at lunch AND dinner pretty much almost every day. 

I feel better getting that off my chest…..now just to get it off my ass……….. 

Hmmmm, I have noticed lately that I have been drawn to food because I have been stressed. I am trying to figure out why this is so. Is this something from my childhood? Anyone else have these issues? I can’t really follow the –when you feel like chocolate eat a carrot– philosphy. I need to figure out something else to do that is as equally fulfilling as eating whatever food I feel like eating at the time. I just haven’t figured it out yet. Any thoughts?

So I have been paying attention to how my body feels after eating various foods, and I have made some interesting discoveries. I found that if I eat high fiber foods, I am not really that full afterwards. I found this to be somewhat disconcerting. Why doesn’t it fill me up? You would think with all of that fiber that it would. I have had high fiber oatmeal and it did not really keep the hunger away. Anyone have any ideas about this? Maybe I should drink a lot of water after eating these foods?

I have been reviewing what I have been eating lately and I have come to the conclusion that I do not need to eat as many carbohydrates as I currently have been. My biggest downfall is bread. I really like French bread that is warm from the oven dipped in an olive oil mix. But even if I cut down on the bread, there are enough other carbohydrates that I have been eating/drinking that more than makes up for the lack of bread. So I am making myself more aware of the amount of carbohydrates that I am consuming during the day and finding ways to substitute other foods.

So I have been cutting down on my eating lately. I have found that what I have eaten for breakfast does not make it to lunch and what I have for lunch only seems to make it to 3:30pm (still at work at this time). Now, my issue is not that I am hungry but I feel my blood sugar dropping. I begin to feel somewhat off and slightly shaky. 

My food choices while I was finishing my degree were less than stellar and I plan to use the extra time (since no more studying) to concentrate on better food choices. I know that I was doing mindless eating. I would walk into the kitchen and state that I knew I was not hungry but was going to eat food any way.

So I am not sure if this is some transitionary thing…. I wasn’t thinking so because then I was thinking I would be psychologically hungry and not having symptoms of low blood sugar.

I guess I need to adjust the food to either more at each meal (even though I am not sure that more food at each meal would last longer) or if it would be better if I brought some protein powder with me and made a shake during the between times. I thought that making a shake would be better than pulling out more food at my desk.

What do you think?

Someone is going to have to go to the store this weekend and stock up on the healthy sh*t. Goodness gracious I ate CRAP today. I have wanted to eat good while starting the new job but I have found myself to be EXHAUSTED at night and then into the next morning at work. I am considering sleeping my Saturday away. HOLY SMOLY does my office like their donuts!!!! I can feel my *ss spreading as I write this. I had a donut for lunch. I am thinking that my nerves are raising my metabolism because I am losing weight again.

So, anyone have any easy, healthy, non-messy snacks that I can eat at work? One of the days I had ravioli—while good on the health meter it was pretty low on the non-messy factor.