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Monday, April 19, 2010

Went Back to the Doc Last Week

I was told that I have Insulin Resistance. I had no idea what that meant. I knew it was along the lines of diabetes, but it wasn't diabetes, at least not yet. I was told to add more exercise, change my diet, and to start taking Metformin. Okey dokey. After sitting around for a week (well not literally) trying to figure out what it is, I asked a mom on a message board that I belong to that is a doctor. She really helped me understand it.

The basics of it is this; Insulin is like an escort to the glucose in your body. Glucose is too big to go through barriers in cells to be used for fuel so it needs an escort. Insulin resistence means that my body doesn't recognize the insulin that I have so the glucose isn't being used correctly. Because of this, my body makes more glucose to compensate. Without the glucose, the cells die and don't make energy which leads to me feeling run down, have horrible mood changes, and slowly and steadily gaining weight. I didn't have my cholesterol checked, and odds seem that it would probably be high. If that were the case, I would have Metabolic Disease (also known as Syndrome X). The metformin turns off some of the glucose making so that my body has to use what is there.

What is going on is like a vicious little circle. Being overweight increases the insulin resistence and the high cholesterol. Because of the insulin resistance, I keep gaining weight. The hope is that with diet changes, exercise, and the medication that I'll start to lose weight and break the cycle.

Does that make sense to you? It does to me, at least now. I have a book coming that focuses on the diet aspect of IR. I'm hoping that I will find it helpful. It has nutrtion info and some recipes. I'll be looking for more recipes as well. I know I need to add more fruits and veggies in my diet, I just need to figure out which ones are more insulin friendly.

Last week I took the kids out to the nature trails twice and we did a 3 mile walk. We took a seat out of the middle of the van and brought the wagon for Izzy and the twins went in the stroller. I bought some new walking shoes and I'm hoping that when we go out again this week they will give more support than my other shoes. I want to do the wii Active 2-3 times this week after the kids go to bed on nights that Jason works. I would really love to get to the gym 2-3 times this week as well. Just so I can do the 1 hour cardio/weight circuit.

I am glad to have an answer about all of this. It certainly does explain that moodiness that has really been bothering me more and more lately. I'm finding that I have more energy as well, at least when I eat better. Now I need to figure out the eating part. And make sure I follow through with the exercise part. Change is hard, but I know that these new habits will be so worth it. I'm tired of feeling like a skinny girl caught in a fat girl's body. It always shocks me when I look in the mirror simply because I don't recognize the fat person looking back at me. I know that I will never be super model thing. Aside from the fact that I have given birth to 7 children, am in my 30's, and only barely 5'6" tall, I am broad shouldered and wide hipped. I'm OK with that. I would like to look sleeker, curvy in a good much firmer way.

I can say that this past week I've noticed that when I don't eat so well, when I overload on carbs, I feel like crap. I need to find the happy medium and don't go to the all protien extreme. I found out that just when walking with the kids I get a low blood sugar feeling if I haven't had enough to eat of the right things.

I know the diet changes won't sit well with Jason. He understands that it is what is better for me, however it will mean changes for him too. I won't cook seperate meals for everyone. What is for dinner is what is for dinner, that simple. I will change how I serve myself that food, but it will all be what is OK for me to eat, which will be healthy for the rest of the family too. The other morning Jason was frustrated because there wasn't anything that he could just pop in the microwave and eat. Our cupboards, fridge and freezer are packed with food but he doesn't know how to cook any of it, so to him there was nothing to eat. When I did make something, he didn't really care for it because it was too different for him.

I love him. Sometimes I think he is so stuck in his habits that he reacts to change like a little kid when you take away their favorite toy. He'll come around and do it this way, but it won't be without complaint, that I know. As it is, I am going to have to schedule an "appointment" for me to go to the gym so that he will stay awake so that I can go. He knows it's what I need, but again it's that change aspect. I know it's what I need and I'm having a hard time adapting to it, I can only imagine what it feels like for him.

Once I have the book, I am going to start the food journal thing again. I want to get a food scale so I can see how much I am eating.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Looking Over the Food Journal

I need to eat more fruits and veggies. Tomorrow I'm hoping to do some grocery shopping, or Sunday at the latest. I need to start adding 2 or 3 servings of fruit and veggies in each day. I know that potatoes don't count as a veggie. I wonder though, do sweet potatoes? I'll need to ask.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Thursday Food

9:30 AM Salt and Pepper chips and dip, handful of chips, less than 2 tbsp dip (serving size)
12:30 PM 1/2 banana
1:30 PM Ham sandwich on buttermilk bread with home made butter and brown mustard for taste
4 PM 7 Cheddar Pretzel Combos, they were Izzy's and I was trying to give them to him and he fed them to me instead
8 PM Cheeseburger with 2 slices CoJack cheese on buttered (butter was home made) English muffin with a little brown mustard for tasted with baked potato wedges and sour cream (less than 2 tbsp)

6 16.9 oz bottles of water

Woke up about 8:30-9 and went to bed at 1 AM.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Wednesday Food

10 AM Blueberry bagel with cream cheese and banana
1 PM 2 left over chicken strips (home made)
6 PM 2 handfuls Salt and Pepper Kettle chips with Dean's French Onion Dip for taste
7:30 PM Baked ham sandwich made with home made buttermilk bread, home made butter, and spicy mustard
10 PM Baked ham sandwich same as above
11:30 PM small handful Kettle Corn Popcorn and Banana

7 16.9 oz bottles of water through the day

The home made bread is dense, yet has air bubbles and is about the size of a hand from palm to finger tip in length and from pinky to thumb in width. The butter was put on the bread first as flavor, then the mustard, then the ham.

The serving size of the chip dip is 2 tbsp and I didn't go over that, if anything I used less than that.

The handful of popcorn was put in to a bowl and I didn't eat all of it. I kept getting the kernals stuck in my teeth and that frustrated me. I also got one caught in the back of my throat.

Tuesday Food

Let me just start out by saying that doing this each night is annoying as all get out. Anyway.

11 AM Small bowl of leftover pasta bake and 2 pieces of cheesy garlic bread
3:30 PM Medium fry, double cheeseburger, 12 oz vanilla shake (or maybe it was 10? I know Mickey D's recently cut their shake size down)
8 PM Tempura battered chicken strip
9 PM 4 Tempura battered chicken strips, small handful sweet potato wedges with a little sour cream for texture/flavor

5 16.9 oz bottles of water through the day

I'm wondering if I should include the recipes for the food? The Mickey D's was because I met someone from out of town there. I want to add that I drink NO soda. I gave it up mid-January of this year when I got my tongue pierced. Shortly after that I stopped breast feeding the twins. I also started exercising regularly, I joined a gym even. On average I was going 2-3 times a week for an hour each time. I was also cutting down on my portion sizes, as well as increasing the amount of protien I ate and reducing the carbs. I gained over 10 pounds and put on a couple of inches around the waist. This seems counter intuitive to me.

We hardly eat out anymore. It's too cost prohibitive. It's cheaper for us to eat at home, it's also healthier. We don't eat canned fruits. We don't eat canned veggies. Almost all of our fruit is fresh. More and more of our veggies are fresh. If they aren't fresh, they are frozen. A lot of the meals I make are made from scratch. We are planting an extensive veggie garden this year. I plan on making my own pasta sauce, hopefully enough to get us through until next year. I am going to learn the art of canning in the late summer/early fall.

During all of these health improvements, I keep feeling more run down. My hands now are constantly red and very very dry from washing dishes. I started breaking out in hives from our dish soap, so I had to switch to a hypoallergenic one. I'm getting migraines 2-3 times a week. Before I would only get them when it was super hot (85 or higher) and a very high humidity. My joints, especially my knees, fingers, and wrists hurt. My feet and hands are slightly swollen. I have dry skin even though all I drink is water. On occasion I'll have a cup of unsweetened ice tea with a little lemon in it. I want to know why I feel like crap even though I'm doing things right?

Wednesday Edit: I didn't eat the cheeseburger from the McDonald's meal. I found it stashed in the diaper bag today and Katy ate it.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Monday's Food

1 PM 2 unheated hot dogs
1:30 PM 1 bowl Velveeta multi grain rotini mac n cheese with sliced hot dogs
8 PM 3 slices cheesy garlic bread (1 before, 2 with dinner)
1 bowl pasta bake

Throughout the day 5 16.9 oz bottles of water

It certainly doesn't seem like a lot, does it? I got the beginnings of a migraine shortly after dinner tonight. I was able to hold off the major bury my head in the sand cut it off already headache with Excedrin (generic) and Tylenol Severe Sinus (generic). I still have the ache in my head and eyes, but it's much more tolerable. Note to self, taking a daytime sinus med within 4 hours of bedtime isn't the greatest idea in the world, however it DID help with the pain so it seems the delayed bedtime is worth it. This post is dated for Monday, however it's actually almost 2:30 on Tuesday morning. Let's see if I can do better with getting that breakfast in there. Or at least a meal that would be during "breakfast time".

Food Journal

My doc wants me to keep a food journal for the week before I go in for my follow up appointment. She tested me for diabetes and thyroid. So there will be a lot of editing of posts as I keep track of what I eat each day for the next week. I don't want to make a bunch of individual posts for each time.

It's almost 1 in the afternoon and I still haven't eaten breakfast, or a meal that would be considered breakfast. I got up at about 9, layed about until 9:30. When Jason works I have been getting up earlier than that. I was feeling hungry at around 10:30 or 11 however I just didn't get to it. One thing (well more like person) or another needed my attention. I think I'll go figure out something to eat. I'd like a chicken quesedilla, but sadly we are out of sour cream.

I'm making butter right now so I can have fresh butter when I make buttermilk bread later today. I'm going to try it out with my mixer and see how it goes. Jenn told me that I should be able to do everything in the mixer, which is nice because I always end up over kneading the bread and adding too much flour because I don't like the stickiness. I wanted a nice soft doughy bread for the ham mom sent home yesterday.