Sunday, December 12, 2010

My Early New Year’s Resolutions

My diabetes is getting the best of me.  I feel tired and unwell most of the time.  Because of that, I get so angry and down on myself.  Fatigue in diabetes is caused by glucose being unable to enter the cells where it is converted into energy.  Instead it hangs around in the bloodstream.  It’s not just fatigue. . .it’s complete exhaustion.  I’m to the point that I have to do something about it.   So, it starts now.  Olivia deserves a mother with more energy and zest for life.  What am I going to do? I’ve come up with a plan.

1)  Exercise, exercise, exercise.  That’s  hard to do when you’re tired, but I’m determined to make it a part of my routine.  The best time to exercise is when Olivia is at preschool.  So, I will start exercising on Tues/ Thurs mornings instead of doing housework or taking a nap.  And, I’ll work up from that.

2)  Eat more vegetables.  Plain and simple.

3) Watch my carbs.  No bread, no rice, no pasta, no potatoes, no sweets, no sugar (or at least limit these as much as possible.)  This is tough because I crave carbs and they are everywhere!  They, however, make my blood sugar soar too high.  Bread affects me worse than a candy bar!  And, I’ll continue to take my diabetes medication (side effects and all) and try to bump it up to my recommended dosage.

4) Reduce caffeine.  I gave up pop when I was diagnosed with diabetes, but I rely on iced tea and Excedrin to get me by.  These fast fixes are only harming me in the long run.  Oh, and drink tons more water!!

5.  Enter the Daily Challenge after being motivated by my friend, Kerry.  Each day, I receive an email with that challenge for the day.  Today’s challenge, for example, was to create an emergency snack kit for times when hunger strikes.  In diabetes, this is so important because those are the times when I make unhealthy food choices.  And, with diabetes, almost everything seems to be an unhealthy food choice.  My kit contains nuts, string cheese, apples and baby carrots. 

6.  Try to get my doctor to set me up with a dietitian.  I need major help with what I can and can’t eat. 

7.  Enlist those willing to help me.  In any way you can. . .please encourage me to make these positive changes in my life.  If you have an idea or something that would help me, please let me know.  Thank you for listening and remember to hold me to my resolutions!  I will not let diabetes win!

6 comments:

Kerry said...

It sucks that we live so far away from each other and have such different schedules. I need help getting back on track and lord knows Andrew isn't any help. I thought the Daily Challenge thing might jumpstart me again. I will definitely help whenever I can, even if it's just encouragement with words. Some really quick and easy exercise I've been doing are the SparkPeople videos. There are a ton of them and they are all about 10 minutes long. So, pretty easy to do even without a big chunk of time (or if you're like me and just don't want to exercise for very long at a time). Ten-minute intervals of cardio activity are just as beneficial as one 30-minute session.

I know I always talk about SparkPeople but they have a lot of articles and recipes for diabetics so maybe you could try getting into that again. Their nutrition tracker was a huge help for me when I was losing weight. I haven't weighed myself in several weeks and I think I may have gained back a few pounds and I blame it mostly on the fact that I haven't been measuring and tracking my food daily. So...I need to get back to doing that.

Wow this is a long comment. I'm sorry to hear that you've been feeling so tired lately. I know nothing is enjoyable when you're so tired.

Kerry said...

Oh! And vegetables! I buy the big huge bags of frozen broccoli or frozen mixed vegetables at Wal-mart (they're cheaper there). There for awhile I was cooking a small pan full for every dinner. Just throw in a cup or two of vegetables, add a little bit of water and cook for however many minutes it takes for them to get to the softness you desire. I add salt as they're cooking. I eat those with the rest of my dinner or sometimes I would eat them before the rest of dinner. A cup of them would get me pretty full so I'd eat less of the other stuff. In your case you don't need to lose weight but it will maybe help you to avoid eating more carbs.

Jill said...

Well, girl, I will be following your progress! I have some different health issues that cause me very similar symptoms. I love the daily challenge idea. I think I'll sign up for that!
I do know what it is like to be so incredibly tired, you can't even open your eyes each day. Let alone consider exercise! I know what it is like when the meds that are supposed to help make you so ill you can't hardly stand to take them.
I know I live too far away, but maybe you can remind me to be accountable too!dr

Alicia said...

We're so glad you found Daily Challenge and MeYou Health. We're honored you've included it your New Years Resolution list. :-)

Alicia
Social Media Manager
MeYou Health

Anonymous said...

You can do it. I finally had to get a tread mill just to make sure I did exercize. It was expensive but well worth it-the Ipod and TV help too :)

Anonymous said...

OH and I forgot to tell you my food log for the day. 2 cherry turnovers for breakfast and Wendys for lunch. NOT the salad either :( I guess I get a double work out on that tread mill tonight.