Healthy Time

My doctor visit was last Thursday. I went to a new doctor, a doctor I go to church with for a reason. Accountability. It is time to lose weight. My whole family history on both sides struggles with diabetes. Not losing weight is like playing Russian roulette. So she adjusted a couple of medicines I am taking and asked me if I would like to be a part of their wellness weight program. I met with the nutritionist yesterday and we went over some of my eating habits. The main offenders were these:

• skipping meals I hardly ever eat breakfast and I'm not any better about lunch. This means most of my calories are consumed at supper and after. This forces my body to gain weight because it is in starvation mode-having waited 12-14 hours to get food. Therefore, no matter how few the calories, they all get stored as fat.
• Mello Yello If anything is consumed before breakfast, it is yellow coffee. Pure unhealthy sugar. All those calories stored as fat.
• Portion sizes Did you know that one should NEVER eat more than 6 ounces of meat? In case you are wondering that is about the size of your fist and it is TINY when discussing a steak or a chicken breast.
• Balance Now I thought I was doing great here because I am kind of freaky about making sure a meal is balanced. It is very important to hit all or most of the food groups every meal. Corn and potatoes should be treated like bread and pasta. They are not vegetables, they are starches. So chicken breast, corn and a baked potato is not balanced. Corn has been one of our staple VEGETABLES for forever. We will be learning some new tricks in the veggie arena!

I really thought I knew it all about nutrition. I have alot of knowledge. However, I feel very humbled to learn that the things I didn't know are making me very fat. That and a very slow thyroid that needs to be monitored on a regular basis. I feel very good about the changes made and I am committed to the point that there is not an option to fail, cheat or quit this diet. It is my life now, not a diet. I will see the nutrition nurse about every 4 weeks to be monitored. I will also have to face Rheanel at church and she promises to hold me accountable. It always helps a people pleaser to have people to please-even if it helps me.

Last night my friend Crystal invited me to give aerobics a try with her this Saturday. I'm gonna try it but I have the coordination of a new born colt. It should be funny. Erik and I are considering the possibility of joining a gym for the winter months. All is undecided, but I will be getting 90 minutes of exercise in a week-for now. It will slowly bump up as I get used to moving again. I HATE exercise. I prefer just doing fun things that just so happen to be exercise- swimming, hiking and the like.

So blog world, I do sort of have a New Year's resolution. This is the year I finally make getting healthy my number one priority.