Struggling . . .
What is going on with me?!
After a really great week on vacation with food and exercise, it's like I fell off a cliff. The news on the scale tomorrow - I'm afraid it will be up instead of down. I suppose this makes me human. One can only hope ;-) I'm not walking again today - and yesterday was a nightmare of unhealthy food choices, including a huge amount of sugar. The sugar started on vacation (after I weighed in), with a visit to the Centerville Pie Shop - apparently made famous by Oprah. Tori really wanted to go, and although I'm not a pie aficianado (my tastes are common: give me cake with frosting from the Jewel any day), they had some really good (and huge) cookies, called Hermits. It was the beginning of the end . . . I've been seeking sugar ever since.
My friend, Michelle at Boulderneigh, shared an article about sugar with me - and I have been wondering a lot about sugar all on my own, as well. Thus far, I do my best to stay away from high fructose corn syrup. Although "they" say sugar is sugar is sugar, somehow I don't quite agree. I try to use real sugar instead of fake sugar or sugars that have been chemically altered. White sugar in my tea, brown sugar on my oatmeal.
But the older I get, the more detrimental sugar consumption seems to be to my body. I ate cupcakes from the Jewel yesterday, and two cookies during the day from Corner Bakery (I also ate leftover pizza from a meeting at lunch because it was free (I don't really even like pizza all that much) and some fried chicken for dinner. I miss chicken and can only eat it once in awhile - fried was obviously not the best choice. It was not a good day . . . ). Every joint in my body is hurting this morning - which is why I chose not to walk. Perhaps a walk would have alleviated some of this pain congestion, in which case I will know by the time I get to work because I have a good walk every day to get there.
So. Now what? Yesterday was a nightmare of processed crap, none of which had much nutritional value of any sort, but I think the biggest culprit for how I'm feeling today would have to be the sugar. It would appear that sugar is something that I would do much better without - but one of the things I strive for is eating in a balanced way. That means that I know I'm not giving it up. In terms of balance, however, I'm way off the mark this past week - high (seriously high) levels of sugar and fat, and almost no vegetables at all . . . last night I went to the Jewel to shop - and thought I'd be doing a mega-shop. No - I bought almost all vegetables. Yay me! So now, there are choices in the house, which is a very good thing.
But back to sugar. When I met my friend, R, for lunch a few weeks ago, she gave me a Christmas present. She is much more imaginative than I am - she got me a gift certificate to a local yarn store and a bag full of interesting stuff that she's found or been using (I gave her a gift card to Amazon because she loves to read. Yes, I know. . . but I figured she'd use it :-) ). In the bag was a box of some Stevia in the Raw. She says she loves it. It appears to not have anything added to it, i.e., it has not been chemically altered in some way. I put it in the cupboard and didn't really think any more about it until this morning's aching joints.
I'm going to try it - I've got to figure out a way to get a handle on this sugar mania and learn how to manage it better. That's a key learning for me: Manage it. It's not realistic to say I'm never going to eat sugar again. One of the best things about Weight Watchers, for me, is that you really can eat whatever you want. There are no restrictions, so if you want to eat fewer carbs on some days, you can; or if you want to go vegetarian some days, you can. You learn to manage things - and I have to say that after a week with very few vegetables, I can see (and feel) how unbalanced I am.
So - the good news (you know that with me there is pretty much always some good news :-) ) is that I have been more balanced these past few weeks, because I can truly feel the difference after a week of imbalance. Yay Me!!! So, I'm learning. This is good.
Stevia . . . I'll let you know how it goes. (I really hope it goes well :-) ).
After a really great week on vacation with food and exercise, it's like I fell off a cliff. The news on the scale tomorrow - I'm afraid it will be up instead of down. I suppose this makes me human. One can only hope ;-) I'm not walking again today - and yesterday was a nightmare of unhealthy food choices, including a huge amount of sugar. The sugar started on vacation (after I weighed in), with a visit to the Centerville Pie Shop - apparently made famous by Oprah. Tori really wanted to go, and although I'm not a pie aficianado (my tastes are common: give me cake with frosting from the Jewel any day), they had some really good (and huge) cookies, called Hermits. It was the beginning of the end . . . I've been seeking sugar ever since.
My friend, Michelle at Boulderneigh, shared an article about sugar with me - and I have been wondering a lot about sugar all on my own, as well. Thus far, I do my best to stay away from high fructose corn syrup. Although "they" say sugar is sugar is sugar, somehow I don't quite agree. I try to use real sugar instead of fake sugar or sugars that have been chemically altered. White sugar in my tea, brown sugar on my oatmeal.
But the older I get, the more detrimental sugar consumption seems to be to my body. I ate cupcakes from the Jewel yesterday, and two cookies during the day from Corner Bakery (I also ate leftover pizza from a meeting at lunch because it was free (I don't really even like pizza all that much) and some fried chicken for dinner. I miss chicken and can only eat it once in awhile - fried was obviously not the best choice. It was not a good day . . . ). Every joint in my body is hurting this morning - which is why I chose not to walk. Perhaps a walk would have alleviated some of this pain congestion, in which case I will know by the time I get to work because I have a good walk every day to get there.
So. Now what? Yesterday was a nightmare of processed crap, none of which had much nutritional value of any sort, but I think the biggest culprit for how I'm feeling today would have to be the sugar. It would appear that sugar is something that I would do much better without - but one of the things I strive for is eating in a balanced way. That means that I know I'm not giving it up. In terms of balance, however, I'm way off the mark this past week - high (seriously high) levels of sugar and fat, and almost no vegetables at all . . . last night I went to the Jewel to shop - and thought I'd be doing a mega-shop. No - I bought almost all vegetables. Yay me! So now, there are choices in the house, which is a very good thing.
But back to sugar. When I met my friend, R, for lunch a few weeks ago, she gave me a Christmas present. She is much more imaginative than I am - she got me a gift certificate to a local yarn store and a bag full of interesting stuff that she's found or been using (I gave her a gift card to Amazon because she loves to read. Yes, I know. . . but I figured she'd use it :-) ). In the bag was a box of some Stevia in the Raw. She says she loves it. It appears to not have anything added to it, i.e., it has not been chemically altered in some way. I put it in the cupboard and didn't really think any more about it until this morning's aching joints.
I'm going to try it - I've got to figure out a way to get a handle on this sugar mania and learn how to manage it better. That's a key learning for me: Manage it. It's not realistic to say I'm never going to eat sugar again. One of the best things about Weight Watchers, for me, is that you really can eat whatever you want. There are no restrictions, so if you want to eat fewer carbs on some days, you can; or if you want to go vegetarian some days, you can. You learn to manage things - and I have to say that after a week with very few vegetables, I can see (and feel) how unbalanced I am.
So - the good news (you know that with me there is pretty much always some good news :-) ) is that I have been more balanced these past few weeks, because I can truly feel the difference after a week of imbalance. Yay Me!!! So, I'm learning. This is good.
Stevia . . . I'll let you know how it goes. (I really hope it goes well :-) ).
Comments
Oh, too funny! My WV is "snoments." I'll bet you are having some snoments in Chicagoland!