The Health Chronicles: Yay Blood Tests...
Hello all. As you obviously can see, my writing has been a bit sporadic lately. And there’s a few reasons for that. Perhaps I’ll get into them some time down the road when things are not so fresh. For now, I want to talk to you about something that did happen this week that has forced me to take some serious inventory and make real life changes.
I got results back from blood work last week. While the results were nothing catastrophic, they certainly were nothing to write home about, and there were warning signs of some things I should not have happening at my age.
As you all know, I like, no love, to eat healthy. I love making my smoothies and I love to prep cook. In fact, I know I am mentally feeling at my best when I am doing these things. However, there is an opposite to this which happens for me far too often. That is when I get stuck either binge eating or fall into a routine where I also am eating food that is way too unhealthy. Sadly over the last few months while I have been trying my best to be healthy, there’s been a lot of stress eating unhealthy food as well.
As a result, my blood sugar is not where it should be. It was not at a diabetic level, but certainly headed that way if changes were not made. My cholesterol was also too high.
As I was talking with my doctor, she wasn’t saying anything out of the ordinary. Don’t eat processed foods. Drink more water. Exercise more. Don’t drink in excess (or at all). You know, things I normally adhere to and love doing so. But what really stuck out to me in this particular case was the fact that I knew I was not eating as healthy as I should, for various reasons. And I was not exercising regularly like I normally would.
Now there have been quantifiable consequences.
So, I got the kick in the butt that I needed. I have already started to do morning walks regularly now, and I have become even more of a shark about what I eat, how much, and when I do so. Drinking tons of water and tea has never been a problem for me, so this is an easy “transition” for myself.
The crux of what has been biting me in the butt has been spontaneous spending, especially after long work commutes when you want to give yourself a “treat”. Thankfully, this will no longer be a problem. As I continue to look after my health moving forward I will also need to keep it in mind when considering work schedules and what not. Basically, be prepared and have enough healthy things on hand if I know I have a long work day ahead of me to keep myself full and resist temptation.
As a result of all of this news, I have set out some pretty loose, but important goals for me over this summer. I want to have my body trained to where eating healthy is second nature and shifting from that seems alien. I also need to lose at least 15 pounds by the end of the summer. Weight is always a touchy subject, but this is something I know needs to happen if I want to get my blood sugar to a healthy place. With weight loss will come losing inches around my waist which is paramount as well. And the final goal will be stress reduction. Stress counteracts any sort of healthy goals we have. And while in America we are living in a time where the powers at be want us to constantly be stressed, I need to continue to strive for my own inner peace.
So, The Health Chronicles has some tangible goals now. I will continue to make it an update on general health musings. But at this point I also need it to keep myself accountable for legitimate changes that need to be made in my life. It’s one thing to want to be healthier because it’s the right thing to do. It’s completely different doing so because you need to reverse the direction in which your body is heading.
I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I’ll check in soon!
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