Why is what you eat important?
Several months ago I kept getting the occasional dizzy and shakey spells. They were very sporadic and they would last for a few minutes to an hour. Well, they started coming more frequently, and would last for longer amounts of time, until about a month and a half ago the dizziness and the shakes lasted for over two days, and it was bad enough and I was faint enough that I could hardly function. Needless to say, It was getting to the point where it was really concerning me. I went to visit my doctor. This was actually a good thing because when I went to see my doctor I was still dizzy and shakey. When the nurse took my blood pressure it was through the roof. Apparently, when the spells hit me I did not look very good, and with the added high blood pressure my doctor was concerned. She sent me the next morning for blood work (she could not send me the day of the initial visit because I had eaten a few hours before). I go in early the next morning to get poked and jabbed by the Phlebotomist (she was pretty rough and left a huge bruise on my arm) before work. By the end of the day I got a call back form my doctors office asking me to come in as soon as I could. So, the next afternoon I am sitting in my doctors office and she is looking over my chart. She looks up at me and says that I have some problems and that I need to address them right away or things will get worse. First, she tells me that my LDL cholesterol is hovering well above the 200 mark which is dangerous and I need to address it immediately. I was not very surprised by this as high cholesterol is very common in my family. Then she tells me that my blood sugar is also high, sitting above 110, and that this is more than likely the cause of my spells. She tells me that this is a precursor to type 2 diabetes. She does not want to put me on cholesterol medication due to the pre-diabetic condition, and that with a healthy diet and some mild exercise I should be able to get it under control. She gives me some tips and advice and a list of stuff that I cannot eat anymore. Well, for those of you that know me, I am not the most physically fit person and I could stand to lose a few pounds. So, with my doctor telling me that if I keep going the way I have been going I will just get worse and could end up with a list of other problems, I decided that it was time to do something. So, I jump on the internet (what can you not find on the internet these days?) and start researching diets for high cholesterol and diabetes. Well, as it turns out, these two diets are basically the same. Simple enough. So, I go home and start clearing our my fridge of stuff that I can no longer eat. I then go to the grocery store and buy artificial sweetener for my morning coffee, 1% milk ( I know, I should be doing skim milk, but I can not tolerate skim milk), fresh veggies, etc. I then run to Costco and stock up on skinless chicken breasts, and seafood of all varieties, and go home with my new diet food. I am counting calories now, and with recipies from various diabetic web sites I am eating much healthier.
The moral to this story is, with the change in my diet and watching the number of calories I consume each day (1,500 to 2,000(there were days when I would consume close to that number just for lunch)) along with walking briskly for 30 minutes a day I am feeling great. I have lost 10 pounds and am finding that I am not as tired as I used to be. I have more energy and I have not had one of my dizzy spells since the first week of starting the new diet. Now, there are a couple of times when I have slipped on this diet, but it is only for a meal or two on one day out of a week. So, if you are out there and not concerned about what you are eating, take warning. I used to not care about what I eat, I am a foodie, I love food and will try almost anything. I never really cared about what I ate before, or how much of it. I do miss some things, like fresh Irish butter and a good rib eye steak, but I am finding that eating healthy is not that limiting and it still tastes good too. I guess it doesn't hurt that I do like my veggies too. Now, I am just eating more of them.
I just wanted to share with you all. Thanks for listening. I am going back to the doctor in a few more weeks to have my blood drawn again to see where by blood sugar level is at.
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