Health and Fitness
This one is personal for me, but I'll try not to over share too much. I'm sure most people assume I'm healthy because I'm at a healthy weight, and I generally have been healthy in the past. However, I don't exercise a lot (I know, hate me now). The truth is, that someone who's at a healthy weight, but doesn't exercise or eat right is not as healthy as someone who exercises and eats right, but is overweight. And that's what I learned at my doctor appointment this week.
Now, I'm not unhealthy either, but I had a lot of "borderline" numbers on my latest blood work. The only one that was technically "bad" was my HDL or good cholesterol. The two biggest takeaways my doctor left me with were to eat fewer processed foods, especially sugar, and to exercise more.
The problem is that I do have an addictive personality. One of my addictions is to sugar. It's a way I handle stress. It's a way I cope with boredom. And it's also probably the reason why I had an 11 pound baby the last time around.
I thought I was doing better lately, because I've given up putting sugar in my coffee. But I also moved closer to the in-laws (easy access to sweet tea and orange kool-aid) and I've been stress eating when my kids aren't sleeping (the 2 year old) or wearing me out (both of them). So the few grams of sugar in my coffee were replaced with dozens of grams in various treats, like delicious ice cream sandwiches.
I'm normally a big proponent of everything in moderation. But I also understand that with addictions, sometimes you just have to go cold turkey. I'm not going to avoid everything processed or everything that has a few extra grams of sugar. But I will try a few easy replacements to the very high sugar items and try to add in some high good fat items as well.
Here's a few of my "easy fixes".
Drinks - water, milk, coffee, up to 2 glasses of wine per week (this is supposed to help with HDL and replaces the delicious and I'm sure full of sugar alcoholic root beer that I had been drinking)
Snacks - almonds, whole fruit, whole wheat bread with peanut butter, hard-boiled eggs, tuna fish, cheese, and Fiber One bars.
Big No No's - candy, sugary drinks, ice cream, cookies.
I don't think I'll need to make any big changes to my main meals, just maybe skipping dessert for now.
Hopefully this combined with an exercise program once my ankle heals completely will cause next year's numbers to come out a lot better!
Now, I'm not unhealthy either, but I had a lot of "borderline" numbers on my latest blood work. The only one that was technically "bad" was my HDL or good cholesterol. The two biggest takeaways my doctor left me with were to eat fewer processed foods, especially sugar, and to exercise more.
The problem is that I do have an addictive personality. One of my addictions is to sugar. It's a way I handle stress. It's a way I cope with boredom. And it's also probably the reason why I had an 11 pound baby the last time around.
I thought I was doing better lately, because I've given up putting sugar in my coffee. But I also moved closer to the in-laws (easy access to sweet tea and orange kool-aid) and I've been stress eating when my kids aren't sleeping (the 2 year old) or wearing me out (both of them). So the few grams of sugar in my coffee were replaced with dozens of grams in various treats, like delicious ice cream sandwiches.
I'm normally a big proponent of everything in moderation. But I also understand that with addictions, sometimes you just have to go cold turkey. I'm not going to avoid everything processed or everything that has a few extra grams of sugar. But I will try a few easy replacements to the very high sugar items and try to add in some high good fat items as well.
Here's a few of my "easy fixes".
Drinks - water, milk, coffee, up to 2 glasses of wine per week (this is supposed to help with HDL and replaces the delicious and I'm sure full of sugar alcoholic root beer that I had been drinking)
Snacks - almonds, whole fruit, whole wheat bread with peanut butter, hard-boiled eggs, tuna fish, cheese, and Fiber One bars.
Big No No's - candy, sugary drinks, ice cream, cookies.
I don't think I'll need to make any big changes to my main meals, just maybe skipping dessert for now.
Hopefully this combined with an exercise program once my ankle heals completely will cause next year's numbers to come out a lot better!
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