Weighing in

Luckily, or not, my weekly weigh in today didn't reflect how poorly I've eaten since Thanksgiving and how many workouts I've skipped. My blood sugar crashed yesterday afternoon, it was a direct result of the bad food choices I've made the last few weeks. I know when my blood sugar is dropping because my eyes start to sweat, my bones feel like they're shaking, my legs turn to jell-0 and when it gets very bad like yesterday, I have a hard time concentrating. Unfortunately, by the time I feel the symptoms it's too late. I need to control my sugar level all day, everyday.

There have been two ways for me to maintain a steady blood sugar level. The first is to have a steady intake of sugar and simple carbs. The other way, the healthy way (that has worked for the past year and a half since my "health makeover") has been to make good food choices and exercise. Getting ready for the holidays I chose option A without exercise. Yesterday afternoon that choice came back to bite me. Several hours later I was still feeling the effects of the crash and I'll have to be very careful in the next few days to avoid another one.

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions. I figure if I need to make a change, today is the best time to start. So I'm making a January 7^th resolution to get back on "my plan". It's not a formal plan, it's bits and pieces of information that, through trial and error, work for me. The highlights of what I'm going to get back to doing are to limit "white stuff" (white sugar and flour), exercise, eat more small meals, journal what I eat and combine protein and healthy carbs for snacks. That sounds so simple but it isn't and it will take 2-3 weeks to get back on track.

I'm not saying I shouldn't have eaten any goodies (have I mentioned I love cookies?). But all the cookies, candy and junk I ate over the holidays weren't worth how awful I felt yesterday. Because I know that what I eat effects how I feel, I needed to be more mindful of what I eat and increase my exercise, not let it fall off the "to do" list. I thought I could just coast through the holidays without having to watch that closely – wrong! What I lost sight of is that weight/health maintenance is a journey, not a destination.