I have been on a diet for 45 days. It really isn’t a diet so much as a change in habit. They say if you can go so many days without doing something, you can break the habit. I think I can safely say I have broken my bad eating habits. It hasn’t been easy and I haven’t been perfect in my goal. But I think I have made great strides in my thinking process especially.
I am not in bad health, but I’m not really in good health either. I have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and an irregular heart beat. For all of this I take medication and have been able to keep it under control. All except my blood pressure. Its not out of control high, but its higher than the doctor would like.
About six months ago I had shingles. When I went to the doctor, she was more concerned with my blood pressure. She said it was probably high from the stress of the shingles. I was honest, I had been keeping track. So I told her it had been running a little high. She added a diuretic. I went back in a week and she increased the diuretic. I went back in another week and it was a little better. We talked about my poor eating habits. She said the salt will kill you if you aren’t careful. She said fast food and eating out weren’t healthy. Everything is full of sodium. “So you want me to cook?” I asked her. We chuckled and I went on my way with my new prescription in my hand.
In February after an episode of high blood pressure, irregular rapid heart beat, and a severe pain in my jaw, I was a little scared. So I made the decision that I was going to try to eat healthier. My goal was to cut out 99% of my eating out. My normal routine was a stop in the morning at the donut shop for two pigs in the blanket, an old fashioned blueberry donut, and a diet coke. For lunch it was whatever fast food establishment seemed to be calling my name that day. In the afternoon I would need a candy bar. It was diet coke all day, every day, all day long.
Now my weekly routine starts on Sundays. I prepare something that I take in my lunch all week. Right now it has been mostly chicken cooked in my electric pressure cooker. Either chicken salad or a spicy shredded chicken wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla. For breakfast I have made healthy breakfast muffins or each morning I make an “egg-beaters” scrambled egg with a dash of shredded cheese wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla. I have cut out diet cokes all together. Every now and then I indulge in a diet coke. Maybe three in the last 45 days.
I have only lost five pounds, but I feel a lot better. But I figure I didn’t put this weight on in 45 days, so I guess it will take longer to lose all that I want. I read that diet drinks can make you crave sweets and I think its true. My sweet tooth isn’t what it use to be.
I’ve heard people say it cost more to eat healthy. I don’t think so. It just takes planning. I’ve learned to plan ahead for the entire week. When the morning rolls around, I’m ready to go. I’m not in line at the fast food joints, rolling away with my jumbo cup of diet coke in the mornings. I am happily driving down the road eating my breakfast burrito and drinking my water. When lunch time comes, I take the lunch I brought out of my lunch box and I’m ready to go.
On the upside I have time at lunch to write this blog and “Hey! What’s that in my wallet???” Its the money I’m saving by not eating out!! Just an added bonus.