This blog is about my own persuasions and struggles with addiction to food. After researching different studies and reading content from a wide- range of sources and from my own experiences, I feel I’m in a good position to blog about my fitness and wellness journey with a view to inspire and educate you on some of my tried and tested ways. While I think my methods, workouts and tips are effective and beneficial, that doesn’t mean my way is the only way.
For me, it started off with a high blood pressure scare and a diabetes scare. I didn’t know what was going on in my body. Over the last year, I had watched my weight plummet and I felt absolutely hopeless and was just not sure how I could control it.
The most difficult thing is when you have your own inner demons and yet the outside world especially the social media are telling you something else different. “Oh, you are so beautiful.” This is what you keep hearing but you know that the scales and your old clothes are telling a different story. You are slowly wasting away….and you are getting closer and closer to any one of those illnesses I mentioned above.
As a Christian, your inner self tells you that this is a problem that does not require prayer, nor does it require any form of spiritual deliverance but action. To make a decision about whether or not you choose life. That decision means changing your healthy lifestyle. Your eating habits, the kind of food you need, the times you eat and incorporate that with an exercise regime that is sustainable in the long run, this could be even walking.
My diabetes scare
8 months ago I noticed that my blood sugars had been unbalanced. I had my fasting glucose levels tested after I had been presented with symptoms of irritability, poor concentration, insomnia and cravings – especially for sweet foods. I was also experiencing some difficulty losing weight over a period of time. Having an imbalanced sugar level was a wake-up call for me.
For me, one of the main factors causing this was that I had become obese. As a nurse, I knew that this would increase the chances of having blood sugar imbalances and raise the risk of type 2 diabetes. There is a history of diabetes in my family and hence the reason I had such a scare. I had been making some poor dietary choices, eating fast foods often, processed meat, a diet high in refined and sugary foods.
There are times when I felt empty but did eat enough, my brain telling me crap about me doing healthy stuff for myself and hearing voices and battling myself.
Insanity is the definition of making the same mistakes expecting different results. At times I would say “I know I’ll just have some bacon because it’s Sunday”.
But I would do it the next day and the next. There are times when I became powerless.
For example, I would have thoughts about eating cake, and the thoughts would then turn into an obsession. Once obsession kicked in, I was left powerless.
All the working mothers out there, please give me five minutes of your time. That’s all I ask.
Being a mum can be difficult because Children want to eat chicken dips, burgers and chips.
It’s easy to pick at that but I don’t do that now. Recently my daughter wanted a burger and chips. She turns around and says “ mummy you have one” I took the chips and was able to give it back. That was self-discipline.
The reason I’m doing this blog about this situation is that I’m a busy working mother. It’s easy to snack on my daughter’s food. I’m hoping by doing this blog, I will help someone to break their bad eating habits without the aid of self-help groups.
I haven’t got time to attend any of these groups.
I realised I was eating on my feelings and didn’t realise I was eating on my emotions. I realised there was something wrong. One night as I was working a night shift I went into a hypo. My blood sugar was very low. I was going through what is referred to as “a blood sugar roller coaster”.
I got scared and went to my GP the next day.
- I came off social media for four weeks because it was feeding the darkness surrounding me
- The amount of time I was spending there although it was a few minutes at a time translated to hours in a 24hr period.
The first few days were hard because I was eating on my emotions but as time went by I adjusted. As a nurse and a mother, I realised I was in a dark place. The light that came through the darkness was my child which then enabled me to start meditating.
I met people in my job and I realised they were no different to me but they were dying. Some losing their lungs and some legs through diabetes and at that point, I realised I was a step away from becoming that myself. I had just gone to the doctor that day to check my health. That night I went out to work and realised patients were dying. In all honesty that was a slap in the face and hence the reason for doing this blog. I made a decision that I was going to reclaim my health by changing my eating habits lifestyle.
My philosophy now is simply to exercise and eat well.
I try to avoid using too many ingredients in my food. I promote food with no additives.
I tend to go for organic food, natural and whole nutritional food. Making healthy recipes from scratch is possible.
In the last 8 months, I have revamped my diet and started a regular exercise habit.
Many of my recipes are gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free and vegetables.
I have also embraced the low GI diet.
The concept of losing weight
Let’s look at the concept of losing weight. Individuals only need to consume less calories than they burn each and every day and you will eventually lose the weight.
If an eating plan is followed nothing is difficult but what leads individuals astray is lack of control, hunger and other factors that can get in the way.
- Take in less calories than you burn
- Exercise to burn additional calories- this will give you the ability to eat more whilst losing weight (It is not necessary to exercise everyday)
- Aim for a minimum of 3 work outs in a week
- There is no overnight weight loss(No cure for obesity overnight)
- A healthy lifestyle is your decision
I made a weekly diet plan that helped me to lose weight and made me healthier. I’m happy to share this with you in my next blog.
Before starting I took measurements of my waist, hips and thighs. I also recorded my weight when I started and only weighed myself at the end of each week.
I changed my body shape in 5 months
I started off at 84kg and after 6 months I dropped to 66 kg by just exercising and changing my eating habits.
How?
I made a weekly meal plan
The plan had to fit around my work and family
I went for a jog 3 times a week, did HIIT training 3 times a week incorporating running on the treadmill, a mixture of squats, lunges, plank variations and cycling to stay motivated.
Squats helped tighten and sculpt the whole way around my stomach.
I ate gluten-free porridge for breakfast – carbs aren’t the enemy if you eat the right type at the right time. For lunch, I’d have an avocado and prawn salad and then meat and two veg for dinner.
I kept nuts on hand for between-meal snacks – a small handful of almonds was enough to ward off hunger cravings.
By the end of the 7 months, I’d reached my goal weight 10.5 st. But I was less concerned with the scales and more impressed with my new-found definition – especially around my waist and tummy.
Day 1
I feel anxious about starting my healthy lifestyle
I have made a list of all the food I need for the whole week
This is what I’ve eaten today
Breakfast (245 calories)
• Porridge with milk
• 1 slice whole-grain bread with marmalade
Morning Snack (63 calories)
• 1/3 cup blueberries
• 1/4 cup plain non-fat Greek yoghurt
Lunch (352 calories)
Chicken breast with salad
Afternoon Snack (90 calories)
• 3 Tbsp. hummus
• 1 cup sliced cucumber
Dinner (450 calories)
Salmon & Vegetables
Total calories 1200
My obsession with food
Diary Day 1 (1/02/2020
What a flecking day I’ve had today!!. Drama after drama and a little bit more drama. All I’m saying is my size 10-12 body is now a size 18. I realised that I had my head either stuck to the kitchen cupboards eating any and every thing , until I hit the mother load in the fridge, & just stuffed my face with whatever was there, I couldn’t even tell you what I ate, I ate the lot crying my eyes out praying to God my child didn’t wake up in the night to see what I had become
Diary Day 27 (28/02/2020)
I noticed that everywhere around me strangers were just shoving food in their mouth
Some holding queen cakes
I became obsessed with watching how strangers around me were eating
I started judging people when I have never been judgemental before
At times I found myself starring at anyone putting food in their mouth.
I noticed I wasn’t one of these people when you are judging people you are not looking at yourself. I’m not judgemental but the reason for judgement is becoming increasingly wasn’t looking after myself. I was in denial.