As I learned more and more about nutrition in its broad scale, I determined in my 20’s that eating right is not “dieting,” it is actually just the way we were intended to feed our bodies. I’ve looked at and participated in different levels to both extremes: total fast food & packaged foods vs. complete natural (make your own honey, make your own bread, juice your own fruits, etc.). I hate to tell you this, but I agree with both!! So how can I lead you in one direction or the other?
Here’s the news: I don’t and I won’t suggest to anyone that either is exclusively the way to go. I have a whole section on eating right and not. In the hustle-bustle of our daily lives, it is hard to adhere to and to me is somewhat unreasonable to be constant in either mode. I have, for 38 years, managed my Diabetes (the balance of which is severely dependant on food intake) by just using my brain.
Doctors have deferred to me most of my life because they cannot argue with the fact that I am in good shape. I have a very severe case of Diabetes, accompanied by all the complications (kidney, eyes, nerve, and digestion and anything else that sporadically faults, such as heart, lungs, etc.) It is not a lie that Diabetes affects every organ and cell of our bodies because it contingent upon circulation (blood) levels.
When I was younger, one book labeled it as the “silent torture.” Truly, Diabetes is an extremely dangerous and comprehensive illness. And I have been through some scary times; however, Diabetics do not have to be isolated and absolutely do not have to suffer as much as some do.
Really, I use common sense and balance. And here’s the rub that goes against the grain of every nutritionalist in America: I still believe in counting calories instead of carbohydrates. Wow, you wouldn’t believe how much hostility that causes. Total and sheer frustrated hostility pours from the otherwise calm and respectable nutritional advisors. BUT - the doctors side with me because of the facts. Yeah me! The doctors tell them to leave me alone and let me do it my way because whatever I’ve done for 38 years is working better than all the dead people who did it differently.
This, in turn, makes the advisors even angrier and they refuse to work with me. So, I’ve been on my own in regards to nutrition for a lot of years. Fortunately, I enjoy the study of nutrition so I liked checking out the books and making spreadsheets and articles about nutrition. And for the last 10 years, the internet has made it increasingly easier to find what I need to know in a snap.
For many years, due to the stigma attached to Diabetics, I hid my condition from everyone. I knew people for 15 years and they never knew I had Diabetes. I’d go in and out of hospitals and just call in sick at work. I don’t look sick, so no one assumed I had any chronic illness. I don’t act sick, so nobody guessed. I made up my mind when I was a teenager that I didn’t want to be a decrepit frail person and that as long as I could keep going, I would keep going happily. I rarely discuss my condition unless it is informational and I do not use it as a crutch or for sympathy. I am so grateful to the Lord for getting me this far with such a debilitating condition, that I cannot justify being a complainer or using it in a manner to exploit others. That just seems ungrateful and WRONG.
Plus, whining is my pet peeve, so it doesn’t fit anywhere into my life or my surroundings. Here’s my take on eating: eat food that helps your body function properly and eat as much as you need to continue functioning.
No part of me agrees with the idea that a person can be on a continual diet for life. That is crazy and if you investigated all the people who wrote the fad diets and the miracle diets, you would discover that they don’t stick to that diet every day of their lives. They veer sometimes. Even the best of them do, so don’t be fooled.
The only problem with a Diabetic veering on his/her diet is that the insulin and/or exercise for that timeframe has to be adjusted. I’ll go into that balance later, but for now, let’s just look at the food part of the formula. Not just for Diabetics, but for everyone. Food is your energy and what you eat is the makeup of your chemistry, so eat the best you can.
I don’t have a rule that says “cake is not on my diet.” I don’t have a death clock that starts ticking when I eat red meat occasionally. No body parts fall off or even stop working when I eat lunchmeat or when I have carbonation in my beverages. And guess what? I’ve used sweet-n-low for 38 years. Is it a good idea to constantly eat junk and processed foods? Absolutely not. So, I don’t want to ever be quoted as encouraging poor eating habits.
There is a difference between a habit or routine and an exception. If you tell a Diabetic child that he/she can never have cake, ice cream, red meat, butter, jelly, etc., that kid is going to instantly begin building a wall to shut the whole dieting idea out of his/her life. Adults do the same thing. Every time you start a new diet, don’t you just crave everything that is NOT on the diet? Who in this world thinks that there is ONE diet that all people should follow forever and ever amen? Isn’t that somewhat nutty? Should we all drive the same car and live in the same house? Again, that is not reasonable.
Here’s the best diet: eat food that helps your body function properly and eat as much as you need to continue functioning. When this is your diet, you have now broken the harness and have some options that in turn, give you the ability to make choices. So, make good choices.
Sometimes I eat cake; sometimes I even (should I say it publicly?) eat a bar of CANDY! Yes, it’s true. Get a bag and breathe into it if you have to. I am not only admitting to you that as a regular smegular human being, I sometimes eat candy, but I am notifying you that I, an insulin-dependent Diabetic sometimes eat candy. Wow. Once you are able to stand upright and focus again from that news, let’s move on.
Sometimes I deliberately choose a taco over a tomato with cottage cheese. Yes. Sometimes I fry my eggs instead of scrambling them and SOMETIMES I even CHOOSE Captain Crunch cereal instead of Corn Flakes. And here I am, still alive. Shocking, isn’t it? I do want to repeat that I make the choices deliberately. Here’s the key: that word “sometimes.”
Do I eat fried foods and sugar from the time I roll out of bed until I drop in a panting heap at the end of each day? No. Do I eat fried foods and sugar every day of my life? No. On the other hand, do I completely deprive myself of all treats? No again. It’s not the candy and lunchmeat that kills people off and it’s not the natural cooking and fresh veggies that keep them alive.
It is that when you eat food that helps your body function properly and eat as much as you need to continue functioning and SOMETIMES allow yourself a sidetrack of indulgence, eating can be balanced even in someone with a serious medical condition.
If I tell you that you can’t have a cookie, you probably will immediately want a cookie. So that is really just a nuisance and doesn’t require indulgence. Really, we all are able to exhibit self-control and not drive 5 miles out of our way to get a cookie. If we decide recognize that cookies are delicious but do not add much to the helpful functioning of the body (even if it has oatmeal and raisins or peanut butter in it); but, that sometimes a cookie might be yummy, control is more manageable. If the cookie is a “possibility on a sometimes basis” rather than absolutely forbidden, it is easier to control our intake of the cookies.
Again, some type of self-control has to enter into the equation. People who are overweight more than likely have not dealt much in the area of self-control and that is not what I’m talking about. Absolutely, there are people who are completely out of control and eat junk constantly. That is not a dieting problem; that is a social, spiritual, or emotional problem and I don’t plan to address it.
I am talking about the reasonable life and the reasonable person, approaching a reasonable manner to maintain a reasonable eating pattern. If you want to lose a few pounds, cut back your calories. If you eat a piece of candy, look at how many calories you just took in and shave it off something else. Period.
Fruits and vegetables are good for you, but fruit packs a bunch of calories and some fruits are just as much of a hit to your blood sugar and your waistline as a piece of candy, so look at what you’re doing. If you ONLY eat vegetables, you starve yourself of other needed nutrients and have to take supplements to bridge the gap.
I am just here to notify anybody that cares to listen that any nutrition you can get from a pill is completely inferior to the nutrition you get from the food itself. I personally do not take vitamins because it just seems a little silly to me. That topic is not a battle I’ve chosen to fight in my life, so I just keep my mouth shut on the issue. Take vitamins if you think you should, but you still have to pay attention to what foods you put into your body. God designed our bodies and He also designed how to keep them functioning, so just be reasonable.
I see a lot of articles about guilt and “don’t beat yourself up if you fall off the wagon,” and that kind of stuff. I see the word “moderation” used a lot. I’ve always found those perspectives kind of odd. I just don’t see how one person can tell another person how to feel. Aren’t feelings based on what belief system you have established in your life? If I tell you not to feel sad because your dog died, but you loved your dog and your heart is breaking, how can you just stop feeling sad? If you feel guilty, you can’t stop feeling guilty just because someone else thinks what you did is okay.
You have to establish a reasonable system that allows for mistakes. With that, you operate in a reasonable fashion which means you can eat a piece of cake sometimes. When you make a mistake and eat a whole cake, you adjust accordingly, recover, and try not to do that again. Then, guilt is not even part of the picture. It doesn’t enter into the equation. If you find that you’re not reaching your goal, then you have to change your plan, but remain in the parameters of reasonable.
If your goal is to lose weight, and you’re not losing weight, adjust your plan and go forward, but don’t cut food out of your life for 3 days in order to get where you intended to be. Feeling guilty won’t change where you are; not feeling guilty won’t change where you are. Recognizing that you need to adjust your plan and then doing so will change where you will end up; but it will not change where you are. Giving yourself a lecture about doing a better job won’t change where you are. You are where you are.
All you can do is adjust your path to hit the goal. And if you just ate a whole cake, that is where you are. Regret doing it? Maybe. Hate yourself, punish yourself, be cranky and punish others for it? No. Adjust, recover, and move forward. You may just need to shave some calories off for eating too much cake and then again, you may need to reduce your entire daily calorie intake if your goal is not being met. But be reasonable. That’s a really important concept in our lives.
Shocking to many people, the Bible gives insights into how to take care of our bodies. Truly, who believes that God quickly created a doctor and medicines right after Adam and Eve, in case they ever got sick? I know, I know. Hard to believe.
