Showing posts with label body. Show all posts
Showing posts with label body. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

My Gestational Diabetes



So I think it's time to give you all a little more insight as to what I'm all about. Yes, I desperately want to get these 50 pounds off my body. However that's not my only focus. I also want to get healthy, maybe more than than I want to be thin. I am a big fan of natural health and a firm believer that we are what we eat.

During both my pregnancies I developed gestational diabetes. That's when my study into health and nutrition began. Diet alone was enough for me to keep my diabetes under control and my babies healthy. That was my first hand experience that our diets and lifestyle (they made me exercise too) have a profound effect on our health.

When I went for my first appointment at the diabetes center, I was told by the nutritionist (who ironically was a lot fatter than me) not to worry as long as I follow the diet. She told me that most people who end up needing insulin do so because they don't want to be bothered to follow the diet correctly. That was kind of alarming, so I made sure to follow the program (and I do admit it got hard at times). I even took it one step further and started doing a lot of research on diabetes and nutrition. The fat lady at the diabetes center told me about eating the right ratio of protien, carbs and fat at each meal and about eating at certain times and such, but she still propagated an unhealthy way of eating. Somehow I just didn't believe that a Sausage McMuffin was a good breakfast for someone who has made themselves sick by eating crap. Oh, they tried to give me the line that it wasn't my fault that I developed diabetes. That somewhere in my family runs this disease and that's why I have it. And so as I ate my first Sausage McMuffin on the way to work I thought, that's a bunch of BS! Even with the predisposition to the disease, I wouldn't have developed it if I had eaten a diet rich in whole natural foods and went for a freaking walk once in a while. It was my diet of refined carbs and junk food and my couch potato lifestyle that made me fat and made my body unable to metabolize the excess amounts of glucose I was pumping into it.

That was just the beginning of my nutritional crusade. After each kid was born I got on my horse to lose weight. Last year I even had a pretty sucessful bout until I fell off the wagon. We'll get to that part of the story in time. I started slacking on all this, so I really let myself slide. I see a difference in my kids too. My youngest (who's now 2) is already developing my bad eating habits and I can't get her to eat any vegetables at all. My mom says paybacks are a bitch...apparantly I was like that as a child.

Anyway, I know that taking in less calories than I burn will yield a net weight loss. That's not enough for me. I am looking for a diet (lifestyle or whatever you want to call it) that will address my body's health concerns and not only allow me to lose weight, but also improve my overall health. So come back and visit if you are at all interested in a natural way of losing weight. I will share not only my personal story, but any valuable information I learn along the way! And of course I would love to hear from anyone else who has information or experiences to share!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

My Introduction



Where do I even begin???

Well, I'm a short Italian chick in my early 30's with about 50 pounds to lose. A hard task considering I grew up with the mentality that whatever you ate it wasn't enough, and what I did eat was a ton of pasta, cheese and bread. I hated vegetables or anything even remotely considered "diet friendly". My family breaded and fried just about anything they could and to this day I still love fried foods and refined carbs.

I wasn't always this way though. It wasn't until I became an adult that I started packing on the pounds. My activity level became non existent and eating became sport. As life started to get more stressful, food became my comfort. I also inherited those great Italian mother genes which enable me to gain weight just by thinking about or looking at food. Not exactly the super power I dreamed about having as a kid!

And of course it doesn't help that I'm so short. 50 pounds spread across a tall person doesn't look quite as bad, but on a short person it looks more like 100 pounds because it's all condensed. It's like a mean optical illusion!

So anyway, here I am...short, fat and ready to take back my body. I will prevail in "My Big Fat Battle!"