By it's very statement "going on a diet" seems to imply that, once the goal is achieved, one can go "off the diet" at the end of it, which really isn't true. In my case weight loss, but for those suffering from the other issue of weight gain, is a process of undoing bad habits and gaining better ones, learning about your foods and what they do for your body, and making decisions based on that. The plan is to change your way of thinking as well as being more aware of what you are putting in your mouth.
People's dietary needs differ, there are so many variables, height, weight, activity for starters but then, also, dietary issues where maybe certain nutrients that are good for most aren't good for someone else (potassium, for instance) or where certain foods really must be limited because of underlying conditions (diabetes, for example). Each person has to get to know their body, get to know its needs, and then work with it for nourishment, whether to maintain weight and physique, build it or to lose weight and tone up.
This has been an eventful past 12 months for me.
Beginning in September of 2016, my health took a decided turn for the worse.
Now, to many, my health may have seemed bad to begin with. Arthritis and osteoporosis have resulted in limited mobility, meaning I was spending most of my time in my bed, and needing to be pushed in a wheelchair if I went anywhere. Around the house, I used a Zimmer frame for assistance, or to get from my bed to the bathroom, I sequenced grabbing my cupboard handle to help me get upright, then held onto my bookshelf, the door handle, the sink and finally the bathroom shelf, to make it. Coming back, there was kind of a long falling onto the bed from the bookshelf holding, LOL.
Hereditary high blood pressure and high cholesterol are dealt with (unfortunately) with a plethora of meds, as is my underactive thyroid, however as far as colds and opportunistic infections, my doctor has always been happy with how little I seemed to succumb to.
Up until last September my blood pressure had been under control for about 10 years.
I also have issues with drugs, my body doesn't like them, so my doctor and I have had to carefully get me to where I was at, and work with my tolerances. My doctor is a darling, and a year ago we were happily discussing how we might be able to cut my drugs and utilize more natural methods (she knows I prefer natural).
What happened was that the insurance decided they wanted to take me off Crestor and give me a generic ... which should have been ok ... but wasn't. I started having issues, and my doctor said it was medically necessary for me to go back to the name brand. I expected that to fix the problem ... it didn't. My blood pressure had soared sky high and my doctor upped my meds for that. Then I started getting the racing heartbeat, and palpitations. She took my meds back down and I ended up on a heart monitor. I am now under a cardiologist for A-Fib, and am on blood thinners.
In all of this, I really started pushing to find natural things to help the drugs do their work. I already ate low sodium, but I started trying to find ways to cut it even more. I love fruits and salad veggies, and upped them too but that then caused me a drastic lessening of kidney function (down to 37%) due to the potassium in fruits and veggies, so I also had to look into eating low potassium and keeping track of it.
For me, all of these things are important considerations when I am choosing and eating a food.
For someone else, the considerations will be different. We each have to get to know our bodies and work with them, to better our health.
and my journey is not over yet. I still have a long way to go, but I am taking it slowly, and things have changed.
I am so much more aware now of the content of foods and yes, I will have a cheeseburger sometimes, a plain one or a kids size fries with no salt but when people with me are wanting the big Macs or Whoppers fully loaded, I am soooo conscious of all the fat and salt they are consuming.
I still eat the foods I love, just don't want some of them any more and don't miss them. I've found substitutes. I still eat chocolate (I freeze minis and fun size Musketeers and stuff like that) and I manage to eat some of the fruits and veggies that I love by making sure that, for the rest of that day, I am eating maainly foods with no potassium in.
The thing is "dieting' does not work. You have to change your way of thinking and change your habits, because this change is going to be lifelong. t has to be permanent. If you go "on a diet" and then achieve your weight loss and go "off a diet" and start eating the way that you used to, the weight is going to go back on.
Have a great day, my friends
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