I didn't blog for over a year and during that time I tried to figure out what I was doing wrong. I wanted to figure out why I couldn't stick with my eating plan. As I mentioned in my last post, I started reading Changing for Good.
That book has helped me to realize that it isn't all about willpower. I also needed to go through precontemplation, contemplation, and then preparation before I would be ready for the action stage. In the past I was just skipping right to the action stage and trying to force myself to stick with the plan.
I started planning, learning from how my body was reacting to junk food, finding support groups, thinking about how to learn from past mistakes, and contemplating the benefits versus costs of making changes.
One thing I learned is that junk food didn't taste as good as it used to and wasn't nearly as satisfying as it seemed it would be before I ate it. I have really learned to love the taste of a yummy salad and most of the time a piece of cake ends up being just too sweet and fake tasting. I found some great support groups, which I mentioned in my last post.
I also had to finally accept that a raw vegan diet was not for me. I think it might work great for some people. Intuitively, it seemed to make sense to me, raw veggies, fruits, & nuts should be the ultimate in nutrition. After all, that's the way all the other animals in the world live - mostly. Although I do know that apes and chimpanzees eat bugs and occasionally even meat.
A green smoothie would require 10 units of insulin and if I was off by a couple of units (which happened a lot because fruit varies in its sweetness) I would either go too high or crash. My blood sugars were a roller coaster on the raw vegan diet. And did you know that there has not been one human society that they have found that eats raw vegan? They all eat an animal product of some kind.
So, sadly, I had to accept this and that was hard, because I can be pretty stubborn. One doctor found I was low on carnitine (which you get from meat). A chiropractor found that I am hyper sensitive to most grains. I've long admired Dr. Richard Bernstein who eats a very low carb diet and puts his patients on that diet also. His Type 1 patients have the A1c of non-diabetics. I plan to read his book next - Dr Bernsteins Diabetes Solution. I also now follow the primal guy at http://www.marksdailyapple.com/.
I am working on reducing my stress and exercising more. I also learned from Changing for Good that a lapse is not a relapse. I am not shooting for perfection, except in terms of avoiding most grains, and I am trying to love myself and all my imperfections.
When you think about it, we are kinder to others than we are to ourselves. Try to look at yourself as if you were a good friend. Would you, as a good friend, belittle yourself for little mistakes or support yourself and point out how far you've come? I am still working on that also and I am making progress.
You are doing great, Karen! :-)
