5 July 2012

Back on the Right Track

I had a lovely post done this morning but Blogger ate it.  I hate it when that happens!

Four or five days without exercise really messes me up.  Mentally I feel like a failure.  Physically, I'm listless and cranky and I can't sleep.  There's really no good reason for me to not exercise, (except maybe a power outage during a heat wave.)  Still, I have yet to get in a good groove with an exercise program since I was released after my last surgery.  It's just been one thing after another and even with scheduled sitters while the kids are home for the summer, I've had trouble making it to the gym regularly.  My favorite thing to do is run/walk, and I have been doing a lot of that, but again, not with any consistency.

Back in February I had a great month of exercise and eating right and I was able to drop ten pounds in five weeks.  Then my surgery derailed me and I stalled.  Even after I resumed exercising, I was unable to get my food intake under control and the cancer weight just sat there around my waist.

Because I'm such a black/white thinker, when I start something it has to be fairly drastic in order for it to stick with me.  The harsher and more draconian, the better.  If I have to think about nuances, I'm able to talk myself out of or into anything.  After doing a bit of research, I decided to do a paleo-type thing.  I'm reading the book, It Starts With Food  by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig.  I've heard good things from other people and while I remain unconvinced about the toxicity of grains and legumes for people who do not have specific allergies to same, I have noticed that when I cut out the starch, I don't feel bloated.

Thank god for bacon, (from humanely raised, organically fed swine, with no added nitrates or nitrites...)  Another current favorite is grilled salmon.  Meat, fish, lots of veggies, a little fruit, some eggs and nuts and that's it.  No dairy, no starchy veggies, no legumes, no grains, no added sugar of any kind, including molasses, honey, artificial sweeteners etc.  This is supposed to get rid of my spare tire by lowering my insulin resistance and helping my body switch to burning fat instead of constantly working off of carbohydrates.  The theory is that we were hunter gatherers for millions of years and have been farmers for only ten thousand or so, and that our bodies haven't evolved to handle the amount of carbohydrates the agrarian lifestyle has provided.

I'm pleased to be off of dairy.  This builds on the last diet/health thing I read, The China Study.  That book linked dairy protein to cancer.  Plus it is kind of weird and creepy that we eat something meant to nourish a newborn of another species.  But it also eschewed meat, pushing grains and legumes, along with other plant sources for protein.  I don't mind eating meat, although I think ideally I'd prefer to be vegetarian, but with the paleo thing it's virtually impossible.  One simply cannot get enough protein from green plants and some nuts.

Unfortunately, I have been suffering from the 'carb-flu', which is a plethora of documented symptoms/side effect of cutting carbs out of one's diet.  Most notable is the killer headache.  The book said nothing about ibuprofen so I'm popping those like tic-tacs.  (Although I'm not popping tic-tacs, because they are processed.)  Also, I'm a complete bitch.  Although that could be the heat, my lack of sleep, or the kids driving me crazy.  On the plus side, I lost five pounds of water weight this week, my lymphedema is diminished and I'm not hungry.

My run/walk this morning was fairly long and while I would have liked to have run a little more and walked a little less, I just wasn't up to it.  Mind you it was hot, I haven't run in a week, I'd had less than four hours of sleep and I hadn't eaten before I exercised.  All good excuses.

I am coming up to my one year diagnosis anniversary.  It is a mere six weeks out and I would like to be in better shape when I hit it than I was at this time last year, (cancer notwithstanding...) I am on track to do that.  I have almost lost the weight I packed on through chemo and surgery recovery.  My upper body strength is no where near where it was, I can't even do a push up.  My legs are pretty strong 'though.  My flexibility is compromised,  but my cardio is better off from the running I've been doing.  I wonder if I start working my arms and chest if I'll be able to take it or if I'll be injury prone from the surgery.  I wonder if I'll even be able to do push ups again or if that will aggravate my lymphedema.

This week started off crummy.  In fact Wednesday to Wednesday kind of sucked.  I'm glad I am moving on, and am back on track.