Prod the Lion Enough and He'll Move

That's if he doesn't turn around and bite you in half, of course.

I've written in this forum (or at least, in its LiveJournal predecessor) before about the ways in which over the last one to two years I haven't taken care of myself physically or emotionally as well as I had in, say, the one to two years prior to that. Well, it would seem that a few of the chickens of my poor self-care have come home to roost.

I had my annual physical recently, and while much of the major stuff still looked very good, my doctor called my blood sugar "borderline high" and suggested I make an appointment with a nutritionist. So I did.

The conversation with the nutritionist was interesting, and was more informative than I thought it would be (which precisely fulfilled my hopes in making the appointment). Along the way, she mentioned that my cholesterol, while still not alarmingly high, had gone up significantly from my previous physical to this one. More good news.

I rather strongly suspect that if I were to do things the way I did the last time I was taking good care of myself, and if I were to re-drop the weight I've put back on, all of my blood chemistry issues would resolve themselves. I'm not diabetic, and I don't have high cholesterol. I'm headed in both of those directions, but I haven't crossed either border yet so I can still turn back on my own. Still, the plan the nutritionist was talking about has a somewhat different focus than did the plan I used to originally lose weight. Ultimately, though, they seem to be working toward the same goal.

So today is my second day trying to eat according to her suggestions and to put myself on a more regular schedule of eating and sleeping. It doesn't seem to be going too badly so far, and I'd rather look at each meal and make sure that it is balanced than track points on every individual thing I eat. Don't get me wrong--the point-tracking system works great. It's just that after doing it for two years, I would rather shove hot railroad spikes into my eyes than do it again.

I see the nutritionist again in a month, and I'll have my blood tested again a few months after that. So we'll see how well my adherence to the plan is actually going at that time.

The piece for me to remember is that right now, my goal is not to lose weight. My goal is to take better care of myself and to be healthier. As beneficial consequences of that better self-care, I expect I will both lose weight and improve my blood chemistry numbers. Which will in turn make me healthier. THAT'S the feedback loop I want to get rolling.

A thought occurred to me yesterday that's a little bit daunting: I'm supposed to eat like a diabetic in order to keep from getting diabetes, which would mean that I'd have to eat like a diabetic. Hrrmph.

So yes, that thought occurred to me yesterday. Something tells me, though, that I'll be a lot more successful if I don't think of it that way so much, but rather if I think of it as eating the right amounts of the right stuff in order to take care of myself the way I deserve and the way that will have me living and feeling--and as a side benefit, looking--better.

I don't just want to prevent the chickens from coming home to roost. I want to burn down the henhouse.