Friday, May 16, 2014

"overheard" office humor

T:  haha yes well
T:  I think you should make me a meal plan with recipes
T:  hahaha

E:  haha

T: you laugh
T:  but I'm serious

E:  I think you confuse our friendship with indentured servitude

Sunday, May 11, 2014

stubborn but learning

Have I mentioned that I love sugar?
I love sugar!

I will drive to another county for a Bob's Big Boy Hot Fudge Cake (with extra hot fudge of course).

For the past few years...I have been on this journey to feeling better and better health.
I have been kicking and screaming my way though it.  Whining... I've been pretty annoying.  
I don't want to give up anything, I want to eat what I want and still feel better.  Can't I just take a supplement? Why doesn't that work!  Hello!  Is anybody listening here?!!

So I have these "Magic Pills" (that's my name for them) and they have made such a difference in my life.
I gave up sweet treats for Lent this year.  It kind of plummeted my sugar intake.  When I added it back in, I found my taste buds had changed a bit.  It would now take a little work to accept the same sugar I was happy with before.  So I stopped and thought about that.  WHY would I do that to myself?  Honestly, it's just a habit of how I eat.  Boy am I stubborn.  I just did't want to give it up and yet I'd already been through the toughest part!

So I love sugar, but I hate being hot.  I am hot and sweaty and itchy ALL THE TIME!  The Magic Pills have made a big difference in my life in mitigating these symptoms.  I had a real epiphany today.  I knew this already, but I own it today.  Sugar makes all those things I hate SO MUCH WORSE!!!  They are the ultimate cause of all of it. I just didn't want to believe it.

I now realize... having experienced low sugar for several weeks and then binging* a bit the last 4 days... I AM HOT!  WOW!  It's so hard for me to own that, but I feel it clearly and you know what... I prefer not being hot to eating sugar!

At church and they have treats everywhere for Mother's Day.  Chocolate fountains, caramel fountains, donuts, fruit... NOT FOR ME!  I don't even want it because I don't want to be all hot and sweaty and itchy!  I am finally learning!!

*binge today is less than half of my daily intake of sugar would have been a year or so ago!!
 
Bridgette :)
“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you can help them become what they are capable of being.”    Goethe

Thursday, May 8, 2014

aspartame

It started about 6 years ago when I had to stop using Equal cold turkey due to some pretty serious side effects.  I was a heavy Equal user.  I thought it was the best thing ever created!  I have a major sweet tooth and it demanded to be fed.  I put lots of Equal in everything I drank and ate.  Why not... no calories. :)
I'm not one of those rabid anti-aspartame people because I don't like them... and I didn't listen to them.  After all, I was perfectly fine and I used more Equal than the average person.  If any of these scary side effects would occur, I was the #1 potential person to display such side effects and I was fine.  So leave me alone!  

Until one day I wasn't fine.
I started having ocular migraines.  I would lose vision in one eye or lose the ability to focus.  It really freaked me out, but then, I found out what it was and since I get migraines, the ocular wasn't so scary and bonus... little to no pain (for me anyway).  Way easier to deal with than a traditional migraine.

Then I started getting these sharp pains and really bad headaches; then these headaches were combined with vision loss.  I would get vision disturbances.  Then my vision started going.  Let me tell you... when you start having eye problems; everything comes to a screeching halt!

What was happening to me?!!!

I booked an appointment with a neurologist (but had to wait a week for my appointment).

My vision got worse,  I started losing my field of vision and it was freaking me out.  The headaches were bad.  I wasn't feeling well and I'm sure the stress didn't help.

So... I turned to my best friend Google.
typed in:  sudden onset headache with vision issue (or something like that) and every single entry had to do with aspartame.

I've since done that search and you get results all over the place.  

So I thought... what have I got to lose?  I stopped aspartame that day and within 3 days all my symptoms were gone!!

I've tested this "diagnosis" a few times myself and each time aspartame is added back in I get  the headache back within an hour.  That is enough for me.

So, I don't use aspartame anymore.
I switched to "real" sugar (you know the white processed stuff).

Amazingly... my desire for sweets DECREASED!  I just don't understand that!
Maybe it has something to do with eating something real or caloric and processing that vs. pretend sugar?  

So... I won't go around shouting from the rooftops that aspartame is the embodiment of evil.  But... if you are having headaches all the time, you might want to look at this as a cause and make some changes.  :)