Monday, July 22, 2013

Diet Soda

"If diet sodas actually help with weight loss, I'd be down 80 lbs.". -unknown.

For some diet soda helps keep them from gaining weight. I thought it was helping me but no, it was doing way more damage.

My poison of choice was Coke Zero. It would help with a little pep in my step from the 2 o'clock to dinner time. The problem was when I would drink this, I would associate it with certain snack foods and guess what I would do? SNACK. Snacking is a gateway activity for me.

For others it's drugs, drinking, or whatever. If I snack, I never get full or satisfied and would switch from something sweet to salty and back again. When would I stop? Usually when I realize the bag is at least half-gone!!!

There was three times when I had artificial sweetener (gum and low-calorie Gatorade) when I didn't realize it was in something but other than that it's been toxic chemical free.

I have been over seven months with no diet soda. Why did I stop? My friend sent me an article about the side effects of using artificial sweeteners and one in particular that I liked to use decomposes to formaldehyde in the body!

Uuuuggghhh...I'm allergic to formaldehyde!!! I've been poisoning myself all this time and making it harder from my body to recover from this darn skin condition.  Second, my body aches were terrible.

I will tell you the positive things I've noticed since kicking diet sodas to the curb:  my skin lesions have decreased in size, my joints do not ache, my teeth are not so yellow. Lastly, and my grocery bill and cart is a lot lighter!!!

The only downside has been gaining about 2 lbs. from switching from sweetener to plain sugar. But lately I've been shaving this down to 1 tbsp in my coffee. I'll take that for better skin.

Oh and the best part? I've discovered I don't care for sodas. I haven't had any (diet or regular) since.

I'm learning. Still learning.


Friday, July 19, 2013

Still running 60 minutes with no pain!!! I am so happy I can jump on the treadmill and do another 60 minutes. Ooooh, now that's an idea...

Maybe I will. It's just been a painful 1 1/2 year battle.  Here's what I think I would tell someone.

Go to a chiropractor in addition to physical therapy.  I have jumped full-board on the Chiropractor bandwagon and I want a lifetime membership.

Here's why.

When you go just to physical therapy, the therapist gives you exercises to manage your injury...alas hopefully strengthen the muscles/tissues around it to help relieve the injury.

However, if your (say for my instance) your feet are not aligned correctly with your knees and hips, your body won't function correctly even with the strengthened muscles because it's not in the correct position.

Once I started going to get my hips, knees, back, and feet aligned...still painful but six months later, I am running without pain.

You can't just go once and think it'll work. I went once/every other week and little by little, it's been getting better.

Truthfully, there was a period where I thought, nope. Nothing's going to get rid of this plantar fasciitis pain. But then it just sort of happened.

Two weeks and going. Like I said so happy I can eat brussel sprouts (eewww!) with a smile on my face.

Have you ever been to a chiropractor and if so how was your experience?

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Today was a good run.  Sixty minutes on the treadmill at 5.1 mph. It didn't suck. Had the Nexus 7 playing a Netflix show and ran my little heart out.

Best part?  No pain while running and most importantly afterwards I've been able to walk without hobbling from pain in my left foot.

I am hoping this is me on my way back from this injury.


Wednesday, July 17, 2013

I've been in a funk.

I've been disconnected to my body and therefore have not been paying a lot attention to it.  I've been up to as high as 143 lbs. (yikes!!) but have not been motivated to do anything about it.

With continued plantar fasciitis  pain in my left heel, any running or cardio work has been torture. Pure torture afterwards for days until I go to my chiropractor and he manipulates it enough to reset it.  While worthwhile, I've been supplementing it with Tylenol and Advil (not good).

I have been tired of my body failing me...my skin even though it's not as bad as previous years, has been trying to break out because of the changing seasons (blossoming trees and flowers!!!).

Then something curious happened last Thursday. I ran on the treadmill for 60 minutes at 4.0 rpm and did not hobble!!! I tried it again on Friday-no excruciating pain!!! I've been able to walk after my runs and not rely on ice, heat, pain meds, or chiropractor.

I think this is looking up for me. I'm so excited. I would say the one most important thing is chiropractor. He would re-align my stomach, back, knees, and feet so they work better.

Now to start knocking those lbs. out so I can fit back into a size 8.