Diet

This last weekend I found out some disturbing new about my health. Diabetes type 2, exactly what I didn’t want. I have been working out these last few years to get my weight down before I get older and it is harder to lose. I have made some progress and it has helped me feel better.

When it comes to healthy issues and me I tend to get defensive. It opens up old wounds that my mother inflected on me a young girl. If we really want to get down to it, my mother ruined my health at an early age. She didn’t feed my Gerber baby food or make strained pees for me. She fed me nothing but sugar and candy. So much of it I would spit it out, since I was sick of it. She thought since she always wanted sweets as a child it would be fun for me to have that all the time. Not very bright, mom, I became weak without proper nutrition and almost died of pneumonia.

After that I was taken to all kinds of herbalist and specialist. I had a very strict diet with no starches and only complex carbs, no simple carbs and no sugar. I could only have sugar free candy; I could get at Hickory Farms and soymilk. It wasn’t the nice kind we get at the stores now; it was thick like condensed milk.

My mother made all of this drudgery and I grew to resent it. She made it clear that my condition was a burden. She even had to go to the state offices and get more money from food stamps since my diet requirements were so costly. On cold rainy days she didn’t think I might like something warm, like soup or the occasional hamburger and was ready to force me to eat a cold salad. I had to demand a hamburger.

Later when I was older she blamed my shortness on my unfaithfulness in taking my vitamins. The specialist had said if I took them there might be a slight chance I could be taller. It was not a guaranty. She yelled at me and told me if I kept eating sugar, they (the doctors) would have to cut off my foot. Again, thanks mom, nothing like positive reinforcement. It was such a strict diet and it was too much for a child to keep up. I would throw out my pills. I had been taking them for years. It was very difficult to be a child and chained to a regiment of pills and certain foods. I wanted to run and play and not worry about my health every minute.

The only good thing about that time is that now I know the things I should be eating. It is easy for me to get some squaw bread and make the needed changes in my diet to help me feel better and live well. I hate the thought of shooting up insulin. Instead I will cut out sugars in potatoes and fast food. In the last week I have made these changes and lost 3 pounds. I did have to get a blood monitor and still have to learn how to use it. Next week more on this process, for now I am keeping close watch on my diet.