I am a month into the new year and never really made a single resolution, for the first time ever in my life, and so I kind of drifted through Jan.

My body however gave me a pretty good wake up call this week and I am being forced to make some choices for this new year, and for life. If I want a goodlife.

I have already been told I have gallstones, and my choleserol is starting to creep up and my blood sugar is in the prediabetic range. Yet I did not do anything to change it. I just kind of went along like nothing was wrong until two days ago.

I had not eaten out for close to a week and then decided to eat out Thursday night, we had a big bacon cheese burger fries and a shake and the Friday our daughter got everyone fast food and I had Jack in the box, another big bacon burger with fries and a diet c0ke.  My hands started hurting a bit by friday night and we had some Walmart ready to cook pizza and did not think much of it.

I woke up Sat morning with my hands hurting so much I could not lie down on either side and I cannot sleep on my back. I am a side sleeper. I had to get up over an hour earlier than I would have because of the pain. I was not happy and in tears because I had gone to bed late and was tired.

I had to figure this out. I knew this happened to a lesser extent from time to time and when I ate ham I would have the severe pain so I finally realized that I cannot eat too much salt.

I got online and found out that many people are sensitive to salt and as they get older it gets worse but if they see thier blood pressure creeping up, it is basicly an indicator that they will not live very long. 

Well, that scared the heck out of me . It also said that the studies showing those dire warnings can be used to your advantaage because if you monitor your salt and eat only what your body needs you can reverse this prognosis.

I have noticed for some time I had some pain and discomfort in my hands but it really was minor but then at times, especially after eating the ham I would have these more painful epsisodes but never realized it was more serious than , oh salt bothers me a bit.

The last year my blood pressure has gone from my life long 120/80 to around 131/90 and that combined with the salt sensitivity made me realize I had better take this seriously along with the other health issues I had been pretty much ignoring. Stupid ? Yes. Very .

I stared Sat morning. I started drinking a lot of water, and as a long time diet dr pepper addict, and yes, I said addict, I cut it down to two cans a day starting that day. I made a plan to be off soda and caffiene within a week. I did allow myself some crystle light, seperate from the water and just kept drinking water all day. I just knew I was not going to be going to bed if I could not ease the discomfort.

Later that night I took some potassium and magnesium , calcium and zinc along with vitamin c and kept drinking water and by two am, when I normally go to bed, I knew I would be able to sleep. What a relief. They still hurt , right now typing is painful, but the deep pain up to my elbows is gone and just half way up my fingers are bothered now. I should be able to get the pain gone in a day or two and plan to work hard to get that sodium out of my body.

I plan to chronical my journey to health on this blog. I have to go in for my physical in two months and my goal is to have all my blood work and blood pressure be normal. I have my tests from last year and I plan to change it all and keep it normal from now on.

I have 120 pounds to lose, basicly half of myself and my husband is on board with this as well. I will be keeping track of symptoms and weight and what I eat every day.

Saturday, Jan 30, 2010

did not eat until lunch,

had two cups of home made pinto beans, no sodium in them and a small avocado , small roma tomato and diced onions with two measured teaspoons of a low sodium green salsa all mixed into the beans.

We went grocery shopping to a health food store and bought a ton of healthy stuff and for dinner I had a four ounce wild salmon filled cooked in a cast iron pan with olive oil and some steamed broc.  Later I had an orange for a snack and I had a couple of date, coconut and almond ” candies ”

Sunday Jan 31, 2010

got up after ten,

had bowl of Irish oatmeal with brown sugar, raisins and almond milk in it. I also added 1/21 teasp of cinn. to it as well.

Had a date candy and and an apple for lunch.

Had a cup of home cooked pintos , no sodium and broc and four ounces of Salmon .

snacks ,

another date candy and an orange.