Could I Belly Dance My Way Out of Prediabetes?
So in my last blog post, I discussed how I went a little nuts (cashews mostly) with the carbs. Feeling very deprived caused me to lose control when I ate even a little bit of what I wasn’t supposed to. There was no such thing as “just a taste” anymore, with my former restrained self now becoming the cookie monster who couldn’t stop.
This behavior was not going to help my prediabetes improve.
But just as I started to give up hope, life intervened in that funny way life sometimes can. It was as if the universe had come together on my behalf to show me a few subtle changes I could make.
The first was that I started noticing the high-glycemic carbs I was ingesting were definitely having a negative physical affect on me. Almost immediately, I started getting jittery and—as I gorged on ice cream or chips—entered into another numb state. I had read recently that sugar is more addictive than cocaine and I dare say it seems to be true. I literally felt like I could not stop eating the unhealthy food even if I tried. This realization made me think about sugar as more of a drug rather than a way to indulge my sweet tooth. More than ever before, I became truly mindful of consuming it. As I took note of the immense drive to eat sugar, I also took note that I never felt that unhealthy drive when I was eating a healthy diet—even when eating those healthy carbs that I had now eliminated. This made me wonder if I should really have restricted myself from all that healthy food in the first place?
Around the time I was diagnosed with prediabetes, I fell off the exercise wagon, too. My fatalistic attitude made me feel lazy about working out. But, as many of us know, exercise is vitally important to regulate blood sugar as well as alleviate stress.
A true wake up call.
Stay tuned for my next—and final—blog post in this series to see how I take all of these events and incorporate them into my life to let prediabetes know that it is not the boss of me!