Before we go any further, let’s get a few things straight.
I know that it’s cliché for everyone and their mother to start a diet-and-exercise plan in January – gyms are having amazing membership deals banking on this fact! – but I kinda see the reasoning behind the resolution. I’m sure there’s some sort of psychological thing behind the feeling of a new start in the new year, but whatever the reasoning, I still enjoy the feeling of starting fresh. So… yeah. That’s all I wanted to say about that.
Yes, I am starting a diet-and-exercise plan for this year (and hopefully for longer than just a year). No, it’s not because I want to be skinny and look like a fashion model – let’s face it, I’m not built like that! While weight loss would be nice, my main motivation behind the changes is for my physical health.
For a while now I’ve been having gut issues with certain foods. So starting on January 1st – the only proper time to start a new endeavor – I am on a mission to find out which foods are trying to make me feel ill, while also getting more physically fit.
Dairy is the main dietary culprit, which I’ve known for a while now. It’s not just lactose intolerance – you can take enzymes for that – but I suspect that it’s just dairy in general. I love dairy, but it does not love me. In addition to dairy, I’m also eliminating several other common dietary allergens in an attempt to find the offending food. Eventually, once my body has had enough time to detox and settle down, I’ll try reintroducing certain eliminated foods back into my diet, just to see what happens.
Yes, I’ve also started going to the gym, since I don’t really get a whole lot of exercise at work. While it’s true that nurses are always (or mostly always) on the move, my job involves a lot of standing at a baby’s bedside, and then hopefully sitting to chart about what was done. My body needs more than just walking to and fro from patient rooms. The gym I’ve been going to has been very helpful in guiding me to figure out a good fitness plan, based on where I’m at now and where I want to be.
I have to start slow, though. For one, it’s not such a good idea to dive into the deep end of a workout right from the start. Secondly, I have asthma, which is triggered by intense exercise. Yay. And on a scale of 1 – to – 10, my overall stamina is roughly a 2, on my best days.
Being weak and feeling icky almost all of the time finally got tiring enough to prompt me to do something about it. Hence the diet and gym. My main goals are to figure out dietary issues, and to build up some stamina and strength. Losing a little weight would be nice, too.
Side note: why is it that whenever a skinnier-looking person says that they want/need to lose weight, they are met with skepticism and mocking? I stand at a whopping 5’1″, so every extra pound makes a difference. While my present weight doesn’t make me look as overweight as some, I am technically overweight. (But we’ll save that discussion for another post. I’m sure I’ll end up writing about it sometime soon).
So, here’s hoping that I don’t go insane with hunger cravings and exhaustions over these next few months!
A Special Strength 