It's time.
 

It's time to up my game.
I had blood work done back in January, cut back but did not entirely quit drinking and recently quit again. Also got a Dr. to help get me off benzos (sorry to repeat for those of you familiar). And that is an ongoing process.
Now to address diet again which I have done here and there but not really in a dedicated fashion. I know what I need to do, blood work was 5 months ago! I could have 5 months sobriety and peace of mind now, but no- I had to half a** it.
It's hard after years and years of no restrictions at all, to just become this perfect person- someone who does not drink , eats in a healthy manner and exercises. It's hard for anyone but to go all the way in the other direction after years of drinking- well, that's how it has to be if I want a chance at a life.

I don't think you need to be perfect sleepie - but I know for myself there was need for improvement in a few areas :)

D

I am not perfect at all but I've been working towards better diet
and regular exercise to get really fit.

What kind of diet plan are you looking at?
I suggest one with whole organic foods as much as possible and lots
of green leafy veggies :)

I get nice produce at the farmer's market and it is very inexpensive and fresh

yeah I had to like grow up. It stinks too! hahaha. but I can still behave like a child in many other ways so its ok. and heck I raced my kids up a steep hill the other day and beet them both so exercise has its benefits.

You have to do what you feel is best and in your timing but for me I took it slow. My goal was to loose weght and fast so that i could do more activity sooner then later and maybe not get discouraged as to how long it was taking. That part worked out ok. but in the exercise department i took a slow and steady approach. each day i just went for a walk for 30 min i didnt try and kill myself I just did what was comfortable to me. but I made sure to get out there and do it rain or shine etc..

Riding your bike to work I'd imagine your already ahead of hte game some.

Hi guys. I have been biking for years. But it never kept me particularly fit, unless it has helped me in ways I don't know of... like my cholesterol was never an issue and I was obese for 2 years. I have never been thin either. I lost 30 pounds and my hdl improved despite drinking, still.
I have small stretches of eating piles of steamed vegetables daily, making sure I have a couple cups of almond milk daily for calcium, eating ground turkey and/or tofu I cook with a lot of healthy spices and staying off junk food. But then I quit for awhile and eat fast food or forget to cook and plan, and ten hour work days lead to eating late at night and whatever is around.

sounds kind of like an either-or thing, sleepie.
i do some of that myself with food.

which fits right in with the either no restrictions or be a perfect person idea.
always fails for me when i try for perfection. backfires right into the f^^^ck-it switch.

the trick is in balance, of course. that very easy thing :)

Dee said it well, I think.

Early on I had this "perfect" image in mind and it got shattered! :)

It can take a while to make lasting habit changes. It was hard for me at first because I actually had a spreadsheet of habits I wanted to change (nerdy, yes!) and kept track of them. I was great for a week, and then it all well to hell.

I was humbled finally after multiple attempts of changing several things at once.

What I found to work was to focus on only ONE thing at a time and to do it just a little bit each day. It was the trick. That was how I was able to make several significant changes over the past two years.

I have mentioned this to you before, and you are probably tired of me saying it, and I know it sounds silly because I fought it early on and insisted I could handle about five changes at once - but I couldn't :)

I came up with a routine after trial and error that i neuroticaly stick too. I guess my OCD comes in handy in this aspect. If my routine gets screwed with however it does knock me off kilter. and if i cant plan ahead for this its even worse.

The downside to my routine however is its zapped any spontanious stuff out of me it seems. and I enjoyed being more spontanious.

But if you come up with a routine and establish it and such it can be easier if you wanna eat badly and cheat or something you can plan that in advance IE dinner out with friends so i'll eat good all week and screw off then.

I dunno i dont ever cheat. I'm square. I have not had chocolate cake ice cream cookies anything like that in well over 3 years. Loosing weight was such a challenge I just didnt want to chance it.

I felt like i had to work 3 times as had to loose weight or else it would never happen for me.

but of course now here i am objective completed but my healthy habits are so ingrained in me many feel that i cant seem to lve anymore. But i'm content with how I am so whatever.

Cutting out refined foods, especially whites- breads and stuff. Sugar too... I am not big into either but processed food and fast food are major downfalls. Especially with the work hours.
I always feel pretty good when I make sure to get my vegetables in. That was the one thing I was doing consistently but I got lazy/ tired... busy. Any one of them.

It takes so much preparation and then I have to lug everything to work for a 10 hr shift- and there's only so much room in the little refrigerator. Ten hours is a long day, plus commute closer to 12. So I have to bring a full day's food to work every day.
But I really can't call myself healthy just by quitting drinking.

sleepie, re the benzos, ask your doctor if atenolol might be helpful for you. It's a beta blocker, sometimes used for stage fright and detoxing. See if it might be for you. It's very cheap. It helps prevent the feeling of panic attacks, I've been on it for years due to a very minor heart problem.

It might make a difference for you.

Love from Lenina

go easy on yourself too you got a lot on your plate with the benzos and the drinking.

I mean obviously move forward at the pace that works best for you. But be careful not to charge forward to fast it can back fire.

being gone for 10 hours is hard when you need to eat a certain way. I did a road trip to florida a couple years back and took 40+lbs of bananas with me. I eat a lot of bananas and its not always easy to find quick easy sources of food when all you eat is fruits and veggies and a few other things. But I found the challenge exciting in a bizzarre kinda way.

But i know the drill for the last almost 4 years i've been on some eating plan or another and it almost always involves taking my food with me wherever i go.

heck i showed up at my grand parents house with my own food and utensils they told me was wierd. I said look I eat a certain way for a reason call me wierd if you like but it works for me. Its another case like with my wifes father thinking its insane that i juice beets why with all that sugar in them. My grandfather an MD mind you thought i was strange. But then eh's the one on cholesterol meds and i'm the one that beat that game and run a zillion miles all the time so whatever. Maybe i'm wierd but it works.

You know sleepie, fat gets a bad rap and it's actually very good for you
and quite satiating in terms of keeping you not hungry.

I eat lots of olive oil and coconut oil and can go for hours not feeling hungry at all.

A friend gave me a taste of coconut oil this weekend and it was heavenly.
Despite the arguments one can find all over the internet, my budget has shown it is quite expensive to eat in a healthy manner and get 5-7 servings vegetables a day! So I will have to wait and buy the coconut oil as a treat but it was delicious. I do avocado :) and almonds. And from what I see, so far I have been able to eat beans where as a few months back they would make my blood sugars jump, so I am happy for that! I was low carbing a bit but having trouble getting enough calories and I didn't feel quite right with the amount of fat and protein I was getting. But I wouldn't mind doing a bit of each, some days low carb, some days not as much and some days vegetarian.

my 2 cents? go vegan eat high carb low fat fruit veggies rice potatos. focus primarily on the fruits etc.. I get bananas for 7-10 bucks for 40lbs it feeds me well . your energy levels will sky rocket and you'll have plenty of energy to do whatever.

I did low carb the weight off though myself initially.

Ok i'll go away now me and my crazy insane diet lol.

No advice here Sleepie, just want to say your not alone. I am a very either or person and at the moment my diet resembles a children's birthday party.

I always held my hatred for alcohol above everything else. The odd thing I found was that simply by staying sober life's little events sorted themselves out. I also found that I was finally dealing with issues and not just hiding in a bottle of denial. Our issues are different but abstinence and the effect it will have will be the same I suspect. Stay sober. Life improves.

well said!

Thanks guys, did the vegan thing years ago- not for me. Simply abstaining from alcohol doesn't make my diet fall into place either- I'm the kind of person who has to put a little thought and effort into it. I have come to the conclusion about what's good for me by many years of trial and error. been vegan, vegetarian, and mostly just a bit heavier than I'd like. I wouldn't mind losing weight though getting more fit and having great blood work are more my goals at this time.
Oh, and I don;t do too many carbs as I was drifting into prediabetic territory- cutting back on carbs I seem to be normalizing a bit. Vegans eat a lot of carbs... and overdoing it on tofu and fake meat products is bad for women because of estrogen.

However- all suggestions are welcome- I do like to hear of what worked for others.
I don't mean to be putting anyone's diet down, I know everyone is giving helpful suggestions :)

I do try my best to do 2 things every day- get my veggies in and a couple cups of almond milk and a calcium supplement, some vitamin D and a B supplement- those are my must haves for now. Plenty of water too.
And someday in the distant future... distant... I may try to quit my beloved daily decaf for teas instead. I have occasional green and dandelion teas.

But I loooooove my Dunkie's decaf so much.