Unintended effects

by Suw on June 19, 2004

Ok, so it's been about a week now that I've been on this six-meals-a-day plan and so far it's been equal parts good and bad. Some days it is amazingly difficult to stick to, some days it is easy.
I have modified my diet a little bit: more fruit, veg, nuts and seeds; less simple carbohydrate; no Coke first thing in the morning at all, and no chocolate either. Luckily, my diet was never particularly unhealthy in the first place so I've not had to make major changes. I am sometimes criticised for being a very fussy eater, but the upside of that is that I don't eat much in the way of sugar-laden processed foods – it's always been fresh stuff.
The effect of these changes, though, is that I appear to be eating less overall even though I am eating more often. I feel perpetually sub-peckish, as if I could fit in a wee bit more food, but am not so hungry that I can be bothered to go and get anything. I am also waking up hungry. My entire life I have found that the thought of food first thing in the morning made me feel slightly queasy so I would often skip breakfast completely because I couldn't stomach it. Now I wake up and actually want to eat something, which means it's taking me less time to actually become lucid in the mornings.
Another unexpected effect is that I have lost nearly 2lb just this week. That was never in the equation – at 5ft 8ins and 10st, I didn't need to lose any weight at all. Get fitter, yes, but not actually lose weight. I am hoping this doesn't continue because otherwise I'm going to waste away to nothing.
I foresee some big fry-ups in my immediate future in order to secure the future of my curves.
As for the whole actual diagnosis stuff, well, the quack told me to take my blood pressure when I wake up and am still lying down, and then again when I stand. It's really too early to tell what the averages are going to be, but it looks way low.
I am also supposed to be testing my blood sugar, but I have only a few test strips and they cost £26 for 50. I am too broke to buy more, so I am saving them for when I feel really shitty. I've felt a wee bit crappy a couple of times this week, but both times were in the middle of the night and I just couldn't be arsed to wake up enough to do the test. And I didn't feel quite crap enough to warrant using up a precious strip.
Of course, the irony is that in trying to control my eating so that I moderate any symptoms and feel better I also decrease the opportunities for getting meaningful blood sugar results because I decrease the frequency with which my blood sugar takes a dive. But that was always going to be an issue – if this is hypoglycemia, then it's a given that it's going to be hard to medically diagnose.
What's more important is that I feel better, and so far, so good.

Anonymous June 19, 2004 at 7:47 pm

Have you tried splitting the test strips? My niece splits them so she can get 4 reads out of one strip.

Anonymous June 19, 2004 at 7:59 pm

I am glad that you feeling better but, for the love of God, you have a duty to mankind to preserve those luscious curves!

Anonymous June 19, 2004 at 9:34 pm

Unfortunately I can't. They are these wee digital thingies, and I don't think they'd work if I tried to split them.
I think they're working on the razor principle – sell the monitors really cheap and charge a small fortune for the strips.
*sigh*

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