The Ongoing Saga of a Girl and Her Scale

by Karin L. Nauber

karin@inhnews.com

This was a weird, late winter/spring for me. This was the first time in the last ten years that we didn’t host a Be A Loser With Karin contest.

Weird and a little sad, too. As many of you know, it is something that I have looked forward to each year.

Be that as it may, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been researching and working on my own physical health.

It’s been tough, though, because without the motivation of others to keep me going, I tend to slack off. I haven’t gained any weight, but I haven’t lost much either.

My battle with type 2 diabetes has not been going well, either. This is partly due to the fact that I no longer have health insurance and I am struggling to figure out how to pay for insulin and other medications when they cost more than I make per month.

I have been watching my carbs and other things, but it seems as if my body does not want to cooperate with my efforts.

In better news, though, I have been working on a story for our newspapers about ways to save on prescription costs. There are some creative and legal ways to save money on them without booking a trip to Canada or Mexico! Be on the lookout for that article!

I continue to use the My Fitness Pal app which is very effective for monitoring my carbs, calories and fat intake. If you are not a user of this free app, I suggest that you get it. (There is a paid version, too, but the free one works fine.)

I am thinking about getting my bicycle out and going for a ride when the wind calms down a bit. In the meantime, I am riding my exercise bike while I take a few minutes to watch TV or catch up on some reading.

I love my new exercise bike because it is lightweight and I can move it around myself. I also love that it has a rack on the handlebars where I can set my tablet or a book and read while I ride. My old bike did not have this feature and it was a pain to have to try to hold a book while riding.

Because my hip has been giving me a bit of pain lately, I am taking it slow in both walking and riding because it hurts.

I told someone the other day, when you have no insurance, your body seems to suddenly fall apart!

Now for something educational

One thing I have been working on to become a healthier eater is following a nutrition pyramid designed by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. You can see it online at: www.drfuhrman.com. Basically, it is a fairly easy to follow nearly vegetarian diet. The main things to avoid with it are commercially raised meat, sweets, cheese and other processed foods. I’m doing okay on avoiding sweets and highly processed foods.

I love cheese and I have a hard time even understanding why I should “give it up” or avoid it.

I have also shared a copy of the pyramid below. You will notice how different this one is from the food pyramid you typically see.

I also bought Dr. Fuhrman’s cookbook because I wanted to try some of the easy to make recipes. As a person who doesn’t know her way around a kitchen let me assure you they truly are very easy to make.

I have a few favorites that I make often and some that I have only tried.

I think he has a few different books out, but I bought the one called “Eat to Live” which is touted as a diabetes reversing bunch of recipes and information. I will let you know how this goes.

In the meantime, if anyone wants to get together and talk about weight loss, we can arrange something. As always, you can reach me at: karin@inhnews.com.