Karin on the road to....?

[Karin]

First of all, let me say that I've never been able to maintain a blog. And since a diary is pretty much like a blog, I'm not sure how long I'll keep this up. But that said, I do feel that keeping a diary could be helpful at the moment, so here we go.

I've been trying to go paleo for a couple of months. I'm getting more and more used to eating this way and making ever more changes in my life. However, I don't see much (or any, really) improvement. So I guess I just have to try and be stricter and see what happens.
I've been diagnosed with asthma and autism and taking meds for both. Other than that I'm severely overweight, have tendency to get depressions (although I haven't had a real bad one for years) and have lots of digestive issues (but no diagnosis on that). All of this has been going on for many many years.

So, having autism makes it difficult for me to change my behavior and daily routines. It also makes it hard for me to plan and establish what's needed to keep those plans. For this week, however, I managed to plan 3 meals a day for a whole week! I'm so proud of myself! I've tried to do this a lot, but it was just too difficult. First time I did it! Yay!
Now that I have it all on paper, I can buy the right groceries and get everything ready on time. I hope to be able to turn this into a routine, over time. For now, I feel happy about accomplishing this, which gives me energy. The past few days, I've been more active around the house and today was the first day in months that I didn't have a mid afternoon crash. I've been going all day and still feel fine!

So for today: sleeping was good, eating good, got outside and got my stress levels down by knitting a bit.

[Karin]

Still going strong!
Yesterday I worked (I only work 1 day per week) and I always have the same problems on working days: it makes my so tired and so hungry! For lunch I had a slice of banana bread and an apple, for an afternoon snack I brought a paleo muffin, so I really did come prepared. Coming home I had everything ready, all I needed to do was grill some salmon and cook some spinach and my dinner was ready. I don't think there was a physical reason for me to crave more, but as usual on work nights, I found myself craving carbs. I gave in (but am proud to say that I did pass by all the cookies, candy and chips) and I ate a bowl of nuts with dried tropical fruits and some dried sausages. I feel I really ate a lot yesterday. But at least none of it was junk.

Today, as usual after a work day, I am so tired. I went to bed early, got up at my usual hour, had breakfast, but after an hour and a half I went back to bed and slept for another 2 hours. I kicked myself out of bed and have to force myself to keep doing things. I went outside (it's a beautiful day, so no excuses), had my breakfast and lunch as planned and will make dinner as planned, but today it's a real effort again, unlike earlier this week. I certainly hope I'll feel more rested tomorrow. It's hard to keep going when your brain is foggy and your limbs feel double the weight they usually do.
I am very glad I planned my meals ahead for the whole week, as this would be the moment I'd otherwise let things slip. I definitely intent to make a new meal plan for next week.

[Karin]

Not feeling very good today. Very tired still, I slept in a little, did go outside, but had such a hard time keeping myself awake in the afternoon that I decided to go back to bed for a little nap.
My period started today so my whole abdomen feel sore, swollen, lots of bubbles and diarrhea. That's probably contributing to my feeling so tired. I also craved chocolate, I gave in and ate a bar of milk chocolate. It was delicious.
Other than that, I'm still eating according to schedule.

[Karin]

It's funny how quickly things can change: I feel so much better today. No idea why, but I have a lot more energy, no problems keeping myself awake, no weird food cravings etc. Plus I made a new meal plan for next week and a shopping list.
Setting myself up for success!

[Karin]

Well well well.....it's been a tough week. I was feeling very good, until I overspent my energy and everything went downhill from there. It's very difficult for me to know how much energy I have and how much I can do without overdoing things. And sometimes I know I'll be doing something that will cost me, but it's just worth it.
Last week I went to a huge swimming paradise (with lots of mega slides) with my bff and her kids. Bff doesn't drive, but was given tickets, so I went with her. It was a lot of fun, the kids had a great time. But I was unable to do anything for two days afterwards and then two days of very low energy. And then came Saturday and I had to work again, so Sunday afternoon I just slept.

With so little energy for days, my body just screams 'feed me, I'm hungry, I need carbs and sugar!" I hardly have the energy to resist and I don't have the energy to buy healthy food and cook 3 decent meals each day. But eating unhealthy makes me sick and have even less energy, so this is very hard to turn around.
Nevertheless, I did manage to get rested, make a new meal plan for this week and did some cooking last week, even though I was so exhausted. I'm back on track now, baked a meatloaf, a batch of muffins and got most of my groceries.
Back on track.

[Karin]

Yesterday I finally managed to find the oriental supermarket that I'd heard of. It's amazing! They've got everything you could possibly do with a coconut, frozen chicken feet, tapioca starch, arrowroot noodles (yay!), plantain chips, a huge variety of frozen fish, pickled jellyfish heads (why???)...so much my head is still spinning. And best of all, they're very affordable.
I just found my new favorite store.

[monique]

Hello Karin, slowly but surely......wishing you good health and lots of tasty foods!
Monique

[monique]

ps and I believe you a very brave person!
Monique