Hi Hivers, I hope you are having a great day.
I wanted to share with you my experience with different diets, healthy living and lessons I have learned through this blog post. Also a couple of funny stories about someone I know who went on a dieting spree.
My story - Adopting a life style change
On a hot summer's day in May 2018 I was up tending to my plants (in my roof top garden) when I felt out of sorts. I didn't tell anyone about it. However, this feeling continued for a couple of weeks and my husband dragged me for a health check up. My sugar level was high but my blood pressure had gone over the roof. Since then I've been on medication which I am not very happy about.
Off with the fruits
I adopted a lifestyle change. I went for long walks, cut out sugars completely from my diet and went on what I thought was a healthy diet of raw veggies and fruits. No rice or simple carbs in my diet. Nothing changed and I discovered that the fruits I was eating was the problem, so then I decided that it was time to say, 'off with the fruits'. There was a certain amount of reduction in the blood sugar levels but the raw and steam cooked veggies I ate made my stomach bloat and made me feel uncomfortable.
I went on a ketogenic diet. All was fine and dandy until I had to go outside home. It was difficult to decline dinner with friends, or food at weddings and celebrations. People looked at me strangely as I loaded my plate with salads at gatherings. I ended up being asocial and avoided people entirely.
This put the rest of my family in trouble as they had to explain my absence. I needed to find a diet that worked. I stuck to salads, but made sure that I added tiny bits of other food to my plate so I didn't look like a weirdo.
Over the years I have discovered that what works for others doesn't work for you. I lost about 10 kgs. on Keto but it came back with a vengeance the moment I included other foods. Keto also helped me bring my blood sugar count to normal. Sadly this kind of food doesn't work in a place where people eat vegetarian food most of the time.
After a huge amount of trial and error I came up with a diet that suits me. Steamed /raw veggies made up 80% of my food, meat or eggs about 15% and the other five percent is rice which is a staple here.
This diet along with my long walks, two plus hours spent in doing garden work and household chores everyday has helped keep my sugar and BP levels under control.
A friend's story - A nasty diet
This is the story of a young doctor, she was one of my son's colleagues at that time. They were working in a rural area. The hospital they worked for is moderately big and patient footfall was pretty heavy on all days. There were three junior doctors there (which included my son, the young lady in question and other young doctor) who had to run the show mostly by themselves, the chief could be called in only for emergency discussions or surgery.
This young lady doctor decided that she needed to lose weight and said good bye to sugar and spice and all things nice. She went on a all veggie diet of soups, salads, smoothies and the whole 9 yards. It turns out that the young lady was constantly angry and mean to her patients and her colleagues after she went on the diet. Her patients refused to see her anymore and requested to be seen by the other two doctors on duty.
My son and the two other doctor avoided her like the plague during this time because she picked up fights with them for no good reason.
The boys decided that they could not take anymore of this, so they ordered delicious food from a restaurant nearby. My son's quarters was just opposite this lady's living quarters, and when he threw open the doors she could see all that which went on inside.
To cut a long story short for the first three days nothing worked, they lady in question did not join them for a meal even when invited. However, she couldn't resist the smell of enticing food for long.
Good food has a way of speaking to your soul unlike cabbage soup and salads. She fell for it and the boys kept her supplied with good food all the time to keep her happy. Yes you guessed it right, she wasn't so nasty anymore.
Moral of the story, don't be hungry or you'll be angry. Tickle your taste buds and brighten your mood.
Another dieting madness
A couple of years later a young lady of about 17, the daughter of a friend of our family had gone on a diet of veggies and eggs and was doing fine. However, she felt that she wasn't losing the required amount of weight as fast as she would have liked to. She had read about how cinnamon helps lose weight and added generous amounts of cinnamon (I guess very generous) to her every meal. In a couple of days her mother was calling me frantically. Her daughter was in severe pain, she felt like her stomach would explode.
I had to call my son and get him to see her in the ER while asking them to rush her there. Her acidity level had gone up and she had to be treated for that and sent home.
Lessons learned
My take from my experiences
What works for others may not work for you.
If it took ten years to add all that weight or mess your system up don't expect some quick fix diet to change all that in a few days.
Patience, life style changes, and figuring out what works best for you helps. You've got to do the homework yourself.
Moderation is the key to anything in life. Do whatever you do in moderation, be it eating, exercise or bringing about changes in your life. Slow and steady helps.
It is important that what you do is sustainable and works in the long run. Short dieting sprees and quick fixes work against you.
This is not medical advice, please consult your physician before you venture on any dieting spree.
All images used here were photographed by me.
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