Oh what a week it has been. Last I wrote, I’d just been to the nutritionist and left rather confused. What I don’t think I mentioned was that I had been to the dermatologist earlier that week, and was heading to south Texas for vacation later that week.
Well, the dermatologist was not really worth mentioning, or so I thought. See, she put me on birth control to help regulate my hormones, in an effort to help my adult acne. I have not been on that stuff in quite a while and man it messed me up. For one thing, I spent a week being very crabby. I caught myself crossing my arms a lot, was very irritable, did not want to see people, etc…. especially the past couple of days. I bitched and moaned about going out with a friend for valentines day. Ya’ll, I even drove all the way to tennis (about 5 miles) and felt like turning around and going home because I didn’t want to be around people while grouchy, and also didn’t want to put on a happy face. I didn’t bail though.
Last Sunday was when another side effect of BC hit in a big and uncomfortable way home from South Texas – constipation. My God. I thought (not for the first time in my life with this condition) that I would have to go to the hospital to have it taken care of. I drove probably 150 miles with some major discomfort before the laxatives kicked in. By the way, the other time this happened was also medicine-induced, but that was post-surgery Vicodin.
Anyway, I feel like I’m back to normal, but still confused as ever about my diet after my trip to the Nutritionist. Before, when I did South Beach, it was very black and white on I what I could/should eat, and what I couldn’t/shouldn’t. The nutritionist simply added carbs to my diet, and recommended 1600 to 1800 calories per day. So, the list of food items out there was simply on a platter once again, and this overwhelmed me.
I have since reached out to her via email, but have not yet heard back. I’ve spent the past few days (well, past week if you count calories on vacation, which I should, but don’t), eating over 2,000 calories per day. Hey, at least I’m tracking! I’m just so lost, honestly. The other issue is that Sunday I was all stopped up, Monday it was back to work, tennis Monday night, dinner with a friend Tuesday night. Tonight is the first night since vacation that I wasn’t burdened with some other duty or task. I can spend some time thinking more about my diet moving forward.
The way I think I’m going to approach this is think about things I WANT to incorporate into my diet. For instance, I want more oatmeal in my diet – for the cholesterol benefits. I want skim milk in my diet. I’d like to keep nuts, fruits and vegetables in there, too. I SUPPOSE by the time I put all the wants in the diet, plus the carbs my nutritionist wants to integrate, there will likely not b e a lot of room for much else. Perhaps that’s my approach.
Truthfully ya’ll, if you have some advice here, I could really use it. Why is a calorie restriction so confusing for me? I started my diet this way, and now I’m back to it. Puzzled.
