The Joys of Miracle Dieting

I've noticed recently that I've been getting a lot of followers on Twitter that I guess you could say fit into the "spam" category - when you look on their profile, all their tweets are just marketing links to some miracle diet or weight loss tool, where they claim you can lose 10+ lbs a week.....my reaction? Yeah right!

Let's be honest, if a person suddenly started losing that amount of weight in a week without extreme conditions (ie. an athlete in intensive-training mode) to explain it, they'd be making an appointment to see their GP wouldn't they?  Because extreme weight loss is generally an indication that there could be something seriously wrong.

So why on earth do these companies/individuals market products that actively promote extreme weight loss? It's certainly not healthy, but it preys on those who are feeling self-conscious about their image and maybe actively trying to lose weight.  I got all these followers after tweeting about how I'd lost a few pounds recently through doing Zumba...but guess what, marketers/spammers - you picked the wrong person, because I don't believe in miracle pills or magic fad diets, I know they don't work, and I will go out of my way to make sure everyone else knows it!

Screw Fad Diets, Do What You Want!

Having a bit of an "off day" today - slept late, don't feel inclined to do any of the housework I'd planned on doing...and I've decided it's a Comfort Food kinda day.

Pic sourced from resourcefulcook.com

Not really decided what comfort food I actually want - but it's blustery, grey weather outside, so thinking along the lines of either egg & chips (I have an Actifry - so the chips are pretty much as healthy as I can get them!) or perhaps baked potatoes with cheesy beans (and a few drops of Tabasco for my spice fix).  And it led me back to the conversation I had with the person who upset me a couple of days ago - about what "eating right" entails.  They think that to be fit & healthy, you have to be at the gym 7 days a week and live off salad....but to me, that's way off the mark.  Where do you get all the different nutrients your body needs?  You need proteins, carbs, vitamins, minerals, fats....and you can't really get all that if you live off nothing but lettuce-based meals!

My Anger Monkey

Do you ever have days where everything just makes you angry?  I do.  I get angry to the point of bursting into tears, because my anger is so overwhelming that inside I feel like throwing a tantrum, but I know that would be socially unacceptable for a 31-year-old woman...

The Gift of the Mind

I've been thinking a lot about mental health recently.  I mean, I started this blog as a way for me to document my progress in all things healthy - but when you say to someone the words "fit and healthy" they usually imagine the more physical side.  I know I do at times - and that's coming from someone who has battled depression and anxiety since I was a teenager.

There have been a few things recently that I've found thought-provoking.  The main one is a mental health blog I've recently started reading (purplepersuasion), with 2 excellent pieces - 1 on ten things not to say to a depressed person, and the 2nd is the upside with ten supportive things people have said.  Both are well worth reading, and give a helpful insight for anyone who has perhaps not experienced mental illness themselves.

The others have been mostly incidents I've experienced or witnessed at work.  I work at an emergency NHS dental clinic at weekends and evenings, and we generally tend to encounter a lot of patients who would probably be fondly classified by the current government (as they are wont to do) as those who have "fallen through the cracks" - the ones who aren't registered with medical practitioners and are less inclined to look after themselves, for 1 reason or another.  And some of these patients suffer from mental illness.  I have personally witnessed several of my colleagues change dramatically and start acting "cagey" if a patient has disclosed that they have a mental illness, especially if it is schizophrenia.  There was a patient today that we couldn't even see, due to a busy waiting room that would cause unknown amounts of stress to an already anxious person suffering from paranoia.  And seeing these things makes me sad - sad that there is still so much stigma and misconceptions about mental illness that even some healthcare workers don't know how to act, and sad that we're not in a position to adapt to help those that so badly need it.

Beware the Hormonal Woman!

My emotions have been all over the place today.  Actually scrap that - not just today, it's been all week.  I feel like a friggin pregnant lady, just without the baby!

I think it's my hormones & my cycles causing this horrid mood - PCOS has a lot to answer for, let me tell you!  I went to the docs today, to enquire about going back on the pill in an attempt to regulate my cycles and reduce my PMS symptoms, but the appointment didn't go very well.  Firstly, the doc was over 20 mins late in seeing me - and she is a doc who will not hesitate to chastise you for being 2 mins late for an appointment - and it meant I was already anxious cos it only left me 10 minutes to discuss options with her, get home, get changed for the gym and actually make it to zumba.  So, doc calls me in and I straight away say that cos she's so late I won't have time to stay very long and she doesn't even bother with an apology....or even seem to remember me from my previous appointments (of which I've had about a gazillion of them with her, and pretty recent too) or what's going on.

Just when you think you're getting there...

...you find yourself struggling again.  I've been doing Zumba regularly (2 times a week) for a month now, and some classes I find easier than others.  I've even started building in a swimming session, to try and up my fitness levels, but lately I feel like I've been hitting the wall a lot.

Maybe it's a combination of things - my sleeping pattern has been out of whack recently (which I partly blame on having a lack of routine - I only work 5 shifts a month and uni broke up a couple of months ago for the summer, so most days I don't actually have much to do) and it's been so annoyingly humid that I just can't seem to get any air.  The lack of routine thing I mentioned is also playing havoc on my eating habits, so at the moment I'm finding that I'm either going to classes on an empty stomach and surviving off an energy drink for the hour-long sessions, or I've not quite timed my cooking right and haven't allowed long enough for my food to digest before working out.  So that means I either lack the energy to push through an hour of Zumba, or else my stomach feels so full and heavy that I have to take it down a level or 2 to avoid those awful cramps or nausea waves.  Neither is a good option, let me tell you!