It's good to look at what others are eating, so that you can learn what to avoid or discover something new or have a reference for research. This is what I did wrong and what I changed. I still have a ways to go. Click Here to see my current diet.
Before trying to fight my Glaucoma, I had a habit of eating junk food: oatmeal and raisin cookies, a family pack of "duplex cookies", Grandma brand cookies, Lance crackers, Honey Buns, Texas Cinnamon Rolls, etc.
I loved those snacks - and to be honest - I miss eating them till this day.
I was drinking several cans of Monster Energy Drinks a day - the most powerful! If the store was sold out, I would buy whatever seemed comparable or whatever was available - NOS Energy Drink, Rockstar Energy Drink, Red Bull, whatever.
I didn't eat much candy, but when I did, it would only be small amounts of the mini size chocolate or a few pieces of "hard" candy such as: Skittles, Jolly Ranchers, caramel chews, Mary Janes, etc. Three pieces at the most.
At home, my girlfriend would often cook foods with white rice or make some sort of pasta - although, she tried to eat healthy and never at any pork or red meat.
I don't have a preference for pork or red meat, but I don't have anything against them either. I could live without eating beef, steak, or hamburgers, or hot dogs, or chicken for months and months, but if someone invited me to a dinner or cooked a meal, and the main course was fish, chicken, turkey, pork, or meat, I'd eat it.
Sometimes, I'd have to be careful about this (like: not eating too much for the first time) because it wouold make me nausious, upset my stomach with pain, or give diarrhea. So, at home, I ate some sort of "meat" (or animal) that my girlfriend cooked at least two to eight times a week. This is including breakfast (which I didn't eat very much of because I often left work late in the morning and didn't want food.
Before I turned to eating big bowls salads in about 2018, we ate a lot of different foods. As I said before, many of the foods I ate were high in carbohydrates. I didn't know if I had diabetes or high blood pressure at the time, but one thing I DID notice that made me change my diet was: my left hand seemed to be "dying" at one point. The skin would get hard and crack. It itched like crazy. Later in the day or the next day it would peel - especially on the palm. On the top, it looked as if the skin was dying.
My hand wouldn't bleed and the pain was minimal, but it would have a slight tingle sometimes or feel numb and this made stop and analyze my diet.
My hand only did this when I over-indulged in sugary snacks. One day, after eating several fruits (including a banana), I noticed that my hand was going through the "dying" process again. That's when I realzied it was my sugar intake. Even artificial sugars seem to have an effect on me. I wasn't sure if I had a cancer or what.
I did a quick research on diabetes and found out that it was linked to Glaucoma.
I looked at all the symptoms, but there was nothing really standing out to connect me with diabetes. I would get dizzy sometimes at work, but I was also always moving fast and making sudden movements while working. Also, I was not breathing fluidly. So, I think those things caused me to be dizzy more than anything. I never got dizzy at any other times.
I also checked my feet. And, although they're not the prettiest feet in the world, I didn't appear to have any issues with them.
So, I didn't feel like I had diabetes, but just to be on the safe side, I tried to cut back on so many cookies, buns, and fruits.
It was a battle up until about October or November of 2021.
I sold my house and moved on. I was on my own. No stress. I could eat how I needed to eat. I didn't have the temptations of a snack machine. And, there was (and has been) no need for comfort food. I get depressed often, but now I watch videos rather than snack on cookies or sleep.
* In January of 2021, I got a physical. I don't have diabetes. My blood pressure was very good at the first check-up and higher but still good at the second check-up. Everything else looked good (according to the doctor) except my cholestoral. I had only been eating salads, vegetables, and eggs (2 - 4 per day) up to that point.
Besides the snacks, I also over-indulged in salad dressing. Many of the foods we ate were cooked in Canola Oil and Olive Oil. I didn't know it then, but she was actually ruining the olive oil by cooking it on high heat. They (my ex-girlfriend and her oldest daughter) cooked almost everything on high heat, so most of the nutrients were probably gone from the food by the time I ate it anyway.
I'm not criticizing their cooking. I'm just reporting the mistakes I made in my diet.
So, some key takeaways from what I did wrong:
- Everyday (for years), I drank energy drinks that were high in sugar. I rarely drank water. In fact, I started cramping a lot for lack of water.
- I drank sodas every now and then, but after I switched to low-sugar Monster Energy Drinks in 2017 or 2018), I only drank diet sodas. The diet sodas would affect my hand also, so I only drank them when the low-sugar Monsters were sold out.
- I at a lot of snacks. Not junk food. SNACKS. In fact, I rarely went to a fast food restaurant although they were across the street.
- I ate a lot of sugary foods or food that would affect my sugar levels.
- I ate oily and fatty foods.
- I ate a lot of canned goods and processed foods - especially before my girlfriend moved in. This includes tuna, Spam, beans, greens, and pasta sauce.
If I remember anything else I will add it to this list. Clck Here to see what I'm eating now to fight Glaucoma and improve my health.
No comments:
Post a Comment