Tuesday, June 29, 2010

What's Up Doc?

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you know I've been suffering with unusually bad asthma attacks for at least 3 weeks. I've gone to an Urgent Care which helped somewhat but I was still getting bad attacks. The kind where I can only walk to the bathroom & back to my recliner and be completely and utterly out of breath. Asthma is not supposed to be that bad while on albuterol and steroids, so I went to see my regular doctor yesterday (thankfully she fit me in) and had a good long chat with her about everything I'm worried about which included me having dizzy spells...the kind where the whole room starts spinning and also falling asleep without warning and falling asleep while standing up! I'm serious! She concluded that I don't have narcolepsy (which I thought I might) but this was all the result of sleep apnea. After a lot of explaining on the doctor's part, she finally convinced me she was right. I was not sleeping soundly at night, hence the falling asleep without warning! Do you know now how Freaky that is??? She/the doctor also said that was contributing to my room spinning dizziness. We talked about sleep studies costing about $1,000. and about those C-Pap face contraptions they give to treat sleep apnea but she told me the best way for me (or anyone) to get rid of sleep apnea is to lose weight. This must have been the umpteenth time the doctor has told me this but for some reason, I was ready to hear it and take her advice to heart...in other words I'm seriously ready to change my eating habits and lose the weight for my health and to get rid of this sleep apnea. Yay me!
I realize this is all timing. I haven't been ready for the longest time, years even to try to lose weight but also realized I had no idea how to eat healthy. I can understand how dumb that sounds but it is the truth. Ever since childhood I've just eaten whatever I wanted. The main reason I never learned to care about my weight or what I ate is because I was always always thin or thinnish. I remained like that until I had my son and then my metabolism seemed like it was broken. I still wasn't as overweight as I am now and I gradually got to this weight so I never really cared how much I was gaining and I could never really hear from my doctor (until yesterday) how much my weight was affecting my health. But it has all hit home now. Now I see the truth about myself and now I'm ready to do something about it.
Wish me luck, pray for me, send good vibes, make posters and then take pics of them and send them to me (kidding...unless you really want to) if you want to encourage me. It will all be appreciated!
Before I end this blog post I have to mention that my doctor says that losing weight and maintaining it is 90% what you eat and 10% exercise. I am going to believe her on this because she does Not have one ounce of fat on her. I also asked her what she eats and this is what she told me:
Breakfast is a grapes or berries.
11:30AM is a protein bar.
Lunch is 2 peaches.
Afternoon snack is cottage cheese.
Dinner is meat with vegetables.

That's it! And she is never hungry and has a Huge amount of energy, does aerobics and runs marathons! She told me to at least cut out rice, bread, potatoes and soda, and basically said whatever Susan (Me) likes it is bad for me, lol! Gee thanks Doc!