My head is light. It has been like this recently. My doctor says that it could be my gut complaining that I’m way past my eating schedule.
TL;DR: I was hungry but forgot to eat on time.
The consequence: I felt dizzy, light-headed, and wanted to vomit. But I didn’t. So I drank lots of water, ate crackers, and seated myself on the bed with both my feet elevated by a pile of pillows. I skipped checking my blood pressure, fearing it triggers my anxiety and my blood pressure to rise. I learned a new way to calm myself: meditation. Yes, there’s an app for that, and I paid for it for one year.
In the last few months since I found out I had hypertension, I had to find the right combination of meds to control wayward elevations of blood pressure. This condition and my diabetes had to be managed with a set of prescribed meds–each comes with side effects. Short story: these side effects were as bad as my condition: dizziness, increased hunger due to lower blood sugar levels, and one time, urinary tract infection, which I discovered when I read the fine print of one of my meds.
I also changed my diet, dramatically cutting down sugar, caffeine (coffee and today's tea), salt, and fatty foods. I increased my water intake (at least 2 liters a day, my doctors recommended) and made sure I ate something “healthy” every 3 to 4 hours every day.
I slept more and earlier. I also tried to slow down and find time to do walks at night with the dogs. But I feel that is not enough. No more late-night activities and I try to free my mind of any stress and anxiety through meditation. It works. I also want to take more naps during the day, but work gets in the way. So I do it when I get home every day before dinner. Sometimes, it works, but it disrupted my sleeping schedule. I slept early instead.
Reading at night also relaxed me more. But social media gets in the way. I have to force myself to stop looking at the screen to avoid getting sucked into an endless consumption of junk content. Yes, all these short, snack-like videos from Instagram, Tiktok, and YouTube are time-sucks. They’re a waste of time and mind space.
I am 50 by 2023. That’s half a century of living. Of late, I do a lot of reflecting, perhaps it comes with age. I follow news still, but most are from chatrooms to which I’m subscribed. I sometimes read of people dying due to a heart attack, making me more worried sometimes if I’m still “as healthy as a horse” as one doctor said more than 20 years ago.
I used to swim every Tuesday and Thursday morning, finishing a 3-KM swim combined for an hour. That felt good back then. My diabetes diagnosis kickstarted that routine but stopped when I got sick. Then we moved house to a place where there is no access to a public swimming pool.
I also ran but my knees and my gut hurt after a few minutes of running. So, I also stopped.
Health and being healthy are tough. It should be a behavior requiring regular work to make it into a habit. It’s not just about exercising. You need to watch what you eat. It doesn’t help that most foods in restaurants are unhealthy. The more delicious they are, the less healthy.
Yesterday I saw this guy on Tiktok talking about a “great discovery,” a cure for all illnesses including diabetes and hypertension. He claims that scientists have found a combination of natural medicine, which they have turned into a packet of powder that you can mix into a drink. I was almost convinced when I discovered he was “selling” this expensive supplement that I was drinking years ago, sold by a networking company. Pfft.
I’m staring at my bookshelf where a title reads, “The End of Diabetes.” I bought that book years ago, but have not given it time. It’s gathering dust. There’s another hardbound title on my shelf: The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss; also gathering dust.
There is no shortcut to being healthy. You just need to start doing it, one day at a time. Today, I decided to take a break and rest my body, mind, and soul.
Fin.