Sugar, Sugar

Everyone thinks sugar is sweet, but it's not sweet to my body!  Sugar HATES me.  Which is unfortunate, because I LOVE it.  Actually, I crave it.  It's kind of a crappy deal that it works that way.  The more I eat, the more I want, and the worse I feel.  What a mess.  It's such a vicious cycle; but I know without a doubt that a good portion of the pain I experience is due to eating sugar and processed carbs. 

The main reason I felt the need to write this post, though, is to remind myself how much eating poorly makes me feel absolutely terrible.  I need to be as descriptive as possible so that I can look back on this post whenever I convince myself that something yummy is worth eating and be reminded that IT'S NOT! 

We recently went to my cousin Kevee's graduation and while we were gone I "treated" myself to lots of unhealthy meals and snacks and drinks.  By Saturday, I felt like I was going to die a little.  My stomach hurt and my body ached.  That didn't stop me from going out later that night and having a few drinks with my awesome cousins Chris and Steph.  It didn't stop me from eating breakfast at midnight which consisted of bacon, potatoes, and bread.  It didn't stop me from eating McDonalds the next morning or snacking on processed snacks the whole way home.  It didn't stop me from polishing off the better part of a bag of chips the next day.  By the time we got home on Monday, the thought of eating ANYTHING even remotely unhealthy made me queasy.  That night for dinner we had salad, fresh fruit, salmon, and brown rice.  I'm pretty sure no meal ever tasted better.  It was just so... fresh.  Not phony.  It felt like the first real thing I had eaten in several days, even though everything I had eaten for the previous few days tasted good at the time.  ALEX, EATING CRAPPY MAKES YOU FEEL CRAPPY, EATING WELL MAKES YOU FEEL WELL.

I need to stop making excuses for my crazy diet and just eat well to be well.  It shouldn't be such a hard task, but for some reason making good habits can just be so hard. 

Over the past couple of days, I have been having hip and low back pain.  Ever since Mark dug around in my hip, it's been achy, which I am grateful for.  I hope it means that whatever crazy kinks have been troubling it are on their way out!  My shoulder blades have also been VERY achy- I need to get back to the chiropractor soon, it's been quite a while since I have been in.  I used to go weekly but it has probably been close to three months since the last time I made it in.  I have been stuffed up, still, but notice that it's a lot worse at work.  Some of the other people I work with swear that the building we work in used to make them sick like that, too.  It is so annoying (and gross) to be sniffling and blowing my nose every other second, but I can't help it.  I also got an icky little mouth bump in my cheek last night.  I seem to have them worse in the summer, it's been a while since I remember getting one... It already seems much better today.  I have also been waking up with my mouth so dry I can barely open it and move my tongue, so that's pretty annoying.  Other than those things, I don't have much to complain about.

My goals this week are to drink lots of water and try to not get too stressed out over things.  That should be easier said than done, we have a LOT going on this week.  But it sure does feel amazing to have a couple days off.  I also discovered another therapeutic thing last week- soaking my feet in cool water.  It sounds like kind of a duh, but it felt indulgent to take a few minutes to do it, and it felt amazing on my stupid hot feet.  I definitely need to make more time for doing that!