Changes

I majored in English in college. Go ahead and make the joke...I'll wait.

 

 

Oh, you have another?

 

 

 

Have you gotten that out of your system? Good.



 

One of the many useless things I learned while working on my degree is that languages are living things. Languages that do not change die. English is a great example of a language that is changing. Words are added, lose favor, even change meaning...the English language is a living thing that changes all the time. Latin is a language that is, for all intents and purposes, dead. Other than using it to classify animals and diseases, no one really uses it anymore. It's not spoken by the average person. You see it on money, and in old books, and on tapestries, but not in everyday communication.

I vaguely remember this from my Old English class...

http://orbiscatholicussecundus.blogspot.com/2013/04/star-wars-in-latin.html

So, like all living things, languages change, which means living things change. People change. And I am considering doing something, making a change, that goes against my very genetic makeup. I have thought long and hard about this, and to be honest I'm not sure I can do it. This is going to be hard, maybe one of the hardest things I have ever attempted. Change isn't always easy after all. It's usually difficult, and this is going to be difficult. I am gong to change my diet, and I am going to...going to...I am going to cut down on my carbs.

Keeping a theme going is something else I learned in college.

I am not doing this (only) because I want to be skinny, but because I am really having trouble with the diabetes thing. I don't know if it's that I'm suddenly insulin resistant, or if I have a minor bug that's barely noticeable and being fought off, or if the midichlorians are in a tizzy over that antibiotic I was taking a couple weeks ago, but whatever it is my blood sugars have been mostly high for the last two weeks and damned if I'm not ready for it to stop. Carbs can cause havoc with my blood sugars, and while I don't plan to get rid of them entirely, I think if I scale back the amount of them I eat then I won't have to give as much insulin as I have been, and that's a good thing.

I know diet isn't the only thing that needs to change. I need to be more active. But that I think I can do if I get myself in the habit of doing it. I spent 30 minutes on the stationary bike this morning before breakfast while watching Mysteries at the Museum on the Travel Channel, and it wasn't too bad. (It wasn't running the Boston Marathon, but since I'm still not supposed to walk for exercise because of my blasted foot I'm not holding my breath for that in the near future.) Being more active is a change I'm not worried about.

Cutting back on carbs, though? It's MADNESS! Have you any idea how hard it is to find low calorie, easy, non-perishable and non-messy on the go snacks that aren't in some way full of carbs? How many carrot sticks must you eat before you start to turn orange? If it's got lots of carbs but they are mostly fiber, does that make it okay? Am I going to have to trade out carbs for fats I don't want? Why do sandwich wraps usually taste like crap, but the same ingredients on bread taste awesome?

So I guess the answer to that question above is no, I do not want fries with that...anymore.

Sorry, Frye.



No Cure for Spring Fever Yet?

I've got spring fever bad, and I am feeling particularly random today. 

I sit in my office when I'm at work and I look out at the trees in the parking lot and think, I'd like to be outside. And then I remember I live in the arid desert and even though it's nice outside now by Thursday it's going to be 90+ degrees and when summer temperatures hit in early May I'll be more likely to want to stay inside and away from windows.


Update on the diabetes thing: I still have it.

I know, you're totally surprised. I am too. /sarcasm

I've actually been struggling with some high blood sugars of late. Mostly at night. I had bronchitis about two weeks ago and ever since I've been having trouble with those highs, actually. I even had to break out an old friend at one point because I wasn't able to get enough insulin into my body via my pump to combat the raging 400's I had going on.

I don't even remember the last time I used one of these.

The meds that the quick care doctor put me on wreaked havoc on me, actually. The antibiotics were garden variety- I'd been on 'em before and wasn't expecting complications. The steroids I was only on for three days, but my blood sugar didn't really come down until I was done taking them, so no one expect me to get pumped any time soon because if I can avoid those in the future I will. The cough syrup with codeine I knew better than to take and I did anyway- just once, and then I decided to get some diabetic/sugar free Robitussin because of math.

High blood sugar due to illness + sugary cough syrup + codeine = Really high blood sugar

 Why do you do this to yourself, Carla?

At any rate, that wasn't even the worst of it. The inhaler I got literally made me crazy. I used it and noticed that my hands were shaking like I was in the middle of a massive low...and I really wasn't (See math, above.) And then the crying started. Now, maybe I was PMSing as my husband suggested, but I usually don't feel quite that unhinged when I am. I was sitting in my office sobbing for no reason. The whole process of buying New Kids on the Block tickets was making me mental (more than usual.) Just going in to work and sitting in my office made me jumpy and claustrophobic. I felt friendless, hopeless, and completely out of control of my emotions. After two days I stopped using the inhaler, figuring I'd rather take my chances with suffocation than endure this mental debacle any longer. My husband ended up buying me a twelve pack of beer and I had to drink a quarter of it in order to relax even then!

Incidentally, that's the most beer I've ever had at one time, and some of the Sam Addams spring brews are pretty damn good. 

Anyways...I'm working on getting back on the exercise band wagon again (since it's hard to do that sort of thing when you can't breathe at all), and I'm feeling much better, both physically and emotionally. I am still trying to get the overnight highs under control, but I think that'll come with time. And as for that dumb inhaler, I'll be keeping my distance...