Starting the first step

I started with parts of step one; so far, I'm working on:

-eating breakfast every morning [something I usually don't do]

-have it within an hour of getting up

-include a protein [I usually didn't do]

I officially started this on 8/1/08, though I did have breakfast several mornings  before 8/1. Most days, I do have breakfast but not always within an hour of getting up. I'm wondering it this hour starts when I wake up in the morning, or when I get up? I almost always stay in bed for awhile until I'm more awake as I very frequently have problems with sleeping during the night.  Then I need to take my shower if I take one that day and get dressed before going downstairs. Maybe I should TRY and switch to showering at night so it won't take me so long to go downstairs and find something.  Since I've started eating in the morning, for the most part, I've been having some protein.

One problem I'm having right now is that it seems that I'm more hungry throughout the day than before [though before, I was better at suppressing the hunger; maybe I'm just more aware of it now].  I *have* read about the idea of 'false' hunger that's talked about a bit later in the book--so I'm going to have to figure out what's real and what's not as in MY mind right now is that it's all hunger. A couple years ago in reading about fluid intake, sometimes we think we're hungry when in fact, we're a bit dehydrated and thus, drinking water will take care of that...

Have I had breakfast yet today? Well, kind of. I haven't been downstairs yet but HAVE been eating some of my home made trail mix that includes nuts, yogurt covered raisins, sunflower seeds, broken up pretzels, and a few M&Ms thrown in [I haven't gotten to the sugar 'detox' yet, that comes quite a bit later in the program.

Starting the book and getting into the first step

In this book I'm reading ['Potatoes Not Prozac' 2008 edition by Kathleen DesMaisons, PhD], I read the first 5 chapters that went into interesting details about addiction, especially sugar addiction & sensitivity, the various ways it affects us, the biochemsitry that is affected, and how to deal with these things effectively.

I needed a few days to ponder over these thoughts and ideas before starting the actual 'program'. I kind of started on step 1 during these few days and then set Aug. 1st as the day where I was going to start for 'real'--as in trying to do it every day. And that's the key for me right now, to TRY; it's going to take awhile before I'm doing the stuff consistently.  I've done at least some of the first step every morning but not always doing it in a timely manner.  I guess why Kathleen says that each step will probably take us a month or more to make a habit...

[Sorry if I'm repeating some of what I posted this morning!]  I'll go into more of what I'm doing with this first step tomorrow sometime.

Intro About My Starting Point

Recently, I've been doing a bit of research on Sugar Sensitivity and Addiction.  After going through many articles and books, I came across a book and author that really made an impression on me, it seemed like she was writing all about me.  The book at the library is titled "The Sugar Addicts Total Recovery Program" by Kathleen DesMaisons, PhD.

Books like these I have the need to highlight/mark/make comments in the margins, etc. But this book was out of stock at the bookstore--but I found a very similar one she wrote, her just this year updated version of the 'Potatoes, not Prozac' that she wrote in '98.  So that one came home with me.  

Kathleen goings into detail about how we determine if we ARE sugar sensitive, what the problems one may have with this sensitivy, and then the WHYs of these problems, and then, of course, how to go about making changes that will help us change our eating habits for the better.

This isn't a diet program as a means of loosing weight, rather, a program to help us with work through the symptoms and treat the cause--thus, feeling immensely better and decreasing the sugar urges we have had.

It's a 7 step process and to make it work for us, we're to work the steps, in order, and work EACH step until we're able to do it on a regular basis--which can take a month or more for many people.

Anyway, that's the gist of it that I'm going to be working on. I plan to use this blog for me to focus on the process of this and on starting to exercise again.

If there are any readers here, feel free to join me in this, and/or to make comments, ask questions, etc.  I definitely believe that we all can help each other.  Also feel free to talk about other healthy programs or articles that you've come across.

In the meantime, here's a link to Kathleen's website that has more information:

www.radiantrecovery.com