Back in the Saddle?

This week I am on a much-needed and long-overdue week off of work.  On Friday my family and I will head to our favorite island for a bit of an escape.  I don't miss work one little bit!

I had hoped to have a bunch of time to reflect and research stuff but we've been busy having fun so it's really OK.  I did get around to watching an episode of My 600-pound life and a few episodes of the old canceled A&E show 'Heavy' and all inspired me.  Heavy really shows them getting nutritional, counseling and personal training education so that really feels like a great formula and I can't figure out why that show only lasted one season because its awesome.

Tonight I did some poking around the internet.  I researched (again) signs of diabetes, then dietary approaches to stave off diabetes.  Then I checked anti-inflammatory diet, the DASH diet,  the South Beach Keto friendly diet, and the Whole Food diet.  Ugh.  My head is spinning because they all have elements that seem challenging.  Some tell you to eat grains some say not to, some promote fruit some don't, some like protein some like fats...anyone reading this knows how confusing this all is!  So part of me feels like I should do a more intuitive eating approach and really try to be aware of how things make me feel.  I am thinking of revisiting Geneen Roth's method, but I do admit I'm a little worried I will mess up my health in the process.  Geneen says that the reason we have such a hard time letting go of diet mentality is because we are taught not to trust ourselves around food.  The diet and fitness industries could not survive if this weren't true!  Just tonight I was looking to see if there was a used copy of the keto-friendly South Beach book because I am not sure I want to have to count and measure everything (stick to it) so I don't know if I want to spend a lot on the book.  It costs $14 new on Amazon and another used book store I have used and been happy with was selling it for $24-$33.  Sheesh!  Even Facebook is flooded with pay-for-seminar ads of supposed fitness/nutrition gurus that can't wait to take your money to give you hope in their miracles.

One thing I have done in the past few days is got a lot of steps in.  Between taking the dog for real walks and beachcombing for beach glass, I have gotten 11,000-13,000 steps in Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  My left foot has something wrong (since Halloween of last year) and there is a lot of grinding feeling and swelling going on in there.  So I am finally going to have my foot checked out by a podiatrist.  The area where I broke the bone in that same foot still hurts too so it's time to have it looked at.  My dog has been demanding more real walks off the apartment grounds and I want to oblige him but I will definitely be needing some appropriate shoes, so I plan on shoe shopping this week.  

I don't plan on committing to anything until after our trip, we will be on an island with very few food options.  There is one hamburger stand, a pizza stand, one super expensive farm-to-fork hotel restaurant and then a few bars that serve food.  None of it is geared towards health food.  I'm guessing after a weekend of eating that way I will be ready to clean things up!  I'm still not sure which way I will go with the food.  I will look at the 3 plans that stood out to me the most and will post more when I have it figured out.