Doing this twice a day means that every weekday I walk at least 20 minutes that I didn’t before, and it adds up to a minimum of one hour and 40 minutes more walking each week. These extra miles every week may seem insignificant at first glance, but when you add them all up they make a pretty serious contribution to my health and wellbeing.
One thing for me to keep in mind, though, is making sure these changes fit well enough into my daily routine. If it’s too time consuming, out-of-the-way, or difficult, I’m much less likely to stick with it. Fitting shorter walks into my normal routine may not be perfect, but it’s a very good start, and one I can manage while juggling everything else that comes with being bipolar.
Watching What you Eat
We know that some dietary changes are necessary for maintaining a healthy weight, but are always fogged by suspicion and old wives’ tales (bananas and ‘belly fat’, anyone?) and are often met with resistance.
We have strong emotional ties to some of the foods we eat, and it can be very stressful or upsetting to consider changing those habits. Certain foods are familiar and comforting; we love the chocolate chip cookies mom always baked or the macaroni and cheese we ate all the time in college.
Unfortunately, these foods are not always our friends. Many of them are unhealthy, and our attachments to them can be as well.
When I figured out that I was sensitive to wheat (run-of-the-mill flour and everything made with it) and needed to remove it from my diet, my first reaction was to think of all the foods I would miss. Cake, cookies, bread, gravy, ramen, spaghetti rings… It seemed like most of my favorite foods had flour in them. It was downright painful to think of giving them up forever.
There are plenty of good substitutes out there these days, though, and I tolerate other grains well, so I can make delicious pizza dough or fresh pasta from spelt flour. Once I approached the issue with an open mind, I realized it wasn’t so bad. I lost some old favorites but gained new ones in the process, and I feel healthier as well.
In addition to going wheat-free, I’ve found that cutting way back on my sugar intake makes a big difference in the way I look and feel; I tend to pack on the pounds no matter how few calories I eat if I’m consuming a lot of sugar, and my mood swings are off the charts. Alcohol has the same effect on me as well, so I drink less.
One of the final big adjustments I made was to stick to portion-controlled snacks - I find it much harder to eat three granola bars than I do to eat too many cookies from a big package. Getting up to open another portion of something after I’ve finished one has an immediate effect on me: I see that I’ve had enough, and I stop at one.
