I’ve been eating badly for a long time, and every time I get a little ahead in the “eating better” plan, I backslide about ten steps. An unpredictable schedule and general lethargy doesn’t help.
And now, thanks to too damn many fast food meals, I’m at the point where only coffee and tea taste good to me and I get ill in my stomach if I eat out. I did okay some of last week, when I had to work out of the office and pack my lunch for a few days. My stomach didn’t hate me most of the day (unless I caved into cravings and went out for fast food in the afternoon). But that got boring after a bit.
I need to make better eating a priority, and make sure my stomach isn’t totally out of whack from all this bad behavior.
So, I’m looking up info on dietitians. I tried looking some up some time ago, but realized that I don’t really think there are many–if any–around me. I’ve heard of a few nutritionists instead, but I’m more wary about going that way.
Dietitians have medical credentials, and can add the label of nutritionist if they want. Not the same the other way around, though; nutritionists are more like coaches, some of whom are also gonna sell product.
I have a feeling I’m gonna need help on the diagnostic end and some real, in-your-face honesty about what I’ve been doing to myself and some actual treatment if necessary, and some tried and true measures to help me along with this eating healthy (and needing to re-learn how to cook) issue.
I’m not out for a quick fix and some woo thrown my way. If that was the case, I’d be watching Oprah, Dr. Oz, or going online through the GOOP catalog looking for crap that I’d discard before a month was out and feel more like an idiot.
I need to get energy back the right way, and get out of this palate fatigue and enjoy using my taste buds for things beyond increasingly-disgusting fast food. I need some real, scientifically proven things to help me out, and maybe tests to figure if something will help more than another thing.
If they tell me to cut out the dairy completely, that’ll be tricky. If they say no more coffee or tea, I’m drawing the line. That’s one of the few things I like (that I have done pretty well taking in moderation) that still appeals to me and hasn’t made me sick.
It feels stupid to have to go to some doctor and figure out how and what to eat. On the other hand, I’ve watched too many episodes of Adam Ruins Everything (the Nutrition and Weight Loss episodes to be more precise) to trust a dumbed-down government chart that tells you so damn much and so little at the same time.
So, it’s off to find a dietitian near me that my insurance will cover and hopefully I can build a rapport and stick with it all. The closest ones I’ve seen so far (though I’m finding more helpful sites out there) are in clinics that do “medical weight loss” or “weight loss and aesthetics” (cue the plastic surgeons and liposuction practitioners on the websites).
Yeah, though dropping 80-ish pounds in a day sounds super cool (uh-huh, yeah right), I have a feeling that clinic is geared mostly toward that type of business and the dietary aspect is just to make sure you don’t screw up their work right away (or the typical post-surgery restrictive speeches that come on postcards).
Nope–need to find someone not standing in front of a wall of special brand vitamin supplements, too.
No more woo to try avoiding. No more fast food for that quick fix. No more ignorance.
Time to find someone to help…and when I get a day off, meet at last.
Oh, and gotta love John Oliver tackling this crap, too:
The Chatty Introvert 
Have you looked into the Blood Type Diet? It helped me many ways, including my energy level. Some say that they lost weight by sticking to it and others are convinced the weight loss was because of ridding inflation which the diet also does.
https://dadamo.com/txt/index.pl?0000
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I had the original copy many years ago, but it wasn’t terribly helpful for me (proportionality and all, and I was still a teenager when I started reading it and couldn’t get a grasp of what exactly I should do). Heck, I only successfully donated blood once and now can’t remember what my blood type is. I do remember the book was telling me to avoid tomatoes, and I was aghast–granted, this was MANY years ago, but tomatoes were a staple in the fridge, so no luck there.
Well, again, I’m sure the updated version would clarify a lot. I need to remember what my type is first, anyway (hee hee)
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Dr, D. D’Adamo does not recommend raw tomatoes, coconut in any form, nor peanuts for human consumption, no matter the blood type. There are other things as well, and generally because of digestion issues. The Blood type diet really helped me in many ways.
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stay away from doctor oz..he is a quack out to make money. diets can be individualized for different things. Hubby (the RN) suggests the following: consult your insurance company first. they may have “special deals” with certain dietitians in your area and get you in faster than just cold calling. if that doesn’t work, contact the COUNTY EXTENSION AGENT..yea the wierd ag guys that test water, trees, soil etc. They almost always have a dietitian on staff at one of their offices. and the good news, that is a free service. if that doesn’t pan out, try a country health department. They also have dietitians on staff…again it is a free service. (I LIKE free stuff)…good luck to ya…I found my own dietitian at a diabetes support group….no, i don’t have diabetes, but it was a free group and i was interested.
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Huh–that’ll help narrow things down. I just got a notice that my therapist wasn’t covered by my insurance anymore, so I’ll have to do plenty of shopping in the next few weeks, so to speak. I just hate the idea of going to one of those places where they’d rather sell you a supplement or “makeover” service instead of tell you how to take care of things naturally. I’m afraid at my weakest I’d take them up on it. Better to avoid those places.
Yeah, when it comes to Dr. Oz, or any of the TV docs, I’ve learned to ignore them. It’s like the health magazines in the store–they all have some fabulous new way to lose weight and rotate the news around or if you read the article, you find it worked for one person and there’s a doctor with a breakdown of how it worked. But we’re different. The only reason I started reading some of those magazines (like First for Women) is they sometimes had some cool recipes in there that I wanted to put in my recipe folder. Now I’ve got cookbooks galore and don’t need to bother with those for a while (hee hee).
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