junk food | Everydayclimb's Blog

Metabolic Syndrome is a grouping of conditions that can wreak havoc on your health. It can raise your risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Look for symptoms like these:

An apple shaped body (belly fat)
High blood pressure
High levels of glucose (sugar) on your blood
Low l levels of HDL (good cholesterol) in your blood
Skin tags
Darkening of skin around neck and elbows
High blood triglycerides

1/3 of Americans have Metabolic Syndrome! Many have no idea they have it. Being overweight (especially in the belly area) is a huge cause of this syndrome. This obesity causes chemicals and hormones to affect your blood sugar so it responds poorly to insulin that your body makes when you eat sugars or carbs.

Women get this syndrome more often than men, and as we age, the risk gets even higher.

How to “fix” this and overcome Metabolic Syndrome? Lifestyle changes. Sorry. I know you have heard this before, but changing the way you eat and walking a bit more can do wonders for your body and mind. In addition, don’t drink a lot of alcohol or smoke. Get plenty of sleep, as well (7-9 hours a night).

Medicines can help get you in better condition to help you make life changes. Meds to lower blood sugar, blood pressure, and bad cholesterol are available.

All in all, though, proper eating and a bit of body movement will make huge differences in your life and extend your life. It’s tough because this syndrome can make losing weight a struggle, and yet you need to lose weight to get rid of Insulin Resistance. Catch 22!

This can be accomplished. I’m in the process of doing it, so I know of what I speak. 😉

Do it with me ~

I’ve made a discovery. I had to choose a path to travel when I approached a fork in the road. Ironic that it’s called a FORK when my diet is what drastically changed. Over the last couple of decades, I made junk food my go-to when I felt stressed, bored, afraid, or whatever other emotion I was dealing with. I was alone a lot in my first marriage and fell to food as a coping mechanism.

You’ve heard this tale before by many others BUT mine hit me square in the face tonight. With hubby number two off at a meeting, I was bored and hungry. Instead of choosing the low carbohydrate foods in my pantry, I turned backward and drove to a taco stand. It sounded so tasty, and it HAD been a month since I’d changed my diet. I deserved one meal I craved, right?

I crushed the tacos in a bowl and added salsa. I sat down to watch a sit-com – anticipating the first bite of an old delicious friend, a taco with an actual crunchy shell on it.

Boom! There was the taste. Only it wasn’t what I remembered. It had a stale, kind of burned taste, and the texture of the meat was odd. It was packed together tightly but get this . . . there was almost no taste at all. It WASN’T delicious. It was greasy and bland and not even close to what my mind remembered.

I finished the tacos anyway, secretly hoping each bite would find me enchanted again with my old habit. Nope. So, I ate until I was too full (like I once did) and felt like crap! Within fifteen minutes, I had a headache. I kid you not. MSG? I knew there was no “going back.”

I had taken a path of clean eating over the last month, and it prevailed. I was both encouraged and disappointed. I didn’t have the old habit I once counted on as my Band-Aid.

Yet, I faced a new path . . . one with a healthier destination.

I now walk in the light of health and won’t have the old unhealthful habits. I guess that’s one way to quit a habit you hate. It becomes something you detest after a while.

My bare feet take me to a happier and tastier place, and I do enjoy the journey much more than I used to. Soon, there will be no fat, headaches, mood-changing sugars, or any other detriment that I once held so closely.