A few words on life, health, and work
Reflections on recent events, happenings, and the future
My head is light. It has been like this recently. My doctor says that it could be my gut complaining that I’m way past my eating schedule.
TL;DR: I was hungry but forgot to eat on time.
The consequence: I felt dizzy, light-headed, and wanted to vomit. But I didn’t. So I drank lots of water, ate crackers, and seated myself on the bed with both my feet elevated by a pile of pillows. I skipped checking my blood pressure, fearing it triggers my anxiety and my blood pressure to rise. I learned a new way to calm myself: meditation. Yes, there’s an app for that, and I paid for it for one year.
In the last few months since I found out I had hypertension, I had to find the right combination of meds to control wayward elevations of blood pressure. This condition and my diabetes had to be managed with a set of prescribed meds–each comes with side effects. Short story: these side effects were as bad as my condition: dizziness, increased hunger due to lower blood sugar levels, and one time, urinary tract infection, which I discovered when I read the fine print of one of my meds.
I also changed my diet, dramatically cutting down sugar, caffeine (coffee and today’s tea), salt, and fatty foods. I increased my water intake (at least 2 liters a day, my doctors recommended) and made sure I ate something “healthy” every 3 to 4 hours every day.
I slept more and earlier. I also tried to slow down and find time to do walks at night with the dogs. But I feel that is not enough. No more late-night activities and I try to free my mind of any stress and anxiety through meditation. It works. I also want to take more naps during the day, but work gets in the way. So I do it when I get home every day before dinner. Sometimes, it works, but it disrupted my sleeping schedule. I slept early instead.
Reading at night also relaxed me more. But social media gets in the way. I have to force myself to stop looking at the screen to avoid getting sucked into an endless consumption of junk content. Yes, all these short, snack-like videos from Instagram, Tiktok, and YouTube are time-sucks. They’re a waste of time and mind space.
I am 50 by 2023. That’s half a century of living. Of late, I do a lot of reflecting, perhaps it comes with age. I follow news still, but most are from chatrooms to which I’m subscribed. I sometimes read of people dying due to a heart attack, making me more worried sometimes if I’m still “as healthy as a horse” as one doctor said more than 20 years ago.
I used to swim every Tuesday and Thursday morning, finishing a 3-KM swim combined for an hour. That felt good back then. My diabetes diagnosis kickstarted that routine but stopped when I got sick. Then we moved house to a place where there is no access to a public swimming pool.
I also ran but my knees and my gut hurt after a few minutes of running. So, I also stopped.
Health and being healthy are tough. It should be a behavior requiring regular work to make it into a habit. It’s not just about exercising. You need to watch what you eat. It doesn’t help that most foods in restaurants are unhealthy. The more delicious they are, the less healthy.
Yesterday I saw this guy on Tiktok talking about a “great discovery,” a cure for all illnesses including diabetes and hypertension. He claims that scientists have found a combination of natural medicine, which they have turned into a packet of powder that you can mix into a drink. I was almost convinced when I discovered he was “selling” this expensive supplement that I was drinking years ago, sold by a networking company. Pfft.
I’m staring at my bookshelf where a title reads, “The End of Diabetes.” I bought that book years ago, but have not given it time. It’s gathering dust. There’s another hardbound title on my shelf: The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss; also gathering dust.
There is no shortcut to being healthy. You just need to start doing it, one day at a time. Today, I decided to take a break and rest my body, mind, and soul.
Fin.
This was originally published in my Substack. Subscribe to my newsletter at https://erwinoliva.substack.com/
