Week Forty-Two: The Chips Are Down

There comes a time in your IF journey that you realize you must start cutting down or cutting out certain foods. 

In the beginning, you learn to listen to your body while still eating your regular diet. However, when your body starts screaming at you to make changes, you need to make them, or else your body will respond accordingly.

For instance, bananas and beets cause certain effects for me that clear out the plumbing. Great when the pipes are clogged, but not so great if you plan to go outside or do errands for long periods of time in the next day or two. Mischief managed, lesson learned. I've adjusted and moved forward.

Now my feet are regularly swelling during the day. Yes, it's because I don't walk enough, but there's also another factor I hadn't wanted to consider this food, though I did suspect it. It was confirmed when I stopped eating them for a few days.

My beloved chips.

Image by Werner Weisser from Pixabay 

The salt content was fine as long as I was walking and sweating a bit, but now that I'm not mobile, I've been swelling up. My feet look like balloons by the end of the day, and even by morning, the swelling doesn't completely dissipate.

Alas, my fair chip, I must ignore your calls for now.

I love potatoes in almost any form, so this isn't farewell forever. I'll just have to stop buying chips for a while and find alternatives. I'll also be cutting down on my salt intake by cutting these out. I'm not salt-free, nor do I intend to ever be, but I've cut my salt down by at least half since I started forty-two weeks ago-and that was before I stopped eating chips.

I'm starting to wake up earlier, which means my energy levels are rising. I'm still working on buying an exercise bike, but I still want to walk outside when the weather breaks. The bike is just a means to keep me active when it's blazing, freezing, snowy, or soaked outside. 

I love Mother Nature, but I'm not dealing with her during her menopausal stages.

Two more weeks until weigh-in day! I'll share a little surprise I bought myself to help with the monthly weigh-ins. This is going to save me oodles of time!