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Perknose
Forum Director
Coffee. Black. Works for me.
I rarely ever drink sodas. Mostly because of the terrible health risks. Partly because of the overly sweet taste. All sodas tastes like eating sugar in liquid form when you don't indulge often in sugary foods.
I'd say it actually tastes worse than sugar, but depends, as it goes good with some foods (not in the smell your own farts wine asshole way) and having something to drink helps. I'd rather eat straight sugar and drink water than drink pretty much any pop straight. Abundant ice is necessary.
Random aside. There's new Pepsi commercials, and I both want to applaud and condemn their advertising department. Applaud because they pulled their heads out of their asses and realized "oh, right, we make flavored sugar water" and just focused on that (and not that stupid tone deaf crap about divided America they pushed out). Condemn because goddamn it made me want a Pepsi. I've seen two, one is they show just a typical pepperoni pizza (didn't even try to tie it into a brand), and that made me crave pizza and a Pepsi. The other is just a fairly generic but still way better because its just straightforward and effective, they just say something about "refreshing Pepsi" or something, show a glass with ice and Pepsi in it.
AFAIC, the only right you have is to be left alone. Nobody's *entitled* to the labor of others. That said, universal healthcare is a Good Thing®, and worth paying for as long as the money doesn't go to for profit companies, and is paid mostly through cuts to other programs that don't *directly* affect all Americans. Under those terms, the tax increase should be nominal.
Eh, I think it'd be fine to just outright raise taxes for it, as long as they can keep costs in check so that overall people are spending less money (per person) on healthcare. Meaning, sure they're paying more in taxes but they're still better off than paying for their own private insurance, giving them more effective money and other benefits (health care issues and financial problems associated with it is stressful on the level that its health impact in the form of stress is probably in line with diabetes and obesity related health problems; plus it likely fuels those problems as a lot of people deal with stress by eating and we end up in a toxic feedback loop). And when our military has things that they're literally asking our legislature to stop funding, maybe, I don't know, keep the jobs but put them towards health care (that would benefit people in the military as well as their families, and also the people that the military is there defending).
I'd also like if healthcare costs were in part paid by for profit companies that have shown a willingness to be unconcerned about public health or putting it in peril. Or even just somewhat taking into account externalities that a lot of companies are subjecting us to whilst not only not compensating us for the damage they do, but we often are outright subsidizing their behavior while they pay politicians money to prevent regulations on them that would directly address health (either of the public or even just their own workers; case in point see the chemical plant situation in Houston), just so they can keep padding their balance sheets and enriching people that just exploit others for sake of some extra money (despite already having enough that they could literally give up working for the rest of their lives and still live without a care for the rest of their days).
First of all, the OP isn't going to die. Diabetes doesn't kill you outright. It's blinds you first, or causes peripheral nephropathy and you won't be able to walk because of the pain in your feet and legs. You might loose feeling in your fingers and hands. You might get sores that won't heal on your legs and lower body. Your penis will stop being your friend and can actually start to rot. Eventually you lose a limb or have a stroke and live partially paralyzed. Then it might kill you.
Your "brain tumor" and falling asleep is probably caused by sleep apnea where you stop breathing in your sleep. It keeps you from entering the really restful REM sleep as you describe and makes you tired so you fall asleep during the day. It makes you irritable and unable to think clearly.
PB&J sandwiches are straight up carbs with carbs with carbs. Terrible for your blood sugar. There is nothing you can eat to bring down high blood sugar. Your body is telling you it has too much sugar-fuel already and it's releasing as much insulin as possible to deal with it, but your body is starting to ignore the insulin because you've been overdosing regularly on sugar due to your overeating and Mt Dew habit. How can eating more help?
Exercise such as walking will help kick start your metabolism to burn off that extra glucose and you will feel much better in the long run. Fight through your tired feelings because resting or going to sleep will only make it worse. Your brain interprets your lack of energy caused by excess glucose as a sign that your body needs more energy and it tells you to eat even more. Fight that feeling because it's sure death to indulge and go for a walk instead.
You are like me, a carb/sugar/food junky. I liken it to a heroin addiction. I find pleasure in eating so I want to eat even when I am not hungry. I will literally eat myself sick. I have to distract myself or I will eat all day. I have to take meds, keep active and skip meals because I have no self-control.
I know that a single cheat will usually lead to me gorging myself on food until I am sick. When I feel good I want to celebrate with food, same when I am sad or upset. Anger at my self-destruction is one of the few emotions that keeps me away from food. I try to get up and out of the house every day. I walk every day and constantly remind myself that the less I eat the better I will physically feel.
Go see a doctor now. I suspect your blood sugar is extremely high, like stroke out high, and you need to stop trying to eat your way (pb&j) to a lower blood sugar. Meds will help get your blood sugar levels under control but you need to make a lifestyle change now.
No more drinking any calories, period. Eat something like a hard-boiled egg or two for breakfast. Eat a broiled boneless, skinless breast of chicken for a meal. Eat a single, small portion of whatever you are having for dinner. Big meals stretch your stomach and make you feel hungry again sooner than if you only eat small portions. No sugar, carbs, starch or breads. Have 3oz of lean protein and 6oz of vegetables and walk away from the table.
Nobody can make you do it except for yourself, and that's the biggest problem. Understanding that you are the source of your pain leads to emotions that drive you straight back to the table to cover up with more food. You and I have done this to ourselves and we are the only ones who can fix it. A doctor can help, but really we need to train our brains to find pleasure somewhere other than at the dinner table.
Whatever it is you are looking for...love, acceptance, friendship, joy, success...whatever it is that you think you lack and are substituting food for it must stop now. Food is the drug you are using to ignore your problems and it will kill you if you don't stop. Fuck food.
Largely great post. I do have a couple of nitpicks though. Are you saying peanut butter is a carb? Put on some good whole grain bread, its actually a great healthy snack. Expecting people used to our flavor overloaded modern foods to be able to go to eating skinless chicken breast is, in my opinion, absurd and showing a serious lack of understanding why its so damn hard to make such a transition (yes, it is big enough that an average person would say they'd rather die than to switch to that level of healthy eating; something I've heard a lot of people say). I have actually done that myself, at one point I ate incredibly healthy - basically no sweets, no fast foods, baked fish fillets, straight tuna out of cans after workout, lean ham (underrated for healthy food I think, but I find chicken and turkey to be less palatable), plain potatoes, measured out my cereal, etc but I was goddamn miserable and outright hated thinking about food (and you realize how integral food is to social gatherings, making those miserable as well - to this day I'm a loner when it comes to eating). I'm also not sure that going on such a crash diet change is healthy either. It might be warranted in the OP's case, but I'd rather leave
that up to a doctor (that yes he needs to be going to ASAP).
But I agree, make changes. Get off your but, get moving. Eat better. Replace chips and fries with baked potatoes (with toppings, and gradually reduce the toppings over time). Replace candy with some fruit (seriously, bananas are pretty damn cheap, as are other fruits in season, and you can buy frozen, and put in little containers and let thaw out over night in the fridge). Cut back on the pop any way you can (go cold turkey if that works). Load up on veggies. Get peanuts (they're cheap and filling, and if you have to crack shells it'll help limit how quickly you eat while also burning some calories). Drink lots of water. Prepare meals instead of eating conveniently. Find some good hearty whole gran bread, put some honey on it for a snack.
Another good tip is catalogue all the food you eat. It'll help you realize how much you're eating, how bad you're eating, and it'll take effort and time (that you might otherwise be mindlessly eating).
Find distractions (but don't just substitute one unhealthy thing for another; gaming is good but you need to be active some).
Call up Rossman (just not for 8 hours a day )
Seek support groups. I don't give a shit if you're a furry that likes being rode like a horse, there are people out there that wouldn't put you down for that.