An apple a day… (source: pixel2013 on Pixabay)

Yes, I gained last week.  I’m not thrilled about that, but I understand it.  I’m taking steps, and that’s about all I can do.  What I need to avoid is slipping into that obsessive state of mind many people struggling with weight can slip into, one that feeds right into my anxiety issues and undoes any progress I might make.

You might have the same problem, or similar issues.  It’s a documented fact that mental health, anxiety in particular, can have a profound effect on the body.  Our anxiety doesn’t just trigger a stress response in our bodies, but anxiety can affect our ability to sleep.  Sleep deprivation affects hormone production, which affects weight gain as well.

It’s a double whammy.  Tons of fun, literally in my case.  It is essential to take care of your mental health as part of your overall health care plan.  I know there’s a stigma associated with admitting you need help.  There’s also a stigma associated with being as big as I am.  Pick one.

Anyway, getting anxiety under control doesn’t have to be as daunting as it sounds.  You may have a health care provider who prescribes medication.  If that’s the case, and the meds work for you, great.  Therapy can be helpful too.  Meditation works for some people.  If you’re in a position to minimize your triggers, that’s fabulous.

The thing is, when I mention anxiety I’m talking about a serious health condition, part of your body’s chemistry.  One way you can help to take control over your body’s chemistry is to govern what goes into it.  That is, change your diet.

Changing your diet won’t fix everything.  It won’t take away the external stressors in your life, and it won’t change the patterns of thought that exacerbate your anxiety.  Think of it as an extra bit of help, like a step up to find the next handhold on the rock wall.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not always good about following the diet plan.  I’m not only cooking for myself, and sometimes I get busy and can’t devote time to cooking.  I just re-read the guidelines for extra motivation, right before I go to the supermarket.

What I can tell you is that I do feel better, and I gain less weight, when I’m following these guidelines.  I try to avoid beef when I can, even though it’s on the “good” list.  The great thing is that most of them are foods I genuinely like.  Apples, dark green leafy vegetables, nuts, and asparagus are all foods I gravitate toward naturally. They’re all part of a natural, healthy diet.

It can’t hurt to try tweaking your diet this way, assuming your allergies and other dietary restrictions allow of course.  It’s helped me, and it might help you.

Vitamins and pills (source: Pixabay)

One of the things I’m trying to do right now is to get control of my health.  I want to get to a place where I can feel comfortable in my own skin.  I’ll never be back to “svelte” but I want to get back to some facsimile of healthy.  One factor that touches all aspects of health is diet.  That brings us to the question of vitamins.

I have a kind of love-hate relationship with vitamins.  On the one hand, I understand that the nutrients we consume are vital to overall health.  On the other, it is super easy to get caught up in the numbers game where vitamins are concerned.  Did I get enough of this vitamin today?  Do I need to bump that one up, just a little bit?  If I eat, say, spanakopita to bump up my iron, do I then move my fat intake too far in the other direction?

There are plenty of people out there, too, who want to “help” you to manage that process.  There are services, apps, “communities” you can join.  Some people find them helpful.  My use of quotes here probably shows that I am not among them. I think most people who have any kind of obsessive disorder in their psyche will find those tools to be more harmful than helpful.

(I’m more grateful than I can express to the doctor who pointed that out to me.  She freed me from searching for yet another service that wouldn’t work, and showed me why it wasn’t helping.)

Anyway, vitamin supplements sound like a great idea, don’t they?  I took vitamins from the time I was a little kid.  They were just a basic part of preventative medicine.  Too bad studies don’t support the idea of multivitamins preventing much.

The best way for us to get the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients we need is from food.  Our bodies just don’t absorb supplements taken in pill form as well as they do vitamins taken from the foods we eat.  The issue comes when our diets become somewhat deficient.

That’s not necessarily a criticism.  People whose diets lack one particular nutrient, or even several, aren’t lazy or stubborn.  Some of them may be chowing down on fast food a lot of the time, but it’s not for you or me to judge them for it.  When I was working two jobs and still barely scraping by, fast food was something I could eat while going from one job to the next.  You do what you can with what you have.

And there are other people who wind up having trouble getting the nutrients they need for other reasons.  All kinds of people have to cut some things out of their diets, for a variety of reasons.  One of my closest friends developed a meat allergy as an adult – yes, it’s related to that tick disease – and now finds herself deficient in several nutrients.  She has to supplement.  I developed a dairy allergy at some point along the way.  Yeah, I should be supplementing.

I just don’t like meat.  Does this mean I should choke it down and call it a virtue?  No.  I can supplement.

Many Western people believe chugging back vitamin supplements will somehow cure all of our ills and prevent a host of diseases as we age.  That isn’t proven by science.  Eating a balanced diet and living a healthy lifestyle can mitigate some risks.  Taking supplements can help fill in gaps, but it can’t substitute for eating moderately, in balance.

I do take a B-complex supplement, when I remember to do so.  I’m not sure it helps with anything, but it makes me feel like it does.  There have been studies that cite its efficacy with ADD and anxiety, although that’s still kind of inconclusive.  I’m willing to try it, since my diet could be better and I feel like my symptoms are better when I take it.

I’m about to start taking an omega-3 supplement too.  Vegan sources exist for this important nutrient, and honestly, I feel better when I’m consuming them.

Hopefully, making changes to my diet will help me get the vitamins I need to get back to health.