Insulin Resistance Syndrome

According to Web MD, insulin resistance is a condition in which the body produces insulin but does not use it properly. The body’s digestive system breaks food down into glucose, which then travels in the bloodstream to cells throughout the body. When people are insulin resistant, their muscle, fat, and liver cells do not respond properly to insulin. As a result, their bodies need more insulin to help glucose enter cells. Insulin resistance increases the chance of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

So what does all this medical crap mean? It means that I fall asleep after eating a lot of carbs. Whether I'm standing up, at a movie or fully engaged in a conversation, my blood sugar spikes and then crashes dramatically. It means that I will develop type 2 diabetes and all the problems that come with it (like 80% of my extended family) if I don't make some serious lifestyle changes. It seems unfair that eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is enough to literally put me in a food coma. But it also seems stupid that I'm not willing to eat half of a sandwich and have a salad with it and I won't feel like crap.

The bottom line is that my weight has fluctuated between 198-210 lbs for the past couple years. I am 5'6" tall so that puts me in the obese category. I have gotten down to 193 lbs twice in this time but I have not been able to keep it off. I been a runner since grade school and I'm proud to say that I have kept that up despite gaining weight. But my joints are suffering from the excess weight, not to mention my finishing times.

What I need to do is get down to 185 lbs to be healthier. Ideally, I could get down to 165-175 lbs but I'm just setting small goals for now. I also need to get my waist down to 35 inches or less (I hover around 40-41" right now) and my waist to hip ratio to 0.7 or less (it's 0.87 right now). I'm sick of being embarrassed about my weight and having to buy new clothes every year. They say that after 6 weeks on an exercise/diet regiment, your body will embrace the new program and it will become a habit. It also takes this long for your metabolism to start working again if you've destroyed yours, like I have, through bad lifestyle choices.

So I start again tomorrow. For the umpteenth time, I am trying to get a handle on my life. My goal for this week is to run 4 times, do 45 minutes of strength training, 90 minutes of yoga or pilates and one wild card workout. This may seem like a lot but in my prime I was working out 2+ hours a day during the week and 3-4 hours a day on the weekend. I also have a flex time schedule which means that I might spend 10 hours a week in a office and the rest of the time on my own so this should be difficult.

Maybe I can get my husband on board this time too. But the bottom line is that I have to do this for me, regardless of what he's doing.