Close calls

Friday, I turned off my alarm at 6:30 am and woke up 45 minutes later, the time I normally start driving across town for my 8:30 am class. I broke all records. I made it from bed to car in the time it normally takes me to get up and pee. I got there in time to have a cup of coffee before class. Sometimes I amaze myself.

I've overslept by at least two decades the alarm of increasing weight and blood sugar. Why does that alarm feel less life-threatening than the prospect of missing a class?

While pregnant with my son who is now 25, I had gestational diabetes. I was cautioned not to gain weight and stop exercising because this was a sign of heightened risk for type II diabetes. So, what did I do? I gained weight and stopped exercising. What else? Considering the combined stresses of a crappy marriage & graduate school, closely followed by single motherhood & overwork, it's a wonder I've taken this long to become so dangerously borderline that action really cannot be postponed any longer. 

Now what? I'm taking a glucophage for blood sugar, a statin for high C-reactive protein and just-creeping-over-the-line cholesterol levels, and re-ordering my dietary habits and lapsed exercise habits. I biked about 10 miles yesterday, which is a start (flaming underparts notwithstanding -- today I ordered LiquiCell Chamois Pad Bike Shorts from Junonia.com).

This morning I got myself to yoga class, and I'm 98% off sugar and pastries.  The school semester is two weeks from finished, so I'll have less stress and more time to exercise and think about what to eat (instead of grabbing a Cliff bar on my way out the door and flopping on my back the minute I get home and staying there).

We'll see if I can keep on amazing myself.