Stress and Food Choices

        My Weight Watcher leader said that next weeks topic in "Managing Stress." Well she may be a week too late for me. Toinght I had to take my 79 year old Father and admit him into the hospital. His kidneys are failing and his blood is messed up. This all began back in Nov. of 2011 but we thought Dad was on the road to recovery until about 2 weeks ago. The mind boggling thing is what caused Dad's initial kidney failure...it was from taking over-the-counter Prilosec for 3 weeks. It made his kidneys shut down. He was on meds to keep the kidneys working. The endo of Jan. the Dr. ordered that we taper him off of that medicine. He was doing well but the past week or maybe 2, he has been declining. He has been confused, weak, sleeping most of the day, severe dry mouth and cannot eat. We had bloodwork done yesterday and today the Dr. called saying, "He needs to be admitted to the hospital!" That is what we did this afternoon/evening. It was a stressful evening that is only the beginning of what will be a stressful a stressful week or more.

     When we left the hospital my Mom wanted to stop and eat. We went to Friendly's. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE  Friendly's. I typically do not even have to look at the menu because I get the same thing each time I go. I had this crazy dialog in my head until I got to the restaurant and ordered my food. This is what I was saying; "I am getting what I like to eat because I am stressed!" Then I said, "No, I worked HARD to lose 4.2 lbs last week. I cannot eat poorly and go backwards again."  This went back and forth in my head for a long while. So I pulled my phone out and looked up the points value of the meal I WANTED to eat. Well let me tell you what an eye opener that was for me!!! I have to tell you that I get 38 WW points daily. Here is the point value of the entire meal that I ALWAYS get when I go there is.....are you READY for this??? The total is 71 points....for ONE meal!!!  That meal includes a sandwich, 2 Sprites, fries and a sundae. How INSANE is that????  71 points for ONE meal??? Seriously!!?!?!? What the heck have I been doing to myself??

      Well happily, I made the HEALTHY choice. The meal I chose had a point value of 9 total points!!!  That meal was half of a sandwich, a side salad with fat free dressing and water!!  AND I felt satisfied after I ate it!! It was  BIG step for me to choose the healthy food over what my body told me I was craving or my emotions told me I "need!!"  I feel like I am making serious progress in making good food choices!!

      I plan on packing a cooler of healthy foods and snacks for our visits to the hospital to see my Dad! I am beginning to think I may REALLY be able to succeed this time!!
  
     Please Pray for my Dad to recover soon!!!