What a roller coaster ride it’s been this week. Anyone who lives with or has Bipolar (highly recommended reading) knows what that statement means. It wasn’t a bad ride but an exhausting one of late nights, little sleep and my brain computing faster then my mouth can go. This is one great thing about blogging as I can type as fast as my brain thinks and ramble as I’m doing this.
The only one listening is my keyboard and the family hearing the sounds of the keys clicking a mile a minute, knowing not to be disturbed if it can be helped, as when I’m on a roll and once I’ve typed what I would usually say in one long sentence and breath, has now been said, and can be edited into paragraphs with that feeling of raciness calming down.
I went to my doctor of 22 years today for my check up, as I must check in with her about my medication, just so she knows it is still working for me, taking it properly, not missing any doses and that I continue to remember to eat a proper diet.
As I went into the office the nurse started with the usual check of height, weight and then blood pressure. She was very surprised how high my blood pressure was 150/72 and asked “Is this normal for you?” “No”, I said, “but believe me, I’m not surprised”.
When my doctor came in and we sat and talked my words couldn’t come out fast enough as my brain was in overdrive. She being very used to this asked me at the end of the usual checklist, “What has your diet been like lately?”
“Coffee, lots and lots of coffee,” even though I know this is not the answer she wanted to hear, this being one of the reasons for my high blood pressure reading.
If there is one thing my doctor knows about me, after treating me for so many years, I do know the rights and wrongs of treating my own Bipolar. She knows after years and years prior to taking on the difficult task of myself accepting it and learning to change my own lifestyle to deal with it, my dietary intake is a major concern of how Bipolar is treated, and too much caffeine is a wrong and with me knowing that it was a tisk tisk.
It’s not that I can’t have any caffeine but living off it or junk food just interferes with the chemicals in the brain trying to work properly and it is more then just B complex that needs to be consumed, but B complex is a helpful natural mood stabilizer.
For those of you who live with your Bipolar and have it under control must already know one (of many) very important factors to keep the moods in check is B complex vitamins, which can be found in foods like Bananas, whole grain cereals, berries and the list goes on.
This is why support of family, friends and doctors are so important, when we forget to eat or eat the right foods it’s the family members who are to stop us and remind us that eating and sleeping are one of the key factors to keep us stabilized and when I don’t eat properly as sometimes I just get to busy, this is when Ron will cook me a healthy meal, (thank goodness he loves to cook) even if I’m not in the mood to eat, but he will ask for me to at least eat a little of each serving knowing once I do, I will probably eat everything on my plate and he also knows my very high strung mood will settle before it spins out of control.
B complex vitamins foods act as a mood stabilizer, so they are not just meant for those of us with Bipolar or mood disorders, but everyone.
So this being said, I made sure today I ate properly after leaving the doctors, cut down on the caffeine intake, including any chocolate, as this my kids will not let me eat and if they see me try to sneak any, will grab it out of my hand.
We decided a year ago to experiment with and found anytime I ate chocolate my moods would alter hours or sometimes not until the next day and grumpiness would arise. Trust me, I love chocolate like everyone else, and my family will allow me it once in a while, but as I preach to my children the need of proper nutrition, so do they back to me.
Once in a while we will take the kids for fast food, but very seldom now, as we noticed a trend in their behaviour when fast food became a norm in our life and when we cut it out as a major source of meals, we noticed a complete change in everything about them and ourselves, including more energy and better sleep.
This is why it is so important for our children and our selves to stop with the fast foods as a quick fix for meals, and get back to the good old fashion days on the farm, or at least cooking like it, when the only fast food they knew came from the window of a chicken coop.
