South Beach Diet

          “How to Survive When a Spouse Gets Sick

           Here,The Experts Offer Coping Clues”

     … How do you learn to take time for yourself  

              without feeling guilty?

      If you need a rationalization that works in the public eye, 

     you could say, “I won’t be a very good caregiver if I don’t

     do [something good for myself]” But even if others don’t

     give you permission, you should do it anyway, it’s important

     to feel that you yourself are not sick. …

 

The above excerpt is from recent NMSS MSCONNECTION #3, Spring ’04.

 

Today is the 7 month anniversary of my beginning South Beach Diet. In retrospect, maybe there was something more at work here. I really did not have an obvious motive, it just rather happened. The ‘discipline’ was appealing, especially through all the stress of the transition to institutional care. I lost 50 lbs in 5 and half months. It was the easiest project I have ever engaged in. I’ve been in the maintenance stage for 6 weeks now and that too is more than easy. I feel GREAT!

 

All the diet issues aside, perhaps it was really just about doing something healthy for me for the first time that I can remember since caregiving began.

 

As a male caregiver I tend to ‘poo pah’ all these ‘new age’ help articles, looking more to machismo for philosophy. Obviously you can end up at the same point traveling different paths.

 

Take care of yourself! Trust me you’ll like it!