With a new year nearly upon us, the subject of resolutions comes to mind.  For me, I have but one.  I aim to improve my health.

What brought this on?  Well, in early November, I had a biometric screening done as part of my employer’s new procedure for health benefits enrollment and I discovered that my triglycerides and blood sugar levels were quite high indicating that I may be on a path to type II diabetes.  Needless to say this alarmed the hell out of me.  While I had slacked on regular exercise since the long hot summer, I hadn’t gained any weight and I looked and felt fine.  I really thought the blood test results must’ve been bullshit.  But I did some reading on type II diabetes anyway and I began to realize that my occasional symptom of slightly blurred vision might be related.  So, long story short, I’ve made some changes to my diet, mostly cutting out sugary stuff as much as possible as well as cutting back on pasta and cheese, sadly two of my favorite foods.  To hell if I’m cutting them out completely though.

One easy thing I did was eliminate sugar from my morning coffee.  Took me a couple weeks to get used to drinking it black.  Then I read about how cinnamon actually helps reduce triglycerides and blood sugar, so I’m drinking my coffee with cinnamon now and sprinkling it on my salad sometimes too.  Here’s a nifty chart I came across that provides a quick visual of scientific evidence supporting the benefit of various dietary supplements, including cinnamon:  Supplements Visualization