Happy February

Posted in daily on 02/02/2010 06:35 pm by deborah

Hello again. I haven’t forgotten about the blog… I just had a week of vacation and any time at the computer was spent in WoW fishing so I could make money for my epic flyer. Mission accomplished. :P

So, I attended my “diabetic education” courses two weeks ago, two on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. As I’ve mentioned to a few other people… these classes felt like they were made for kindergartners. I did pick up a few tidbits of useful information, but really, the classes were designed for people who had been diagnosed yesterday. Teaching people what a “carb” is, how to read nutrition labels, etc.

Anyway, a couple of interesting things I picked up:

- Omega-3 fatty acids help prevent cravings.

- The reason why drinking alcohol lowers your blood sugar is because the liver is what releases sugar into your blood stream, but is also the organ that processes alcohol. Since alcohol is a toxin, the liver stops releasing sugar and concentrates on addressing the alcohol to remove the toxin from your system, and the liver can’t multitask.

- If you are type 2 and end up taking insulin shots, your dosage will increase as time goes on but will eventually cap out.

- Walking or light exercise will assist in lowering super high blood sugar.

Overall, it wasn’t a terrible series of classes, but there were other things I could’ve been doing during those 10 hours (plus travel time).

I just had my annual eye exam today and the doc says everything looks fine, as far as there not being any degeneration or issues relating to diabetes. Apparently my retina has some odd pigmentation which he says usually occurs in people who are near-sighted, but I am not near-sighted, so he wants me to come back next Friday (the 12th) to see another doc, a retina specialist. Yay, x-rays of my eyeballs! I’m sure my boss will be thrilled that I get to take more time off work. (Consider this make-up for not calling out sick for a year.)

 

Questionnaire

Posted in daily on 01/06/2010 09:17 pm by deborah

So, I’ve signed up for my “Diabetic Education Courses” at Seton Medical Center in Austin. It took about thirty minutes to register on the phone, and half of that time was the registrar looking for my paperwork lol. But that’s alright – turns out it was filed under “November” since that’s when I was originally supposed to attend the class. Just don’t tell my doctor that. >.>

I have to fill out a questionnaire about myself and my medical history before I attend the first class. (The first of three, of which each class is three hours long… AND I have to attend during my vacation week off…bummer.)

***

Q: How do you feel about having diabetes?
A: It’s nothing I can’t handle. I may be really effin lazy and uncaring about the whole situation, but I’ve found over the last few months that I can handle it. More importantly, I can handle it and not be miserable. /flex

Q: How do you feel when your blood sugar is low?
A: I have no idea. I’ve never experienced it, as far as I know. I’ve often thought life would be so much easier if I had low blood sugar all the time, instead of high, so I could drink juice or pop a hard candy or something like that to stabilize myself. The grass is always greener… right? And the other half of that question…

Q: What do you do when your blood sugar is too high?
A: Wait. What else can I do?

Q: Do you have physical problems that limit your ability to exercise?
A: Does laziness count as a physical problem?

Q: What is the biggest barrier between you are your nutrition/fitness goals?
A: Ok, all joking aside, laziness really is my biggest barrier. I have no desire to move when I get home. I tell myself I should walk the dogs, but it is currently between 35-40F outside, so that’s not happening. Most nights I don’t even want to make dinner.

Q: Date of your last dental exam.
A: I got my wisdom teeth taken out in 2002. So, probably sometime in 2002.

Q: Do you drink alcohol?
A: No. Maybe I should start.

 

First!

Posted in daily on 01/04/2010 08:39 pm by deborah

First post of 2010 – welcome to a new decade. Even though I started my diet and my blog in Nov 2009, I’m hoping my dietary changes will last me well throughout the years to come, and that I can make some lifestyle changes that will help shape a healthier me. :)

I have added 1 new recipe to the Recipes section, it’s a vinegar-based coleslaw. I am absolutely in love with it, and so is my boyfriend. It makes a great side to steak, and it got rave reviews from a vegetarian friend of ours, too.

I am taking a week off during the second half of the month, because my vacation time at work is about to max out. Sometime during that week I’m hoping to get an appointment to see a diabetic nutritionist that my doctor recommended to me, so I’m waiting for them to call me back. Sometime before my next doctor’s appointment I will need to go see an eye specialist for my annual eye exam, but I need to coordinate that with my boyfriend since he’ll have to drive.

My weight has been hovering around 135, and I’m OK with that. I could definitely lose some more weight, but I’m really happy with how much I’ve lost already. I will say this, though – wearing pants that don’t fit is a real pain, and bunching up 3 inches of excess material under a belt is uncomfortable.

/cheers

 

nmdp

Posted in misc on 12/30/2009 10:30 pm by deborah

One minor update – I adjusted my goals over there on the left side to reflect something that’s very important to me. I have wanted forever to join the National Marrow Donor Program to be considered as a bone marrow donor, but have previously not been able to because of my uncontrolled diabetes. I didn’t mention it previously, but this is another reason why I did not want to go on insulin. Diabetics whose sugar is controlled by diet or oral medication can still join the list; I felt an even more pressing desire to join because I am mixed race, which is something they need. I am also currently not allowed to donate blood, because of the time I’ve spent in the UK, but the NMDP doesn’t have restrictions on travel.

Here’s hoping. /crossing fingers

 

So long, 2009.

Posted in daily on 12/30/2009 10:24 pm by deborah

Been a while since I’ve updated. Can’t say a whole lot has changed, but it’s my duty to update at least once more before the year’s out. :P

I’ve determined that overdosing on sugar will give me a hangover.

I went to my company holiday party on Friday the 18th. It was a good party. The weather warmed up just a bit from the 40F-ish temps it had been in previous weeks so I was relatively comfortable in my semi-formal gown. Dinner was better than last year’s, and I was pretty good when it came to food. Had some salad with Caesar dressing, mixed winter veggies, chicken with a tiny (we’re talking *a* spoonful) of stuffing, and some diced potatoes. Skipped the dinner rolls, orzo, and pasta salad.

I failed completely when it came to desserts. They set out trays of petits-fours and tarts and chocolate-covered strawberries. I grabbed a plate and had like 8 pieces of stuff. Some kind of pecan tart, lemon cake, chocolate cake, cheesecake, chocolate strawberry, and… a couple other things that I can’t remember. They were all very small, but in total they probably amounted to about 1.5 slices of cake, and some of them were decadently rich. They were spectacular.

Right. So that was the indulgence. The aftermath was that I slept like a rock without being rested. I woke up around 8:45 the next morning because I had a chiro appointment, otherwise I would’ve slept for another 6 hours or so. I had a little bit of a headache, but worse, I felt like a slug ALL DAY. I did a lot of baking to send stuff off to family for Christmas, but I felt like I was moving in slow motion (not quite the fat-guy syndrome). I never actually felt “awake”. Caffeine didn’t help in the slightest.

I’m kind of glad I was out of test strips at the time, because I didn’t want to check my sugar to see how redonculously high it was. Too bad, I know – it would’ve been good knowledge.

In other news – my boyfriend is helping to organize and run a new Renaissance faire that’s opening up near Austin in Feb. I was pretty much hands-off (except for making food for the potluck parties), until he told me someone was looking for help with horses. I am by no means an accomplished rider – I’ve only done a couple of trail rides and don’t have the first clue about saddling a horse. But I do know this – horseback riding is exercise. More importantly, this is exercise that I could actually enjoy! That thrills me to no end. Anyway, I got in contact with the woman who was volunteering her horses for the faire, and I’ve already gone out to meet them and she gave me a riding tour of her farm. I’m pretty comfortable on horseback and I had such a good time, but I was sorely (literally) reminded the next day of just how much exercise horseback riding involves. My thighs/knees/groin/back were in agony from having to use those muscles to keep myself balanced, upright, and comfortable. And I can’t wait to go do it again.

 

omg carbs

Posted in daily on 12/14/2009 02:06 pm by deborah

Went to an outdoor overnight ren-party on Saturday/Sunday (yes, it was cold). It was a potluck, so I made my little pigs-in-a-blanket with cocktail weenies and homemade potato bread dough. In past, they’ve always been successful (and tasty), but I did not eat any this time. I also made some chocolate chip cookies, and I did have a spoonful of dough with no ill effects. Saturday during the party I had some meatloaf with ketchup, half a boiled egg, and a couple slices of cheese. (I did have some breakfast before I left the house – one fried egg and a few slices of bacon.) I brought some Atkins bars with me to sustain me for the rest of the night.

Sunday evening the boyfriend wasn’t feeling so well so he put the low-carb diet on hold for a while. I got him some Pedialyte and saltines and made him some “soup” (chicken broth + egg) and he’s feeling better. I had 1 serving of the saltines as well (5 crackers, 11g carbs) along with a little bowl of soup. Here’s the kicker, though – while the crackers tasted “good”, they weren’t heavenly divine like I was expecting. They tasted like… crackers. The best part about it, though, and the part that really surprised me, was that I didn’t feel an overwhelming desire to eat the entire box of saltines. I had my five crackers, and that was that. One of the things I had been very much afraid of was that when I started eating carbs again (rice, bread, pasta, etc), I was not going to be able to stop eating them. So even though I missed the flavors, I didn’t want to start eating those things again.

I had envisioned myself cooking up a box of macaroni and not being able to eat only the measly 1/2 cup portion that’s meant to be “1 serving”. Then running down to the grocery and purchasing a family-size tray of Stouffer’s lasagna and putting that away too. Maybe with a side of mashed potatoes and 3-4 hot pockets. But this was a really nice surprise. I do wonder if what I was feeling before was an “addiction” of sorts. Today, I had the veggie-beef soup that I like so much from the local bbq joint – the soup that I’m always picking the potatoes out of. Well, I ate a couple of the potatoes today, and you know – they weren’t anything special. So I had a couple of small ‘taters, and then I continued picking out the rest as I ate my soup. How weird is that? I would still take potatoes over mashed cauliflower any day, but maybe… when I next have a plate of them in front of me I won’t gorge myself like I have previously.

I can’t wait to go back to my favorite Thai restaurant and order curry with brown rice. *hearts*

 

wtf

Posted in daily on 12/11/2009 12:31 am by deborah

I did something very unusual today. Let me start out by saying that I’m supposed to be exercising. I try to go for at least two walks a day while I’m at work. I sortof walk my dogs on the weekend, but not really. I have a 10-Minute Trainer video which I’ve used quite a few times, just not recently. Anyway, the point is that I’m supposed to be exercising, but I’m not doing as much as I should be.

Today was a relatively good day at work; nothing super boring or grating, so that’s always a good thing. I got out of work an hour early to have dinner with my coworkers, and that was nice. The cold air downtown was refreshing. I wore a new skirt. Dinner was tasty, and I stuck with my low-carb “lifestyle change” – had a skirt steak with grilled shrimp with some red adobo sauce, very nice. (I didn’t even have a single tortilla chip even though there were 3 bowls within reach.) Got lots of compliments on my boots. Came home and found the dogs had destroyed very little, which is always a good thing. Made some bread dough for an upcoming picnic gathering, didn’t sample any. Cleaned up the kitchen a bit and made myself some hot tea. So, all in all it was a pretty good day.

So, what did I do that was unusual? This is actually a bit difficult for me to admit, but… I danced.

While I was poking around online, something reminded me of the song Hips Don’t Lie by Shakira. I looked it up on YouTube and I must have watched the video at least 15 times. I couldn’t help it; the girl is hot. She’s not disturbingly skinny like so many other celebrities, and my god does she know how to shake. She’s terribly hypnotic. She has a unique voice and a pretty smile, but I was seriously watching her tummy flex the whole time. And I decided that I want a body like Shakira.

So the unusual thing was not watching the video a trillion times. The actual unusual part of it was that, at around maybe the 17-18th viewing, I had to pee, and on the way back to my desk, I just kindof… started dancing. THIS IS NOT NORMAL. I don’t dance. I never have. I can count the number of slow dances from my whole lifetime on one hand. Anything that involves rhythm and coordination is just… I don’t know. I can’t do it.

It is very possible that the reason why I couldn’t dance previously is that I thought about it too much. Trying to put my feet in the right locations, move my body in time with what I hear instead of what I feel, or maybe just being totally self-conscious about how ridiculous I look. But this time, I was in my closed bedroom, the boyfriend wasn’t home, the curtains were closed, the room was warm, the music was loud, and the only witnesses were my dogs. Actually, the dogs may have jump-started the whole dancing thing – see, they like being chased. So once my feet were actually moving at a faster-than-walking pace, they were on me like lightning begging me to play, and I did. They had a blast, and in fact I was having so much fun (gasp) dancing that when the song ended I played it again and danced a second time. I couldn’t even begin to tell you what kind of dancing it was. It was moving, it was rhythmic, and I didn’t fall over.

That was about 10 minutes ago. I’m still in shock. (And the reason why this dancing admission even made it onto this blog is because… dancing is exercise, and exercise helps keep blood sugar in check. So there.)

I may dance again in a few minutes when I catch my breath. >.>

 

3 Weeks Into It

Posted in daily on 12/07/2009 10:42 pm by deborah

Swung by the doc’s office this morning before work. Weight = 140.0. YAY! I trust the doc’s scale more than my own lol. That’s a drop of 10.6 lbs after 3 weeks of being on this diet. I’m pretty stoked.

So, I have kind of an odd thing going on, that just started happening recently. I eat something that I find really good and appetizing – for example, grilled chicken over mixed green salad with bacon ranch – and I adore it. In fact, I recall when I ate that salad the first time, I told my boyfriend that I liked it so much I could bring that to work every day. Well, the next day, I *did* bring it to work again since I had extra chicken, and… I couldn’t eat it. I took a couple of bites and then just started gagging. And I was hungry at the time, too. It wasn’t like I was sitting at my desk thinking of lunch and decided it was unappetizing. I was looking forward to it. I walked a mile and a half to the kitchen to get it. And it was the exact same meal I had brought the previous day that I adored so much. The greens weren’t soggy, the dressing was kept separate, the chicken was cooked through and cut up into nice little chunks.

I just couldn’t eat it. I had to force the first few bites down, and then I literally could not make myself pick up the fork for another bite without feeling that gag reflex kick in.

That was the first incident. It’s happened a couple of other times since then, too, with different foods. I have not read about this reaction happening to anyone else specific to the Atkins diet, so I’m not really sure what to make of it. Fortunately, I am able to eat the veggie-beef soup from a bbq joint close to work (I pick out the potatoes) and haven’t gagged on that. Here’s hoping it doesn’t join the list.

In other news… Did I mention my weight has dropped to 140? Yay. I’m hoping that’s more than just water weight lost.

Also, I’m in chapter 4 of my Atkins Diabetic Revolution book (henceforth referred to as “ADR” because I’m tired of typing it out). Thus far it’s been a lot of rehashing of information on what causes diabetes, and it’s nothing I don’t already know. I did learn that there is a name for a certain “set” of symptoms that are high indicators of diabetes likelihood, called “syndrome X”, aka metabolic syndrome. I find it hard to believe that it only affects 1 in 5 people, but I suppose that must be true, otherwise a good 75% of the people I work with should also be diabetic. Apparently it’s still unknown as to whether insulin resistance is the cause of metabolic syndrome, or vice versa. There aren’t really any indications leaning one way or the other. The only important thing to me is that I have both.

By the way, I still haven’t found out what exactly those missing carbs in my previous post are. If anyone knows, drop me a comment.

 

It’s December Already?!

Posted in daily on 12/02/2009 03:29 pm by deborah

I’ve decided to stay on this stage of the diet until the company holiday party, which is just over 2 weeks away. I’m doing well. My blood sugar has been relatively low – still not in non-diabetic range, and of course I’m still on my medication, but it has really dropped a lot. In fact, my fasting glucose was 97 just a couple of days ago – that got me pretty excited. I have also dropped a few pounds, so I would like to keep this up at least until the party. I’m not constantly out of energy now, although walking still takes the wind out of me. (I’m hoping that will decrease as I exercise more.) I’m definitely looking forward to having a scoop of brown rice and curry (from my favorite Thai joint) or some low-carb pasta from Carba-Nada, but I can wait. I’m proud to say that I haven’t cheated a single time, even when a coworker brought me a whole box of Caramacs from Hawaii. (They are sitting on top of my fridge waiting for the stage when I can have nuts and more than 20g carbs.)

So, I’ve been drinking these Atkins shakes, and I really like the vanilla and the strawberry. (Note: strawberry does not taste good when eating it with a chocolate (Atkins) bar.) However, the flavors individually are pretty tasty. The peanut-butter fudge crisp bars are by far the best, but the PB/chocolate “granola” bars are good too. (Hard to go wrong with PB and chocolate as far as I’m concerned…) Some of the other flavors are doable, but those two are the best. I haven’t tried them all though. One thing that bothers me, and I haven’t been able to find any answer for it, is the “net carb count” on the nutrition label for these products (and actually some other regular products as well). As an example:

Peanut Butter Fudge Crisp Bar (Atkins Day Break)

Total Carb: 14g
Dietary Fiber: 8g
Sugars: 1g
Sugar Alcohols: 0g

14-8=6, and 6-1=5, right? The label on the bar says specifically “2g Net Carbs”. If 5-2=3, what are the other 3 carbs? If they’re not sugar alcohols or fiber… what are they and why are they not on the label? Why do they not impact my glucose? And I’m certain that they don’t… because I’ve eaten several of these bars during the day and the impact on my sugar levels has been minimal. It just bothers me that there’s no specific quantification for the missing carbs on the label. Perhaps my Atkins Diabetes Revolution book will enlighten me as to what they are, but I haven’t gotten very far into it yet. I’m still in chapter 1. /cry

Alex and I went to the Texas Renaissance Festival on Saturday for their last weekend for this year. I really like going to renfaires, but the absolute best part about going is all the different food you get to eat. And a lot of it is carb-laden, which of course I knew going into it since I’d been before, but it was still disappointing to have that fact driven home. I was actually getting a little depressed, walking around seeing and smelling all the amazing foods and not being able to have anything. I suppose I could’ve had a turkey leg or bacon on a stick or something, but I’m really not a carnivore at heart and at the time I couldn’t even stomach the thought of more meat. More than anything I wanted those ribbon potato-chip thingies. I did, however, find a vendor that was selling sauteed mushrooms. I had two bowls of that during the day, plus a diet Pepsi (even though I’m not supposed to consume aspartame). So once I got over the food slump it turned out to be a pretty good day.

Some of the things I’ve eaten in the last week (still keeping my net carbs <20g/day):

- Spaghetti squash with diced sausage and spicy tomato sauce
- Chicken marinated in a tiny bit of Greek vinaigrette, diced over spring mix salad with bacon ranch dressing.
- Those mushrooms from the renfaire, which were pan-fried in butter with a bit of garlic and onion. Turned out to be really good.
- Atkins shakes (strawberry and vanilla) and pb/chocolate bars. Nom nom.

/cheers

 

Post-Turducken

Posted in daily on 11/27/2009 06:04 pm by deborah

It is now the day after Thanksgiving, and I’m not sure what to say. I made turducken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, homemade dinner rolls, an apple-butternut squash with cranberries dish, and two pumpkin pies.

Then I fed it all to my brother.

You read that right. I made a completely carb-laden gut-busting coma-inducing Thanksgiving dinner, for one. My kid brother came over for the holiday, and given that he is now a college student living in the big city with stoner roommates and subsisting on ramen, I wanted to make sure he had a good meal. I sent him home with about twenty leftover dinner rolls and fifteen tupperware meals to last him for the next two weeks.

So what did I eat? I wish you wouldn’t ask. I really wish you wouldn’t ask.

I did have some of the turducken. I ordered it from CajunGrocer as I’d never had one before and thought it would be nice to try something different. (I ordered the one stuffed with pork sausage, not traditional cornbread stuffing.) I made pseudo-mashed potatoes out of cauliflower, and while the texture is not bad, DON’T BELIEVE ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU IT TASTES LIKE MASHED POTATOES. I added butter and a melted cheese topping, and while it wasn’t outright bad, it was a pretty fucking poor substitute for potatoes. Skipped the stuffing. Skipped the cranberry. Turducken and cauli-taters were accompanied by a salad and hearts of palm (which I love even when I’m not going low-carb). Also, iced tea.

I tried to be optimistic about the meal, I really did. And while I don’t typically like cooking (baking =/= cooking), I do like cooking Thanksgiving dinner, because I like making food that other people love. But really, for myself, it was not a pleasant dinner. The meal was not very satisfying. It was actually more satisfying for me to pack up my brother’s leftovers into neat little containers than it was to eat my own meal, because it felt more productive. I know being on this diet is productive – the scale says so, my glucose meter says so, even my energy levels say so. But at the end of the day, sitting at that table and not being able to really enjoy the only holiday that I really look forward to – that was disappointing.

I will say this, though – these leftovers, just like real T-Day leftovers, are better the second day. I had a bowl of cauli-taters and turducken covered in mozarella cheese. It was edible, so yay.

 
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