My journey to better health

Not sure if I'm losing more weight, but my second chin is fast disappearing. In fact, it's nearly gone! Wish I could say the same for my belly and butt.

After more than a few false starts, I've started walking again.

Good for you, Sue! This "journey to better health" topic is an inspiration!

Fif, Aloha to that chin! Tell your butt to get it's rear in gear!

I wish it would, and sometimes I think it is.....especially if I sit down on something that's not padded. Seems my rear isn't as padded as it used to be anymore. Almost all my pants try to fly at half-mast too. Have no idea why, but my big dinner salad spiked me a bit. Same as I had 2 weeks ago and did fine with. Must be hormone fluctuations at work here. Going to try a toasted cheese sandwich for lunch and see how it goes. I did okay with 3 slices of french toast (with splenda sprinkled on) so 2 slices of bread for a sandwich shouldn't do much.

I'll be soon walking a lot when the snow flies and can't ride the bike. Funny thing is, when I do a lot of exercise it's my MOM who loses the weight. Told her she needs to exercise more so I can lose weight.

Had a little scare yesterday...thought I'd lost the lancing device for poking my finger. Looked everywhere for it and had a h*ll of a time poking without it for breakfast readings. Looked online for a replacement.....my lord they are expensive. Cheaper to buy the entire kit at Walmart, but what do I need another meter for that uses expensive strips plus the carry case? Luckily, my mom found it at her place so I had it back in time for dinner readings. Seems it fell out on the floor before I got it all zipped up for the night.

My walking buddy, who has had type 2 diabetes for a long time, said he will look at the pasta he buys. Hope it's not the same as the one you tried, but didn't work for you. He did say that at first, it's all a learning process. He always has trouble with rice and potatoes shooting his numbers way up, no matter how small a serving he tries, but says you may have different triggers. I'll post whatever he suggests along the way... though his memory isn't all that great, so sometimes I have to ask a couple of times before he goes home and asks the wife or looks for himself for something.

So far the amount of rice I can handle is so small it's not even enough to suppliment a stirfry. Any amount of noodles sends me shooting skyhigh.......potatoes too for the most part. I did manage a small can of those lil white new potatoes, fried in bacon grease, once without going into the stratosphere.
Had ONE toasted cheese sandwich for lunch, did okay with that. Sara Lee 45 calories and Delightful bread (multigrain too).....thin sliced and I can have two for a sandwich, three slices for french toast. I can finally have a sandwich again! HOORAY!
I want to have noodles again so badly........I miss tuna and noodles, mac n cheese, and alaking noodles. Since I can't have them I'm actually craving them like crazy.

Going to try a version of hot chocolate when I get home since it's so cold here today: unsweetened cocoa, splenda, and hot water. We'll see how it tastes.

I'm curious ... what are the all the things you CAN have, without fear? Do you have a list of those? Maybe some of our wizard cooks can create some new, palatable recipes for you with just the safe stuff. NOT saying you shouldn't experiment! I think what you're doing, finding out what works for you, is amazing! Just saying it might be nice to have some fall-back items you can go to when you're tired and hungry and want something nice and satisfying that you don't have to worry about. Any cooks out there willing to take on the challenge?

Let me think about it.

Okay: so far I can have a good amount of oatmeal as long as it has lots of cinnamon in it, veggies of all types, chicken, fish, porkchops, hamburger-no bun, hot dogs split in half on one slice of bread with mustard and ketchup, ham and cheese. Salads with lots of veggies with parmesan and bacon bits (haven't used dressing in 40 years). Up to 3 slices of that thin sliced Sara Lee bread as long as the rest of the meal has no carbs. I've also done pretty good on the Hormal Completes as long as they're below 36 carbs. I did have a small serving of Arby's seasoned fries (from the grocery store) with baked chicken with no problem. 2 Oreo cookies are okay for a snack, or a granola bar, or 1 hunts pudding cup, or 1/2 a bag of microwave popcorn, or 8oz of chocolate soymilk.

Last night for dinner I made alaking (canned-20 carbs) with some leftover turkey breast, lots of celery, a few shredded baby carrots, and half an onion. Only went up 4 pts! I was absolutely amazed. So I had a chocolate pudding cup for dessert. Still well in the normal range. The hot chocolate didn't spike me either but it just seemed to be missing something.....

I need recipes that are fast, easy, or can be made over the weekend when I have more time and then frozen. My meal limit seems to be 36 total carbs. Still working on a decent omelet that can be frozen and reheated later for a fast breakfast......it still comes out like rubber. Anyone have any luck with that, and if so what was your secret to nonrubbery eggs? Anyone try zucchini noodles?

Mom still refuses to go out to a restaurant with me, says it wouldn't be worth the cost. But most buffets have enough choices I can have that it would be worth it as a special outing. I thought my thanksgiving dinner was proof of that. It was a good tasting meal that was good for me and didn't hurt me one bit.

Made 1 1/2 toasted cheese sandwiches for dinner Saturday night. Shouldn't have spiked me since the carb count was below 36 for everything....but I still went up to 126. I figured I should have been around 100-104. My head hurt but I didn't think much of it, the weather was shifting and I always get a headache with that. But not 1/2 an hour after I checked my glucose levels (during the movie when the 2 hour postdinner period was up) I saw the aura that preceeds a literally blinding optical migraine headache. Should've seen mom's face when I asked her for "something with caffeine but no sugar and hurry". She thought my sugar was too low but why would I ask for something without sugar if that was the case? Obviously she wasn't thinking. Told her I had about 10 minutes before I went blind (these kind of migraines literally blind you for a while). Chugged the can of pop she gave me, popped 2 Aleve, and waited. Brad was nice enough to pause the movie until my vision cleared even though that took about 20 minutes. Thankfully the treatment worked, it headed off the headache.

Anyone with diabetes or friends with it know if migraines can spike your glucose levels? It's the only explanation I can come up with for the numbers I had.

I've been a migraine sufferer for 35 years, and I've never heard of any relationship between migraine and blood glucose. It seems like it would be very unrelated to me. I have, however, heard and read lots about the relationship between different types of foods and migraines, so the change in your diet may have sparked the migraine.

Great, I'm eating healthier and it will give me more migraines? LordHelpMe.... I did read something about low glucose levels triggering migraines, which might be why my mom gets a lot of them. Her problem is glucose levels that are mostly too low despite what she eats. She has no idea how much I envy her that 'problem'. I've never noticed that I had food triggers for my migraines like my mom has. Hormonal yes, but food, no.

At least my numbers have been good since that migraine....all normal range. Hope that is still the case tomorrow night, we have a Christmas party to go to. I have a feeling I may have to have a safe snack when I get home from that as mom will probably end up with part of my dinner (it's all pre-plated for you). And sneak off to the bathroom to test just before sitting down to eat that dinner. May have to sneak off again 2 hours later to test again if they're not done with the door prize drawings. Maybe I'll finally win something besides the plant off the table this year (which will be doomed to die if I get it).

Got a package with some almond butter in it this morning, so now I can try out that cookie recipe this weekend. Will let you know how it turns out (and what the naysayers say about it).

Common migraine triggers are chocolate, tomatoes, aged cheeses, red wine, and vinegar. All of these foods are favorites of mine. I remember having a particularly intense migraine the day after I had pizza with red wine, and a couple of chocolates for dessert (don't remember if I had salad, but that would take in the vinegar too), so I can say that food has been known to trigger my migraines.

Well so far despite the cold I'm still walking.

Good for you, Sue! Just remember to take it easy for now and don't get over-tired until you're well enough to take it.

Fif, what's this party you're going to? My only advice is to NOT do what I do, get carried away by the festivities and forget your restrictions. It's hard to munch celery sticks when all around you are eating cheese puffs!

I'll be fine up until it gets wet. Then I have nothing over the cats.
Cold and dry is one thing, cold and wet is just disgusting.

Sue, when the weather is too horrible to ride the bike I walk the hallways at my mom's building, or climb the stairs at home a couple more times than usual. And rocking the kitty is exercise too, for the legs. Petting the kitty exercises the arms. And if you play Tag Hide n Seek like Bij does with me when he feels like it that exercise the entire body. Nothing like having a furry lil personal trainer.

The party is the annual Village employee Christmas party. Since I'm employed through the police department, that makes me a village employee (even if I am designated "Seasonal part-time"). New place this year so we'll see how the food is. The Chief says it's good. Am planning on having a snack handy at mom's in case I'm still hungry later on tonight. Will have to sneak off to the restroom to test just before heading to get my plate. But do I do that test just before hitting the nibbly things buffet (veggies--will have some of those, cheese, crackers--which I'll steer clear of) or the dinner itself? There's nearly an hour between the two.

I was running a tad high yesterday but still in the normal range, thankfully my numbers are lower today. I'll try not to overindulge but if I do spike a bit will also try not to worry so much about it. It is ONE meal after all, not an entire style of eating day after day. Suzzzz: I prefer celery to cheese puffs, and no dip. What might bother me is everyone having a huge dessert and I can't have much. I actually miss eating a candy cane or a brownie!

Well, I did really well with the dinner at the party. They didn't have raw veggies to nibble on, but did have some cheese and crackers (I skipped the crackers) as well as some summer sausage and ham wrapped around some cream cheese. Went very light on that. Dinner was prime rib, mixed roasted veggies, half a red potato, a nice wedge of roasted onion, and half a roll with butter. Only went up 18 pts (to 101--well in the normal range). Sooooo, I had the brownie as a cookie concoction they had for dessert. It was a good meal too. And when they went to do the door prizes the first number they pulled out was mine! Even the mayor who drew it out was surprised. Nice set of 4 travel cups.

This morning I'm back down in the low 80's range and the oatmeal only brought me up 4 pts. Since I'm eating about 2 cups cooked that's a lot of carbs, more than I can handle at any other meal, so it must be the 2 heaping TB of cinnamon that makes that okay for me to have for breakfast.

Did I read that right - 2 TABLESPOONS of cinnamon on your oatmeal?? Fif, do you know that large quantities of cinnamon can be a hallucinogen? No kidding around here either...

Well that explains some the behavior around here you should see the
amount this group dumps in theirs in the morning.

Congrats on handling the dinner so well, Fif!

I've heard that cinnamon lowers blood sugar, but I agree one shouldn't overdo anything untested. Found some interesting stuff online:

From The People's Pharmacy:

Q. I have been interested in your articles about cinnamon for use by type 2 diabetics to lower blood sugar. I was concerned that the cinnamon I buy might be contaminated with coumarin, so I called the distributor. The woman I spoke to told me all cinnamon has coumarin in it naturally, just as a lot of fruit does, but that the amounts are too low to be harmful if it is used only occasionally.

I am interested in taking ¼ teaspoon in the morning. I am on a low dose of a medicine for type 2 diabetes. Is this reasonable?

A. We always recommend that a person with diabetes work with the health care team (doctor, nurse and/or diabetes educator) when adding natural supplements to the regimen. You can avoid any worry about coumarin by creating your own water-soluble cinnamon extract. Just put the cinnamon in a coffee filter and pour a cup of boiling water over it. Drink the resulting solution. The active compound in cinnamon is water soluble but coumarin is not, so you get the benefit without the worry.

There's more at their website.

I didn't know the first part Suzzz, the last part is interesting because I think that is
an infusion.

Oops....meant to say 2 teaspoons of cinnamon! No hallucinations, just nicely lowered blood glucose levels despite the amount of oatmeal I'm eating with it. I could try making the cinnamon infusion, and cooking the oatmeal in that. No worries then, right?
Had 4 tiny crabcakes from Walmart (frozen) for dinner......mistake. Raised me up to 128, 44 pts! But it also had a lot of breading and filler inside so that's why. And I still have 4 more of them in my freezer to use up. Mom doesn't like them. Now if I could make my own from scratch they'd be much better for me but finding crab other than crab legs is very hard here.

Still must be losing weight though, my boobs are shrinking........

Fif, that's interesting what you said earlier about the crackers, I'm infamous for helping myself to
dip and taking any chips. What take up valuable real estate with chips.

Chips are full of carbs too, so I can only have a couple....not really worth messing with.

Had eggs and sausage for breakfast yesterday......started out at 82 and two hours later was at......82. Amazing! Yet this morning for my usual oatmeal I went up 27 pts.....does not make sense to me at all. Must be hormonal shifts again. Having cheeseburger in a bowl tonight, no bun. Should be good AND low carb. Then I can have a pudding cup later in the evening.

See, I manage to get a few snacks in here and there.

My uncle came to visit mom and me Saturday afternoon......didn't even notice I'd dropped weight or my new glasses. People here have really started to notice the weight loss, so how could he miss it? He hasn't seen me since mid-summer, when I was fatter.