As the cool people say, 'I'm in the groove'. I have settled in to a good routine, taking care of my diabetes, the food, some exercise, and lots of adaptation as I go along. Okay, well, the exercise could get better but until life settles down so that I'm not busy 20 hours out of 24, it's likely to be on and off. At least it's on more than it was...a step ahead.
The food, diet, eating plan is so much better than I was eating before my diagnosis. I'm very pleased with that. I owe a lot to my diabetic educator. So a BIG thanks to she who helps me see the light and not the guilt. Anyone, of any age, who read the title to this blog instantly thought of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups because that was their advertising campaign when I was a wee girl...yeah, the candy love of my life, those are. And this time of year...oh my, they have them in egg shapes, for Easter, which for some reason is the PERFECT way to eat their peanut butter and chocolate! I had some mini ones this week...and now they are gone, which is a good thing. When a craving hits, I find it's best to have a little of what I want, over a day or two, then be done with it. It's working, so I'm going with it, until it doesn't work anymore.
But words, actions, deeds, can be misleading and alas, I'm not here to discuss the perfectness of Reeses's Peanut Butter Cups, though they are perfect in every way. Rather, as a person venturing deeper into the myriad ways to get foods I enjoy on my plate in ways that are better for my sweet self, I am looking at odd and strange combinations that provide that same satisfaction ,only with less risk.
This weekend I found myself returning to a snack that I hadn't had in years. Radishes and peanut butter! Yeah, I know what you're thinking...'Bless her heart, she's so deprived, she's losing her mind AND her taste buds!' Well, before you go writing off my buds, let me tell you what a tasty treat this is! Sounds strange, kind of like Pop-Tarts and Velveeta cheese, another taste sensation...albeit trailer trashy, but it works. I discovered how well these two little foods went together back when my now 21 year old son was about 3. My former husband and I, worked in Huntsville, Alabama with abused children. In a group home setting, we took care of 8 boys who, for many reasons, could not live with their own parents, and tried to help finish raising them to be able to go out into the world. One of the things we did with them, was to grow a garden. The land behind the house was some of the most fertile I have ever planted in and whatever we planted grew like crazy! We had over 100 watermelons from two little rows...the boys sold watermelons at the church we took them to, for spending money. We planted two rows of radishes...so do the math, 100 watermelons in two rows, radishes are smaller...my estimate today is that there were approximately 136,292 radishes in that garden to be eaten by 10 people. Needless to say, radishes, trimmed prettily and sliced in every conceivable fashion, were on the table at every meal, including breakfast. I hate wasting anything, and I'm a tightwad deluxe, so the radishes were on the menu, 24/7. It came to pass that radishes landed with lunch on a day when lunch was peanut butter sandwiches. Hmmm...let me just say, a delicious little treat was discovered! I love the peppery flavor of the radishes with the salty peanut butter taste.
Fast forward to 2011, and my low carb, low cal, high fiber, sugarless life...my brain reminded me when I looked at the peanut butter jar that the peanut butter tasted real good with radishes. So, I created myself a little light snack, sliced radishes dipped in peanut butter! I still love it, 20 years later...and that's about how long it's been since I ate that food combo. It's a great low carb source of protein that provides that satisfied full feeling with the crunchy fresh peppery radish texture in the background. I have a feeling it will be my 'go to' snack this summer. And I'll be looking for more funky, fun, tasty snack combos that I can slide into my menu. I was reading a review of a book written by a woman about the saga of her husband's diabetes, it's toll on his life and how it ultimately took his life. I'm good with not leaving anyone to write a book about my saga. I'm really great with controlling my sugar and living to tell my own sweet tales of woe and joy. I understand that it could easily be what causes my death....eventually. But I plan on eventually being when I'm so old that it won't matter...it'll be my time.
So, run on down to the grocery now, I can just hear you scrambling for car keys, and get some radishes and get snacking...cause two great tastes taste great together...feel free to think of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups while you eat!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Dear Diary
Two visits ago, my diabetic educator said it was time to work on finding target foods that were going to make my sugar go crazy and happy dance all the way to numbers unknown. Cool, okay... Then she said how we do this is, you write down everyyyyyyyyything you eat at every meal and snack. Not cool, so not okay. I wasn't good at diary writing when I was a girl kid and was supposed to love, love, love putting down all my happy thoughts (on good days) and all my angst (mom said no, dad took her side, my friend at school didn't like my outfit today!) thoughts. However, the diary when I was ten wasn't going to help me live longer, this one would...yeah, okay. Not cool but I get it.
Instead of taking my blood sugar every morning before nary a bite of anything has been eaten, I choose a meal and two hours after I eat it, I take my blood sugar. The goal being that if the sugar spike that naturally occurs after eating, hasn't come back down to some semblance of normal (my new normal, ya know the sweet kind), then one of the foods I ate may be a trigger food for me and I might need to avoid it. Armed with all this new information...I swear, if you are diabetic, go go go to your educator. I learn something every month and there is someone to listen to my concerns that KNOWS what should and should not be happening. It is invaluable to anyone trying to manage this disease. Plus, it helps keep you accountable. It's hard to eat crazy bad for you foods and then go talk about it! Anyway, so I set off with my Dear Food Diary plan. It was a month of tediousness, let me tell you. I tend to be a little OCD about stuff...where things are placed on my desk, the straightness of my folder stack...this was no different. I just couldn't stand not to stop and write down every little teensy thing at the very moment it happened and it was SO inconvenient. I did not enjoy it. But, and this is such a big but...I learned a lot. About my eating habits, about the things that affect my choices...PMS? YES! Must have DONUT! Tired, stressed? YES! Must have CHOCOLATE! I'm an idiot. My food choices are so often guided by things not even partly related to food. I didn't resist all temptations but at least I can, and am, more readily identifying the moments when my choices are being driven not be hunger and need but by some other influence...be it internal or external.
I didn't identify any food triggers, so that was really good. I did identify, that for my best after dinner blood sugar, I really need to take my medication a bit earlier in the evening. I had mostly good eating choices and had my first really normal, as in normal for all folks not just for diabetic people, blood sugars...which read below 100 several times! I was really happy about that and so were my kidneys and various other body parts. They didn't thank me, but I'm sure it's true. So off I went back to the diabetic cheerleader lady with my pink food diary and all my information, gleefully celebrating the end of writing all that stuff down!
Oh wait...there's more? Oh, of course there is! You know it wasn't that easy. She was very pleased with my progress. My overall average blood sugar was down almost 20 points! That was really excellent news. I lost a little more weight, another plus. So I'm clipping right along with this management business. All the more reason to think I was free and clear of this diary thing. She wasn't on my plan...and I couldn't persuade her with my whining about how UNfun it was...I did try. She said she wanted me to continue the food diary with an added bonus. At the end of the month I need to go back and highlight, ugh...highlight (really???), all the not good, UNbest, really bad food choices that I made. So for those of you paying attention...I get to highlight DONUT and CHOCOLATE and all the other stupid stuff. I understood immediately the point of the exercise. A continuation of helping the person (in this case, falling off the wagon donut snacking ME) making the choices, to choose more wisely. When it's there in black and white you cannot ignore what you've done. Oh sure, you could not write stuff down but what would be the point in that?! Is the new assignment helping me pick better? I wish I could say 100% of the time that was true but that would be a 100% big fat lie! There are some foods I've given up and I don't miss them (or rarely miss them, and not enough to have them) but there are some things that I love like a fat girl loves donuts...oh wait, that IS what I love. Those aren't so easily banished forever. It's a work in progress and I bet in 10 years or 30 years it will still be a work in progress. Cause I still like food, I still think chocolate is a vegetable, and I still think the calories fall out of the donut hole. But I'm controlling it, the choices, the sugar, the whole kit 'n caboodle! Maybe my highlighter won't run out of ink...
No links this time, go back to some of those other links in past posts and find a good recipe that will make a good for me donut...will ya!?
Instead of taking my blood sugar every morning before nary a bite of anything has been eaten, I choose a meal and two hours after I eat it, I take my blood sugar. The goal being that if the sugar spike that naturally occurs after eating, hasn't come back down to some semblance of normal (my new normal, ya know the sweet kind), then one of the foods I ate may be a trigger food for me and I might need to avoid it. Armed with all this new information...I swear, if you are diabetic, go go go to your educator. I learn something every month and there is someone to listen to my concerns that KNOWS what should and should not be happening. It is invaluable to anyone trying to manage this disease. Plus, it helps keep you accountable. It's hard to eat crazy bad for you foods and then go talk about it! Anyway, so I set off with my Dear Food Diary plan. It was a month of tediousness, let me tell you. I tend to be a little OCD about stuff...where things are placed on my desk, the straightness of my folder stack...this was no different. I just couldn't stand not to stop and write down every little teensy thing at the very moment it happened and it was SO inconvenient. I did not enjoy it. But, and this is such a big but...I learned a lot. About my eating habits, about the things that affect my choices...PMS? YES! Must have DONUT! Tired, stressed? YES! Must have CHOCOLATE! I'm an idiot. My food choices are so often guided by things not even partly related to food. I didn't resist all temptations but at least I can, and am, more readily identifying the moments when my choices are being driven not be hunger and need but by some other influence...be it internal or external.
I didn't identify any food triggers, so that was really good. I did identify, that for my best after dinner blood sugar, I really need to take my medication a bit earlier in the evening. I had mostly good eating choices and had my first really normal, as in normal for all folks not just for diabetic people, blood sugars...which read below 100 several times! I was really happy about that and so were my kidneys and various other body parts. They didn't thank me, but I'm sure it's true. So off I went back to the diabetic cheerleader lady with my pink food diary and all my information, gleefully celebrating the end of writing all that stuff down!
Oh wait...there's more? Oh, of course there is! You know it wasn't that easy. She was very pleased with my progress. My overall average blood sugar was down almost 20 points! That was really excellent news. I lost a little more weight, another plus. So I'm clipping right along with this management business. All the more reason to think I was free and clear of this diary thing. She wasn't on my plan...and I couldn't persuade her with my whining about how UNfun it was...I did try. She said she wanted me to continue the food diary with an added bonus. At the end of the month I need to go back and highlight, ugh...highlight (really???), all the not good, UNbest, really bad food choices that I made. So for those of you paying attention...I get to highlight DONUT and CHOCOLATE and all the other stupid stuff. I understood immediately the point of the exercise. A continuation of helping the person (in this case, falling off the wagon donut snacking ME) making the choices, to choose more wisely. When it's there in black and white you cannot ignore what you've done. Oh sure, you could not write stuff down but what would be the point in that?! Is the new assignment helping me pick better? I wish I could say 100% of the time that was true but that would be a 100% big fat lie! There are some foods I've given up and I don't miss them (or rarely miss them, and not enough to have them) but there are some things that I love like a fat girl loves donuts...oh wait, that IS what I love. Those aren't so easily banished forever. It's a work in progress and I bet in 10 years or 30 years it will still be a work in progress. Cause I still like food, I still think chocolate is a vegetable, and I still think the calories fall out of the donut hole. But I'm controlling it, the choices, the sugar, the whole kit 'n caboodle! Maybe my highlighter won't run out of ink...
No links this time, go back to some of those other links in past posts and find a good recipe that will make a good for me donut...will ya!?
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