Food

As a diabetic, carbs are the enemy.

Not really. My lazy, no good pancreas is my enemy.

Unfortunately, that's saying part of me is my enemy....and I'm pretty sure that's not possible. Or at the very least, kind of dumb.

So. . . . . . . . . . .

Carbs are the enemy.

I used to be a serious carb addict. All my life, my best friend has been a certain snack cake queen (wow, say that three times fast!). Those ooey, gooey, chocolatey, sugary, three-bite sized treats. Pasta was sooo good too. And donuts! Oh, those sour cream donuts I used to get at the bookstore when I was at GSU. They were only .50 so of course I got two at a time. I walked around a LOT on that campus, so I needed the energy.

I loooooved diet soda too. Diet Cherry Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper were my favorite. Fresca was good when I wanted a kicky little change. But I'd drink regular Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi when we were out at restaurants. I wasn't too picky. Diet drinks are "free" in the diabetes world, so I felt like I wasn't depriving myself of what everyone else had when I could get a fizzy beverage with dinner too.

That all changed in January and February of this year. I started to get serious about what I was putting in my body.

I wish I could say I was becoming more aware of my temple and wanted to honor God by using it in a better fashion. . . .but that's really not true.

I started reading about what refined sugar and artificial sweeteners do to a human body.

Needless to say, I was disgusted.

I immediately quit drinking sodas of any kind. In fact, I think there are still some store brand diet drinks under the counter in my kitchen. I may as well toss them.

(Why not give them to someone, you ask? Why in the world would I do that?? There's no one I dislike that much that I would say, "Oh, here, I was cleaning out my kitchen and came across this poison that I don't put in my body anymore and I'd like for you to have it."

Nuh uh.)

So anyways. Its been water for me since February of this year, with some coffee, Zevia, and a couple glasses of unsweet iced tea here and there. Oh, and almond milk which is surprisingly delectable. The first sip was like, "Hm. . .this is different. Nutty." But now I chug the stuff. At 1 gram of carbs per CUP, it's basically a freebie, diabetes-wise. It's all about texture for me, and I think almond milk has a nice smooth texture that's close to regular milk.

I eliminated artificial sweeteners as much as possible. A couple popped up in unexpected places, but once I was aware of them, they were gone. I also severely limited my refined sugar consumption.

In the past couple of months, I've slid away from my vigilance and my hips are proving it. It started with my birthday and just went downhill from there.

Actually . . . now that I look at it from that angle. . . I think I've been off the wagon longer than I was on it.

Ew.

Dr. Bernstein talks about the law of small numbers. (Disclaimer: I haven't made it all the way through his book. I'm still working on digesting the first few chapters. It's a lot!) The more I use my pod and aim for that elusive 100 blood sugar, the more I can see he's right.

If you're hammering a nail for a picture frame, what sense does it make to stand across the room and run full tilt towards the nail while trying to aim with your hammer? No, you stand next to it and tap slowly, only a few inches from the nailhead. Right? Right.

Fewer carbs, less insulin, less room for error. So that's what I'm going to try and get back to. Along with adding more veggies to our diet.

I'm going to say this . . . .and I know people who know me will gasp in shock. . . . but I bought some red, yellow, orange and green peppers today to TRY. JUST TO TRY!!!

Gosh people, calm down.

I also picked up some fresh green beans, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, blueberries, olives, and avocados. I guess you can say we're going to go partial Paleo. I'm not quite ready to give up all the cheese we eat, but I'm fully ready to give up pasta and grains. I've been buying bread without HFCS, but it's still a lot of carbs for me to be eating in one sitting. The only other thing I can think of (when we don't have leftovers from dinner) to use for lunches is lettuce wraps. Worth a try.

I hope I can find enough variety for our meals to keep me interested for at least a couple weeks so I can truly give this a shot. I've proven to myself that I have the willpower. I came home a few weeks ago and thought, "Wow, an ice cold fizzy drink would taste pretty good right now." I didn't have any around, so it was easy to avoid the temptation then. But the next morning, driving to work, passing QT where the soda fountain called my name. . . ? Not quite as easy, but I still did it.

I'm really not even a fan of the Zevia anymore. It just doesn't taste good to me.

So here goes everything. We'll see what happens.

Well. . . maybe as soon as the cinnamon rolls from Ikea are gone. . .

From Pinterest, courtesy this gal