oopsie

I've been gone a while, huh? Thanksgiving to Christmas is always a busy time for everyone, but we really weren't that busy. We had one Christmas party to attend early in December and then of course the various and random visits to parents and in-laws around Christmas day and New Years. I guess I've just been lazy!

Everyone is blogging about the new year and their new goals--most people are refusing to call them "resolutions" though. The word "goal" seems a little more forgiving and lenient for if/when you fall short of what you set out to do.

I haven't made any new ones. Mine are a continuation of last years that really didn't even start until February-ish. ;)

Although now that I think back on it, last year's goals may have been a continuation from the year before that. Or actually, the year before THAT since 2011 was kind of distracting with a new house and wedding and all that jazz!

My biggest goal is to get my insurance to cover a Dexcom system for me. The third party who reviewed my appeal last year stated that I did not have enough middle of the night lows to justify my insurance coverage for the system.

(Apparently that is all she thinks a Dex is good for.)

She also stated I could achieve better control on my own.
Number one: she obviously does NOT have diabetes herself;
Number two: she may be an endo, but she might not be the most up-to-speed on the newest technology;
Number three: middle of the night lows are scary and so so so annoying! Why should I have to put myself through that to "prove" I need something?
Number four: this past year I have had the best control I have had in a long, long time. Her telling me it wasn't good enough is like a slap in the face (see Number one).

I have my first endo appointment of the year next week. We'll see how that goes. I'm meeting with a new doctor since my previous PA is on maternity leave for another few weeks. I'm a little nervous about meeting her and if our personalities will mesh well. But the good news is that it will probably be the only time I have to meet with her.

This Christmas was my first with my Omnipod and even though I ate drastically fewer sweets than in previous years, it still felt like too much after cutting out almost all of them in months prior. I burned through pods/insulin faster than normal because of the junk I ate. I burned through my last pod a full 24 hours early and had to change out this morning. Fun.

So no more wasting money burning through pods & insulin! Fewer carbs! A good doctor visit! And a happy new year!

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

From the Weekend

Happy Monday, all.

I thought about doing a post on Saturday, but just got busy. I was at my mom's to use her food processor to make this almond butter recipe that I found on Delighted Momma (The recipe calls for a little unsweetened coconut but I couldn't find unsweetened anywhere. The sweetened worked fine and you can't even taste the coconut.). It looked so easy, I knew I had to try it. Plus, it was good timing. I needed to go grocery shopping so I just picked up some extra almonds at Aldi's.

It turned out REALLY good! J could not keep his finger out of it. He told me to hide it from him as he scooped out more and slathered it on his animal cracker. We may start making that instead of buying regular peanut butter although I may have to figure out something to use besides a food processor. Maybe grind the almonds up pretty fine in a coffee grinder, then use the blender? We'll see.

I made the almond butter in part because I wanted to use it in this recipe for paleo brownies (actually originating from here). They're really good, but they taste more like a cross between gingerbread and zucchini bread. I wouldn't have called them brownies, although they can give you a healthier chocolate fix than, say, eating an entire hershey bar. Ahem. Next time, I think I might cut back on the allspice and the zucchini. I'd add more chocolate chips (I put in the exact amount for once and mine weren't as....chocolate looking as the pic) but then it would be less healthy (I did grab organic chocolate though....that counts as healthier, right?).

Finally, I attempted some sweet potato chips. Attempted is the key word there. I bought a mandolin that had three different types of blades. Plus, the entire thing was red, which affected my purchasing decision. It took me a couple tries to get the right thickness I needed. Slapped them on a parchment-covered cookie sheet and stuck them in the oven. Tried 8 minutes first, but they were still soggy. Left them in and they started to burn. I tasted one unburned one and it wasn't bad...but there weren't enough of them to justify keeping. Luckily the sweet potatoes were cheap. I'll try again only 1. slicing the sweet potatoes by width instead of length, 2. maybe "fry" them in coconut oil. Not sure how those will be, but I have about 8 sweet potatoes left in the bag I bought so I need to use them up one way or another!

So 2 out of 3 ain't bad!

I'm excited to keep using my mandolin, so next up I'll use it for the leftover zucchini from the brownie recipe and then maybe try some sweet potato fries.

Otherwise, a fairly uneventful weekend. Got a little cleaned up around the house, did some laundry, and sat out on the front porch and enjoyed the quiet neighborhood on Sunday morning before J got up. Quiet until the crows started up and then some baby squirrels or birds needed their breakfast (maybe baby hawks? The squawking got louder when a hawk flew over so possibly.).

How was YOUR weekend?