Beginning to See Success....

So, today I am happy.  I cinched my belt one notch tighter.  I take this as a good sign that progress is being made.  My blood sugar is also coming down well. Two weeks ago I was shocked to see the numbers between 250 and 280 or so. Normal is under 100! Wow!  The past couple of days I'm seeing number below 200, and before dinner tonight it was down to 156. It's exciting to see that getting back on the Metformin plus being on this low carb program is working so well. I have plenty to eat and never feel hungry. My energy level is so much higher, and I no longer get sleepy after lunch. I even do well in the evenings and don't fall asleep in my chair. I'm getting used to 30 minutes each day of exercise, and actually look forward to my walks.  It's the first time I've ever really noticed a complete change in how I feel after beginning a diet. This is different. I like it.

End of Week 2

These two weeks have passed quickly and I am happy to say I had plenty of food to eat and experienced no carbohydrate cravings after the first couple of days. I have not weighed myself as it is recommended to wait until the end of Step 1 of the 8-week program.  I do notice a difference in how my clothes fit, my stomach is getting smaller, and I have a lot more energy, all very good signs.

     I try to get 30 minutes of cardio exercise each day, which is a real switch for me. I am beginning to get used to it now, and feel a little "antsy" until I take my walk(s).  I take that as a good sign.  

     My typical diet looks something like this. Monday through Friday mornings I have a yummy ViSalus Vi-Shake which consists of 2 scoops of shake mix, 12 ounces of almond-coconut milk, and 1 tablespoon of powdered peanut butter. Once I begin Step 2, I will be able to be more creative in my shakes and will add back in blueberries, strawberries, or other fruit. Due to high carb content and high on the glycemic index, fruits are not included in Step 1. The shakes are a real time saver in the mornings before work so I can grab them and run. On weekends, I usually have a veggie packed omelet cooked in olive oil.

     I generally pack my lunch and snacks which consist of a lot of fresh vegetables, salads, cheese, raw unprocessed nuts, and sometimes canned salmon, tuna, or chicken. I try to go organic as much as possible. I am limiting myself to one lunch out per week, and I am careful what I order. I also drink a ViSalus Neuro at breakfast and lunch mixed with 16 ounces of water. Neuro is a healthy energy drink containing very low caffeine (roughly equivalent to 1/4-1/2 cup of coffee). Additionally, I drink two cups of green tea each day. My current favorite tea is green tea with chai.  I mix some half and half with the hot water and add 1 packet of Stevia for sweetener.

     Note:  I was pleased to find some organic chicken at the grocery store today, so this is awesome.

     In the evenings, I eat similar to what I have at lunch. I need to eat 5 carbs at lunch and dinner, which takes some thinking since most foods with carbs are considerably more than 5.  Cottage cheese has carbs so I have been eating a side of that with meals.  

     Snacks generally consist of raw nuts, cheese, or raw veggies. I amaze myself that I actually enjoy them and now prefer them over pastries, pasta, and other sweets. Sometimes I have a Vi-Shake instead of eating if I am not very hungry.

     At bedtime, since I am diabetic, I am supposed to have a 5-carb snack. So I generally make another Vi-Shake. 

     I drink at least 64 ounces of water each day, above and beyond my tea and neuro energy drinks.

     What do I miss most?  Popcorn!! What's a movie without popcorn?  Well, I am actually allowed 1 cup of popcorn... but hey... what's the point?  In Step 2 I can have 3 cups of popcorn. My movie days consisting of a large tub of popcorn with butter (free refills!) are over, I am afraid.  I must eat healthy just prior to going to movies now so that popcorn isn't so tempting.

      What positive thing do I notice most?  I no longer get sleepy after lunch, so I know it is the carbs that drag me down (in addition to causing my blood sugar to rise).

      Tomorrow begins Week 3. I would like to add 5 minutes additional exercise each day.  I think I will do some weight lifting to build up my muscles. As we age, muscle mass is reduced, and I have definitely noticed a loss of strength. Time to change that.

     Here is a recipe I found for Chicken Cacciatore II and it is awesome!  http://recipes.prevention.com/Recipe/chicken-cacciatore-ii.aspx  I hope you enjoy it.  Until next time..... peace.

Day 4

It suddenly occurred to me that I should begin to blog about my journey to become healthy. It would seem that if I commit to do this publicly it should hold me accountable, and perhaps even motivate someone reading this to begin his/her own journey as well. 
     So, today is Day 4 of Step 1, and is based on the book "Diabetes Miracle" by Diane Kress. Step 1 lasts for 8 weeks, which is good since I know there is an end and it will not last forever. My day 1 was on April 22, 2012. This means that Step 1 logically should end on June 17.  
     As luck would have it, on Day 2, someone brought some chips and dip to work and I made the mistake of eating TWO of those supposedly healthy blue tortilla chips. Did you know that 6 of those chips contain 19 carbohydrates?? 19!!  For 6 chips!!  So, those two innocent looking blue chips that I ate (surely they could not be too fattening) contained over 6 carbs which threw me over the carb limit.  And guess what?  The consequences of going over your carb limit on this plan is to ADD 3 DAYS to Step 1, which means it now ends on June 20, instead of June 17.  Ok, so that is a motivator to watch those carbs!!
     It turns out that there are many things I can eat on this plan other than carbs, so I am doing ok so far [except for those stupid chips]. And the really neat thing is that my Visalus Body by Vi shakes (the shake mix that tastes like a cake mix) work ideally into the program. Each shake has only 2 net carbs! Step 1 does not require these shakes, but, hey, they taste great, are filling, easily portable, and are super easy to make. Works for me! I drink at least two of these shakes each day, along with other healthy foods, and sometimes three shakes since a snack before bedtime is a requirement for Step 1. That's a new one for me... first time I ever heard that I get to have a bedtime snack! So maybe this isn't so bad after all....

Book Review, Rocky Mountain Match by Pamela Nissen

Pamela Nissen grabs your attention from the beginning and keeps it throughout the entire book. This book shows her love of God and family, which I know first-hand to be true.  She is a delightful lady, warm and caring, and she has written a wonderful love story, intertwined with mystery and suspense.  Set in the Colorado mountains in the late 1800s, her characters come to life with an historical flair.  I highly recommend this book.  Ms. Nissen is a gifted writer, and I am eager to begin her second novel in this series, entitled Rocky Mountain Redemption.

Older Than Dirt

I am not sure where this collection of 50's era information (or maybe even before!) came from, but it arrived in my email with no source listed. For those of us "older than dirt", it will take you back in time. For those of you who just think of us as "older than dirt", you may enjoy learning about our lives. I keep wondering why I receive all these "oldie" emails, and then I remember that many of my friends are oldies now.... in age, perhaps, but not in spirit! :) Someone asked the other day, “What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up”' “We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him. 'All the food was slow.” “C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?” “It was a place called 'at home’,'' I explained. “Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.” By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it: Some parents NEVER! owned their own house, wore Levis , set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died. My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 5. It was, of course, black and white. I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.' When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had. We didn't have a car until I was 4. It was an old black Dodge. I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line. Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was. All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. My brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM every morning. On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day. Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them. If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing. Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it? MEMORIES from a friend: My Dad was cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old. How many do you remember? Ignition switches on the dashboard. Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall. Real ice boxes. Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards. Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.. Using hand signals for cars without turn signals. Older Than Dirt Quiz: Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about.  Ratings at the bottom. 1 Blackjack chewing gum 2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water 3. Candy cigarettes 4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles 5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes 6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers 7. Party lines 8. Newsreels before the movie 9. P.F. Flyers 10. Butch wax 11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels) 12. Peashooters 13. Howdy Doody 14. 45 RPM records 15. S & H green stamps 16. Hi-fi's 17. Metal ice trays with lever 18. Mimeograph paper 19. Blue flashbulb 20. Packards 21. Roller skate keys 22. Cork popguns 23. Drive-ins 24. Studebakers 25. Wash tub wringers If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age, If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt! I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life. Don't forget to pass this along!! Especially to all your really OLD friends.

Fender Skirts... Back to the Fifties Again

I recently ran across this site and it conjured up old memories of growing up in the 50's. I hope you enjoy seeing the fender skirts, steering knobs, and a few other things that are probably considered antiques by now.

Fender Skirts and Steering Knobs