Yeah Baby! My Sugar is Normal Yesterday and Today!

My hard work has ALREADY paid off! I have been so good, and it has been a tiny struggle but not huge, I think that's because I'm doing it for me. I've taken my sugar med (pills) like I'm supposed to but have been trying to do it without the insulin they want me to take. In just FOUR days of being good, even with 40mg of Prednisone every day, my sugar was 121 yesterday morning and 138 this morning (I had pasta last night for dinner so attributing the slight increase to that) Which is in the NORMAL range. I am so proud of myself I can hardly stand it. I don't think my sugar has been normal in 5 years.

I haven't starved myself or denied myself food throughout the day. I'm trying to eat more times a day but healthier things. Making good choices. I still have cravings but I am talking myself through them and choosing something else. As I find new recipes and new ideas for healthy eating it will be even easier. 

One thing I think you have to do to make things easier, is when you come home from the grocery store, right away cut up your veggies and make a big salad that you can dip into. I find when I think I'm hungry I want something RIGHT NOW and if I have to peel a cucumber and cut it up I may be more apt to grab something less healthy. I also used my Thatsa' Mega Bowl from Tupperware (small plug from my business) to make a giant salad which I've eaten off from for the last three days and still have some left. 

I'm also going to really research freezing fruits and veggies as it is SO expensive to eat healthy. I wanted to buy a 3lb bag of Granny Smith apples for a recipe and it was $5.99!! Now if I could buy a few bags when they are on sale and do something with them to where they would last then I'd be happy. For now I'll go without until I find them on sale. 

I shall leave you with my new motto...

Hurdles and lots of them

Since I decided I needed to start this journey to being healthier I feel I've done quite well by my standards. I'm going to write about a few of the things that are hard for me, times of the day or mental habits so I can look back and see how I've handled them and what I've done differently.

Night time is one of the hardest times for me. I often stay up til 11pm-1am. I really try to keep myself busy up until about 10pm and then sit down to watch some TV and unwind. That is when I want to snack. Normally a bowl of ice cream or some cookies or chips but we all know that is terrible for me in so many ways. Wednesday night the cravings started but I hadn't been to the store to get healthier things to eat, so I kept telling myself no and finally just went to bed so I wouldn't have anything. That right there was HUGE for me and that is how I know I'm doing this for me and not because people are saying I should.

The second hardest time for me  is driving somewhere more than just a jaunt around town. The first thing I do before I start the trip is stop and get a diet soda, a bag of chips and a candy bar. BAD BAD BAD! Sadly though, that has been my routine. Thursday I  had a doctor's appointment in Sayre so I drove right past the convenience store and headed out. I did stop at a convenience store that I knew had healthier things to snack on and got a little package of baby carrots, celery sticks, broccoli and light Ranch dressing and looked for the lowest carb sandwich, a wrap. I was really quite proud of myself. Baby steps. On the way home from my Tupperware meeting that night I thought to myself, "I'm going to pop in and get a candy bar, no one will know" but then I realized I would know. It took quite a bit of willpower but I drove right on by. Then I was coming up on the ice cream stand and said the same thing to myself but once again, I would know. I stepped on the gas and drove really fast past it. To me.... that was AMAZING! My mental state in the past has been that my life sucks and I deserve a treat. I know I still have things to work on with my mind set but it's a start and I really feel like I'm doing it for me, not for anyone else.

Right now this journey isn't about losing weight or inches. It's about eating a healthier lifestyle for my Diabetes, for my long term health. Of course I hope I lose weight and inches but I'm not watching those things, weighing myself or measuring. I'm going by my Glucose meter and what it's telling me. I don't want to try to put too much pressure on myself and get discouraged.

I'll leave you with a little funny, this used to be me!

Yes, I am still alive.

Well..... my motivation to being healthy died off and I left you all. What has changed you ask? Well, I was back at the ER with tachycardia, ended up having to spend the night. Long adventure, been back a few more times. My Sarcoidosis is flared back up at full force and my Prednisone has been bumped back up high again every day. This means my diabetes isn't faring so well either. Last night I couldn't stop being thirsty. I drank 8 glasses of ice water and decided hmmmm maybe I should check my sugar. Weeeeeeeeeell, it was 661 and that had me nervous. This being said. I am FINALLY motivated to get back on track. I get so discouraged with my health that I figure what's the point in trying to eat healthy but at the end of the day it's all a big circle and I need to work on the things I CAN fix and let the doctors worry about the things they can fix. I need to stop making excuses for bad eating habits. That starts today.

This blog is mainly for me to document my journey but I hope that it helps anyone who comes across it. I will post recipes, any helpful facts or hints and anything else that I might find that will be helpful. The first thing I thought of when I decided to start back up was.... "What are the worst foods for a diabetic?", I went to my friend Google and this is what I found...

Breads, Grains, and Diabetes

Best Choices	Worst Choices
Whole-grain flours, such as whole wheat flour	White flour
Whole grains, such as brown rice	Processed grains, such as white rice
Cereals containing whole-grain ingredients and little added sugar	Cereals with little whole grain and lots of sugar
Whole-grain bread	White bread
Baked potato or baked steak fries	French fries
Whole-grain flour or corn tortillas	Fried white-flour tortillas

Diabetes and Vegetables

Best Choices	Worst Choices
Fresh vegetables, eaten raw or lightly steamed, roasted, or grilled Frozen vegetables, lightly steamed	Canned vegetables with lots of added sodium Vegetables cooked with lots of added butter, cheese, or sauce
Fresh cucumbers	Pickles (only if you need to limit sodium; otherwise, pickles are a good choice)
Fresh shredded cabbage or coleslaw	Sauerkraut, (same as pickles; limit only if you have high blood pressure)

Diabetes and Fruits

Best Choices	Worst Choices
Frozen fruit or fruit canned in fruit juice	Canned fruit with heavy sugar syrup
Fresh fruit	Chewy fruit rolls
Sugar-free or low-sugar jam or preserves	Regular jam, jelly, and preserves (unless portion is kept small)
No-sugar-added applesauce	Sweetened applesauce
100% fruit juice or low-carb juices	Fruit punch, fruit drinks, fruit juice drinks, sweetened soda

Diabetes, Meat, and Other Protein

Best Choices	Worst Choices
Baked, broiled, grilled, or stewed meats	Fried meats
Lower-fat cuts of meat, such as top sirloin	Higher-fat cuts of meat, such as ribs
Turkey bacon	Pork bacon
Low-fat cheeses	Regular cheeses
Skinless breast of chicken or turkey	Poultry with skin
Baked, broiled, steamed, or grilled fish	Fried fish
Tofu lightly sauteed, steamed, or cooked in soup	Fried tofu
Baked or stewed beans	Beans prepared with lard

Diabetes and Dairy

Best Choices	Worst Choices
1% or skim milk	Whole milk
Low-fat yogurt	Regular yogurt
Low-fat cottage cheese	Regular cottage cheese
Nonfat sour cream	Regular sour cream
Frozen low-fat, low-carb yogurt	Regular ice cream
Nonfat half and half	Regular half and half

Diabetes and Fats, Oils, and Sweets

Best Choices	Worst Choices
Baked snacks, such as baked potato chips, baked corn chips, puffed rice, or corn snacks	Snacks fried in fat, such as potato chips, corn chips, pork rinds
Vegetable oils, non-hydrogenated butter spreads, margarine	Lard, hydrogenated vegetable shortening, butter
Reduced-fat mayonnaise Light salad dressings	Regular mayonnaise Regular salad dressings
Air-popped or calorie-controlled popcorn	Butter-flavored stove-top popcorn

Diabetes and Beverages

Best Choices for Beverages	Worst Choices
Water, unflavored or flavored sparkling water	Regular sodas
Light beer, small amounts of wine or non-fruity mixed drinks	Regular beer, fruity mixed drinks, dessert wines
Unsweetened tea (add a slice of lemon)	Sweetened tea
Coffee, black or with added low fat milk and sugar substitute	Coffee with sugar and cream
Home-brewed coffee and hot chocolate	Flavored coffees and chocolate drinks
Sport drinks	Energy drinks

If anything you can print off this page and have something handy as a guide when you get started.