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.