The Last Makeover

Sunday, Funday?

2012-01-29T10:38:00.000-05:00

Ha - funday my hiney. I have a billion things to do today, since I have to go back out of town for work for 4-5 days again tomorrow morning. :-( But - it is nice to be home now. I guess since I will be gone so much the next 4 to 15 weeks (!), I must be in a nesting mood. I spent some time baking last night. I made low carb no-grain gingersnaps from a recipe from Dana Carpender's blog Hold the Toast. I love her. :-) The recipe came out a bit too oily, I think too much coconut oil was in it. But before I change that, I am going to split the almond meal in half and put coconut flour in for the other half. Coconut flour tends to soak up liquid and that may make it all better. And I like baking with coconut flour mixed with the almond meal. I also made hubby some oatmeal raisin cookies, but I screwed them up... And wound up throwing them away. I accidentally used my erithrytol sweetener in them and burned them, to boot. :-( I will have to go to the store here shortly and get more rolled oats and raisins and start over, lol. I don't eat more than a couple raisins because of the concentrated sugar in the dried fruit, but I also need the rolled oats to make chocolate cherry coconut granola posted at annies-eats.net. I love Annie and her recipes. She is by no means into a low carb or gluten/grain free diet, lol. But sometimes I can adapt one of her great recipes to something I can eat, or I find something hubby will like, like the oatmeal raisin cookies. I found with a few subs, I can make the granola with unsweetened coconut and I dried my own cherries yesterday without sugar. I am on the fence about the honey - it may be natural but it's still sugar. And if I use maltitol based sugar free honey, it's as bad as real sugar. I may wind up using something else lol. But I like granola and this is the closest recipe I could tweak, so I'd like to give it a try. I also made low carb grain free chocolate biscotti from Dr. Davis's Track Your Plaque blog, another site I love.

So today - I have more baking and cooking to do. I have to re-do the oatmeal raisin cookies, as hubster is so looking forward to them, and the tease last night didn't work out well, lol. Plus another recipe or two. I am also going to make coconut beef in the slow cooker today. I love that site, too. This recipe only needs minor tweaking to be low carb friendly, lol. And it's sooooo good.

I did get on the treadmill yesterday for two miles. And drank my sea-salted water, took the vit C, A, E, proline, magnesium, some potassium. I need calcium and better potassium. Today, I'm up half a pound again. Jeesh. My blood pressure was 140/80, though. Not thrilled with the upper number, but the lower number is pretty darn good, considering no diuretic for a week. Plus the last couple of days I've been taking half my BP pills. I'm watching closely, and trying to wean off the pills while upping the water and supplements. I took to heart the warnings about not stopping either beta blockers or alpha antagonists suddenly, lest you have rebound hypertension. I have a theory that your system gets used to the meds doing the work for it of regulating your BP and needs time to adjust. Since I definitely want off them, I have to give it all a chance. Still sleeping better. :-D I've already had a good size cup of coffee with almond milk and Splenda today, before I thought to check glucose. Dangit. I just checked it anyway on my TRUETest monitor, and it's 91!!! :-D No complaint here at all, since it had to be lower before the coffee. I think this may be working! YAY!

Well, I've frittered away half my morning, albeit enjoyably. ;-) I need to get busy. Off to the store. Later!

It's Caturday! LOL

2012-01-28T11:17:00.001-05:00

Yea, I know it's Saturday - but I love kitties and my favorite kitty site calls it Caturday and says EVERY day is Caturday, lol. I am home for the weekend, thank God. Have to go out of town again for a minimum of the next 4 weeks during the week. Very possibly, another 8 weeks after that, albeit a little closer to home (still a 2+ hour drive, though). (I have a job, I have a job, I have a job. And health insurance. Just keep saying it.)

Anyway! I have been trying to keep up the water thing, albeit a little nervously. No diuretic all week. My current clothes still fit. I don't feel bloated. My BP is still not ideal, but the diastolic in 70's-80's, so not too freaked. And after putting on a good 6-7 pounds of water weight, it seems to be going down again, 3# gone at this point. Thank God. LOL. I know I should go by size and how I feel and all that, but I'm sorry - seeing my weight go up like that freaked me the hell out. So I am hoping what is leaving me now is actually fat. I am keeping on with it. And I did do the treadmill on Thursday night at the hotel and plan to today and tomorrow. Yesterday there was no way, with having to be at work at 7am until 3:30pm and then drive 3 hours home in the afternoon. I was wiped when I got home. I feel pretty good today. :-) I am also going to start with the suggested supplements for BP - most of which I was taking when I started the diet, and already have. 3-4 grams sea salt (some from food and some in the water), 1 gram calcium, 400-800 mg magnesium, 2000-4000 mg potassium. And kelp for the iodine, since sea salt doesn't have iodine and it's necessary. Plus my previous vitamin C (5000 mg at least), 500 mg proline, vitamin A and E from the Pauling therapy. I still believe that will help, too. ;-) Oh, and 3000 mg chromium for insulin/glucose.

All I know is, I have to keep working at it. I cannot go back to previous weight and feeling like crap all the time. So - Here we go. :-D

Interesting Findings So Far on the Water Thing

2012-01-25T11:49:00.000-05:00

Well, I have really been trying to drink a lot of water since Saturday (about 4 days now), with 1/8 tsp sea salt, as per the book. I also stopped using my diuretic :-O. lol. Other than my Sunday pizza transgressions, I've been following my diet. Here's what's happened so far.

I have gained at least 6 pounds. :-O

But.

Strangely enough, my clothes, even my new tight jeans, still fit. I am not bloated or swollen, anywhere. Stranger still, although my systolic blood pressure (high number) is in the 140's, my diastolic (low number) is in the 70's. With no diuretic in days. To put it delicately, my... elimination? has been more frequent and... easier. 'Nuff said on that. I'm also not urinating nearly as much as I would think after drinking so much more fluid. I would think it would be the opposite. After following the suggestion in the book to put a bit of sea salt on my tongue before bed and letting it sit a bit, I am sleeping much better and even dreaming some. Overall, I feel pretty good.

When I realized yesterday I had put on 5 pounds, I nearly freaked and stopped. But thought about it. Water weighs 8.8# a gallon. I am not swollen. And certainly this is a fluid gain, not fat. Could it be I was really that dehydrated? I let up on the salt a bit yesterday, figuring I also get some in my food. Still up a pound this morning. Hmmm. Well, as long as I'm not swollen or my diastolic BP is way up, I am willing to see where this goes. The diastolic BP is the biggest surprise so far (besides the weight gain, lol). In the 70's, with no diuretic? I can't say I'm thrilled with the systolic, but I am going to hang on a bit longer and see what happens. Theoretically, once my body has the fluids it needs, it should start processing better and let go of fat and waste. The interesting thing is, my urine was clearer before I started this - now it has a bit more yellow color. So I am wondering if I am getting rid of some waste now. Also, the BP should start coming down. But I am still taking my other BP meds for now.

More to follow!

Good Grief, LOL!

2012-01-22T21:34:00.002-05:00

Well - I guess I was bad enough yesterday that my weight went up a pound. Grrrr. I was planning to do better today, but that did not happen... to make a long story short, I went by Goodwill and found some killer deals on pants and Harley Davidson stuff to wear on the bike. Then we went on a bike ride. And wound up at a favorite place that has a really good brick oven pizza... I was going to eat toppings and wound up saying 'screw it' for once. OMG, it was soooo good. So I have to get on it tomorrow.

As Forrest Gump would say, that's all I have to say about that, lol.

I'm Baaaaaaacckk!!!

2012-01-21T14:17:00.002-05:00

TGIF!!! This has been the longest damn workweek ever lol. I went out of town Sunday evening and just finally got home last night. Jeez.

I have tried to be good all week, mostly succeeded. Only one night I really wished I had not had a bit too much happy hour white zin that made me feel like crap all the next day. Weight this morning - 167. Well, at least it's not up any more, but I am still at the same level. Rats. I did several days of treadmill while I was gone and really tried to watch the intake. Oh, well. Could be worse.

I have been re-reading Dr. Batman's (Dr. F. Batmanghelidj) Water for Health, for healing, for Life: You're Not Sick, You're Thirsty!. I read his book Your Body's Many Cries for Water (which is a similar book) some 5-6 years ago, and thought it made sense, but evidently I wasn't ready to give it a real try. It really resonated with me and I am resolving to give it a good try. One thing he says in the book about insomnia resonated with me - I have had that problem for a long time, which has partially resolved, but not fully. So - the basic thing is to take your weight in pounds and drink half that amount in ounces every day (which is about 83 ounces for me currently) - and to each 16 ounces add 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt. Ya gotta read the book, I won't go into the many pages explaining it all here - it's a good read IMHO. And if you have insomnia, before going to bed, put a pinch of salt on your tongue and let it sit there a bit before swallowing. I tried it the last two nights. The first night I slept at least 6 hours before waking (no Ambien, either!). Last night, not only did I sleep pretty well, I actually recall having not one but two dreams! :-O I simply don't dream much, usually. I just finished a 16.9 ounce water with my sea salt. And I will do the salt/water later, too. If nothing else, it can't hurt, right? And according to him has the potential to help with blood pressure issues, blood sugar issues, weight loss and tinnitus, all near and dear to my heart. And much more. Even Alzheimer's, which my father supposedly had. I say supposedly, because it was never verified. But anything I can do to keep that from happening, is a great idea to me!

I have to go for now - later!

And About the Hubby

2012-01-14T08:44:00.000-05:00

I should have posted an update on hubby - he is STILL pain free!!! :-DDD

We don't know how long it will last - they said it could go at any time, last up to 3 months, or possibly forever. I sure hope it lasts a long time. Forever would be nice.

A Public Service Message LOL

2012-01-14T08:35:00.000-05:00

So the weight is the same (167) and good news, my fasting yesterday was 94. :-D BP was good, too. I was semi-naughty yesterday though, having several servings of wine. I feel yucky today, and have about decided to write off wine except the Menage A Trois wine at home. Happy Hour white zin makes me feel like crap afterward. :-(

I know this is a health blog but I have to say something. I think I have posted about the very funny site damnyouautocorrect.com before. I still go there a lot and read funny as hell auto corrects. I have recently gotten into wrongnumbertexts.com and just finished reading some funny as hell stuff. Great free entertainment. I have a couple of observations:

I really, REALLY take care to make sure I am texting the RIGHT words to the RIGHT person! I have an iPhone with auto correct on and well, it could happen to me, lol. My iPhone tries to correct "Awww" to "Sewers"! Don't ask me why.
Please, God, don't let me accidentally text my boss (or co-workers) with how I *really* feel about my current work assignment! He already knows I'm not crazy about the assignment, but not graphically so. LOL Or think I am sexting my husband that I want to do "____" to him. My boss is young enough to be my son and both of us would be mortified. He is a nice guy and a good manager (rare) and my assignment is not his fault. My situation came from waaaay above his pay grade.
I can't believe some of the embarrassing stuff folks post on themselves! Funny? You bet. Would I post that if it happened to me? Hell, no! Even anonymously. No way. But I have to admit - it's like rubbernecking at a crash site. You can't stop looking. Cautionary tales galore.

As Forrest Gump would say, "That's all I have to say about that." LOL

My day today? I have sewing I need to do - hemming of new pants and taking in of favorite pants that no longer fit. Because they are waaaay too big. :-D A happy job, though boring and time consuming. I want to get my hiney on the treadmill, too. I need to make a Wally World run. I have work I need to do for, well, work. We are supposed to go to the circus tonight. Barnum & Bailey is in town. Not sure we are going, though. We have tickets from some friends, but my hubby is mad at the other hubby. Long story. More to follow, I am sure.

So - off I go to do something! Later!

A Fast One

2012-01-10T07:26:00.001-05:00

Gotta go get ready for work, so this will be quick.

Yesterday, although I was working from home, I managed not to get on my treadmill. :-( Hubby had an appointment for a treatment yesterday afternoon, and I just ran out of time while working, to get it done. And I had to deal with him after the treatment. Plus - much to my annoyance - when we got in our car to go to the appointment, we made the unhappy discovery that the A/C was not working. Oh, the fan was fine. No cool air. :'-((( Yes, A/C in January. We are in Florida. It was in the high 70's yesterday. We do get cold weather, but not right now. Grrrrr...

So after the treatment, we took the 4runner to the dealer. And thanked our lucky stars that we got an extended warranty on it, for once. Which we don't usually do. But we bought it used almost 2 years ago. It was 4 years old with 55,000 miles on it. We didn't want to take any chances. And guess what - that warranty was for 3 years or 36,000 miles, and the miles will be up in a few months, the way we are driving it. So THANK GOD it happened now. Why? The evaporator was leaking and shot. :-( That is a $700 job. Not only are they replacing it for free, but they gave us a loaner until they get it done, hopefully later today. The loaner? A 2012 Tacoma extended cab truck. :-))) It had 333 miles on it when we took it home. Wow. I love our dealer.

As for hubby and his treatment, so far, so good. He is pain-free for the first time in over 2 years. :-D I can't tell you how happy I am for him.

Sorry for getting off the main subject, but that is my life today. Oh, and I woke to 167#. So lost 1/2# just with good diet yesterday (and no alcohol, lol). I will try to get on the treadmill after work today, but no promises. Hubby should be able to go get the 4runner after work, but I will have to go with the flow. With him pain-free finally, that flow is pretty good right now. :-D Later!

Finally the Exercise Is Clicking! And More!

2012-01-09T13:05:00.000-05:00

I have been kicking butt on the treadmill. I have walked at least 2 miles every day for the last 5 days! And tried to kick it up a notch. Getting up to 3.3mph for a bit. Going as far as I can in 45 minutes, getting to 2.5 miles. Planning to keep it up.

In a related note, I was down to 166 yesterday! That's the good news. Today I woke to 167.5. Wah. :-( Well, we went for a little Harley ride yesterday. I had a few White Zin spritzers (5...). We ate out, but I didn't think I ate too badly. I will continue the exercise and cut back on the wine. But I am thrilled to be back down to lowest, and beyond. Finally. I also acquired a gorgeous Harley jacket I <3.

It was originally $125 and was 30% off. It is windproof, has a really tight snuggly weave, and even has extended wrist cover with thumb holes so your gloves will definitely cover. I really, really, LOVE it. It is a medium size. I'm not quite a medium yet, but I can get away with it if I only wear one shirt under. Did I mention I love it? The nice thing is, it's snug enough that I should be able to wear it even if I lose all the weight I plan to. I plan to wear it for years. :-D See? Some new motivation. If I gain much weight at all, I won't be able to wear it. I want to wear it. Hence motivation. ;-)

More to follow...

Wow - I Suck. Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T18:56:00.001-05:00

OMG - work has really jacked me on posting. But I have not been messing around.

My niece turned me on to this book - Choose to Lose by Chris Powell. I got it on my Nook Color, and read a lot of it. I really, really liked a lot of it. This dude evidently is the star of the Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition on ABC. Frankly, I don't watch any of those reality shows. Any of them. No American Idol. Not this. None of it. So I am not familiar with the hype of the show... But I did like the book. For the most part. However. Before I even got completely through the book, I ran into this one: Perfect 10 Diet: 10 Key Hormones That Hold the Secret to Losing Weight and Feeling Great-Fast! by Michael Aziz. The Kindle edition is currently only $1.99. Get it. The 'real' book is a good bit more. If you don't have a Kindle, put the Kindle eReader app on your PC and get it. This guy makes the most sense in one sitting I have heard in awhile. The only thing I am hesitant about is he advocates whole grains. Whole grains (or any grains, lol) scare me, thanks to Wheat Belly. But the rest - I am on board. Dr. Aziz advocates a more balanced approach, kind of a combination of everything I have been reading and digesting. He is on board with low GI/fiber-rich carbs as opposed to sugary anything. And eating natural fats. He goes with a lower protein amount than I had originally. 40% fats, 40% carbs, 20% protein. But what he says makes a lot of sense. I had probably been eating more protein than 20% but definitely eating more carbs than a strict low carb diet. Interestingly enough, he does not advocate eating more than 3 meals a day, whereas the Choose to Lose book advocates eating 5 meals a day. But despite that stance, Dr. Aziz gives you three meals, plus two optional snacks between breakfast and lunch, and lunch and dinner. So - doesn't about amount to eating 5 times a day? LOL. Anyway - very good book so far - and I haven't even gotten fully through it.

Will report further. :-)

A New Day

2011-12-29T11:42:00.001-05:00

So I promised I'd be right back. Here I am! LOL

I am down a pound of the 4, thank goodness. I am about to run around like a nut cleaning my house, hopefully that will help, too. I am going out with my MIL and SIL today for a lunch and shipping trip and having anyone see my house usually spurs me to action.

I am off work this week, and trying to get a bunch of things done and caught up. Work will be rough the next 4 months... I will be gone a lot, which I am not happy about. But at the moment, have no choice. Here's to working on having a choice, lol. ;-)

I Have Been So Neglectful Of My Blog... I'm Sorry

2011-12-28T15:35:00.000-05:00

Work has been a PITA and kept me from home far too much, but I did not expect the holidays to keep me away, too. I have been busy selling stuff on eBay (another story, lol) and working, and shopping, and shipping and eating. Oh, yeah, it's the holidays, baby!

Well, I have been bad for a few days, now, and put on 4# to prove it. :-( It was fun (and tasty) but I finally got back on the stick today.

That new wine I posted briefly about on the 16th is Menage a Trois Red. I like the Rose, too. Both are low carb at about 2.5 carbs in 5 ounces. I hardly ever only drink 5 ounces, so that is lovely. LOL. In fact, I just calculated the total carbs in a 750ml bottle. Just a hair over 12 carbs. For the WHOLE BOTTLE. Mind you, a whole 750ml bottle is 25 ounces, which seems like a lot of wine, but is not a lot of beer, in ounce-land. Only two, with a spare ounce. Although not impossible, it's not likely I would drink a whole bottle of wine. Especially with a bit of cheese to go with. My new favorite cheese is Sartori Raspberry BellaVitano. I also like the Espresso and the Merlot varieties, too. OK, so I evidently like both companies' wines and cheese, lol. But I am finding a bit of wine and cheese goes a longer way than a bunch of wheat-containing beer. ;-)

Christmas was nice - on Christmas Eve we went to my MIL's for a delicious dinner (she had to work on Christmas day), and that's where the bad eating got started. I even had *real* Pepsi with my meal. I could not tell you the last time I had real soda. She sent home with us ham, turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, water rolls, pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake. OMG. Then on Christmas day, we went with friends to their parents' for dinner and it was more delicious badness. So the day after Christmas we ate the leftovers from Mom. Yesterday I didn't eat terribly badly but just ate too much in general, and drank too much wine (happy hour White Zin at the Outback). So this morning, I threw out the leftover water rolls. The rest of the regular food is gone. Except. There is still a piece of cheesecake and some pumpkin pie left. And it's calling my name. :-O If hubby does not want it tonight, I am going to do my best to throw it away. Eat a piece of my Primal Chocolate. Something. Anything but eat it.

I don't even dare check my glucose yet.

So obviously, I still struggle. But I will win. It just may take me longer than the average bear. LOL

I will be back soon. I promise. :-)

TGIF!!! Cue "Bang the Drum"!!

2011-12-16T06:30:00.000-05:00

TGIF!!! And good news all around so far.

I am down another 1.5# today!!!! 167.5 and a happy camper! My hiney is about to treadmill it right now, hence a short post.

Glucose 97 this morning on the more reliable meter. ;-)

I found a new wine that is only 2.41 carbs in 5 ounces, and I love it. Also a raspberry cheese to go with it that is a wonderful pair. My new fav treat. I will post more on that later.

Life is gooooooood.

Later!

I'm Baaaacccckkk! Again...

2011-12-15T11:29:00.000-05:00

So - I got in from work travel at 9 pm last night, too tired to do anything but chillax after unpacking. Unfortunately, I have to go back next week too. Yeah, I know, it's the week of Christmas. But the good news is, after I get back, I am off 11 days for Christmas/New Year's. :-D

I was a good girl on this trip - ate right and both Tuesday and Wednesday morning, did 2 miles on the treadmill in the hotel.

I got on the scale this morning and was rewarded with hitting a new low - 169. :-D So I am officially down 35# now. I did not think to do glucose though. I will catch it in the morning, maybe stick the meter on the Keurig, lol.

I am gazing at my treadmill... I need to just do it, and go look at the Slow Burn thing, maybe do it, too. While I'm at it. Just ate some leftover meat loaf/green beans for an early lunch. Put some cheese on it and mayo/low carb catsup to dip in.

Later!!! :-D

Sorry About That!

2011-12-11T23:59:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the MIA for the last few days. I knew this weekend was going to be busy, but...

I love my BFF, but she and her DH are bad influences. Every time I get around them, I want to be bad and go off my diet, and drink adult beverages that I shouldn't, i.e. beer which is wheat-containing. Or just drink more than I should in general. Case in point - yesterday. We went to their daughter's Christmas piano recital, then out to lunch at a favorite place local to the recital. This is a twice-a-year event, at least. The kid also does a spring recital. And we go to the same restaurant. We always get beers and stromboli. I love their stromboli. A lot. So does she. And her DH. And the daughter. Needless to say, neither beer nor stromboli are on my diet. I managed to forsake the beer. But not the stromboli. Did I mention I love their stromboli? I really am trying. But life and the holidays and special events keep getting in the way. I got a small which is 6 pieces, and ate half for lunch and half for dinner. And relished every bite. And, since I had screwed the day anyway, DH and I ate the last two Omaha steaks little NY cheesecakes that I had bought before the diet and had been trying to get DH to finish them up. So now they are gone. I did manage to get back on the diet today, although Bacardi Limon rum and diet Coke rounded out the day. Today was Christmas ornament exchange day, hence the drinking girl party. Ah, well. Tomorrow is another day. We did manage to get the Christmas tree up and decorated, with old and new ornaments. :-D We'll see if the cats leave it alone. Highly doubtful.

Speaking of another day, tomorrow I have to go out of town for work. Again. :-( Until Weds. evening. I will try to post, but it will be a busy trip. I have most of my stuff packed that I can, before getting up and showering, lol. Including my workout gear. I will try hard to investigate the gym at the hotel both nights.

The good news is, my work has us off Fri-Mon over both Christmas and New Year's, so I asked if I could take off the Tues-Wed-Thurs of the week between and take a nice break. Granted. 11 days off!!! I have the time, plus after that I will be incredibly busy through April, with only Bike Week off in March. So I will relish the time off and try to get a lot done at home.

I need to crash now - tomorrow will be a long day. I am not sure when/if I will be able to post before returning home, but I will try. Later!

That's More Like It. I Think.

2011-12-07T07:21:00.000-05:00

So today is day 3 of 4 in the class. I can't say I won't be happy when it's over, but it is good to verify I do know what I am doing, after all. LOL. And the certificate will be useful.

The kitties are fine - the male is his usual bouncy self again, and the female has come out of hiding and eating normally. I don't expect bouncing out of her for a few days, but she seems to be OK. :-D

My weight has finally gotten close to lowest - I am at 170 this morning and only 1/2# over. Now if I could just get my rear in gear.

I just checked my glucose for the first time in a week at least - not sure what to think. 110. I am not NPO, though, having had half a cup of coffee with cream and Splenda. However, unless the whole theory on artificial sweeteners making your body "think" it had sugar is correct, there is really nothing there that should make my glucose that high. Hmmm. Well, I will get back to checking it often and definitely need to get the rear in gear. Geesh.

I actually have the option of working at home today, and would really love to. But my teammate and I are in this virtual class together and we are having a lot of fun together. Plus with me traveling so much now, I don't get to see her often anymore. So I am going to go in, and plan on working from home Friday. :-D That means I have to go. get. ready. now.

Later!

Faster! Faster!

2011-12-06T07:12:00.002-05:00

This will be a two-minute post - I have to get ready and go to work. I hate that it's been 3 days between posts, but there's a lot going on.

I am in a group of friends who make and exchange handmade Christmas ornaments every year, and as you might guess, I am a procrastinator. I am working frantically on my ornaments, lol. The party is this Sunday morning. I have been known to make fancy-schmancy ornaments, but not this year. Cute, but not fancy. I'll post a pic when done. Hopefully, it won't be Sunday morning that I finish them. It has happened.

We took two kitties to the vet yesterday to have them "fixed" and get their shots. Cats are not so appreciative of human's efforts to keep them from breeding. The male acted like we had killed him yesterday, but showed signs of life late in the evening and ate. He seems much better this morning. The female is hiding under my dresser, and refused to eat last night, but I slid a plate of food under there this morning and she was eating. So I am a lot relieved. I loves my kitties. <3

I am in a class all week thru Thursday, and although it's not new subject matter, it is a certification in what I do, so very important and will look good on a resume. ;-) I have to pay attention.

On top of everything else, I am *trying* to get some Christmas shopping done. It will be a sparse Christmas this year - hubby and I have agreed that our big present to each other is our new bed. ;-) But there are a few family/friends we want to buy for, even if not huge amounts of $$$. So working on that.

See? Been busy. As for the subject of this blog, I am still stuck 2.5# over lowest at the moment, at 172... Although I have been "good" the last 3 days, I am still paying for my T-day snarfing and last weekend's folly. If the whole wheat thing is accurate, it will be a day or two more before it's out of my system. That'll teach me! I have not managed to get exercising yet, either. I keep trying, though. One of these days, it will stick, I hope.

Now I really have to go get ready. Later!

Well, It Has Been A Week

2011-12-03T11:31:00.000-05:00

This week has been busy as heck and I am glad it's over. One class down and the one I really wanted to take is next week, so hopefully next week will be better.

I can't say I have been good this week. Maybe semi. Until yesterday. My hubby annoyed me last night - he insisted on going to dinner at a local pizza joint we both love. It was a family dinner - for his birthday. The only thing this place has that is 'legal' for me to eat is a salad or wings. That sounds OK, except for one thing. I had had salad for lunch, and wings the night before for dinner. I wanted something different, a meat and veggie dinner, for a change. Plus I LOVE this place's pizza, which is hugely tempting. And I haven't had beer in awhile, which I also love. I whined my ass off, even telling him to leave me home, but my hubby was DETERMINED to go there. I was pissed. So I punished him. I ate pizza. And drank beer. And made sure he knew it was because of him. Then we left the pizza joint and went to a bar that serves my favorite high-carb beer (Blue Moon). And I had some. Then we went home. I took some aspirin for the headache I knew would come, lol. Then we watched some TV, and of course I got hungry from eating pizza, and ate some more crap snacks. Jeez. It finally ended when I went to bed.

So now it's the next morning. I don't dare weigh in or check my glucose, lol. I was still a couple pounds up from Thanksgiving, already. It will take me a few days to straighten all this out, I am sure. So. What have I learned here? My hubby thinks I was unfair to be mad at him for wanting to go there for his birthday dinner. I think he was unfair to expect me to go to a favorite haunt and eat the same stuff I had been eating for days, while he ate and drank what I love, and was not being supportive of my weight loss/health efforts. Do I really think he is trying to sabotage my efforts? Probably not. But I did think it was unfair of him to insist on going to that restaurant, knowing how I felt about it. However, I mainly punished myself. Even though I think he feels some guilt (maybe), it's me who will have to get back in line weight-wise and glucose-wise. Sigh. Will I ever learn? I should have just been a big girl and ate what I didn't want, and continued the guilt trip on him. LOL.

I just ate my leftover salad from yesterday that I didn't finish. And I am headed to my Slow Burn instructions... Time to do some exercise.

At Least Monday Is Over, LOL

2011-11-29T07:15:00.000-05:00

I have to get ready for work, so this will be short, unfortunately.

It's a good thing I already made peace with the fact that Thanksgiving, Chirstmas and the two Bike weeks in Daytona would just be a loss as far as my diet is concerned... I was only bad for maybe 3 days and found 3 1/2#. :-( But - I'm already down 1 1/2 of that, so back on track already. Haven't checked glucose in a few days, though, and have already had coffee this morning. Oh, well. Tomorrow.

I am trying to find some inner strength to commit to exercise, and it's not going easy. Physically, I feel better and can probably handle it. It's mentally. The truth is, I have never really exercised consistently, played sports or been particularly physically active. I guess it's the old dog, new tricks thing, or maybe trying to change a leopard's spots, lol. I'm not looking forward to being sore. Hence why I picked the treadmill to walk it off. But I don't seem to be doing that consistently, either. From what I am reading, I really need to do resistance or weight training. I've never done free weights, but I have done Nautilus before, years ago. Sigh. Didn't much care for it. I have read Slow Burn and am interested in it, but am figuring since you tax the muscles quickly to exhaustion, you will no doubt be sore. I guess I should wait until Friday, when I will have the weekend to recover if it's really bad, and just put my big-girl panties on and deal with it.

I have to get ready for work... later!

Let the Reindeer Games Begin!

2011-11-26T09:47:00.000-05:00

Well, how was your Black Friday? Hubby and I made the huge mistake of going to Walmart at 10pm on Thanksgiving to witness the carnage of Black Friday. :-O We only got about half the stuff on our list, and fled for our lives. I refused to go anywhere near a retail store yesterday. I will never do that again. I've shopped on BF before, but I won't do the whole starting time madhouse thing again.

Well, I had already made the decision to call a truce on forbidden foods on Thanksgiving, and enjoyed myself. I had all the usual suspects: turkey, sweet potato (butter only, at least), mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green beans (not the casserole, at least), a slice of cranberry sauce and a very yummy dinner roll. Unsweet tea (how virtuous, lol). Oh - and a to-die-for piece of pumpkin cheesecake. It was heavenly. And only to be repeated on Christmas Eve (at my MIL's) and Christmas Day. Was I bad? Oh, yeah. It could have been worse - I didn't stuff myself - but yeah I was bad. And take a guess what happened a number of hours later? I was starving at 11pm. We had just escaped with our lives from Walmart, there was nothing in the house to eat, and we wound up at Denny's. I got a skillet something, ate a few of the potatoes but pushed most of them aside and ate the rest. I did not even dare weigh yesterday or do a glucose.

Yesterday, we got a smoked turkey from a local restaurant and had our own little dinner last night. Smoked turkey, baked sweet potato (we split one) and fresh green beans with bacon and onion. Compared to Thanksgiving, I was much better, but I don't usually eat sweet potatoes, either. I also made a low-carb pumpkin pie. I am sure I have mentioned before, but I love love love all things pumpkin. The pie filling came out well, we have a winner on that part. The crust needs more work. Less sugar sub in the crust, for starters. Maybe none. But I will not let the filling go to waste. :-D It was delicious with a little zero-carb whipped cream. Yum!

So this morning, I faced the music. I put on 2 pounds. Sigh. Much better than Biketoberfest (7.5 # in less than a week :-O), and I am back on it this morning. It is obvious I cannot go back to old ways except in very short, controlled visits on T-day, Christmas, and the 2 bike week events, sparingly. That's OK. Gotta pick your battles.

All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving. Hope yours was, too. :-D

Hi, Honey, I'm Home! Happy Thanksgiving, All!

2011-11-24T11:03:00.002-05:00

I'm home!!! As it turns out, it was a very productive trip. I feel a lot better about my peeps over there. They did great. :-D

It's Thanksgiving, and besides not having to work until Monday (:-D!), I am grateful for a lot of things this year, although I may not always act or show it. Not necessarily in order:

In spite of my job changing things up on me, I am grateful I have one. The economy still sucks, and there are a lot of people without a job. It has paid the bills, and for my hubby's rather pricey surgery in June.
Related to the job, I am also very grateful for my manager and team. What had happened there this year was way above our pay grade, and my manager and team have been very supportive to each other. I would have had to give up and go back to a previous job by now if not.
I am thankful for my spouse. We both have our moments, but he is a great guy, and has taken a wild ride on the merry-go-round with me in the last 17+ years. He's a keeper.
This may sound strange, but I am thankful that I got back on the health wagon, even if some of it is an inconvenient PITA. 34# later, I feel a hell of a lot better than I did 6 months ago. And I really think my kidneys and maybe liver were starting to get really PO'd by the time I got started back on low carb. I am glad I woke up - hopefully in time.
Related to the above (and you will laugh), I am grateful that I don't just take the word of conventional medical wisdom, and that Google is my friend. LOL. I have learned SO. MUCH. this year, and continue to find allies along this health journey.
I am thankful for good friends. Everybody needs friends. Hubster and I are blessed with friends. We love them.
Family? Well, even between both of us, we don't have a lot of close family, and what we have is a pretty mixed bag. But we love them.

Life is Good. ;-)

I am tardy getting this posted, it should have been posted on Thanksgiving. I am going to make that way, lol. It's my blog, after all.

Sooner Than I Thought

2011-11-22T08:15:00.003-05:00

Well... I knew I was going to have to go out of town again next week. But I forgot that I was signed up for a class at work next week. And the week after. And work paid abour $2500 for each class. So they aren't keen on me canceling either of them. And truthfully, the certificates I will get for taking them would look good on a resume. ;-) So my choice was to wait 3 weeks or go. NOW. I feel like I just got home. But it would be better to go finish up and reinforce last week's work now, before the trainers self-teach bad habits. Then I can relax a bit for the next couple of weeks. And enjoy Thanksgiving, too.

I will be hitting the dusty trail as soon as I finish breakfast and this post.

Good news - I have lost anotther 1/2 pound, and FINALLY hit a new 10# mark. As in, I have lost 34.5 # and have hit the 160's. I have not seen them in over 7 years. :-D Welcome back, 160's. Hope to see you a short time and hit the 50's soon, LOL. For math whiz's out there, that means I am at 169.5# now. There. I did it. Put my weight on the internet. To me, that is as sacred as when and how I lost my virginity, lol. Even my hubby does not know how much I weigh. Unless he reads this, I guess. Most folks think I weigh in the 140's, tops, and tell me I am nuts to think I need to lose another 45-ish+ pounds to be at ideal weight. But it's true. I think I posted before how easily I hide weight until I gain enough that I can't ignore it any more. If I was one of those folks who shows a 5# gain, I would probably have never gotten so heavy. But it's usually a 20# gain before my clothes get tight. That's another reason I am frustrated with the slowness of it coming off. It takes awhile before you can see a change. But I put on my belt the other day for my jeans, and had to go in a good 4" in the waist. Talk about making me smile. :-D

OK - it is time to go. I will be home tomorrow night and hopefully feeling good about the trip and able to relax for T-day. My S-I-L is cooking the big T-day meal, so I don't have to worry about that. Oh yea - today is my M-I-L's 70th birthday! Happy B-Day, Mom! And yes, JFK was killed on her birthday...

Later!

Benefits I Have Noticed

2011-11-20T09:59:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it's hard to see the big picture on a day-to-day basis. I tend to keep seeing how much more I need to do, instead of how far I have gotten. I know I need to lose somewhere between 26 pounds (where I was 7 1/2 years ago) and almost 50 pounds (approximate "ideal" weight according to the Optimal Diet). Considering I was wearing 6-8-10 clothes at the 26 pounds from now mark, I would probably be skinny, indeed at 50 pounds less, LOL. To make it even more interesting, although I have been about 35 pounds less than now as an adult (about 25 years ago), I haven't seen that 50 pounds less mark since I was in about 6th grade. :-O Can I tell you, that was... a FEW years ago. Ha. Did you follow all that? Especially since I am still being coy about revealing how much I actually do weigh.

Back to benefits. The biggest annoyances I am focusing on now is that the weight loss is so slow (not enough exercise to stimulate metabolism, I suspect) and that pesky fasting glucose being slightly elevated more days than not (maybe due to the same as above on exercise, or the other reasons I have posted). But what good has happened since June 9th?

I have lost 34 pounds total. We have cats - and buy kitty litter in the 35 pound buckets. Every time I lift one of those, I marvel at the thought that I have lost that much weight already. Holy cow. How did I haul it around?
In general, I feel 1000% better than I did before June 9th. I still have hypertension, which I hope I will be able to wean off the meds as I lose more weight. But the GERD is gone. Unless I am stressed out by something for work/travel, I am sleeping pretty well after years of insomnia, and rarely take Ambien or Xanax any more. Definitely not dependent on it. It's hard to explain, but I just feel so much better in general. I know I wasn't feeling great, but I didn't realize how lousy I really felt, until I started feeling better. I had headaches a lot. As my glucose went up and down in response to the crap I was eating, how I felt went up and down with it. And my mood. I am not perfect, by far, but I think my mood has been much more even than in the past. It's hard to be happy when you feel like crap. I can still be lazy, but at least now I don't feel like I am dragging myself through the day, to collapse when I get home. OK, so I did this past Friday, lol. But believe me, I earned it. ;-)
I have gone from a size 18 or 38x29 pants to around a 14 or 34x29 pants (yea, I'm 5'2", lol). I have gotten rid of my fattest clothes and getting into my saved clothes bins. :-D My face has thinned out noticeably. I am so much more comfortable in my own skin. It's hard to explain. When you're heavy, it's hard to move. It's hard to cross your legs. Just sitting is uncomfortable. And this is just me, about 60-80-ish pounds overweight at worst. How in the world do people heavier than that cope? And I still have a ways to go.
So far, I have cut my bad cholesterols by about 25-30% and raised my HDL by 50%. :-D And my liver and kidney panels came back better, all in normal range. In truth, I don't buy into the whole cholesterol causing heart disease thing, as I have posted. But if it will shut my doctor up, fine.
I have learned soooooo much about body processes and what seems to be better for you in the long run. As a nurse, I thought I knew a few things. I have learned so much more. And I am grateful that folks have written books and shared information. What I thought I knew about doing low carb, has been flipped around toward Paleo - no wheat/grains. Less dairy. Still low carb of what's left. All I know is it seems to work. Since knocking off the wheat, it seems my weight is pretty stable and showing signs of dropping again. I can't go back now.

Those are the biggies - and I need to go out with hubby. If I think of more, will update. I know I have a ways to go. But I am happy with the accomplishments so far. :-D

I'm Baaaaaacccckkk!!!!

2011-11-19T12:44:00.002-05:00

Well, I got home about 8pm last night. Totally, utterly, wiped out. I dragged myself (and all my stuff, with hubby's help) into the house. Ate something first, I was starving. Then put on my PJ's, unpacked, and then completely vegetated the rest of the evening, catching up on NCIS/NCIS LA/Unforgettable on DVR (I love the NCIS shows and Poppy Montgomery on Unforgettable). Absolutely CRASHED to bed and slept until 9am today.

It was a long. hard. week. I can't even express how glad I am to be home. :) But I am very grateful to have had the help of a co-worker this week or I would have failed. And my co-worker got me out of my little hide-in-the-hotel routine, and we had a couple of wonderful meals out. The good news is, we did mostly cover everything we were supposed to. The other news (not necessarily bad) is that I need to go back the week after Thanksgiving to work more with the trainers, reinforcing and practicing, etc. They will be training end users the following week. I want them to succeed.

I tried to be good diet-wise while I was over there, but of course had to do the best I could. And I was so wiped out after every long day, there was no way I had energy to go treadmill it. I got up this morning and got on the scale with great trepidation. I must be doing something right. I am still at lowest point! :-D 34# still gone! I was in a hurry to get to the Keurig and forgot about checking glucose, though... I guess I should put the meter under the spout of the Keurig, lol. I've done that with my BP meds, too, lol. I tell you, when my eyes open, I come out and feed animals first, then make coffee. But I highly doubt my glucose has been too whacked - I really did behave as far as carb intake goes. Well, I just did a glucose, no food but about 2 cups of coffee/cream/Splenda. 96. I can live with that, lol.

Speaking of food, I am hungry - hubby went to a friend's house for a bit and I am headed out to pick up some groceries. :-) Later!

Maybe Last Post Til Fri or Sat

2011-11-15T09:21:00.000-05:00

I will be leaving home later today until Friday evening, for work. So I may not be posting for a few days. I will try.
Weight - FINALLY down a 1/2 # into new territory! :-D 34# total.
Glucose - as usual, Relion is whacked. 109 and 105. :-O TRUEresult - 98 and 99. I would certainly prefer it lower, but will take it for now.
If I could just get my exercise act together, and for more than a few days... I will take my workout clothes with me and try to get a treadmill walk in each day at the hotel.
I don't know what being away from home for 3 days is going to do to my weight, expecially since this will be a stressful trip, I am sorry to say. All I can say is, I will do the best I can. And take Ambien and Xanax with me, lol.
In case I don't get back here until it's over, wish me luck.

Monday!

2011-11-14T08:02:00.002-05:00

I have SO much work to do! But will post real fast.

Weight - steady at lowest point! :-D I am ready for it to drop, of course, but at least it's stable at the moment.

Glucose - the meters seemed to have synced up this morning. 95 on TRUEresult and 94 on Relion, Re-test - 94 and 94. Either way, if I had blood work this morning, I would feel fairly OK that it would be fine. I had no sweeteners after that cookie test about 4-ish. Dinner was chicken piccata, brocoli and unsweet tea with no sweeteners. So - I am encouraged. Continuing to test! If I can get some consistency in lower fastings with no sweeteners the evening before and careful eating, I will be pleased. Very pleased.

I am drinking my coffee with stevia this morning. I have not given that up. I am using a mix of coconut milk and 1/2 & 1/2 in it. I realize using a bunch of dairy is not 'kosher' in paleo-land. I may have to minimize as much as I can and live with it, if all other indicators are OK. Hey, I am doing without wheat and grains! And have seen definite good changes so far. My weight seems stable. My complexion is better - and I have had rosacea for 25 years, at least. My face feels softer to the touch and the redness is almost gone. I am taking that for the inflammation being down. Now, I do have some broken capillaries still. But overall it looks a heck of a lot better. Who knew? Honestly, it is hard to say what made my complexion better. I was on tetracycline for 30 days recently for a little rash on my face. So it could be from that. Or any combination of what I have been doing. But in any event, it does look better!

OK - must get busy for work. I will try to post later!

Follow up - mixing coconut milk and 1/2 & 1/2 is yucky. :-P I guess I will have to go back to my old way of buying heavy cream and mixing it with half water. And will try using an ice cube to help cool the coffee so I'm not using so much cream. Or I can experiment with 1/3 cream 2/3 water, etc.

Another Day, Another ?

2011-11-13T17:35:00.000-05:00

Well, I really intended to not have any more sweetener yesterday. However, we had a 50th birthday party to go to last night, BYOB... Hubby brought beer, and of course I could not have that because it's made with wheat, right? So I got a small bottle of Captain Morgan's and some caffeine-free Diet Coke. Which, of course, has aspartame in it. Argh. In any event, the TRUEresult said 98 this morning and the Relion, 91. I don't believe the Relion, but 98 on the TRUEresult is better than 100 or higher, although lower would have been wonderful. So I am still experimenting. Today - coffee with Splenda this morning. This afternoon I baked cookies. Peanut butter for hubby. Oatmeal raisin for a coworker. And pumpkin snickerdoodles for me. :-D Don't worry, I used coconut flour and erithrytol for sweetener. I did, of course, have to taste-test one. But that was about 4pm-ish. No sweetener since then. We'll see how it goes in the morning. I am determined to get this figured out and down. I did not weigh this morning, but will tomorrow.

I have to say, it was hard to bake regular stuff and not be able to taste-test... I made hubby test an oatmeal raisin cookie to make sure it was OK before taking it to work. I don't think I've ever made those from scratch before.

This coming week at work is going to be... intense. I will be out of town Tuesday afternoon until Friday evening. I will be one. happy. camper. next Friday evening. And tired. Enough said. Not sure how much posting I will be able to do after this, until I get home, a lot of prep work going on. Wish me luck.

Happy Sunday!

It's Caturday!

2011-11-12T09:59:00.003-05:00

OK, it's really Saturday, lol. But I have cats, and on icanhascheezburger.com it's Caturday. Every day! Sure is at my house.

But I digress again. Weight was at lowest this morning (33.5 # down!) - I am hoping a little more activity (read: exercise) will knock me down some more in weight. ;-) Glucose, however, was another story. 100 and 104 on my TRUEresult. 97 and 89 on the Relion. The Relion continues to show how much it can vary. But the TRUEresult's results don't make me warm and fuzzy inside, either. I am trying to remember what all I may have eaten or drank last night, especially near bedtime... Another strike for me not journaling everything I eat or drink. Dinner was fine - salad, steak, broccoli. I nibbled on some pork rinds later and had tea with liquid splenda and stevia up to bedtime. I am going to try an experiment. There are some who think sweeteners of any kind affect your glucose, that the body still sees it as 'sugar' because it's 'sweet'. So I am wondering if the body kicks out insulin in response to any sweetener, which would necessitate the liver to kick out glucagon during the night for low glucose, since insulin to fake sweeteners would knock down real glucose levels. I have already had coffee with liquid Splenda this morning. I will drink nothing but water or totally unsweetened (by anything) tea the rest of the day and be very mindful of the food. And see how things look tomorrow. IF that is that case, that will suck, lol. But if I can just have my coffee in the morning... Yeah, I'm hanging onto my coffee, damnit. :P Coffee without sweetener and cream of some description is awful. And I so enjoy my coffee... We will see.

Speaking of giving up stuff I love (!) I have researched more on the dairy/paleo thing. I have found that a lot of Paleo authors *say* no dairy, but then at least some seem to go back on it. "Full is cream is all fat, so it's OK" "Full fat yogurt has enzymes that eat the bad stuff, so it's OK" etc. Mind you, they don't want you eating a lot of it. I definitely get that dairy is a big grey area, for sure. Certainly, there were cows back then! But the theory is they were not domesticated for dairy at that point, so mankind was not doing milk other than breast milk as a baby. I may at some point give up dairy for awhile and see if it really makes such a difference. But one thing at a time. Meanwhile, I will cut back as much as I can stand, and try mixing some full fat cream into the coconut milk to try to get the consistency I like in my coffee. It's just ironic to me about yogurt, though. I have never really been crazy about yogurt until very lately. I started eating Chobani plain yogurt and whisking in pumpkin, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice, with a couple drops of Splenda, and have been in love. And used DaVinci Eggnog sugar-free syrup to create eggnog yogurt. Yum! I'm not eating it every day or anything. I am still an egg girl. But I can't eat eggs EVERY day for breakfast.

So we shall see.

Update - well, that did not take long. Google is my friend, once again! Numerous sites are ringing with the idea that any sweetener can make the body think it's getting sugar, therefore may kick out insulin. OK, then. No more today. Water only. Will see what happens in the morning. That may explain Dawn Phenomenon, too.

TGIF!

2011-11-11T12:47:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned that I love Fridays??? LOL

I will have to get back to work for awhile, but wanted to post.

I am reading more of the Everyday Paleobook. I am still not totally clear on the dairy thing. The author does say dairy is out (as do most Paleo authors, it seems), but she approves of using heavy cream in small amounts because it's all fat. Well. Frankly, I don't want to give up my coffee, and no cream of any kind is just not an option. I have tried using So Delicious Coconut Milk (Unsweetened) in my coffee, which *is* on the good list. But - I'm sorry - it is just not the same flavor or consistency of even regular 2%, much less 1/2 & 1/2 or cream... Not even close. What to do... Well, this morning, I tried a different tack. Part of the reason I use so much cream in my coffee is for the cooling factor. I cannot stand hot hot coffee. So. I poured in some of the So Delicious to cool it off, then a bit of 1/2 & 1/2. I know, 1/2 & 1/2 is not heavy cream. But that's what I have right now. I will get heavy cream. I am working on it! ;-) I can't say it's a perfect solution, but I am obviously going to have to start dealing with my coffee not being as creamy as I like, or give it up. Did I mention I also love my Keurig??? Before I had the Keurig, I used a Cuisinart Brew Central. I had that puppy for years, it was a great workhorse. In fact, it is still being used at my hubby's work. :-)

The whole dairy thing has me stymied at the moment. I LOVE LOVE LOVE most dairy. Milk. Cheese. Sour cream (not plain, but in stuff or dips). Yogurt (and that's new for me). Not so crazy about cottage cheese plain, but cook with it. Butter. Eggs. I think I may actually have more trouble with giving up dairy than grains. I need to do more research.

TTFN!

My New Toy

2011-11-10T13:47:00.001-05:00

One good thing about this whole makeover - I have been doing a lot more cooking and experimenting than I ever have. :-) In truth, I was raised on fast food and restaurant food, for the most part. This was because my mom died when I was 6, and we had live-in housekeepers until I was 12 and entering what was then junior high. Then it was all me - the house, the cooking, the cleaning and raising my then 7 year old sister. I was fortunate enough that some of the housekeepers taught me a few things about cooking, but not enough that I was crazy about it. To this day, I have not evolved enough as a cook to just make up stuff very well. A little, maybe. I can sure follow a recipe, though. LOL.

Anyway, of late, I have been spreading my wings a bit with new recipes for this healthy eating. You kind of have to, because otherwise it's meat and veggies, plain. You're still getting meat and veggies, but either or both are fancier. :-) I have found some really good recipes that are primal/paleo and adapt a bit to low carb too. See - primal/paleo eating is not necessarily low carb. And I am doing low carb no matter what, for now. So adapting a bit. No potatoes or sweet potatoes, etc. I am reading a couple of good books right now, Everyday Paleo, by Sarah Fragoso, and starting on 8 Minute Meditation: Quiet Your Mind. Change Your Life., by Victor Davich. I have already decided I love Sarah. I am a few chapters into the book and am a little worried about the fate of my coffee in the mornings already. I love my coffee. With Splenda or stevia. And cream/milk/something. And not a little - a decent amount. I have been asked more than once if I like a little coffee with my cream, lol. Anyway, the chapter that describes what paleo eating is, excludes dairy. :-O But it includes eggs, so I am a bit confused. Aren't eggs considered dairy? I will keep reading, stay tuned. As for the 8 Minute Meditation book, I just read a few pages in the sample before committing to buying, but I really like his style. If he is as good as I heard, I will be a blissful woman, soon. :-)

Back to the new toy. A lot of these recipes call for shredded stuff, for example. Turnips. Carrots. Cheese. Some of the recipes have taunted me with a note by the shredded ingredient like, "a food processor would be good for this". Sigh. I have put off buying a food processor for years. I don't have much counter space. I have a blender in a cabinet that I have been getting out more to make yogurt smoothies (argh - more dairy?). What to do? Well, after much research, I decided instead of adding to the appliances, I'll replace one with a two-fer. My blender does nothing but blend. But - I found a blender that also does food processing: Cuisinart BFP-603 SmartPower Deluxe Blender and Food Processor. It is MUCH nicer than my old blender, which has a plastic pitcher. I love it. I used the blender last night. Plan to use the food processor in the next couple days. It has both an "S" blade and a combo shredder/slicer disk. Very sharp one, I might add. 600 watts of power. Niiiice. Since I am cooking so much more these days, I deserve it. ;-) And my niece has graciously agreed to give my blender a home. It has wave-action and no doubt will blend lots of frozen drinks, lol. This new one is so nice, I am trying to find counter space for it, at least the blender assembly. It's not huge. I am in love with the new toy. And ready to cook!

Friday Eve

2011-11-10T09:05:00.001-05:00

Ha! Can you tell I am looking forward to tomorrow? Work has been, well, intense this week. And why I haven't posted since Sunday. I am on a huge project that will enter the training phase next week. As in - *I* will be training site trainers to use our product and be trainers and they will then go train end users. I spent three solid days this week being taught how to teach. And work on the training agenda. I am rapidly becoming fried. Next Weds., Thurs. and Friday are going to be long, Xanax-filled days. :-O But - once that is done, I can't say it will be a cinch from there, but then it becomes all about details, and I should not be on the forefront so much. This project will be over around the end of April next year. I hope I make it through it, lol.

As for the actual blog subject, I am holding my own. I tried an experiment the other night, that taught me a few things. I had already thrown out all my low carb wraps, which had grains/wheat and gluten in them. But I had still wistfully been holding onto my Dreamfields, hoping after I had gotten things under control, I may be able to have some again. For the uninitiated, Dreamfields makes pasta. Pasta that is, according to them, low carb because only about 5 carbs a serving is absorbable. I had tried an experiment awhile back that indicated I absorb a lot more than 5 carbs, but I thought maybe after all this time, my system may see it differently. In a word, no. :-( I came home from work tired, hungry and not in the mood to cook a lot. I had some leftover rotisserie chicken and low carb alfredo sauce, and made it up real quick with some Dreamfields linguine. It was tasty. Hubby approved. My body, however, did not. Within about 2 hours, I had some, shall we say, intestinal distress. Not terrible, just enough to let me know it was not happy. My sinuses kicked up, a surprise to me. And my glucose was 139 at 2 hours. Which makes me wonder what it was at 1 hour. :-O Argh. It came down to 99 by the next morning, which is not terrible, considering. But I try to keep it as low as possible ALL the time, so this is not acceptable. So - the food collection box at work will be getting 4 or more boxes of Dreamfields, since the last time I got any, I got a bunch, of course. Oh, well. I can live with the tofu pasta, I guess, it's not too bad. So my pantry is probably very close to low-carb all around, now. I can't get rid of everything, my hubby is only following my diet to a certain degree. But a lot of the stuff he likes, I have no trouble staying away from. Most of the troublemakers are gone now, or will be very shortly, to the food bank. Unfortunately, from what I am reading, it will take up to 2 weeks for the effects of the gluten/wheat to go away again, and indeed my sinuses are a bit stuffy still, plus innards are just a bit off (don't make me draw a picture, lol). Weight is hanging around a pound over lowest right now.

Must go do some work. And treadmill later.

Sunday And It's Fall Back Time

2011-11-06T07:26:00.000-05:00

Personally, I loathe DST and the whole rigamarole of changing our clocks back and forth. I think that law should be repealed and real time used always. So when they decided to make it worse a couple years ago by starting it earlier and ending it later, I gritted my teeth, for sure. However, my public service announcement for the morning is, if you haven't changed your clocks AGAIN, it's time. :P

I knew there was a reason I pretty much quit drinking liquor and started drinking beer. You can drink more of it, before getting intoxicated, for starters. With the no-grain/no-wheat thing, I thought well, I will just switch to liquor. I have decided after last night, if I am going to drink at all, I cannot match beer to liquor drink for drink. Noooooo. I have a headache. :-( And am probably going back to bed for awhile.

I did not weigh yesterday or today or do glucose. Will see where I am in the morning. If I feel better later, I want to get on the treadmill, for sure.

An observation: I must be coming along in my conversion to low-carb, paleo type eating. I have run across recipes I wanted to try lately, and it seems to be a good sign that I finally seem to have most or all of the staple ingredients now! :-D I am still considering buying a food processor, though. I don't have one. Hand-grating and etc to all these veggies is time-consuming and finger-scraping. So there may be a purchase soon. Or a Christmas gift wish vibe to the hubby. Something.

Ugh. I need to feed the critters and go back to bed. I won't bother saying 'never again'. But I will say I learned a lesson.

TGIF!

2011-11-04T08:00:00.000-04:00

It's Friday!! I have to get started working, so a fast post.

More evidence the wheat thing affects me. We went out to dinner last night to Red Lobster. They are having their Shrimpfest, and have all you can eat of various shrimp dishes. You order two types to start, then reorder whatever kind you like, one at a time. Well. I have a passion for coconut shrimp from there. And haven't had any for well, since June at least. The shrimp are battered, then rolled in coconut and fried. And come with a mixture of coconut milk and pineapple to dip in. OMG are they good. I decided to see what happened if I ate some. I had some parmesan shrimp, too. Which is similar to scampied shrimp but has parmesan cheese and crumb mix on it. So this morning - I was up half a pound. I figured I would be, and I was right. So - no more. I got my answer.

I will hopefully be back later today! But must get to work.

Yippee!!!

2011-11-03T08:33:00.001-04:00

Today is a happy day! So far, anyway, lol. I woke up to find another pound gone! :-D And I ate 3 meals yesterday and had a couple... adult beverages (liquor/diet mixer, no beer). I really think this wheat thing may be the key. So I am down 33.5 pounds total. One of the other managers at my work asked me just yesterday how much I had lost. And this was a GUY who manages another team. Males are not usually so observant, especially not from another herd, lol. My manager is a great guy, however as PC as it gets. He went to the "Never ever mention weight or any controversial subject with subordinates" school. And he's young, just 31 or 32 I think. But he's a good guy.

Speaking of the wheat thing, I have also noticed my skin seems clearer - I have rosacea and I have noticed the redness is way down. Hard to say whether it's from stopping wheat, or if the tetracycline the derm put me on is doing it. I don't care. It looks better to me. Just hope it stays that way.

I also remembered to check my glucose, after only a sip of coffee, lol. I tell you, when I get up, I am in a zone to go get coffee in the morning. A path beaten to the Keurig. And before you know it, no longer fasting. But I remembered right after the sip, so checked real quick. Relion - 94 and 92. TRUEresult - 96 and 96. In truth, they are not far off each other today. But the TRUEresult still seems more consistent with itself. I still have the impression it is more accurate. Well, I still have at least 20-30 strips left for the Relion, so it won't hurt to parallel test for awhile. I may stop blowing two of the other strips, though. I've made my point, to me at least.

My blood pressure is 126/87 this morning, and I am due to take my meds now. So that's not bad, either. :-) Now that I got the immediate big block of work to the boss yesterday, I do not have to be at a dead run today, and am planning some exercise, since I am working from home. Treadmill for sure, and I want to try that other exercise. It sounds like isometric, but the point is to do the exercises super-slow, to make the muscle fail after only a few reps. Supposed to stimulate muscle building. I can use more muscle, for all the reasons everyone has posted everywhere. Increased metabolism is a biggie. Supposed to help lower blood pressure and glucose levels, two more biggies. Although I am not looking forward to the inevitable soreness, I am looking forward to the bennies. And not having to visit the damn doctor every few months for nothing.

Busy Busy

2011-11-02T23:44:00.000-04:00

I have been busy, for sure. I was just remiss Sunday, but Mon-Tues I traveled for work. I didn't get home until 8pm last night and then ran around like a nut until after midnight trying to get things done. Then worked all day today. Have been relaxing this evening. Am really sleepy and about to hit the hay.

I was down another new 1/2 pound this morning! :-D Down 32 1/2 now. I have not checked my glucose in several days, though. I will check in the morning, I am working from home the next two days.

I do have one annoyance to post about. My doc is a PITA. I am considering switching to one a little more willing to play ball my way. I got the labs done on October 21st, right? I figured sooner or later they would call. They didn't. I didn't much care, since I didn't want to hear crap anyway. So last Saturday, I get a letter from the office to call them as they had been trying to get hold of me. Riiiight. I call Monday, while driving to Timbuktu for work. I tell them I will be out of one of my blood pressure meds, well, today. And that Target says they messed up the script. The nurse says they will call some in but the doctor wants me to... come in. So he can go over my labs. I say, I have already seen and gone over them and don't need to. She insists. And only calls in 30 days' worth, when I should have had 90 days worth, like my other meds. Argh. It really, really pisses me off that I am forced to deal with their freaking game of dragging me in there every few months so they can collect a copay and bill my insurance for a visit. I swear, the very minute I lose enough weight that my blood pressure stays reasonably normal without meds, they will not see me for 5 years, lol.
Another thing I'm not thrilled about is I am sure I will have to battle with him over my fasting glucose. Well, I am armed and ready. No labeling if I can help it.

Anyway, I may try to get this over with the next two days, because I will fret myself to pieces, and I have so much going on at work, it will be a hassle and a half if I put it off. Damnit. Later.

Bliss

2011-10-29T17:04:00.000-04:00

I am a blissful woman right now. I just got back from my 90 minute massage by Ricardo.

Ahhhhhhh!!! :-D He did a wonderful job and got out the knots and kinks. He also gave me a coupon to get an hour massage for $39.

I will go back there for sure.

A Treat For Myself

2011-10-29T11:07:00.001-04:00

I am so excited. On September 3rd, I bought a Groupon (my first) for a 90 minute Swedish massage at a nearby spa place for $60. I adore massages, and beg my hubby regularly, but it ain't the same as a pro. Plus he's not really into it, and I get short shrift. I had not used my Groupon yet, and really need a massage. It has been so long, I'm not even sure when I had one last. I called the place just now, not really expecting to get in on a Saturday.

I have an appointment at 2:30 with Ricardo... :-D And my hubby is not so pleased that it's a guy doing the massage. HA! You had your chance, buddy.

I will report back later on the bliss.

D'Oh! Head-Slapping Moment

2011-10-29T08:38:00.003-04:00

One thing I am not crazy about with Blogger is that there are no smilies. I love them. But if I were to use one right now, it wouldn't be smiling.

I had an epiphany last night, while we were out with friends. It was a Friday night get-together, met up with several couples, including our BFF's. We met at a local restaurant/watering hole we have frequented for years. OK, it's a bar that also serves food, lol. We ate dinner and had a few rounds while catching up. They had live entertainment last night - a pair of guys dressed up as the Blues Brothers, singing. Plus another pair of guys from a local band, singing. It was fun.

Anyway - as I have posted, I have been reading Wheat Belly. And thinking I had eliminated 99% of the wheat containing products in my life, for sure. But something is still holding me up. I was contemplating this while listening to the guys sing, and as I looked at my sixth beer to see if I was done for the night, it finally hit me. What, pray tell, is beer made from?????? The fact that I was drinking Miller Lite, which has 3.2 carbs per 12 oz beer, does not negate the fact that beer is made from WHEAT. OMG. I am such an idiot sometimes.

Now, normally I do not drink six beers in an evening. Not usually even 6 beers in a week. At least not since June, when I started this makeover. Once in awhile, though... And last night turned into one of them. And I feel appropriately like crap this morning. Headachy, for starters. But the point is, whether I drank one or six, beer is made from WHEAT. So does it really matter how many carbs are in it? I think not.

So - I thought back over the last few months. When I first started the low carb diet, I did not drink at all for weeks. And if memory serves me, that was when I had the biggest weight loss. Of course, folks usually have a big drop at first anyway, so I did not draw a line anywhere. Although the idea of keeping a journal of my every bite would make me crazy - not because of what it might reveal, but just the having to write it all - I kind of wish I had right now. But not enough to do it in the future, lol. However, beer had escaped my notice on all this, and I think I know why.

When I went low-carb about 10 years ago, one of my staple meals when we went out was chicken wings (non-breaded, seasoned with Adobo, and with blue cheese and celery) and a Miller Lite or two, since it was 3.2 carbs per beer. And I did lose 64 pounds. So in my mind, I thought of low-carb beer as OK. But. I never lost that last 20-25 pounds to get to goal weight, even though I stayed low-carb and exercised. I held it off for 3 years, and then crap happened, and I fell off the low carb wagon. I gained most of it back. And stayed that way until this June. I am wondering if the fact that I was eating low carb bread/tortillas/etc and drinking beer was the reason I could not seem to lose that last 20-25 pounds, because of the wheat involved. This may also explain how I managed to gain SEVEN pounds in a week during Biketoberfest a couple weeks ago, and how getting back on the diet and exercise and NO beer the following week dropped it back off. Epiphany, indeed.

I should have saved that Miller Lite bottle. As a monument to what may be the last beer I ever drink. Now I am going to go find some aspirin, and try to stop kicking myself.

TGIF! Oh Yeah

2011-10-28T07:36:00.001-04:00

I do love Fridays! I busted butt at work yesterday so today could be better (and make the boss happier, too). And at 4 pm, cue Bang the Drum, lol. I have to travel for work next Mon-Tues, just one night. So I am in chillax mode already.

I thought I was pretty good yesterday, but seem to be up 1/2 a pound anyway. Well, I haven't been on the treadmill all week, either, but geesh. Oh, well, if my scale is anywhere near as accurate as my glucose meter (the Relion), well, it's just a suggestion anyway. lol

I tested both meters again this morning, twice within a couple minutes. The Relion - 106 and 97. The TRUEresult - 97 and 96. Of course, I like the numbers in the 90's better, but do you see the almost 10 point spread in the Relion results, vs one point on the TRUEresult? These tests were only 2 minutes apart, and I used the same finger stick between the meters, at the same time. I am convinced. The TRUEresult gets to stay. At least, if it says 95 and the lab says 105 (for example), I think I can fairly reliably add 10 to whatever it says and be closer than the Relion, which is all over the place in at least a 10% range. I am thinking the TRUEresult is closer to accurate than that, though. And now that I found a cheap source for testing strips, I am golden. :-D

Treadmill - today. And I want to try that other routine I found and got the weights and stuff to do. I am excited about that one, I can take that on the road with me, if driving. Since there are a total of at least 10 pounds in weights involved, that won't work if I have to fly anywhere. Unless, of course, the hotel involved had small free weights. Not too likely. But the site I am traveling to currently is by ground. I even take my own pillows when I go. I love, love, love my pillows, and don't sleep well without them. But I digress. I love this new routine idea - to bring your muscles to failure in only a few reps. Sounds, well, terrible, I guess, but the idea is to force your muscles to build by wearing them out quickly. Lots of benefits. If it works as advertised, not only will I like the physical results (more muscle/toning, less flab, etc), but it should raise my metabolism and lower my blood pressure. :-D I do have to keep in mind that muscle weighs more than fat, so there will probably be some weight stall or fluctuation.What's new? lol We shall see. I will be happy to share links to the program shortly.

Later! Must. Work.

Good Morning!

2011-10-27T07:31:00.001-04:00

Well, not a long post right now, either. I have a LOT to do this morning for work. Once that's done, I will expound appropriately.

Weight is the same - glucose I did do this morning. Old Relion meter, 99 and 95. New TRUEresult, 94 and 95. The meters were not too far off each other this time, but the TRUEresult seems to be more consistent with itself. Repeated tests are within a couple of each other, and the Relion varies more. I did receive my 100 strips for dirt cheap. :-D I may order more while the getting is good. It appears I will be using this meter more and exclusively soon.

I am reading a book called Wheat Belly, by Dr. William Davis. He is the same one who posted on his blog about losing weight causing fats to mobilize into the bloodstream and cause fasting glucose to be off, and waiting a couple months after weight plateau to let things settle before doing labs. I will get more into the book content later, but the gist for now is that what we know as wheat, which is in just about everything grain-y, has been so genetically altered over the last 50 years, that it may be causing obesity and many other issues. The wheat that our skinnier grandparents ate was a different animal, altogether. I kind of knew our food has been altered, irradiated, etc, but not the extent of this. Scary, scary stuff. He advocates avoiding wheat altogether, because 99% of the world's wheat is of the altered variety. He makes a strong case for cause and effect. I had already mostly abandoned wheat recently because of his blog postings, but now to read the source material, is very scary, indeed.

Another site I've been following, Mark's Daily Apple, who is the author of Primal Blueprint, advocates avoiding grains for another reason - grains only became readily available a few thousand years ago, and he believes we humans are not genetically adapted enough to process it yet. Add that to the altering of the grains, and no damn wonder humans are having trouble with it. I am still reading his book as well. I love my Nook Color. :-D

Must get to work - will try to get finished up so I can post later today.

Fast Post

2011-10-26T07:09:00.003-04:00

I am running late and don't have time to play this morning, lol.

Weight is the same - :-D Hey, better than gaining.

I fleetingly thought about doing my glucose as I was running around doing chores, and then forgot again as I got my coffee. Ah, well.

I won't leave ya hanging about the dentist. I was fortunate. My tooth was fine and so was the crown and they cleaned both up and cemented that puppy back on. My tooth is much happier not being naked. :-D

I have a new exercise routine (besides treadmill, which I will continue) to post about. Later.

See ya!

Sleepy

2011-10-25T06:46:00.001-04:00

Well, I was wrong about the weight - I am down the last pound and plus another half pound of new ground! Yay! Sometimes it's OK to be wrong, lol.

However, I went straight for the coffee maker this morning (I have a Keurig I adore) and have had half a cup with coconut milk already, so doing glucose now would not exactly be accurate. I guess I wasn't fully awake at that point, because I didn't even think about glucose until now. So I won't waste the strips.

I've also had the dentist on my mind - in a nervous way. Well, no matter, there is no choice. It has to be fixed. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be my Christmas gifts this year.

Monday is Over

2011-10-24T22:49:00.000-04:00

I am getting ready to hit the hay, but thought to post. I had a long day at work - in an all-day training meeting. Boy, am I glad that's over.

I did not weigh this morning or do my glucose. Oh, well. More to post on tomorrow. And I ate OK today, but have the feeling I will not weigh less tomorrow.

I did get an appointment with the dentist tomorrow after lunch. I am happy about that, but nervous. I sure hope he can fix that crown back onto its tooth without complications. Crowns are NOT cheap. And if there is something bad enough wrong, I could have to have a root canal done and a new crown, because this one probably would not fit after a root canal. VERY expensive. But this has to be fixed, period, the end. I will try to be brave.

Wah! LOL

On Any Sunday

2011-10-23T10:01:00.004-04:00

The only thing I don't like about Sunday is that Monday is right around the corner, lol. And work with it. Wait, I have to do some work today... Oh, well. Better to do it here. I can do laundry around it and get two things done. ;-)

I woke up to add 1/2 a pound, so am still up 1 pound. I managed to sneak in a small bowl of the soup right before bed (it was soooooo yummy), and I imagine that had something to do with it.

And, I got out the dueling glucose meters and tested each twice, using the same stick for each. My Relion said 94 the first time, and 92 the second. The TRUEResult said 101 and 100. Considering the lab result was 9 to11 higher than the Relion, I think I see a pattern here. I am glad I went ahead and ordered that great deal on test strips for the TRUEResult, I have the distinct feeling it is much closer to lab accurate. Well. That means that my all-over-the-map Relion has been within the 20% acceptable range, but not very helpful in my goals. 20%! Jeez, that means if it said your glucose was 200 (God forbid) then you could be anywhere from 160 to 240 (I would faint at any of that range appearing on my meter at this point). To me, that is is terrible. OTOH, we're not talking about expensive certified or calibrated lab equipment here, either. But so far, it looks like the TRUEResult may get me closer to accurate before I set foot in the lab again.

I am nearly out of one of my 3 blood pressure meds (sometime this week, I think). My doc actually screwed up writing the script, according to Target pharmacy. I should not be out. I should have another 90 days' supply coming to go with the other meds. Target said they would call to get it renewed - I am going to remind them, lol - but unfortunately, that will result in a review of my chart and my 104 glucose and lipid panel and that will probably trigger a demand for a visit before he authorizes it, even though I should not be due yet. Grrrr. They want their friggin' co-pay and office visit money from me as much as possible. I do not. Hence the strong desire to get my blood presure under natural control (with diet, weight loss and exercise) to get off all meds and thereby not NEED to see him unless acutely sick. At the moment, if I don't want my head to blow off, I do have to take meds. And even though my lipid panel has improved a lot, it's still out of range, and he is probably going to want to put me back on lovastatin. I am going to push back on that and tell him to give it another 3 months. Try to get him to read the post by Dr. William Davis on weight loss causing lipid and glucose derangement by its nature and let me continue on for awhile before considering going back on statins or calling me pre-diabetic. And wave the 5.2 A1c at him, lol. You know, I just had another thought on the whole lipid panel range thing. I, of course, am playing into the establishment notion that elevated lipids actually cause disease and heart risk. I don't believe it, but my doctor obviously does, and I am trying to get my lipids down to shut him up. It's harder to argue with doctors when they can finger-point at your labs (plural) and tsk-tsk you. "Bite me" just doesn't have the same effect.

I still have anywhere from 30-50 pounds left to lose, depending on whether I stop where I was seven years ago, or try to go between there and all the way to "ideal" weight. I am not sure the ideal is even desirable, much less feasible, but I will consider as I get closer. See, I am blessed (or cursed) with not being "fluffy fat". I look solid, and when people guess my weight (they refuse to believe I am 50 pounds over "ideal" weight), they are always off by at least 20 pounds to the lower. When I was 30 pounds lighter seven years ago, I was wearing size 6-8, even though I was about 20 pounds over "ideal" weight. So I may look anorexic at ideal weight, lol. What a thought. :-P I definitely want to get back to where I was seven years ago. Beyond that, we will see. If my blood pressure is under control and I feel good, all righty then. If not quite there, I guess I will push on.

A Nice Day :-)

2011-10-22T23:18:00.005-04:00

I will have to do some work tomorrow - but today turned out nice, for the most part. First off, I am down to 1/2 a pound above lowest. :-D

I got my hair cut today.That is significant because I had been growing my hair long - it wasn't too far from my waist, and probably the longest it has ever been. But it was getting thin at the ends and it's fine hair to begin with, and has seemed to be falling out more than normal (see posts here, here, here, and here). So my friend Laura cut about 5" off the back and trimmed my bangs. It looks nice now. I remember when I was a teenager with long hair, and it would get to a certain length and just get scraggly after that. I am too old to be scraggly. So I got my hair makeover today, lol. ;-) Let's hope the shedding slows down. And the Nioxin system stuff smells good and my hair is nice and silky, so I am happy.

I made some broccoli cheese and chicken soup tonight, from a favorite recipe. Something about fall makes me want soup. It is a fairly low carb recipe, except it calls for you to make a roux with butter and 1/4 cup of flour... which is quite carby. I used carbalose flour, which is low carb. It seemed to make the roux okay, but after that you keep whisking and add 1/2 and 1/2 and then chicken broth, and let it simmer for 20 minutes, then add your veggies and simmer some more and it should thicken up. It didn't seem to, much. I added the cheese and it just didn't seem to be as thick as it has when I made it with real flour... But it was quite tasty. :-) I will survive, lol. Maybe next time I will put some xanthan gum in it to thicken it. Hubby does not like broccoli, so it's mine, all mine.

One not-so-great thing that happened today, while I was making the soup, was one of my crowns came off. :-( Fortunately, I recovered it, I hope the dentist can put it back on and there's not issues. I have three crowns. I am pretty sure this is the one that was sensitive and achy for a long time after it was put on... Grrr. The other not-so-great thing was, when I told hubby about it, he confessed that he had lost his crown awhile back and could not find it. Probably swallowed it. He had a root canal and crown put on years ago, like 10 or more. Since the tooth was dead, it doesn't hurt now that the crown is gone. I hope the tooth is salvageable to put another crown on. I can't believe he just let it go. Yea, I can, actually. He is the wimp of the century to go to the dentist. Guess who is also going to go to the dentist this coming week, if I can get him in?

I am off to bed - I have a zillion things to do tomorrow for work.

So - I Got A New Meter, LOL

2011-10-21T15:08:00.002-04:00

I am a cross between a cheapskate and a spendthrift, LOL. If it's something I want, well, no problem. But I try to compensate by being cheap where I can. When I got my Relion glucose meter (all of $8.98 at Wally World), I *thought* it was accurate and the test strips are like $36 for 100, the cheapest I have found. Glucose meters are like printers - the item itself is cheap - they get you on the supplies. Some test strips for meters are outrageous in price.

However, I did notice that consecutive tests on my Relion only a few minutes apart could vary up to 10 or more on the range. Until today, I didn't really think too much of it. But when I get 91 about an hour before I have labs drawn that was 104, and within 15 minutes afterward get 93 on the meter, obviously accuracy is a question. The last labs I had done in June, the meter said 91 and the lab said 97, probably about an hour later. Since my readings on this one could vary so quickly, it was hard to say whether I should just add 11-13 to whatever it said, or (more likely) just not trust it at all.

So I did some research. Consumer Reports (.org) did a rating of glucose meters, and I happen to currently have a membership. Their top rated meters were a couple of Accu-Cheks, which I used to use as a paramedic, in the field, so yeah, they are probably pretty accurate. But cost for strips was outrageous. If you use 4 strips a day (I don't normally test that much, unless I am on a mission, but still...) their estimated cost was $1700/yr! :-O Compared with my Relion, which was $570/yr. Eeeek. Also, the Relion Ultima was rated 62, with Good for Accuracy, as opposed to the two Accu-Cheks, at 79 and 78, with Excellent for accuracy. The lowest was rated at 52, and not very well at that. So - the third one in line was a TRUEResult, Walgreen's brand. I love Walgreen's. It was rated 75 and accuracy etc the same as the Accu-Cheks. And the strips were in the middle, at $1050/yr. Hmmmm... More Googling revealed this meter as rated the most accurate... And Walgreen's not only had it on sale for $12.99, but there is a mail-in rebate to make it free. AND it comes with 10 test strips! Features very similar to the Relion, too. I ran up to Walgreen's and nabbed one. I figured I could test it side-by-side with the Relion for the 10 strips and even if I didn't like it, I could get the rebate and not be out anything. If I like it, they have 100 strips for $69.99. Yeah, that's almost twice the price of Relion's strips. But if I want accuracy... and I do. So I did about 4 tests on each one, using the same blood for each, within about 5 minutes. The Relion varied almost 10, up, down and middle between 88-97. The TRUEResult was within 3 for all 4 readings, 88-91. I am going to continue to test through these strips, and decide. But it kind of looks like the TRUEResult may be more consistent, hopefully more accurate, too. I guess the bad part is, if my Relion said 91-93 and the lab said 104, then I will have to do the same with this one and see how close it is. If it's at least consistent, I can compensate. I will surely watch for a sale on the strips. Geesh.

HA! Update - I also LOVE Amazon.com. Found the 100 count strips for the TRUEResult for $24.70, no tax and free shipping! :-D Score!

Talk About Good News, Bad News!

2011-10-21T13:07:00.000-04:00

Argh! Well, I got my lab results. Part of me is happy and part of me is not at all happy. I had put off going until now because of the glucose thing, and dammit, I thought I had that licked. Despite my meter reading 91 before and 93 after, my lab glucose was 104. :-((( Well, if they give me crap (and I am sure they will), I will send them a copy of my A1c. Dammit!!!! I am going to research meters. I went with inexpensive, believing this one was still good, but perhaps I should invest in one with a great accuracy record, even if it's more expensive for the strips. I did hear somewhere in my surfing that meters can be up to 20% 'off' and be acceptable. Not to me, dammit. Not to me.

As for the good news (mostly, anyway lol) my total cholesterol came down 86 points, my HDL went up 21 points (yay!), my LDL went down 102 points, my ratio went from 9.2 to 4.6 (it came down by half! and 'average' risk is 4.4, so not far off normal). My VLDL came down 5 points (still a bit high at 36, normal high is 32) and my triglycerides cames down 28 points to 179, still high (should be less than 150) but definitely better. I took lovastatin for 60 days, but have not been on it for over two months. I believe this is all diet, really. It could have been lower on the lovastatin, for all I know. In other good news, my GFR went up to 60 and my creatinine went down to normal so my kidney function is improving, and my AST/SGOT went back to normal, so liver function is normal (the other liver enzymes were fine).

So - where to go from here? I will have to deal with the glucose to the doc or his office, I am sure. And I am headed right now to research meters. I will not get caught like that again, or a diagnosis will come even if my A1c is fine, I bet. And I am continuing on the diet path and stepping up the exercise. I am pleased with most of the other numbers, at least my kidneys and liver seem to be OK, and the cholesterol is actually down (or up as appropriate), even if not near ideal yet.

I shall return!

More Good News :-D

2011-10-21T10:11:00.002-04:00

So I finally got to come home last night from work travel. YAY! :-D

I walked on the treadmill at the hotel Mon-Tues-Weds for 45 minutes each day - when I got home yesterday, we had friends waiting for us to go to dinner (and I was starving, having had a vegetarian lunch). So no treadmill yesterday. Definitely will today. Got on the scale this morning, and have dropped 5 of the 7 pounds Biketoberfest naughtiness put on me. :-D AND my fasting glucose was 91!!!! So - I FINALLY went to get my labs done!!! I found out Friday morning at the hospital is a busy time for outpatient lab draws, it took over an hour to get done there. I was a little worried that as wonky as my glucose can be that it would start climbing, even though I am fasting, which it has done. But I came straight home and checked it again - 93. So I am hoping the lab glucose will be under 100. I will report back when I get the results - should be by noonish. Other than the whole glucose trauma (lol) I am hoping my lipid panel is better. I took lovastatin for 60 days from mid-June to mid-August, and have been doing low carb/low sugar since mid-June, so I am hoping for a significant drop. I am also hoping my kidney function is a bit better - I can't recall offhand which part was off last time in the blood work (the GFR was off in the UA but they didn't repeat that this time) but the doc thought that was related to the elevated cholesterol (which is related to the glucose etc) so I am hoping all is better now. We will see. I don't want to go back on the statin, so I am hoping hoping hoping.

I am still basking in the happiness of the A1c being 5.2. :-D Like I said - not fooling myself. I definitely have glucose tolerance issues, and will probably have to watch it forever. After awhile of doing regular exercise and diet, it may get better, but I doubt I'll get a total pass. That's OK - the important thing is that I've hopefully caught it before permanent damage is done.

Update to follow!

w00t!!!

2011-10-19T07:01:00.001-04:00

I am a happy camper this morning!!!! :-D No, I can't weigh in the hotel room lol, but I am hoping I have dropped a few lbs. And my fasting was a frustrating 102 this morning... :-S But. Maybe what I need is a new glucose meter, lol. I got my A1C results in email this morning. And here it is:

In case you are having trouble reading that NORMAL number at the bottom, it's 5.2. That is completely, totally, NORMAL. According to the chart, 5.2 equates to an average glucose of about 103. INCLUDING meals. Obviously, those frustrating fasting sugars just over 100 are getting lower than that during the day, or the average including meals would be higher. This lab is CLIA and NGSP certified and reported to be very accurate compared with A1C's done at local labs. Now - I am not fooled into thinking all is well and I can forget the low carb diet, etc. I know I don't tolerate sugars/carbs/starches well. Maybe never will. But. My happiness is that now I know I can control it with diet. :-D And hopefully not have to lop off limbs or lose my eyesight. Or go on more meds. Remember - very high on goal list is to get off all prescription meds!

Now if I can catch my damn fasting right, I can get my labs done, lol. Seriously, I am wondering if my meter is jacked. I did get control solution and just never tested it. I think I will when I get home. Maybe it's the meter. That would make me even happier, lol.

Now - gotta get to work!

Not So Bad?!?!? I Should Have Known

2011-10-18T18:37:00.000-04:00

Good grief! I should have known Biketoberfest would be a wash. As in, holy crap, did I mess up and my body caught me. :-(

Biketoberfest is over, thank God. I ate too much crap, drank too much beer, and basically screwed up. By Sunday (or was it yesterday) morning, I had put on SEVEN pounds and jacked my fasting all over creation. I have to admit, it was FUN. But not sure it was worth it. I can say I did not just give up and say 'screw it', though. I got back on the diet yesterday morning, and probably did not eat much more than 1000-1100 calories, if that. AND walked 45 minutes on the treadmill. ;-) Which I have not done in weeks. Today, the same. I will have a small dinner after I go walk again. I am pleased to report my glucose was 93 a couple minutes ago. I am actually not home, either. I had to travel for work this week, and am doing this on the road. I am very serious about dropping that weight. AND continuing further down the scale.

I have been watching my email, and have not seen anything from the A1C yet. I expect it any day. Although, I am not sure what I will do with the results. If it is good, or pretty good, I will rejoice, of course. If it is bad... Well. I'm not sure. Truthfully, I am not at all sure those home ones I did were even remotely accurate. This lab is supposedly good. I guess I will just have to see. I can tell you this past week told me what I had been doing was good for me. Fun or not, I knew I felt better overall before. But I also learned there is just so much I can stand in the being good department. If I can concede that Bike Week (around the first week of March, the fours days of Biketoberfest (October, obviously) and maybe *some* holidays are just washes, maybe I can be good the vast majority of the time and be OK with it. Nobody is perfect, and if you can't enjoy yourself some, what's the point of it all?

Now. I am off to go see if the (one and only) treadmill is open.

Not So Bad...

2011-10-12T19:28:00.000-04:00

Well, I can't say I felt great today, lol. My body wanted more carbs, of course and I had a headache. But I weighed the same and glucose was 102 this morning. Hmmm. Unless more turns up tomorrow, it doesn't look like a lot of damage was done.

I sent off that mail-in A1C today, finally, too. We shall see.

I discovered something useful today. I really, really wanted Chinese food (carb craving, of course), which I have not had since at least June 9th. I found out for a small sum I can trade the rice for mixed vegetables. :-D And this place does not use MSG. I <3 Chinese food.

Not sure how much I will be posting the next few days. Tomorrow is the start of Biketoberfest in Daytona Beach and DH and I will be spending most of our days on the Harley. Life is good.

I'm a Bad Puddy-Tat, LOL - and a Nioxin Update

2011-10-11T22:45:00.001-04:00

Nioxin first - I have used it twice so far. It smells pretty peppermint-y. And the conditioner really makes my head feel... well, cool. Even for awhile after I rinse it out. But I have to say, so far, I like. I am realistic - I am so far still having the same fallout - but I didn't expect a first-use miracle. The folks at the salon said it takes a little time, but it works. I can report, however, that I don't seem to have the scaly stuff on my scalp since I started using it. At all, that I can find. And that is a good start. :-) That means it is doing something - at least clearing away the gunk and as I usually wash every other day, it not returning for that time is very hopeful. The Scalp Treatment stuff (leave-in third part of the system) arrived today - just after I had washed and dried my hair, of course. I will use that at the next shampooing.

Also - I have been using the lotion stuff I was prescribed on my face on the little spots and they seem to be getting better. Not quite gone yet, but definitely better. Not sure if the lotion is helping or the tetracycline is doing all of it, lol. But as long as the issues GO. AWAY. I will be happy.

Now for the 'bad puddy-tat' tattle on myself.
Every once in awhile, a girl has gotta splurge. There is another couple my DH and I are BFF's with, the husband has been out of work for nearly two years. We're not talking about an unskilled or uneducated person. He is a journeyman electrician, for Pete's sake. It has been terrible for them, but they have managed to keep it together on her salary and dipping (unfortunately) into their retirement funds. We found out today that he has FINALLY secured a job! :-D He will start Friday. We went out to eat to celebrate. It was the Olive Garden. :-O Not my choice to go there, it is very hard (and expensive) for me to find something 'legal' to eat there. I decided what the hell. I know I will pay for it, but by golly, it was a special occasion and I wanted a break. I have not had any pasta for 4 months. I had real lasagna. And breadsticks. And a small piece of cheesecake. It was absolutely delicious. And oh, so, bad. Ah, well. I am sure I will be up a couple pounds and wonkier than usual glucose. But I had a really nice dinner with friends. Oh! To make it even sweeter - another couple we are good friends with just happened to show up at the restaurant and we all sat together! It was really, really nice.

I do not feel defeated - I will just pick up tomorrow and go at it again! ;-)

And It Just Keeps Getting Better LOL

2011-10-09T10:27:00.001-04:00

Happy Sunday! And it's a great one - I am off work ALL WEEK this week! YAY!

I spent some time surfing around Google looking for more info on the hair loss issue and found some interesting info on it plus some possible helpful stuff. I just surfed into info about Viviscal, which is a vitamin/etc supplement that is reputed to make your hair AND nails grow strong and like crazy. Since I have had crappy nails, well, my whole life, I am sorely tempted. But at a cost of minimum $37/mo (cheapest I can find it is on Amazon), I decided to try some cheaper things first. I am already doing so many supplements, etc. While I was reading testimonials for another product like Viviscal, I ran across a strong recommendation for Nioxin System 4. So I went to the Nioxin web site and did the online consult to see which system would be best. I did it honestly and it actually said System 3 would be best for me. However, the difference was if I said my hair was thinning a bit, or had noticeable scalp showing. If I said I had scalp-showing thinning, it said System 4. I don't have scalp showing (yet), but hey, I do NOT want to get to that point, thank you very much. I am definitely headed that way if I do nothing. This stuff comes highly recommended to clean DHT and other gunk that may be blocking hair roots and encourages hair to grow. I ordered a couple of samples from eBay to try. Then decided I could not wait that long, lol. Luckily for me, there is a Hair Cuttery very close to my house that sells Nioxin. And they are having a sale! So I ran down there and got the 10 oz shampoo and conditioner, buy one, get the second 1/2 off. That made it reasonable, not really cheap, lol. But assuming I like it and it works, I can get it on Amazon for cheaper in the future. I did order the Scalp Treatment (third part of the system) for less than $9 on Amazon and it will be here Tuesday. I figure the samples I ordered off eBay, I can use while traveling for work and refill them from my bigger supply as needed. They were 1.7 oz each, so they will go in carry on if I fly.

I am also taking my tetracycline and using the lotion on my face. I am foregoing putting it on my scalp for now. I am sorry - I am loathe to gunk up my scalp with that stuff yet. Let me see what I can do with the Nioxin first.

Followup on the glucose issue - I forgot to take my HCL yesterday... I am down to my lowest weight so far, though! :-D However, my fasting glucose was 110 today. Grrrr. But all is not lost, and I am glad I am off this week. I can monitor a lot this week and get the best picture. Plus if I catch a good glucose morning, I can go run to the damn lab. LOL.

One of my favorite low carb folks is Dana Carpender. Not only do I have EVERY ONE of her cookbooks, she is an inspiration, who lives the low carb life herself and is not afraid to tell you the truth. I ran across a post of hers last night that filled me with hope. She has had the exact same issue I have, lately, of her fasting glucose bumping up to just over 100 and staying there. OMG. I read fanatically, and Googled some more. Oh, it helps if you are searching on the right things, lol. There is a lot to be said out there regarding poor sleep and cortisol release and glucose control. As I have posted earlier, I have a history of insomnia, and I was on Ambien for several years. Until about 4-ish weeks into this diet. I thought I was sleeping better, and very much wanted to get off the pills, so I did. And I am getting to sleep better, most nights. However, if honest with myself, I am still waking up a lot during the night. Now I know why. Cortisol is waking me up, because my glucose is dipping during the night, and my liver is kicking out glycogen, which is raising my fasting glucose. And it's a vicious circle. Poor sleep causes cortisol release also. So - back to the Dawn Phenomenon. All righty, then. The recommendations I am finding indicate to stop the circle, at the sleep part, then work on soothing the cortisol release. OK. I have a ton of Ambien. I used to actually cut them in half because I was afraid of dependence on them. The heck with that, at the moment. I took a whole pill last night and took 10mg of time-release melatonin. I went right to sleep last night, and only woke up once at 3:45 to potty. And went right back to sleep. Although my glucose was still up this morning, I feel great. It may take a few days to work on. And I am off this week.

I also found info that B12 is needed for melatonin synthesis and production. I was taking B12 2500mcg daily, and stopped when all this glucose crap started, while trying to rule out what was causing it. However, I found out the form of B12 I have (cyanocobolamin) is not the most active, although it's what is used in common supplements. Methylcobolamin is the active form, and what the body has to convert the cyanocobolamin to. The body can, but it does have to. And it is recommended for the sleep issues. Take it in the morning and it helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle. Figures I would be taking the less active form. Not to say my form does nothing - but it's not the best one. To top it off, guess what is needed to metabolize B12 - sufficient stomach acid. Ha. Really? So. Back on the B12 - I have a bunch of the cyanocobolamin type, and will try it out. Plus remember to take my HCL. And the Ambien-melatonin combo. And see what happens the next few days.

I am starting to feel like a science experiment. But I am still very happy for the weight loss and do feel better overall. If I can get the sleep-glucose thing worked out, I feel like it will be smooth sailing after that.

Later! :-D

TGIF Again!

2011-10-07T08:56:00.002-04:00

TGIF! Yes, indeed, Friday is my favorite day of the week, lol! Especially this week - I will be on vacation time all week next week so this is my last workday for 9 days! :-D I do need to do some real work today, though, no slacking. Well, not much, anyway. ;-) Then I can enjoy my week off without guilt.

I took the HCL with dinner last night. We had steak and I had a decent serving of baked acorn squash. Before I looked up the nutrition info. I had assumed (!) it would be similar to other squash, and safe to eat on my diet. Well, you know what they say about assuming. It turns out a cup of acorn squash has 29.9 grams of carbs, and 9 grams of fiber, for nearly 21 grams! And I am pretty sure I ate a good cup. Jeez. No wonder it was so good. It had been years since I'd had any, and I saw some at the market and thought it would be a nice change from green beans. It was. But not at that carb cost. I would have eaten much less had I known. Plus some really good NY strip (hubby is the griller). And my coconut oil. I gave the HCL plenty to work on. No tummy burning. No GERD last night (another fear). I got up this morning and got on the scale with great trepidation. I lost 1.5 pounds! I am back to 1 pound over the lowest. I was surprised. Glucose was same ol', same ol. 103. But it was higher yesterday (108 or 109). Truthfully, I am not hungry this morning, and I probably should be by now. I am thinking maybe I am just eating too much, too late in the evening. I think I will start adjusting my meal size down until I get hungry by the next meal, lol.

I washed my hair with the Selsun Blue stuff last night. Then used my conditioner. To my surprise, my hair feels soft and... normal. I can't say I didn't lose any hair while combing it out and drying it, but that may take awhile to fix. At least it doesn't feel like straw this morning. As for the Rx stuff the derm wanted me to use. OMG. I should have known something was up, when they gave me an 8ml sample and a discount card to use at the pharmacy. Wally did not carry it. Target did not, either, but offered to order it. I got suspicious and asked how much this stuff is. $334!!! Holy $hit!!! I told them, no thank you, and called the office to cancel my next appointment. If that was their game, I wasn't playing. Of course the office asked why I was canceling and I told them. Got put on hold. The nurse got on. She asked about the discount card. I told her yes, I had it, but when I called to activate it, the recording said you get reimbursed for the difference, not get the stuff for $10. There was no way I could put out over $300 for this stuff. Couldn't we try something else less expensive first? She said she would get with the derm and call me back. She did. Now we are talking. A much less expensive lotion and some Tetracycline twice a day for two months. The Tetracycline has a story. My BFF went to another derm recently with a similar rash around her mouth and her derm put her on Tetracycline for 10 days. It's gone. I mentioned this when talking to the nurse, and told her I realize this may not be the same rash. Evidently they decided to give it a try. Fine with me. Tetracycline is cheap. My dilemma is with the lotion. I am supposed to put this stuff on my scalp twice a day. My whole scalp? Only on the trouble spots? The spots come and go in different spots on the scalp. Putting this stuff all over the scalp will make my hair look nasty all the time. Putting it on just the current spots probably won't do much except to those spots, if it's really a whole scalp issue. I have a feeling the lotion will only get used on my face, lol. I have a couple other avenues to pursue in the hair thing. And will post on that later. This is getting long, lol.

Must go work now!

Next!

2011-10-06T15:17:00.000-04:00

So, I am slowly dropping that 4 pounds. Down 1.5 so far. Jeez, I cannot catch a break. What a PITA my body is being this year! Overall, I feel better, of course. But I want to progress. And my body is fighting me every step of the way. Grrrr.

On the whole GERD/HCL w/Pepsin thing - I took a 650mg capsule while eating lunch today. Lunch was not heavy, either, a Caesar salad with some chicken on it, and some unsweet tea. No burning. At all. I am really starting to think the low stomach acid thing may have some merit. I am going to take one during each meal for awhile and see what happens. I was worried one may make my stomach burn, but the bottle says not to take more than 12 in a day. :-O I certainly hope I don't need anywhere near that much.

So what's next? More doc visits. This morning was a dermatologist office. I saw the nurse practitioner. Time will tell whether she is right. Yes, another female. I am not so sure about her, but will give her a chance. The good news - my sun-bunny years have not caught up to me so far. No skin cancer. Something is going on with my scalp and face, though, possibly seborrhea. I am actually losing more hair than I should be. :-( She wants me to use some kind of steroid lotion on my face and scalp for a couple weeks and see what happens. I am dubious. My Googling led me to trying Selsun Blue shampoo first, the formula with selenium in it. I bought some, although the OTC one has less selenium than the Rx one. I will use that and put some of this stuff on it, too. That is, if I can find it. Wally's pharmacy doesn't carry it. I am calling Target next. They are actually my favorite pharmacy, anyway. As for what is causing it, one explanation could be the low stomach acid thing. If that is going on, I may not be absorbing nutrients well and some research I've been doing indicates a biotin, inositol or zinc deficiency can cause the hair loss and seborrhea. She wasn't totally sure if it was seborrhea, but she thinks it may be. Shoot, if I had low enough stomach acid, all those supplements I was taking was just wasted. Not any more, if I fix it. We will see!

Not Sure If It's Progress or Congress, LOL

2011-10-03T20:24:00.002-04:00

Well - the last few days have been interesting. My weight slowly went back to a pound over lowest, as of yesterday morning. Then this morning it was UP 4 pounds. :-( Yesterday was our anniversary (17 years!) and we went on an all-day Harley ride. We had a great time. I didn't think I ate too badly, but I guess my body disagreed. OTOH, I ate shrimp yesterday and was thirsty as heck today. So I could be retaining water. At least, my fasting glucose was semi-cooperative. 97. So I went on to work and ate two boiled eggs for breakfast and a meat salad for lunch (turkey and friends). When I got home at 5:30 I was starving, lol. So I checked my glucose. 88! :-D Naturally, the lab is closed at that point, so I could not go get my labs done. Grrrr.
Well, another meat salad for dinner. We went to Quizno's and I got this Caprese Chicken salad. Sans the vinagrette that has 17 carbs of sugar. Got blue cheese instead, which only had a couple. And here I am.

So - ref the GERD Connection post of 9-19: After more than a few days of forgetting to try the baking soda test, I finally remembered Saturday. I put 1/4 tsp of baking soda in 8oz water first thing and drank it down. I did have two tiny burps, but that was all. From what I was reading, I think it should have been a lot more. So - I am thinking to try the other test - take a HCL/pepsin capsule and see what happens. If one burns my tummy, I don't need it. I did go out and get some HCL w/Pepsin on Saturday, I just haven't tried it yet. I am a little nervous to do it on a day I have to be away from home, in case my stomach takes offense. I really have the feeling this is relevant, though. So the current plan is to try it Thursday and/or Friday, when I will be working from home. That way, if tummy is offended, I will be here to work at soothing it. I may open the first capsule and dump some out, just to hedge my bets a little, lol.

I have really been stymied on exercise. It seems no time is a good time, and I need to do it... I have pet chores to do in the morning, so unless I get up a lot earlier (and I am SO not a morning person as it is), I can't do it then. I can barely get things done, get ready for work, and get there close to on time, now. And when I get home, I am usually thinking about dinner and pet chores and crashing, plus I am leery of exercising too late in the day, when I should be winding down for bed. What to do, what to do. I am also leery of eating too late in the day, as well. I am surmising if I am going to do this, it will need to be as soon as I get home. Before dinner, and well before bedtime. On days I am not working from home, that is. I really don't have much excuse for those. I guess exercise will probably always be a challenge for me.

Until I have enough money to retire, that is. LOL! As if...

More of the Same, I'm Afraid... No Wait, A Twist

2011-09-29T20:31:00.000-04:00

Not much change the last few days - weight the same and glucose, too. :-( I am not pleased. I have been pretty well following my 'plan'. I will keep on awhile and try to get going on the exercise again.

At least, I managed to go for a long-overdue Gyn visit this week. As expected, they did a Pap and gave me a script for a boob squeezing. And for a bone density test. At least that doesn't hurt. It was a new Gyn office, so they did not realize I've lost some weight since my last exam. LOL. But this was a first for me - I had a PA do the exam instead of the doc. And I have to say - she did a better job than the docs. I liked her. I am going to stay with her. And that is significant for me.

I came of age in the late 70's. When women were burning their bras and becoming much more independent. I wanted to support other women for advancing their degrees and becoming professionals in male-dominated professions. I did it myself. I became a firefighter-paramedic in my 20's. Definitely a male-dominated profession. And did it for 15 years. When it came to who I patronized with my funds and choices, I wanted to support my own sex. Including doctors. But I had a problem. I went to several female doctors. Once each. I tried to like them. But every one I went to, I was very disappointed. They just weren't very good. And my desire for competent health care kept me from staying with them on principle. Until now. This gal is a PA. Not even a nurse practitioner. But I like her. Even though she told me to consider getting a first colonoscopy. :P I am at that age. Damn it.

Aftershocks

2011-09-25T10:11:00.005-04:00

So my naughty day/semi-week is still having effects. I am up 3 pounds from lowest :-( and my fasting glucose yesterday was 123 :-O. This morning it was 109, which is certainly better, but not great. And the 3 pounds are still visiting. Well, Friday was the first white bread/flour I had had since June (really). I had a hot dog bun at lunch and 3 pieces of pizza for supper. And my body was not very appreciative. Well, all I can do is keep things going on track from here out and see what happens.

I did find something very interesting on one of my favorite sites, trackyourplaque.com. Great blog and info about heart disease and weight loss and strategies, etc. This particular blog entry got my attention: "What Is This Wacky Thing Called 'Weight Loss'?" It goes on to describe the various things that happen in the body when you lose weight. Two things got my attention right off. First one - Dr. Davis says that losing weight sets a bunch of fats into the bloodstream in its journey to leave you, which will probably throw your lipid panel way off. :-( Just what I need. The second thing is a relief:

Increased blood sugar–The flood of fatty acids and triglycerides results in insulin resistance, leading to higher blood sugars. It is not uncommon for someone with pre-diabetes to develop diabetic-range blood sugars, or a non-diabetic to show pre-diabetic blood sugars.

Now THAT is some news I can use! :-D That explains everything. I am a little afraid to run a lipid panel right now, even though I took lovastatin for 60 days. But this explains why my daggone glucose is deranged, and started about 6 weeks into my dieting. I can just about guarantee my doc is clueless about this, though. And Dr. Davis says most docs go crazy over these results because they don't recognize it as part of the body's reaction to weight loss. Pretty sad, eh? Dr. Davis says everything settles down about 2 months after the weight loss.

The solution: Be patient. Be patient and wait about two months after a weight plateau has been achieved. That’s when the numbers “settle down” and you see marked drops in triglycerides, increases in HDL, drops in blood sugar, reductions in small LDL.

My only issue with that is, I am in this longer term, and have somewhere between 40-50 more pounds to go (depending on how I look and feel at that point). So it is going to be awhile before things 'settle down'. And I need to get labs done...

Frankly, I don't care what the lipid panel says - he already had me on lovastatin. If it's a mess, he will just up the dose, which I will probably adjust, lol. But I DO care about the glucose part. Too many ramifications. So - I will sigh relief that I finally get what is going on, and continue to try to find the right day to go get the labs done, that I don't have to fight a new diagnosis.

Oh, to be young, ignorant and invincible again! :-P

Wow - I Need a Do-Over

2011-09-24T09:59:00.001-04:00

Well - since my week had been borderline at best for following my plan, thanks to work, and yesterday's lunch provided by work was the worst (hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans, token salad, sodas, brownies and cookies), I actually made a semi-conscious decision to call yesterday a total loss and just eat what I wanted for a change. Start fresh today. Wow. I wound up having REAL pizza and beer for dinner last night. My weight and glucose kicked my butt this morning accordingly. So today is back on the plan. Period.

The work thing yesterday was a whole annual team building event. When I saw what they were serving for lunch, my heart sank. Yes, I could have left the restaurant they actually closed for this event, went somewhere else alone, and eaten something 'legal'. I would have also failed the team building exercise by not going along. :-( I am trying to get along, after all. I need my job. Before somebody makes a comment about how I could have made a hot dog or hamburger 'salad' out of what I was served, well, yea, I could have. Unfortunately, when we got to the restaurant, I was starving already and just did not make that quantum leap in my mind until I already had a hotdog on a real bun 3/4 eaten. All I could see at that point, was all or nothing. Sorry. I was bad, and they set me up to do it. I will try to do better next time. It's all I can do.

TGIF TGIF TGIF

2011-09-23T06:41:00.001-04:00

I am always happy on Friday. But today I am REALLY happy it's Friday. A full week of traveling and all day meetings will come to an end early this afternoon. Then I can get back to my regularly scheduled life for a little while and concentrate on diet and exercise again.
Work has been feeding me lunch all week which is nice (and free) but I had little choice in what I had to eat and although I tried, my weight has fluctuated a pound or two. :-( I have not even bothered checking my glucose - it's probably not real bad but there's no point in irritating myself further when there isn't much I can do, and even if it was great, I can't go get labs done until next week. This week simply had no wiggle room. My Monday post was actually written on Sunday and scheduled before I left town.
Even though I have a zillion things I need to do this weekend, I am still glad it's Friday and work will be over for another week. Hopefully next week will be better. ;-)

Just Checking In

2011-09-22T06:08:00.000-04:00

I am here. I've just been busy as heck. My work week is 60% done and counting. I will be a happy camper at the end of tomorrow. I will be back.

The GERD Connection

2011-09-19T11:53:00.027-04:00

Failing the dividing oil doses and snack at bedtime doing the trick, I have another theory I am working on. One of the things I ran across several times in my Google marathons, was a problem with not enough stomach acid.

Before I dropped about 15 pounds, I had GERD. Just about every day. Mostly when I lay down to sleep. It didn't matter what I ate, or when I ate it. I was taking Tums at bedtime nearly every night, usually with 150mg of Zantac. That was, until I discovered Prilosec. I gotta say, Prilosec is the bomb-diggity when it comes to GERD, at least it was for me. Within a day or two, no GERD. At all. One pill in the morning and life was good. At least, it seemed that way. I took several rounds of 14 day Prilosec, because the packaging said you were supposed to do 14 days once in 3 months. But I would have GERD again before the 3 months were up. I had the opportunity to ask a pharmacist about this 14 days in 3 months thing, and she told me that was the original info, now you could take it up to 6 months. So... I did. I think I was about 4 months into that when I went back on low carb in June. And - like what happened when I went low carb years ago and lost weight - as soon as I got under a certain weight, the GERD disappeared. I am sure at least part of it was caused by the pressure of the belly weight, and as soon as some belly was gone, the pressure was, too. I thought it was all over, but maybe not so fast. My Googling led me to a bunch of folks claiming that GERD is not caused by excess stomach acid, but too LITTLE acid, causing food to hang out too long in the stomach. That may explain why mine was mostly when I lay down, hours after eating. I nearly always felt full - remember me making note of actually being hungry now? And - further info indicates taking all those Tums and Zantac and Prilosec may damage the acid-producing mechanisms. Hmmm. So although my GERD may have been caused by my belly pressure, and ultimately ended by losing weight, I may have messed up my body from making the acid it should be making. And a side effect of not making enough acid is, cortisol production, because you aren't metabolizing protein well and your adrenals get stressed. Which raises glucose. All righty, then.

I just thought of something else, and how ironic. My glucose was so under control the first 6 weeks of this diet. Until shortly after I stopped taking the Prilosec. So which is it, then? Too much acid? Or too little? And, is it related to the whole glucose control issue?

Unfortunately, the only definitive way I can find to determine how much acid I am making is to have an EGD done and sample it then. For the innocent, an EGD is a scope down your throat (under sedation, of course) all the way to the duodenum (where the stomach meets the small intestine), looking for issues, taking biopsies, etc. I am not inclined to do that, for a couple reasons. First off, since I am not having GERD any more, I am not sure they would even do it. Insurance tends to frown upon paying several thousand $$$ for a test with no active complaint. Except - in the case of the second reason I don't want to ask for an EGD. Due to my age, I am a couple years overdue for a first colonoscopy. Unfortunately for me, insurance will indeed foot the bill for that, just due to age. Call me foolish or whatever, but I have been dodging it. I have my reasons, which is a whole other post. Suffice it to say for now that I am not having any complaints in that department. If I go looking for trouble (EGD), I will find it (colonoscopy). My doc hasn't bugged me about it, and I like it that way. I will go eventually.

So - what to do? Well, I found a little info here about it and how to sort of home test.

When baking soda comes in contact with hydrochloric acid, it bubbles up into a foam. You can use it as a tool to test for low stomach acid.

In the morning before eating or drinking, take an 8 ounce glass of water and mix in a 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and drink it down. If you have a healthy amount of acid, or excessive amounts, the baking soda should have a chemical reaction that will cause you to belch when it bubbles up in the stomach. If you have not burped within a few minutes of the test, then you may very well have an insufficient level of acid in the stomach.

I figure - why not? When I had GERD and ran out of Tums and Friends, I actually did do the baking soda thing a couple times. It certainly won't hurt, there are directions right on the box on how to take it for that. I don't remember now if I burped when I took it before. But my stomach was not empty, either, so it wouldn't have mattered. So I will try the Poor Woman's EGD, lol. If it actually turns out I may have low stomach acid, there is a cure for that, too.

And here is something else I found:

So how can you tell if you have too little stomach acid? One test is called the Heidelberg Stomach Acid Test. This high-tech test is performed in a physician’s office. In this test the patient swallows a capsule that measures the level of stomach acid and transmits the information back to a computer.

But there’s another, do-it-yourself test that simply involves taking a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar when symptoms arise. Vinegar has a low pH, which means that like stomach acid, it is highly acidic. If you take a tablespoon of vinegar, and your symptoms vanish, it’s likely that you have low stomach acid.

So - either test may give me a big clue. Except that I rarely have symptoms any more. lol. But I will definitely try the baking soda one this week. And if I think I do have low stomach acid, there is an easy fix for that. Taking hydrochloric acid either in an enzyme mix or betaine hcl. If that is the problem, this may correct the whole cascade - I will process my food correctly, and getting enough protein in the system will not panic the adrenals into kicking our cortisol, thereby not raising glucose? Something like that. Meanwhile, with the kind of work week I am about to have, I am going to concern myself with that and what I am currently doing. All else is gravy. If I can't get anything else done, I will worry about this next weekend. ;-)

Another Mixed Report

2011-09-18T11:53:00.000-04:00

I would say Happy Sunday, but it's only partially so. I need to do a bunch of housework this morning, desperately. Fun, fun. And this afternoon, I have to drive three. hours. for work. More fun. I have to be at a job site at 0730 tomorrow to train some folks, and there is no way I am getting up early enough to be there that early, when it takes nearly 3 hours to get there. To say I am not a morning person, is an understatement, lol. So I am going over today and staying in a hotel tonight. At their expense, of course. ;-) The downside is, my weekend is cut short, and I don't get to sleep in my wonderful bed tonight. But I am taking my wonderful pillows with me, and Ambien just in case. It will have to do. Actually, this entire upcoming week at work is jacked, although I will be driving home Monday after the class, another fun 3 hour trip. Let's just say, I will be ever so happy next Friday afternoon. :-)

Back to business! I thought I did pretty good yesterday. Got in my oil, tried to watch the ratios, etc. I tried a new recipe, too, and loved it. My BFF told me another friend of ours had made a low carb potato salad, and it was delicious. I said, yeah, because there's no such thing! LOL. She said no, really, it's made with cauliflower, but tastes like potato salad. Now, I love cauliflower, but my hubster does not. I have tried to make the mock mashed potatoes with cauliflower before, and he turned his nose up, big time. I had to admit, I could tell it was cauliflower, but I like it, so it wasn't a big deal. So she tells me where our buddy got the inspiration for this - Linda's Low Carb Menus & Recipes. In the salads section, there are at least 5 different 'potato' salad recipes, and of course, she wasn't sure which one she used. But she thought this one for 'Unpotato Salad' was the closest to what she did. She did not put any cider vinegar in it, and I'm not a fan of vinegary salads, either. She cut back the mayo a bit and put some ranch dressing in. She said other than the instructions for the cauliflower, just put in whatever you normally would for potato salad. Now hubby got a bite of this before my friend ate it all (!), and liked it. So I figured I'd give it a try. I wanted to make a southern-style with a little mustard in, but I also wanted hubby to like it before I mucked around with it, so I tried to make it like they did. Oh, and no Splenda, either. I did not even get to see this salad before it disappeared, so I was flying blind. But hubster said it looked right. And he ATE IT. And LIKED IT. :-D So now I have something new to eat with bar-b-q type stuff. Life is good. Oh, and hubster said I could try the mustard type next time, he likes that. One caution - the instructions say to nuke the cauliflower for 6-7 minutes, stopping in the middle to stir. I suggest doing 3, stirring and checking how cooked it is. I did 2 more minutes and it was done. I might even do 1.5 minutes next time. I do have a high-powered microwave, though. You want it tender enough, but not too soft. Drain it well. And follow her advice about letting it cool off to lukewarm or cooler, before adding the mayo etc, so your mayo etc will hold up. And don't put too much on it at once. I almost made it too wet. But I will tell you, it was delicious and definitely works for me. :-D This and some broccoli salad (I will post that recipe at some point), and I don't have to eat green beans every night.

So, finally, I am getting to the morning report. And it's mixed. I was highly gratified to get on the scale this morning and see another pound GONE. :-D That means, 25-30 down. And this after eating at least 400 cals, if not 500+, in coconut oil yesterday. I really, REALLY, think I am onto something with this.

Now, if my glucose would just get on board. My meter made its way home yesterday, having taken a ride and sitting in my car all day. I checked my glucose a little after 2 hours post-dinner (probably closer to 3) and it was 102. I was quite pleased with that, and assumed it would be great this morning. Not so fast. 104. WTF? OK, let's ponder that. Nearly 3 hours after eating, I was at 102, and should have been on the downslope of glucose at that point. Supposed to peak in an hour, and be down by 2. Definitely down by 4. What if - the glucose was still rising at that point instead of on its way down? Or - if it dropped enough from 102 during the night that Ms. Liver panicked and kicked out some glucose? Hmmm. Well, I am not going to worry right this minute about it, because this week will be impossible to do an hourly test any day until the weekend, maybe even the following Monday. I am just hosed this week, all traveling, teaching, traveling, and all-day meetings Tues-Fri. No point in worrying, it's not like my glucose is out of control. Obviously, I make insulin and at some point, it works. If my glucose can get to 85-90 at any point without meds, parts are working. Something else is going on. And I will figure out what.

I am going to stay the course for now, particularly since I seem to be losing weight. ;-) Take coconut oil before every meal. Try to keep the protein down a bit, eat good (low GI/GL) carbs. Not be afraid of good fats. In fact, I think I will divide the oil to 4 'doses' - one before each meal, and one near bedtime. I am kind of theorizing about the fat and/or snack at bedtime keeping my system occupied enough during the night, so maybe it won't kick out glucose or whatever it is doing during the night.

I will blog more about the GERD theory - this post is getting a bit long. :-D

I Got Smidgets! LOL

2011-09-17T13:12:00.003-04:00

So I ran a couple errands and hit Big Lots hoping for little bitty containers. No dice. I had found Midget 2oz Tupperware on eBay and figured I was headed for those. Then I found these on Amazon. These little Tupperware Smidget containers hold... 1 ounce! That is EXACTLY what I wanted. And I have Prime membership so I get free two day shipping, no tax and $6.26 for 5 of these babies looks great to me. They are pink and red, not purple, but that is OK. I am good.

Off to Sam's!

Half Good News, Half Mystery

2011-09-17T11:27:00.000-04:00

Happy Saturday! :-D

Well, I awoke to another 1/2 pound down! Despite 8 chicken wings and four beers last night. That's pretty darn good. Now, I have been reporting my weight loss up and downs, but I can't find the lowest post so far. I am now down 24 pounds from official start, 29 pounds from the upper end of the 5 I was fluctuating. :-D I am pretty sure that's as low as I've gotten so far.

I really do think the coconut oil, taken before eating, is really helping with this - breaking the stall and creep upward on weight, and I think it's gradually helping with the glucose issue as well. That 90 glucose 4 hours after lunch yesterday was a beautiful thing. So maybe the theory that I was not eating enough and/or not the right ratios of fat, protein and carbs may be right. I got away with it for about 6 weeks, but I think my body got smart on me. I also forgot an old saw of low carb dieting - your best results usually come from the first time you do it. I am way past that, lol. I know it seems crazy to increase fat intake and lower protein to lose weight, but by golly, it is working so far. I have dropped all the 5-ish pounds this week that I had stalled and crept up. While taking somewhere between 300 and 500+ cals of coconut oil every day. And I have not been exercising this week. Something else I need to get back to. Today.

Now for the mystery, lol. I got up this morning, weighed myself (as evidenced above - YAY), and went to check my glucose. And realized when I did not see the meter in its place, that I had left it in the car yesterday. And the car went with my hubby at 3:30 this morning to the woods for the day. Hunting season started here. :-( So - I have no idea what my glucose is. Dangit. So I will continue with the program, and check it later or do the fasting tomorrow.

I need to find a few small cups to put the oil in and carry with me, that seal well and don't leak. I got caught without oil before dinner last night because I was out when the dinner plan was hatched, and about 1/2 way between home and where dinner was going to be. I did not want to run all the way home to get it. I actually had a little cup I tried this with but the darn thing leaked and I threw it away yesterday. Most of the smaller cups like Rubbermaid are still too big for what I want. They only need to hold about an ounce, then I can put each 'dose' separate and not have to measure before taking. I will keep my eyes open for something. I did find something on eBay from Tupperware that I like - it would be $10 and change for 4 of them. They are 2oz cups. I am going to check at Big Lots in a few and see they have something smaller or cheaper. These Tupperware ones have purple lids (my favorite color is purple <3) but if I can find a set for a couple bucks at Big Lots, I am all for saving the cash. ;-) And I could care less about brand names, as long as they SEAL. LOL. I was really glad I had the foresight to put the cup I was using yesterday in a ziplock bag before tossing it in my nice leather Fossil purse. It leaked all in the baggie and I would have been really. pissed. if that had gotten all over my purse and contents.
I had oil X2 so far - no breakfast (and not really hungry until now) and am eating a bit of meat loaf and green beans leftovers, before running up to Big Lots. Then I need to come back by here to switch out laundry and then going to Sam's Club. I love Sam's Club. :-D Later!

But Wait! There's More!

2011-09-16T22:23:00.000-04:00

So - I did coconut oil before going to work, and an Atkins shake for breakfast. Mostly because I did not have enough time to do anything else. But the Atkins shakes do not have sugar alcohols in them like the bars do. ;-) So by 11:30 I was rather hungry. I took my oil, then my coworker and I went to TooJay's Deli, which has good food. I got a chopped salad, which I did not even eat a third of. The rest is in my fridge. By 5 o'clock I was hungry again. I make mention of the being hungry part because most of the time, I eat becaust it's time to eat and I know I will be starving later and unable to eat at that time if I don't. Yeah, I know. So - I had just gotten home from work and since I was hungry thought it might be a good time to check my glucose. 90!!!! :-D Yippee skippy! So - I was out running an errand when my BFF called me about dinner plans, since my hubby was with hers on a hunting-related mission. I wound up meeting her and having wings (unbreaded with Adobo seasoning) and blue cheese and celery for dinner. Oh and some sliced black olives from her salad. She hates them, and knows I love them, and got them on the side. ;-) I didn't get oil before dinner, because I was out when the dinner plan was made. The wings were fried, with skin, so I will hope I got enough fat there.
I came home and had a sugar free pudding with no carb whipped cream. Hope that doesn't set off glucose, but I guess I will find out in the morning!

TGIF! And More

2011-09-16T08:53:00.000-04:00

It's Friday! Not that I don't have plenty to do. But - it's Friday!

I tried to follow the Optimal thing pretty closely yesterday. I guess I am going to have to start putting my food in Fitday or something, for awhile, to see how close I am getting. But - although my fasting was 104 this morning :-( I did lose another pound! :-D And I feel pretty darn good. Rome was not built in a day. I am staying the course for awhile. I do have a feeling doing the oil first is helping.

Now I need to go WORK. Later.

Well, I May Be Onto Something

2011-09-15T22:15:00.000-04:00

So - the whole Optimal Diet thing, lots of fat, lower protein, lower carbs (but higher than ketosis level). The whole P1 : F2.5-3.5 : C0.8 ratio from a couple posts ago. There may be something to it. I tried to give it a good whirl yesterday, getting the fats ratio up, not too much protein without going hungry, decent serving of healthy carbs. The 'more fats' coming from coconut oil, of course. But I put a small spin on it. I made sure two out of three meals (forgot at lunch) that I took the coconut oil BEFORE eating, at least a few minutes. I have long had a theory about eating protein with carbs so it will slow down the absorption. Pretty sure I read it somewhere. So after reading about fats providing energy, etc., I theorized that if I took the coconut oil first, maybe it would set the system in motion for fat processing, and slow down absorption of carbs/glucose spikes, and conversion of protein to glucose.
I had to work yesterday in the office, so playing with a glucose meter all day was not an option. But I worked it best I could. My fasting was 108 yesterday :-(. I took my coconut oil, made up a coffee and went to work. I could not fathom a good way to get a 'legal' breakfast in, so skipped it. The oil seemed to hold me more or less until about 11:30. Then I was hungry. I left work on a mission - of course to eat, but I needed to run to Kohl's to try to get something that went on sale, for hubby. Unfortunately, they did not have it in the store, but I wound up ordering one online for even cheaper and free shipping. :-D So - I went to Panera and got a steak and blue cheese salad. I forgot the coconut oil (d'oh), and to tell them not to put the 'onion frizzles' on it and the wine reduction on the side (whatever those are). So I avoided the frizzles as much as possible and tried to scrape off the wine stuff. But I was hungry and ate well. Unsweet tea. Went back to work. I stopped at Sam's Club on the way home to grab a rotisserie chicken for dinner. They are SO good from there, and you cannot beat it - 3# of delicious chicken for $5, hot and ready and all you have to do is cut it up. Heat a can of green beans and dinner is served. So I took the coconut oil and cut up the chicken and made green beans and we ate. Instead of chowing out on the huge breast or a couple smaller pieces, I was mindful of the protein and only ate one thigh. With the skin, for the fat. I always throw the skin away. Not today. It was delicious. And a good helping of green beans. A couple hours later, my glucose was 121. Not fabulous, but not as high as I've been seeing lately. Progress? It's possible I still ate a little much protein for this, but maybe not. I should have checked my glucose before eating, but forgot. But the after was definitely better than recent.
So this morning, fasting was 99. AND - I lost another 1.5 pounds! I lost 1/2 pound yesterday. A small amount of hope can be injected here. :-) I had my oil. And some coffee. And found out coconut milk in coffee does not stay mixed well. Since I don't do cereal, and about the only thing I use it in is coffee, I guess I won't be doing that again. Oh, wait - I can use it in yogurt smoothies. So it will get used. However, I did go by Target yesterday and pick up a quart of heavy cream. Now even I blush at the fat content in that, Optimal Diet or no. Especially at the rate I use cream in coffee. 5 grams in only 1 tablespoon! That means 10 grams of fat per ounce. I use it not only for the taste in the coffee but to cool it, so 2-3 ounces is nothing new. So I will dilute that a bunch so I am getting some fat but not too much! See where my instinct lies? To cut back on fat. Let's see... Maybe I need the 20-30 grams to make my 137-193 grams? Now, I usually have two cups of coffee in the morning. And like I said, I use a lot of cream. I think before deciding whether to dilute the cream, I will test to see just how much I use first. More tomorrow!

Book Review: The Coconut Oil Miracle

2011-09-14T10:47:00.000-04:00

I am reading The Coconut Oil Miracle by Bruce Fife. It's funny - I have read a number of books lately from authors that think they have found the health miracle. Well. I think several of them have found *part* of a miracle and I am putting it together for my own plan. I am totally on board with the coconut oil thing. I get it, the why and how, everything. But he also touts eating obviously high GI/GL foods (like banana smoothie recipes - bad) with the coconut oil. And grains (double bad). So I am taking the part I believe is good (coconut oil and coconut milk) and adding it to my other parts I believe are good (low GI/GL, no grains [paleo influence lol]). He does have a recipe to make mayo made from coconut oil. I see some promise there. DH won't touch it (he's a Hellmann's original mayo fan), but I like the looks of it already. Actually, there are several recipes I see here I am going to try. I may have to take back what I said about plain yogurt. :-) There is a good basic recipe for a yogurt fruit smoothie I can leave fruit juice out, put in some protein powder and use berries and do pretty well. Jeez, I can't eat eggs for breakfast EVERY day, lol. And there certainly won't be cereal passing these lips anytime soon. I have yet to find a cereal that does not jack me up in the glucose department. So I don't do it, even when cheating. Might as well eat pancakes or waffles with real syrup. Now that is fun to watch, a few hours later...

Bottom line: good info, believe in the premise of coconut oil, and he tells you how to dose it and what kinds to buy. Some good recipes.

The #$%^&*& Car and More

2011-09-13T20:59:00.000-04:00

Well - the car is running again! :-D And thank God for friends!

I have posted before about our bad influence BFF's that lead us to drink mass quantities of beer. Well, the husband is a former mechanic, and he came to my rescue. When all was said and done, we paid $100 at a local auto salvage place for a distributor thingy (I am SO not a mechanic, I am a GIRL) and now my POS 12 year old Honda Accord is running again. :-) We also gave the BFF husband $100 for fixing it - he normally would not accept it, but he has been out of work for awhile :-( and they could use it. Now we are broke. But grateful. And the POS is running, did I mention? Now I can carry my butt to work tomorrow. Life is good.

I will post more about the whole Optimal Diet thing - I have found some more info. Meanwhile, I also discovered that eggs fried in coconut oil are wonderful, actually better than cooked in butter. Not for the taste, that buttery taste is great. But they did not over cook and did not have any coconut taste, which wouldn't be terrible but might be a little weird. When I cook eggs in butter they always wind up overcooked, but tasty. These were perfect, whites cooked, runny yolk. Add a little salt and good to go. But until I put it all together, my plan is to start learning common foods' protein and fat content (I have a lot of carb stuff in my brain already, LOL) so I can eyeball the common stuff and figure out about where I will be on the program. And - get my fats up with coconut oil. And a few more carbs. According to my calculations, I should be eating about 1629 calories a day, total. Well... That's certainly better than it could be. :) Way back BLC (before low carb) I was used to hearing crap like 800-1000 calories, which is pretty sad. So - if I am eating 1233 calories in fat... A tablespoon of coconut oil is 130 cals, all healthy fat. So. 4 tablespoons would be 520 of those cals. Almost a third of my daily allotment. Well, that does give me something to think about. Maybe it really IS 1000 cals a day, lol. OK, 1100, then. Doh. That's OK. I am thinking portion control for my meals, so I get a mix of all three (protein, fat and carbs), and then add my 4T of coconut oil. I will do some food logging to see how close I get, but I am thinking this may be a little easier that I thought. If I am getting 1/3 in coconut oil, and you know I will get more fats in the food I eat - so - assuming about 1/3 of the food is fat, that will put me at least 2/3 fat, which is supposed to be 77% by the formula. Not too shabby.
Well, I had a nice tasty dinner tonight, with a coconut oil dessert, lol. We'll see how it does me. We went to a Greek restaurant, and I had a Greek salad before and Moussaka for dinner. The server told me it was a meat sauce and eggplant and a cheese sauce - sounded pretty innocent, as in fairly low carb. I just came home and Googled the recipe - and discovered there may have been some sliced potato in it, too. I hope that's not going to be a problem, but that sure means I probably got my 44 carbs in for the day. :-P I am going to try hard not to flip if I don't do well for the day. It's been an interesting day, for sure. I had 2 fried eggs and a few strawberries for breakfast. A couple string cheese and maybe an ounce of pepperoni and a few strawberries for lunch. And the salad and Moussaka for dinner. Plus coconut oil X3. I didn't eat the whole serving of Moussaka, but I am pretty sure I got my calories in for the day, too.
We shall see. :-)

Interesting Find

2011-09-13T09:11:00.002-04:00

This post might well be titled, "My Car Won't Start, So I Might As Well Blog". LOL. I should be on my way to work, but my $%^&*$@ car won't start. Unbelieveable. We JUST replaced the main relay switch to this SOB, hoping that was the problem, because... We replaced some part in the ignition awhile back, maybe 6 months ago, for the same friggin' problem. Now hubby is thinking we need to replace the whole ignition, to the tune of about $165 we don't have. I want to start a bonfire. GRRRRR. So while I try to figure out what to do NOW, I will blog a few minutes. I am stranded.

So - I have watched in desperation as my glucose refuses to behave, and the last couple days has been in the 1-teens on fasting. I have tried all kinds of remedies, cinnamon being the latest. I am so disheartened by the whole thing, I nearly gave up. I was starting to think maybe my pancreas IS shot. But the whole thing did not make sense. The first 1 1/2 months on low carb, I was doing great. I felt SO much better, and got my glucose down to the high 80's fasting and was hardly going over 100 after eating. Then at the end of July, the glucose started creeping up. My weight loss stalled and even crept up a few pounds. WTH? I wasn't doing anything different than the first 45 days. So I kept trying to cut out carbs. I know I am still making insulin - yesterday, although I was dismayed to see a 142 an hour after lunch, it came down 35 points in the second hour. But stubbornly sitting just above 100.

Repeat after me - Google is my FRIEND. LOL. I know some would say, just go to the doctor, let him diagnose you and get it over with - then get on meds. NO. Not yet. I just feel there is something here that I can correct. Remember - my #1 goal is to get OFF meds, not get on more of them.

I started Googling different terms and came across some info that too much protein can be converted to glucose, which is counter-productive to what we are trying to do. Well. If we are cutting high glycemic carbs, but eating too much protein, then what does that leave us? FAT??? Um, evidently. "Good" fats, of course. Fat will not convert to glucose, but should be converted to fuel. Hmmmm... Then, while reading, I ran across info about Dr. Jan Kwasniewski and his Optimal Diet. Evidently he is familiar with Atkins and his low carb diet, but feels Atkins didn't have it exactly right. Some people do well on it for awhile (me), and then start having issues (like me). He says the mix is wrong. Instead of unlimited protein, mediocre fat and very low carbs, it should be based on a formula that puts fats higher than protein (which is weight-based), and carbs are restricted.
This may explain better:

The principles of the Optimal Diet
The main principle of this dietary model is a marked increase in the consumption of fat, and the reduction in the consumption carbohydrate, as the energy source for the body. There are, however, strict rules on the proportion between the three main food components, protein, fat and carbohydrates, which need to be followed (with few exceptions) in order to achieve claimed benefits of the Optimal Diet.
The ideal proportion between the main food components of protein, fat and carbohydrates should be in the range of:
m m 1 : 2.5 - 3.5 : 0.8
In order to work out the correct daily food intake using this proportion, one has to know how many grams of protein needs to be ingested in a day to satisfy body's requirements. This amount varies from person to person and depends on a "due body weight". Due body weight, in kilograms, is equal to person's height in centimetres less 100 (± 10%). Thus, for a person 160 cm tall, a due body weight is 60 kg ± 6 kg.
A correct amount of protein to be consumed in a day is approx. 1 g per 1 kilogram of a due body weight. Thus, a 60 kg person needs to consume 60 ± 6 g of protein to satisfy body's daily needs. Any excess of protein, above the daily requirement, is converted by the body to fat, provided energy requirements are met by other components.
Having worked out the amount of protein, one can then calculate the amount of other components in a daily menu. Thus, for our typical 60 kg person, the consumption of 60 g of protein has to be accompanied by between 150 to 210 g of fat, and 30 to 50 g of carbohydrate in order to follow the principles of the Optimal Diet.

Sooooo... To put that in American English, to figure out your due body weight, take how many inches you are tall, multiply by 2.5, and you will have how many cm you are. Then subtract 100. In my case, I am 155cm, so 55kg. Then multiply by 2.2. That means I should weigh approximately 121#, give or take about 13#. I haven't weighed that since 6th grade, well. I have weighed the +13 pounds. Would love to see that again, lol. So now that know 55kg, you can figure out the amounts. The formula is 1: 2.5-3.5 : 0.8. The 1 means 1gram of protein per kg of due body weight, so 55grams. The 2.5-3.5 is the range of fat grams, multiply and get 137.5 to 192.5 grams of fat. (I know, it sounds SO high!). The 0.8 is the carbs - so 44. So the whole translated formula for me is 55g protein, 137.5-192.5 grams fat, 44 grams carbs. According to Dr. Kwasniewski, those are the magic numbers to get me where I want to go. And here I was thinking I would not have to count anything! The Weight Watchers points people would be laughing about now.

Here is a PDF file by Dr. Kwasniewski on the subject and he says we are eating too much protein.

Well, I thought about it. I had been trying to be as healthy as possible with this - I had been using real butter and mayo but maybe I was doing too much protein and not enough fat. I know I had cut carbs to the bare bones because my glucose kept creeping. Hmmm... Maybe my system tolerated that for awhile and is now not so much, especially since I kept messing with the mix, trying to control things. Too much protein is hard on the kidneys, too. So after finding all this last night, I took an extra dose of coconut oil. 14 grams fat in a tablespoon. I do definitely believe the coconut oil is good for me, and since it's fat, it will work. I had been taking a good two tablespoons anyway, this put me over 3, which I was working toward 3.5-4 anyway. I woke up this morning, down a pound and glucose 102. Pretty darn good considering the last few days, lol!

Hey - possible light bulb moment. The coconut oil people of course think we should all be eating their product and lots of it. How nice that it dovetails with this higher-fat program! Maybe it's at least partly that the coconut oil folks are eating more fat - not necessarily which fat. But I like the coconut oil, and am sticking with it for now. ;-)

Dr. Kwasniewski's work is hard to find in English - I am still trying to locate some more descriptive guidelines on what to eat or not. It may just boil down to becoming a bit of an expert on protein and fat grams, as well as carbs. I had my first coconut oil this morning already. Excuse me while I go fry a couple eggs in coconut oil and go kick the car.

A 9/11 Moment

2011-09-11T13:28:00.001-04:00

I had a huge post typed here and realized it really belongs in my personal blog and not in a health/makeover blog. SO it is there. But - I did not want to let 9/11/11 go by in my public blog without noting the huge impact it has had on all of us Americans, directly or indirectly. May God bless us all.

Cinnamon - Good Thing I Love It

2011-09-11T08:58:00.000-04:00

In my never-ending Google marathon of looking for help with the whole glucose metabolism issue, I have run across many supposed helpers. Chromium (not so far), Magnesium (I know it's needed for many things, and I'm probably low in it, but no effect so far on glucose) R-Lipoic Acid (not so far), Milk Thistle (didn't take much of it, but no noticeable change). The latest in this line is cinnamon. There are actually studies recognized by the USDA that extracts of cinnamon increase insulin activity several-fold. Hmmm! Well, there are two types of cinnamon, Ceylon and Cassia. Supposedly, Ceylon is 'real' cinnamon and Cassia is, well, not. There is a great deal of controversy over which type works on glucose and it appears Cassia is the one studied that worked in the studies. Ceylon may work, but it hasn't been studied. Notice I said appears that way. I actually found passionate discussions both ways. "Take Ceylon! It's the only one that works. Cassia isn't 'real' cinnamon!" "No! Cassia is what was used in the trials!" To be honest, every time I thought I had it straight, I found a good argument for the opposite type. The two important things I have found is that you want water-soluble cinnamon extract and that Cassia has more coumarin in it which evidently can be bad in high doses. So. OH! Another thing I found in my travels is that Cassia cinnamon was studied in regard to Alzheimer's and reportedly stopped and even reversed AD in mice. Good enough for me! So I picked up some cinnamon to start on - it is cassia and from what info I can find it's water-soluble. Of course, it was the easiest type to find at 9pm on a Saturday night. But if I don't see progress pretty shortly, I will go in search of Cinnulin PF. That's supposedly the one actually used in the trial (I think). I am hoping for some good results real shortly! I have seen accounts from folks that it helps with blood pressure, too. Awesome! I could use a triad of help right now. Blood pressure, blood sugar and mental acuity. Heck, if it helped with tinnitus, too, I would be ecstatic, lol!

Well, If I Ever Needed Confirmation...

2011-09-10T08:31:00.000-04:00

I love Saturdays. Not only do I get to stay up late on Friday if I want and sleep in, but I can look forward to doing it again tonight if I want! :)

I have been a bad girl this week. I guess I was feeling more restricted and frustrated than I thought. The bad news is, I have been naughty. No real exercise, and at least 2 or 3 days this week I have eaten *something(s)* I should not eat. An Atkins bar with maltitol (yesterday for breakfast). Had rice one day (Tuesday), had mashed potatoes another day (Thursday) and (gasp) had a REAL carrot cake cupcake yesterday, complete with real cream cheese/sugar frosting. :-O Plus had a bit more beer (albeit low carb beer) than I had been, for sure. But the good news is, since this was the first time I had been really naughty since June, I got to see really quickly that what I had been doing WAS right and here are the consequences of not doing it. I put on 3 pounds. And my fasting was 108 this morning. Argh. Well, I had my 'fun' and now I am back on the straight and narrow. I am actually hoping this little adventure has a side benefit of stirring up my system and breaking the stall. I had been in a 'stall' for WEEKS. It was ticking me off. I am sure that was part of why I went off the reservation this week. Between the stall and the fasting glucose fight I was pretty well over it. But it is clear to me, it isn't over me, yet. LOL.

So, I am back. :) Ready for a fight.

I have the A1C test on the table and plan to do it and send it Monday while I am working from home. My adventures this past week should not affect the overall test much - it tests over a 60-90 day period. Thank goodness.

The A1C Test, and Glucose Fun

2011-09-08T07:49:00.000-04:00

OK, so I managed not to get it done and in the mail yet. I am working from home today and the plan is to do it this morning and get it in the mail. Oh, wait. Today is Thursday already. Argh. Well, I am waiting until Monday when it's the beginning of the week and I will be home to do it and mail it. Maybe there really isn't an issue with it sitting for days, but I don't want to take the chance.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... (old western movie thing, lol) the glucose thing has been loads of fun. NOT. On Tuesday, I got up, made plans to be late to work to go get labs done, cuz my glucose was 91. I was fine with it. Got all ready for work. The lab is 3.5 miles from home, going away from work. I was going to run up there, get it done, then come back by here and get some COFFEE and my breakfast to go, and head to work. I got all ready, and right before leaving, decided to test again. My logic was, as close as possible to the lab draw so I could see how accurate my meter is. OMG. It was 106. Now, I ask you, how the hell can your glucose go up 15 points in an hour with NOTHING to eat or drink?!?!? Other than getting a shower, I hadn't exercised, hell I hadn't even taken my meds or had a sip of water. I tested about 2 minutes later, with a new batch of strips (that 106 one was the last one in that pack), and got 99. Ohfercryinoutloud. REALLY?!?!? In 2 minutes? I am guessing my $9 meter might not be as accurate as I'd hoped... So now, I will research which of these #^%*)^% home meters is supposed to be the most accurate. And get one. Maybe that's been the issue all along. I am not sure, but starting to think so. Believe me, I know what I am doing with these meters. I have used them for years, back when you had to do controls and all that crap with each thing of strips. I did send for the control solution for this one from Relion, but I am not sure I will be waiting for it. :-(
So - must get busy. Be back later!

Mama Got A New Toy

2011-09-08T07:12:00.000-04:00

I gave up my Planet Fitness membership in May. I had been donating $21.xx to them monthly for the black membership for a couple of years. I say 'donating' because although much cheaper than the "Y", I was not using it, really. I went in maybe a couple dozen times total, in spurts, to walk on their treadmill. This was before I got my own, which I also did not use for months until recently. I finally went in with hubby in May, who had the basic $11.xx/mo membership, and we canceled. I had the black membership so I could go between our local club and the one by my work. I only went to the one by work. DH never went at all. So our cumulative $33+/mo donation was finally over in May. I started my diet in June. Figures. :-P

Even I recognize I must exercise as part of this new lifestyle, although as I have likely posted before, I think I'd rather have a root canal. At least you get novocaine and maybe even some nitrous for that, and get to sit your butt in a chair. Exercise is usually done cold turkey. I have never been very coordinated, even treadmill walking usually involves a stumble or two at some point. Sports is not my thing. About the only sport I ever tried that I liked was volleyball, but watching girls do it now on the beach in bikinis is a bit intimidating, to say the least. Plus, I'm not diving for a ball, ever.

So - I need some aerobic exercise and some strength/resistance stuff. I have a treadmill, and I've already figured out that I won't go to the gym at this point. Plus I am traveling (driving) for work now. So home workout it is. The treadmill takes care of the aerobic stuff - I monitor my pulse carefully on it to keep it at the right fat-burning level through the whole walk. I have the Shakeweight (don't laugh, it does seem to work) for upper body resistance. What about the middle? Well, I was thinking some core strengthening. I found this at Walmart yesterday - it was like $5.88 in the store, and comes with a workout DVD. I am going to check out the DVD that came with it today. The nice thing about this is that it's small and can be deflated and folded up for travel. I can take it with me and the Shakeweight also if driving. Most hotels have treadmills. I am glad this ball and the Shakeweight take up little room. My house is NOT big, and my treadmill is taking up valuable real estate in my living room. Although it folds up, it is still pretty big and we can't even get it into a spare bedroom. But it is a great treadmill. I got that puppy off Craigslist for $250. :-D

I am hoping the ball turns out to be good for core strengthening. It also says on the box that inner thighs get a workout. Well, mine could use that, too. LOL. Between the treadmill, Shakeweight and this pilates ball, I should be OK for awhile. Maybe when I've lost a bit more weight and hopefully have more stamina and motivation to DRIVE somewhere to work out, I will consider going back to the gym. I don't know, though. Never in my life have I been consistent at a gym for long.

A1C Fun

2011-09-05T08:06:00.003-04:00

Remember the A1C test? Well... I did take the second test. About a week ago. Either I did something wrong, or those Bayer A1C tests are as whacked as the comments I am finding. It said my A1C was 7.3! :-O I am serious when I say that is not possible. Really. According to the Mayo Clinic A1C chart, that would make my average glucose 159! Not fasting, or after meals. Average overall. Which would mean it was much higher than 159 after meals. I can tell you with no denial, that is not possible. To say that I have been monitoring my glucose as closely as a diagnosed diabetic is an understatement. I have not seen a glucose over 140 even postprandial in forever. It would also mean my first one at 6.8 has gotten worse. The first one was done about 40+ days into the LC diet, and this one was done at about 80 days into it. So now what? Stubborn as always, I am not about to alert the media (my doctor) at this point. After finding all the negative comments about this test and peeling myself off the ceiling, I checked around. The reason I picked the Bayer test is that you get 2 tests and immediate results. I did not want to mail it in. I am into instant gratification. Well, it seems I will have to. If there is another one like that 5 minute result Bayer one that is more accurate, I can't find it. But. I DID find a good alternative, if I have to mail in. Believe it or not, good old Relion from WalMart has an A1C mail in test that has been certified by the NGSP. And David Mendosa likes it. LOL. That's good enough for me. I ordered one from Walmart online, delivered to me free for the whopping cost of $8.98. :-D I did find out they carry them in the store at that price, for future reference. It arrived Saturday. Since it's a holiday weekend through Monday, I decided to wait until Tuesday morning to do the test and take it with me to mail from work. Then it will stay in the A/C as long as possible, although that doesn't seem to be a big concern. But it won't sit for days in the heat (or waiting in the lab) due to the holiday, either. At some point, it would have to degrade, I would think. I see there is an email option to get results. Sounds good to me. I will get this done this week. And contemplate from there.

As for fasting this morning, I was 99. :-/ I am not sure what to think about that. Technically under 100 but with a margin of error for these home tests, I would not want to go in for lab testing this morning. I always seem to get the short end of the margin of error stick. Let's see - no alcohol in 2 days. I did have a cheese snack before bed, however, we ate kind of late last night, too. Finished about 8pm. So I wasn't really hungry, in fact, although I ate from the diet, I probably ate a bit too much. I had coconut oil in the morning but only a taste in the evening. OK. Today - I will try to duplicate Friday's pattern. Coconut oil with each meal. Eat dinner early, so hungry late. Cheese snack before bed. I'll skip the alcohol, though. Not only do I want to give my liver a break, but it's empty calories. Oh, who am I kidding? It's Labor Day and we are going over to the in-laws' of our bad influence friends. I am pretty sure I will have a few beers. But I am going to keep it down. We shall see. I *will* get this figured out and under control. It may be that I need to follow that old adage of eating the biggist meal early in the day and a light dinner with the addition of a bedtime protein snack.

And here is a side story - DH went to the doctor for a checkup for the first time since we've been together. Almost 18 years! Now, he's had surgery a few times (carpal tunnel in 1997 and more recently cervical fusion X2) but other than basic labs for surgery, not really any real workup. This is the same nice but semi-clueless internist I go to. Of course, he wants all the usual lab work, with lipid panel, etc. He did OK as far as the office exam. Hasn't gone to do lab work yet. We shall see. I will be happy for him if all is well, and quite jealous that he can eat crap like I used to without consequences. He is *maybe* 20# over ideal (I can't wait to get there!). But he is in his mid-40's and his dad was diabetic AND died from colon cancer recently. So the doc wants DH to go get a colonoscopy, too, although the usual age for a first one is 50. I am 52 and have not had one yet, either. That's for another post on why. But I say, you go, DH! After you! LOL

Happy Sunday!

2011-09-04T10:19:00.000-04:00

Now this is a Sunday I can be happy about - since it's Labor Day tomorrow, no work! :-D

I was a good girl yesterday - I did 40 min/2 miles on the treadmill. I would have done 3 miles but I needed to get my butt in the shower to get ready to leave. We were going to meet our bad influence friends for dinner at a local mexican joint we love. I was actually still good. I had unsweet tea to drink, no alcohol. They have really really good margaritas at this place, with Grand Marnier in them, but not only was I trying to behave, every time I have one, I have too much (they really taste good!) and wind up with a headache. So I kept that in mind, lol, I didn't want the carbs OR the headache. So - I had chicken queso fundido. I don't know if that is a real mexican dish or a made up one like Taco Bell does, lol. But it's chicken and chorizo, and onion, and red pepper and cheese and jalopenos. They give you tortillas to put it in. I gave the tortillas to my friends, who also get this and never have enough tortillas. I got a side of lettuce and tomatoes and put my fundido on top. Cut up some jalopenos and mixed it all up. They always put too many jalopenos on for my taste, I gave some to my friends, too. It was yummy! I really think the coconut oil is helping with my appetite, too. I could only eat about half of it, and wound up bringing the rest home to eat today. I came home and took a big tablespoon of coconut oil and called it a day. No bedtime snack.

This morning my glucose was 91! :-D Not as low as yesterday, but still very respectable. So. I am still not sure if the oil did the 85 miracle, or the snack. The oil was actually the last thing I ate yesterday - I meant to do it before we left to dinner, but forgot. I think I will continue with the oil today and do the snack anyway tonight. I did eat dinner later than normal - it was probably 8pm at least before we started eating. That timing may explain why it's at 91 and not quite as low as yesterday - I ate a little earlier the night before and had the snack after midnight - the glucose was done right at 8 hours later. Last night, I ate dinner about 8-8:30 and nothing else until 9am today. A good 12 hours. I am wondering if the crux is that a LC diet should not go too long without *some* food, or the liver starts kicking out glucose? Possibly my glucose was lower during the night and started rising this morning without food for 12 hours? I had noticed when trying to figure this out, that my waking glucose would be say 101, and several hours later, it would be higher, like 106-107, without eating anything. So very possibly, my 'rule' about not eating later in the evening (which I thought was a good one!) may have been doing this all along. OK. I still love the coconut oil and will continue with it regardless - that is one good thing to come out of all of this aggravation. But - I will continue on as I have been just be sure to eat a piece of cheese or something protein-y right before bed, so my system has something to work on during the night. By this theory, I suspect my glucose would have been higher this morning had we eaten at 5 or 6. In other words, the longer the fasting, the more glucose the liver kicks out in protest. The coconut oil is supposed to help with the glucose metabolism, and I know I haven't been taking it very long. We will see. But I feel pretty confident I have made a breakthough. :-D

OH - and also - I lost a pound of the fluctuation! :-D And that with two heaping tablespoons of coconut oil.

And today is another day! I am headed out to Sam's Club and Wally World. :-D

What Am I Doing?

2011-09-03T14:54:00.001-04:00

When folks notice I have dropped some weight (and it's SO nice when they notice!), they invariably ask what I am doing to lose it, and when I say 'low carb', they counter with "Which plan? Atkins, South Beach? What?" I never know what to say, so I usually come up with something like a mix of Atkins and South Beach. The truth is, I am not sure, myself. I have read both Atkins and South Beach, but I'm not sure I am strictly following either, although I am definitely doing low carb and aiming for low GI/GL. I am actually trying to get more toward Paleo. Little to no grains, for starters. I have on my wonderful Nook Color The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. I think he has it going on. I may have posted about it before. I am not quite done reading it, but what he says makes perfect sense. The crap that modern man eats now bears little resemblance to what we are programmed to eat. Cave man did not have grains and our body is not adapted to them. Although we love them.

So what AM I eating now? Red meat, seafood, pork, poultry. Not breaded, preferably not fried. Lots of salad with lower carb veggies. Real blue cheese or ranch or low carb italian dressing. Lower carb veggies as side dish - green beans, broccoli, spinach, yellow squash, spaghetti squash. Fresh lower carb fruit in small portions (not juices) - strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, avocado. Nuts - macadamia nuts, almonds, pecans, walnuts, cashews, peanuts. Macadamia nuts and almonds' carbs are nearly all fiber, the rest I pick at, not a handful at a time. Dairy - mostly eggs and cheese, some 0 carb cream (in cooking), 1/3 fat cream cheese, cottage cheese, butter and sour cream. Wow, I guess I use more dairy than I thought, lol. In my coffee I am currently using unsweetened almond milk, which is 1 net carb per cup. But I also use Hood's Calorie Countdown, it's only 3 carbs in a cup. I am not sure Hood's stuff has any real dairy in it, but it tastes pretty good. No transfats or anything. Although the story goes that plain yogurt is really only 4 carbs a cup instead of 12-13 because of enzyme activity in fermenting, I have never been a huge fan of yogurt, especially plain yogurt, lol. So I don't indulge in that, unless it's going into a recipe. I do love olives, though. Green, black, the big green ones stuffed with blue cheese, calamati, you name it. I will get 8-10 of the blue cheese ones from the olive bar at Publix and have a few here and there. Or open a can of the black ones and snack here and there, or put them in salads. One sure way to keep DH out of "my" food is to put olives, ANY olives, in it. He hates them, lol. All I have to do is TELL him there are olives in it, and it's all mine. ;-)

Now for fats - I use real butter. No margarine ever again, bad, bad, bad for you. I *was* using canola oil to fry in, until I ran across info this past week that canola oil is as bad as transfats. The canola oil went away a couple days ago. And I have been using EVOO (extra virgin olive oil, for those who do not know Rachael Ray), which is still good. What has become a new addition that I am loving more and more, is coconut oil. I posted about that below. I can't believe how much I love it already, especially this Nutiva brand. I love coconut anyway, and this stuff smells wonderful. The taste is mild, but coconutty. I just made some chicken salad for lunch, and was imitating Publix's chicken terragon salad they sell. Used canned chicken, mayo, slivered almonds, salt, pepper, a good dose of terragon. I didn't put quite enough mayo in it, and instead of adding more, put a big tablespoon of coconut oil in it instead. OMG, it was yummy! :-D It did change the flavor a bit toward sweet from savory - I would probably do that again if I was putting apple and nuts in the salad instead of almonds and terragon, but it was still very tasty. I had that with some raw cauliflower I cut up.

I have probably 6 packages (at least) of low carb wraps and pitas and the like in my freezer. I bought them before I started reading The Primal Blueprint, and now I am not sure they will ever get eaten, since they are grains, low carb or no. I am hoping my stall will now get over and the scale will budge downward a bunch more, and I don't want grain interference, lol. I will probably hang onto them for now, and in another 15-20 pounds give one a try and see how it affects me. All this to say, I am not eating even low carb bread right now. I can't tell you I never will, even on occasion. But right now, no.

So, what am I doing? As usual, my own thing. :-)

OMG OMG OMG

2011-09-03T10:58:00.000-04:00

Ha - I know I'm getting old, now. I never thought I'd see the day when I would so celebrate a NORMAL test result!

Story to follow!

I know better than this, of course. DH and I and our bad influence friends went out for a motorcycle ride last night. This was our first ride in several months, since DH had surgery, and we were really excited to go. Plus we left about 5 in the afternoon and it cooled off enough that we had a really nice comfortable ride. Well, we did what we always do when we get together - drank beer. I had had a couple with a late lunch, which was all I was planning to do, but we continued the trend. Although I drank Miller Lite (3.2 carbs per 12 oz beer), I still had, ummm... a few of them. DH had a couple and stopped, drinking soda. Hey, he was driving. All I have to do is hang on.

So - we had a great time, and got home about 12:30. I had been a good girl at dinner and had a tasty piece of blackened mahi mahi over a salad. I was now hungry, and slightly headachey, thanks to beer consumption. I am usually asleep at this point, lol. I got a couple pieces of string cheese and snacked on them before bed. Along with aspirin.

I got up this morning and noted my weight was the same (could be worse, I consumed a decent amount of extra calories yesterday), and came out to the kitchen to test my glucose. I was unprepared for a shock. My fasting was 85 this morning!!!! I have proof:

Obviously, I took a picture for posterity and posting proof purposes, LOL. I also IMd it to DH who had left the house already to meet a buddy for golf. I had to leave it on the counter for awhile so I could gaze at it. I was floored. Since I started monitoring my glucose in June, I have NEVER seen it lower than 89, and that was only once. I did the happiest dance EVER this morning! :-D And I soooooo wish the outpatient lab was open today. I would run down there in a heartbeat to do my labs with this fasting glucose! Obviously, my poor body is still capable of doing it right. :-)

Although I am basking in the glow of such a great fasting glucose, I am also wondering what made that happen so I can duplicate it, preferably daily. I have drank (drunk?) beer before without that effect. Two things were different last night. One - I bought the really good Nutiva coconut oil and took a good tablespoonful before we left last night. The other was, I ate a couple pieces of string cheese before bed. Now - in my Googling I ran across some folks who were having the same fasting glucose elevated issue and they found having a protein snack before bed helped with this. I hadn't specifically tried that, until last night. I always went for the longer is better in fasting time theory. 12-14 hours, if possible. Maybe that was the mistake, and after longer than 8-10 hours, your liver starts kicking out glucose because you haven't fed it? In any event, I will continue the coconut oil today and no bedtime snack and see what happens in the morning. If it's back up, then I will do the cheese before bed and no coconut oil tomorrow. If it turns out I just need to eat some cheese before bed, what a relief. The theory behind that was that protein takes hours to digest and call for insulin, so your system is burning up glucose during the night (as it should). Maybe it was the combo of both snack and coconut oil. I would like to figure it out, and get my labs done next week. I actually like the coconut oil and it is supposed to have so many benefits, I don't mind using it even if the snack thing turns out to be the charm. I am just SO happy to have had a possible breakthrough on this!!! :-D

So today I will be sure to get a treadmill walk in, the Shakeweight workout for upper body, and I have lots of housework and laundry to do. Hubby basically left me stranded at the house - there is something jacked up on my car's ignition, and it quit suddenly when I was going down the road yesterday. Fortunately, I had only gotten around the corner - we pushed it back to our street and then it started up so we could get it back to the house. We replaced some part on the ignition earlier this year, not sure sure if this is the same part or another part. Something else to take care of... Oh, well. Did I mention my fasting glucose was 85 this morning!!!! LOL

Happy Friday!

2011-09-02T13:02:00.000-04:00

So this morning, I get up, all excited to see what has happened and if my weight and glucose are continuing to improve. NOT. :-( Up half a pound again, and glucose 101! Argh!
So I go back to my jar of coconut oil and read it VERY carefully. Well. It says it contains no transfats or cholesterol. That's good. But I *thought* I read more about it being virgin CO and how it was processed, and realized I have been Googling so much the last few days I mixed up the products I was reading about with what I have. This product's site does not says doodly about it, other than to deny having trans-fats and cholesterol. All righty, then. I love to peruse Slickdeals, it is a site that users post great deals on everything you can think of. I have spent plenty on stuff I find there, but have made some killer deals. Several days ago, somebody posted about some really good quality coconut oil (CO) that was not only on sale on Amazon.com, with free Prime 2-day shipping, but if you sign up for Subscribe & Save, it's even less!
Meanwhile, I wanted to do *something*, since it will be next Tuesday at least before I get the "good" stuff. So I ran up to the local health food store and picked up this. Mind you, I paid $12.99 for it. Amazon was actually more. But I am hoping my order is nearly is good a product as what I got today. OMG. It was MUCH better quality than what I had. It smells WONDERFUL. But I love coconut, that helps. And tastes great, too. Now we will see what happens. Later!

OK, Now I'm Trying This...

2011-09-01T23:31:00.001-04:00

Well, it's my Friday!!!! Yippee!!! I am off a four day weekend for Labor Day. My long dang drive is over and work is done for now. YAY.

Well. Talk about being frustrated. I have been trying to eat more (but still low carb) in the thought my metabolism may be jacked. Yesterday morning, my fasting was 105. :-( I nearly cried. But Tuesday night, I had been Googling even more, about how to restore metabolism, and ran across information on coconut oil. Interesting claims on various sites, that coconut oil that is not processed into partially hydrogenated junk is being credited with all kinds of good things. Helping with thyroid issues. Helping with Alzheimer's. Helping with hypertension, high cholesterol, weight loss, slow metabolism and glucose metabolism. Wait! What??? Hmmm... So I read and read. I had heard about coconut oil before, that it was healthier, etc. I had just bought some, I was going to start cooking with it. So now I am reading that it may help with my issues? Well, I thought, what the heck. I already have it and it can't hurt. I had bought the good type, too. So yesterday morning after that 105, I took a good tablespoon plus and put it in my coffee. I don't think I'll do that again, it was a little like having an oil slick in the cup. But I drank it. My tummy felt a little nauseous later in the morning, but from what I read that can happen. But I felt good otherwise. So I took another 'dose' last night before dinner. Just got a good spoonful and ate it. It was a little weird having it melt in my mouth, lol. But it did not taste bad at all. And I ate well yesterday. Got up this morning. Had lost half a pound! And better yet - my glucose was 98! :-D I know - one day of small success is not any guarantee. But I am encouraged. And I took it twice today, again. More tomorrow! I will report back.

A Quick Post

2011-08-30T07:40:00.002-04:00

This has to be fast, because I have to leave soon. I still can't believe I am going to drive 6 hours total for a two hour meeting. Un-friggin-believeable. I know I will be too tired after to post.
So - I ate a nice Cobb salad for an early supper yesterday (just snacked at lunch). It was good and I love avocado! Then came home and did 30 minutes on the treadmill.
I didn't sleep too great last night - hubby was clingy and we have 8 week old kittens (free to good home!) in our room that were holy terrors jumping all over us last night. Plus I was wound up over having to travel and present today. But I did sleep.
So this morning my glucose was 101 and had gained another 1/2#! I am just exasperated. I guess Rome was not built in a day, but I thought I ate plenty yesterday. I have no choice but to keep going. Or give up, and that's not an option, as far as I am concerned. My Googling has led me to think my metabolism got a bit whacked with the super-low carb dieting and I will have to be patient. I hope that's it.
I am going to go now and make a nice Cobb salad to take with me and eat before the meeting, and eat some low carb quiche now. Keep on moving. No treadmill today. I will be too whipped from all the driving. Speaking of which, I need to go check a certain site for a job I have been waiting to be posted. :-) Later!

And it's Monday Again!

2011-08-29T10:48:00.000-04:00

Eeek.
My boss is blessedly letting me work from home today. But it's still Monday, no matter how you slice it. And I have to travel for work tomorrow and possibly Wedsnesday, so I probably won't be here.

I am down 23 (or 28) # this morning, having fluctuated 1/2#. No real biggie.

My fasting glucose is continuing to confound me... This is ridiculous. I hardly ate any carbs yesterday and it STILL was 102 this morning. Before I toss any more food or treats, I am going to experiment some more. I have cut out everything I can think of. I had much better fasting glucose control weeks ago. What is different? All I can think of is, possibly, I am just not eating enough and my body is in panic mode. I may be so busy cutting down to starvation levels of eating while trying to control this, that well, my body thinks I am. And is hanging onto weight and kicking out glucose to the bloodstream for dear life. Well, OK. I had scrambled eggs with ham and cheese and a few big blue-cheese stuffed olives for breakfast, and I am going to eat little bits all day and see what happens. Nothing overtly sugary, of course. When I go out for lunch, I have some errands to run and will go by the grocery and grab some blackberries or raspberries or other LC fruit and eat some. Plan on some good veggies with dinner. I am eating salad, of course, but in honesty most lettuce has little nutritional value and a few pieces of tomato and cucumber don't really give you a lot more, unless you load it up. Commercial salads have more lettuce than anything, because it's cheap. Well, I am nothing if not determined. And I am at no dangerous level, at all. Just over fasting top end of 100. And PP's under 120 mostly.
So - LC snack meals today, and I still plan to treadmill it this afternoon.

So-So Today

2011-08-28T13:42:00.001-04:00

Well, we went back to our friends' last night. I am starting to think they are a bad influence on me, lol... But I love them, so I will have to adapt and be stronger.

My friend made ribs and greenbeans and corn and cornbread. Needless to say, I only had ribs (sans sauce) and greenbeans. ;-) No corn or cornbread. And two Miller Lite beers. I should have done none, but at least I did keep to the 'two' plan. Then I went home. And got a piece of low carb pumpkin cheesecake I made. It was fabulous. When I got up this morning, my glucose was 109. ARGH! Well, for one thing, I was eating too late into the evening when I had the cheesecake. It's an old saw that I have found to be true - eating after a certain point (6, 7, or 8pm, depending on the diet), is too late/close to bedtime and the food eaten stores instead of burning. For another thing, the cheesecake has isomalt sweetener in it, which is a suger alcohol in my Diabetisweet that was 9 on the on the GI scale. That's fairly low compared to maltitol (53!) but now I am left wondering if I just can't have any of these sugar alcohols at all, except possibly erythritol, which was a 0 on the GI scale...

Well, if that is the case, so be it, I guess. It's also possible the 6.4 carbs in the two beers, added to the greenbeans and the supposed free sugar carbs in the cheesecake was just too much...

So far today, I have had one coffee with almond milk and liquid Splenda - should be near 1 carb. And I made a low-carb quiche, with eggs, cheese, onion, peppers, spinach, ham, whipping cream (0carb), and 1/6 of that should only be a few carbs. (Side note - I need to install Master Cook on this laptop so I can start putting in these recipes to be exact - but these items should all be pretty low carb.) I just finshed that a bit ago, too early to measure glucose with any accuracy. We are going out to Red Lobster for dinner at 4pm with my mother-in-law. Non-fried seafood will be fine, with broccoli. :-) I won't eat again after that, tonight. And I am highly debating hopping on the treadmill, now.

And a P.S. before even posting, lol. I just ordered some erythritol from NOW Foods on Amazon.com. Might as well check it out, since it is looking more and more like I am not going to get a break on the Diabetisweet. :-'( Geez, I guess I am going to have one BORING diet for awhile!!!!

And A New Day

2011-08-27T09:41:00.001-04:00

I was naughty last night. We went out with friends and I decided to have a couple double sugar-free margaritas before we went, and a low carb beer when I got there. Remember my last lesson? I didn't, evidently. I had a VERY pleasant buzz for awhile. Then I got the hiccups. Twice. And it took me awhile to get rid of them. I HATE having the hiccups. Then I got a headache, for which I took some aspirin. And woke up during the night with heartburn, which I haven't had in a couple months. Tums to the rescue. And this morning I feel like crap, both stomach and head. Way to go! I told DH the next time I try to do that, to politely remind me of this time, and that I told him to. He said OK, but that first margarita made me think it was OK, LOL. He's right. One strong or two regular drinks, or two beers is my new limit.
I don't need to worry about exercising on fasting today - I don't feel like it anyway, lol. I found that I lost another pound, though! And my glucose was 100 this morning, which is not bad at all, considering. I had a few fried cheese popper thingies last night (breaded), along with my grilled wings, probably overdid it all the way around. Argh...
I am debating an experiment this morning, since I feel lousy anyway. Before tossing all the Atkins stuff, I thought I would eat a bar, then test to see for sure if it makes my glucose jack up. Or some of the chocolate, since it has the most maltitol in it. Now there's an idea - eat chocolate in the name of science. ;-) Like I said, I am debating doing it. I am so glad the scale is moving downward again and that it appears I have found the glucose issue that I am a little loathe to mess things up. Speaking of the scale, that new pound gone means I am down 28.5 pounds total! Or 23.5 from the low end of the 5# I was fluctuating. I still like that higher number, lol, now that it's a good thing! And I have only been fluctuating a couple pounds since starting. Hmmmm... I think... I will wait on the experiment. I want to get the labs done Monday if possible. So I need my glucose to behave, not get all whacked out this weekend. I will put all the Atkins stuff and choccy with maltitol in it in a bag for now. If I do get the labs done this week, I can do the experiment after that. I haven't found a replacement for the Atkins bars yet (the shakes seem OK), but I did find some treats that use erythritol or another low-GI sugar alcohol. So much for the convenience factor - I will have to do better planning and keep boiled eggs and cheese sticks and celery and low-GI fruit and the like ready at all times for a quick grab. Or make my own low-carb bars. Hmmmm...

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

2011-08-26T18:38:00.004-04:00

TGIF!!!! Yippee Skippy, it's FRIDAY, work is over, and I have a couple days off!!!

I have a lot to report.

Yesterday - I ate dinner and my glucose went to 111 1 hour PP. So-so, certainly OK but I was trying for under 100 (always an overachiever, lol). So, no snacks before bed. My plan was to go in this morning for blood work. Ha.

I got up and checked my glucose. 96. OK! I can work with that. I thought, well, heck, I will hop on the treadmill and do 30 minutes, it should bring it down a bit more, get a shower and ready for work, and slide right in for the blood work on the way to work. Wrong! I did the 30 minutes. I jumped in the shower and got ready. I was about to leave and decided to peek and see what my glucose was NOW, then I might be able to gauge how accurate my $10 glucose meter is. OMG. My Glucose was 112!!! :-O WTF?!? I had had NOTHING to eat for many hours and only plain water to take my BP meds (which I've already checked for occult sugars). And my waking glucose was 96! Needless to say, I was NOT going to have my labs done today. The good news was, I called them about the script. It was written 6/16 and I was not sure if it was still good. I found out it's good for a year. :-D So I went on to work, wondering WTF, WTF, WTF...

Repeat after me - "Google is my FRIEND"... LOL

So - I get to work, and damned if I don't need to actually. WORK. LOL. I ate my hard boiled eggs and coffee and worked away. Then lunchtime arrived, and I got a small chicken Caesar salad and ate at my desk, so I could GOOGLE. Ha. And what did I find? Well, possibly the answer. Evidently, MOST of the time, exercising lowers glucose. But sometimes it depends on WHEN it's done; AM vs. PM exercising. Yesterday, I exercised in the afternoon, and glucose went down, today exercised in the morning on fasting, and it went up. WebMD says "But intense exercise can have the opposite effect and actually increase your blood glucose levels" and DiabetesDaily.com says "During strenuous exercise the muscles send a signal for more energy, which the body responds to by releasing more glucose. Without sufficient insulin, very hard exercise and sometimes even novel exercise will cause a rise in BG". OMG. OK I "get it" now. I caused this by exercising on fasting stomach. Stressed my body out, which responded by the liver kicking out glucose. So - no more AM fasting exercise!!! And - I think the whole sugar alcohol thing was compounding all of this. Man, I am getting an education I never intended... More to come...

Oooh, Could It Be???

2011-08-25T16:08:00.001-04:00

Update #2 - I did not eat lunch at the appointed time - I got busy. At 2:15 I got my butt on the treadmill for an HOUR. :-D I probably should have checked my glucose before, but did not think of it until I was already walking. However, when I got done, I checked and it was 93!!! That is the lowest I have seen since the end of July. So - then I ate the leftover beef/onions stuff I had. I will check my glucose here shortly and update a 1 hour PP. I can't imagine it being high from that, it was almost entirely protein, but you never know.
It is looking more and more like my maltitol-laced goodies may be the culprit...

Edited to add - OK the 1 hour PP was 102!!! YAY! I know the ideal is under 100 within an hour, but by golly, I will take it. :-D It sure is looking like this was it. I will test after dinner, also. If my glucose is behaving in the morning, I will definitely go get the damn labs done. I am really curious how much my lipids have changed and if the liver and kidney stuff is ok now. One of each was a bit off last time, when I'd only been on the diet for a week and too early to tell much of anything.

Will continue to monitor and report!

And A Quick Update

2011-08-25T10:26:00.000-04:00

More on the sugar alcohol front. If maltitol is causing my issues, I will have to give up more than my Atkins stuff and SF chocolates. :-( I have some really yummy SF dark choccy syrup from Monin, it is WONDERFUL. Take 3 guesses what the first ingredient in it is. My Smucker's SF syrup has sorbitol in it, which like isomalt, is 9 on the GI scale. That may escape pitching, but I doubt the Monin syrup will. Grrrrr.
My first glucose after the eggs and coffee is 116. Unfortunately, I am not sure exactly when I ate the eggs, but this is somewhere between 1 and 2 hours. Not bad, but I was hoping for lower. My coffee had almond milk in it (unsweetened, 1 net carb per 8oz cup - even the full carb count for a cup is only 2 or 3) and Splenda. That's it. I guess it's possible the Splenda has something to do with it. I hope not. The version I use is pure liquid sucralose, no maltodextrin fillers. From what I am reading, maltodextrin has a GI of 105. (Awesome!) I do have some stevia stuff here, but truthfully, I do not like it as well as Spenda. I bought it to try, but was planning to pitch it. I guess time will tell. I will pitch whatever is necessary.

A New Day

2011-08-25T07:48:00.003-04:00

Well!!! I am not ready to declare total victory, yet. But. I did eat the one Atkins bar yesterday morning, and real food the rest of the day. No more Atkins stuff. No 'sugar-free' candy. Although I wanted to get on the treadmill, by the time I got home from work and errands (almost 7), not only was I really hungry and wanted to eat, but with my history of issues with insomnia, I don't want to get too active within a few hours of going to bed. So I didn't.
Despite no treadmill and one Atkins bar yesterday morning - I woke this morning and had FINALLY broken new ground on weight loss!!! I lost another pound! :-D AND - drum roll, please - my glucose was down to 99!!! Yeah, I know - 99 isn't wonderful, but at least it's under 100 and down 8 points from yesterday's. ;-)
So - I am hard-boiling eggs for my real food breakfast. I have leftover real food for lunch. And while on errands after work yesterday, I picked up a rotisserie chicken from Sam's Club, which we will have for dinner tonight, with some real green beans. I will, most definitely, get my butt on the real treadmill today. And drink plenty of water. Oh, and also monitor my glucose regularly today. If this continues panning out, I will be able to get my labs done without fear tomorrow, I think. And I am not sure what I am going to do with the probably $50 worth of Atkins stuff and 'sugar-free' candy. Almost everything is opened already. I guess I will make sure this is the issue, then decide.
More to come on this!

Possible Culprit

2011-08-24T12:04:00.001-04:00

I am like a dog with a bone, lol. I can't stop gnawing on this.
More Googling gave me a possible culprit, both for the weight stall and the glucose frustration. Sugar alcohols, and Atkins bars, et al. I had an Atkins bar this morning. And have them fairly regularly. Especially the last... few weeks. And sugar alcohols? Oh, yeah. I love them. They make sugar-free chocolate a beautiful thing. Had a piece last night. And most nights. Savored every tiny bite. Hmmm... I can't say I haven't done any of these goodies before this issue, but I know I have done more of them the last month. Convenient breakfast - Atkins. Easy tasty treat - Atkins or choccy with sugar alcohol. Well, as part of my experiment, I will do NO more of these today at all. See where I am in the morning. And eat all "real" food tomorrow while testing. Tomorrow evening, I will snack on a chocolate. And see what it does to my glucose. Actually, I am so anxious about this, I may wait to see how it goes for a bit. If I am that sensitive to them, I will be highly annoyed. I have a BUNCH of these products for quick meals and snacks. But I will also be relieved. If that's the issue, I can get my fasting back in order shortly and get my labs done. Then I will very sparingly use this stuff up and buy no more. We shall see.

Edited to add: the above link led me to this one, on another favorite site. Evidently only mannitol and erythritol pass the GI test, having a GI of 0. The rest are not so good, in varying degrees. The biggest offender is maltitol, which comes in at a whopping 53. :-( So - I came home and got out allllll my Atkins bars, snacks and shakes. Only the shakes did not have maltitol in them, and the others had a lot. And I got out my yummy 'sugar-free' chocolates. Every. One. Of. Them. has a bunch of maltitol in them, like 14-17 GRAMS. Some as the first ingredient. Grrrrrrrrrrr!!! So - I wondered why that stuff did not bother me at all. I have read the warnings that sugar alcohols can cause various GI upsets. Never happened. Evidently I may process it like sugar. Just my luck. Well, I am off the stuff for a day or two at least, to prove one way or the other if that's what's causing the stall and glucose issues.
On top of it, I have probably 4-5 pounds of Diabeti-Sweet, which has Isomalt and Acesulfame-K. The Acesulfame-K is not a problem from what I can gather, and it is not a sugar alcohol. The Isomalt, however, is. But it comes in at 9 on the GI scale. That is a LOT better than maltitol, at 53. But I am going to avoid all until I can track this down. Then I will test. And I am going to see if I can find a sweetener using mannitol or erithritol. LOL

Still Banging My Head

2011-08-24T07:09:00.002-04:00

Well, yesterday morning, I got up early and did 30 minutes on the treadmill before work. Glucose was like 101. Behaved myself all day (I thought, anyway!). Got up this morning. Weight was back to lowest so far, but glucose 107! GRRRRRR. WTF? I am taking R-Lipoic Acid, Chromium, Iodine, and Milk Thistle. All to try to get this back in line. Exercising. Dieting.
Wel, tomorrow I am working from home again, and I am going to test Every. Hour. after I get up to see what it does, before and after food. I had been eating a fair amount of macadamia nuts lately (supposed to be "good" fats, and are like 1 net carb per serving) and wondered if that may somehow have something to do with it, but I had none yesterday. I am also going to check my BP/pulse as well, in case of that whole fight/flight thing.
This is bugging me. I feel a ton better, sleeping pretty darn good for the first time in years, and without Ambien or even melatonin. Even dreaming on occasion, which I have hardly done in many moons (that I remember, anyway!). I know I am making insulin (at least some!) or my glucose would be much higher and stay there. So why is it being stubborn and hanging around just slightly elevated? Heck, I was able to get a fasting 97 before I started the diet! And to top it off, I need to get labs done. And NO, I am not ready to admit defeat. It has even occurred to me that maybe I am not eating enough, and the system is fighting perceived starvation. Something else I will test the theory of by eating more, but low carb foods. Something is causing this, and it is ticking me off. Stay tuned. More Googling and testing to come.

Happy Monday LOL

2011-08-22T13:38:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday! I say "LOL" because, like a lot of folks, I work Mon-Fri and Monday is my least favorite day. It means I need to deal with whatever I was slacking off on Friday because, well, the week was basically over. And I was over the week. So there.

Anyway, I am still a bit stymied as my glucose was 101 this morning. Again. I spent a lot of yesterday Googling and gleaning more info. Unfortunately for me, the blood pressure angle did not pan out, at least for now. Cutting back on my meds did not help either my blood pressure or my glucose. So I am leaving that alone for the moment. I still think after I drop more weight that will come together. I have decided to kick the exercise in the rear and see where that takes me.

I should have been doing more anyway. I am basically uninterested in sports (blasphemy to my DH) as a participant and only like watching certain ones on TV or even in person. The closest thing I keep any track of is Nascar racing, but for the fans of that, the most exercise you get is humping up the stands to your seat, and doing 12oz curls. And you can do the 12oz curls from the comfort of your living room, lol. Jimmie Johnson is my driver. :) Not only is he a 5 time winner, he is HOT. :-D Even that, I don't strictly follow. I also ditched PE as soon as possible in high school, and never did any sports there, either. I've made some efforts to exercise over the years, but I just don't like it. Although I can spend hours in front of a computer playing games or surfing or even working (paid or unpaid), it's annoying to me to dedicate a time to do nothing but exercise, when I could be doing more fun stuff!

But - that was the old me. The new me is motivated by more - my health. Should have been all along, but as I am sure has been said many times, you don't appreciate a lot of things until they are gone (or threaten to be gone). I do not particularly want to spend the rest of my life feeling as lousy as I did a few months ago. And now that I know so much more about what has been going on, I want to correct it now, and hope it's fixable.

In that vein, my sorry, lazy butt did a bit over an HOUR on the treadmill this morning! :-D And 3 miles! It is really hard to make the time to do that when I am working in the office or out of town. So I better take advantage of the weekend and work from home days. I will try to do 30-45 min on the days I am not here all day. We will see how several days in a row do to help the glucose (and weight). I still feel that I am making insulin (or my glucose would be a lot higher) and hopefully if I keep pushing the diet and exercise and supplements, the system will get back in line. It better!

I Have Found the BEST Site!

2011-08-21T15:33:00.000-04:00

I have been on a mission to figure out why I seem to be stalled on weight loss and my fasting glucose hovering in the 100's, despite following my low carb pretty darn closely. I've had stalls/plateaus while dieting before, of course, but not so early in the process. And WTH was going on with the glucose? During my semi-frantic Googling, I ran across this page: Why Is Sugar Highest in the Morning? The more I read, the happier I was (sort of). Finally, some answers! All to do with the whole glucose issue, of course. Long story short(er), there are hormones that are secreted near dawn that are to give you energy to get up and going for the day. They are also known as "fight or flight" hormones, but in lesser quantity. If the system detects that your sugar is low, it secretes the necessary signal to the liver to dump some glucose in the system. Then if you have impaired insulin response or resistance, your sugar is up. They also mention something I had not thought of. A possible cause is also too much blood pressure medicine. Of course, while you are relaxed and sleeping, your BP will drop to whatever the meds push to. If the system detects low BP, guess what? "Fight/flight" hormones. And part of that is to tell the liver you need glucose, whether you do or not. Same result - elevated glucose. A sign of this is waking up with a faster pulse, but normal or even near elevated BP. I have lost 25# (12% of my body weight) and had not messed with my BP meds at all. When I lost weight before, my BP came down. I am wondering if my system is a little out of whack trying to regulate itself again. So this could actually be a good thing, if frustrating from my perspective. I need to go have labs done again to see where the lipids are, and damned if I am going to with elevated glucose.
The more I read on this site, the more I loved its author. Not only does she mirror my opinions of Big Pharma, ADA recommendations and conventional allopathic medicine (skepticism is your friend, lol), she has posted a huge wealth of info on how to help yourself. I have cut one of my BP meds in half and my fasting was 100 even this morning, in spite of a semi-naughty evening yesterday. I did not eat badly, but we were at another couple's home, and every time we get together it's usually a beer drinkfest. I had 4 low carb beers, which I used to do more than that in one sitting, and more often. And not necessarily low carb, either. The last two months, I have had hardly any alcohol, maybe a drink or two in a week, tops. So here's what happened. The first two beers got me quite buzzed, lol. I should have stopped there. But noooooo. I wanted to maintain the buzz, since it had been so long. So I drank two more. Ha. The buzz went away and was eventually replaced by a headache before I even went to bed. :-( I still feel kind of blah today. Lesson learned: stop at two. Drink one normally (we all know the first one goes fast, lol), and sip the second slooooowwwwly. Drink water after that. Call it a day. A little happy buzz on occasion is nice. And that's enough. So - we will see how the BP does, how the blood sugar does, and I found another nugget of possible help. More Googling revealed high recommendations to use Milk Thistle for those early morning glucose releases by the liver. It's supposed to soothe the liver so it doesn't go crazy in the early morning hours and dump glucose. I did not want to mess with it last night with the beer on board (another good reason to stop at two in the future) but will try it tonight. Also will eat a piece of cheese or some other protein before bed. Since protein takes hours to turn to carbs, it is supposed to help keep things on an even keel. We'll see.
One thing I am still left wondering: will my system figure it out? That I am weighing less and eating less crap and it doesn't need to trip itself out? Eventually get my fastings and after meal glucoses way down? Obviously I still make insulin, or I wouldn't be hovering around normal readings. I just hope if there is a "setpoint" I can lower it. :-) First goal - to get back into low 90's on a weekday so I can get my labs done. I actually hit it yesterday (94), but of course it was Saturday, and could not get labs done. Second goal - to keep on with diet/exercise and all that and see where it goes.

It's Friday Eve!

2011-08-18T20:11:00.001-04:00

I know, I have been MIA for 11 days... Sorry. More work and stuff. Here's an update!

The new bed gets to stay. :-D Between the new bed and the memory foam pillows, I sink into bed every night! LOL

The glucose thing was making me crazy for awhile, but I *think* it's under control again. It was probably two weeks of fastings between 100 and 107. And I need to go have labs done again. No way am I going in knowing my glucose will trigger more investigation. Uh uh. Finally, I had only one lovastatin left for this Monday. I had suspected before that the statin had something to do with it. But Google said no. Everything I could find about it said lovastatin did not affect glucose, UNLESS combined with niacin. Hmmm. I was trying to take niacin, too. And niacin on its own can raise glucose. Well. I wasn't crazy about taking statins anyway, and only had one left. So I didn't. The last few days, my fasting has been back in the 90's, 94 this morning. Who knows - it seemed to be trending down when I quit taking it. I am just glad it's back down. I started back on the Vit C and also started taking R-Lipoic Acid, also known as ALA. It is supposed to help glucose get into the cells (and OUT of the bloodstream!) and make them more insulin-sensitive, plus a host of other good things. Hope it works. :-) Anyway, assuming my glucose is in the low to mid-90's (or less) in the morning, I am going to get labs done again. I sure am hoping for a big improvement in the lipid panel. Almost 60 days of statins and a low carb diet for like 71 days.
The weight has fluctuated a few pounds and I haven't really lost more yet. But I am NOT giving up. No way.

More on Last Week - Diet/Exercise

2011-08-07T15:27:00.004-04:00

Well, the diet and exercise is also on a happier note. Although I continue to fluctuate 0.5-1.5#, I did hit a new low yesterday - down 25.5# total! :-D Or 20.5# from official start. I still like 25.5# better, lol. I had the very pleasant experience yesterday of weeding my closet of too-big clothes and going through my 4+ bins of smaller clothes, to find stuff I can actually get into again! :-D :-D :-D I also organized the rest by size so I don't have to go through all of them each time, and got rid of a bunch I would never wear no matter how small I got, lol. We took a couple big bags to Goodwill and I will take a little tax deduction for them.

I have been sticking to my low carb overall/low GL (glycemic load) type diet. I am slowly reading and noting on the book Primal Blueprint, I think that guy really has it going on. I haven't been on the treadmill *every* day, but every other day at least. I do a couple miles at about 3.1-3.3mph, until my pulse gets to about 116-120. I am also using my "Shakeweight".

Like I have not been taking any supplements, lol, I am looking at Pauling Therapy - the high-dose Vitamin C-Lysine-Proline program that is supposed to fix you in more ways than one, lol. Blood pressure, cholesterol, plaque reduction, glucose/insulin issues. All the things I have or think I may, lol. Linus Pauling lived to 93 years old taking 18 GRAMS of Vitamin C daily. Plus Lysine, Proline, Vitamin A and E, and a few others I am already taking (CoQ10, magnesium, B100). Eliminating trans-fats (already there, any way possible) and increasing Omega 3's (already there, too). I have his book, "How to Live Longer and Feel Better", coming via Amazon, supposed to be here tomorrow. I wish it was electronic, I prefer to read it on my Nook, but I will deal with it. I already got the Vitamin C, Lysine and Proline. I started on them Thursday afternoon, and soon found out that Vitamin C in high doses is a wonderful natural laxative, lol. That was fine, actually, if you get my drift. Now, my post below about the fluctuating fasting glucose, is why I stopped taking anything new today, and monitoring. It makes no sense to me that these new guys would be causing this, since the issue started 4-5 days before I got the Vit C, etc. I still think it's the niacin. Especially since this program is supposed to help with glucose/insulin issues. But I decided to back up a bit and find out for sure. I did find a case where a guy taking high dose C had higher fasting and overall glucose levels, and when he stopped the C it went to normal. I just want to rule out that this has anything to do with anything. Assuming my stopping the newer items and the niacin drops my fasting again, I will add these back first to test. Also - I did create a spreadsheet for all my meds and supplements. Holy Moly, it adds up, lol. I am taking 4 Rx meds and *15* supplements, some twice a day! And about to add a few more, 2 for sure (the Vit A and E) and 1 if my glucose decides to continue being stubborn. I think once I get the glucose and Vit C thing squared away, I need to re-evaluate some of the others, and see if I *really* need that many. I will list them in another post.

Later! :-D

More On Last Week - the New Bed

2011-08-07T12:45:00.001-04:00

We got the new bed on Monday. I wasn't so sure we were going to keep it, at first. The hype cuts both ways, I guess, lol. We were under the impression that there was no break-in to this bed, that it would arrive and immediately be perfect. Not exactly, lol. It arrived at 8pm - the delivery guys had been dodging rain all day, trying to make deliveries, and were running a lot later than expected. They took our old bed out and set up the new one. Certainly looked the same as the store one, and the guy verified which model we ordered. But it didn't seem to feel the same, somehow. And I forgot completely that when you lay on the beds in the store, they are naked. It's different when the bed is made up with bedding. So I made up my new bed and lay on it, thinking, "OMG, they brought the wrong bed. This must be the Genius model. This thing feels like a rock!" I was very dubious, and wondering if we had made a mistake and should have bitten the extra $500 bullet and gotten the Prodigy, which was the cushiest. And that first night, I hardly slept. According to the tag, it really is the Revolution model, lol. But - I was relieved on one count - I saw some reports online that the bed arrived with a weird smell to it that took awhile to dissipate. Of course it smelled new up close - but no weird or strong odor at all. :-)
So the first night wasn't so great, but in fairness, it had been a long day waiting and being keyed up - plus moving furniture in the evening. Plus I do have issues with insomnia, lol. I did notice what little I did sleep, I wasn't sore on pressure points (hips/shoulders) like I usually am, flipping like a pancake all night. So I agreed to wait out the week before making any judgements. Although Serta says it's a 120 day trial, the store policy is 30 days and $99 to switch out mattresses. Plus or minus any difference between the old and new choice.
Well, it has been 6 nights. I am sleeping much better now. :-D I can tell I am sleeping deeper and longer without waking, and I am not sore at all when I get up. I still wake once or twice in the night to pee or turn over but not hourly like I was. Getting to sleep seems shorter, too. I am starting to love my new bed. :-D

Wow - It's Sunday Again! lol

2011-08-07T10:55:00.000-04:00

I have been remiss this week... Sorry. I am trying to track down a culprit.

Last week, my fasting glucose got down in the high 80's, for which I was very, very happy. This week, up to the 100's. Not good. As far as I could tell, I was not eating anything different, strange or forbidden. I'm still losing weight, too. :-) I was puzzled, and more than a little worried. I am going to be having labs done again soon, and a fasting that high will likely invite scrutiny I do not want yet.

It finally dawned on me that I have been messing with my supplements again (mostly adding) and I think I am going to have to keep a supplement journal of sorts this week to try to pin it down. I take several Rx meds and a BUNCH of supplements. I do have a prime suspect, though. Slo-Niacin. I did not know until frantic Googling last night revealed that niacin (Slo-Niacin, Niaspan, etc) can raise your glucose levels. That may be the culprit. Niacin and I have a love-hate relationship. Slo-Niacin comes in 500mg tabs and I have been trying hard to take it. The goal was to get up to 2,000mg/day. It's supposed to reduce bad cholesterol and raise HDL. But it doesn't like me much. Even breaking the scored tabs in half (250mg), I was getting flushing, which is not a lot of fun. My face, ears and neck get really red and hot and I itch, especially on my arms. It lasts about 10-15 minutes, long enough to scare anyone around me. The first time it happened, I thought I was having an allergic reaction to something and took 50mg Benadryl. I was useless THAT day, lol. Anyway, I have been trying to cozy up to niacin ever since, with varying degrees of success. Some days, it would make me flush, some not, especially if I took aspirin beforehand (recommended for flushing). Some days I would be running out the door to work, and not having taken the aspirin, would skip the niacin because I did not want to keep scaring my co-workers. I wish I had kept a supplement journal, so I could better correlate the fastings to niacin, but last week was one of those skip most days weeks and this week wasn't. Plus I added more stuff toward Thursday (which will get its own spotlight, LOL), but my fastings were already up at that point. I am going to make a spreadsheet with everything on it and keep track of what I am taking. We shall see where the issue is. I hope, lol.

I also found that my Lopressor and Clonidine for my blood pressure may affect glucose, but I have been taking them for a long time and got the 80's readings definitely on those. Now the combination, however... maybe adding the Slo-Niacin to those tipped it. Not completely sure, but I am skipping the niacin this week and anything else I haven't been on for long. I got the 80's while on the statin, too, so all the Rx stuff is 'ok' as far as I know. I am trying to help my situation, not make it worse. Now - the information I am finding indicates the raised glucose is a false raise, but why have to explain it? These folks seem so set on diagnosing everyone on the basis of one test, that I do not want to take any chances.

To top it all off, during my research I found out that Slo-Niacin uses hydrogenated vegetable oil in their "Other ingredients". OMG - I had not even noticed, but it is right on the label. Needless to say, that is going out the door. To replace it, or not? Well, I had bought the Slo-Niacin as kind of a stop-gap to get started on niacin, because shortly thereafter I ordered Endur-Acin, which is also a slow-release niacin, and supposedly much better quality. I have a full bottle of that, too. According to drugs.com, it is also capable of raising glucose. :-( Well, at least it does not have hydrogenated oil in it. I will hang onto it until I verify the culprit, at least.

My short-term goal is to get my fasting back down, pronto, and go get my labs done so we can see where the cholesterol panel is (and a few other labs) after nearly 2 months on lovastatin and a low-carb diet. Long term is, of course, to improve my overall health enough to get off all prescription meds. ;-)

So part 2 in a bit will be more on the diet/exercise part of the week. Much more happiness there, lol!

I Love Sundays!

2011-07-31T11:01:00.003-04:00

I love Sunday. No work. Well, the get paid kind, anyway. I will be doing the house kind today. But not the get up, dressed and leave the house kind.
The last few days, my glucose has been in the 80-90's fasting and when I've checked post-prandial (2 hours after meals), in the 90's, so still very much in the right direction! I got on the treadmill Friday, and plan to today. I was going to yesterday, but it turned into one of those days. My weight battle is sloooowwwwlllyy winning, lol. I am down 17.5# as of this morning! Or 22.5 if you are counting the first 5 before officially starting. I would like to. So I think from here out, I will. 22.5# it is! LOL
One good thing that happened yesterday (I think) - we bought a new bed. Personally, I like my current one. It's a Serta Euro-Pillowtop and the top mattress is like 16.5" deep. Although my sleep has been hosed for several years, I was pretty darn sure it was due to menopause (hot flashes at night) and more recently, elevated glucose, because the last 7-8 weeks, I have been able to sleep sans Ambien, although I still wake up every couple hours to re-position. Hmmm... Well, anyway, hubby has had two cervical (neck) fusion surgeries in the last 2 years and is still recovering from the second on June 2nd. He still has to sleep with a Miami-J cervical collar on (8 weeks down, another 4 weeks to go) and the darn thing is very hard to relax in. He has been complaining for weeks that he thought the bed was causing him to sleep terribly, and maybe we need to replace it. Now, this from the man who complains that I like to change the furniture like my wardrobe. Often. And who is snoring 5 minutes after he puts his head on the pillow, whereas it takes me (even now) 30-45 minutes to get to sleep. But he says even though he falls asleep fast, he wakes up through the night. I wanted to wait until he gets that collar off (hopefully) Aug. 24th. THEN see how he sleeps. But nooooooo...
So we had been seeing those Tempurpedic commercials all over and wondered if we might like that. We went up the road to check it out at the local mattress joint. My plan was to find something we like, then hunt it down on Craigslist, lol. We need another bill like a hole in the head. So we get up the road to the mattress joint and lay on numerous beds. And learn all about Tempurpedic beds. The idea is great, but the damn beds are a mint. And I have concerns about heat - it seems they retain it, and I am already post-menopausal-hot. Our last bed, we paid $800 for a $2,800 bed that had been a display for a few weeks. So you see where MY price point is, lol. SO - the salesman introduces us to another possibility. Evidently traditional bed manufacturers are getting into the memory foam/molding around you bed thing. Sealy has one that we tried and weren't too crazy about. So does Serta. In fact, Serta has a new line out called iComfort. We were introduced. We liked. A LOT. It has a system to wick away heat instead of retaining it. Now, that may mean some adjustments in the two weeks of winter we have in FL, lol. But for the majority of the year, I am literally hot in bed, and not the good kind. Well, sometimes. ;-) We did the whole Goldilocks thing, laying on each model. The Insight was too hard, as was the Genius, although they did conform. The Prodigy is the plushest one (and most expensive), and although I like the cloud feeling, it seemed a little TOO soft to me. Plus the darn thing was $3000. So we lay on the Revolution model. Ahhhhhh.... :-D I know it's hard to really tell in the store, but that one seemed just right. Hubby kept coming back to that one, going back and forth to the other models and even to the Tempurpedic and Sealy ones. The good news - we have a winner. The bad news? It's $2499 for the king bed and stationary boxes. Almost $6000 if you want the split king with adjustable bases. :-O As nice as that would be, we simply cannot afford that. We really should not be bed shopping at all. And this model is so new on the market that there is nada on Craigslist. Argh. Well, we decided to sleep on it (pun intended) and left. This was Friday.
So Saturday DH starts on me again. Maybe we can find it for less somewhere. Sigh. We check around. Doesn't seem that way. We wind up in the next town eating lunch, and go to the same name store as we had found them in at home. I didn't expect any breaks, the stores we had gone to all said the price points are set by the manufacturer. Well... Here's what happened. We lay on all the beds. We still like the Serta iComfort Revolution best. The manager here was a lot more helpful. Evidently there IS going to be a deal starting Aug. 3 that buyers will get the stationary boxes free, knocking $300 off the price. Plus if my hubby's surgeon will write him a script for the bed, no sales tax. :-D Free delivery and setup, take away of old bed if desired. And a free $100 mattress cover. AND free financing for 18 months through GE (as long as you pay it off in 18 months - you get jacked for 29.99% since day one if you don't!). Now, the first guy told us about the free financing, and delivery etc. But that was all. This guy gave us the box deal etc NOW. So the $2673.93 (including tax) king Revolution bed, plus delivery, setup and mattress cover went to $2199.00. Needless to say, DH gave me puppy eyes, and we bit. It will be delivered tomorrow. There is also a possibility that my health insurance (which hubby is under) MAY pick up some or all of the cost of the bed, if prescribed by the surgeon. We will be calling him tomorrow. I am an OR nurse and used to be this surgeon's primary nurse for several years. If this is even feasible, I am sure he will help us. I am sure he will at least write the script so we can get the sales tax off. And we should be able to write the bed off on taxes as a medical expense if we can't get it paid for by insurance. Win-win? I sure hope so.
I must love that man. One thing I am looking forward to, though. I love my bed, but a mattress that thick is a PITA to find sheets and other bedding for. Since day one, I had to give up comforters, even the oversized ones were too small and showed the bottom of the mattress. I had to buy bedspreads to cover it completely, but look like a comforter. And nice-looking bedspreads are hard to find. No more. :-D This mattress is 12" thick. I won't even have to worry about super-deep pocket sheets, and our current sheets will fit it easily. Don't tell hubby, though. I want him to feel like I did this just for him. ;-)

What a Difference a Day Makes!

2011-07-27T20:49:00.001-04:00

I was able to get to sleep on my own last night just fine, and woke up feeling great this morning! :-D And to top it off, my fasting glucose was 92!!! Plus, last night my 2 hour post-prandial was 104. Definitely moving in the right direction. Back down one of the 1.5 pounds, too. Ha - like I said, two steps forward and one back.

I know this is turning into more than just a weight loss blog, and I know posting my glucose levels may be boring to some (okay, most), but I hope I will post some useful tidbits that WILL be of more interest. Unfortunately for me, I am evidently faced with doing more than just trying to look decent at my age. This has turned into a lot more of an important challenge for my health. But back to topic!

I had a great day and when I got home (don't faint) actually got my butt on the treadmill for 40 minutes! And DH surprised me by fixing dinner while I walked on the treadmill. I have been soooooo good on my diet, too. Had salmon caesar salad for lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse. Yum. I am headed to bed early so hopefully I will be able to get up to treadmill before work. ;-) Ciao!