Anyone want to do Diabetes Miracle with me? I'm starting tomorrow. I will share my fitbit information as soon as I figure out how to keep it private.
Everyone -- I hope you can try testing before you eat, then at one hour, two hours, and three hours after your first bite. Go to the Blood Sugar 101 site and explore.
Books: The other major book to read is Blood Sugar 101. There is a 99 cent short kindle version that is excellent and I highly recommend it. I give Blood Sugar 101 book and website all the credit for my fasting blood glucose dropping 120 points in a few weeks with no medication (not even metformin).
Carol Sue, I am so sorry about your sweet Maltese. We are major dog lovers here and I know it's hard. Thanks for sharing your impressions about DM. I'm going to start on it tomorrow. My FBG was down to the 80s without meds just before the holidays. I have found that my weight loss is following the stabilization of blood sugar, not the other way around in my case. I"m testing 8 times a day and like your idea of testing hourly to find out what is happening. My carbs are already below 50.
Trish, congratulations on your weight loss for the year!
Moonkissed, I am far behind you but want to catch up to your steps.
Madison, welcome to these forums. Congratulations on your impressive weight loss and the steps you are taking towards reclaiming your health. Can you test your blood sugar before and after exercising to find out if your glucose is affecting you?
Shannonsnail, forgive yourself on the meal and move on.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
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Shannon, I would not even attempt to get DH to eat low carb meals, no matter how good they taste. It is just not going to happen in this lifetime. LOL I do agree that your DH would do well to go low carb in some form with his weight what it is. He is lucky not have any weight related medical problems right now, but it's just a matter of time, IMO. I would just continue to keep making these dinners if your marriage can stand it, and maybe eventually his tastes will change. Also, instead of looking for low carb dishes to serve, you could just cook a regular meal of meat, veggies and a carb for DH, and you eat the meat and veggies. That's how I work around my carboholic husband.
I'm glad you're not eating "lunch meat" because the sodium alone is terrible. Since lunch is only you, maybe you could bake some chicken that you could keep on hand for a few days. You can do a lot of different things with cooked chicken. There's also canned tuna, if you like it. Many people don't. I am just trying to throw in some ideas that will keep you from having to stop and cook every day. You could do omlets. If you vary your menu from day to day you might not burn out of salads, since they will only be a couple times a week. Another choice is to increase the amount of dinner you cook so you have leftovers for lunch the next day. Already cooked, just heat up.
A year or so ago we had to get a new kitchen faucet. It was similar to your old one. A month later I decided I wanted a high one, so we went out and bought another one. In the bathroom, we needed a new one. I loved the old one and saw a similar one at Home Depot, but DH talked me into getting "something different." I still hate it, and want the one like the old one, but I'm afraid to ask him to switch again. LOL
Lettingslenderin, my testing every hour after 4 is primarily to test her theory about the liver dump raising blood sugar. I don't doubt that she is right, but I want to see to what degree. I feel that everyone is different, on size does not fit all. I want to see where I am in this theory. I like having an 8 hour eating window and a 16 hour fast, but if it is going to be detrimental to me I will cut back on my portions and follow her directions to eat every 5 hours. But I have to see proof that it is going to be an improvement over what I'm doing now.
I commend you for the progress you have made, dropping your blood sugar so much just with lifestyle change! It shows that it CAN be done. You are an inspiration to the entire diabetic community, especially those who think that life as they know it is over. Not everyone can make these changes as easily as you have.
Last edited by Wannabehealthy; 01-04-2015 at 09:33 AM.
Hello Ladies. I just got home from my morning walk in the rain! I feel exhausted but I did it so yay. Figured the rain was worth it since it wasn;t very chilly but the next few days are supposed to be very cold like in the low teens or single digits and today it was quite nice besides the rain.
I decided my big plan for today it clean out and organize my bedroom and move the dvd player and Wii in there. Giving myself a nice space to workout when the weather is bad, do yoga in and have privacy. I can't work out with people watching me even the DH I feel too self conscious. This will give me no more excuses to get my work out in daily.
Today was my weigh in and I was fearing it hardcore. I was sure I gained and was just praying to be the same weight I was no higher. Instead I lost 1.8lbs! I reweighed myself like 5 times to make sure it was correct lol. I am so happy!
lettingslenderin you are very much an inspiration. I wanna get my numbers down down down where i can be proud of them. Right now I am like 50% of the time happy with them lol.
I wanna get up to 10k steps so badly. Its tough!
Diabetes Miracle looks like an interesting book I will have to check it out.
Carol Sue I was always told and read that it is better to eat smaller meals through out the day. It will be interesting to see what your BS says.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
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Moonkissed, eating smaller meals has never worked for me in the past, but DM stresses the need to go no longer than 5 hours without food. To me, that means I will be eating breakfast around 7, lunch around 12 and dinner around 5. We usually eat dinner at 4, so it's in the ball park. DM also stresses the need to eat a snack within 1 hour of bedtime. A snack at 9 or 10 would do the trick, but I would still be going from 10 PM to 7 AM without eating. The book does say that if you wake up in the middle of the night you can eat another snack. This is all supposed to keep your blood sugar down. ???? I'm just not sure about this, therefore, I want to go longer than 5 hours without food and see if my blood sugar rises. It does normally rise overnight, and that is usually longer than 5 hours. I don't usually take what I read in a book as gospel. I have to try it out for myself and see some results one way or another.
I do know that if you eat a very large meal your blood sugar will go up, even if it's not carbs.
Hi friends, and Happy New Year!
I had posted at the end of December but have been working like a fiend since the New Year. It seems all the babies were vying for the New Year baby, and we got busy for several days. I think there will be a brief lull now.
My ticker is correct so overall, no weight loss for me this year.
I have been using my fitbit and have been more active this year in general, so am happy with that.
I am wavering about diet these days.
I have had a lot of arthritis like pain for several months now, and I recently went off "nightshade" vegetables. These are plants related to deadly nightshade, specifically, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers (green, red or any other colour) and potatoes.
This seems to be helping, but I sure feel limited in food choices. I am not sure about the extent of pepper mattering, for instance, hot peppers.
I have also noticed more "bloat" and feeling overfull with eating wheat.
Overall, I don't eat a lot of wheat, but have been eating more over the holidays.
I have done low carb and find this generally good for me, but I think I will modify this to South Beach style, which allows more complex carbs, as I am concerned about the issues with so many food restrictions.
I also have some food allergies, (all citrus) and medication allergies (all non-narcotic pain relievers other than tylenol) so it all feels daunting at times.
I will read some posts and try to catch up on things. 4 days into the month, and there are already 3 pages of posts to read! Must be all those resolutions!
Best wishes to all for a healthy new year.
Moonkissed, eating smaller meals has never worked for me in the past, but DM stresses the need to go no longer than 5 hours without food. To me, that means I will be eating breakfast around 7, lunch around 12 and dinner around 5. We usually eat dinner at 4, so it's in the ball park. DM also stresses the need to eat a snack within 1 hour of bedtime. A snack at 9 or 10 would do the trick, but I would still be going from 10 PM to 7 AM without eating. The book does say that if you wake up in the middle of the night you can eat another snack. This is all supposed to keep your blood sugar down. ???? .
I know it seems odd. But I think its about stabilityof the blood sugar. Also, its important (but difficult) for a snack to be a snack, not a meal. How many calories are allowed?
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
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Mad! So happy to see you here! Glad to hear those babies are popping out and keeping you busy. LOL
We have increased our membership here, some new posters with new insight and ideas. Like it was in the old days.
I have just started reading this book, Diabetes Miracle. Lettingslenderin mentioned it and I got the book from the library to see what it was all about. So far, it doesn't say anything about calories. It's 3 stages...carb detox, carb rehab and then maintenance. I haven't really gotten to the allowable food lists yet.
I'm stuck on this eating every 5 hours for glucose stability. I've been told this before, but never explained. I always thought that the longer I could go without eating, the lower my blood sugar will go. Seems that's not the case. But I want to find out how it effects ME. I don't believe everything I read, and I don't think that one size fits all. We're all different.
I think for me a snack would be a cube of cheese, couple nuts. I am not usually a before-bed eater because of my acid reflux.
Last edited by Wannabehealthy; 01-04-2015 at 08:05 PM.
So far in the new year my pattern seems to be one day on plan and the next I am on until sometime in the afternoon or evening when I cave into something carby/sugary. I will take it though because honestly it is huge steps forward over the past several months! I will consider the bad choices to be blips on the way to more good choices!
Carol Sue my husband is kind of half and half with the stuff I cook, some he is fine with and others he hates. I keep trying because frankly, I like cooking and I like experimenting and it would be a sad life for me to just cook meat, veggies and a starch but I totally understand what you are saying. I'm a creative and it is hard for me to surrender to simple but I may have to balance my creativity with some simple. I am looking forward to this next week, being able to just not worry about him. With Olivia, I can make something easy that she will like and spend my creativity/time on just me. However, sometimes I think that is going to happen and we just have a busy week and end up mostly eating out. If that happens though I am going to do my best to make the best choices I can. I know that a couple days will be like that. Mondays we have preschool, a couple hours at home and then dance which ends at 5:30 when she is to the starving point. There is a burger joint next door to the dance studio so we usually end up there. And on Thursdays we spend half the day in the next town over (where my mom lives) for bible study, lunch with my mom and our weekly trip to stock up at Sam's. I think though instead of being tempted to eat out for dinner that night I am going to bring home a rotisserie chicken.
Today my "bad choices" were at a birthday party (which then led to eating bad at dinner too) - CAKE is totally my "can't say no" thing. But, let me tell you about this party. It was a FROZEN party and Anna and Elsa came!! My daughter was so excited to spend time with them in person. She kept asking how they got all the way here from Arendelle! LOL!
Today has been the big reorganization day in my sewing room. Hubby got the new machine stand assembled and we got the machine moved onto the stand. It weighs 91 lbs so it's kind of a big deal to move it. We got my desk (which previously held the machine) moved and then moved the other two pieces of furniture in there as well. I had been looking forward to a very nice custom built room with cabinets/countertops and shelving but instead I am going to use what I have. We already spent so much money on my machine. I think it makes more sense to use the money we get back from the sale of MIL's house on renovating our attic space into hubby's office.
I look forward to hearing you all talk about the new diet plan. I honestly do not have time to read any diet books. I spend any reading time right now on books to try to help me figure out what is going on with my daughter. My latest thought in researching online is she fits the hypo-sensitive subtype for sensory processing disorder. I am wondering if all her anger is stemming from something related to that. I am going to see what happens as she returns to preschool in the new few weeks and then decide whether to take her to the pediatrician to discuss.
Last edited by Shannonsnail; 01-04-2015 at 10:38 PM.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,384
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Height: 5'2
I read a little bit more of the book this morning. There are no calorie requirements and no portion sizes. In the first stage, detox, you eat protein, fat and allowed veggies. There are a lot of foods on the allowed neutral foods list. Eat if you are hungry, stop when satisfied. Sounds like IE, except with IE no food is banned. Her example was this. You are allowed natural Peanut Butter as a neutral food. But that doesn't mean you can sit down with a jar of natural Peanut Butter and eat the whole thing just because it's neutral. Normal portions, and I think if most people are honest with themselves, they know what a normal portion is.
I have not read about stage 2 yet, where some carbs are added. One thing I read this morning is that it depends on the degree of your blood sugar control how long it will take to start noticing improvement. 4 days if you A1c is in the 6.5 range. Over 7 and it will take a little longer. This is one mistake I make. I will try something one time, and if it doesn't work, I quit. Example. Snacks at bedtime usually raise my FBG. I did try a scrambled egg a couple times and did not have the BS spike. Last night when I went to bed, 4 hours after dinner, I tested at 115. I ate 2 tsp of ricotta cheese. I woke up at 2AM so I checked my BS. It was 202!! I ate 2 more tsp of ricotta cheese. At 7AM I tested and was at 167. I considered the bedtime snack a failure, until I read this morning that it will take me at least 4 days, maybe more, before I see improvement. This detox phase cleans the excess glucose and insulin out of your body. Then the next phase, rehab, adds some other foods gradually, and at specific times, to retrain your metabolism. She is not claiming that diabetes is gone. If you have a slip up, your blood sugar will still spike. It's about moderation to keep that from happening. Another must is a minimum of 30 min of exercise 5 days a week. Doable. It can be all at once, but 2 smaller sessions per day is better.
This sounds so promising....but going by past experience, I do not see myself going 8 weeks without a slip up. I can't even get through 10 days of Atkins Induction. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. I'm jut being honest. But what I'm doing now isn't working, either.
Shannon, I agree that the money invested in the machine far outweighs the custom cabinets and countertops. You can make this work.
I also agree that if you are on plan 50-75% you are headed in the right direction. It's hard to jump back in with both feet. Olivia sure gets invited to a lot of birthday parties! LOL Lucky little girl to have so many friends.
I understand your desire to be creative and cook more interesting meals. My way works for us, because we both like plain foods. Like meats without sauces etc. And when faced with a difficult choice, like a hamburger joint, I am happy with a hamburger patty with no bun. And if I can add lettuce, tomato and onion to it, all the better. Also we have a local restaurant that serves a plain grilled chicken breast, and I can order 2 vegetable choices instead of a carby side dish, and it's delicious. I rarely eat low carb substitutes, such as cauliflower potatoes or rice. Too much trouble since DH won't eat them. I do still love my zucchini pasta made with the Vegetti with either pesto sauce or alfredo sauce. Don't like it with tomato sauce.
I hope you can find solutions that please both you and DH. Maybe in time his tastes will change. It took a while for my sugar cravings to go away, but they're gone.
Well, today my fasting blood sugar was 111 -- highest FBG in weeks.
I blame the 1/4 cup of brown rice I ate before bed, and also a 2 a.m. argument with my husband over the yorkie "sleeping" with us (keeping us up all night).
So today is first day of Diabetes Miracle, which is MUCH stricter than the changes I made to lower my blood sugar to where it is now. The main suggestion I had is to read the Blood Sugar 101 website (which is free) and test many times a day. 8 times a day is not too much at first so that you can eat to your meter. I can tell that DM is going to be challenging as a vegetarian, and there are parts I am not going to follow.
Thank you for your kind words, but I was lucky, my diabetes II was caught early by a very good family practice doctor. 2 and a half years ago my a1c was only 5.5. I had a major life change -- going to work full time at a very high pressure job and by the time I quit, I had diabetes.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,384
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Height: 5'2
Lettingslenderin, I was not aware that you are vegetarian, or I just forgot. That is really going to be a challenge, as most low carb plans focus on meat. But the change you have already made in your blood sugar tells me that you know what you're doing.
Happy Monday ladies! We were back to our routine today of preschool. Mark left on his business trip - he is taking the train this time because it is a much shorter trip than having the layovers and driving an hour to and from the airport - so I got him off to the train. I also registered for some business classes at the community college. I am really excited that my very small town has a "small business center" - in fact, it was originally started eons ago by DH's father (who passed almost 10 yrs ago). They offer FREE small business start up classes like "how to write a business plan", "basic bookkeeping", "allowable deductions", etc. They also offer FREE counseling! This will be a great resource to me as I prepare to open my small business sewing from home. The classes are just 3 hours on one evening for each topic so very manageable. I also signed up for beginner sewing class. I had called a couple months ago when I saw it being offered and asked if someone like me who has been sewing a while but never formally taught would get anything out of it and based on the discussion I decided to sign up. It starts in Feb and runs for about 8 weeks, one night a week. All the one night only business topic classes are in February as well. February will be busy!
I am eating the leftover Shrimp and Grits for lunch right now - yum!! The cauliflower as "cheesy grits" is REALLY good!! I will make it again for sure! I bought another spaghetti squash to experiment with this week. For that casserole I cooked it in the crockpot instead of the oven like I had done before and cooked it WHOLE, not cut in half...and you know, it was much better than when I cooked it before.
I have still not started rechecking my BS. I need to get back into that. There is a reason why - it's my stupid finger. I have not regained use of the finger I injured and cannot do much with that hand - I can't hold the lancet with it to prick my other hand's fingers and I don't want to wear out my couple of fingers on the left hand that I can use. Excuses I know but it is a real issue. I need to practice holding the lancet with the injured finger hand and try to get more confident.
lettingslenderin Sounds like you have a good plan going for you. I have seen some low carb books that can be done by vegetarians so I hope you find a way to make that work for you with the DM. Good luck on your journey.
Carol Sue I'll have to get The Metabolism Miracle book and see how it is done. I do remember that it is done in 3 Steps instead of 3 Stages. I remember something about 5 and 5, but can't remember much about it. So far it sounds like it may be similar to the DM.
Shannon We had that faucet in our home in FL. It is a nice faucet. I'm sorry you are still having problems with the finger. Hope it will eventually work itself out.
Mad It is so good to see you posting again. I have often thought of doing South Beach again. Just not sure I'm ready to do something different than what I'm doing. While I love Atkins, I have had to face the fact that it isn't going to happen for me.
Well, my weight is back down to where it was before the holiday eating. And my FBS is staying in the 130s. So my personal plan is working very nicely. I think as long as it is working that I'm not going to change anything or try anything else at this time since it has taken me so long to find what would work for me.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,384
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
Trish, you are doing well with your WOE. If it's not broke, don't fix it! Stick with what works for you.
I used the wrong word. It is 3 steps, not 3 stages. It is probably very similar to Metabolism Miracle. I'm not sure what you mean by 5 and 5.
Shannon, the courses you are going to take sound interesting. When i bought my sewing machine back in my 20's they offered free sewing classes meant to teach you how to operate your new sewing machine. I enjoyed them.
Tell me more about your spaghetti squash casserole.
