Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,385
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Height: 5'2
This book, Defeating Diabetes is similar to Dr Joel Fuhrman, and recommends a vegetarian diet. My neighbor avoided diabetes meds by eating all vegetables, but it was too hard to sustain long term. I know my blood sugar has increased since I backed off all the vegetables and beans I was eating, so I think I will increase them again. I will not cut out animal protein, though. That doesn't fit my lifestyle, but I will cut back a bit. I cut back on vegetables listening to other people instead of doing what was best for me.
Tomorrow morning I have to go for an Echocardiogram early in the morning. Maybe I will get my bloodwork done then, too, and make my appointment to review it. I know my A1c is going to be bad and he will probably increase my Glimiperide, but I will still try to improve BG so I won't have to take the higher dose.
Carol Sue DH and I have a docs appointments tomorrow afternoon and will have our A1c done. I know mine isn't going to be good. Although I am taking the Metformin off and on, I am might see if he could give me a small dose of glimiperide. Or I just may forget it because I can't seem to get him to do it.
I'm working to eat intuitively but I don't do well under pressure of docs appointments any more. It seems like the harder I try to do well with the eating (I know that is IE) the worse I do. Hopefully once the appointment is behind me perhaps I can get more serious about what I'm doing.
I'm thinking about what I read in the Thin For Life book. Most of the people in that book whether they diet or not to lose and keep their weight down for may years eat oatmeal for breakfast. Since I seem to be having IBS which I read can be caused by eggs etc, I am thinking about not worrying about the carbs and maybe start eating oatmeal for breakfast. I really like the bacon more than I do the eggs and I can have my bacon with the oatmeal. If I switch to oats for breakfast, I will probably go lowfat with the dairy. I know they make full fat yogurt, but I've never seen it in my stores. They are usually low or non fat. Oats are nice to eat during cold weather and just maybe my stomach will be better by the time spring comes.
On an off subject. My husband has started talking about us moving to my hometown in TX. In fact, we are looking for builders to build a house like we want it. One day a few weeks ago we were driving down the street and I asked him if he would ever want to move back down to So. FL where his DD and her family live and I'll just say... he said a strong no. So I threw out there if he would move to TX where my sister lives so we would have someone to do things with. He said "I don't really want to move any where". So I thought it was settled.
Then about a week ago, he said, "We are going to have to downsize. I think we are going to have to rethink TX". Now last night he was looking at houses with a builder that I talked to last June. It looks like we are going to move and I talked to my baby sister Thanksgiving and we got kind of excited because she says they are probably moving back in about six months. We want to spend what years Daddy has living close to him. He is talking about going into assisted living next summer and I would like to be there to help out with things he needs done and spend time with him.
I will be getting some exercise because I told DH that I'm not moving all this junk so I'm going to start cleaning and throwing things out. I haven't really gotten excited yet because I don't want to get disappointed, but I think he is serious this time.
I hope all goes well with your docs appointment and ours. Whatever I decide to do about my diet, I will start it Tuesday. Not that I'm way off right now. In fact, following some of the Weigh Down ideas right now, my weight is inching down and that is really good. I sure would love to weigh less when I move home. As much as I like IE, it might have to set on the back burner for a while at least until I get my eating under control. I still think some self-discipline is involved too. As much as I like IE, maybe I'm not cut out for IE.
Oh one thing I learned from the video made me realize why works and I think we can train our bodies to go back to eating the way you and I ate when we were young. She said when you learn to listen to your hunger/satiety signals. You might eat every few hrs if you are eating smaller meals/snacks or you could even wait 24 hrs sometimes. It all depends on how much you ate before and also how much fuel/fat you have stored. Made me think of IF. I've never read the book IF, but if I remember it correctly, you eat within certain window hrs either daily like I did it and then some people fasted 2 days a week.
So It seems to me if we follow our signals that our fasting hours just might vary depending on what is going on each day. So just maybe it doesn't have to be I eat within 5 hours everyday or I fast 1 or 2 days a week. Maybe I just don't have to have any set hours at all. I just have to follow the way my body wants to eat today and let tomorrow hrs be whatever they are. In other words, maybe eating normal is much simpler than we think. It sure seemed that way back when I was you and you just ate when you were hungry.
Catch you tomorrow when things settle around here. Busy day tomorrow. Morning company so I won't be on pc.
Evening everyone
Last two days I've gotten in my 10,000 steps in easily thanks to shopping.
Today while getting groceries I passed by chocolates and chips,,crackers...yghhh I kept telling myself.No no no....and proud to say came home with only fruit and veggies.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,385
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
p.a. Good for you on the 10,000 steps! I have never had a day over 7000. I just can't get in that extra 3000.
I also try to skip the snack food, but DH lives on it, so it's always here. A lot of things he eats I don't like so I'm ok with that. A month or so ago I bought several bags of pumpkin seed tortilla chips at Aldi's. That's the only place I ever see them and they only have them occasionally, so when they have them I stock up. Lately I've been forgetting I have them, which is good, but I really like them with hummus.
Trish, you want Glimiperide and I wish I could get rid of it. LOL It took me 4 weeks to lose 4 lbs and within a couple days I gained it back. I have to be so extremely rigid to lose even a little bit of weight and can't keep it off at all.
After my Echo I didn't feel like getting the blood work done so I just came home. They will be there another day. I wanted was a cup of coffee.
To me, IE is just normal eating. You eat when you're hungry and stop when you're satisfied. I don't even understand why anyone put a name to it. 5:2 does not seem natural to me and I can't stick to it. It's like starving yourself for 2 days and stuffing yourself the other days. The problem with having an eating window is a lot of people hurry up and eat a lot before the window closes, realizing they won't get any food until the next window opens. That sounds like a bear going into hibernation. LOL This is just how it feels for me, although I know it works for others. The only time I ever lost weight successfully in the past was when I just consciously ate less of everything, with no regard to protein, carb, or fat. I ate one serving then I was finished until the next meal. I didn't have to give up anything except I did give up sweets, I just had to exercise some self-control.
I like oatmeal, too, but if I ate it for breakfast, it would be a small portion and I would also have an egg with it, like they gave me in the hospital. That was satisfying to me and I lost weight. My husband makes Cream of Wheat for himself and I like that, too. Food for a cold winter morning.
Last edited by Wannabehealthy; 11-30-2015 at 08:23 AM.
Well, I wasn't going to have time to post this morning, but my company was a no show because she overslept probably due to the weather. So here I am.
p.a. Great on the 10000 steps. I've never counted my steps, but shopping does help and I usually count it as my activity for the day.
Carol Sue I don't usually eat a whole serving of oatmeal either. In fact, when I make it, nuke it so I usually use 1/2 or 1/3 of the serving allowed with an equivalent of a handful of berries, a sprinkle of nuts and a few spoons of Nonfat yogurt. I never want a whole serving of any of it. I always like Malt a meal, but don't see it in the stores any more. I just recently realized that I could have a couple of pieces with bacon with it. I guess because we never had bacon with it and I always think eggs and bacon. LOL
I'm not going to ask the doctor for glimiperide. I want to do this on my own. I've decided to just tell him that I'm back on the Metformin and doing the best I can with it. I will tell him that I'm no longer using the fenofibrate and why. One very important thing for me that I have learned from the WD videos is that I do not have to be a people/man pleaser (I have to fight that one a lot) which I've decided actually includes a doctor. So I am going to follow some of her guidelines to learn to trust the Lord and learn to listen and let Him guide me even with the food issues. There are so many diet voices out there that are confusing and as she an the Thin Within book says... who knows my body and what it needs better than the One who created it. JMO
I don't think I'm going to put a name to how I eat. I don't think I need a diet or a non-diet name. Some days I may eat within a 5 hr window like today because I don't want to eat till after I'm weighed at the doctor's office. And some days I might eat within an 8 to 10 hr window. I'm not a true IE-er or IF-er or low carber. I prefer to just learn eat naturally. I too did better when I didn't have a name like IE to it.
I don't think I fit IE any way (probably won't post there much if at all) because I believe that when you allow yourself to get to the place I am with my eating that I need to re-train my body and my mind as to how to act with food and around food. Although I don't plan to have any no-no foods because I don't want to set myself up for failure any more. This is about training my body to eat less of the foods that I truly like, the way I plan to do this could be seen as a diet although I prefer way of eating. I don't really believe there is any food that is truly bad for me as long as I can learn to eat less of it. One of the IE dieticians called some of the less healthy foods "Play flood" rather than "junk foods" or "bad foods". I don't care what it is called. I just prefer to call all of it food. It might be one or two bites for someone else and it might be a little more for or even less for me depending on what I'm eating. I actually ate half a protein type bar DH buys the other day. WD video said she can eat half a candy bar and save the rest for another day. I had tried it and laid it aside. Amazing thing is that I never thought about it again. A few days I was looking for just a bite of something to satisfy of something kind of sweet and I found it. These are so small you can eat the whole thing with just a few bites. It worked. I ate it slowly and it was exactly all I needed. So now I know that it can be done with practice. Those "baby steps" you talk about Carol Sue
I am not a true IFer either because I believe that the hours of fasting ratio to eating may very when following your hunger signals although I still may use a specified eating window until I get my body accustomed to recognizing those signals.
One thing that WD video said today that I found helpful is this... not a quote. You can trust your body to tell you how much oxygen and calories it needs and when. The reason some may need more calories than others is that it takes more calories for a muscle cell to live than it does a brain cell. Although, I it is my understanding that the brain is a muscle, perhaps it just means that some muscles need more than others at different times depending on activity. Don't know if it is true, but helps me realize why we don't need to eat more than our body really needs. (The little games I play with myself)
Doctor's appointment went fine. He walked in and asked me how I was doing. I looked him square in the eye and said "Well, as you always say the numbers don't lie. So I can't lie to you, because you can see for yourself that I haven't done really well at all this time." I hadn't see my paper work and numbers yet because he was still holding them in his hand. I was just thankful when he said that my A1c was up to 6.8 from 6.1. I told him that I was expecting it to be over 7 so I was thankful for being what it was.
Here I had decided this morning not to do low carb. Well that changed really quick when the Doc said "Your triglycerides are up to 306" this time. (They are higher than DH although his are still high. His was 284.) I was shocked. I thought fat was the cause so I said something to that effect, but doc said "No its caused from too much starchy carbs and sugar".
I laughed and told him, I had just decided not to do low carb. We discussed carb counting. I told him I wanted to eat oatmeal. He said "Oatmeal is a starch"... that I not only have to count the carbs in the oats, but I also have to count carbs in yogurt of course I know I have to count carbs in the berries. I told him I never understood about counting the carbs in yogurt as some say count and some say no. He said it is still sugar and you have to count them. I told him about the book Low Carb for Dummies.. Any way and that writer said you should eat a minimum of 3 carb servings and no more than a the max was 5 servings daily. But she didn't count carbs in dairy. I told him "Atkins says 20 grams, Dr. Bernstein says 30 grams and some say 90 grams a day and I am just not sure how much to eat." He says "90 grams is good because that is 6 servings of 15 grams of energy". So he told me to eat 90 grams a day.
We discussed exercise. I told him I hadn't been exercising much lately but that I had worked up to 2 miles a day and could do that within 15 to 20 minutes a day on the recumbent bike. I told him it keeps my back and knee from hurting. He said if I could do just 15 minutes everyday that he would be very happy with that. I really didn't mean 15 min everyday, but I will go back to the 20 minutes 5 days a week.
He didn't seem upset by the fact that I dropped the Finofibrate and he said if I exercise everyday it shouldn't be a problem. He wasn't upset with me dropping the Januvia and using the Metformin. So I'm good on all that. I told him I just keep anti-diarrheal pills handy for when I have IBS type reactions to it. I told him I never know what I eat that causes the problem. He smiled and said ok. I didn't tell him that I don't take it when I know I'm going to be away from home the next day.
I had gained 8 lbs. I told him that I had gained more, but I had lost some by not cooking a big meal for the holiday. I do have some dressing that my beautician friend brought me to eat after I weighed at the docs office. I'll eat it later. I don't know how much DH gained, but the doctor was so excited that his taste is back that doc didn't care. In fact, he said he did not care. He said he was just glad he got his taste back. LOL
All DH numbers were better than mine. His triglycerides were high, but like DH said he takes meds for it and I don't. They talked and decided that he will take go back to using the less expensive statin. I didn't tell the doctor but if I can't get the triglycerides down with diet and exercise then I will go back to taking the Finofibrate as well. Sorry I don't think I'm spelling that correctly.
I really think we had a really good doctors visit. We both gained some good info and I can see that he is understanding carbs a lot better than when I first started going to him about 7 or 8 yrs ago and I really still believe he is on my side.
I'm not sure what I'll do about the oatmeal especially since I know the triglycerides will come down low carbing. My bad cholesterol was good, but my good cholesterol is awfully low. All the other numbers were good. I haven't been successful with eating very low carb of 20 to 30 carbs. So I just might try to shoot for 60 grams with the idea that on occasion I might go up to between 75 to 90 grams but try to never go above 90. I just don't think I need that much carbs for energy. Let my body take it's energy from the stored fat or whatever. I'll do this and the exercise and see how it helps. Plus I will do it with Intermittent Fasting.
Sorry this is so long. Besides sharing, I'm also thinking it out as I share.
Just read up on Intermittent Fasting on Diabetes Daily. I like what I read. Then I found on line 5 ways to do IF. Women can eat 10 hrs and fast 14. So starting tomorrow, I will eat breakfast sometime between 10 - 12 and eat nothing after 8 pm. I'll have a snack at 8 to take my Metformin. Although it doesn't seem to matter what you eat when doing IF, I will work at keeping my carbs fairly low. I read somewhere keep them under 75 grams. So I will work at doing that.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,385
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Height: 5'2
Trish, I am glad you had that talk with your doctor and that the triglycerides number might make the decision for you about low carb. I truly think it's the best road for you. You don't have to be perfect, but remember to do it 80% of the time. My triglycerides drop considerably and right now I'm only taking 1/2 dose of my fenofibric and 1/4 dose of my statin. My cardiologist told me that the only way to raise good cholesterol is exercise. I got a letter from my insurance that starting in January the price of my fenofebric is going to go sky high and I should discuss a lower cost option with my doctor. I will probably discuss that at my next visit as I have enough on hand to last me well into the new year.
My FBG is down this morning and so is my BP. I'm afraid to get on the scale. I want all three of them to be down.
When I was reading Defeating Diabetes there was a segment about why fat is bad for diabetics. I will go back and read it over again and let you know what it says. So low carb is good, but LCHF is not, especially for us. That's ok. We don't like all that fat anyway!
Carol Sue My FBG was high, but I ate way off yesterday, but OP today. I have really enjoyed my eating. I won't be eating the oatmeal. I read on a diabetic site that fruit isn't your friend. Now I pass fruit and this little voice in my head says "Fruit is NOT your friend". LOL So maybe my body is saying "We don't need that". I want to keep my carbs down for a while so I won't eat it.
I had my eggs and bacon and thoroughly enjoyed it. I do like saltine crackers with my salad. So I used the EVOO and ACV on the salad and had planned to eat one serving of saltine crackers which is 5, but I ate slowly like WD suggests and I didn't want 5. So instead of 12 grams I only had 7.2 grams. I had the milk and counted it. Doc didn't seem to think you have to count carbs in veggies, but I wasn't sure if that was just in the salad so I counted carbs in the veggies I cooked. I also counted the carbs in my cheese I put on my eggs this morning. All totaled, I've 43.7 grams carbs so far today.
I plan to either have a stirfy tonight or just some nuts to take the Metformin. It all depends on how hungry I am. I want to stop eating by 8 pm. You know, although I don't care to do IE as some understand it, I do like the idea of eating the foods that you like. I plan to do that even with the low carbing. I don't care for a whole lot of fat either. Curious what your book says. I'm also not found of "High Protein" either. I guess if I'm eating like I did when I was thin which is more like what I want to do, I wouldn't eat loads of any specific food group.
I certainly did like what I read on an article about Intermittent Fasting on Diabetes Daily site. According, you don't even have to change how you eat when you do IF. However, I'm not too sure about that. She had been doing it for 1 yr and ate only 2 large meals a day. One at 1 pm and another at 8 pm. I looked up the IE online and it gave 5 ways to do it. Leangains I think is the name was the one who said women need to fast 14 hrs and mean 16. I think it said you could eat 3 meals and I think it mentioned snacks. I think it would work beautifully with low carb eatng. I can see how you could eat any plan any way you want to eat it such as 1, 2 or 3 meals w/wo snacks as long as you eat them within 8 to 10 hours. I usually end up doing 9 hrs. I'll just go with what feels comfortable stopping sometime at the end of 8 and sometimes 9 or 10.
I gave almost all my carby foods to DGS. I did keep a few that I can work into my plan if I want sometime. But I don't plan to use them very often.
I am motivated right now so going with it while I feel this way. LOL
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,385
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Height: 5'2
p.a., enjoy your dinner with the family and the grandchildren tomorrow. Do you have anything special planned with them?
We are supposed to have our grandson overnight Friday into Saturday. His father went deer hunting and if he doesn't get a deer today he wants to go out again early Saturday morning and his wife is going out of town. We haven't heard from him yet so I guess he didn't get a deer.
Yesterday turned out be really great. FBS is down a bit this morning and weight up a bit not much, but that happens with me when I first lower my carbs. I'm going to try to check FBS at the same time everyday for a while. Won't be able to do that on Sat and Sun, but I can throughout the week.
I think my weight goes up a bit when I start Low Carbing because of the salt. I eat the salt to try to keep from having the leg cramps in the middle of the night.
I ended up with 61 carbs. It think instead of limiting them to 90, I am going to limit them to 75. I just trust low carb doctors and dieticians. My doctor is still thinking ADA way of you have to have 6 to 11 servings of 15 grams each a day for energy. Low carbers know better. I don't think I will set my goal to eat 75 carbs, but just know that if I do that it is okay. I don't want to get in that mind set again that "I have to eat that many carbs" but I don't want the mind set that I cannot have that many either. I just know how my mind works.
Hope everyone has a great day.
Last edited by pattygirl63; 12-02-2015 at 10:39 AM.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,385
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
I don't actually count carbs, Trish. I have no idea how many I have per day unless I enter my food in my online tracker to see where I stand. I just know that starchy carbs will spike my BG. I can eat a small amount as long as it's with my meal, and I can eat vegetables, which are carbs, so I am eating carbs. I was discussing Glimiperide with someone else who is on it and I think part of my problem is I don't always take it before I start eating. Sometimes I am halfway through my meal before I remember it and by that time the fast acting carbs have already started to work on my blood sugar. I will have to keep that in mind in the future.
DGS shared this on FB today. It was a little different article though. This one was more thorough. So I guess it is good that I've decided to go back on it. Thank God I'm not having any problems since I cut back on the starchy carbs. Ii don't really mind if that was the problem. LOL
I also read an article on yahoo today that starchy carbs cause back pain from inflammation. So I'm thinking that may be what is causing my joint pain too. Although I did find some info on line that it could be caused by dairy such as milk and cheese. At this point I would much rather it be the bread and potatoes rather than the milk and cheese. LOL Time will tell.
Carol Sue I really don't plan to make it a habit to count the carbs, however, since the doc said that that is what caused my high trigylcerides, I just want to get an idea of how much I am eating. If I continue as I'm doing right now, I can still eat what I want in moderation and still keep the carbs much lower than 75 grams most of the time.
Doing it with a form of IE by some of the WD guidelines, I'm finding that I don't need to want as many carb grams as I used to think I wanted. It really helps me that WD teaches that Any food is okay as long as you wait for hunger to be your Green light to eat and use the full feeling to stop eating as your Red light. It makes the way I eat so simple.
Last edited by pattygirl63; 12-02-2015 at 05:08 PM.
