[Wannabehealthy]

Mission2Lose, I am wondering about the Insulin Resistance Diet. Is that the book by Cheryle Hart? I have that right now from the library. I like it to a point. It has more carbs than I think I should eat, but it has pointers on how to have protein at every meal to lower the insulin response.

Congratulations on the new baby! Boy or girl? Is you other child a boy or girl?

Trish, I looked at my records and back in 2011 my A1c was 5.7, and that's when I was exercising regularly. My diet wasn't much different from now an my weight was the same. So the exercise is what made the difference.

I have decided that I am going back to including milk and yogurt and also beans. The beans give me needed fiber and milk seems to reduce my hunger and gives me a full feeling. The Insulin Resistance Diet says that beans and dairy, although they have carbs, are handled differently by the body and do not increase insulin response. Frequest testing will tell. People just don't seem to be able to agree on that, so I am going to go with those who do. And I'm not going to go out of my way to increase fat, nor will I purposely look for foods labeled low fat. I have been reading about all the different programs and from what I've read, South Beach includes both dairy and beans, and does not push for a high fat diet. I don't know any more than that about it, and can't say I'm actually following it, but there are those who have and have lost and maintained. At the end of the day, I'm going to do what works best for my blood sugar and heart disease, hoping that it will also promote weight loss.

I agree that the key to sharing your home with an adult child or grandchild has a lot to do with their sense of responsibility and respect for you, realizing that opening your home to them is not their right, but a favor to them. I also hope that Mad has a good experience. This could be a good bonding time for them.

Shannon, my grandson got $5 each from the tooth fairy for his 2 front teeth! Yikes! Things sure have changed. I guess in the end, that money will be spent for video games that they would normally be buying for him. My DIL said she was in the kitchen having dry heaves during the tooth removal process!

[Mission2Lose]

Wannabehealthy, yes, it is the Cheryle Hart book. But I don't follow anything religiously.

Now I have 2 girls, a full-time job, plus commuting...just don't know how I will be able to have the time/energy to exercise once maternity leave ends!!

[Wannabehealthy]

I had a hard time fitting exercise in with a full time job. Maybe you can start by getting some walking in during lunch or breaks.

I like gathering tips and ideas from the various books I read then try to put them together to form a plan that works for me.

[fatmad]

Hi gang:

have my blood work in my hot little hands. and the A1C is..... (drumroll please)..... 5.7

Hurray very good, I am totally please. It had gotten up to 6.0 and I didn't want that borderline diagnosis that could put me from glucose intolerant/prediabetic into diabetic range.
fasting bs was 5.2 (mmol/L) (93.6 to our USA friends) and that is also fine.

most other stuff was fine with a few odd things.
high potassium, (I don't take any supplements for this and don't eat the big potassium containing foods, and have no other indicators of kidney issues) and came to to normal on a redraw
ALT is also high, though not as high on the redraw. This is a liver enzyme, and I have no symptoms of liver disease so thats a mystery. but since I am well we will leave it alone for now.

lipid profile is excellent.
Thyroid stuff is fine too, so I can't blame my weight on that at all.

And in other good news, my hepatitis B immunization is finally working. (I have been immunized and had boosters many times, and it didn't take for the first 2 times, and since I work in a high risk field, I do want to be immune!).


All in all a fine picture of post-menopausal health.

Thanks for all the support about DD moving home. those who have been here a while may remember how difficult the teen years were with her. But she was and is a kind loving person, with many great qualities, and we get along well these days. So am hopeful that things will be good. Having a time limit is also helpful, I hope it will keep me from getting frustrated when things don't go smoothly.

I stayed on plan pretty much today, except DH brought home a huge bag of potato chips. Potatoes are nightshade veggies I am not to eat, but I have had about 12 chips. I am going to be before I cave and binge eat the rest of the bag.

good night all.

[Shannonsnail]

Great A1c Fatmad!! I have had issues in the past with elevated AST and ALT from taking too much Advil.

[Shannonsnail]

Welcome Mission2Lose!!

Carol Sue and Trish - So, I am a frugal tooth fairy and gave 2 $1 coins for the tooth :-) that is what the second tooth (currently very wiggly) will get as well. The tooth fairy also left fairy dust (glitter) on the note Olivia had me write. As she gets older the rate may go up, especially for the molars, but at not even 5 yrs old she has no sense of money so I see no reason to set the bar high this early on! Binwanted to give $1 but DH argued for $2, lol!

Trish I had cut out beans last year but this year I am trying a new to me bean called chana dahl. I had to get it from an Asian market but have heard some Walmarts carry it. It was $2.99 for a bag that I cooked up as a soup in the crock and got 6 or 7 two cup servings that I froze. It is a lentil that has even lower glycemic impact than the regular lentil. I had absolutely no spike after eating chana dahl soup.

[Wannabehealthy]

I read the South Beach Diet book and it is the way I'm already eating, so I don't understand my inability to lose weight. With not eating between meals I have been letting myself feel hunger, so I think I have improved my portions. The only thing I'm thinking is that I could keep cutting back at dinner, gradually, until I start to see a drop. I still have a tendancy to eat a second helping when there's leftovers, but not nearly as much as I used to. That's the only place I think needs work and still be eating healthy.

Shannon, according to what I've been reading, beans and dairy have little to no insulin response, but caffeine does! So I can eat my beans and drink my milk, but not my coffee! LOL I could easily do decaf, but DH makes a big pot of regular coffee every morning so I just drink what's there. I don't notice a difference between regular and decaf. It's just convenience.

I think the $5 my grandson got for his teeth was excessive, but my step-son probably figured he was going to spend it on something they would be buying anyway. His behavior in preschool was so terrible that they would buy him a game for his Wii anytime he got successive green lights. Either it worked or he just matured, because he gets almost all green lights in kindergarten. I sure hope he grows up to have a really good paying job because they sure are indulging him now IMO.

Mad, congratulations on the great lab results!! I always thought you were diabetic. Didn't realize it was just pre-diabetes. Lucky you! Do you take any Metformin? Some do, some don't.

[pattygirl63]

A quick flyby as it is late. I didn't realize I hadn't been here in a few days.

Mad Congratulation on the low A1c. You are doing really well.

I'm OP. Been eating only 3 meals, but bs was a little high to night ( never check at bedtime) so I had 2 scrambled eggs to see if it helps me have a good fbs tomorrow.

I'll try to check in here in the morning.

[seandaniken]

A healthy diet is extremely important for anyone, but it’s especially important for diabetics. Many foods we consume are turned into glucose (sugar), which the body uses for energy during the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. When the pancreas fails to produce the hormone insulin, blood sugar cannot get into the body’s cells.

[Wannabehealthy]

Seandaniken, welcome to 3Fatchicks and the Diabetes thread. Do you have diabetes? You are correct...people who have type 1 diabetes do not produce enough insulin and therefore have to inject insulin to survive. However, for type 2, the pancreas does produce insulin, but they have insulin resistance and even though there is insulin present, it is unable to send the glucose to the cells for energy, and the glucose builds up in the blood. Type1 and Type 2 are different, and need to be treated differently. They do both require a healthy diet.

Trish, my blood sugar has been holding steady for the past few days without any extreme highs and lows. Yesterday I ate some snacks in the evening. Even though they were healthy snacks, they prevented the bedtime egg from helping, and my blood sugar was higher this morning than it should have been. I always check at bedtime so I can see if and how much it goes up or down overnight. The dawn phenomenon has me intrigued. I'm determined to find a way to prevent it. If I work all day to keep my blood sugar low, I see no reason why it should spike overnight. They say a bedtime snack helps, but for me, nothing has ever helped except the egg. And it doesn't always work.

[pattygirl63]

Seandaniken I agree that eating healthy is key to Type 1 and 2 diabetes. Like Carol Sue says, we have learned that there is a difference in the way the 2 function. Type 1 does not produce insulin however Type 2 produces the insulin but our cells resist the insulin. We have been learning which foods cause our bs to rise and which do not.

Carol Sue My FBS has been a little higher the past few days which isn't great since I get an A1c test Wednesday. Hopefully the weeks I had of really good readings will out weigh the bad readings. Also I know that the Relion meters read a little higher and the fact it has been so cold that my hands are never really warm when I take the morning readings that maybe my higher readings may not be accurate and they are as high as it seems. I've also been out of my Gluccocil for the past few weeks too. I didn't realize I was almost out so will have to watch that more.

I have also come to realize that while I may be able to eat higher GL starchy carbs even healthy ones 1 or 2 days a week, I don't I can eat them everyday as it makes it too easy for me to eat more than I should be. The only thing I plan to not have very often is bread.

I decided today to go back to the low carb breakfasts, however, I did eat 1 small wedge of Cantaloupe. I will check bs before lunch time. I also have planned a lowcarb lunch. DH will have a bacon, tomato sandwich and I will have my BLT on a bed of lettuce and finish off my lunch with a couple of strawberries cut up in a small serving of yogurt for a dessert effect. Not sure if I will have a glass of milk with the lunch or save it for dinner. I made a pitcher of tea to start drinking as I can drink it without sweetner. I do think at my age calcium is extremely important. I plan to have an egg salad around 8ish since the egg does seem to lower the morning fbs.

I am so impressed with Mad's quick response to her low carb eating and especially impressed with what I've learned from the group at the low carb site and the Magic Foods book. I just don't think I can apply the info in the dummies low carb book on a daily basis as it doesn't work for me, because it too easy to eat more starchy carbs than my body can handle. It gets me into trouble. Saying that, I do think the GL we learned about in the Magic Foods book along with what we learned from Dr. Fungs about giving our bodies at least 5 hrs to work with the insulin is great info to live by. I like the idea that this causes our liver to function properly and teaches our cells how to accept the insulin again.

Shannon I appreciate you sharing the recipes you are enjoying. I am so bad about moving a pile of books etc from one place to another. My plan for spring cleaning is to ditch a lot of things and declutter my house.

[pattygirl63]

I decided to eat my meals 5 hrs apart today and test before each meal. My fbs was high at 163, 5 hrs after breakfast and before lunch it was 116. Ate my last meal 5 hrs after lunch and checked and bs reading was 118. I'm going to do this for a while and just see how this affects my bs readings. I find this interesting and just wanted to share my experience.

[fatmad]

Hi everyone, happy weekend to you!

Shannon, I must ask, does chana dahl look like chickpeas? I like to eat Chana Masala, which is a chick pea curry in the Masala style, not too hot or spicy, but richly flavoured. It makes sense that chick peas are low glycemic. I also eat them in hummus mostly. Yum indeed.

Thanks for all the lab kudos, and yes I do take metformin.
I took some of the research links from the diabetes 101 website into my doc several years ago (5 I think) and we reviewed it, and concluded that metformin is also promising at preventing glucose intolerance from becoming full blown diabetes, and that I was more likely to live a long life with all my toes if I started on it. I was also quite symptomatic (thirsty/peeing a lot etc) and with a strong family history, we both figured it was just a matter of time before she would have me on it anyway.
I take 500 mg twice a day.
There is really no downside to metformin if you can manage the side effects. The gastro effects went away after a month for me, and the leg pain is fine with a good B complex supplement. (B12 and folic acid seem to be important)

We have all of DD stuff in our house now. She has long work shifts (restaurant server, high end steak house) this weekend, so we are not moving fast to reorganize, but will do that throughout the week. She is still very stressed from the whole housing disaster, and I think, a little embarrassed that the parents had to rescue her, but it will all settle with time and hugs I hope.

Making plans for the spring, as things are warming up a little this week and daytime temps may actually go about freezing this week. Very excited about that.
Have a lovely weekend friends.

[Wannabehealthy]

Mad, I had nausea after I started Metformin but I attributed it to my heart surgery, not the Metformin. Now that I know the side effects, I realize it might have been the Metformin. The nausea caused weight loss until it subsided in a couple months. I wish it would have continued so I would have lost more weight.

I also love hummus. I like to make my own, separate it into 2 containers and make 2 different flavors, usually roasted red pepper and garlic. My 6 year old grandson loves chick peas because they make him toot! LOL At least he's getting his fiber. He calls them chicken peas.

Trish, I test before meals to make sure my blood sugar is not high before I eat. They say type 1s should test before meals so they know how much insulin to inject and type2s should test after meals to see if they spiked. But I figure that I already know what makes me spike and if I do spike, there's not much I can do about it because I have no insulin to bring it back down.

I am wavering between trying South Beach or 5:2. I already eat similar to SB and am not losing, so my only option there would be to cut back more on portions. 5:2 would be a completely different plan than I have ever tried before. I don't like the idea of only eating 500 cals on the 2 days, but I could do it if I only ate salads and cooked veggies. I have to do something to get the scale to move. I know I won't have a whoosh with either plan because I have not been eating carbs. That rapid weight loss in the beginning usually comes from cutting carbs. Right now I'm dying for a slice of sourdough bread. I'm pretending I don't know there's some in the freezer. LOL

[Shannonsnail]

Fatmad chick peas, if I am thinking correctly, are white and round like a ball. The chana dahl are yellow and round but flat just like a regular green or brown lentil. I am not a huge bean fan so I can't say "oh I just love them" but with my plan I am supposed to eat at least 5 meals a week that are a little higher in carbs to keep metabolism reved and for energy so they work!

Well, ladies, I lost another 1.2 lbs this week so I think I am somewhere around 9 lbs lost. My FBS was 129 this morning!!! It was 115 a couple days ago. Not sure exactly what is going on with that but I'm not too concerned. I do need to get an appt here in my new town and have labs done. I was due at Christmas but cancelled so I am overdue. I am dreading having to argue with a new doctor about my cholesterol and not taking statins. LOL!

Well, we made it through the week. DH got back late last night. I am proud that I only cheated once all week and I did not eat any "kid food" I made for Olivia this week. Usually it's just easier to eat whatever I make for her....when DH is gone I don't cook as much of the same meals I make when he is gone bc it wastes meat. I had alot of big salads, made wings a couple times, soups.