January 1, 2016, I weighed 229.4 and I weighed 221.4 this morning. My FBS was 162 and was 202 this morning. My BP was 128/72 and 121/65. So there was some improvement although not what it should have been.
Hi ladies I haven't dropped off the face of the earth just busy with babysitting grands and Xmas. Tomorrow is my last day to babysit then we wait for the new baby....
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 13,426
S/C/G: 217/176/142
Height: 5'2
Hi p.a.. Always good to see you here. How many grands will this be with the new baby? When is the baby due? Do they know the gender? I am so behind on getting ready for Christmas. No tree yet, and I don't know for sure that we're going to do a tree. DH isn't feeling real great lately and I don't want to get the tree up and back down when he's feeling this way. It's just a tree. Christmas is in the heart, not the decorations. And in the food! LOL The food will definately be here.
Trish, that's good that you showed a loss for the year. Every pound counts. I quit keeping track a while back and I wish I didn't. I had very good records back then.
p.a. Congratulations on the new baby. Good to hear from you.
Carol Sue Hope your Hubby starts feeling better soon. We don't have room in our new house for a big tree. We have 2 small ones that we use. One has artificial fruit for the ornaments attached to the tree. DH bought it the year before we married. You can't find any more like it and when the fiberoptic lights quit working, we decided to put blinking lights and a star on it because it is so unusual. We always put it in a living room on a table so we can see it all the time. The other tree is smaller and only has fiberoptic lights that we used in his Mother's room when she was living. We used it in the upstairs window in SC. It is perfect for the only window on the front of our house.
I woke up and prayed about my eating habits. I told the Lord that I want to change the way I eat, but I just don't seem to be able to do it on my own. I told Him that I just seem to pig out at night and suddenly I thought to myself "You call it pig out, but the Bible calls it gluttony". I prayed, "Lord, I don't want to be a glutton. Please help me." There was a time that I had a little book of scriptures that a woman prayed to help her lose weight. I suddenly remembered the scripture (I think it is either a Psalm or Proverb) that says, "I eat to live, I do not live to eat". I really believe the Lord has given me that scripture. I've repeated it a lot today asking the Lord to help me learn to eat to live rather than eat to live.
So far this morning, it has helped me. My sister and Daddy came by and got me and we went to West, TX to the Czech store we love to go to. I had a cup of coffee and a small can of tomato juice before I left. We had a sausage on a stick for breakfast with water. So far, I haven't had anything else to eat. Lunch will be salad, chicken and not sure what veggie I will add with it. I plan for dinner to be more of a LC snack rather than a meal.
We have a doctors appointment tomorrow afternoon. Not sure how it is going to go. The only good thing is that my weight will be down some what from our last visit. We haven't had A1c done since we left SC, but I am not sure it is going to be all that good. I just hope it isn't too bad. Of course, I always fast until after the appointment because I have to be weighed. If she thinks it will be okay for me to do the Trulicity shots, I am going to try it.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 13,426
S/C/G: 217/176/142
Height: 5'2
Trish, I have always fasted for blood work, even though you don't have to fast for A1c. I do it anyway. We usually go out for breakfast after blood work. LOL Makes it more fun.
I was having trouble with my 3FC. All of a sudden the font got really tiny and I could figure out how to fix it. I tried logging out and back in, but then I got myself locked out from too many tries with password. Finally I got in. I don't know what I was doing wrong...my password was right, I guess my fingers were hitting the wrong keys. Then I remembered how to increase the font...hold down Ctrl and hit the + key, or - key if you want it smaller. I don't know how it got so small. A monitor helped me last time that happened.
I hope you do well at your Dr appt. I don't know what's wrong with DH. He gets these really bad pains at night. Only at night. His chest, shoulders, and wrists hurt, and his blood pressure goes up really high. He will not go to the doctor. Today he is trying only eating fruit. I made some cookies and he ate a couple of them. He started getting chest pains and checked his BP and the machine went crazy. Went up to 300 then said ERR. He checked later and it was OK. I'm wondering if the chest pains are indigestion, gerd, or something similar. He has had a heart attack years ago. The pain he explains doesn't sound like typical heart attack pain. It doesn't matter. He won't go to the doctor. I guess if he gets bad enough I will call an ambulance. I remember my one friend was having a similar problem. I told her to try some Rolaids and she said she didn't have any and didn't buy any. Finally she went to the ER and they checked her and told her it was Gerd, and put her on Protonix. She admitted that she should have listened to me. I just don't understand why DH's wrists would hurt. He sits up for a while and eventually starts to feel better. I think when you lie down it brings the stomach acid up and that's why your chest hurts. I do hope it's not his heart, but he's a big boy and has to make his own decisions. I know he's scared of doctors and hospitals, but sometimes you need them. The fact that he got the pain after eating the cookies makes it sound like Gerd.
I eat approximately 80 carbs a day, unfortunately I cannot eat less carbs because it kicks my gut into gastroparisis. I've tried it and got very, very ill
We'll see how it goes. The doc said it'll take some time for the Actos to build up in my system. So far I've noticed a bit higher blood sugars, but not too off the chain and I've been quite mindful of how I've been eating. Prior to this, I was able to be a bit more lax. So... we'll see.
Morning snowing like crazy here...since last night and continuing on to this night..ugh
This will be number 3... it's a boy and due dec 23rd.
Today is the finish up the last minute things to do...like wrap!! Good day to do it. I have some sf hot chocolate and a few low carb snacks...it's days like this that I want to snack all day.
Jesikabeth some people consider 80 carbs lower carb,,,I think whatever works for you is great.
Carol jeez,,,that's scary about your dh,,,stubborn men!
Trish I'd like to see your fruit tree...sounds pretty cool!
Our doctor's appointment went very well. I had lost 6 lbs and my A1c was up to 7.2 from 6.9. DH A1c was down from 7.4 to 6.9. I laughed and told her we had changed places. They do things much different here than they did in S.C. They do the A1c from the fasting blood work. They don't do a finger stick to get the reading. I'm thinking that might be more accurate. She had never heard of them doing it that way. My sister says her doctor has done it both ways. This makes me wonder how accurate things were in SC because as she said last time, my fasting blood work was always higher than the finger stick.
We discussed the Trulicity. I told her that it makes sense when your fbs is up the day after pigging out, but it is very discouraging to do everything right and it goes up for no apparent reason and that I need to see my weight AND my fbs coming down at the same time. I told her right now if the weight goes down the fbs goes up and vice versa. I felt that having the Trulicity would be more encouraging to me. She gave me 2 samples for today and next week which I took the first one this evening and will do the other one next Thursday morning. Although I do have to take it the same day each week, I don't have to take them at the same time of day each week. She called a prescription in for me.
She told me what side effects to watch for and I'm hoping since my DS has no problems with it that I won't either. I am hoping that the only side effect that I will have is losing weight because it will keep me from "being hungry". We talked about my dieting. She also gave me 2 booklets of samples diets to help me change my eating habits. One appears to be lowfat low calorie and the other one is low carb low calorie although not Atkins low, but they are more like the old ADA exchange diet and I actually like those. I loved WW when they used that type of plan. It made things so easy for me back then. I read all the info and decide which way I want to go. She offered to set me up with a dietician. I had a friend years ago who was a dietician and I have a 3rd cousin who lives in another city who is one, but I have never talked to one since I was diagnosed. I think it will be helpful to have someone help guide me to get a diet routine going for me.
She wanted to change DH diabetic meds so he could be on 2 pills instead of 3, but decided that for the next 3 months to leave things as they are because his in under control and they don't want to rock the boat so to speak. I explained to her how he came so close to death through the years and how great he is doing now. I wanted her to know him better when it comes to his health.
DS and I have perms tomorrow so we are going spend a lot of time at the beauty shop. Our appointment is later than usual so we are going to meet Daddy for breakfast at 9:30. We try to keep him active and it does help us to do the same. Then I have to run by Walmart and get out prescriptions the doctor called in today. We are all getting together Saturday to go eat fish and it is going to be so cold here Sunday that I don't plan to go any where. Next week won't be quite so busy.
I can't believe it is so close to Christmas. We will go out for DH birthday dinner Christmas eve and then Sunday morning go up to my DS son's for a Vegan/Vegetarian Christmas dinner. We will stay a couple of hours then head home before the traffic gets bad. Then maybe life will slow down. Although I have to say I enjoy having more of a life since we moved here.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 13,426
S/C/G: 217/176/142
Height: 5'2
Jessica Beth I agree that 80 carbs is not a lot per day. More than Atkins, but still pretty low.
Trish, I will look forward to hearing how the Trulicity works for you. I am still determined to do this without more meds, but don't know how I will do. I'm hoping to get back into my exercising regularly after Christmas. It's only a week away and I have so much to do. Most things are last minute. I need to write down a schedule to make sure I get everything done in time. We give cash to our kids for Christmas so shopping and wrapping is one thing I don't have to worry about. I realize that many people think that giving cash is cold and thoughtless, but I don't know what they want anymore, and some things cost more than we can afford. So if I give them cash, it can go toward the item they want. I got my Fitbit using gift cards I saved up over the year. Luckily they were to a store that carried Fitbit, and they would not have been able to spend that much on me at one time. I think they appreciate the cash. They usually give me a giftcard to Kohls or give us restaurant gift cards. They know we eat out a lot. We have a giftcard from Outback from 2 years ago that we still haven't used. We are not big on Outback.
p.a. I feel bad for any child born so close to Christmas. DH was born on the 28th and he said he missed out on having a big fuss made over his birthday because it was so close to Christmas. His other brothers always got a separate celebration. Now, at 73, he doesn't even want anyone to acknowledge his birthdays. LOL He will be 74 this year. He keeps saying "If I make it." I told him if he ruins Christmas I will never speak to him again. LOL
I'm going to like the results of the Trulicity. I told the doctor when I left that I really felt encouraged. My FBS yesterday morning was 168 and this morning it was 159. So nice to see the numbers coming down again. Yesterday was a long and busy day so I went without eating for 6 hrs. I checked my bs before eating and it was 103. I haven't seen that number in a long time and the great thing is that I didn't have any of the jitters etc that goes with bs going down so fast. Besides being too busy to eat, I really was not hungry. I ate because I needed to eat something after going so long without eating and I didn't know how the medicine would affect me if I did go too long.
Carol Sue This morning I used one of the meals examples in the book for breakfast. It was like the one you said they gave you in the hospital. I had 1/2 a serving of oatmeal because I've never been able to eat the whole serving (too much for me), a cup of fruit (strawberries and 1/4 banana), 4 oz soy milk, 7 pecans instead of walnuts, a slice of whole-grain toast with a tsp of Smart Balance, 1 egg and coffee w/Splenda. I wasn't too full like I though I would be. Instead, I felt comfortably satisfied. I'm using the book she gave me from the ADA called Carb counting and meal planning. There is a website that I can go to called Cornerstones4Care and register and get more help with my planning, but I'm not sure I will have to. I don't even know if I need a dietician although if they set up an appointment for me, I will go and talk to her.
The plan I used today was from the 1800 calorie sample plan. If I can lose weight and lower my FBS with this plan I will use it. I will start with it and adjust to lower calories as needed. The book has calorie/carb plan for 1200 calories up to 2200 calories which I'm sure those higher numbers are for men. She also gave me 1500 calorie sample and I just may adjust it all to do the 1500 calories. From what I read in one of the kindle books I read that probably would be a good place to start since my goal is to get down to 150 lbs.
Meeting family in an hour to eat fried fish. DH and I have already decided to half a meal since we have heard they serve a lot of food and then we still may have to bring some home in a doggie bag. LOL
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 13,426
S/C/G: 217/176/142
Height: 5'2
That's great that the Trulicity is working so well for you! I remember I lost very well on the diet from the hospital, and it was said to be 1800 calories with 45 gm of carb at each meal and a 15gm snack at bedtime. I said it was said to be 1800 calories but I never actually checked the calories count of what I was eating, and I believe I ate lower than 45 gm of carb at my meals. Anytime there was a carby choice on the menu, such as pasta, I would switch to one of the alternate meals we were allowed to choose, such as baked fish which is very low calorie. And when I came home, I didn't have any pasta at all. I don't think you will eat all the calories either because I know that you have a hard time getting all the calories in. You should do fine with that. I feel good when I make sure that everything I eat has nutritional value.
I bought a head of cauliflower this week and I am going to try making cauliflower rice. I know it's not going to taste like rice and won't have the same texture, but I love cauliflower so I think I will like it. I could never get used to using zucchini for noodles, but then I was never crazy about zucchini.
Carol Sue DH eats a bag of cauliflower every night, so I don't eat cauliflower because I won't cook it at other meals. However, it probably wouldn't bother him. How is your DH feelng?
I had a good day. I actually started my diet this morning, but I had my "last supper" binging last night; plus I didn't go to bed until 3 am. I stayed up watching movies with DH since we new we were not going any where today. It got down to 21 degrees and 23 mile winds last night so we just worked at staying warm. So I only got 6 hrs of sleep. When I went to bed, I laughed and told DH that I was going to go take a nap because I knew I would not get my 7 to 8 hrs sleep. All those thing together, my FBS was only 173 and I'm convinced it would have been 200 or more if I hadn't had the Trulicity injection this week. Weight was up almost 5 lbs.
I went on Cornerstones4Care.com and did some reading on diabetes. They recommend 150 minutes of exercise over 3 days each week. I get that if I'm doing 30 minutes 5 days a week. So I am good on that one. Plus I bought another set of 2 lb weights because we haven't found the ones that are packed somewhere and I will be doing those as well. With my stretching, weights and recumbent bike, I'm actually getting about 45 minutes exercising 5 days a week.
One thing I read somewhere was an interesting statement (not a quote) Starchy foods are not the only carbohydrates; fruits and vegetables are carbs too. I know that, but I always thing of foods like pasta, potatoes and desserts as carbohydrates. I also found it interesting that unlike WWSP, they remind you that while some vegetables are freebies, fruit is natural sugar so we shouldn't over eat those. That might just be for us but not sure about that.
We aren't meeting for breakfast tomorrow. It is very cold here getting down to 26 tonight and Daddy is on Lasix to get the fluid/swelling down which has drained his energy. He has an appointment to see his doctor tomorrow afternoon so we think he needs to stay home in the morning. Not sure if one or both of us girls are going with him to his appointment. He says no but we will see. DH and I will get out for a while tomorrow to go get cauliflower as he will be out of it after tomorrow. I really do not want to eat out like we usually do when shopping.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 13,426
S/C/G: 217/176/142
Height: 5'2
Trish, I like cauliflower more than DH, so your DH and I would be fighting over the cauliflower. LOL DH can take it or leave it. I googled and saw that the cauliflower rice can be frozen in portions and then taken out and prepared when you want it. That's what I want to do.
Although veggies are carbs, they are slow acting carbs. If I eat just protein and veggies my blood sugar stays very low, but it's when the starchy carbs are included that my blood sugar goes up, even in small amounts. DR Fuhrman says that the benefits from fiber and phytoneutients in starchy veggies like carrots far outweighs the carbs. I love carrots and I have no problem if I eat them in small quantities. Fruit contains fructose which the body handles differently than glucose. If you google, you will see that there is some contraversy as to how much fructose we should consume. I don't think WW takes a lot of this into consideration because it is not geared for diabetics, but I tweaked WW toward low carb and it worked for me. When I was on the diet from the hospital, veggies and fruits were counted as a carb choice, so that goes along with what you are learning.
The physiologist at cardiac rehab said that 150 min of exercise per week is necessary for health, but for weight loss we should aim for 300 min. I personally think that any activity you are able to accomplish is better than sitting on the couch.
I think if you add a bit of carb to your diet and your blood sugar and weight is good it keeps you from craving things you try to omit from your diet. I think you will do fine with this plan and the lower blood sugar is a plus!
Carol Sue I don't like eating too much starchy carbs although I really do not want to completely cut them out of my plan. I don't know that I need a dietician as the diet plan she gave me is pretty clear and then reading on the Cornerstones4Care site has loads of info. I like knowing why etc.
I've decided to keep counting carbs and calories on MFP and reset my goal of carbs to 80 grams which is 20% of calories. I think that is a fair amount. I've also set my fat at 35% and protein 45%. I will see how that works for now. My exercise is about 45 minutes a day with bike and weights and stretching. However, I am more active than I use to be. The plan they gave me says 150 minutes a week and then be more active. So I think by the time you add all the other things I'm doing, maybe I'm getting a good amount of exercise now.
Monday has always been my WI day so I am officially on what I saw a group on a site called "Low carb my way". LOL My weight was up 2 lbs from last week and my FBS was 163 and I'm sure it would have all been better if I had not eaten so much starchy carbs the last 3 days. I'm not upset with that or myself because I feel I needed to experiment with how the Trulicity works for me with the carby foods. While I know I can have them, I also know that I either will not lose weight or I will lose slower than I want or even gain depending on how I eat. I also know that I do not like how a lot of carbs makes me feel. Thus the ratios of the carb, protein and fat I set up on MFP. I will also go to the 1500 calorie count as well. I need to change that on MFP too. I had changed it to 1600.
I have figured out how to eat a taquito at home and slash about 100 calories off the amount of calories on Whataburger's using substitute eggs, and either turkey sausage or turkey bacon and half a slice of 2% American cheese. Less calories and it tastes just as good. I will be working to lower the calorie/carbs on a lot of things we like to eat.
Carol Sue I read about Diabetic Burn Out when you just get tired of dealing with the diabetes and want to give up. I believe that is what you were experiencing recently. I know I have experienced that a few times myself especially when I felt confused about the diabetes and felt like nothing was really working. Plus I felt like my doctor in SC wasn't really trying to help me even when I told him that I felt like just giving up. I always said that God moved us to SC to save DH life when he had prostate cancer. I honestly believe He has brought me back to TX so I could find this doctor who is really willing to work with me. But we have NOT given up and we WILL NOT GIVE UP. WE STILL ARE GOING TO DO THIS DEAR FRIEND. We just have to put on our big girl pants and get to it. LOL
I need to check on Daddy and I can do my bike riding while I talk to him especially if he is in a talking mood. I want to get the exercise done before it gets any later.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 13,426
S/C/G: 217/176/142
Height: 5'2
Trish I had to google to see what a taquito is. I figured it was something Mexican from the name, but I've never had it. I really like the quisidillas I've been making with my quisidilla maker. I use chicken that I have leftover and cheese, pepper jack and monterrey jack. A couple times I saw some flour tortillas called carb control that were lower carb, but now I can only find the 8 inch and I need 10 inch for my quisadilla maker. I will keep looking. It's something I really like for lunch and I think it's healthy the way I made them.
I made my cauliflower rice this afternoon and froze it in 3//4 cup servings. I left some out and made some cauliflower fried rice. I found a recipe online and went according to that, but adjusted the ingredients to make a smaller portion. It was pretty good and I couldn't tell it was cauliflower instead of rice. If I had some real fried rice right next to it I might have been able to tell the difference. I didn't have any soy sauce so that would have made a big improvement in the taste, plus I could probably experiment with spices. I felt so guilty eating all that "rice" but had to remind myself that it was OK because it was cauliflower. I like when I find substitutes that I like. Some are just off.
My burn out recently was more about weight loss than diabetes. I know I have to control my diabetes to avoid serious damage to my body. I sometimes get tired of worrying about my weight when I feel as though I am eating healthy, but still not losing.
My friend has lost over 30 lbs and she says she is eating 80 gms of carb per day. She doesn't eat much meat, and does eat a lot of processed foods. It's working for her weight loss, but I don't know how good it is for her health.
I'm leaving now for Walmart, for what I hope is the last trip to the store before Christmas. LOL
