Have you been diagnosed with Diabetes of Prediabetes? Join us here to chat and share ideas!

Trish, thank you for posting the recipes. I don't buy almond or coconut flour but I am interested in trying the flax muffin. Maybe I'll try it tomorrow.

We are supposed to get a snow storm starting around 10 AM tomorrow and continuing until 4AM Monday.....4-6 inches. We usually get less than they predict. We don't have to go out anywhere. I bought ground meat and cabbage and I'm going to make some stuffed cabbage rolls. I am really hungry for them and they are a good meal for a cold snowy day. Having the oven on helps heat the house. I usually make a big roaster full and share them but this time I'm only making a smaller amount. I don't want to get started and get too tired and wear myself out trying to finish.

Our weather is supposed to get colder this week. We have to go to get our taxes done on Tuesday, and I have to get blood work done on Wednesday. If it's bad, I will wait and go on Thursday. Then I have to make an appointment for the PCP and also the cardiologist. I'm ready for warmer weather already!

Trish, that muffin in a minute recipe using flax meal can also be done using almond meal or flour. I made a double batch yesterday. The recipe can be doubled but not tripled well. I baked it in a mini loaf pan for 2:45 and it was great. I melt the butter in the loaf pan and pour most of it into the muffin mix, so the pan is well greased and the load just falls out when I turn it out. Then I slice it into four longer bits and toast it to eat. I put almond butter on it.
I also made a Keto almond double chocolate cookie recipe. We have friends over for coffee on Saturdays almost every week, and I like to serve something. We had toast and tea, and then a cookie each. I was happy with how they turned out. I made the cookies a little thicker than called for in the recipe, but I think this was better, they were still a little chewy that way. I used dark chocolate chips. Not very sweet either.

Carol< thanks for starting the new thread. Spring is just around the corner. When I go to Germany at the end of the month, looks like things will be quite a bit warmer there. FOr the next two weeks there will be a high over 10 C every day, and not going below freezing at night there, and likely warmer at the end of the month. I look forward to spring wear. Maybe going through those clothes Friday was a good, I will have them in mind when I am packing. DH and I are planning to go listen to some live music this afternoon. We get too tired to out much in the evenings lately, and there is an afternoon event going on, so I want to enjoy that. He will likely eat at the BBq place that is hosting, but I doubt there will be anything I can safely eat there, so will stick to soda water.

Hope you both have a good day, and a Sunday hello to our other friends who lurk. Usually Pipsicle gives us an update around now, so hope you are doing well too friend!

I slept a good 8 hrs last night and I think I only got up to go potty once that I can remember. My weight is back down to 217.6 and FBG was 113. That was with 2 meals and a snack within 8 hr eating window. I think I will stay with this way of eating until I hit a stall then I will cut back to 2 meals etc as needed.
My bs reading is usually at least 10 pts lower when I check it before our main meal. I was surprised that it was 1 pt higher, but then I've had wild numbers all over the place for years so maybe that is good. I don't know. FBG still moving down a little so as long as I am staying down I think that would be good because it is balancing out and hopefully that is a good thing. I had the flax muffin for breakfast so didn't have it today to see if it affected my before dinner reading or if my bs is just settling down. I hope it is settling down.

Carol Sue Thanks for starting the new thread. I hope the weather will line up with our Spring title. LOL
Your ground meat and cabbage sounds good, but I can't eat the cabbage any more and I burned DH out on it years ago. Girl you hunker down and stay warm through this snow bought you are having again.

fatmad Thanks for the heads up on the being able to use the almond or coconut flout in place of the flax. I wondered about that. I saw where some people put frozen berries in theirs but I haven't had any fruit in 2 weeks and don't want to do anything to mess me up.

I noticed in Dr. Fung's/Dr. DiNicolantonio's book that they mentioned eating potatoes that have been cooked and cooled down. I saw it in passing and haven't had time to go back and look to see what he says about that. I'm not sure he recommends Keto as much as he does IF. I'm cooking a roast in my new oven and will have carrots with it, but not sure about having the little potatoes I usually have with it. You know us southern girls think they have to be cooked with our roast. LOL I would put cauliflower in it in place of the potatoes, but hate to feed them to DH during the day although he still eats it at night, but a bag now lasts about 4 or 5 days instead of just 1 or 2.

I better get busy. I tried to get to my Bible study lesson yesterday and didn't get far because my niece who hold the class at her house was texting me forever as she was going to go shopping for keto friendly foods since she is starting today or tomorrow. She has found some app that is helping her know what to eat and how to keep up with the micro counts. She will do very well as she is probably in her late 20s or early 30s. I'm glad she is learning this now while she is young.

Everybody have a blessed Sunday.

Carol- I am so glad to hear you are ok and thanks for starting the new thread.

Trish and Mad- Glad to hear it sounds like you are staying OP and thanks for the shout-outs.


Getting my health on a better path is really important to me. I have committed to myself to post at least once a week and usually it is Sunday. I check things during the week but Sunday is my "official" recording day. It is an attempt to avoid the natural fluctuations that can occur from daily readings. Last week, I made many good choices. Previously (three or so months ago), it would have resulted in a one pound weight loss. This week it was a 2.5 pound gain. Sigh! I also feel very tired this morning. My BP is better this week but BS is up. It is tough to stay the course when the things that are easy to measure (weight, BP, BS, how clothes fit) show little to no improvement. Alternatively, they improve briefly then slide back. I really want to get everything (weight, BP, BS) down a little bit so I can go to the doctor without the threat of big, bad, permanent diagnoses on my health record. I am thinking about changing my official recording day. Usually the worst days for my diet are Fridays and Saturdays, so using Sundays is the worst case day.


Last week, I did 16:8 IF for at least 4 days (one day was really a 22 hour fast). That seems pretty routine for me these days. Some people may be able to lose weight with doing just IF and not changing their eating in other ways, however, that is not me. IF alone does not seem to help me lose weight. Moving forward, I will stay the course as best I can. For me that means little things like getting sunshine and exercise each day, no drinking sugared soda, and going to bed on time to bigger things like limiting my calories and taking medications/supplements. The fatigue I have is really limiting to me and I have a set of supplements I want to start taking to address it. However, I am nervous because often supplements give me headaches, dizziness, or insomnia. Some of them I'd rather get from food but I have great difficultly in adding things I don't really like to my diet.


I appreciate you ladies listening to me. In real life, I don't feel like I have anyone to talk to about this stuff. As one of the pillars to getting on a better path, I have taken stock of the relationships I have. I have come to realize people I think of as my close friends never accept my social invitations. The few invitations they extend to me are for larger parties they are having. Ultimately, I think it is because my husband is friends with their significant others and I am just a tag along. Couple in the fatigue and trust issues, friendship is an uphill road for me.


Things must be improving somehow. One thing that has been consistently improved is a score from a site where I play games to maintain or improve my cognitive function.


Here's to a good week for everyone and hope everyone stays warm and safe as the winter weather wears itself out!

I know that Spring is still a couple weeks away on the calendar, but once we get to 500 posts they prefer we start a new thread. It sure doesn't look like spring outside. It started snowing around 1PM, coming down very fine. It's supposed to get heavier in a couple hours and even though we are not supposed to get a lot, probably not more than 4 inches, they are recommending that people stay off the roads if possible to make it easier for them to treat them. It will be easier to do that since it's Sunday. They want to get the roads in good condition for rush hour traffic in the morning.

The cabbage rolls will be done around 3:30 for dinner, and we had halushki for lunch. (Cabbage and noodles.) I love cooked cabbage and I'm glad it doesn't cause me problems. I ended up with 22 cabbage rolls from 1 head of cabbage and one package of meat. When I make them in the big roasting pan I usually get 60-70 of them and step-daughter comes and takes some home. Then we eat them for a couple days. My MIL used to make them every Sunday, along with a lot of other Slovak dishes. I make them every few months.

My pain from my procedure is subsiding. I have a very big, dark bruise on the top of my thigh and that's what hurts. It is hardest when trying to get up out of a chair or out of bed. Yesterday I took a narcotic pain pill, that's how badly it hurt, but it's ok when I'm standing or walking. Today I was standing and moving around cooking and I think that loosened it up and it helping it heal.

I am trying to decide what to do about my diet. It really bothers me that I had another blockage in less than a year in the same artery. I don't know what to do. The doctors always used to say "low fat" but everything you hear now goes against that. LC/Keto claims that saturated fat does NOT block arteries. But what does? I think I eat a relatively healthy diet, but something isn't right here. I don't think I could ever go completely plant based but I'm considering cutting way back on animal protein and eating more vegetables. I feel that sugar and carbs contribute, but I don't eat a lot of carbs, at least not starchy carbs. There's conflicting information everywhere. I don't know who to believe, but apparently what I've been doing is not working. If I make a drastic change, it's going to have DH and I eating on completely different ends of the spectrum. He will NEVER change. A woman who went to cardiac rehab with me ate a vegetarian diet and she still had 5 heart attacks. The heart surgeon who did DH's surgery said that it doesn't matter what you eat or do, it's all about family history.

Today I ran across some information about how well Metformin protects against cancer, and Trish, it included Berberine in the same article. Do you still take that? In both cases, enzymes are activated that kill off cancer cells. It made me think about my friend who refused Metformin for her Diabetes and lowered her A1c with just diet and exercise, but then she ended up with bowel cancer. I wonder if taking the Metformin would have helped her. She is now having swelling in her underarm and I'm concerned about what that could be, maybe something in her lymph nodes. There is a woman on the LC forum who had oral cancer and her doctor has put her on Metformin to help prevent a reoccurance. She is not diabetic. Apparently her doctor thinks there's something to it.

Trish, I'm a northern girl and I always cook carrots and potatoes with my roast. Today I bought a brisket, first one for me. You don't see them around here much. I was looking online for suggestions on how to cook it and saw a few ideas. Some are for bar-b-que but I don't know if DH would eat it that way. Arby's advertises brisket sandwiches and I've always wanted to try one.

Now the snowflakes are getting bigger. I think I'll go make a cup of tea and watch it snow.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, everyone.

EDIT: Here is something I didn't know.

Omega-3 fatty acids that are present in seafood, or supplements that are made from seafood if recommended by your physician, can lower triglycerides by 25-30%. Non-seafood based omega-3 fatty acids found in canola oil, chia seeds, flaxseed, soybeans, and walnuts do not lower triglycerides because they are chemically different from the omega-3 fatty acids in seafood and are not efficiently metabolized in our body.4

Pipsicle Good to hear from you. Figuring out how to make your plan work for you is key to success. The weight seems to come off slow for me too, but I have to believe that if I keep going it will finally drop and continue gowing down. I think it is called being persistent which I don't guess I have been in the past. I'm trying to change that.

Carol Sue Thanks for the info on Omega 3. Wehave always bought our Omega 3 fish oil from Sam's. It is from Alaskan Salmon and since salmon is so good for you I figured it was a good choice. I certainly hope so. Yes, I do still take berberine. I've heard that I can get the same benefits with it that I would get with Metformin. I just ordered it from another company that advertises it is has health benefits for the heart as well.

My roast didn't turn out as good as I had hoped. I don't know why I bought it because it isn't even the kind I usually buy. It looked more like a large steak rather than a roast.

Well, I just typed a lot more and lost it and am too tired to retype it. Not that important so I will just close off for tonight and catch y'all tomorrow. Y'all have a good nights sleep everybody.

Woke up at 3am and couldn't fall back to sleep. I hope I can take a nap today. I feel sleep deprived.

Still getting some very high blood sugar readings. G brings it down but it spikes again. I know the steroids are still in my system because my hand pain has not completely returned. I wish there was another way to deal with this allergy. My weight is up from it too in spite of no carbs. But time will improve it.

Trish my doc cut me back to 1 fish oil.per day because of the new heart drug I'm on. He said it was up to me because it was causing bruising. I think I am going to start eating more salmon. I have been buying little cans at Dollar Tree and they are just right for single serving. I don't trust the quality of the fish oil supplements. I always eat walnuts thinking it was helpful and now I saw that passage that says they are not helpful. I might research that further. I wish I could be healthy without going through all this.

Cabbage rolls turned out great. We ate 12 and have 10 left for today. I bought some lettuce and kale/spinach mix and want to get back to daily salads with nourishing greens.

Snow finally stopped. 3 inches. Hope DH doesn't want to go anywhere today.

Pipsicle I'm sorry you are feeling left out socially. Most.of my friends in recent years were spouses of DH's friends too but were not really people I would choose. We rarely socialize now. I just like to stay home and enjoy time to myself. I keep in touch with my high school friend but we only get together once a year for Christmas.

Weight loss is very slow for me too except for when I was stressing over DH's illness. I am struggling to hold onto that loss and continue on.

Hi all. Like Carol, I have early rising insomnia again too. I felt sleepy, but the house felt too hot to sleep. Came downstairs and the thermometer says its 17 C in the house, which is the usual night setting, so i guess its just me. Too hot again.
Weight is up after a brunch that had lots of home fried potatoes. Also feeling bloated, and constipation still ongoing. I am taking a fibre supplement and lots of fluids, not sure what else to do. The laxative/stool softener I take does help, but I would like to not need such things. I think I still am lacking exercise, which would help.
But not sleeping makes me to tired and "lazy" to exercise much. Vicious circles.

Pipsicle, I too struggle with friendships. I have a lovely friend, but she remarried a couple of years ago, and I don't like her husband much. Its all good when she and I do things, but I have put her off the last couple of times she wanted to do couples things. I talked with DH about it, and he offered to help by keeping the husband busy with other things to talk about. I used to do this with an auntie of mine who dominated all the conversations. I would engage her to show me her gardens or somethings so my Dad could have a little time alone to chat with his brother. It worked a treat. SO I am glad for DH to help. Other than this friend, most of my friendships are very specific. One to walk with, one to have tea with occasionally. This weekend we contacted 4 different couples to come out with us, and no takers. if I wasn't married, i would be alone a LOT.
I jokingly tell DH he has to take care of himself because I don't want to have to look elsewhere if he dies, dating is not something I want to do again, but I think I would struggle without an "everyday" partner to share life with.

Hope everyone has a good day, its very cold here again.

Carol Sue I recently started taking fish oil again but had stopped because it caused me potty issues. I decided that doing low carb that I might should put it back in my diet plan although I wasn't sure I needed it since I drink the BPC. I'm having to stop it because I found a bruise on my arm this morning. I don't remember hitting my arm on anything and realized it might be caused by the fish oil especially after you mentioned it made you bruise. I eat fish 2x a week as recommended any way so I don't think I need it either.

FBS was 127 this morning but not sure why except that I ate nuts with my snack last night. However, I checked it again before lunch at 3ish while still fasting and it was down to 109. Weight was down to 217. I just hope it will stay or go own down some more. DH FBG was 137. He is doing so well.

Studied my Bible study lesson for 2 days to get caught up, and then just as I got it done I got sick at my stomach. Then I got a call from DS about my Daddy being totally confused. Then I called Baby sister to let her know about him and after we talked, I'm not sure we are having the meeting at all.

Baby sister has had a bad week and I have too. Now with me having upset stomach I wasn't sure I was going to make it. Then we got the call about Daddy and I think that was more than we could handle for today. So she is going to ask her DIL to cancel.

I called CHF to give them a heads up on what is happening to Daddy because we go to CHF for his every 2 mo. appointment. DS called the nurses station for him and when BS talked to Daddy he told her he is sitting in the hotel lobby, but the nurses have him out by the nursing station. He told her that he slept in the country last night, but BS told him that he just dreamed that he slept there but assured him that he is safe at the Health facility. He seems to know he isn't thinking right and is afraid they are going to send him to an insane asylum. BS assured him that he is not going any where and that 3 three of us know where he is and we are not going to allow anything to happen to him.

DS DD thinks he has Sun Downing Syndrome. Both DS and BS talked to him, but I haven't been able to get him. His phone may be run down because DS says he doesn't answer her phone either. My name on his phone is Trisha, but he never liked calling me anything but Patricia so he may not know who Trisha is when I call, because he didn't know who DS was talking about when she talked to him about me Saturday calling me Trisha which is what both my sisters have called me all their lives. I know he told one of them that he didn't know that Bill and I had moved back to Waco. He forgot that Bill has been dead 18 yrs and I am married to DH. So we've been experiencing these things on a small scale but it seems to be getting more often. I hope we can get some answers tomorrow. All 3 of us girls will meet him at the CHF office to assure him that we are there for him. They may decide to just admit him to the hospital tomorrow so I'm going to try to take a nap and get a good nights sleep tonight so I be ready to face whatever tomorrow brings.

Y'all have a good evening.

Trish I hope all goes well with your Dad. Praying for all of you.

I take the fish oil because my triglycerides are high. If yours aren't you don't really need it. My doctor told me the bruising isn't a problem but that I could cut back if it bothered me. It doesn't bother me but it bothered DH. LOL

I'm really tired. I only got a very short nap so I'm going to bed early again. If I wake up I will take something to help me go back to sleep.

Early rising insomnia again, have about 4.5 hrs of sleep. My usual remedies are not working: meditating, taking some sleep aid, reading etc. I will try to have a nap later this morning after my eye doc appointment.
Well, its pancake Tuesday, so I am picking the little girls up from school, taking them home, where we will make pancakes and bacon and sausages for supper for them and their parents. I am ticked to think I will be tired for this, I have been looking forward to it all week, since I made the arrangements with their parents. Its a little tradition.
As a kid, I loved pancakes, a meal almost always made by my father. We got them about once a month on Sunday mornings after church, but once a year, this magical night, we got them for supper. It was the BEST. I will likely fast until then, Fasted all day yesterday. I think the weight won't move until I am sleeping better though. Not sure about my next steps, but tonight I plan to take something to help, like benedryl. I have the dentist tomorrow morning, but not until 10 am.

Re Fish oil and bruising: Fish oil, like aspirin and co-enzyme Q10, has a mild "blood thinning" effect. Therefore these should not be mixed except with caution, and you should let your care provide know you are using them. They all are protective for heart problems as we age, and may have a beneficial effect on triglyceride and cholesterol levels. (Evidence not wonderful). But certainly, if you notice bruising while taking them, stop and let your care provider know. DH and I have been taking fish oil for over 20 years, (we don't take aspirin or co-enzyme Q10) and we both have always had excellent cholesterol and triglyceride levels, so we will keep taking it unless problems arise. Our physicians have it on our medication lists.

I am going to try to sleep some more.

Mad I normally stay away from supplements. But the fish oil was prescribed by my cardiologist. He wasn't concerned with the bruising but its my thinking that I would stay at one a day and get the additional from salmon and sardines.

I see my PCP on Friday and I am going to try to get him to take me off the Brilinta. It didn't do its job. I would prefer to go back to Plavix which worked well for me all these years. I can't get an appt with my cardiologist until May unless maybe he has a cancellation. I have a lot I want to discuss with him.

I think my blood sugar is finally back to pre steroid levels. 4 days of readings in the 300 s is going to mess with my a1c. I will have to be extra vigilant to make up the difference. Anytime I have a major issue like this I come back with such strong determination but as time goes by I become lax. I can do this. I know how.

I'm glad you reminded me about the pancakes today.

fatmad I think you are a real blessing to us here. I have always appreciated the info you share with us. That is something I always enjoyed about DH DD. She is a nurse and always kept us up to date on things like that. I didn't know about the blood thinning info on CQ10 and fish oil. The doctor has DH on Eliquis and 4 fish oil a day and he knows he also takes CQ10. Now our doctor in SC had him on only 1 fish oil daily. When we came to TX the previous doctor had him on an expensive prescription of 4 fish oil pills a day and we told this doctor we couldn't afford them so he told DH to take 4 cross the counter ones from Walmart. I don't really understand why he is on so much. Now that we have made some changes in our eating and eat more fat and he drinks one BPC a day he has cut himself back down to 1 fish oil a day. I probably didn't need to take it at all so I've taken it back out of my daily supplements.

I've been reading Dr. Fung's book and although many people do ketogenics diet, I notice he doesn't say you have to eat strict keto. He seems to push more fasting and even that can be as little as 12:12, but of course 8;16 or longer fasting is better. They are just mentioned in his book I also noticed that he especially recommends eating no sugar or white flour. There seems to be info on eating low carb with whole foods even for vegans.

Carol Sue Yesterday I looked up the side effects of Lisinopril that I take. DH has stopped his because of the cough it causes him to have. So I decided I wanted to know more about the side effects. I should never have been given a fluid pill while on this bp med. It is a wonder I didn't have worse problems. Lisinopril by itself can cause all the problems I had taking both of these pills.

Any way, it mentioned a problem that could affect your body when eating high protein while on this medicine. So I can see why they are learning that eating too much protein can be bad for us. I thought of the fact that you like eating mostly veggies but don't want to give up the protein. I don't think it will hurt for you to work out your own plan with just the right amount of protein to go along with your veggies. I personally think that would be a healthy diet. JMO

I also looked up a problem I have some time with a urine odor when I am dieting and learned it is caused by eating greens. I seem to be able to have them in moderation but not a lot of them. Kind of learned some other things I experience and learned that the ACV should eventually heal those things. So I got a lot of info I needed.

I was thinking about changing some things, but changed my mind this morning when my FBS was 107 and weight was down to 215.4. Hopefully I have crossed into a place where the diet and new supplements etc are beginning to work for me. I'm not exercising formally right now, but Dr. Berg says that the fasting is more important that the exercise. He doesn't mean don't exercise, but just stresses the importance of the fasting.

Well, I'm headed out to go get baby sister in a couple of hours and go to CHF to meet DS and Daddy. We hope to be able to talk to someone before he gets there. Not sure we can but are going to try. Daddy has always taken anxiety meds and I think the cardiologist had cut him back on it, but they may have to up it. I just hope we get some answers. Not sure how we are going to handle him if he has Sun Downing Syndrome because he panics when he can't remember something. Another one of those journeys of life. God give us girls the strength and wisdom to get through this one. I'm the oldest and have to be strong for my sisters and my Daddy. Thanks for y'all's prayers and thoughts friends. I appreciate y'all so very much.

Y'all have a great day.

Trish DH was on lisinopril until after his surgery. You have to be careful with salt substitute with that. DH only uses regular table salt. I don't k ow where it stands with sea salt.

We got our taxes done today so that is out of the way. We will.probably go to Walmart after I watch my stories.

Mad my mother served pancakes for dinner often when money was scarce. Never for breakfast though. DH finds it hard to believe we had pancakes for dinner because they always had a meat and potatoes dinner. His dad had a good job so always good food on the table.