Diabetes Doesn't Define You

Well, I'm almost finished with a 90 day Paleo Challenge from Lurong Living http://www.lurongliving.com/challenge/

I just got some blood work done and wanted to share the results with everyone. The past 3 months I've almost exclusivly eaten paleo, so my hA1C numbers will reflect that.

5.6!!  Cool, yeah?

Additionally my Total Cholesterol was 177 , my HDL was 78, my LDL was 89 and my triglycerides were 48.

I would like to get my hA1C to 5.0. I will post again in a few months and hopefully be there.

Thats all for now..

Im no stranger to the Paleo Diet, as I have been living the Paleo lifestyle for about 3 years now. It has done wonders to my diabetes management.

While eating paleo I'm able to get amazing blood sugar control and very frequently have readings on my CGM that look like this--

I've just started a "Paleo Challenge" with my CrossFit Gym (CrossFit Dynamix in Astoria, Queens, NYC).  The challenge is being put together by Lurong Living ( www.lurongliving.com/challenge ) ,  a supplement company. Check out their website, I won't go into their supplement right now, but I take it and may blog about it later.  The challenge seems very well put together. They will track body measurements, dietary cheats, and CrossFit WOD (Workout of the Day) performance. I put together a team from my gym with 22 athletes. We are all competing in the challenge individually and as a team.

During these 9 weeks I'm trying to get to a new personal best for my Deadlift. My goal is 400 pounds. Just today I hit 335 for a few reps. Pretty good for a guy that only weights 150 pounds, right?

You may be asking, what is the Paleo Diet?

The Paleo Diet is a diet/lifestyle that seeks to mimic the way our ancestors ate. It is believed by anthropologists and biologists that we've lived as modern genetic humans for almost 3 millions years. During 99.9% of that time we have been hunter & gatherers.  Eating lean meats, fish, veggies, fruit, seeds and nuts. For only a blink of an eye we've had grains, refined sugars and processed foods.  Most people who try the paleo diet LOVE IT, get hooked on it, and for diabetics, find amazing blood sugar control.  It is actually an easy lifestyle to adhere to.  

So basically:

• Eat meat, fish, veggies, nuts, seeds, and some fruit.
• Do not eat, grains (all breads, pastas, rice, corn... but you already knew this stuff was bad for you and your blood sugars, right?), legumes (like peanuts, soy... isn't everyone allergic to this stuff anyway?), dairy, processed foods, or any sugar. 

That seems pretty easy, straight forward and healthy, right?

A Paleo food pyramid might look like this--

This challenge will go on for 9 weeks. While I am not a stranger to Paleo, I'm going to take this opportunity to be very disciplined with my diet. I have an A1C test this week... perfect timing!  I plan to get another one done at the end of the challenge. I'm hoping to get in the 4's    I hope to inspire some other diabetics out there to give the Paleo Diet a try!

Stayed tuned, I will continuoally blog about my progress. 

Just thinking about admitting to this you guys makes my stomach hurt and I’ve got a cold sweat. Please don’t be judgmental, guys. Okay. Umm…well. I guess I’ll just come out and say it.

I love egg nog.

Okay, it’s not just a love. It’s an absolute addiction. It’s life-destroying, really. And I think it’s about time that I get some help. I know that admitting you have a problem is the first step toward recovery, so here I go. I am a Nogver (that’s what we call Egg Nog lovers). I started with just a little splash in my coffee for flavor, but I’m at a point now where I just drink it straight. Andi if I have a stash in the fridge at my house, I can’t think of anything else all day.

This time of year is dreadful for a Nogver. Right now, I cannot walk into a grocery store or Starbucks without buying some nog. It’s impossible. This is a very serious problem for a guy that has been putting so much energy into controlling his blood glucose levels. And my problem is only complicated by what I think is a new popularity of flavored nogs (see image above).

There are over 30g of carbs in a small 1 cup serving of normal nog. And the flavored versions have even more. The first nog I bought from my dealer (Fry’s Marketplace) was a vanilla chai flavored half-gallon and was absolutely delicious. Oh jeeeez! This weekend I’ll be buying a half-gallon for use in my coffee only. I’ve promised myself that I would not do any straight nog shots.

I am very aware that my addiction is bad for me. It’s not that I can’t eat/drink anything I want…the problem is that as a Nogver I have no control over the amount of nog I drink. The problem is the way this substance controls my life and makes me steal (small sips of nog) from my family. Wish me luck, folks. It’s going to be a tough December.

Do you guys have any addictions that are rooted in holiday treats (don’t get me started on Marshmallow Peeps!)

“Happy” Holidays!

This is my blood glucose for the past 12 hours. No spikes and almost entirely under 100. And I've eaten twice during this time -chicken and salad for dinner, eggs with onions and peppers and bacon for breakfast.

Pretty good, yeah?

Hi guys.  I was on TuDiabetes.org and came across a great forum on "Motivation?" or lack there of.  Terry Keelan had a great response to someone that was trying to stay or get motivated with their diabetes.  Thank you Terry.

Terry just won the TuDiabetes 2009 Active Lifestyle Award!  See who won here 

Terry has a saying on his about me page I wanted to share as well.  He says "I'm not always IN control, I just feel in control. Usually. And I know how to take control if things start to spin wildly away. "  What a great goal everyone should have.

So here is his response to this forum post. 

 "my blood sugar always seems to be high, and my A1C is just awful. When I do check my blood sugar very often, and eat descent foods my blood sugar is manageable. I know the answer to all my problems is to just get on top of things. However; I just pig out and never test my blood sugar. I think I just need to be motivated to check it, and keep better track of what i eat. can anybody help me? give me some motiviation?"

Terry's response:

It's hard to stay MOTIVATED all the time. Instead of thinking of caring for yourself as requiring constant, grinding, uplifting MOTIVATION!! take things in small steps and look for 'opportunities to do a good deed.' Waiting around for MOTIVATION!! is a bad form of laziness. Instead, look for "efficiency" - the GOOD form of laziness.

For instance, do you 'just pig out'? Look at when and where you pig out. If you only visit restaurants that serve healthy food you don't have to worry about being 'motivated' to buy good stuff to eat - that's all that's there. If you only buy healthy food at the grocery store, you don't have to be 'motivated' to avoid unhealthy stuff at home. That's substituting 'opportunity' for 'MOTIVATION!!" Eat too much at a sitting? Eat standing up. (And never in the car.) Drink a lot of disgusting stuff? Carry a water bottle instead. Small things that create opportunity to do good for yourself and don't require motivation. Does it require motivation to buy a bottle of water? Well, you only have to buy it once. After that you can just refill it.

Never test your blood sugar? NEVER? Set a small goal for yourself to test before each meal and to test in pairs. By testing 'in pairs' I mean create a compulsion to match each pre-meal test with a post-meal test. First focus on testing before each meal. Remind yourself that you have to match that test with one more in order to balance the universe. Remember when you walked home as a kid and you had to touch each part of a fence in a certain order or something terrible would happen? Same idea. If you make it a compulsion you don't have to be MOTIVATED!! (Unless you consider preventing the destruction of the world as we know it a sort of motivation.)

Take small steps. Do one thing at a time. Soon it won't require any more MOTIVATION to test your blood than it does to tie your shoe or take a shower. Just don't try to become "the World's Most Motivated Diabetic" all at once. That requires MOTIVATION and a ton of work and will probably lead to total and complete failure because NONE of us are motivated all the time. Instead, take the lazy man's way and slowly add things to your routine so that they become second nature and require zero motivation - you just do them.

So Forget MOTIVATION

Remember OPPORTUNITY

From now on, every chance is a second chance.

Good luck,

Terry

Oh yes World Diabetes Day is here!!! November 14th to be exact. It’s not really a holiday I celebrate in with cake and candles. Nor do I celebrate it with my family, over a nice Italian dinner, or with conversation and opening gifts. Too bad, I would really like that.

But I did do something different last year and I thought I would stick to it each year on World Diabetes Day. I am going to give up something for myself… some would say Dietetically Benefit Me!

Last year I gave up Bagels. Yup… I did! That’s right. And not just you’re ordinary Bagels, but them all. I felt the 120 crabs of exploding glucose rushing into my fragile insulin producing body was a good thing to limit. It was. Not to mention how to Bolus correctly for Bagels, they all are so different and hard to carb count correctly.

It was hard to do and I slipped up a few times this year, but nothing close to my weekly or biweekly habit. And I am honestly proud of it. I am not a bagel eater anymore.

So THIS year… a true challenge… I am going to give up eating FRENCH FRIES!!! Ahhh!!!!

They are my next on my list! And I don’t know how I feel about it. I bet it was just like how I felt about giving up Bagels last year. I think I can do this. I know I will slip up and eat some yummy Fries… heck… I am probably going to eat fries tonight as fond farewell, I think I will.

Fries are not something I eat everyday but I do eat French Fries… gosh just writing about French Fries makes me want some, lol… So tonight, I will start my decline of the fry bandwagon so at this time next year I can honestly say…. I’m not a ______ ______ eater anymore.  I’ll fill in the blanks when it’s true.

     Wow, I feel like a champ. That’s right. Last weekend I defeated my wife Chrissi in the “Sugar Free Taste Challenge!” It was a close battle but there could be only one winner!

     We had a great time making the video. It was a ton of fun trying figure out which drinks had the sugar content in them. You guys should try it. Keep in mind of the high amount of carbs in the drinks that are not sugar free. That can be tricky. My wife and I challenge you! It’s not as easy as you think. Especially since we don’t drink those beverages often. Like never drinking coffee before and having some ask you, “drink these two different coffees and tell me which one is from Starbucks.” Anyways my wife and I had a great time making that video. The bloopers that we did not put in made us laugh too. I had trouble saying “Culprits” at the end of the video a few times. Must have been all the sugar I drank.

     The idea for this video came a few weeks ago. It actually evolved from a suggestion by Joe a.k.a. “zentalklaugh” on youtube. He sent me some ideas for the Making Sense of Diabetes Video Contest www.TuDiabetes.com was having.

     Joe suggested “For taste you could go for a film noir approach. My mouth is dry, too dry. Checks sugar. It's 300. Need to take insulin. Then he decides to drink something. He gets a diet soda from Sonic (in my mind the worst offenders on giving people sugar sodas when they order diet). He then has to deduce the difference between sugar and diet soda based on taste. The thick sweetness of high fructose corn syrup versus the thinness of diet and the brief taste of sodium. Then he has the hunger. He took too much insulin, time to get something to eat. And then the same type of experience.”

   I loved the idea of getting the wrong ordered soda. It has happened to me several times. I can tell right away that this is not the diet soda I ordered. So from there I came up with the “Taste Challenge” to see if I could tell the difference between sugar and sugar free drinks and treats.

I can see me and my wife doing a few more of these “Sugar Free Taste Challenges.”

If you do not use Twitter, I suggest you give it a try!  It's a great way to connect with others in the online D world.  Everyday I am able to connect with folks all over the world who deal with the D.  Great friendships have been built from these connections.  Yesterday there was a theme in the D community on Twitter which revolved around cupcakes.  The end result gave me a much needed smile yesterday so I wanted to share the tweets with you guys!

suzanne_una RT @diabetesalic:@Diabetic_Iz_Me @Ninjabetic- CUPCAKE? Who said cupcake?Who has a cupcake? COUNT ME IN!

Diabetic_Iz_Me @diabetesalic@suzanne_una i want a cupcake sooooooo bad

diabetesalic @Diabetic_Iz_Me@suzanne_una ME 2. i've been good as of late. Dreaming of a vanilla cupcake w/ vanilla coconutcream icing.

suzanne_una @Diabetic_Iz_Me@diabetesalic Me too! I have been dreaming about it all afternoon! I almost went to the bakery LOL

ElizabethArnold @Diabetic_Iz_Me@suzanne_una @diabetesalic Too late, Kelly, the damage is already done (she says, stuffing her face with packaged icing.)

ElizabethArnold @diabetesalic Wouldn't that be awesome, a bunch of d-peeps pigging out at a bakery? We pwn you, diabetes!

Now the conversation gets a little weird and silly, as it is prone to do on Twitter...

notsostilllifes @suzanne_una There's a cupcake store near here that sells "Diabetic cupcakes".It always makes me think they need insulin.Poor things.

suzanne_una @notsostilllifes those poor cupcakes, having to take shots and do BG tests LOL!

notsostilllifes @suzanne_una who would ever EAT the poor little things??

notsostilllifes @suzanne_una It is quite an image. Not exactly what they were going for I'm sure.

suzanne_una @notsostilllifesI'm sure that was not the image they were going for! Makes me want to photoshop a pic of a cupcake who is diabetic

notsostilllifes @suzanne_una DO IT!

So off to Google I go to do a search for a cupcake that I can turn into a diabetic cupcake using photoshop.  I have this image in my head of a scrumptious looking cupcake with test strips next to it and an insulin syringe sticking into the side of it. All while the cupcake looks shocked it isgetting a shot.  I am not a super artistic person but ideas like this get my creative juices flowing!  As is often the case with Google searches, it takes you a couple of tries before you find that perfect search string.  I was searching under "cartoon cupcakes with faces" and here is one of the images Google brought up:

It's Kerri from Six Until Me! Kerri is one of my favorite bloggers in the D world. A diabetic eating a cupcake!  Wow, thanks Google, that sure met my search criteria (NOT).  So what's a girl to do when this kind of funny silliness pops into a Google search? Why, Tweet a picture out to the D people who have been discussing cupcakes all afternoon!

@notsostilllifes while looking for model to turn into a diabetic cupcake, google came up w this photo http://twitpic.com/jnhs9 @sixuntilme

Remember, you can be 1happydiabetic too, it's all about your attitude!

Suzanne