Monthly Archives: May 2012

Diabetes Blog Week: Day 3– One Thing to Improve.

May 16, 2012 – 7:23 am


 
It’s day 3 of Diabetes Blog Week. Notice how I included the image above, just like the rest of you who thought of it two days ago?

Yesterday was all about something that I thought I do well for my diabetes. It was a prime example of how easy it is to talk about myself, and the things I (think I) do well. Today, the challenge is to find something to improve upon in my daily walk with the big D.

Today is hard. Not just because I have to write about an area where I come up short. But because I have to admit it. In a public forum. Where everyone can read it. So I guess the first admission has to be:

I’m not perfect.

And the second admission (and the subject of my post today) is:

I. Eat. Too. Many. Carbs.

I mentioned in a post last week that I have two vices left: Alcohol and Salt.

I like to think that I have an “I can take it or leave it” attitude with regard to alcohol. Prior to my diabetes diagnosis (age 28), I drank too much at times. Now… far, far less. But the salty stuff? I just can’t resist. Chips, pretzels, Cheez-its, Goldfish, Chex mix, I don’t care. Love them all. And if there’s rice or potatoes at lunch or dinner? I’m in. I am so in.

And I hate myself for it. Hate, hate, hate. I’m using the word Hate here. I hate what it’s done to my waistline for the last 21 years. I hate how, especially when I’m training, I can feel the weight of every last gram of last night’s carbohydrates sitting in my stomach like a giant rock. I hate that I’ve tried the low-carb diet thing about 100 times, until I have a dangerous low (always about 6-7 days after starting), then I bail on the whole idea instead of sucking it up and adjusting.

That is absolutely unlike me.

I’ve dealt with a lot of crap over the years. People afraid of me or judging me. Recovering from lows. Dealing with highs, and apathy, and diabetes burnout. Changes in jobs, careers, homes, cities. I’ve persevered. I really have handled many obstacles. Even when things are (or seem) extremely difficult, I’ve been able to endure.

So why can’t I get over the addiction to salty carbs? I don’t need to quit cold turkey, just cut back some. And deal with the lows, and work through the issues instead of just going back to the same old routine out of fear. Or out of comfort. It’s a big, big obstacle for me. My kryptonite. Don’t know how I’m going to deal with this. But I’ve got to find a way to overcome. To persevere. To endure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Disclaimer
I have no medical training. If you consider anything written here as medical, legal, financial, or any other kind of advice, you’re out of your mind. Please speak to a learned professional before making any changes that might affect your health. Any of the original content found on this site is my property and should not be reproduced, copied, or otherwise used without the author’s expressed written consent.

By StephenS | Posted in Diabetes Blog Week | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Diabetes Blog Week: Day 2– One Great Thing.

May 15, 2012 – 6:35 am

It’s Diabetes Blog Week, Day 2. Today, we’re all talking about one great thing that we do well.

I tend to be one of those people who rarely sees anything that I do as great. I like to think (hope?) that I have the two great qualities all PWDs seem to have: empathy and perseverance. But if I have those qualities, and all PWDs have these qualities, does this make me great? Am I off topic here? Let me re-focus and get back to the subject at hand.

If there’s one thing that I seem to do well, it’s been staying as physically tough as I can be. Now, I’ve never been a stellar athlete. But I love to compete. And even though I’ll never make the Olympics, especially at my age, I’m still able to perform at a level that’s better than average. While that’s helped me complete my first two triathlons last year at age 49, and while I’m training for a two day 150 mile ride in four weeks, that still doesn’t have much to do with diabetes.

But maybe the physical training has made me physically tough when it comes to my diabetes. I know it’s helped me with my A1cs in the last few years (in order the last year and a half: 7.1, 7.0, 6.7, 6.5, 6.4, 6.3). And I don’t really know for sure, but I get the feeling that it’s helped me recover from energy-sucking lows too. Those kind of lows you get in the middle of the day, when all you want to do after is find a sunny spot, curl up, and sleep for about 5 hours, but you pick yourself up and say “Let’s do that important thing now”. It’s either training or pride that keeps me going in those moments. I hope it’s the former.

And the thing is, I like how it makes me feel too. I totally buy into the endorphin rush. I like that I’m doing more athletically than most people my age. And now that I’m starting to read about some of my fellow d-bloggers who have experienced depression in one form or another as a part of their diabetic life, I’m feeling like I really need those feel-goods any way I can get them.

So I know I’m totally tooting my own horn here, but I’m digging the fact that my diabetic life also includes an athletic component. And I’m going to keep it that way as long as I can.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Disclaimer
I have no medical training. If you consider anything written here as medical, legal, financial, or any other kind of advice, you’re out of your mind. Please speak to a licensed professional before making any changes that might affect your health. Any of the original content found on this site is my property and should not be reproduced, copied, or otherwise used without the author’s expressed written consent.

By StephenS | Posted in Diabetes Blog Week | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (2)

Diabetes Blog Week: Day 1– I’d like Wildcards for $200.00, Alex.

May 14, 2012 – 7:23 am

Welcome to Diabetes Blog Week! This is the third year of Diabetes Blog Week, started by Karen over at Bitter~Sweet Diabetes. All of the D bloggers are given a subject to write about each day for a week, and after we publish that day’s installment, we go back and link our posts on her site. That way, a lot of posts on a single subject (from around 150 bloggers) are accessible in one forum. If there’s a subject that’s too difficult to write about, we can choose from one of two Wildcard ideas. Today’s subject: Find a Friend. Write about a D-Blog that you like reading, but people may not know about.

Well, that’s a difficult subject for me. I’ve only known of the DOC (and all of you great bloggers) for around six or seven months. There are bloggers that I read all the time. But every week I come across one or two that I haven’t seen before. And they all have something useful, inspiring, or interesting to say to me. I think it’s fair to say that for me, every blog is still new, every post a hidden gem. That makes it difficult to pick a favorite. Especially a favorite that all of you don’t already know about.

So I’d like to go off the board and choose the Something Good to Eat Wildcard as my post today!

Grilled Pork Salad

This is just an awesome salad, not only because it’s (mostly) healthy, but also because it includes grilled pork. Of course, if you keep Kosher, you’re Muslim, vegetarian, vegan, etc., substitute something that works for you. You can probably still use this marinade:

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 teaspoon salt (or seasoning salt, if you like)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 or 2 tablespoons of fresh sage, chopped (or use dried sage, what do I care?)
2 or 3 tablespoons of good mustard (your choice here; I used the spicy brown stuff)

Mix all of these ingredients together in a bowl. Then, get 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of pork. I used a pork tenderloin from the local Trader Joe’s. Then, slice or dice it how you want. You want to make strips? Go ahead. Slice it like steak? Okay. I cut it up into bite sized portions (that’s how it was going to go onto the plate anyway). Then dump it all into the marinade for about 30 minutes. It will look like this:

While the pork is swimming around in all that mustardy-sagey goodness, get to work on the salad. Everybody has their own way to do a salad, so I’m not going to give a recipe. Okay, I am, but it’s really more of a description of the salad I made. So that’s not a recipe, is it?

1 head of Romaine lettuce
1/2 of a Radicchio
1 cup of broccoli slaw (about a handful or two)
1/2 cup of chopped carrots
1 or 2 large green onions (also known as scallions; but I grew up eating these things, and they were never called scallions then, so I can’t bring myself to call them that now)
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
1/2 cup of dried cranberries

Mix it all together in a bowl, and set it aside. When you’re finished grilling the pork (USDA recommends that the pork be cooked to an internal temperature of 145 degrees), let it rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing, if you have to do that. As stated above, I had mine in bite-sized portions already, and cooked them in one of those cage-like things people grill their vegetables in.

By now, all you have to do is place the salad on the plate and dot it with the pork. Finish it off with Feta cheese and some tomato, if you like. The Great Spousal Unit made me include the crutons you see in the picture (“There are NOT enough carbs for you in this meal!”).
 
Enjoy!
 
This recipe makes at least 4 servings, unless you’re really hungry. Estimated carb count per serving you see above: 26
 
Disclosure: Carbohydrate counts are estimates only. Check with a registered dietician to find out what a healthy carb count is for you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Disclaimer
I have no medical training. If you consider anything written here as medical, legal, financial, or any other kind of advice, you’re out of your mind. Please speak to a licensed professional before making any changes that might affect your health. Any of the original content found on this site is my property and should not be reproduced, copied, or otherwise used without the author’s expressed written consent.

By StephenS | Posted in Diabetes Blog Week, Recipes! | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Random Glucose.

May 10, 2012 – 7:14 am

Without much else to write about today, I thought I would pass along a few random glucose readings from the past 24 hours:

7:15 am: 68
Not surprising considering the fact that I was in the 6:00 spin class, which kicks my butt every single time. Which is why I keep going back. The temp basal that I set before going in: 0.750 units for 1 hour (normal basal at this time: 1.15 units per hour). Had a couple of homemade turkey sausage biscuits for breakfast.

12:05 pm: 96
Not much to say, except that the commute was busy but normal, and I was in meetings all morning long. Had a peanut butter sandwich and some pretzels for lunch (I know, too many carbs).

6:50 pm: 129
Knew I had too many pretzels at lunch. I figure I have two vices left: alcohol and salt. Mostly, it’s the salt that gets me to overdo the carbs. Dinner was leftover rotisserie chicken, cheese, and tomato on crackers.

10:07 pm: 119
Snacked on a chewy, yummy cereal bar after this. So good.

Not a bad day from a BG perspective… but there’s a little room for improvement, I think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Disclaimer
I have no medical training. If you consider anything written here as medical, legal, financial, or any other kind of advice, you’re out of your mind. Please speak to a learned professional before making any changes that might affect your health. Any of the original content found on this site is my property and should not be reproduced, copied, or otherwise used without the author’s expressed written consent.

By StephenS | Posted in Random Glucose | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Like these links.

May 8, 2012 – 10:05 pm

Happy Wednesday! Are you among the many in the diabetes online community sharing your story with the rest of us? Have you thought about sharing your story with the rest of us?

Then this is just for you:

 
Karen at Bitter-Sweet is doing all of the hard work on this project, and all she asks is that you write something every day for a week. And then share it. Are you in?
 

Scott S at Scott’s Web Log has another timely post, asking us to help kill a bill in congress that would allow companies to charge for access to taxpayer-funded research:
http://blog.sstrumello.com/2012/05/kill-this-bill-in-congress-research.html
 

And finally, a couple of links from a couple of AWESOME cyclists! These two keep me inspired to continue my training for next month:
I’m So PUMPED!
Canadian D-gal
 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Disclaimer
I have no medical training. If you consider anything written here as medical, legal, financial, or any other kind of advice, you’re out of your mind. Please speak to a learned professional before making any changes that might affect your health. Any of the original content found on this site is my property and should not be reproduced, copied, or otherwise used without the author’s expressed written consent.

By StephenS | Posted in Like these links | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)