Happy New Year - 2018 is officially here.
Now that all the holiday hoopla is over, it is time to once more relegate ourselves to life.
At the beginning of 2017, I made a resolution to lose weight this year. I was just under 250 last January but during the year I was able to find a few more of those pounds I'd lost in 2016. With a little work and a major threat from my doctor, I am now down to 234. My resolution was to lose 15 pounds and by jiminy-jack, I basically did it. Actually I lost almost 25 pounds total but from the beginning of the year, I made my goal.
Unfortunately, it was too little, too late. The doctor decided to put me on insulin and right now we're trying to see just how much insulin I'll need to take daily. They started me at 10 units, upping it every day two more units. I'm currently squeezing 48 units under my skin each day. AND, of course, we haven't hit the "sweet" spot, yet. So I keep upping the ante each day.
On the plus? side - I'm no longer taking all the other diabetic meds that were costing me so much. I was able to stop buying $100+ of monthly meds - we still don't know exactly how much my insulin will cost, but we'll deal with it. OR, as I told my doctor, being on a fixed income, if it is too much, guess I'll die a very sweet guy. LOL.
Here's the truly sad part to this whole scenario.
Dieting and being a diabetic. I can only eat certain things and carbs are a definite NO-NO. Do you realize how much carbs are in foods? Okay, the foods we like - potatoes, rice, bread, and the list goes on. If it isn't a carb, then the sugar is too much. Cherries will basically bomb my sugar spike to kingdom come. I love cherries. Fresh fruit - I have to be so careful.
Basically, if it is green or white (excluding potatoes and rice) - I can eat it. That means, I can have all I want of lettuces, broccoli, beans, onions, cauliflower, kale, sauerkraut... you see what I mean.
The other day I had 5 - count them - FIVE itty-bitty little tater tots with some chicken strips. What harm could five little nuggets do? Uh, my sugar spiked up to 397... uh, that was 3 hours after eating them. I can only imagine what the number was 1 or 2 hours earlier.
I can eat protein - that's meat - and almost as much of it as I want. I've learned to make meatballs that are basically almost carb free. Instead of breadcrumbs, I use shredded summer squash. Don't turn up your nose, it is really quite tasty.
I also found a recipe for baked fish that makes them almost as crunchy as deep-fried but, oh, so much healthier. Imagine my surprise when I tried it on onion rings. My wife now looks forward to my Friday night fish - she loves, LOVES the onion rings. All of it baked.
It is a good thing I enjoy sauerkraut, too. Sausage (kielbasa) or pork chops with sauerkraut, green pepper, onions, mushrooms. YUM.
Chinese stir fry is a pretty safe bet, too. Of course, no rice allowed - too many carbs. I did try some Chinese noodles but I can do without, if necessary. Protein and veggies - how that be wrong?
Now, another sad item. We did a lot of harvesting in the garden and I made a lot of stuff to fill the freezer with some quick meals. What kind of things, you ask? Stuffed Cabbage Rolls. Egg Rolls. Jambalaya. Stuffed Green Pepper Casserole. Tater-tot Casserole. Did you notice? A lot of rice and/or potato dishes... or a need to deep fry. All of those are no-no for me.
I will continue on my diet and I will get my diabetes under control. The doctor did offer me a carrot on a stick - since I can stand to lose 100 pounds and still be at a safe weight, I might be able to come off the insulin, depending on how my body reacts to the weight loss.
Sure, it's a long shot, but at least the carrot is hanging there in front of me.
Wouldn't it be nice if I could lose possibly 50 pounds this year? Like I said last year, that is probably a blue-sky wish. Reality. Another 20, maybe 30 pounds. After all, I didn't gain all this weight overnight; I'm not going to lose it overnight.
AND, if anyone has some great recipes for a dieting diabetic who can't eat eggs or egg-products, like pasta and such, please share with me. It takes so much time to search the internet. LOL.
Until next I ramble on...
