Exercise - Are you doing it?

Exercise has always lately been easy for me, but I haven't had success losing weight.  Until now.  I am finally moving the scale.  Guess what it is?  Moving faster, for longer every day.  (Well 5 days a week.)  I walked/ran 100 miles in 12 days.  That is so close to 10 miles a day.  That has been the turning point.  Now I am constantly trying to see how far, how long, and how fast I can go.  My legs and arms are screaming at the end of my first 60-80 minute work out- every day.  And Every day, I know that I will go a second time for another 60 min.

It's hard work.  But you know what's harder?  Carrying 30-40 extra pounds and knowing I am that much closer to diabetes.  So I'm learning to enjoy one hard thing, to avoid dealing with another hard thing.

What are you doing to reach your goals?  How are you avoiding diabetes, heart disease and other weight related illnesses?

Back Again

I took a break last week.  It was a rough week, and blogging just wasn't in the cards for me.  But I am back this week. My sugar levels were pretty good yesterday and this morning, so even though the end of day snack was a bit high in sugar, it was still alright.  Here is yesterday's food log.

I tried the vanilla Attain for the first time.  Sooo delicious.  I love this stuff.  I used coconut milk and a banana and it was a little tropical happiness in a glass.  And sugar levels stayed low and hunger stayed low.  Nice, huh?

Don't let the picture fool you.  I had a nice big helping of strawberries.  I did not add more cream, as I am getting used to eating without adding sweetness, but I did have triple this amount of strawberries.

Watermelon.  It is so hot where I live.  I seem to want fruit and that is it.  Watermelon is that fruit that hydrates and satisfies.  It is very sweet, but hasn't affected my sugar levels thus far, so I happily chow down.

Okay- when you only have strawberries and watermelon for lunch, you will get hungry very quick.  About an hour after lunch, I had some yummy potato salad. Only about a cup.

My sweet hubby bought me Rolos.  Because they are individually wrapped I can have just 2-3.  I get my chocolate/sweet fix and don't eat a whole candy bar.  It is a nice compromise.

Thanks to Pinterest I learned that you can bake potatoes in the slow cooker.  It was 108 degrees yesterday.  Being able to make dinner in the slow cooker was awesome!  I had one potato with broccoli, (actually, I ended up adding more broccoli after taking this photo- it was so yummy).  I also topped it with cheese, ham, gravy and yes, some sour cream.  It is an odd thing, but baked potatoes turn to sugar in the body really fast, so if you are going to eat one, putting fat on it is a GOOD thing.  Weird huh?  But the fats slow the absorption of  the sugar by slowing the digestion process.  It is also a small potato with lots of broccoli.  As a diabetic, you can eat anything- but you must understand what the food does in your body and how to compensate for undesirable effects. 

It is vanilla ice cream and raspberry soda.  No I did not opt for sugar free this time.  I could have, but it isn't as good.  Plus, I have a theory, that at some level, sugar is better for our bodies than substitutes.  It gets back to that whole moderation thing that I keep bringing up.  One soda float, once in a while, will not hurt me.  Seconds are not an option.  It also can't be a daily occurrence. 

Off Track

The easiest way to get off track for me to be too tired to deal with eating.  If I get too busy or overwork, I tend to not care about what I eat.  I just grab something fast and easy.  I have spent the last 2 days being too busy and too tired to care.  This does not reflect well on my food log-or my sugar log, which is the bigger concern.  I have not checked my sugars regularly in those two days.  Considering how hard I have worked to keep my levels in control the last few months, this seems silly.  Two days can really throw a diabetic or a dieter off track.  I will report what I can here in my food log, but I have a goal to be much more diligent over the next few weeks.  I'm sure that success doesn't mean I never mess up.  It means that I get back on track the minute I realize I am not being diligent enough. :)

This is a blueberry shake.  It is a clam shell of blueberries and a couple cups of ice cream and some milk.  I made enough for the whole family.  Yes, I ate it for lunch.  Ahhhh---  I did say I needed to do better.

I really needed some protein.

And some yogurt covered pretzels where yummy, although not filling.  I did not over do it, I only had a couple.  However, when combined with the day- it wasn't a good choice.

Teaching my son to make a yummy fast meal, so we made BBQ sandwiches in Grands rolls.  I generally start teaching with some easy things like mac and cheese and hamburger helper, etc.  Then when they understand the rules of using the oven and stove and measurements, I move them into cooking from scratch.  He was so proud of these, so even though they are not great food for a diabetic, it was worth it.

a big slice of watermelon. 

Some pork n beans from the can.  I love this stuff.

4-5 Big strawberries. Yum!

a small handful of chocolate chips.  Sometimes you gotta have a fix.

Then since I'd already had the chips, I figured "why not?" on the tootsie roll.  I did give some to my kids.  It felt great to eat it, but 10 min. later, I did not feel great.  In fact I felt sick.  Lesson learned.  1 or 2 of the little tootsie rolls is a much better option.  Save the king size thing for when you're hiking and need a quick pick me up. :)