A few new foods/drinks

Okay, I try to find things that are compatible with my new "diet", but sometimes they are more of a strike or a foul than a home run. Here's a few things I've tried lately and how they measure up...

Steaz Zero Calorie sparkling green tea in Orange- definite strike. Seriously, the most horrific drink I've ever had. Manage to wrestle down two sips and actually gagged. Even Chad, who has quite the adventurous palate, took a sip and said, "You cannot make me drink the rest of this."

Big K Diet Orange and Diet Root Beer (Kroger store brand)- not quite as good as Diet Sunkist or Diet A&W root beer, but darn close and super cheap! No calories, no carbs. Yay!!

Diet Orange Crush- great taste, but a ton of carbs. Yeah, it's not sugar free. At all. So, avoid that one. I knew it tasted too good to be true. Sigh.

Laughing Cow Light Garlic and Herb Cheese Wedges- Oh, holy laughing cow. LOL. These are awesome. 1 wedge is 35 calories, 1.5 grams of fat and 1 gram of carbs. And, they are delicious. Consistency is a little less smooth than brie, but still very spreadable and super yummy. But, what would you spread them on? Carrots are awesome with these, but crackers are even better...

Wasa Cracker- your best choice. 1 slice (which is huge) of the whole grain one has no fat, 40 calories and 10 carbs. If you are a "net carb" counter, the fiber in it would lower that to 8 net grams of carbs. A bargain for a cracker. And, they are delicious. I'm hooked.

All Bran Crackers- 18 crackers have 130 calories, 6 grams of fat and 19 carbs. Not great, but it's really hard to find any low carb crackers. These are a splurge, but a worthy one. And, it only takes 1/2 a serving to eat a whole wedge of laughing cow.

Butterkase cheese is another favorite. 7g of fat, 130 calories, but no carbs. Health food? not exactly, but good for the way I currently eat. I find mine at Earth Fare here in JC.

IHOP- no I am not kidding. They have the IHOP for me section of the menu that has every single piece of nutritional information you could possibly need. Some of them are pretty good as far as carbs go. The turkey bacon omelette has 17 grams of carbs, but only because of the HUGE bowl of fruit that comes with it. Leave out the fruit and you have pretty much 0 carbs. And, since it is turkey bacon and "faux" eggs, 25 grams of fat. Not bad!! Personally, I allot about 15 grams of carbs per meal, so the fruit is a logical splurge.

CarbMaster Yogurt- a full container of this yogurt has only 80 calories, 4 grams of carbs, 1.5 grams of fat. Great taste. Yummy! I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating. Good, good stuff!!

Breyer's Carbsmart ice cream products- All of them have between 4 and 6 net carbs per serving. They are fantastic and satisfy my sweet munchies. They're delicious. My favorite are the almond bars. The single serving size keeps me from dishing out too much (a problem I have with actual ice cream). LOL

Of course, for the most part, I eat a lot of meat and veggies. Grilled chicken, grilled seafood, grilled steaks. Salads, peas, green beans. One cookbook that has been VERY helpful is NOT a diabetic cookbook. Funny, huh? It's one of my old standby cookbooks: Sandra Lee's SemiHomemade Slow Cooker Recipes. Some of them are totally not diabetes appropriate, but the cheddar beer chicken and a ton of others are. And, it spares me the "another chunk o' grilled stuff" rut. They are insanely easy to prepare and with 10 minutes (usually less) of effort, you come home to a fantastic meal. Very cool!

Well, that's all I know for now, but I'll post again soon, as i learn more about what I can and cannot eat. And, find out what tastes good and what goes into the dumpster. :)

Good Lord, McDonald's... how can you screw up a smoothie????

I've been seeing the "real fruit smoothie" signs for McDonald's newest drink. The signs have a picture of a pretty smoothie with all kinds of fresh fruit pieces piled around the cup. Now, would one assume from the "real fruit" in the name and the pictures of fresh fruit that there would be fresh fruit involved? Or, even frozen fruit? Well, if you did, you'd be WRONG!!!!
The ingredients for a Wild Berry smoothie (straight from McDonald's own website):

Wild Berry Fruit Blend Strawberry puree, water, sugar, blackberry puree, blueberry puree, concentrated pineapple juice, concentrated apple juice, contains less than 1% of the following: cellulose powder, xanthan gum, colored with fruit and vegetable juice, natural (botanical source) and artificial flavors, pectin, citric acid. CONTAINS: MILK *Dispensed from equipment that also dispenses milk ingredients (yogurt)

Low Fat Yogurt Cultured Grade A reduced fat milk, sugar, whey protein concentrate, fructose, corn starch, kosher gelatin. Contains active yogurt cultures.  Please notice that the "fruit blend" arrives in a big plastic baggie and the yogurt stuff comes separate and they mix them together when you order. Please also notice that in both components, sugar is in the top 3 ingredients and that the yogurt also has fructose and corn starch. So, essentially, it's a diabetic nightmare. Instead of something good for you, they've done it again!! Good idea turned to garbage. Garbage that, for a 12 ounce serving has 210 calories, .5 grams of fat (that actually is a good amount), and 48 grams of carbs. That carb amount is more than I eat in a whole day. For a 12 ounce drink. The only redeeming nutritional comment I can make is that it is at least low fat. Which helps me none at all. What about the cute little fruit and yogurt parfait? It's close to 1/2 cup in size. Surely, it is just a little bundle of health food. Um... no. 156 calories, 2 grams of fat, 31 grams of carbs. For the love of Pete. Okay, I'm just going to scream and beat my head on the desk now. And eat yogurt that has been nowhere NEAR McDonald's!!!

GREAT news!!!!

I just posted this on Facebook:
Fabulous visit to the doc today!! Hgb A1c is 6.1 (was 10.6), which is pretty much normal even for non-diabetics. Cholesterol is 126 (was over 400). Triglycerides 112 (had been over 400). BP is so low I'm cutting my med in half now (was about 170/110 a while back, now 110/68). I've lost a total of 48 pounds since 3/3/10. Woohoo!


Woohoo indeed. For every 1 point decrease in A1c, there is a 10% increase in cardiovascular health. So, I've had over a 40% increase in cardiac health since March. 


I went to the doc today with every intention of leaving on Victoza. But, basically, I've done so well without it, it is not worth the annoyance of a daily injection or the risk of side effects. So, I will remain on my Glucophage (metformin) as my only diabetic medication. 


It made me feel so good to see those numbers today. As soon as the nurse saw me, she just went on and on about how much I'd lost. When my doc walked in, he said "Thank God! Finally a patient who listens!" He was so happy that I'd done so well. But, believe me, no one was as happy as me. Holy cow, I never would have believed I could do this. But, like I told my doc, if you wanted to scare me, you pulled the right bogey man out of the closet. Diabetes terrifies me. I guess it is because it screws up so many different things, in so many different ways. So, lots of things to fear!!  I'm just glad that the fear worked!


So, I'm going out sometime this weekend to celebrate. I had a half of a slice of cookie cake today right after I left the doctor. Used to, I would have bought 3 pieces and eaten them all. Even in sinning, I sin smaller now! But, I also realize that an occasional indulgence is just that. I don't have to use it as an excuse to say, "I failed. Screw this." and jump off into the deep end of bad habits. I just enjoy it and then think "Well, that's enough of that." 


I appreciate all the kind words and especially all the lavish praise and cheering at every small milestone. You may think that posting "Way to go" for me on the blog or FB note is nothing. But, sometimes it is what gets you past the cupcake temptation and into a salad. So, believe me, you guys have made this possible. Thank you!!!!!!


Now, I am off to a Crystal light popsicle. Only 5 calories!!!!

Updates and a visit tomorrow...

OK, yes, I suck. I haven't put a thing about the class and I really need to do so. It was an awesome class. An RN and an RD (Registered Dietician) taught the class. Both were CDEs (Certified Diabetic Educators). The class had GREAT materials, but some of the best things I picked up were easy explanations of what Diabetes is. Why it happens, how it works, etc. In my head, I know all this stuff, but how to put it into every day words was escaping me. So, I was able to learn some great ways to explain my new disease to others!

I also learned some great tips for my medication. Some of the side effects (hello, nausea and frequent potty trips) and the "dawn effect" (my AM blood sugars run a little higher than they do at night... unusual), can be counteracted by taking my larger dose of Metformin at night and my smaller in the morning. Tried that and it's been smooth sailing.

Also found out the news I'd been dreading... I'm not supposed to get pedicures. We sweet folk do not heal well and the further away from the heart something is, the harder it is to get it to heal. So, our feet tend to have issues. So, naturally, getting nicked or getting an infection on the piggies is bad. So, if the sanitation is not great, you are at risk.

To that, I say phooey on you. I will take my own tools and tell them to be careful. And, I will keep on getting my piggies dressed up all nicely.It's my illness, but no one is taking away one of my great joys. I will simply be careful. By the way, Opi nail polish now has a collection of nail polishes based on the colors from Shrek. One is even SHP shirt green. It's called "Who the Shrek are you?" I will be purchasing it.

During the class, we also covered various other medications from insulins on down to the various oral meds. I found out something VERY exciting... there is a relatively new drug (went into use at the beginning of this year) called Victoza. It is an injectable medication that is similar to Byetta (for anyone who knows about it). It has lower side effects than Victoza and it is only taken once a day, at any time, so long as you take it close to the same time every day (Byetta had to be taken right before you ate and had some serious issues with nausea and vomiting).

Basically, the Victoza makes your body produce more insulin. Since it is your own insulin, and is inside your body (rather than the type that comes in a bottle), it works better. Also, since you can inject it at night, you sleep thru most of the side effects.  Of course, there is always a downside. It is about $325 per month. Grrrreat! I'm sure I have that just laying around in my change jar.

So, tomorrow, I have an appointment with my doctor. It's my over 3 month checkup (would have been 3 months, but he was on vacation, so we had to put it off until now). I will find out what my Hemoglobin A1c (the measure of how my sugars have been doing over the past 3 months or so) is running and how my other labs are doing. Since I have lost 48 pounds since I was diagnosed, I believe he will be pleased. If he isn't, I may wrestle him to the ground and give him a wedgie. Just sayin'...

I intend to ask him about Victoza and pray that he has samples. I love samples. Keep your fingers crossed!

I will update you tomorrow!!