Healthy Eating Tips From Around the World - Balanced Living Center - Everyday Health

I love flavorful food. I want to eat healthy, but that doesn't mean it needs to be bland and boring. I love spicy food. I love food that makes your mouth go WOW!

I posted today on FACEBOOK that I love to watch the Cooking Channel, but I hate to cook. Sadly, it is very true. Half the time I make an awesome menu plan, purchase groceries and then half the produce rots because we on the run during the week and I didn't allow myself enough time to prepare and cook everything. Is it my fault? YES, but what can a mom of 3 busy daughters do? Here is my rationale for hating to cook:

‎1) I don't know how to cook. Any directions with more depth than turn the oven to 350 & throw in chicken nuggets is a problem. 
2) My mom was a fantastic cook (albeit her cooking was full of fat) and I was always in some after school sport. So why did I have to learn? 
3) I refuse to cook unhealthy meals...so I just don't cook? 
4) The family dinner table....excuse me, what is that? Rarely see that any more.

I found this article about healthy eating tips from around world. Hopefully, it will help me and you get back on track for the summer.
Healthy Eating Tips From Around the World - Balanced Living Center - Everyday Health

Call me a WHINO

Yes, the week of the guinea pig continues. In the last week, I've tried eating the following snacks before bed:

• Popcorn - My all time favorite snack. I could crunch and munch on it forever. However, it didn't really help my bs reading which 129 in the morning.
• Almonds & Oatmeal Squares - I tried a protein and carb combination wondering if the protein would help since it takes longer for your body to process Nope, BS = 127 in the morning
• Glass of red wine - I read on one of the forums at Diabetes Daily about a T2 diabetic who drank a glass of red wine before bed each night and it really helped his/her morning readings. Me? BS = 107
• Bud Light Lime - Last night after our board meeting, a few of us went to our local awesome restaurant, Perdue's Grill, and had an adult beverage. My drink of choice was Bud Light Lime. What do you think happened? BS = 102 (It is also important to note that during the meeting I tried to say no to the cookies I bought for the board members, but they were Reese's Pieces Cookies and they called out my name towards the end of the night. Who am I to deny them?)

So after a week's experiment, I've come to the conclusion that I can no longer deny my alcoholic roots. I must give in to the call of the moonshine and drink.....and drink lots of it. Or maybe, possibly a better plan would be to continue my cute little experiment and see what else comes out of all this. 

The one question I've begun to ponder is how am I supposed to lose weight if I can't go more than a couple of hours without eating? I've had the most success in losing weight when I go to bed slightly hungry. Do I eat more, smaller meals? Should I spread out my calories throughout the day better? Ugh, my head hurts just thinking about it. Which do I need to balance more? Calories? Carbs? Blood Sugars? OH MY!

Bring it on, Monday!

Seeing as how I got very little sleep over the weekend, I shouldn't have been surprised when my morning didn't start off right. My alarm goes off at 5:15 a.m. and normally it takes me a few minutes, but I get out of bed by 5:30. Not today. I hit the snooze button for about 20 minutes like any other normal person in self denial that it's time to wake up.

Then I just turned it off.

And went back to sleep.

I finally rolled my lazy, sluggish self out of bed about 6:30 a.m., but I should have been realistic Sunday night when I went to bed and realized 5 am was not going to be my friend.

In order to feel better about my slow moving morning, I decided it was time to get back to calorie counting. So I logged right on to my favorite online calorie counting page, Spark People, and started updating my stats. I was astounded when I saw this:

Glucose/Diabetes Measurements

MEASUREMENT	TODAY'S ENTRY	LAST ENTRIES
Glucose (daily)	Uncategorized  Pre-Breakfast  Post-Breakfast  Pre-Lunch  Post-Lunch  Pre-Dinner  Post-Dinner  Pre-Snack  Post-Snack
A1C (twice a year)

I didn't know you could track your glucose reading on Spark People. Wow! Now I don't know if this pops for everyone or if I finally admitted to Spark People that I was diabetic and they gave me access to this portion of the tracker, but I was thrilled. Now I might actually go back to checking my sugars on a daily basis. Actually, I just read an article in Diabetic Living magazine which talks about checking your sugars before and after a meal to see how a meal affects your body. I really want to do that. I have the feeling that this information will help me more than anything on figuring out why my A1C was so much higher last time.

Unfortunately, I tracked my breakfast....and then that was it for the day. I was so busy getting ready for my board meeting I forgot about calorie tracking. Actually, I thought about it each time I ate something, but never followed through. So, I am catching up this morning and putting it all in the tracker.

Bye Bye Pepsi Can

Food Log October 14, 2009

It's official. I've finally given up my lunch beverage of choice. No more Diet Pepsi for me. I thought it would be horrible. I thought I would be craving a soda like there is no tomorrow; however, 48 hours without a Diet Pepsi and I have prevailed so far.



For at least the last 10 years, I have had 2 cans of Diet Pepsi a day with my lunch. 2 cans a day = 14 cans a week. That's over a case of soda every two weeks. That's about $13 per month, or $156/year. Was that the main incentive for giving it up? NO.

Prior to this past year, I probably would have said I'd never give up Diet Pepsi. It was my drink of choice and I was happy with it. I drink a ton of water all day and having that fizzly soda pop with lunch broke up the monotony of my day. I don't drink tea like so many people do. Ever since I drank some tea as a child at my Aunt Joyce's house and then thought I was going to throw up, I haven't been able to stomach plain tea - sweetened or unsweetened.

Did I hear the reports that Pepsi could peel the paint off a car? Yes. Did I have a kidney stone and receive warnings against drinking dark sodas? Yes. Did I hear the reports that the artificial sweetener triggered your craving for sweets? Yes. But it was my soda. My joy. My love. I was drinking DIET. Zero calories. 2 cans a day. COME ON! One small indulgence, right?



Last winter I discovered Jillian Michaels' podcast. Now, you can say what you want about the woman. She's tough and she's mean, but if you listen to her podcast, you will also see how brilliant she is. She knows her stuff. When she said articificial sweeteners are linked to memory loss, I paused and thought "Really?.... Now what was I just doing?" The bells and whistles went off.



How often have I had to stop and think....I mean really THINK....about what I was doing? Or where I was going? Or what happened yesterday? My mind's eye would skim along the memory, but couldn't quite come up with it. OH MY GOSH! Jillian is so right. I have a horrible memory. And can I say it's all due to Diet Pepsi? NO, but why put something into my body which is only going to make matters worse???!!! I didn't need the chemicals in my body. I didn't need the sodium to help me retain water (Lord knows I do that enough on my own.) I didn't need the caffeine boost in the middle of the day (normally). I didn't need the sweet cravings after drinking a diet soda - which by the way I definitely noticed when I paid attention to my body and how it felt.



So, for my 41st birthday, I gave myself the cheapest birthday present yet. The one which will actually save me money...approximately $156/year. HA! Maybe that's what I need to tell Jeff. I gave up soda so maybe now I can get my GPS watch?