Day 144

3:30 p.m.
Not much going on. I had Fiber One cereal for breakfast and tested post-breakfast. Number was high, 194, but not as high as the last flavor of Fiber One. The Honey Cluster flavor seemed to make my BG higher (243) than the Caramel Delight flavor. 


Next week I want to run a test. I want to check my BG before eating, 1.5 hour after eating and the next day test before eating and during the 1.5 hour time frame while I wait to test post breakfast I want to go ahead and exercise. I'm curious if that is a good game plan to counter the effects of cereal on my BG. 


I know exercise causes a significant drop in my glucose number. If I exercise during the 1.5 hour interval between breakfast and post-meal test, does the glucose drop from exercise offset the glucose increase caused by the cereal in the overall scope of things? Or, is the cereal increase still going to negatively impact my A1c regardless? Now, that second one is a question for my doctor.


I generally wait until after my breakfast post-meal test to start exercise because I did not want to glucose drop from exercise to alter and perhaps skew my test result, but if countering the glucose rise with the exercise drop is more beneficial then I will change when I start my exercises.

Day 135

8:30 a.m.
Going to test my breakfast number today. I have also decided that since most of my breakfasts (other than an apple and some cheese slices) send my sugar to above 150 I am going to give cereal another try. I think I'm going to look at Fiber-One. Hopefully it actually has enough fiber to negate some of the carbs. We'll see.


I have really got to get back to my normal routine. With doctors, dentist, outpatient procedures and a host of other things going on these past 10 days or so I have neglected my exercise - not good! Maybe I can get todays in to get me started again. But tomorrow I have an appointment to get my highlights retouched - so then it will be back to Thursday. I scheduled my hair appointment for a Wednesday intentionally so it would not interfere with exercise day. If I had only known life in general was going to interfere I could have already had my retouch done.

Day 130

2:30 p.m.
Well, nothing new to report. BG is about the same. Diet is about the same. Exercise has been missed all week due to doctors visits, dentist visit, medical procedures. I'll pick back up Monday when life gets back to normal.


Hubby and I went out for our belated anniversary lunch today. Fajita salad and a margarita :D Didn't test my BG post lunch since I checked fasting today. It will be okay. Carbs are okay but calories were shot real quick today - LOL. I'm going to have Jello and some peaches or apple slices for supper. It all comes out okay in the end.


Faced a real challenge though - there was a basket of World's Finest Chocolate candy bars on the counter by the cash register. I LOVE those things! But I just gave them a longing look and left them there.

Day 124

4:30 p.m.
Had someone ask how I got my BG in control so well and what I found to eat being that I am such a picky eater so I thought I would share my response:



Because I am a slow starter I had to keep breakfast quick & easy so I eat Jimmy Dean Breakfast Bowls - one has eggs, sausage, potatoes and cheese the other has eggs, bacon, potatoes and cheese. I have also worked on adding oatmeal, so it is the instant variety (but that has been put on hold because it started making me gag just trying to eat it.) I tried Special K cereal but I have found that pasta and cereals are two of my greatest enemies. This may not be the case for everyone since Diabetes is almost as individual as our fingerprints. What hits my BG hard may not hit the next diabteics as hard.


Salads are either: 
(1) Spinach Strawberry Salad
2-3 c. Baby Spinach leaves -I remove the stems as much as possible so that I get more leaf in my dish. Depending on how hungry I feel I go with either 2 cups or 3 cups
1 c. fresh strawberries
.25 cup pecan halves
.5 cup Manchego Cheese (shredded) 
(about) 3 Tbls. Light Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing
*and . . . when I have real bacon left-over from BLT sandwiches I will crumble it up and save it to add to this salad - usually about the equivalent of 1.5 strips of bacon per salad)


(2) Basic Iceberg Salad
2 c. shredded iceberg lettuce
3 slices of sandwich ham (chopped up small)
.5 c. shredded cheese (four cheese blend)
1 Tbls. sliced olives (black or green - whaichever is open in my fridge)
(about) 2 Tbls Light Sweet & Spicy French dressing
*and . . . if I have pineapple tidbits already open in the fridge I will throw in .33 c for more flavor.


The other meal (because some days salad is my lunch and some days salad is my supper so whichever meal my salad falls to the other meals is referred to here) will vary. Sometimes BLT sandwiches (I found Arnolds Premium Italian Bread to be good and it is a denser texture so it is more filling), sometimes grilled steak or grilled chicken with a couple of side items. Maybe: 
- Sweet Niblet Corn 
- Carrots (I cook my carrots in a skillet - I slice them in rounds and add half an onion (chopped large so I can get carrots without the onion on my plate) sprinkle with 1 tsp. Truvia and about 1 cup water - bring to a boil and reduce to med-low and cook about 30 minutes. Makes really great tasting carrots)
- Broccoli with Cheese Sauce (frozen stuff)
- Green Beans (I cook these with a Beef Bouillon cube and some Garlic flakes for better flavor) 
- sometimes I will treat myself to half a baked potato with a little Smart Choice butter and some Manchego Cheese (shredded)
- Baked Beans


The best thing to do is to track what you eat and keep tabs on which foods spike your sugar and which are BG friendly. I started tracking everything I eat for two reasons (1) easier to identify what spiked my sugar (2) to keep track of calorie and carb intake (it's too easy to forget you ate a handful of cashews if you don't note it. You can log it in a notebook or log it online - but it is a great check-double check habit to develop. 

Day 92

6:15 p.m.

Fasting BG was good - 95. Hopefully changing the time I take my nighttime dose of Metformin is the solution. I have had more lower numbers since changing the time. Not tons more, but 3 of 5 have been below 100, 1 of 5 was exactly 100 and the last was 105, which is better than the ones that were coming in at 115- 117.

Woke up dreading that it was Monday and exercise day again, but I got over that pretty fast when I got on the Wii Fit board and found I had dropped almost 2 lbs since last Thursday. Every little bit helps! :)

So far I can honestly say that the only things I have cut out of my diet completely are regular soda, regular hot chocolate and "added sugar". The diet sodas I switched too are very satisfying in regards to my infrequent desire for a carbonated soda. I have no problem using Splenda or Truvia for the "added sugars". But the sugar-free hot chocolate leaves a lot to be desired. And it's not the fact that it is not as sweet as the regular version because I could easily remedy that with some Truvia. No, it's the fact that it doesn't mix up as smooth and creamy as the regular and if I don't drink it quick enough it seems to kinda start congealing or something. I'm not sure whats up with that, but I don't care for it at all.

Day 43

1:15 p.m.

Fasting BG was good. I felt okay with my breakfast and my lunch food selections so I did not do finger-sticks for those. I will catch the supper check tonight. 

I also went ahead and added that fifth 10-minute session to my exercises this morning. I decided to try to trick my body & my mind by doing the 10-minute session and then two 20-minute sessions for a total of 50 minutes today. It probably helped some, but Oh Em Gee, I was really struggling in the last fifteen minutes or so. But . . . I persevered and finished so I'm glad for that and I'm glad I went ahead and added it. Once added it can't be taken back out you see, so now I'm committed to it! :D My philosophy, but it works for me!

And, my little Wii board tells me I have lost some weight - not enough to be bragging about yet, but some loss at a slow rate is good progress, so I'm happy about it!

Day 40

1:20 p.m.

BG still good. Or it was when I woke this morning. I'm not sure about my numbers after lunch since I am just now eating lunch. Got distracted doing coupon searches this morning. All I really want are some decent coupons on Folgers coffee. Is that really too much to ask of the internet? I didn't think it was, but all I found was a lowly little 25cent off coupon. I am going to watch Sunday and see if CVS is offering the 2/$5 on Folgers in our area and if they are I'll use my wittie bitty 25 cent coupons then.

 I'm not sure I can add another 10 minute session to my workout next week. The fourth one takes all I have just to get through - still. It may take a while to add more time but I am still proud to be able to at least do the first 30 minutes without major grief. And I am also proud to be able to push myself through the fourth 10 minutes considering a few short weeks ago I was pushing to finish the first 10 minute session.


6:30
Doing the Happy Feet Dance!!!

I e-mail my BG readings to my doctor every 2 weeks and today was the day to send them. I have been impressed that he always responds to them - on a Friday afternoon, but he does. And today's reply was . . .

"The numbers look very good…I want you to stop the night time Lantus entirely."

Yay oh Yay!!!! I just hope that the next two weeks stay good and that I can stay off the needle! I am going to be soooo Diabetic Good! I may not be Sugar Sweet, but I will be Diabetic Good! YAY YAY YAY!!!

Day 38

9:00 a.m.

Good Morning Wednesday! BG looking good! 

My salad last night was as yummy as I knew it would be! And let me clarify, when I say I'm having a salad for a meal - I mean A Salad! Not a side salad - A Salad. Last night's salad had about 2.5 cups of baby spinach, a cup strawberries (1/2 inch cuts), roughly 1.5 strips of crumbled bacon, 1/3 cup shredded Manchego and about 1/3 cup pecan halves. Big salad - covers a dinner plate!

 So, today is my off day from exercise so i guess I will pull together the information hubby needs to take our paperwork to the guy who does our taxes and see how we fared this past year. I thought that this years taxes would be a reflection on how taxes will look for us for the next few years until hubby retired, but lo and behold he got let go in February so this is the second year in a row that our taxes are out of the norm due to life changes. 

Not sure what's on the menu for lunch or supper today - that's always an issue since I know so few recipes that work well for both of us. hmmmm . . . . . gotta think a bit.

Day 37

2:15 p.m.

BG still looking good and fourth 10-minute Step session still kicking my backside! 

I was naughty for lunch today! I ate two, I shall repeat, TWO BLT sandwiches for lunch! I felt as if I were starving! I know I'm not starving, heck I could probably live a couple of months on just body fats, but I sure felt as if I were starving. And my sugar was dropping on me and that always adds anxiety and a sensation of an urgency to get food in me. I really gotta watch those lows because they really have a serious control over me when I go hypoglycemic! 

And  that's another thing that is still so confusing about having Diabetes - going hypoglycemic like I do. The doctor said it was not uncommon for some Diabetics to have those sugar swings - guess I drew that lucky straw! I did buy some glucose tablets at the drugstore, but I really bought those to keep in my purse in case I am out and my kitchen is not readily available. But today I was in the process of frying the bacon when it started. I kept hoping the bacon would all get done sooner so I could eat and finally had to break down and chomp a piece of the bacon that was already out of the skillet. I probably could have shot that sugar back up quicker with a piece of candy that's in the cupboard for the grand-kids, but I really don't want to start using the sugar lows as an excuse to eat sugar like that - so I ate that bacon and hung in there until it was done and then I scarfed down two BLT's faster than my hubby could finish off half of his second one. 

Well, I will make up for my extra bread carbs with supper. I'm going to have a salad of Baby Spinach, fresh strawberries, pecan halves, some bacon bits I made from the extra bacon at lunch and some grated Manchego Cheese topped with a Raspberry Vinaigrette! That is one wonderful salad! Yumm!

Day 36

1:15 p.m.

BG still good.

Gaaah! I am soooo bad today! here it is already after 1:00 and I still have not done today's exercises! I got distracted with the internet again! This time I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to add a Glucose tracking widget to my blog. I have it added, but it had some error status message that I hate to see so i may end up removing it after all this. 

Anyway . . . off to try to get my daily exercises done before the rest of my day slips away and I find myself exercises when I should be going to bed. O.O

2:30 p.m.
Okay, exercise plan modification time! I am still having to push hard to get through that fourth 10 minute Free Step session and I start stumbling on the Wii Fit board so I don't think it wise to try to add a fifth 210 minute set yet. I will go with 4 sets again this week and see if I get better with it before adding the fifth set. And I don't feel bad about modifying my plan because just getting through 4 sets is a 400% increase over what exercise I had been getting, so I'm okay with it.

Oh, and an update on my BK Whopper reward - yep, I got me a reward last night . . . well, a junior reward - one & one half of a Whopper Jr. I also treated myself to 3 of Terry's french fries. And, I checked my BG an hour & a half after eating my reward and it was only 118 - very good! :D

Day 32

7:00

BG still good.

today I went to lunch with some old friends (we try to do this once a month) and I was a good girl. And my post meal BG check was only 130, which is good for a post meal check! We went to Cracker Barrel and I was pleased to see an entire section dedicated to Low-Carb options! I saw several things on there that I will try, one-by-one when we meet there on other months.

Exercise today was better than Mon. & Tues. was. I think partly because I bought a cheap pair of earphones at the bookstore yesterday and they have a soft ear-bud, unlike the hard plastic ones that came with my iPod, so I was able to listen to a good selection of music today. I did receive the iPod speaker/docking station I had ordered, but it turned out that it was not compatible with my generation of iPod, so I ordered a different one today and shipped the first one back. I will be even happier once I get a speaker/docking station that works because I really don't like having external sounds blocked by the earphones. One of my many quirks. :P

Day 30

9:30 p.m.

BG is still looking good. I checked after lunch today to see if a grilled Reuben would have a very bad impact and was delighted to see it did not. Of course it is bad on the fats, but the carbs were good,.

And my legs complained again about me adding that fourth 10 minute free-step. They should be nicer to me tomorrow since they will get an off day.

My head might just chew me out though. My Dear Hubby has been using the same laptop since 2003 and it had gotten to the point that it was slow as molasses - not as slow as cold molasses, that would be the speed of my daughters old desktop that is in my craft-room, but Terry's is as slow as room temp molasses. Well, he ordered a new one and got it this evening and I spent my entire evening getting him set up and installing the Microsoft Office apps. I also pulled his outlook files, desktop images and screen-saver images from his old one to his new one. But, as is always the case, none of that worked quickly or smoothly. Tomorrow I have to transfer his bookmarked/favorites. I just hope that task goes better than any I have done so far. (I plan to swap my daughter's old one out & use my hubby's old one after I get finished moving his stuff)

I was so stressed when I finally  stopped for the night that my neck was in intense pain. Geez, it sucks getting old and having things become dilapidated with the body!!

Day 29

12:00

BG is still looking good. Slightly higher readings than last week, but still in the acceptable ranges - and this with only half the insulin I was taking last week. Hope this keeps up! :)

Added my fourth 10-minute Free Step on the Wii this morning. My legs protested a little, but not enough for me to listen to them. They (whoever "they" are) always say No Pain - No gain. Well, maybe the leg complaints meant I made a small amount of gain today. 

I think my next wellness investment will be a pulse monitor so I can see what my heart rate is doing and determine if I am even getting into a cadio rate. My doctor said walking was fine, but he wants me to get to where I am doing an aerobic type workout. If he could smell me right now he would have to agree I had my heart rate up there - LOL! And, I even had to turn on the ceiling fan today because I was getting so hot & sweaty!

I am also taking advantage of the change in BG reading times to track the effect of some of my foods to see which ones affect my sugar more and which affect it less. That project is affecting my menu planning since I want to test after certain foods. So like today I tested after my cereal - good reading - my cereal will be a  keeper. We are going to have grilled Reuben sandwiches one day this week, but since I tested after breakfast I couldn't have grilled Reuben for lunch today. Maybe tomorrow. :D I do love a good grilled Reuben!

Day 27

8:00 

BG still good. I'm am hopeful it stays as good in the next few days as it did for the last few days. 

I saw my doctor yesterday and he was very pleased with the improvement in my numbers so far. He reduced my daily Lantus to 10 units & took me off any supplemental Humalog for the time being. He also has changed up the way I am to test my BG for a while. Rather than 4 set checks a day he wants a fasting check first thing in the morning & then one other check during the day - 1.5 - 2 hours after a meal - any meal and switch up which meal each day. I will email him in two weeks with these BG checks and we will see if that schedule needs to be modified any. WooHoo! that is two less finger sticks per day! My poor fingers are dancing with delight! :D

I also asked yesterday what my A1c was when he diagnosed me three weeks ago - it was 12.46. For most people with diabetes, the American Diabetes Association recommends an A1C of less than 7%. Another group of experts, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, recommends an even lower A1C of 6.5% or less. Either way, mine was definitely high! My doctor said it wasn't the highest he had ever seen, but it ranked way up there. But I expect it to be much improved when I go back in May since I have made so many modifications to my diet and my BG check numbers have been good lately. More about A1c can be read here. It's really kind of amazing that there is a 2-3 month footprint in our blood that can be read by a test.

I thought my doctor would also be very pleased with my getting exercise four days a week, but he said walking was fine, but what he wants me to look at doing is a more high energy aerobic exercise. I told him that has to come later because I sweat up a storm and  get winded just doing the walking exercises! Seriously, we are talking about someone who has not done anything close to aerobic exercise in over 15 years! Eek!

Day 26

12:00

Still doing well. BG still looks good. Vision is about the same as last week. Energy is about the same too, but I do use a bit of whatever energy my body allocates with my exercises, so I guess I'm doing pretty well, all in all.

Still looking for really good, low-carb recipes to supplement my limited list. Had Tomato Soup & Grill Cheese for lunch. It is slightly higher on carbs for a single meal, but I will make up for it with a salad supper, so it's all good.

Anxiously awaiting my iPod and docking station. So tired of being limited to my Discman and having to select one single CD to entertain me through the entire exercise time, which exceeds 30 minutes right now and will be pushing closer to 1 hour next week. According to tracking information the iPod is out for delivery for today, but the docking station is still in Kentucky and the ETA is Wednesday. USPS tracking site said not to look for updates to that delivery information for the next 3 days. Well, that kinda sucks! They work on Saturdays, so why no update tomorrow? And seriously? I could drive to KY and back before next Wed., so why can't they get it here in one direction quicker than that! Geez! Oh well, waiting is the price you pay for ordering online rather than running around the different retailers locally trying to find what you want.

Okay, off to shower & shampoo and get ready to go see if my doctor is pleased with my progress so far. I think I am doing really well. I just hope he doesn't say I am doing mediocre or not so well - that would break my little heart! O.O

And yes, my appointment is NOT until 3:30, but I hate to have to get ready in one non-stop action. I prefer to shower, piddle, blow dry hair, piddle, flat-iron hair, piddle, put on make-up, piddle, get half-dressed, piddle, piddle some more and then finish dressing just before I need to walk out the door. I have truly refined my procrastination streak since retirement - lol!

Day 25

12:00

BG is still in check. It took a small climb last night, but still under 130. And what would be the culprit? A frozen dinner - Blackened Chicken Alfredo. Apparently pasta is going to be one of my big enemies. Either that or the Alfredo sauce, which pretty much accompanies any pasta I eat. Oh well, not the biggest loss on this trip.

Still keeping up with my exercise. I am up to three 10-minute walking sessions. I shoot for 1000 steps per session, which should be about 1/2 mile each 10-minute session. Next week I add another 10 minute session and a fifth 10-minute session the week after that. Once I have that going well I will start migrating toward a 10-minute session followed by two 20-minute sessions.

Doctor's appointment tomorrow. Hopefully he will be pleased with my progress. I also need to have all my prescriptions re-written since they are suppose to be on a 90-day plan in order to be covered by my insurance. I was in too much shock that first day to even think about that when he handed me a bundle of prescriptions.

Day 24

5:30 p.m.

BG still looking good! :)

Let the whole day get away from me without updating my blog. But, trust me, I have been busy. Not physically busy, but busy. Had a hair appointment at 9:30 and didn't get back home until after 11. Lunch. Then started downloading & setting up an iTunes application. For the last three weeks as I exercised I either listened to the Wii voice count to four over & over or I played a CD in my old Sony Discman. I had to resort to the Discman because the mini-shelf system in my den stopped playing CD's a couple of years ago and I just never really worried about it too much until I started doing the Wii Fit and wishing I had something more entertaining to listen to. And the Discman is okay, for what it is and for what I bought it for years ago - a portable means of playing CD's. I actually used it a lot back when I would spend weeks at a time in Atlanta in training classes. But for listening to music from it in my den at home . . . it leaves a lot to be desired! 

I tried putting the TV on a different channel, since the Wii said I could do that while using the "Free Walk" exercise. But the screen had diagonal lines scrolling across it the whole time and I gave that up pretty quick.

Well, I looked for me a new mini-shelf system this week, but the only ones I found that would let me load more than 1 CD at a time were way overpriced, especially knowing that they don't seem to have a long shelf life. What I did find in my hunt was that docking stations for iPods are all over the place and really rather inexpensive. So I ordered one of those from Amazon and an iPod Nano from Apple. 

And that led to me downloading the iTunes application and setting that up . . . immediately followed by downloading some of my favorite CD's to the computer and pulling out favorite songs to an exercise play list. Yep, pretty much killed an afternoon. 

But at least when my iPod and docking station get here I will be ready. :)

Day 23

4:00

BG still looking good. 

I am up to three10 minute walking sessions on my Wii Fit.  I don't play the games much anymore (I'll bet my penguin is hungry). It just seems that my days get gone before I even realize they are over and as I add more walking to my exercise routine I just have less time to play the games. Maybe I will play games on my exercise off days. I take Wednesdays and weekends off from the exercises. My doctor said he wanted me to work in 45 minutes of exercise 4 days a week so I chose Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday. And yes, I know I can get healthier and lose more weight if I added exercise to every day, but heck, I already have so much added to my everyday life, what with clockwork finger sticks and injections, that I just can't have exercise as another "every" day something. Not right now anyway. maybe some day in the future, but then again, maybe not. We'll see.

Day 19

1:00

Lost another morning to sleep and the internet. I was so tired this morning that I went back to sleep for an extra hour after my alarm went off. I'm not sure why I was so tired since I got more than 8 hours last night. But then again, one of the issues with Diabetes is being tired. 

Once I was up I got online to update my Food Tracker and got sidetracked by a new Diabetes website with more discussion boards. Lost the rest of my morning to that. Didn't update mt food tracker, didn't post my morning blog. Didn't even do my morning exercises.And having skipped my exercises means I skipped my morning shower. Now I have to do my exercises as soon as I get this post published and then hop in the shower.

Egads! Time does get away from me!

2:00
And still haven't started my exercises. I think it's a good thing I told my daughter that I would rather she brought my grandson over this evening rather than me going to pick him up from school. At this rate I may not have my exercise & shower out of the way by suppertime!!

7:00 p.m.
Got my exercise and shower around 3-4 this afternoon. Way late, but gosh it is so easy to procrastinate. Especially if you find interesting reading on the internet.


Made a high-protein/low carb casserole for supper. It was good. Good enough that I will make it again. My hubby and grandson said it was good and that they would eat it again, but neither helped themselves to seconds so I don't know if they were just trying to make me happy by saying it was good or not.


Ah well, still on the prowl for more & better high-protein/low carb recipes. :D

Day 16

1:00

Another morning slipped by soo quickly. My how time flies.

BG is still looking good. And I increased my walking with the Wii Fit yesterday. Last week I was doing two sets of the Basic Step, one Free walk, which is a 10 minute walk - no less than 800 steps) and then playing some of the games. Yesterday I switched to two sets of the Basic Step, one Free walk, [repeat] two sets of the Basic Step, one Free walk. That gives me 20 minutes of walking plus the little bonus of the basic Step as my warm ups. I also started bumping the pace of the Free Walk - after 30 seconds I increase by one click and after 30 more seconds I increase to the second click. Then I reverse that when I get down to 1 minute left of the 10 minutes - I click one step back down and when it gets to 30 seconds I drop it back to the pace the systems set by default. That gives me more than the 800 steps and also gives me a little faster pace, which, oddly enough, keeps me from stumbling over my own feet stepping on and off the Wii board. Next week I will add a third set of both.

Had a most delicious sandwich for lunch today. I make these Ham Balls with ground ham and ground pork, bead crumbs, egg & milk. There were some leftovers  from the other day so we sliced them in halves, warmed them in the toaster oven and put them on toasted bread. Terry used mayo (actually, it is Miracle Whip Dressing, but it is what we use for mayo since I do not like real mayo) & honey mustard on his, but I used mayo, lettuce & fresh pineapple! YumYum!! :D Of course we used the Arnolds Italian bread that I found has a bit less carbs than any other bread at Wal-Mart. Even less carbs than the multi-grain or whole wheat options, and I like Italian bread where I don't like multi-grain or whole wheat bread.