My 2020 Challenge

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SandiSAHM
Posts: 2263
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: My 2020 Challenge

Post by SandiSAHM »

alliesmama4 wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2020 12:22 pm It is not all about food. There is a pre-dawn hormonal rush. My diabetic nurse told me to have a snack around 9:00 PM consisting of cottage cheese and fruit. That seems to help me. However you cannot just have fruit since fruit raises your blood sugar. I can go to bed with my blood sugar being 87 and nothing to eat and it will soar during the night due to the hormonal thing. The cottage cheese is just about 1/4 c and a few slices of canned peaches (canned in juice no sugar) or a few small slices of my homegrown and cooked pears. My diabetes is genetic so I feel like I will be on medication the rest of my life but do work with getting things under control with diet as well. Have you tried small frequent meals like every two to three hours. When my husband was here I pretty much followed a time schedule for him ie breakfast was round 8:00 AM then lunch 12:00 noon Dinner usually 5:00 or 5:30 PM and then my snack at 9:00 PM. In between breakfast and lunch I would have a light snack of protein ie hard boiled egg or deviled egg, cheese same in the afternoon. Sounds good but I did cheat and go off of my diet from time to time and yet my A1c was always in the 7 and under range. Also if you are using a lot of gluten free products or to bake with they are very high glycemic. I use coconut or almond flour to bake with. They seem to be pretty good at not raising my blood sugar. I loved the gluten free hearty bread mix but found it caused my blood sugar to go up. So no longer using it. I might make some later when I get through the leaky gut diet.

What kind of meter do you have?
It's an O'Well, which I confess to having gotten from Amazon because the strips and lancet things are easily obtained there (and I may have mentioned... I hate shopping). The reviews were good. Two things make me fear it's right: it's consistent - if the first # is a bad # and I do it again, the 2nd # is always within 10 points of the first test. That, and the last time I had a fasting BS at the doc's office, I checked it with the meter before going in (checked it sitting in my car :lol: ). Two points difference. So all things considered, it's probably right, though my first *hope* is that it's off, by about 30 pts too high ;)

The thing that got me on the tear to find out what causes the issue is that in October they bumped my time-released metformin up to 2000mg/day. After 3 months of that, my A1C and fasting blood sugar were EXACTLY, this past Wednesday, what they were in October. So clearly extra metformin isn't doing squat.

The very idea of all the carbs involved in cottage cheese and canned peaches terrifies me but I'll try almost anything once, if it works YAY!! if not, DH likes cottage cheese and DS thinks canned peaches are second only to canned pineapple.

While the a.m. is bad, though, I can check it at 2 pm in the middle of a fasting day (so far just last Thursday, when my 2pm reading, after not having eaten since 7pm the previous night, was, I kid you not, 161 - even higher than the morning, even though all I had was water).

Biology is so interesting; everyone's 'mostly' the same but metabolic stuff... it's wild.

My poor DH, because of his engineering & physics background, thinks nearly purely in terms of thermodynamics (calories in < calories out = weight loss), or at least he has until recently, his mid-40s are more challenging when it comes to staying at weight (former athlete, he likes to stay in what was his 'weight class'), has watched my non-intake for years looking at the blood sugar and for a while there the weight gain and muttering, "that's NOT POSSIBLE." Oh yes it is, apparently, because the measurement apparatus does not lie. For a while there he kept telling me to change the batteries in the meter :roll:
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2020 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

SandiSAHM wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2020 3:25 pm It's an O'Well, which I confess to having gotten from Amazon because the strips and lancet things are easily obtained there (and I may have mentioned... I hate shopping). The reviews were good. Two things make me fear it's right: it's consistent - if the first # is a bad # and I do it again, the 2nd # is always within 10 points of the first test. That, and the last time I had a fasting BS at the doc's office, I checked it with the meter before going in (checked it sitting in my car :lol: ). Two points difference. So all things considered, it's probably right, though my first *hope* is that it's off, by about 30 pts too high ;)

The thing that got me on the tear to find out what causes the issue is that in October they bumped my time-released metformin up to 2000mg/day. After 3 months of that, my A1C and fasting blood sugar were EXACTLY, this past Wednesday, what they were in October. So clearly extra metformin isn't doing squat.

The very idea of all the carbs involved in cottage cheese and canned peaches terrifies me but I'll try almost anything once, if it works YAY!! if not, DH likes cottage cheese and DS thinks canned peaches are second only to canned pineapple.

While the a.m. is bad, though, I can check it at 2 pm in the middle of a fasting day (so far just last Thursday, when my 2pm reading, after not having eaten since 7pm the previous night, was, I kid you not, 161 - even higher than the morning, even though all I had was water).

Biology is so interesting; everyone's 'mostly' the same but metabolic stuff... it's wild.

My poor DH, because of his engineering & physics background, thinks nearly purely in terms of thermodynamics (calories in < calories out = weight loss), or at least he has until recently, his mid-40s are more challenging when it comes to staying at weight (former athlete, he likes to stay in what was his 'weight class'), has watched my non-intake for years looking at the blood sugar and for a while there the weight gain and muttering, "that's NOT POSSIBLE." Oh yes it is, apparently, because the measurement apparatus does not lie. For a while there he kept telling me to change the batteries in the meter :roll:
Never heard of your meter but I get mine through a pharmacy and my insurance (medicare) pays for everything. Am I being too personal in asking you what do you eat? There are problems if you do not eat enough you body will go in to shut down mode to where you are not loosing weight since it thinks you are starving. If you eat enough of the right kind of foods you might be better off rather than starving yourself.

Pineapple is also good so just look up the carbs on the side of the can.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2020 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I did not get around to packaging my chicken or making my pizza.I had a lot of diversions today ie looking for a needle in a haystack trying to find the glitch between my computer and the banks balance.. You can only do that for so long before you want to tear your hair out. I watched TV for a very short time. Boring! Then miracle of miracles the sun came out.. We have gone 12 days without sun. Although I love rainy, snowy, and overcast days a peep of the sunshine every now and then is nice. I did go out around 3:30 PM to get my mail. Parts of the driveway still have snow so walked on the grass. It was like walking on a wet sponge.I took a quick tour of the yard to check on how much tree debris I need to tackle. Yikes, not only twigs and sticks but branches. I did do a a couple of trips with some of the medium branches but I was not dressed warmly enough to be out too long. Teddi was like a kid in a toy store running around sniffing and anointing things. Helped out a friend with some information and then I realized it was dinner time and I had not cooked anything. So I finished the last of my Tex Mex gravy over mashed potatoes. I still have enough to use for Sunday dinner when I make my mini meatloaf.

I am thrilled with my extra money adventures. I received the code today from of my survey sites and although I had a lot of different places I could choose from for a gift card I went with my standard, Amazon, $25.00! I also received a $10.00 gift card for Amazon from the U of Arizona the other day. Also close to cashing in another $5.00 amazon gift card from BING. My other site that I will receive cash from has gone up to 83.50. I am working towards that $95.56 that I had to spend last year and want to replace for the trip to my nephews wedding this year. Also close to a $25.00 cash pay pal transfer on another site and earned $3.00 on another survey site. My grocery buys the other day also were added to my loyalty points at the grocery store. I love all of the little bits here and there that actually add up to something that I need and want.

I now have Teddi's Pupperoni on auto ship from Amazon. It is just a little bit more per oz compared to buying it at Dollar General and with the gift cards his treat will be free. Also found out today a way to make a doggie treat at home that he will eat. I can no longer eat the gluten free hearty grain bread that I liked so much. It uses yeast which I must avoid for now. So what to do with what I have left? I had a couple of pieces that were not big enough to do anything with so I air dried them thinking I would put them out for the birds. Teddi looked at me with that," What is it Mom? Looks good enough to eat and I want some." Sometimes he sniffs and walks away this time he ate every little morsel. So I am going to make the bread and then slice it thin to make him some dog biscuits. I will bake the thin slices in my convection oven to dry it out faster so that I can store it in a tin. I had planned to restock his ginger bread people treats when I go to Petco now I can make these treats for him at home, save some money, and use up what I have on hand.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2020 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I always plan more than I can do. I need to post signs around the house "your are not 25 your are 75!" Inside and mentally I feel 25 but then the old body starts to tell me slow down and rest.

I did some of my online things to make money. Sent out e-mails to daily contacts. We do live in amazing times. I talked to KatieOwl in Wales and my friend in India. Today is my friend in India's birthday. Also talked with a friend in New Jersey. Love being able to keep in touch with them even if we are not able to see each other in person.

Breakfast was oatmeal, cinnamon, and walnuts. Used the last of the walnuts.

By lunch time I was so tired I did not feel like making anything so I opened a box of almond flour crackers and a brick of cream cheese and had cream cheese on crackers with some of my pickled jalapeno peppers on top. If you are going off of your diet may as well enjoy it to the fullest..lol.

Then I spent time on the couch and decided I better make plans for Teddi for dinner since I did not go to Petco yesterday or today. He had the last of his fresh dog food for breakfast. I managed to throw three chicken thighs in the crock pot and filled it with water.

After resting a while thought the chicken package is open so you better get started on repackaging them. I repackaged a little over 8 lbs of chicken thighs. It was not a matter of just putting them in freezer bags I boned some of them to put aside for making bone broth. Also I had to cut a lot of skin away and I packaged that to make keto chicken recipes. Some were packaged as is after the skin was trimmed. When I was done I had several packages of chicken skin for keto recipes and a bag of small chicken chunks for stir fry's and a bag of skin bits to make schmaltz. A friend told me her father owned a restaurant and he used to cook the chicken skins down to make a yummy fat to be used in cooking.

I still have another large tray of chicken thighs to tackle tomorrow but I found a rhythm after a while of how to work with them so it will be easier. When I was a kid we use to butcher our own chickens. I did not but Mom and the neighbor lady would cut off their heads and then my sister and I had to dip them in scalding hot water and pluck their feather off. Thank goodness Mom would do the rest.

I had to make a pot of rice to go with Teddi's chicken. By this time I was wiped out and did not have time to make and bake a meatloaf. Since I had rice cooking I decided to make Thai yellow curry. I still had one potato left from my aide and just needed to cut it up and cut an onion up and stir fry it. Added the Yellow curry paste and coconut cream power and dinner was almost done. The chicken was still not cooked enough. I finally sliced it up to make it cook faster. I just ate my Thai food without the meat and Teddi eventually had his chicken and rice. He was a happy camper and so was I. Right now drinking spearmint tea and will soon stretch out on the bed to rest for a while Teddi is already off to dreamland. I always wonder what he is dreaming when he is moving his little legs and making noises.

Not sure how warm it got today since I never made it outside but it was lovely enough for me to open one of the bedroom windows a window in the great room and the deck door. So nice to have fresh air in the house.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2020 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I am finally home after an extremely long day. I had a slow start due to being old..lol. Finally got my rear in gear and did my morning things on the computer.

I made bone broth overnight in my crock pot. I removed the chicken from the bones that I cooked for Teddi yesterday and then threw the bones back in to the crock pot and I used the broth to start the bone broth. I added dehydrated celery, onions, and carrots and it simmered all night on low. The house smelled so wonderful when I woke up this morning. I strained the broth and put it it in the fridge for later. Not sure if I am going to freeze it or make chicken soup.

Then I decided since Teddi was going to be cooped up in his crate for hours he better go outside for a while. He knew I was dressed and that means I am leaving. He, like my dog Allie, both know that makeup and shoes means Mom is leaving the house. Since we are connected at the hip I had to go out with him. While he ran around and sniffed things I picked up sticks and limbs. I made two rounds but decided that was enough for today. He was ready to go in when I told him. He ran ahead of me but he looks back to make sure I am still there. When I am really not well, and walking with my cane, he will run ahead but then sit and wait for me when he sees I am moving slowly. He is such a sweetie. Allie would just wag her tail and say," see you Mom." She would be gone for too long to heaven knows where. I had to put up an electric fence to keep her in. Teddi pretty much stays in the yard even when I am not out with him. I do keep an eye on him due to having critters out here.. ie coyotes and foxes. However the weather has not been bad enough to drive them in closer to houses to look for food.

So finally I left the house around 12:30 PM. I had to drive to another town about 25 mile from here. Fortunately I use to live there and the main branch of my bank is located there so I was able to go in and get the cashier's check for the property taxes. Then a few blocks away to the county court house. I circled the block twice and no parking on the street so went to handicapped parking. It is at least a block away. We were having high wind and it was a slight walk up an incline for a block. Then going back walking in to the wind with a slight decline not easy for someone walking with a cane.

Then off to the grocery store which is a couple of miles away. I would like to shop there more often. It is a much bigger store than my local store and had a huge variety of things compared to my local store. It has a large section of gluten free frozen items and in some areas like canned goods and packaged goods they are clearly marked with a green gluten free tag that catches your attention so that you do not need to stop to look to see if something is gluten free. They also had a huge fridge section of plant based products ie meat analogs. I would like to explore that more. I was thrilled to find a 3 lb bag of limes for $1.99.I bought more than planned on but at the same time found some yummy things I was unaware of. I love Indian food and in their special foods freezer they had 3 gluten free Indian meals marked down. I like to have something on hand for days I do not feel like cooking. I have used up all of my Indian Dal from Big Lots so these will be nice to have on hand.

I gave up drinking diet soda a couple of years ago due to my concern for the sweeteners that are used in it. Quite a few years ago a product called Zevia came out on the market. It is sweetened with stevia. Somehow during one of many survey's I was referred to the Zevia company and they asked me if I would like to be one of their taste testers. You bet I jumped at that. They sent me a variety of their flavors and I was to give my opinion on them. Then they sent me several coupons for free 6 packs of my favorites. At the time I could only find them in health food stores and they were costly but with the coupons I enjoyed them for a time. After the coupons ran out I found the soda on Amazon and it was cheaper with free shipping with their usual spend X amount of money to get free shipping. Then I had to stop since I could not justify spending money on soda when money became so tight. Today I was able to pick up a six pack of grape zevia for $3.99. What a nice treat for me to look forward to. Glad that the product has lowered its price so much. Finally I was ready to head home but on my way out saw there was a Petco in the same mall as the grocery store so zipped in there to pick up some dog food for Teddi. I am so glad since he is out of his fresh dog food and with the incoming bad weather it was going to be days before I could get out to buy him some. I know he likes the chicken and rice but it is not a healthy balance for him.

Sooo decided to head home. However I realized the traffic was a steady stream of bumper to bumper cars. They closed one of our main highways this morning for road repairs for the next 5 months. I assumed that was the reason so rather than fight the traffic I decided to go cross country to home. I am very familiar with all of the country roads having lived in this area all of my life. However on the way home felt like I needed to stop to grab a bite. It was way past lunch and I needed to eat something but the only thing close enough was a McDonald's right on the highway. I bought a Mc Double for myself and a plain cheeseburger for Teddi ($2.77). Cannot go home smelling of a cheeseburger and not have anything for him. He only gets the meat and cheese and I use the bun for myself the next day. However I really need to stop doing that since I am itching and having muscle pain. It will take me several days to get over the gluten. The good thing was that particular McDonald's was on the edge of town so I could just turn left and hit a country road instead of trying to get back in to the traffic madness. I finally arrived home and unloaded everything. While putting things away I glanced out my deck door. The deck was ablaze of various colors of bird flying in and out.. Yikes! I forgot to pick up bird seed. Since I used the country roads home I bi-passed the store I wanted to stop and buy bird seed. So Teddi hopped in to my car and off we went to buy bird seed. I thought I could drop my paper recyclables off at the local school on my way to or from the store. There was a sign.."Do not drop any more due to the bins are full." So went down the road to the next place you can drop off and the bin was gone. What the heck? So I have a trunk full of paper recycling. Then to the store to pick up bird seed and while there saw they had their small spiral hams back so looked them over and found the smallest one for $5.87 and right next to it was some kielbasa so picked that up as will. The ham is for Easter. I put it in the freezer. You never know what will be available so get it while you can. Finally I came home and crashed. Rallied around enough to give Teddi his dinner of chicken and rice. Will restart the fresh food tomorrow.

I am being really bad. I ate the burger late so not that hungry but was able to eat some gluten free mustard and onion pretzels and drink a grape Zevia soda. Wonderful to have some "healthy" junk food.. lol. I am ready to stretch out and watch some mindless TV until time to go to bed.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2020 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

You would think after my exhausting day yesterday that I would have fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Nope. Bright eyed and bushy tailed. I finally brought my c-pap to the great room so that I could get my 4 hours of usage in as required by medicare. I was still awake at 4:00 AM. Finally fell asleep and woke up at 7:00 AM Bummer. I just do not get it why I cannot sleep longer. I had to stay on my machine until 8:00 AM. Torture lying their waiting for the time to pass.

We are expecting a wintry mix to move in this evening and it has been cold and overcast with off and on drizzle all day. My aide and I did 3 loads of laundry so I am all caught up in case the power goes down with the ice.

Breakfast I had oatmeal with cinnamon and chopped a few almonds to give it texture. I do miss my raisins but not suppose to be eating a lot fruit with this gut healing diet. However I am not really staying on it very well. I am having a harder time giving up dairy than caffeine. I had a cup of chocolate collagen before breakfast.


Lunch was a BBQ chicken sandwich. I used some of the meat from the thighs I cooked for Teddi the other day. I have enough for another sandwich. Trying to use up the last of the BBQ sauce in the fridge. I toasted the leftover bun from Teddi's cheeseburger from Mc Donalds from yesterday and had a pickle with it. Just had a late afternoon snack of rice crackers with a smear of peanut butter.


I decided that for dinner I am going to make a modified version of stuffed peppers. I still have the beef and turkey patties that I was going to make a meatloaf with but just not in the mood. So I am going to cook some onion that is in the fridge and use some of the chopped bell peppers from the freezer, add the meat and some leftover rice and make it into stuffed pepper soup. I have the chicken bone broth that I made the other day so I will use it for my base and I will be using up a lot of things that need to be used up. Not sure if I will add tomatoes or tomato paste. Somewhere I have a recipe for stuffed pepper soup.

Teddi is on strike and pouting. He will not eat his fresh dog food. He is holding out for chicken and rice. I did a couple of trials of various foods and he will eat his pupperoni and his baby carrots so he is not sick. The thing is with his digestive system if he goes too long without eating he will start to throw up yellow bile. I hope he will eat by tonight but he needs to eat what is appropriate for his health.I cooked three chicken thighs the other day. Teddi had 3 meals from the meat. I weigh his meat to make sure he gets the right amount. I will have two BBQ chicken sandwiches and I made chicken broth with the leftover bits of meat on the bones and skin. Not bad for .99 cents a pound chicken. I wish I had weighed the meat before I cooked it but still a bargain.

We are expecting a wintry mix starting tonight in to all day tomorrow. So glad I went out yesterday to buy bird seed. My deck has been busy all day with birds flying in and out.Love to see the various species of birds. Teddi will stretch out on his pillow by the deck door and watch them off and on. Then he will curl up in a little ball on his pillow. He looks so cute. I live a very simple life but I love it.
Janet Alliesmama
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