Feels so good!

Since my last doctor's appointment over a month ago I've been walking every morning except Fri and Sun at 9am (ish) to help lower my blood sugar and keep my heart healthy whilst I lower my caloric intake to lose weight.  The exercise doesn't make you lose weight but it can maintain a good metabolism to help you burn off extra calories throughout the day doing other things.  I am enjoying it so much I have to remind myself oh what time is it so I remember to stop and get other things done.  I was like this in high school so it feels really good to have that same determination to be active again.  Love it!

I limit my total carbs to 40-45g per meal.  I don't look at sugars but I do look at fiber because then I can take away for example a cookie that's 38g total carbs with 5 g fiber is considered 33g.  Carbohydrates (all carbohydrates) turn into sugar to feed our cells and excess sugar is stored as fat.  Natural sugars although better for you still need to be monitored depending on the fruit or vegetable for example I would have to choose a half baked potato or one slice of whole wheat bread.  Corn and carrots I have to be careful with also since these are starchy veggies.  You learn quick to find low carb low calorie foods to eat so you feel like you've eaten your fair share.  That doesn't mean that I don't want a donut it just means I have to willing to have only that versus a cup of ice cream with nuts and fruit.  And I don't mean the large donuts either.

I'm careful with sugars even if the carb ratio is fair for me to eat it and opt more often than not to share half with someone else so I don't get any spikes.  I'm on a medication called Metformin that gives me good and bad days.  It has infrequent side effects once your body is used to it and as I go I have a list of what I can't eat or handle because it will make me sick.  If I didn't have the medication I'd pass out I'm sure of it.  Although slamming back a bottle of water helps dilute the sugar in your blood but hopefully I won't always have to do that.  I'd rather just be careful.  Sodium you have to be careful with too.  Indulgences are few but I think my biggest thing is snacking.

First thing I did was head to the supermarket and look for organic and low carb snacks.  Ones that I could have a fair amount of for the calories and carbs.  It sure wasn't easy at first.  There's a lot of things I can't have.  But luckily a few that I already love that I still can.  I love chocolate covered almonds.  I buy the Walmart Great Value brand of cocoa dusted milk chocolate covered almonds.  I love them but have them sparingly.  A better alternative I found, for me, was Blue Diamond cocoa dusted almonds.  Can have slightly more less sugar less carbs.  There's a lot of snacks I really miss though prepare yourselves for an onslaught.

I miss DQ Blizzards, cheeseburgers, pizza with cheese in the crust, potato chips, cookies, chocolate chocolate chip muffins, brownies, toffee, buttered popcorn(especially in the theater), nachos, soft tacos ( it's better to have a salad I can have more of it), any type of chocolate(our family are all a bunch of chocoholics and although I love dark chocolate it's pretty much all I can have now), Big Macs, French fries, pears and bananas(they spike my sugars), Raisin Bran(my fav cereal), most cereals, mashed potatoes(can still have in small amounts preferably without gravy which bites the big one), biscuits and gravy, pancakes and syrup(even with sugar free syrup it's the pancake that spikes), Bacon ( too much sodium and fat), and many more.  Okay I'm done with my boo-fest now.  It's not like I ate all those things all the time it's just the knowing I can't or shouldn't that really bugs me.  Cheerios multigrain was the only cereal I found so far that works for me.

I figure if I have a meltdown then I do and I indulge as long as it's rare my body will be able to handle it.  There are already aches and pains associated with Diabetes and with Metformin so the combination of the the two at the moment is taking some getting used to.  I hate taking medications to begin with so adding even an Ibuprofen is not my thing.  I usually ride it out the best I can.  Regular exercise definitely helps.  I'm still working on my water intake.  I'm usually at around 6 cups a day which is low even for me.  I have to remind myself to eat dinner because by evening I'm never hungry anymore.  My Doc said it was fine not to do the whole diabetic evening snack if I wasn't hungry.  But I still have to manage dinner in there.  Sometimes I cry because I have to force myself to eat when I don't want to.  Ridiculous to you I'm sure but I can't take my meds so close together and like I said by the time we pass lunch even if I eat a small lunch just not hungry after that.  I'm working on it I'll keep trying and most of all it bugs me that I'm so emotional about it.  It's like being a child forced to eat her dinner when she's just not that hungry.

I have more good days than bad lately so that's a huge plus for me.  Less aches, less tired, less headaches.  And I look forward to exercising everyday!  Brightest part of my day now.  What's the brightest part of yours?