Today I met with a nutritionist. Last time I met with one was when they started talking to me and Doug about the Type II Diabetes we decided to do Atkins. We got our blood situation in control.
And of course. Of course...
I returned to Pizza town, Pastaville, and the starting lineup for Team Triscuit. I won the Stanley Cup and World Series with Team Triscuit. I drank a lot of beer. Beer is nice. She said she gets it. The Pandemic Plus how everyone is just feeling overall is increasing a lot of people's tendency to eat less healthy. She told me that I'm a rockstar for keeping the log, and for doing a much better job than I'd done for several months.
She was lovely, we had a great time talking. Here's what we covered.
We talked about my average blood glucose and how I feel it is wildly elevated at bedtime. I asked her if I'm testing at say 10pm but I ate dinner at 7, would that be "too close" and not a good fasting period. She said obviously yes. And maybe I should not worry about bedtime but look towards morning.
Doug suggested changing the time I take my 2nd Metformin pill and my 1x daily jardiance to dinner time. This sounded like good advice, so I did that tonight. I'll try that for a week and see what the bedtime readings are. I emailed her to let her know that was a part of the plan.
She suggested after dinner I exercise. Saw that coming.
I told her "ugh." I explained that I hate doing.
She was delightfully amused and said "yeaaaah but. maybeeeeee ... you can find one thing that offends you the least. And try it for the next 6 weeks. Five days, not every day. Unless you want to." Emphasis mine on her wonderful statement on finding something that offends me the least.
Movement helps burn off the sugar. I acknowledged this, I know this. I told her that Doug walks every single day, and usually after dinner, but I feel like he walks too fast and too far. He has tried to get me to go with him, but I balk, and then I end up either working for a while longer, starting a blog entry like this one, or I load the dishwasher and tidy the kitchen because people in my house are monsters.
I also told her that I get bored easily. Very. I explained to her I'm very much "Princess Chrissie" about a lot of things, and if I am not entertained or amused, I am not even remotely interested. I can't even pretend to be.
I told her it was hot out and I don't like the heat. She acknowledged that intentional sweating is not the most fun thing to do but I don't have to sweat, I just have to move. We talked about the Aqua Aerobics idea Sara and I had, and she was enthused. She said she used to be an instructor. She encouraged us to go to the pool and just make up a dumb routine for ourselves and talk. Don't look at the clock. Just go in there and stretch, run in place, circle arms, bob up and down (I said "Like a Manatee" and she thought that was funny). We can sing a favorite song three or four times, and the "workout" is over before you know it.
She suggested that when Doug goes out for his walk, I should walk laps in the house and outside the house. Do some yoga stretching. Add in squats or sit ups if I'm feeling up to it. He can do him, I can do me. I can walk outside the house, come back inside the house, do it again and just time it. Ten minutes. Give it a start. Give it a go. I told her about the workout I get from pulling weeds. She said to go out and monitor the garden, ten minutes at a time.
When Doug left for his walk, I started mine, and between inside and outside I logged more than 10 minutes. the Fitbit doesn't really pick up on the first 2 or so minutes, but the reading says 26 minutes total. If I walk 4 more minutes, I get the "fitbit" goal of a half hour of movement per day.
I stopped walking around outside because my nosy neighbor started asking after me about what I was doing. Was I looking for something, did I lose something. I thanked her and said no, I'm just walking to get a little movement. She then started talking about how she walks so much, she walks to church and back, and she goes here and there. She had her knee replaced and now she limps. She shouldn't have had it done. She was better before... at any other time I would have maybe been interested. But not really. I told her I needed to get back to walking and .... walked away.
It sounds reasonable, doesn't it? Ten minutes? Inside or outside? Meh. Maybe.
We also talked about the carbs. I told her I didn't think I was eating more than 20 grams of carbs a day and she told me that probably wasn't accurate. (oh yeah? Wanna see my food log?). The advice that they give people with Type II diabetes is ... and get this ... 45 grams of carbs PER MEAL.
I told her that was buckwild and insane. I did say that yeah, I could see that being a thing if say I had a hot dog roll with a hot dog, because that is 26 grams. And ketchup has sugar. I can see 2 hot dogs and some ketchup throwing that up to 60+ before you know it. What about some potato salad? What about macaroni salad?!!!
But I'm not eating hot dog buns or any of the other heavenly things I want to eat. I had 2 the other day and that was literally the only bread in weeks. Add that up every day every meal and you'll have a lot of carbs in no time. But that's not me. Not close.
She asked what carbs I do eat and if I was aware of where carbs are and are hiding. I told her zero potatoes, zero bread, and zero pasta except for a once in a while hot dog bun and the once in a while potato roll with peanut butter. If I go back and read everything in the log, I guarantee you there are hidden carbs and oopsies in one ingredient. I told her about Geoff's baked ziti the other night. I picked meat and cheese out of it, and ate no noodles. I confessed to eating Jambalaya and drinking beers in New Orleans. But those days, I walked 2-6 miles a day.
Walking burns off the sugars, or so I'm told.
Anything I am eating that has carbs or sugar in it would be the fruit and/or veggies. She said the yogurt has carbs too, but I said a ramekin of greek yogurt has maybe a gram. It's not like Stonyfield Farms Blueberry with a bajillion grams of carbs.
I'm also not eating these "High Protein" highly touted yogurts that people are crowing about when those have 30 grams of carbs in them. That's not good for the diabetics. Nope. Plain, not vanilla, greek yogurt. where it is at for me. When we were in New Orleans, Doug went to the drug store for something and I asked him to bring me back some Atkins bars so I could eat breakfast first thing. He brought back Clif bars and I asked him if he was trying to kill me. One small bar, 26 grams of carbs. 11 grams of protein. The math doesn't work on that.
She asked about alcohol. I told her that I had a glass of beer the other day, occasionally some wine mixed with diet 7up, so I won't drink a whole giant glass of wine. a Gin and diet tonic. Aside from New Orleans in June, I've been very light on the boozin'. Since the fall, up to the end of May really, I think I went daily with some sort of alcoholic drink for MONTHS. Literally months. Now maybe a couple times a week or less. And even then, not a lot and watered down.
But in my not-official, unscientific measurements, there's no way I'm near 45 grams per meal or even 50 a day. I'm not like at Atkins induction levels, or Keto, but there are honestly days that ... I'm not anywhere near 50.
I asked her if she wanted my log of what I eat, pulled into a PDF. She said that wasn't necessary, yet. But I should keep tracking the numbers, go get my A1c rechecked asap so we have an up to date record and a baseline, and check back in after 6 weeks.
Here is a picture of my lunch. We use zero carb splenda for anything sugar-ish and i sprinkled some in the yogurt and on the very non-tasty (sadly) cantaloupe.
It was a very tasty lunch.
digits
exercise: Walking around the inside and outside and back inside of my house. I won't hurt myself patting myself on the back.
blood glucose:
8:45am: 146
6pm: 127
10:30pm 134
Food:
coffee
water
lunch: small ramekin of yogurt + blueberries, slices of cheddar, slices of turkey, small pile of cashews, small handful of tomatoes, several slices of unfortunately under ripe cantaloupe.
dinner: one cheeseburger, one slice of American cheese, salad of romaine, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, bleu cheese dressing
gin & diet tonic
pepitas
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